Neither Yun Zheng nor Ye Zi slept well that night.
When they got up in the morning, both of them yawned.
Even though a night had passed, there was still some awkwardness when the two met again.
Fortunately, Yun Zheng was thick-skinned enough not to let anyone notice anything unusual.
After breakfast, Yun Zheng rushed to the Shenwu Army with four guards.
Among the six guards of the imperial city, only the Shenwu Army and the Yulin Guard were stationed in the city.
When they arrived at the Shenwu Army, Xiao Dingwu and his deputy general were already waiting at the entrance of the camp.
"Greetings to His Highness the Sixth Prince!"
Xiao Dingwu is Xiao Wanchou's eldest son and the commander of the Shenwu Army.
The Shenwu Army has only 15,000 soldiers, but they are extremely elite.
...
...
Yun Zheng motioned Xiao Dingwu to excuse himself, and said, "Take me around the camp first!"
"good!"
Xiao Dingwu readily agreed, "Your Highness helped us win 600 war horses, which solved our urgent need. I will take Your Highness to see our cavalry first!"
"Um... OK!"
Yun Zheng nodded, cursing in his heart that this guy was talking about things that were not relevant.
His five hundred soldiers only had a pitiful twenty war horses!
Du Guiyuan and his men took twenty war horses to let the palace soldiers practice riding and shooting all day long. They had to take good care of the horses for fear of wearing them out!
As Xiao Dingwu led Yun Zheng to the cavalry camp, he said, "After the court meeting today, my father specifically told me to invite His Highness to our house for a simple meal at noon! Your Highness, please don't refuse."
"no problem."
Yun Zheng nodded, "By the way, how is the investigation into the embezzlement case going?"
Ever since this matter was exposed, he has never cared about it again.
Since he had met Xiao Dingwu today, he also took the opportunity to find out more about the situation.
"We did find out quite a few people."
Speaking of this, Xiao Dingwu got angry. "However, my father said that the ones caught were just scapegoats. The real big fish are hiding too deep, so they probably can't be found."
"That's a pity."
Yun Zheng smiled helplessly.
Corruption is a problem that cannot be eradicated in any dynasty.
No matter how harsh the criminal law is, there will always be people who take risks.
“It’s a pity indeed.”
Xiao Dingwu nodded, and lowered his voice and said, "My father suspects that the biggest fish is that bastard Xu Shifu, and even the Third Prince is involved! Unfortunately, he has no evidence."
Xiao Wanchou and Xu Shifu were political enemies and they disliked each other.
Naturally, Xiao Dingwu didn't have a good impression of Xu Shifu.
"Don't talk nonsense if you don't have evidence."
Yun Zheng shook his head slightly, then asked with a smile, "Did my third brother attend the court meeting today?"
"Why didn't you participate?"
Xiao Dingwu suppressed his laughter and whispered, "The Third Prince was carried to attend the court meeting today! The Second Prince and his friends were also bruised and swollen, and it seemed that they were punished by the Emperor again."
"My third brother was carried by others to attend the court meeting?" Yun Zheng was stunned.
"Isn't it!" Xiao Dingwu said with a wicked smile, "The emperor said that if you want to be the crown prince, you must first bear the heavy responsibility! As long as they can still move, they must participate in the court meeting."
Listening to Xiao Dingwu's words, Yun Zheng couldn't help but laugh.
This cheap old man of his still knows how to have fun!
But then again, what he said does make sense.
Don’t those idiots want to fight for the position of crown prince?
If you don't even attend court and participate in state affairs, what's the point of being a crown prince?
The two chatted along the way.
Xiao Dingwu probably inherited Xiao Wanchou's straightforward personality, and he spoke more directly, which left a good impression on Yun Zheng.
Soon, they arrived at the cavalry camp.
It was the time for the cavalry to report for duty, and a group of cavalrymen were riding their horses to report for duty.
Yun Zheng took a quick look and asked in surprise, "Only so few cavalry? There should be less than 2,000 of them, right?"
"Just over 1,500 people."
Xiao Dingwu replied: "If Your Highness had not won the horses from the Northern Huan envoys, the entire Shenwu Army's cavalry would have been less than a thousand!"
Xiao Dingwu knew that Yun Zheng definitely didn't understand the situation of the Six Guards of the Imperial City, so he began to explain to Yun Zheng.
Before this, the entire imperial city's six guards had less than six thousand cavalrymen.
As palace guards, the Yulin Guards had almost no cavalry.
After all, it was impossible for the Yulin Guard to organize cavalry to train in the palace all day long.
The Shenwu Army originally had a thousand cavalrymen, but some old and weak war horses were eliminated last year, and no new war horses were added, resulting in the number of cavalrymen being less than a thousand.
The Left and Right Garrison Guards were the same as the Shenwu Army, with less than a thousand cavalrymen.
Even the Left and Right Cavalry Guards, which had the largest number of cavalry, had only 1,500 cavalrymen.
Listening to Xiao Dingwu's introduction, Yun Zheng couldn't help but be stunned.
He knew that the Dagan Dynasty was in great need of war horses.
But I didn't expect war horses to be so scarce.
Even the cavalry of the six guards of the imperial city are so few, let alone the troops of the various states and counties.
The main cavalry of the Dagan Dynasty are probably deployed on various borders, right?
Seeing Yun Zheng's stunned expression, Xiao Dingwu couldn't help but sigh: "In fact, war horses weren't so scarce before, but in the Battle of Shuobei five years ago, our dynasty suffered too much loss."
Previously, the Shenwu Army and the Zuoyou Tunwei each had 3,000 cavalry.
The left and right cavalry guards each had 5,000 cavalrymen.
However, Emperor Wen personally led the expedition to Shuobei and mobilized a large number of cavalry.
After the war, the surviving cavalry and horses were given priority to join the Northern Army, and they became the pitiful state they are today.
"well!"
Yun Zheng sighed quietly, "It's all the fault of that damn Bei Huan!"
"Who said it wasn't?" Xiao Dingwu sighed and said, "Your Highness, now you know how great your contribution is in winning 10,000 war horses, right?"
"Let's wait until we get it!" Yun Zheng shook his head and smiled.
"Too!"
Xiao Dingwu nodded, and smiled bitterly, "However, even if we get it, priority will be given to replenishing the Northern Palace Army and the Left and Right Cavalry Guards. There will definitely be no share for me."
Emperor Wen had already provided him with 600 excellent war horses.
If he has any more war horses, he will definitely not be given any more.
While the two were talking, the cavalry captain had already begun organizing the cavalry for training.
Yun Zheng saw it and nodded continuously.
It can be seen that Xiao Dingwu is still good at commanding the army.
These cavalrymen were very well equipped, equipped with bows and arrows, lances, sabers, and javelins for throwing, and their armor was also heavy scale armor.
I'm afraid it will cost a lot of money to get this set of equipment.
Yun Zheng nodded and asked, "The annual cost of these cavalrymen should be quite high, right?"
"A lot, indeed."
Xiao Dingwu nodded and said, "Their weapons and equipment alone would cost over a thousand taels of silver. The annual cost for one person and one horse would be over five hundred taels of silver..."
Yun Zheng was stunned when he heard what Xiao Dingwu said.
He knew that it was very expensive to maintain a cavalryman in ancient times, but damn, wasn't this too expensive?
According to this calculation, with the little money I have, I can only get a few thousand cavalry at most?
Moreover, this only works when there are war horses!
This is not heavy cavalry!
Heavy cavalry would certainly cost more.
Without enough money and food, we can't afford cavalry!
Afterwards, Xiao Dingwu took Yun Zheng to visit various camps before returning to his own camp and began to teach Yun Zheng some basic knowledge of leading troops in combat.
Although Yun Zheng felt drowsy after listening, he still forced himself to continue listening.
At about noon, Yun Zheng followed Xiao Dingwu to the Duke of Yu's Mansion...
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