Chapter 469: Inspecting the Horse Farm

Chapter 469: Inspecting the Horse Farm

Chapter 469: Inspecting the Horse Farm
On the tenth day of the first lunar month, Xiao Xia, accompanied by a dozen officials from the Horse Administration Bureau, came to the horse farm in Jiangdu County for an inspection.

The population of Jiangdu County is mainly concentrated on both sides of the canal, and the population in the west and east has decreased significantly.

Last year, Xiao Xia's most urgent matter was not the salt administration, but raising horses and camels. He brought back 30,000 military horses and 10,000 camels from Hexi and Longyou.

How to feed 10,000 camels for 30,000 military horses is a big issue. Camels are easy to feed, as they can be fed with young leaves and wheat straw. The key is the war horses.

The imperial court has supported them with 700,000 dan of high-quality forage. Of course, the imperial court can continue to support them with forage, but once war breaks out and the transportation routes are cut off, what should they do?
Xiao Xia has been thinking about this issue for the past few months. He must find a way to solve the survival problem of 30,000 military horses.

Can horses be raised in the Central Plains? Of course they can, and it is even more suitable than the frontier areas. Historically, the Mongols enclosed a large number of pastures in the Central Plains. Both the Song Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty implemented horse policies in the Central Plains. Facts have proved that the horses raised in the Central Plains are fatter and stronger than those in the frontier areas. But why did they fail in the end?
Because this seriously violates the economic laws. A dozen acres of land with intensive cultivation can feed a family of three, but a dozen acres of land used to raise horses cannot even feed a single person. It is obvious that growing grain is more profitable, so how many people are willing to grow grass and raise horses?
Military horses are divided into two types: war horses and ordinary horses. War horses are high-quality horses that can charge into battle, while ordinary horses are riding horses, such as the power horses used by infantry.

The cost of raising these two types of horses is completely different. Although ordinary horses eat a lot, eating an average of twelve pounds a day, it is basically grass, with a little bit of bean feed at most.

War horses not only eat grass, but also food. They eat at least five kilograms of food a day. This is how much food ordinary people can eat in a day.

Later it was discovered that black beans are easier for horses to digest. Black beans can be pressed for oil first, and the remaining bean dregs are nutritious and easy to fatten. In particular, growing black beans can fertilize the land, which is more economical than feeding war horses with wheat. After the Han Dynasty, black beans began to be promoted on a large scale.

But even so, raising a war horse is very difficult.

Even if the grassland herders raise war horses, it will still be a loss. Although the grass on the grassland is of good quality and ordinary horses can just eat grass, war horses are different. They must eat concentrated feed.

On the grassland, every citizen is a soldier, and every family must raise at least one war horse. However, the farming conditions on the grassland are not good, and the concentrated feed for war horses is generally things like wheat bran and beans, which are obtained from the Central Plains and other regions through mutual trade. They are quite valuable items, and the herders cannot afford to raise more war horses even if they want to.

Why did the Hu cavalry go south to rob food? Not only for themselves, but also to feed their horses. After a great battle, all the food was looted, and the Central Plains was filled with starving people.

Therefore, raising military horses requires a large amount of land to grow forage and food. The implementation of horse policy in the Central Plains will inevitably lead to competition for land between people and horses.

Once horses and people competed for land, except for the violent promotion of horse breeding like in the Yuan Dynasty, the Song and Ming dynasties were of course people-oriented, and horse policies would ultimately end in failure.

If Xiao Xia wanted to raise horses in Jiangnan, he had to find another way. Xiao Xia specifically asked how the Southern Dynasty solved this problem. It turned out that the Southern Dynasty's horse policy was very simple. The Southern Dynasty itself did not produce horses, but the South used various channels to buy horses, such as buying horses from Liaodong by sea, buying horses from Hexi through the Sichuan-Gansu trade, and purchasing forage grass, combined with the black beans produced in the South. At its peak, the South had tens of thousands of military horses.

Xiao Xia now has a great advantage over the Southern Dynasty, that is, he owns Jiangdu County. There is not much flat land in the south to build horse farms, and the horses are mainly raised in captivity, resulting in low quality of war horses.

Jiangdu County can solve this problem. To the east of Jiangdu is an endless plain. As long as the feed and clean water needed for war horses are provided, Jiangdu can raise horses.

Of course, it is not a place close to the sea, where the salt content is extremely high. Too high salt content will affect the health of war horses. It must be about a hundred miles away from the sea, where the salt content of the land is not high, there are many small rivers, and the river water is clear and can be drunk by humans and animals. There are large tracts of flat land. Xiao Xia initially considered this place as a military settlement, but finally decided to use it to raise horses, camels,

You may wonder why there is not much population in such a large flat area with sufficient sunlight and water resources? The answer is actually very simple. This is Jianghuai. Since ancient times, the north and the south have been in confrontation, and Jianghuai has been a battlefield. There will not be many people in a war-torn area, especially after 300 years of confrontation between the north and the south. Jianghuai has long become a ghost town.

"Your Highness, black beans can be grown on a large scale here!" an official exclaimed.

Xiao Xia nodded, "That's what I was thinking. Since the soldiers from Jiangnan are not good at fighting, let them be responsible for farming and military settlements. Plant a large amount of black beans in this area to completely solve the feed problem. After the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, we will start to gather some soldiers to go north to reclaim land."

"What should we do now? Should we buy it?" "For now, we can only buy it!"

At this time, Wang Ji, the head of the Horse Administration Bureau, said, "Your Highness, I have another suggestion!"

"Tell me! What suggestions do you have?"

Wang Ji was the Horse Supervisor of the Chen Dynasty. He was from Piling County and had rich experience in horse breeding. Xiao Lin specially recommended him to Xiao Xia.

"Your Highness, in the past, the Chen Dynasty raised horses in pens, and the large amount of horse manure was a treasure that farmers fought over. Later, the horse supervisor implemented a policy to exchange grass for manure, and farmers planted a large amount of forage grass on the riverside. This policy was very effective at the beginning. It was implemented for three years, and during these three years, the Chen Dynasty did not buy forage grass from Liaodong again."

"Why wasn't it implemented later?" Xiao Xia asked again.

Wang Ji smiled bitterly and said, "Because there are fewer and fewer war horses, horse manure has also decreased significantly, but this is not the main reason. The reason is that farmers have found that raising sheep is more economical. Raising sheep with grass and using sheep manure to fertilize the land, it is no longer feasible to exchange grass for fertilizer."

Xiao Xia nodded, "Are you still growing pasture grass now?"

"Your Highness, you will know if you go and take a look. The largest number of sheep are found in Piling County and Wu County, especially around Lake Tai, which is full of pasture. There are many sheep farmers, and the sheep from Lake Tai are also the most famous."

Xiao Xia pondered for a moment and said, "This is actually a good idea. Replace the weeds along the river with fodder grass and vigorously develop animal husbandry."

Wang Ji smiled and said, "Wujun and Pilingjun have this tradition. Therefore, Wujun's sheep and Piling's cattle have been famous since ancient times. Other places do not have this tradition. They need the guidance of the government and the hard work of the people. I think the prosperity of the Jiangnan region is mainly due to the hard work of the people."

Xiao Xia said happily: "I brought back a lot of alfalfa seeds from Hexi. This is the best quality forage grass and is just right for promotion in the Jiangnan region."

The group headed north and soon arrived at the first horse farm. The farm was a hundred miles in radius and was dedicated to raising war horses, with the best conditions.

There are 10,000 war horses raised here. There is a river at the center, and both sides of the river are planted with alfalfa. The flowers have taken root and sprouted, but have not turned green yet. The ice and snow have melted.

At this time, a large group of war horses galloped over from the distance, there were thousands of them, with terrifying momentum. Hundreds of horse breeders rode on horseback on both sides to control them.

Wang Ji smiled and said to Xiao Xia: "Your Highness, we have a total of five ranches like this, and a cavalry training ground. They extend from Hailing County in the south to the Huai River in the north, spread over such a vast land. I didn't expect that there would be such a good horse farm in the coastal area."

"Are there any farmers here?" Xiao Xia asked.

“Of course there are. The General Administration Office relocated many villages before, mainly to the banks of the canal. At our request, several thousand farmers remained and were responsible for growing pasture and raising horses for us.

Starting this year, they began to grow black beans, and the General Administration Office gave them subsidies of three strings of cash per household per month. In addition, they raised horses, removed manure, and grew alfalfa, so each household must have earned sixty strings of cash a year.

In fact, the government will not lose money. The oil extracted from the black beans last year was enough to compensate for their subsidies. This year, the Horse Administration will increase the purchase price of black beans, so the subsidies will not be given, but they actually earn more. "

(End of this chapter)