In addition to artillery, Liu Bu has other troops, such as they also have cavalry.

Liu Bu was quite content with their cavalry. Since he destroyed Zhang Yongxin, their cavalry had more than 300 people and more than 300 horses. This is what it means, among the major military towns of the Ming Dynasty, it was quite good.

However, Liu Zhongyong looked at it and found that the cavalry were still not satisfied.

Liu Bu said, "Tao Liu, do you think there is anything else that our cavalry needs to be improved?"

Liu Zhongyong said: "There are many places that need improvement. If our cavalry is compared with the elite Mongolian Iron Cavalry and the Jianzhou Iron Cavalry, it is equivalent to a soldier riding a horse. He is just riding a horse."

Liu Bu humbly asked for advice: "What do real cavalry look like?"

Liu Zhongyong said: "Even a real cavalry cannot eat and sleep on the horse, at least he can draw his bows left and right on the horse, riding and shooting, cavalry and archery are inseparable from each other."

This is hard to say. Among the Liu family army, the most powerful archer is their archer Baihu Mao Shengli, who can pass through the sun by a hundred steps, but there are no other outstanding figures. Their archer strikes are covered by the number of numbers. A large number of archers shoot over, no matter who you are, you will die directly.

Their arm crossbow has improved in terms of range and rate of fire, but it is not as accurate as ordinary people. Therefore, there will be one gain and one loss. Although their archer troops are also training every day, there are indeed few people who are as outstanding as Mao Shengli. They fight with the entirety of the rain of arrows.

Liu Zhongyong said, "In this regard, we are more than a few streets away from the nomadic peoples outside the pass. You should know that the nomadic peoples outside the pass rely on hunting. Since childhood, they have used bows and arrows to shoot rats and rabbits. Think about it, there are rats everywhere on the grassland, running around and speed, but they can directly shoot rats with bows and arrows, and they can shoot people. If our soldiers attack static targets, the effect is still OK, but if they attack moving targets in a moving state, it is very bad, and this aspect needs to be improved."

When Liu Bu heard what Liu Zhongyong said, he poured him a cup of tea and listened to him continue.

Liu Zhongyong said: "It is no problem for our archers to line up and shoot archers to fight normally, but if the opponent is dispatching a ranger, it puts great pressure on us. The opponent rides a fast horse and swims quickly, serving outside your military formation, looking for your weaknesses, looking for your flaws to shoot. The opponent passes through the willows for a hundred steps, and you can't defend or avoid them. It's just the opponent's living target."

Liu Bu said: "So we also need our own Rangers, right?"

Liu Zhongyong said: "That's true, but it seems that only Mao Shengli is qualified for our Rangers."

Liu Bu felt that he had a little too demanding when he heard this. He said, "Liu Touer, you are a reliable person. I believe you will not ask me a question for no reason, what do you have to say."

Liu Zhongyong said: "Our cavalry needs further strengthening training to make them more powerful, but in fact these things are not a one-day effort, and one thing is to pay attention to, that is talent. After so long training, no many talents have been trained. It can only show that our soldiers do not have talent in this area. Therefore, the officials wanted to recruit from Mongolia and some riders joined our troops."

Liu Bu said, "Recruiting the Mongols."

Liu Zhongzhongyong said, "Yes, it is recruiting Mongolians. There are many people who cannot survive in the Mongolian tribe. They cannot even have a full meal in their tribe. There are many Mongolian mercenaries in various major military towns. Even our general level is Mongolians. However, there is one thing that is taboo. You must report to the court and register with the Ministry of War. Our Liu family army does not seem to be suitable for filing with the Ministry of War."

Liu Bu said: "What we want now is talents to quickly strengthen the strength of our troops. As for him as a Mongolian, he can also make exceptions. As long as he can work hard for us, I don't care who he is."

Liu Zhongyong said, "If you say this, you will feel at ease. When Xiaguan was fighting in border towns, he had dealt with many Mongolians. If he usually signed a contract with them, they would generally perform well. Therefore, Xiaguan meant that he could recruit a group of Mongolian riders to enrich our troops, and even let them act as instructors to teach our soldiers the ability to ride and shoot. I believe that with the treatment of our Liu family army, it is not difficult to keep them."

Liu Bu said: "Yes! There is no problem at all. Unfortunately, the ways to deal with the Mongolians are all in the hands of the merchants in Shanxi. If we want to buy horses from Mongolia, we can only go through them. Our Liu family actually buys horses through them. Uncle Liu has already negotiated with them. If the negotiations can be completed, we can get supplements of 100 horses every month."

Liu Zhongyong was overjoyed and said, "A hundred horses a month are amazing in a year. But where did the adults get so much money and food?"

The Ming Dynasty did not have any large horse raising bases, and they could only rely on their own homes to raise them, so they had always had the business of smuggling horses from Mongolia or changing horses from trading grounds normally. As for the people, it was not surprising that smuggling war horses from Mongolia were just too expensive.

In the early years of this dynasty, in order to obtain enough horses, the court forced the people to raise horses for requisition (exempt land tax), but the people were unwilling to do so and would rather kill the horses and pay for them than raise horses for requisition by the government.

Later, due to the lack of horses, the court had to change to buy horses, that is, spending money to buy horses from the people.

The price of buying a horse generally fluctuates between 10 and 15 taels.

With the implementation of this policy, a large number of private horse farms emerged in Hebei and Shandong, specializing in horse breeding to sell to the official market. At the same time, the private horse-drawn carriage transportation industry has also flourished.

However, after Longqing opened the border, due to the victory of the year-round war against Mongolia, Mongolia officially surrendered to the Ming Empire, and the trade channel with Mongolia was opened. The imperial court officials could buy cheaper horses from Mongolia, and stopped purchasing horses from domestic privately, resulting in the private horse farms in Hebei and Shandong going bankrupt and changing careers.

One thing to note here is that although buying horses from Mongolia is cheaper, the cost of horses purchased by the imperial court has not been reduced. I think about it where the difference has gone during the period.

During the Apocalypse Period, with the large-scale bankruptcy of the Shandong horse farm in Hebei and the rise of Jiannu, the cost of buying horses from Mongolia surged, reaching fifty taels of silver per horse at the peak.

To put it bluntly, some people colluded with officials and businessmen. They obviously cost ten taels of silver, but they will not be less than forty when they go to the mainland, and the highest peak is fifty. If they buy on a large scale like the Liu family, the final transaction price will not be less than forty taels, which means that this expenditure alone will not be less than four thousand taels of expenditure every month. This expenditure is a small part of the expenditure of the Liu family and the others.

Liu Bu said: "I know it's a scam, but I have no choice but to get the horse from them. As for what it takes to raise it yourself, it takes time."

This is where Daming cheated. I had enough horse farms to provide war horses, but after getting cheap horses from Mongolia, all my horses went bankrupt. Now I want to buy cheap war horses from my own horse farm, but I can't buy them because they basically went bankrupt and changed careers.

Liu Zhongyong said: "So we want to recruit people, the more people, the better, right?"

They could get war horses quickly, and they could only spend a lot of money. However, a qualified cavalry didn't get it just by getting it, so their idea was to recruit Mongolian mercenaries.

Liu Bu said: "So if we negotiate a business with Shanxi people, we will not recruit a few people or some instructors, but a large number of Liu Head, you should have this approach."

In fact, if they were asked to deal with the merchants in Shanxi directly, the other party would probably be able to get someone to sell it to you, but the price was hard to say. For example, a horse they bought from Mongolia would cost at most ten taels of silver, but what they sold to others was between 40 and 50 taels.

Liu Zhongyong said, "In this regard, the officials know some people. If they are responsible for the matter, it is not difficult for the other party to do some. The key is that our Liu family army is well treated, and it is not difficult to keep these people. Since of course, the adults have already planned to expand the cavalry, the officials decided to get some people for you."

Liu Bu said, "Okay! Just do that. Our cavalry unit will always lack people. Recruit a thousand men first. It is better to wait for horses than to wait for horses."

When Liu Zhongyong saw Liu Bu's generous promise, he reminded: "If you do this, our expenses will be scary."

Liu Bu said: "Since our Liu family has begun to transform, there will be no way out and will not want to go back. We can only do our best."

Liu Bu opened their own account book and found it scary when he saw the flowing expenses, but at this point, he could only grit his teeth. Fortunately, they are now allied with the Zheng family and can get a lot of subsidies from the Zheng family, otherwise the situation will be even worse.

For example, if they have the most scarce grain and cloth, they can still be transported from Jiangnan if they have silver, but the freight costs for the materials transported from Jiangnan are not low. If their father is still at Linqing Tax Customs, they can reduce these freight costs through equivalent exchanges. However, now their Liu family no longer serves in the Tax Customs, so their fleet has greatly increased the operating costs.
Chapter completed!