Chapter 5 Cavalry is no exception

  Life cannot be waited for sitting down, cannot wait empty-handed for that unknown future, just for the sake of that clear and present now.

  Zhou Dashao began to train his troops. In another memory, Zhou Huchen knew that the Ming army's training methods were unscientific and could only be used as a reference in part. He needed a new way of training.

  Although this era is backward, there is one thing that makes Zhou Huchen very comforted. The obedience of the soldiers is too good. As long as you give orders, they will go and do it. This is an era where soldiers return to their commanders. These soldiers rely on their superiors for their salaries, their rice bowls come from their superiors, and the court's control over them is limited to the hands of military officers. The emergence of the Ming dynasty's military garrison system and the general gate system was precisely because of this reason, and this military system obviously has great drawbacks.

  But for Zhou Huchen, this was a blessing. Zhou Yuji was undoubtedly an honest and upright general who would not embezzle military pay or rations, and his soldiers were obviously very cohesive. As long as you gave the order, they would go and do it without any hesitation. When Zhou Huchen participated in the training, those generals did not have much resistance because these soldiers belonged to Zhou Yuji, and Zhou Huchen was Zhou Yuji's successor, so they had no reason to resist.

  Mo Xian Cheng, the general, had nothing to say. Here, Zhou Yuji was in charge. As the eldest son of Zhou Huchen, he helped with military training. However, someone else did not see it that way. It wasn't that they disagreed with the training, but for other reasons.

  This opinionated person is Gao Shiye, whose name is Gao Linsheng and courtesy name Boyong. He was a private advisor to Zhou Yujie, and the reason he gave his opinions to Zhou Huchen was very clear: he wanted to think for his master's sake.

  "Master, you can't train like this! Soldiers training like this will consume a huge amount of physical strength, and they need to be fed, have extra meals. How much more food do we need to provide? You should take it easy! These soldiers are all recruits! If we waste even a bit, our reserves will be reduced by that much!"

  "Recruiting soldiers! Are these all recruits?!"

  "Of course it's recruitment! Young master, you still don't understand. These rations, weapons and equipment rely on the imperial court for supply, but the amount supplied by the imperial court is limited. Soldiers usually have two meals a day. You are now implementing three meals, which will consume a lot more grain! It's not wartime now, so we should save where we can, so you need to be more frugal!"

  Zhou Huchen was too excited, this recruitment was too good, although it couldn't be said to be equivalent to private soldiers, but Zhou Huchen would have the opportunity to take them away in the future, not all of them, but Zhou Huchen could take away a part, which was enough.

  "Is food hard to come by?"

  "This is going too far! But... we can't waste food like this!"

  "That's good! Master Gao, you don't have to worry about it anymore, I can handle it myself!"

  "It's Young Master!"

  Gao Shiye was helpless with regard to Zhou Huchen, he put forward a suggestion, as for whether or not to adopt it, that's Zhou Huchen's own business, in the future, as long as he can account for himself to Zhou Yuji, that's fine.

  Young Master Zhou had been drilling these infantrymen to the point of exhaustion, but fortunately they were well-fed. The soldiers didn't have much to say; wasn't eating military rations just a way to fill their bellies?

  Having finished off these infantrymen, Zhou Huachen quickly set his sights on the more than 2,000 cavalrymen under Zhou Yuji's command. During this time, they had been gloating over the misfortunes of these infantrymen. Now, Young Master Zhou was taking aim at them.

  These cavalrymen were under the command of General Wang Dewu, and it would be easier for Zhou Huchen to deal with them because Wang Dewu was Zhou's uncle-in-law, a member of the old lady's family.

  The cavalry was a proud breed, with horses and equipment being the most expensive in the army, and these seasoned veterans didn't think Zhou Huchen had anything new to show them.

  In just half a day, these cavalrymen no longer had the mood for gloating.

  Zhou Huchen ordered the infantrymen to widen the ditches in the fields on the south side of the drill ground. The training was simple: the cavalry had to keep jumping over the constantly appearing ditches, and behind the ditches, they had to cut down bundles of straw that served as imaginary enemies.

  The training was fresh, the soldiers were curious, and it wasn't difficult to knock down such imaginary enemies. However, the cavalrymen soon realized the difficulty. These trenches had varying widths, depths, and distances, and there was a time limit. Galloping horses, one day of training, and injuries to both horses and soldiers became unavoidable, which pained Wang De greatly.

  Fortunately, Mr. Zhou set an example for himself, his riding instructors were all the best in the army, and their riding skills were naturally good, leaving these cavalrymen speechless.

  Horses and people were constantly getting hurt, but Master Zhou didn't care at all. The next day, even more difficult training began.

  This time, Zhou Dashao was even more ruthless. He ordered the soldiers to put firewood and straw into the ditch, pour vegetable oil on it, and then set it on fire.

  Horses can gallop on flat ground, with a momentum like thunder, but in fact, horses are timid animals and will not actively charge at dangerous targets. This is the effect that Zhou Huchen needs. Once they enter actual combat, the smoke of the battlefield and the firing of firearms will all affect the horses. What Zhou Huchen needs to do is prevent problems before they arise.

  Seeing the raging fire, Wang De finally couldn't bear it: "Tiger son, this won't do! Do you know how precious a cavalryman and his horse are? If there's a large number of casualties, how can I explain to your father?"

  "Uncle, don't worry! You'll see, the soldiers and horses will all be safe, absolutely safer than yesterday, the injury rate will decrease, you have to believe in potential! Both humans and horses have potential! This is training potential! Just watch!"

  Wang De furrowed his brow, this nephew... was really a bit absurd, had never heard of such a training method. As for the effect, it seemed... if successful... should have a great impact, just like Zhou Huchen said, would enhance the horse's courage, that is called potential!

  Horses will not actively charge into a wall of fire. In the initial training, horses will always stop suddenly in front of the flame trench, which also causes the cavalry to fall off their horses. This makes these battered and bruised cavalrymen secretly resentful in their hearts.

  But no one can change Young Master Zhou's orders, so the cavalrymen can only express their dissatisfaction in their hearts. On the surface, no one dares to say anything because now everyone knows that this young master is too cunning and unpredictable. Offending him would be unknown what awaits oneself, it's better to behave and be realistic.

  When the cavalry finally succeeded in crossing that fiery ditch, the horses finally understood that this ditch was not threatening at all. One horse's success would lead to countless horses' success. When all the horses formed a habit, those ditches were no longer an obstacle.

  As expected, Zhou Huchen's words were correct. In just one day, almost all the horses had adapted to Huogou, and the success rate was nearly 100%. Very few horses made mistakes, and this potential was indeed impressive! This left Wang Deyong in amazement.

  Yue Huogou succeeded, but Zhou Dashao's subsequent words made Wang Deyong break out in a cold sweat.

  "Such training is not bad, but the real battlefield won't be like this entirely. In two days, I'll get some gunpowder and we can set it off in the ditch, that will have a better effect! Right! We can also let the infantry participate, letting them use mud blocks to attack the cavalry, this way we can effectively train the cavalry's and horses' combat focus!"