If the so-called "martial virtue" on the Internet really exists among the countries in the world, war horses must be the carrier of the "martial virtue" of various countries before the 18th century. A country with fat horses and strong horses must be full of martial virtue. Why did the Ming Dynasty have long-term arrears in martial arts? A very important reason is that the quality of the horses is not good, which leads to the ineffective cavalry. So, why can’t the Ming army’s war horses work? Let me introduce the relevant content to you in detail.

During the reign of Emperor Shenzong of the Ming Dynasty, there was a rumor circulating in the Ming Dynasty: Once a Mongolian horse was born, the Mongolians would do such a trick: leaving the foal at the foot of the mountain and tying the mare to the mountain. Mountain top. If the foal can jump from the bottom of the mountain to the mare, OK, good horse! Keep it for yourself; jump halfway up the mountain and then stroll up to find the mother's horse, a meat horse. Kill and eat meat. Those who are too cowardly to jump up will be sold to Ming Dynasty.

This joke is a bit like the saying of some Japanese products on the Internet. The best Japanese products are exported to Europe and the United States, the second-class Japanese products are used by the Japanese for their own use, and the worst ones are exported to China. But just like individual netizens, Ming officials don't care about the logic in this kind of joke. What they care about is the "conclusion". This conclusion is: in the Ming-Meng mutual market, the horses returned cannot be used, they are the worst horses, and Ming is the loser in the transaction. Ming Dynasty was willing to engage in "mutual trade" with the Mongols solely to stabilize the Mongols. But since the "Ida tribute" in the fourth year of Longqing (1570), the Mongols have come to sell horses every year. For the sake of peace, the Ming Dynasty also used money to buy them every year. The horses were not used after they were bought, because the officials thought If the horse is not good enough, then it will be sent all the way to a horse farm to be raised. If you raise too many, it becomes a burden.

This problem reached its peak during the Chongzhen period. In the autumn of the first year of Chongzhen, Chahar Khan's troops invaded the border. Chongzhen pointed at Wang Xiangqian, the governor of Xuanda, and said, "Can you come up with an idea?" Wang Xiangqian said, "Isn't it just the Mongols selling bad horses? We won't accept their bad horses, and the money will be halved." Give him the price and spend money to eliminate the disaster. Shaoqing Shen Yongmao objected impassionedly: Yes, it is not good to buy inferior horses from the Mongols every year, but we buy back tens of thousands of horses from Mongolia every year. This will also weaken the Mongols to some extent. Besides, when we spend money to buy horses, how much does it count? If you give it away with a large sum of money, what does it mean? Yearly coins!? Insult!?

Although the logic of this statement is puzzling , but this confidence is very admirable. Tens of thousands of unused inferior horses are bought every year. Presumably the smoked horse sausage of the Ming Dynasty must be a famous dish...

The origin of this nonsense starts with "Ida Feng Gong". Under the planning of Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng, the central cabinet ministers of the Ming Dynasty, and with the timely operation of the local governor of Xuanda, Wang Chonggu, and the governor of Datong, Han Naji and his grandfather, the Tatar leader Anda, were brought to the Ming Dynasty due to a family dispute. With the opportunity, tribute and mutual trade were achieved, ending the nearly two hundred years of hostility between Ming and Mongolia.

The Ming Dynasty implemented a white list system for trade with Mongolia. What was sold was ironware for daily use and what was bought back was horses. Although the horses are good, Daming Border Town does not have such a large population and cannot consume so many horses. After all, horses in border towns were bought with the court's tax money. The Ming Dynasty's military budget was limited, and the money to buy horses was tight. You don't have to just keep them after buying them. It would be a waste of money and food, and the pressure would be huge. Just talk about eating meat. But the Mongols come every year, and if you don't buy them, they will go to war1. The Ming Dynasty loved peace, so what should we do? In the early years of Wanli, Wang Chonggu, one of the operators of "I'm a tribute", came up with a plan.

He believes that the horses used in the border town were originally at war with the Mongols and were "recruited" from the mainland. They were of low quality and high price, and could only solve the problem of non-existent problems. Now that the Mongols have negotiated peace with us, the "market horses" they have returned can meet our needs and are not expensive, so we should stop sending horses from the mainland. The so-called "Hu horses are unusable" is actually because the Mongolian horses they bought back have strong bones and wild temperaments, and they are used to eating wild grass. They are not used to eating concentrated feed such as beans and soybeans at first. If they are fed and domesticated directly according to the methods in the mainland, it is easy for the horses to become tamed. Get sick. At that time, horse dealers in Southern Zhili and Shanxi had already mastered the method of recuperating Hu horses, and the market horses recently brought back by the frontier army sergeants were all very strong, and it was rare that they died, and they were very fat and strong. Easy to use 2. Imported goods have a comparative advantage over local goods. In this new situation, it is good to change the old rules.

Governor Xuanda and Minister of War Fang Fengshi, who are also traders of "Ida tribute", after investigating the stock of "market horses" in horse markets in Xuanzhen, Datong, Shanxi and other places, believed that the northern border towns were indeed He couldn't digest tens of thousands of horses in exchange for trade, so he followed the ideas of Wang Chonggu and others and came up with a plan: first, the three border towns would each establish horse farms for grazing, and second, the horses he bought would be carefully selected and given to the Beijing troops. After using it, the horses that should be "explained" in Zhili, Shandong, Henan and other places will be converted into silver and sent to the border towns, specifically for buying horses. Third, the officers and soldiers from Baoding, Hejian, Shinding and other places who were guarding the capital went to the horse market to select the horses they needed. Fourth, there is no need to kill the remaining horses for meat and give them to the infantry. Infantry on the battlefield needs horses 3.

But this solution is still in the planning stage, and the memorial of He Yigui, the censor of Shanxi Province, was sent to Emperor Wanli. He Yigui said that the conscience of the Mongolian people was extremely bad. The market horses sold to the Ming Dynasty were thin and sickly. Let alone foster care, ordinary riding was a problem. The officers and soldiers could only sell second-hand horses at a different price and add more money to buy good horses.

Bad government, great bad government! The lawsuit was brought to the Ministry of National Defense (Ministry of War). The Ministry of National Defense acted as a peacemaker and allowed officers and soldiers in Bianzhen and Jingying to use horses from the horse market. If you want to build your own horse farm, you can spend your own money to repair it. "It's okay to sell the horses bought back with money from the national treasury, but the money must be earmarked and used as the "market capital" to renew the horses. It’s okay, it’s all okay, it’s all accurate.

But it is not allowed to convert the horses that should be "explained" in Zhili, Shandong, Henan and other places into silver and send them to border towns. No negotiation. The horse that should be "explained" was how it was before and how it is now. This item is not up for debate. The Ming Dynasty's Ministry of National Defense's conciliatory approach seemed to other people in the court at that time to be just trying to save face by selling out the "I'm paying tribute" to the hero. The so-called "Huma is useless" has long been the consensus of scholar-bureaucrats in both the government and the public. In the first year of Wanli, Liang Xu, the imperial censor, was the most firmly opposed to sending the purchased Hu horses to the mainland for foster care. 5

In other words, he is actually opposed to all changes in horse politics. Twenty years after the Ministry of War approved Fang and Wang's method, Kechen Hou visited Liaodong in Xianchun and expressed his regrets bitterly. He said, "The most urgent thing in Liao is the horse, and the most unusable in the Liao is also the horse. The most expensive thing in the Liao is the national reserve." They are horses, and the most tired soldiers in Liao are also horses." In the early years of Wanli, Liang Xu did not say that Hu Ma was not good, but the ministers of the Manchu Dynasty were stunned to interpret the bad meaning of Hu Ma from the excerpts he wrote. Then the "reform" of Ma Zheng began to take a strange turn. The direction has developed. In the thirty-sixth year of Wanli, Xiong Tingbi, who was patrolling Liaodong, discovered that the execution of horse politics in Liaodong had become very violent: the attitude of the Ming army towards horses was to kill them as quickly as possible: Liao did not hesitate to use horses because officials did not follow the law. Rope the army; and the officials and the army want the horse to die for profit. Shuai said, "If the horse doesn't die, how can I sell the horse I raised?" Pi said, "The horse doesn't die, and where will I get the money to inspect the horse?" Jun said, "The horse doesn't die, and I share the same household with the horse." How can the tribe get the benefit of buying it? 'No one in the army or the government can die quickly without cursing the horse. The horse wants to survive, but it cannot be obtained?

A few years after Xiong Tingbi wrote this memorial, the Battle of Saarhu began. Before the decisive battle, the Ming Dynasty treated their war horses with this attitude. The Mongols said, I will not bear the blame. What I sell to Ming Dynasty is carefully selected by Ming Dynasty officials themselves.

Although the problem of Hu horses being averse to water and grass exists, even horse dealers in Bianzhen are able to recuperate Hu horses, feed them to be fat and strong, and transfer them to the mainland. What's not possible? It's those interest groups who make a living by exploiting horse owners and horse heads who think it's absolutely impossible to raise horse officials and horse officials in the county government of Mazhou, horse dealers in the capital, Taipusi medical and veterinary medicine, etc. Horse inspectors, even Taipu Temple, Ministry of War officials, and important families in the capital, all they eat is the food of "explaining" horses. This is the reason why Hu horses are unusable and cannot be used! In short, for the vested interests of scholar-bureaucrats, As far as interest groups are concerned, the saying in cross talk "If you say you can't do it, you can't do it! If you can do it, you can't do it!" is a wise saying!