In the era of thousands of years of human cold weapons, several empires have swept across Eurasia, and among these empires that have conquered vast areas, the Mongol Empire led by Genghis Khan is undoubtedly one of the most brilliant. The Mongol cavalry originating from the Mongolian steppe, under the leadership of Genghis Khan, almost 2/3 of the known world, and at its farthest, the Mongol cavalry even reached the Rhine River in Europe.
The Mongol cavalry used their great feats to explain what it meant to be invincible and invincible. Why were the Mongols able to create such an iron horse that shook Eurasia in a short period of time? The fundamental reason for this is that they were born "horsemen", and every Mongol was the best cavalryman. In the eyes of the Mongols, who lived in the Mongolian steppes, horses are more important than everything, which is the fundamental source of their wealth creation.
mare
However, in the ranks of the Mongol cavalry, there is a phenomenon that is puzzling, obviously the physically strong stallion is the weapon of war, why do the Mongol cavalry have to bring a large number of mares with them when they go around to fight? In fact, this is related to the historical tradition of the Mongol nation, and a Mongolian scholar once said that they "grow on horseback and on horseback", not only because horses are their means of transportation, but also because horses can provide mongolians with horse meat, fur, and horse milk. In military warfare, stallions were mainly used for combat, and these large numbers of accompanying mares naturally became an important source of daily needs for the Mongol cavalry.
Mongol cavalry
According to the "History of the Yuan", "The milk of a horse can fill three people." Only drink horse milk, or slaughter cattle and sheep for food. It can be seen that the Mongol cavalry carried a large number of mares with them, which could solve the food problems of the soldiers very well. What's more, the biggest advantage of mares is that they can produce milk for a long time, and at the same time have rich nutrition, these accompanying mares can replenish energy and provide nutrition for soldiers who consume huge amounts of money anytime and anywhere.
In this way, the soldiers were equivalent to taking the mobile food warehouse with them, and once the grain and grass were insufficient or the grain and grass were invaded by the enemy, the Mongol cavalry did not have to worry about the grain and grass problem; not only that, the horse milk was at the disposal of food, which made the Mongol cavalry not need to stop and camp and cook on fire like other teams, so the Mongol cavalry marched very fast, which was also an important reason why they swept through the entire Eurasian continent in a short period of time.
Milking horses
As a nomadic Mongolian, in order to adapt to the life of migrating around in the steppe, they rely on high-calorie, nutritious, easy-to-carry and preserved food to ensure the basic life, simple cheese production process naturally becomes a necessary traditional craft for every Mongolian, when the horse milk is surplus, it can be used to make cheese.
When the Mongol cavalry encountered the extreme environment of running out of ammunition, the mare, which was not strong in combat, could also be eaten as meat to make up for the strength of the Mongol army; those stallions could be retained and continue to fight side by side with the Mongol cavalry. Imagine if the Mongol cavalry had not been accompanied by these mares, and they would have been easily left with almost no logistical supplies.
Finally, the mare also has an important function of carrying goods. Since the stallion is a fighting horse, most of the heavy loads are given to the mare to carry to ensure the fighting power of the stallion on the battlefield. In this way, it is more convenient for the entire Mongol cavalry to advance and retreat during combat, such as the Mongol cavalry being described as fast as lightning and coming and going as the wind, in fact, this is the silent contribution of the mare behind the Mongol cavalry.