There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 394 Jeju Island

The new Han Dynasty was founded, and its current territory includes southern Jiangsu, southern Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, southern Henan (partial), southeastern Guizhou (partial), Chongqing, and eastern Guangdong.

They have already occupied most of the south, and if you include the anti-Qing forces that have formed alliances with them, they can expand even further.

The military affairs of the new Han Dynasty were still handled by the combined land and naval forces, but the two forces were expanded and reorganized again at the beginning of the new dynasty.

Following the example of the Ming Dynasty, the Army Commandery was formally expanded and reorganized into the Five Armies Commandery, while the Navy Commandery was also formally expanded into two major commanderies: the Navy Commandery and the Naval Commandery.

The combined land and water forces constituted the Seven Military Commands, which had two more armies than the Five Military Commands of the Ming Dynasty.

After the reform of the Governor-General's Office, the expansion plan in the south can be slowed down a bit. Provinces such as Guangdong, Guizhou, and Fujian can be dealt with slowly by relying on local garrisons.

The most pressing matter right now is to find a suitable place to raise horses as soon as possible.

The first batch of Marwald warhorses sent by the British has arrived. After inspection by the Guangzhou authorities, they were indeed large horses with a shoulder height of 1.5 meters.

There are currently 85 horses, which are being kept at a temporary horse farm in Guangzhou. They will be sent to Nanjing once they have recovered.

Marvar horses are not wild warhorses, but rather hybrid warhorses bred artificially in India. They originated from a cargo ship transporting Arabian horses that ran aground off the coast of Marvar, India, where seven Arabian horses were captured by a local chieftain.

So the sheikh crossed Arabian horses with local ponies, resulting in the original Marvar horse breed. Over several generations, this hybrid horse was continuously crossed with imported Mongolian and Turkmen horses. Through selective breeding and natural selection, the Marvar warhorse (the heart-shaped horse) that we know today was finally born.

The Marvar horse not only perfectly inherits the advantages of the Mongolian horse and the Turkmen horse, but also has excellent endurance, being resistant to cold and heat and able to run freely even on rugged mountain roads without damaging its hooves.

Moreover, because their bloodlines are selected from the best, these Marvar horses are basically born warhorses, with an average shoulder height of 1.5 meters, and some even reach 1.6 meters.

This shoulder height is far superior to the average shoulder height of the cavalry under Nie Yu's command, who are only 1.3-1.4 meters tall.

The council chamber of the Nanjing Imperial Palace.

Nie Yu is convening his cabinet ministers to discuss future plans for horse breeding.

Wang Ruoyu spoke first: "Your Majesty, since ancient times, it has always been a case of boats from the south and horses from the north. Our new Han Dynasty now has almost taken control of the south, and it is only a matter of time before we take over the remaining provinces. However, in the future northern expedition, cavalry is indispensable. But from training the cavalry to raising and stockpiling horses, it will take at least several years. We must prepare for this as soon as possible."

"Is the horse farm in Nanjing still usable?" Nie Yu asked, nodding.

Yao Hongyi said, "Although the Nanjing Horse Farm was originally a horse farm used by the Eight Banners of the puppet Qing Dynasty to graze warhorses, I have personally inspected it. The farm is now mostly abandoned, and the remaining warhorses are mostly inferior, with some even being mules. There are very few people left who know how to judge and raise horses. The area around the farm has also been encroached upon by landlords and local tyrants, making it difficult to use for large-scale grazing of warhorses."

The reason for this is obvious without even guessing: the corruption of the Eight Banners made it easier for the Han Dynasty to conquer Jiangnan, but since the Eight Banners were also corrupt, don't expect these Eight Banner horse farms to be spared.

Seeing the emperor hesitate, Lin Wenchang added, "Your Majesty, the Nanjing horse farm has been abandoned to this extent, with most of it turned into farmland. Now, our Great Han Dynasty has further divided the landowners and distributed farmland to the people. If we want to reopen the horse farm, we must first convert the farmland back to pasture and wait for the fodder to grow before we can further develop the horse farm. Moreover, an ordinary horse farm often encroaches on hundreds of acres of paddy fields. If we force its expansion, the people will surely harbor resentment."

That's for sure. If a horse farm is to be built, then plans will have to encroach on the people's paddy fields.

The Jiangnan Plain is vast, but so is its population. Once the land is divided outwards, there's not much left to build horse farms.

Of course, it's not impossible to force it; as long as you're determined, you can find any plain and fence off a piece of land to raise horses.

Nie Yu was still weighing the pros and cons in his mind. Warhorses were a must. It was still 1800, 84 years before the Maxim machine gun was invented, and 115 years before the "Little Wanderer" tank was invented.

Even in the era before machine guns and tanks, cavalry remained the dominant force in the Northern Wars. While rifled guns and mortars were quite modern, they still couldn't inflict overwhelming damage on cavalry. Cavalry was simply too mobile; the firepower of rifled guns and mortars was insufficient, and their mobility was inferior to that of cavalry.

Not only in the future Northern Expedition, but also in the conquest of the grasslands and Central Asia, cavalry will be needed as the main force.

Even with tanks, it's very difficult to get into grasslands and deserts; cavalry is the only option for warfare.

After pondering for a while, Nie Yu suddenly asked, "Can horses be raised on Jeju Island?"

"Jeju Island? What Jeju Island?" Lin Wenchang was taken aback.

Not only him, but all the other ministers were also puzzled. Did this island still exist on the southern coast?

Seeing everyone's reaction, Nie Yu realized that his question was a bit abrupt. The Qing Dynasty had long been closed off from the world, and most of its civil officials were from the inland areas, so they naturally didn't know much about overseas affairs.

Nie Yu casually took out his personal map and pointed to a small island in the lower left corner of North Korea: "This is Jeju Island. During the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, this island was captured and used as a place for raising horses and grazing for attacking Japan, while also managing Liaodong and the Korean Peninsula. Later, after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, this island was seized by Korea, and it has been several hundred years since then."

The ministers looked at Jeju Island, located in the lower left corner of Korea and very close to their Han Dynasty, and finally understood.

So this is Jeju Island. It doesn't look very big. I never imagined that it was once part of China during the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, serving as a maritime horse-breeding ground for the Mongol Yuan.

No, Jeju Island was once part of China?

Grand Secretary Liu Jun suddenly asked, "Does His Majesty intend to annex Jeju Island?"

Nie Yu said, "Jeju Island is Chinese territory. I only need Jeju Island to raise horses and fight wars."

The two reasons combined are irrefutable.

The emperor wants to wage war again, and it's a transnational war; he intends to directly annex Jeju Island of Korea.

It should be understood that Korea has always been a tributary state of China. Even though the north is still under the rule of the pseudo-Qing dynasty, the future Han dynasty will eventually launch a northern expedition.

Once the Northern Expedition conquers and destroys the puppet Qing Dynasty, Korea will become a vassal state of the new Han Dynasty. It would be distasteful for the Celestial Empire to covet the land of its vassal state.

However, the emperor's reasoning was indeed reasonable: Jeju Island was Chinese territory during the Yuan Dynasty. Although it had been occupied by Korea for hundreds of years, Chinese territory was still Chinese territory, just as Zhu Yuanzhang took over Annam and turned it into the Jiaozhi Provincial Administration Commission.

Who dares to accuse Zhu Yuanzhang of coveting a vassal state? Annam was originally Chinese territory, but it became independent and established its own state during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period when it was the military governor of Jinghai Army.

How can that be considered valid?

The reasons for recovering lost territory and launching a northern expedition to raise horses are irrefutable.

Moreover, Nie Yu also considered that setting up a horse farm in the south would definitely affect people's livelihoods, no matter where it was located, so it would be better to seize North Korea's territory to raise horses.

As expected, if Nie Yu remembered correctly, Jeju Island had been used by Joseon for centuries to exile political prisoners and raise horses. While the island might not have excellent warhorses or horse-judging experts, it certainly had herders and local people who knew how to raise horses.

Not only did Nie Yu want to raise horses on Jeju Island, he also had several other bold plans in mind!
(End of this chapter)