Chapter Using its strengths
The barren fields, rolling hills, stark puddles, withered wild grass, and sparse forests are a scene of declining early winter in Zhao Bing's eyes. However, in the eyes of the two wives, they are full of poetry and picturesqueness. A half-dead tree and a group of birds foraging can all trigger feelings and sighs, recite a poem and recite a fu.
Faced with this situation, Zhao Bing couldn't speak up and did not dare to continue. He wanted to plagiarize a few poems from his predecessors, but he couldn't remember them for a while. He had to be careful to misuse the masterpieces of his predecessors and be arrested for their current performance. So facing the joking gazes of his wives, he could only laugh at him, and secretly lamented in his heart that he had too little ink in his belly and no artistic cells in his mind.
But it wasn't that when they showed their fear. Chen Shu opened the bow and shot arrows several times and almost accidentally injured the rafting scattered around her, scaring her so much that she no longer dared to show off her poor archery skills. Wu Xi also wanted to have a horse gallop, but her riding skills were really bad. Even the honest horse trotted, she screamed and was so scared that she was so scared.
Zhao Bing started learning to ride a donkey when there were no stirrups in Qiongzhou. Speaking of which, riding a horse is also a boy skill. Over the years, he has also mastered the iron crotch and iron butt, and can doze off, eat, and pee on the horse's back. It's not very good. He can hide in the stirrups, lean over and pick up things, shoot arrows from left to right, and kill horses, and has passed the practical test of hostile attacks.
The group walked forward slowly, and suddenly a deer jumped out of the bushes and hit Wu Xi's horse's head. Suddenly, no one expected that there was a way outpost in front of them, and there were also a ranger on both sides swept by, and some birds and beasts had already escaped. I wonder why the deer didn't run away, but jumped out again when they approached.
Wu Xi's horse was frightened and jumped away to the side. The guards in front wanted to return to drive them away, while the guards behind them carried the horse forward to block the deer. But the incident happened too quickly and they were too late. In an emergency, Xu Hong drew out his gun, but the emperor and concubines in front hesitated again. If they accidentally hurt them, they would be dying.
‘Bang…’ As the tragedy was about to happen, a gunshot came. The emperor had already rode his horse forward and grabbed the queen’s mount, and the muzzle on his other hand was filled with blue smoke.
‘Puff…’ A group of pheasants who were startled by gunfire were screaming and flying.
‘Bang, bang, bang…’ Another string of gunfire sounded, a few pheasants fell to the ground, and the rest flew into the distance.
"Your Majesty, the Empress is frightened. I am guilty. Please punish me!" Tan Fei turned over and dismounted, knelt down on one knee and apologized.
"It's okay..." Although Wu Xi was still calm, he waved his hand and said.
"What a big deer!" Chen Shu jumped off the horse and said in surprise after kicking the deer that was still twitching.
"This is just an accident... But you scared the queen, and you must be punished to show your warning!" Zhao Bing withdrew from the empty bullet and replaced it with a new tunnel.
"Your Majesty, I have nothing to do, so don't blame Commander Xu!" Wu Xi pleaded for him.
"Xie Niangma..."
"You can't help but punish you, but what's the best?" Zhao Bing snorted, squinted his eyes and looked at the guards surrounding him, and thought for a moment, "I'll punish you to peel and wash this deer and roast it for lunch!"
"Thank you, your Majesty, I am willing to be punished!" The guards who were already a little nervous immediately responded in unison.
"Get out, if you are not careful, if you make a mistake, each person will have fifty military sticks!" Zhao Bing waved his hand and shouted sternly.
Although such a small episode did not affect the two concubines' Youqing, they became more excited, especially in the past, Wu Xi only heard that when the emperor was young, he began to lead troops to fight, showing how brave he was, but it was not seen with his own eyes. But now he was personally experienced, and he saw the emperor decisively fired his gun in a crisis moment, and he would die without waiting for her to see clearly.
The emperor's calm appearance was not only deeply imprinted in Wu Xi's heart, but also made her feel that the rumors became true. When she looked at His Majesty, she also had more admiration and pride in her eyes. But she didn't know what if the enemy troops in the Mongolian Yuan who died under the emperor had a spirit, she would have thought that her death was not as good as a deer in the heart of the Queen of the Song Dynasty...
Walking around, it was almost noon. Xu Hong chose a forest beside the pond to make a point. Someone had already set up a tent, boiled tea, and lit a brazier. In the unfrozen pond in front of him, there were geese migrating south in the pond to rest and forage. The sound of geese crowing sounds came from the lake, and the rise and fall were also unique. The sky was high and the earth was even more relaxing and happy.
Zhao Bing leaned against the couch, and his two wives sat beside him to serve tea and pour water. Not far away, the imperial chefs had already started preparing food. Several guards set up their prey to bake. The aroma of barbecue floated around the camp.
‘Tread, step, step…’ At this moment, a sound of horse hooves suddenly came, and the guards around him became nervous immediately. Zhao Bing also stood up and looked at the sound. After a while, a group of horses appeared from a depression, but there was no one at all. After seeing the people, he was not afraid, but turned to the pond. From this, he judged that the horses in the horse farm should have come here to find food and drink water, but the guards did not dare to neglect, worried that the horses would blow up the group and shock the Holy Carriage. Several of the horses wanted to drive them away, but Zhao Bing stopped them.
"Your Majesty, these horses are left unattended, aren't you afraid of getting lost?" There were only a few hundred horses, but they were already very spectacular in Wu Xi's eyes. After watching for a while, he asked.
"These are Mongolian horses. Large groups of horses are very sociable and should not be separated. Mares are strong in their mares and stallions are strong in their group protection. Mongolian horses that have been grazing for a long time are fierce, aggressive, difficult to tame, and have a very sensitive sense of hearing and smell. Even wolves dare not provoke them easily." Zhao Bing looked and answered.
"Oh, this is the Mongolian horse. It is rumored that the Mongolians conquered the Western Regions, the desert north and south, and the horses stepped on the Central Plains and the south of the Yangtze River, but it seemed that they were not good horses!" The horses that were shepherded were not afraid of people. Some horses ran to them to eat grass, and the ones were only about twenty steps away from them. Wu Xi looked carefully and said.
"The queen can still be accustomed to each other!" Zhao Bing couldn't help but quip after hearing this.
"I don't know how to look at horses? I just read the "Share of Horses". It contains the head, lips, neck and back of Yanma's horses, nostrils are like trumpets, eyes are like toads, necks are like lions, ribs are like bulls, shoulders are like eagles, buttocks are like horses with large wings. Look carefully, there is nothing that matches these Mongolian horses." Wu Xiyan said, "In contrast, these horses have big heads, small necks, weak spines, big belly, small shins and big hooves, but are the appearance of bad horses, which seems to be inconsistent!"
"Mongolian horses are just 'dogs rely on people', and horses are just famous by people. It is precisely because of the outstanding achievements of the Mongolians, that they are so highly regarded by the world, and have only produced many myths!" Zhao Bing said. But he thought to himself, how idle the young lady in this aristocratic family is, that she even read the "Sutra of the Horse". It is really incredible.
"Don't the Mongols know that their horses are of poor quality?" Chen Shu asked in a while.
"Haha, don't underestimate the Mongolians. They have a large number of Han horse-raising people who are proficient in horse racing. How could they not know?" Zhao Bing smiled. "So Mongolia has been trying to remedy it, that is, horses. They plundered all the way in the war. As long as the horses are good, no matter which kind of horses are required, these horses are fostered in the national horse farm. The higher-ranking Qixue army rode excellent riding breeds plundered from the Western Regions and Persia. The horses we ride were seized and paid tribute from them."
"It is recorded in the book that horses in the Western Regions and the Huns are both good horses, and the Mongols also live in the north and south of the desert. Why don't they tame these horse breeds?" Wu Xi asked again.
"In fact, Mongolian horses are the descendants of these horses." Zhao Bing smiled and explained, "The Book of Han. Biography of the Xiongnu records that before the Tang and Yu, they lived in the north and moved with water, grass and animal husbandry. The number of animals was large, and the horses and cattle and sheep were also prominent. The Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang, attacked the Xiongnu and was besieged by more than 300,000 cavalrymen in Maodun Shanyu for seven days. Emperor Wu of Han brought back a large number of horses many times in the war with the Xiongnu, and appointed the Xiongnu prince Jin Rifa as the horse supervisor of the Han Dynasty. After the Western Jin Dynasty, tribes outside the border successively went south and brought tens of thousands of horses. During the prosperous Tang Dynasty, all ethnic groups in the north once paid tribute with good horses. According to the "Tang Huiyao", Turkic horses were excellent in skills, moderate muscles and bones, and their ability to achieve far-reaching results, and they were extremely useful in hunting."
"You see, the hair colors of these Mongolian horses are mostly rosy and rosy hairs. This is similar to the Turkic horses, Yantuo horses of various periods, and the Pugu horses, so you can roughly assume that they are their ancestors. However, because the nomadic peoples do not pay attention to breeding good horses, even if there are good horses in them, they quickly degenerate, which has formed the current situation."
"So that's it. Mongolian horses are just inferior horses, but why do we still have to raise them?" Wu Xi nodded and asked again.
"Haha!" Zhao Bing couldn't help but smile bitterly when he heard this. This was really not a good person. But he still explained patiently, "The reason for this is that our dynasty does not produce horses and has to be used. Mongolian horses are easy to obtain. Therefore, most of the war horses equipped by our dynasty cavalry are captured or Mongolian horses bought through the bribe. Second, Mongolian horses are not useless. They are highly adaptable and resistant to severe cold, resistant to rough feeding, and can adapt to harsh climates and extensive feeding conditions. They have strong fat-loss, fast fat-loss, and slow fat-loss. Moreover, they can identify poisonous weeds without being poisoned, have strong resistance to disease, are not prone to diseases, and are easy to domesticate, and have good obedience."
"Oh, this is exactly what it means to have their own strengths, I have received the teachings." Wu Xi said.
Chapter completed!