In the horse farm of Xuzhou Military Mansion, in a corner of the stable, the hoof-cultivating masters and disciples divided into small teams, each changing horseshoes for their horses. Li Li, who had been patrolling here, watched silently from the side.

The horse farm of Xuzhou Military Mansion is run by the government and the military mansion bears various expenses, so people and horses eat the food and food of the court (food and grass) and work hard for the court, which is different from the private soldiers of the generals.

As the governor of Xuzhou and the general of the Xuzhou Military Office, Li Li must of course not be ungrateful. He cannot just focus on gaining benefits for his own troops and treat the camp and soldiers as slave laborers.

Therefore, the new horse farm in Xuzhou Military Mansion also has the scale, namely the system, of Li Li’s private horse farm, and the corresponding technical team, which bears the functions that a horse farm should have.

Among them, changing horseshoe and hoof trimming regularly is a very important technical task.

Horseshoe can protect the horseshoe from wear, but the cuticle of the horseshoe will grow slowly, so the horseshoe that were nailed on before must be replaced regularly to better protect the horseshoe.

The war horses wore the "iron shoes", and the cavalry moved a wider range, but Li Li carefully investigated and found that the behavior of nailing horseshoes to horses (war horses, riding horses, packing horses, and pulling horses) is not very common now.

Of course, people know that nailing horseshoes can protect horses' hooves, but the maintenance of horses in the army is more about giving Matthew's hooves than nailing horses.

One of the reasons for this is the cost, which is not the horseshoe and hoof nails, but the whole process.

To nail horseshoes, you must first fix the horse with a rack similar to a horizontal bar or parallel bar, and then fix the hoof that needs to be nailed (lift backwards) so that the hoof repairers can work.

Horse hooves will continue to grow like human nails, so hoof trimmers must first use various tools to trim the hoofs, clean and flatten the horse hoofs.

Then choose a horseshoe of the right size, burn red on a small stove according to the shape of the horse's hoof, adjust the shape, and nail it to the horse's hoof while it is hot.

After a period of time (usually half a year), the horse's hooves grow, and the original horse's hooves have to be removed, trimmed, and nailed the new horse's socks.

It doesn’t matter if you nail horses for a few horses, but it’s too much work to nail horses for a large number of horses.

The workload of nailing horseshoes is quite large, and it is also quite laborious to forge horseshoes and hoof nails. You also need to prepare various tools and find charcoal to make iron stoves.

It’s so troublesome, it’s better to trim your hooves properly and save trouble.

As long as the horse's hooves are not damaged, they can still run normally after repair. After all, there are very few hard roads in this era. If the horse's hooves are not worn very seriously, they can save as much as possible.

But for Li Li, since he has the ability to put the horses on his horse, he must do it, and he can still afford this expense when changing it every six months.

However, in reality, for various reasons, the treatment of the camp soldiers in the court was very poor, and the treatment of craftsmen was even worse. So how good can the treatment of horses be?

It would be great if you could have a hoof repairman giving Matthew's hoof. Who has the intention to cook the horses that do not belong to you like cooking your own feet?

Not only that, the military grooms often secretly withdrew horse feed, reselled privately to make some benefits, and even abused horses to vent their anger.

The horse is not enough to eat enough to be thin and cannot be taken care of and treated in time when he is sick. It is a luxury to want someone to serve the "manicure (hoof cliting)".

This is indeed a system problem. The military system of the Southern Dynasty was originally a world-wide military system, but this military system had collapsed. The soldiers and households became slaves and could not even eat enough. The camps and soldiers formed had no combat effectiveness at all.

For combat-capable troops, the source of troops is basically based on recruiting soldiers or private soldiers brought by generals.

In such an era, Li Li tried his best to ensure that the Xuzhou Military Prefecture obtained various resources, not only guaranteeing the treatment of the battalions, but also the treatment of the horses, which is already an alternative.

The treatment is guaranteed and the training must be intensified. In this way, the combat effectiveness can be formed as soon as possible and maintained.

Li Li turned to the racecourse next to him to see the training of half-equipped cavalry.

Half-mounted cavalry is relative to armored cavalry.

Armored cavalry, also known as armored cavalry, is a heavy cavalry of this era. Its men and horses are wearing armor, with high defense and full of power when impacted.

The horse armor of war horses is divided into facial curtains (face protection), chicken neck (neck protection), chest (breast protection), horse armor (middle armor), and back (half armor behind the horse).

In addition, there is parasitic (broom-shaped decoration with the horse's tail raised upwards).

The war horses must be covered with dozens of kilograms of iron armor, and must carry cavalry with a weight of nearly 200 kilograms, and must also charge forward. This burden is not light, and only strong war horses can hold on.

Over the years, Li Li has accumulated six or seven hundred war horses that can charge in armor through various means and channels, but after thinking about it, he felt that it was better to fight with light cavalry.

The movement speed of the armored rider is slower than that of the light rider, and its endurance is far less than that of the light rider, which is the price that must be paid to strengthen defense.

Therefore, the main combat targets of armored cavalry are military formations (breaking formations) rather than fighting with cavalry.

Li Li felt that it was already very difficult for him to deal with the enemy light cavalry, and it was impossible for him to use all his precious war horses as armored cavalry to attack the military formation.

The light cavalry tactics are more suitable for troops with relatively shortage of horses. Only with the power of the light cavalry can more effective tactical play, either dispel the harassment of enemy rangers, or serve as scouts to spy on the enemy situation.

But a war horse without any defense is easily injured during battle. He lacks horses and cannot use them casually as consumables, so he thinks to appropriately strengthen the defense of the war horses.

So, a "half-equipped" cavalry was created.

That is, the war horses are equipped with only face curtains, chicken necks, and chests, without the middle and rear body armor. The burden is at least half as much as the "full equipment". The horse armor only provides the war horses with frontal defense capabilities.

Li Li did this, and there was a basis for doing this.

He counted as much as possible that the injured parts of the war horses who were injured and killed on the battlefield were found to have been shot in front of the war horses and suffered more injuries.

Therefore, Li Li felt that instead of wasting a lot of defense in the second half of the war horse, it would be better to only retain frontal defense, that is, only defend against the head, neck, and chest.

From "comprehensive protection" to "key protection", the weight-bearing of war horses is reduced and their movements are flexible and lasting.

The style of horse armor is not only the surface curtain, but also the surface armor turns into cloth armor (with inner lining).

How effective is this? It has not been tested in practice and is unknown.

However, at least in the racetrack, half-equipped war horses still run very quickly, and their endurance is much better than when wearing full gear.

Whether this choice will have the disadvantage of "not as fast as light cavalry and not as fast as armored cavalry", which will lead to the "half-equipped" cavalry becoming useless, and it will also be tested by actual combat.

At present, nearly a hundred war horses in the racecourse have been put on half outfits and have begun to conduct endurance training. Li Li looked at the galloping figure of the war horse and felt fascinated.

Xuzhou is in a good location, you can get a lot of horses, and there is a lot of flat land to raise horses.

So he already wanted to get a horse, whether it was buying or robbing, no matter what, he had to get more horses and raise funds to raise them.

Without musket soldiers, a strong army that combines infantry and cavalry can still sweep the world.

Although the burden of raising horses is very high, you can make money when you lose money, and you cannot miss the opportunity to save horses.

......

In the Xinping Gong Mansion, indoor riding training ground, Li Li is practicing riding to ensure his 'status'.

The current practice subject is called "Roaming the Basket".

There is a large basket standing at each corner of the site, and a wooden ball is placed on the top of the wooden stakes.

Li Li rode his horse and began to circle the basket according to the prescribed route. While circling the basket, he would cut off the wooden balls on the top of the wooden stake in the center of the basket while circling the basket.

It looks easy, but this is timed (the timing tool is water leaking).

Moreover, when circling the basket, you must follow the prescribed route. If a person or horse encounters a basket, you will deduct points. You cannot cut the wooden ball into two pieces. This is true even if you have already hit it but you cannot cut it into two pieces.

This is a subject of cavalry training, which is about the cooperation of people and horses, turning flexibility and chopping skills.

The faster the horse speed, the larger the turning radius. Once it is too far from the basket, you will not be able to cut the wooden ball.

Even if you cut the wooden ball, if the angle and strength are incorrect, you can only "smash" the wooden ball instead of cutting it into two pieces.

If you slow down the horse, circle around and chop the wooden balls, it will be easier to complete, and the time you can complete will be longer.

After a while, Li Li drove his mount under his crotch and rushed towards the first basket.

If you are driving a car, you can try to drift if you want to turn at high speed, but the horse cannot.

His speed is faster, so when turning after "turning", the radius will be small, and the inclination angle of the man and horse will be larger. If the speed drops sharply, you cannot use horsepower to cut the wooden ball by swinging your knife, and it depends entirely on your hand strength and skills.

Li Li swung his knife to cut the wooden ball into two pieces, but almost hit the basket and almost avoided it. At this time, the mount also completed the circle, so Li Li began to accelerate and rushed towards the second basket.

Then there is the third and the fourth basket.

He successfully completed the basket and ran back to the finish line. The water level in the leak happened to be on the scale.

Passed the score, but not excellent.

As the governor, Li Li had a lot of things to be busy with, and it was impossible to practice riding all day long, so this grade was actually very good.

The next exercise subject is "turning the pole". The servants put away the baskets and set up eight bamboo poles on the ground, arranged in a row, with fixed intervals between each other.

The bamboo pole body is coated with pigment, which is red and white, and is very conspicuous. The rider must ride a horse around the pole in turn, from head to tail, then turn around and go back.

This is a round, and it takes three consecutive rounds to be considered qualified only if it takes three times within the specified time.

Everything was ready, but Duan Yuying was riding the horse forward.

Duan Yuying was wearing a short red dress and riding a white horse, shuttled between the bamboo poles like the wind, three times back and forth, clean and neat.

The water level in the water leak is lower than the passing time scale, and the results are good.

Li Li found that this person was superb riding skills and cooperated well with the mount, so he achieved unity of his horse and might not be as good as the other party in his wings.

Seeing Duan Yuying riding over, he asked, "How many years have you been practicing riding?"

"I have been practicing riding horses since I was a child." Duan Yuying said slowly, because she rode a horse and exercised vigorously, her cheeks were a little red.

"Before the wife, I asked my concubine to ride more horses so that she could serve the horse. I was familiar with the temper of this white horse, so I was able to show it."

"Attendant?" Li Li was stunned when he heard this: It was not surprising that Duan Yuying's family was born, and it was said that all noble women of the Northern Dynasties could ride horses.

This is like many women who can drive in later generations, which is a life skill.

What does Huang Ying mean to ask this fairy-looking young lady to ride a horse with him?

It means: It has been almost a year since Madam Duan entered the mansion, so she should be collected as soon as possible, and don’t be serious.

A few days ago, Xue Yuechang had a happy vein, so Li Li's wives and concubines were all pregnant, and Huang Gui, who was the first to get pregnant, was about to give birth.

He had to go to confinement later, so the only "war horse" that Li Li can use is Duan Yuying, the noble northern Thousand Mile Horse.

"You have good riding skills, how good is your riding and shooting?" Li Li asked, and Duan Yuying replied: "I can only shoot, but I can't say it's accurate."

"Can you shoot right?" Li Li asked again, Duan Yuying nodded: "Yes, you just can't shoot a strong bow..."

"The arm strength must be properly exercised. The lady can shoot right without picking a bow," Li Li smiled and pointed to the horizontal bar in the corner. "Pull-up can be used to exercise arm strength, but you have to practice skills well, and I will teach you."
Chapter completed!