After Liu Cong killed more than two thousand people in Jiangling City, no one in Jiangling dared to oppose him anymore.
"Wen Wei, Wen Chang, you two stay in Jiangling and control this important town and Jiangling's army for me!" Liu Cong warned Fei Yi and Wei Yan.
"In addition, there is one more thing I want to entrust to you!"
Fei Yi and Wei Yan bowed and said, "I wonder what your lord is talking about?"
Liu Cong said to Wei Yan: "Chang Wen, what do you think of the configuration of one person and three horses for cavalry?"
Wei Yan grinned: "Of course it is useful. One horse carries people, one horse carries food, and one horse rests to change horses. In this way, the march speed is accelerated, and you can immediately enter the battlefield!"
Historically, the army that Duke Mu of Qin escorted Prince Chong'er back to Jin had one man and two horses.
When Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty launched the war against the Xiongnu, the cavalry configuration was also one man and three horses. Otherwise, do you think Wei Qing and Huo Qubing each led 50,000 cavalry? Why would they roam the desert and drink in the vast sea of horses?
But such a top-notch configuration also wiped out the money and food that the Han Dynasty had accumulated for generations since Emperor Liu Bang. It also cost countless people at home and ruined people's livelihood.
It can be seen that this configuration has a huge demand for money and food.
Hundreds of thousands of horses consume more food than hundreds of thousands of people.
In the world today, Cao Cao's Tiger and Leopard Cavalry should be the only one with a man and three horses. The other princes either don't have horses, or they don't have money and food!
In the last war when Wei Yan led his troops to surprise Chaisang, Liu Cong transferred all the horses to Wei Yan, so that he could achieve the configuration of one man and two horses.
After arriving in Jiangling, Liu Cong counted the number of horses in Jiangling Racecourse. Most of them were Liangzhou horses, with less than 30,000 horses, but there were more than 20,000 war horses that could be used for battle.
The rest are mares and foals. The reason is that the monopoly of war horses in the north is so great that even if they are sold, most of them are castrated war horses sold to the south.
Jingzhou is in the world again. The place is too embarrassing. Cao Cao will not allow anyone to sell horses to Jingzhou, so he will crack down hard!
As for the horses sold by Ma Teng and Han Sui, they had to pass through the territory of Zhang Lu and Liu Zhang. When they arrived in Jingzhou, let alone horses, hehe, it would be nice to have horses.
As for Jiangdong, it was even worse. Historically, after Cao Cao's defeat at Chibi, Zhou Yu and Cao Ren fought for Nanjun.
Once Zhou Yu defeated Cao Ren and captured 300 horses, which was called a great victory. Can you imagine how short of horses Jiangdong was?
Liu Biao has been running Jingzhou for almost 20 years. Although he has not made much achievements, Jingzhou is really rich.
Now, before Cao Cao goes south and Jingzhou has not gone through the war, the registered population is 470,000 households, probably close to 2 million.
Including the hidden population of the aristocratic family and the Xunyang County that Liu Cong had just captured, maybe 2.5 million.
In the entire Jingzhou, now including the 35,000 people Liu Cong asked Liu Ba and Huo Jun to recruit, there are nearly 200,000 troops!
This doesn't include Liu Bei's 10,000 people, and several places in the four counties of Jingnan!
Liu Cong was not afraid that he would not be able to support so many troops. He went to Jiangling's treasury and took a look, and only then did Liu Cong know how much wealth Liu Biao had accumulated.
After unifying Jingzhou this time, Liu Cong will firmly control the entire Jingzhou, including the four counties in Jingnan! Then, based on this, he will attack the world!
"I'll gather enough 30,000 horses for you from all over Jingzhou. I'll gather enough cavalry for you with one man and three horses!" Liu Cong said to Wei Yan.
"Thank you, Lord!" Wei Yan said happily!
"Give me a cavalry team of 10,000 people. From the 10,000 people, you can select 1,000 strong men and 3,000 strong horses!" Liu Cong said again.
"Lord, is this what you want?" Wei Yan asked curiously.
"You all come here." Liu Cong waved to several people.
Although the remaining officials in Jiangling were also loyal to the Liu family, Liu Cong only called Pang Tong and a few of his confidants to discuss matters.
There is a saying that goes well, hold a general meeting for small things, hold a small meeting for big things, but don’t hold a meeting for really big things.
Several people approached Liu Cong, and Liu Cong took out several wooden boards with pictures he had drawn on them.
There was no way, the paper of this era was too soft to be used for sketching. Liu Cong could only use wooden boards instead.
After defeating Cao Cao, Liu Cong will draw his own portrait and hang it in various administrative cities and armies!
In this era, the people and the army began to build faith in their leaders, which would make Liu Cong's control over his territory even stronger!
"This is?" Everyone looked at the wooden board Liu Cong placed on the table with doubts.
There were iron armors, and armors that looked like they were worn by horses! There were also some that they didn't recognize.
"I won't talk about the iron armor, you all know it." Liu Cong began to explain to several people.
"This is armor for horses! Think about it, what will happen if a cavalry team, with both men and horses wearing heavy armor, charges into battle?"
"This? I'm afraid no army can resist it, right?" Pang Tong imagined this scene in his mind.
Liu Cong smiled proudly: "Absolutely not!"
"Here are the stirrups and the horseshoe! Don't underestimate these two little things. The stirrups can make people sit on the horse more stable and use their strength better! The horseshoes can protect the horseshoes from being easily damaged!"
Making stirrups and horseshoes is not difficult, anyone who has watched the video can do it.
Looking at the people who were still confused, Liu Cong stood up and said: "Come to the backyard with me!"
Taking several people to the backyard, Liu Cong pointed at Wei Yan and ordered several soldiers: "Bring the horses over and put armor on Wei Yan and the horses!"
Yes, Liu Cong has ordered craftsmen to create a sample in the past few days. Although several people were confused, they still looked at Liu Cong's arrangement.
The soldiers had already practiced putting on armor for Liu Cong, and they had become familiar with it. It didn't take long before they put armor on the horses brought by Wei Yanhe.
Compared with the previous armor, Liu Cong added a face shield and a breast shield to the current armor.
"Wei Yan, get on the horse and feel it!" Liu Cong was also excited watching this scene.
With the help of his own soldiers, Wei Yan got on the horse. After stepping on the stirrups with his feet, he felt that he was different from the one he rode before: "Is this?"
"Try walking around twice, give him a bow and arrows, and give him a spear!"
The backyard of the Zhou Mufu was large enough, and Liu Cong ordered several straw men to be placed in the yard. Wei Yan galloped to the grass man, raised a long stick, pierced it directly, and pulled out the long stick.
The heavily armored horse collided with the straw man, smashing it into pieces!
After sprinting several times, Wei Yan threw Changshan to his guards, then took out his bow and arrows and shot at the straw man. Every arrow hit the straw man's chest!
It wasn't until the arrows were shot that Wei Yan dismounted and walked towards Liu Cong: "My lord, this gadget is really a good thing. With it, I can have both hands free while sitting on the horse!"
When there are no stirrups, a knight sitting on a horse needs to use one hand to control his body and maintain balance.
Liu Cong helped Wei Yan lift up the visor that Wei Yan had not lifted up: "How do you feel?"
Wei Yan's pupils turned upward and he said: "My lord, if there are a thousand cavalry like this, I will not dare to defeat my lord's enemy of 100,000!"
"Shi Yuan, what do you think?" Liu Cong asked Pang Tong again.
"Ah?" Pang Tong hadn't recovered from Liu Cong's shock. Liu Cong repeated it again with a smile. Pang Tong then said: "My lord, a thousand troops here is enough to decide the battle between tens of thousands of troops."
Win or lose!"
"It's a pity that we need to prepare servants for them, otherwise they won't be able to put on their armor and get on and off their horses." Liu Cong said with some regret.
"My lord, a knight has only three or two servants, so it's worth it in exchange for such a heavy armored cavalry!" Pang Tong said excitedly.
Liu Cong said to Fei Yi again: "Wen Wei, although you are young, I dare to rely on you. You will supervise the craftsmen in Jiangling to make iron armor and vests for me."
"There are also big yellow crossbows, crossbows, etc. I will write you the specific needs later! Whether you can win or lose in the war against Cao Cao depends on these things."
Fei Yi looked a little embarrassed: "My lord, these are expensive and difficult to make. I'm afraid that when Cao Cao arrives, he won't be able to make many, right?"
During most of the feudal era, one craftsman was responsible for the entire creation of an entire item!
This approach is slow, not confidential enough, and easily lost.
Liu Cong laughed: "I have thought of this a long time ago. We divide a thing into several parts, and one or several craftsmen only focus on the production of this part. When the things are complete, don't we put them together again?
Ok?"
Pang Tong and Fei Yi were both wise men, and they understood the benefits after a little thought.
Doing so not only improves efficiency, but also prevents craftsmen from leaking secrets!
"My lord is wise!"
Liu Cong looked at Xu Feng who was looking at Wei Yan and said, "Don't worry, if there are armored cavalry, will there be no armored infantry?"
Only then did Xu Feng feel a little more balanced in his heart. He muttered, looking at Wei Yan's body armor that was shining brightly in the sun and said, "What's so cool about it..."
"Hahaha..." These words caused everyone to burst into laughter.
They laughed not only because of Xu Feng's words, but also because of the prospect of such an invincible army!