However, this is no wonder. You should know that the Crimean Khanate is a country that specializes in robbing, and the whole country is full of soldiers. Moreover, the Crimean Khanate is full of soldiers not to guard against foreign invasions, but to rob other countries.
Therefore, when Jama Khan returned to China and conveyed his intention to acquire Marin, the Crimean Khanate, who was jealous of money, touched thousands of Tatar cavalry without hesitation and launched an attack on the Cossack village in the Zaporoze area.
Although the Cossacks' resistance brought some losses. However, in the face of the high price of 40 gold coins for each Cossack, the Crimean Khanate, who was used to being poor, felt that it was worth it. What's more, the war horses seized by the Cossack villages could also be exchanged for 20 gold coins in Marin. In this way, for every Cossack captured by each Cossack family, they could exchange 60 gold coins with Marin. Then, 2,000 Cossacks could be exchanged for a huge amount of 120,000 gold coins.
What is the concept of 120,000 gold coins? Originally, in history, Zigmont I spent only 15,000 gold coins to induce the Crimean Khanate to fight against his original ally, the Grand Duchy of Moscow. 120,000 gold coins could basically make the Crimean Khanate crazy.
Although the Crimean Khanate now sells 10,000 cattle to Marin every year, which can be exchanged for 80,000 gold coins. 2,000 Eastern European Mongolian horses and war horses to Marin, which can be exchanged for 40,000 gold coins. But who would think that the money is low? Moreover, selling cattle and horses requires raising cattle and horses, which is not cost-effective? How can you directly grab it quickly? Therefore, the robber-like Crimean Khanate took over the big order of Marin without hesitation...
This time, the team of escorted the 2,000 Cossacks, which was about 8,000 people, was Jamahan who came last time. In addition to the huge population, there was also an equally large team of cattle and horses.
Marin looked at the size of the animals and felt something was wrong:
"No, Mr. Jamahan, I didn't want so many animals! Didn't the 10,000 cows and 2,000 war horses be handed over last time?"
Even if each Cossack family is equipped with one war horse, there are only 2,000 war horses. The number of horses Jamahan brought this time was tens of thousands, which made Marin feel very wrong.
Jamahan said disrespectfully:
"Dagong, aren't these horses sold to you, most of them are rations for this long journey!"
"What? Do you use horses as food ration?" Marin was shocked. You should know that horse meat is not delicious. In addition, horses are so useful that it is a waste to kill and eat them. Unless they are disabled horses or too old to serve labor, they will kill and eat meat.
"Hahaha..." Jamahan burst into laughter.
Then, he explained to Marin:
"Duke, you misunderstood. The food I mean is not to kill horses and eat meat, but to horse milk! These slaves always have to eat along the way, right? But we don't have that much money to buy food for them to eat. So, we can only follow the tradition of my great Mongolian Empire - drink horse milk!"
"In our Mongolians' daily life, eating beef and mutton is not the mainstream, drinking horse milk and goat milk, or eating cheese is the mainstream. Of course, if there is tea, it would be better to make milk tea. As for mutton beef, although it is often eaten, it is not eaten every day."
"Like the army of our greatest ancestor, Genghis Khan, during the expedition, each warrior usually brought three horses. One of them was a breastfeeding mare. Its function was to provide horse milk as food to the warriors on the expedition. Otherwise, the invincible Mongolian cavalry in the world would not be able to go on an expedition!"
"It turns out to be so!" Marin was amazed and admired the Mongolian cavalry's slutty operation.
Indeed, if a large army goes to war, if it travels thousands of miles to transport military rations like the Han army, it will not only be too strong to bear the national strength, but it will also have a great impact on the movement of the army. How bulky are the grain trucks? Sometimes the army runs too fast and has to stop and wait for the baggage troops. Not only that, the baggage troops can easily become the targets of attack by the enemy light cavalry. Once the food trucks are robbed or burned, the army will be over.
The Mongolian cavalry's method is indeed very coquettish. Taking a mare that produces milk during breastfeeding can solve all problems directly.
Of course, it is also possible to bring ewes. However, ewes run too slowly and cannot keep up with the marching speed of the cavalry. Therefore, when a large army is expedition, a mare with milk is the best choice.
...
Marin, including many people in later generations, always thought that the Mongolian cavalry brought three horses to the west to rush the road faster. But in fact, one of the three horses was a mare that produced milk, which was used as food for the cavalry. Of course, sometimes they would also transfer mares, but they would never get tired of the mares. Otherwise, it would definitely affect milk production. Moreover, if you were just rushing, it would be enough to transfer two horses.
Of course, this move can only be used by Mongolian cavalry. Because Mongolian horses are resistant to rough feeding. Even if they are on the road for a long time, Mongolian horses only need to eat grass. What they bring is the mare, what they eat is grass, and what they squeeze out is milk, which can be used as military rations.
However, drinking horse milk alone is definitely not enough. Therefore, during the march, Mongolian cavalry will also plunder the grain from the villages along the way or the livestock of nomadic tribes to obtain food and meat and fully supplement nutrition. However, when passing through some barren lands in Central Asia, it is entirely supported by horse milk.
European horses obviously cannot do this, because once European horses start running, they will have to feed the essence. Therefore, the large army, like the Han army, requires a strong supply line. Even each war horse needs several times more food than a soldier... Therefore, it is difficult for Europe to gather a large cavalry team...
The descendants of the Golden Hordes such as the Crimean Khanate inherited the characteristics of Mongolian cavalry, and war horses are also a mixed breed of Mongolian horses and local horses in Eastern Europe, and have the advantages of Mongolian horses resisting rough feeding. Therefore, the Tatar cavalry of the Crimean Khanate also had the habit of using mares to provide horse milk.
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! The most important thing is that horse milk is cheap! For Crimean Tatars who are mixed on the grassland, food is expensive. Horse milk is easy to obtain.
Food prices in Europe have always been very expensive. If the Tatars who had no money to buy food would have starved to death.
Therefore, nomadic peoples generally focus on dairy products. Among them, goat milk is the most common source of dairy products. Moreover, goats are more resistant to rough feeding than horses and basically never require essential materials.
However, when marching, the sheep cannot keep up with the marching force. Therefore, the horse's milk of a mare is used instead of goat's milk.
However, this kind of slutty operation can only be achieved by a rough-feeding horse led by Mongolian horses. Otherwise, if you change to a mare that needs to be fed with essential materials during breastfeeding, you will definitely not be able to serve as a food source for long-distance cavalry. Because that kind of mare must bring a lot of food to the army...
...
After hearing Jama Khan's explanation, Malin's eyes only shone. So he said to Jama Khan:
"I want to buy mares! I want all the mares you brought, 10 gold coins per!"
Jamahan was stunned at first and said:
"These mares are not war horses, they are all slow horses, they only have the ability to provide horse milk!"
For the Crimean Tatars, horse milk is the cheapest food and food is expensive. Moreover, before, Marin only bought war-level Eastern European Mongolian horses from the Crimean Khanate, and never bought a slow horse.
Marin has become obsessed with the prospect of mares providing horse milk as military supplies, so he said without hesitation:
"There are also horses in the future, but only mares!"
"Okay, no problem!" Jamahan agreed happily. After all, horses are rare for Marin, and for the Crimean Tatars, they are just cabbage. Besides, their mares are insufficient, so they can steal other people's!
Chapter completed!