Under the temptation of a carrot, the radish was led by Ren Hong to the middle of the frame of the two pillars, the reins were tied to the horizontal log, Ren Hong wrapped the horse's body several times with thick hemp rope, and even the limbs were fixed, during which he tried not to let it see the knife he was hiding!
Ren Hong held the horse's right hind leg in his hand, carefully bent the three-inch golden lotus of the radish, flipped it up, and placed it on a stool.Radish resisted the urge to pout its hooves, and it knew that it was time to cultivate its palms again.Or in Ren Hong's words, call it: "Nail art." ”Horses like to run, one is that they are active by nature, but if they don't run for a day, their feet will itch, and if they don't run for a month, the cuticles on their hooves can grow to a terrible length, and they need to be rubbed off by the close contact between their hooves and the ground.But for the radish, since March of the fifth year of Yuanfeng, following Ren Hong to escort the Wusun mission, the speed of the keratin on its hooves has exceeded the growth.Grasslands, gravel, rocks, streams, mountains, snowy peaks, as long as you can think of the terrain, the Western Regions have it.Ren Hong traveled thousands of miles back and forth, the soldiers were physically and mentally exhausted, and the horses were also struggling to support, its hooves were badly worn, and its soft flesh was about to be exposed.Many of its fellow travelers were limped by wooden thorns and stones because of the skin on their hooves, and finally lay unable to move, and had to die by their owners.It didn't know that in the decisive battle between the Han and the Hungarians for decades, there were 140,000 official and private horses at that time, and when they returned to the division in victory, there were less than 30,000 horses left.The same is true for Dawan, 30,000 horses went out, and only more than 1,000 came back, and most of them were supplemented in Dawan.War horses, like soldiers, are consumables.Fifty percent of the deaths of horses on the battlefield were due to disease, forty percent were injuries caused by worn hooves, and only one percent died from the rain of swords and arrows.The radish was lucky, and when Ren Hong stopped to rest in the mission, he would follow the Han Chinese custom to weave his hooves with kudzu or make leather for it, so as to minimize the wear and tear of the hooves, and clean the dirt on his hooves when he had nothing to do.When he arrived in Chang'an, he invited the best blacksmith to tailor the first set of horseshoes in the Han Dynasty.After forging, the iron bar is U-shaped and falls under the hoof.And he made iron like lotus seeds, with a high convex pointed bottom, and eight nails were nailed to each hoof, as if he had put four iron boots on the radish.At first, it was not very adaptable, and it always felt a lot more cumbersome when lifting its hooves, and when walking in Chang'an City, the stone road also crackled and crunched, which frequently attracted to look back.But from then on, no matter what kind of terrain, the radish is like walking on the ground, and Ren Dad no longer has to worry about its bruising.It's just that every once in a while, the horseshoe will be replaced to repair the palm, so when Ren Hong came to Jincheng to serve, he specially asked two sergeants who could strike iron to accompany him, and he also secretly planned to promote this thing in the border army.After making sure that the radish would not kick the blacksmith to death with a pinch of his hooves, Ren Hongcai beckoned: "Come on!"
”The blacksmith walked over, wearing a leather apron with a wide hole in the eyes burned by sparks, and after silently riveting the horseshoe of the turnip, Ren Hong himself held a knife in his hand, and shaved off its fast-growing calluses, and cleaned up the rusty iron and impurities.The radish seemed to enjoy it, snorted, and shook the horse's mane, which was a harsh winter, and the mane was deliberately grown, and the horse lice also bred in it, which was a hint to the owner: "It's time to comb your horse." ”"You brute."
Ren Hong held the rotten and stinky feet and scolded with a smile: "I am a dignified Han Liehou, and I have to comb your hair and manicure your nails, Yaoguang doesn't have such treatment." ”There's no way, this horse is fierce, last time Ren Hong was too busy, let the horse boy do it for him, and the poor boy was almost kicked to death by the radish.But then again, as far as Ren Hong saw, the riders of the Qiang's Captain's Mansion led by Zhang Yaoli were indeed better to the horses than to themselves, and they would repair the horses every month, sharpening and grinding, for fear that riding this beast would give them a big surprise, which would be fatal.But their own long, dirty nails were gnawed off with their teeth.On the blacksmith's side, according to Ren Hong's instructions, the winter grab palm has already been prepared, on the basis of the flat palm shoe, plus a small triangular iron tip.The U-shaped iron was beaten into a suitable shape according to the size of the radish hooves, burned red in the fire, and was picked up and pressed on the horse's hooves with fire tongs, and black smoke suddenly came out, giving off a burning smell.Although it was separated by the cuticle, the radish still seemed to be scalded, screaming with its head high, digging the ground with its hooves, and splashing dust all over its body.Ren Hong hurriedly comforted it: "Radish, radish, after having this grasp, although you are on the ice, the ice is not slippery, it is most suitable for use in the winter mountain battlefield like Hehuang, and when you go into battle, you should step on it steadily, don't throw me off with your front hooves." ”After the horseshoe was welded, the blacksmith put the horse's hooves into the cold water in the bucket to cool them, lifted them up and dried them with his apron, and finally took out the small iron nails, lifted the horseshoes again, lifted the small mace, and began to nail the horseshoe.After nailing, put down the horse's hooves and try whether the horse's shoes land flat, if the height is uneven, you have to repeat the above steps.After finishing the work, a quarter of an hour had passed, and after Ren Hong took the radish away, the blacksmith did not rest, wiped his sweat, and looked at the riders of the Qiang Captain who was leading the horse in line behind: "Next!"
”Although the horseshoe is a black technology in Rome, the two sides have not yet come into contact, let alone scientific and technological exchanges, and now it has become Ren Hong's invention.For Xi'an Hou's behavior of wearing iron boots for horses, Ling Ju often deals with horses, and he is worried about the horses' hooves. ”Looking at the radish walking like flying, almost unaffected, even Zhao Jia patted his old horse, very envious: "Jincheng proverb, walk more mountains and hurt horses, so don't talk about winter and summer, with iron hooves, although the horses don't hurt their feet." ”It's a pity that there are not many blacksmiths, and the hooves of each horse are of different sizes, so they have to be forged temporarily, and the speed of the hooves on the horses is very slow.Since the end of last year, it took several days of hard work to make the 200 personal guard cavalry under Captain Huqiang complete the change of clothes and become a real "iron horse".Ren Hong also wanted the newly recruited militiamen to experience it, but the county commander of Lingju complained to him."
Just to make a thousand horseshoes, you can exhaust all the iron that Ling Xiaotieguan has in store, and I can't find any more."
Lingju County Ling Fuchang is very distressed, the Han system, all iron-producing counties are set up iron officials, a total of 48 iron officials in the country.Even in counties that do not produce iron, small iron officials must be set up at the county level.The smelting of iron and the production and sale of ironware are all under the responsibility of the iron officials, and they are proper state-run units.They Jincheng County does not produce iron, the whole Liangzhou larger iron workshop, only Longxi County has, so there is no shortage of horses and no shortage of salt, but copper and iron are scarce, Longxi only sends a thousand catties to Jincheng every month, for the purpose of making and repairing weapons and farm tools, and now the inventory is all empty to Ren Hong.This is also the reason why Ren Hong does not engage in stirrups and saddles, fearing that it will do more harm than good to spread to the surrounding areas, and he is not worried about horseshoes: although the Xiongnu also produce iron, they are not richer than the Han Dynasty, otherwise the kings of the right would not have bothered to smuggle iron from the mainland.In a hurry, Ren Hong had no choice but to let the soldiers in the recruitment, those former Lizheng and pavilion chiefs' horses nail the hooves.He didn't expect a high degree of organization in recruitment, and he couldn't train a strong army in seven or eight days, so he could only rely on the ready-made Tingli Shiwu system to restrain him, and he would join the same team with his fellow villagers.After a few days of training in Lingju, Ren Hong took the cavalry to Haomen County to camp to guard against the fried Gongqiang on the other side.The battle reports from the front line also reached his ears one after another, and the news was both good and bad.First of all, he heard the news when he just left Lingju: "First Lingqiang attacked Anyi County, Xin Duwei went west to Siwang Gorge to attack it, defeated the Qiang, chased to Huangzhong, and the Qiangs scattered. ”It sounded like good news, Xin Qingji was very happy, but Ren Hong secretly said something bad in his heart."
It's wrong, Lao Xin is still impulsive."
The topography of Jincheng County, like a cross, is a valley of Huangshui, and is a big river and Haomen water, except for these two river valleys, the rest are big mountains and hills.The reason why the county seat is located in Yungo County is because it is located in the center of the cross and extends in all directions.In this case, the Huangshui to the west of Yunwu is full of dangers, especially when the three of them are collegiated, Xin Wuxian is required to personally lead troops to garrison Siwang Gorge in Ledu County, Qinghai, as long as 1,000 people guard the pass and shoot it with the strong bow and crossbow that the Han army is good at, the Qiang people will be powerless.But Xin Wuxian was unwilling to give up Anyi County in the west, and insisted on going to Huangxia farther away, which was not impossible, but would cause a problem: Xin Wuxian and the county government were too far away, and it was difficult to echo each other if something happened.Not to mention that he hit Huangzhong in one go, the Qiang people have already moved their tribe to the south of the Yellow River in the past few days, what is the use of opening up Huangshui?"
Wait, Xin Wuxian really wants to go directly to the Big and Small Elm Valley?"
”As soon as he thought of this, Ren Hong broke out in a cold sweat, and he always felt that the script was going in the direction of changing homes again.Go east from the base camp of Xian Lingqiang, go east from the big elm valley, and go east along the big river, you can bypass the Huangshui Valley.Although the Han army also set up a river pass fortress in the south to protect the county seat, there were also prison sisters and feudal two qiang who responded and attacked them inside and outside.Sure enough, when Ren Hong arrived in Haomen County, Hao Xingci sent an urgent report from the county government."
First Lingqiang tycoon Yang Yu marched eastward, colluded with Sister Prison, sealed Qiang and trapped Baishi, crossed the Caohan, and was storming Heguan, there were more than 10,000 thieves, Heguan was afraid of being lost, and I hope to protect the Qiang school captain to help!"
PS: Happy Lantern Festival, the second chapter is in the evening.