Chapter 265

Lush grass, ten thousand horses galloping—this is what Bai Lang saw when he drove his mule cart to the Flying Horse Ranch. Horsemen herded the horses, looking like a frontier scene—but this place is actually not far from Xiangyang. Not only does the ranch have over ten thousand horses, but even the combined forces of the four major bandits hostile to the ranch amount to over ten thousand horse bandits.

Bai Lang then complained, "Does the guy who "created" this world even have any concept of cavalry? He probably hasn't seen what a cavalry of over ten thousand people looks like—this is a formation that, when deployed, can stretch over ten li, and just the daily provisions for the horses and cavalry are a huge number—what kind of horse bandits could gather over ten thousand? With that many, they'd sell themselves to those big powers as founding heroes!"

It's normal for the author to have no concept of numbers, engineering, or military—otherwise how could he imagine a ten-zhang-high city wall? He also has no grasp of geography; as for something like the four-hundred-millimeter isohyet, it's absolutely something he's never heard of, a lofty idea. Bai Lang muttered this while driving his mule cart to the guesthouse at the Flying Horse Ranch used to receive guests.

Given that the Northern and Southern Dynasties had long-lasting unified dynasties, and later even the great unified Sui dynasty somehow harbored a commercial force possessing over ten thousand warhorses, Bai Lang could only reluctantly accept this as normal—can't argue with the author's setting. Moreover, because the Flying Horse Ranch is practically the sole source of military horses for the factions causing trouble in the Central Plains and even the southern regions, people seeking to buy warhorses come in an endless stream, and the guesthouse that receives these horse traders can practically be called a small town.

Bai Lang was utterly insignificant among them—horse dealers never travel alone, and the great powers that come to buy horses show up in droves of hundreds or even thousands all at once. For him to show up solo—or rather, with a maid—is truly rare. What Bai Lang needs is retail, not wholesale—that is, buying a fine horse; one would have to be extremely confident in one's martial prowess to bring a maid alone to buy a horse, unafraid of losing both person and mount, even one's head, along the way?

Bai Lang isn't afraid; buying a fine horse, given the current situation, shouldn't cost too outrageously—if this were the Song dynasty, a true fine horse would probably require bleeding out financially. But this is the Sui-Tang period; the world's horses should still be relatively plentiful, with a wider selection— the bloodlines of the Central Asian steeds imported to the west shouldn't have begun to degenerate yet.

"But we still need to buy good weapons and armor first." Bai Lang had money in his pockets and on the cart, estimating that buying a full set of gear wouldn't be a problem. At this moment, the turmoil of the Northern and Southern Dynasties had just ended not long ago, and the great Sui's unification of the realm had lasted only twenty-odd years; now the world is in great chaos again, so although the Sui had clear laws on weapon control, they have become a dead letter.

The Flying Horse Ranch does have weapons and armor for sale, but Bai Lang knows that the faction that sells the most and best weapons in the world is the one led by the daughter of the Yin Queen—of course, judging by the name, it seems to be from the Ryukyu Islands—basically it's a joke. Even so, the weapons shop here has plenty of military equipment, from spears to armor and shields, bows and crossbows.

Even the armor included high-priced Ming light armor, but that's not something you'd want to wear openly—"Got any mail armor? Though that price is really steep!" This mail armor seems to have been brought by Western Region merchants for sale, priced about the same as two-layer armor. Bai Lang picked out leather armor; after all, he'd trained his whole body in the Golden Bell Shield, so armor is just an extra layer of insurance, and he still had to consider whether his horse could handle it.

The Flying Horse Ranch actually didn't sell ready-made equipment—indeed, if they did, such merchants would probably not have been tolerated by the court long ago. As for weapons, Bai Lang could only have the blacksmith custom-make them—the design Bai Lang gave the blacksmith was a pair of iron bu-character halberds.

Such weapons are now rarely used; regular armies have long since abolished their issuance. What Bai Lang had the blacksmith forge was not a split-assembled bu-character halberd, but a monolithic weapon with an enlarged spearhead; the spear blades on both ends are double-edged like short swords, and the horizontal blade also has double edges on both sides, capable of pecking, thrusting, and hooking. Below the halberd is a steel sleeve to prevent opponents from cutting the shaft.

Such a bu-character halberd would weigh about twenty catties plus the shaft and socket, likely reaching thirty catties, qualifying as a heavy weapon for cavalry. Moreover, Bai Lang had the blacksmith forge two iron clubs, three chi six cun long, four-sided with a point, as thick as an egg. After paying the deposit, the blacksmith began forging.

Selecting a horse required following the steward to look; the wholesale and retail locations are completely different. Those fine warhorses are kept separately, allowing truly wealthy patrons to slowly pick. Bai Lang also had his hands behind his back, slowly following the steward who received him to look at the horses—he had previously shown off some gold and silver, otherwise he wouldn't have been qualified to look.

"There really are some fine warhorses." Bai Lang flicked his tongue, producing a pleasant trill to express his admiration. As for horses, he had still read some data on famous modern racehorses, and he knew a bit about traditional warhorses. The horses here, although not as splendid as the breeds carefully selected in Europe after the eighteenth century, are still quite good for this day and age. The Tang sancai horses often seen later are the result of artistic exaggeration, but the horses now are already quite good—better than the warhorses Bai Lang rode in the Ming Dynasty, at least a few cun taller.

The horses' coats are mostly bluish-green and blackish-brown, some with spotted patterns; Bai Lang had no particular preference for this, "Covering a thousand li in a day is unnecessary—what matters is a large build and good endurance." He still prepared to make for his horse at least a leather barding that could shield the neck and front half of the body, to avoid being hit by stray arrows.

A rough estimate shows that just buying these things costs as much as a whole estate—so it's no wonder that in the past only those well-off families who could provide their own horses and weapons were the elite Feathered Forest and Tiger Guard troops. Extending this, an ancient dynasty's army whose soldiers could afford their own weapons—drawn from self-sufficient farmers and small landowners' sons—would be a top-notch force. Once the local militia system collapsed, the army's combat effectiveness was gone.

What Bai Lang bought was a rather large horse with a rain‑like dappled pattern on a bluish‑green coat. After exchanging a few words with the steward and presenting a small silver ingot, the steward quietly summoned a young servant, "Take this sir to have a look…." That was to have someone take him to get his horse barding. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, especially in the Northern Dynasties, this situation persisted for over a century. Under the militia system, those who provided their own horses and equipment trained during farming off‑seasons, and when the military government gave an order, each garrison command would conscript civilians as soldiers. What exists now is merely the beginning of this practice in the Northern Dynasties; such things were rare in the Southern Dynasties.

Bai Lang had also purchased a fine horse, saddle and harness, armor, and weapons; this fellow kept reciting verses from the Mulan poem. Meanwhile, Wei Zhenzhen followed behind, simply staring at Bai Lang, her big eyes full of curiosity.