Chapter 470: Giving birth to a girl named Quan
Chapter 470: Giving birth to a girl named Quan
There are ten rows of stables on the west side of the horse farm. Each stable is huge and can accommodate a thousand war horses. It is dry, comfortable and well ventilated. There are also grooms' dormitories in the distance, and more than a thousand people are responsible for taking care of ten thousand war horses.
In the stable, more than a hundred laborers were cleaning horse manure. Cartloads of horse manure were transported to the manure warehouse by the river, shipped away by boat, and finally scattered on the fertile fields on both sides of the canal.
In addition to the horse stables and manure barns, there are also hay barns and soybean meal barns. There are a large number of ships moored by the river. These ships can directly sail into the canal eighty miles to the west, and continuously transport large amounts of hay and soybean meal to the horse farm.
At this time, the ranch manager hurried over and saluted Xiao Xia, "I am honored to see your Highness!"
The ranch manager's surname is Qian. He is also a senior horse-breeding official in the Southern Dynasty and a subordinate of Wang Ji. He was hired by Xiao Xia to be the chief steward.
Xiao Xia nodded and asked, "I saw you wrote to the General Manager's Office before, listing a lot of problems. Have they been solved now?"
"Reporting to Your Highness, the problem of the overflowing manure warehouse has been solved. The General Administration Office has arranged hundreds of ships to transport manure day and night. The manure inventory is only half of what it was before. The problem of insufficient fodder can only be said to be temporarily solved, but the hidden dangers are still great."
Wang Ji further explained to Xiao Xia: "Your Highness, we can temporarily buy black beans from the Central Plains, but it is not realistic to rely entirely on the court for fodder. Last year, the court gave us 700,000 dan of fodder, and then refused to give more. During the most tense time in winter, we could only chop wheat straw into small pieces and mix it with beans and cypress to feed the horses, but this is not a long-term solution. The Jiangnan region must find a way to solve the fodder problem on its own."
Xiao Xia pondered for a moment and asked, "How much can we solve by planting a large amount of alfalfa by the riverside of the ranch?"
"It can meet half of the demand, and the remaining half can be either grown by ourselves or purchased from the court."
This is the big problem that Xiao Xia has to solve when he comes to inspect the horse farm this time. He must promote the planting of forage grass by the river on a large scale. He must also learn from the lessons of the Chen Dynasty and restrict the people from raising livestock. But if he does not allow the people to raise livestock, how many people will be willing to work hard to grow grass?
Wang Ji said, "Your Highness said before that you would arrange for the state soldiers to come here to plant black beans. In fact, there are many rivers outside the pasture. We can plant a large amount of alfalfa by the rivers. As long as we make full use of the land, I think we can completely solve the pasture problem this summer."
This is a good idea. The Legion not only grows black beans, but also grows forage grass, which can solve a big problem.
Xiao Xia nodded, "It's decided!"
After returning from the ranch, Xiao Xia did not go back home, but went back to the office first and asked his men to find Liu Wenjing to discuss.
Li Chun, the Chief of the Supervisory Commission for Crafts, had arrived, bringing with him twenty officials from the Supervisory Commission for Crafts and the Supervisory Commission for Water Conservancy. Gao Jiong took them to inspect the Jiangnan Canal.
"In the past, the Chen Dynasty sent fleets to Liaodong many times to purchase military horses and fodder. Now our 30,000 military horses are also facing the problem of insufficient fodder. I am considering whether we can repeat this scene and purchase fodder from Liaodong."
Liu Wenjing thought for a moment and said, "Your Highness, buying horses and fodder from Liaodong was something that happened at least 20 or 30 years ago. It is very difficult to do it now. First of all, who should we buy from? Secondly, what is the price? How to transport it? How long does it take to transport it from the pasture to the seaport? Are others willing to do this business? And so on.
Then there is the issue of ships. Currently, the ships that can go out to sea are basically concentrated in the ports of Jian'an County and Nanhai County. We don't have ready-made ships in Jiangdu. Military ships can be used, but they need to be repaired.
The third and most critical issue is the time issue. It takes at least two months to transfer the ship here, and it takes more time to go to Liaodong and then return, at least three or four months. It takes half a year in total.
If we start growing forage grass now, the problem can be solved in a few months. Going to Liaodong would be a far-fetched approach and may not necessarily succeed.
Liu Wenjing's words made Xiao Xia burst into laughter. The supply chain had disappeared for twenty or thirty years, so it was not easy to rebuild it.
Liu Wenjing added, "Your Highness, the truly effective method is to transport it from the imperial court. Three million dan of fodder, combined with wheat straw and bean cypress, can feed the war horses for a year. After the grain transport ship goes to Luoyang, it will just happen to be loaded with fodder. However, Your Highness needs to make a request directly to the emperor."
Xiao Xia sighed and said, "Last time the court gave us 700,000 dan of fodder, but when we asked for it again the second time, the court refused to give it to us. I guess that was the emperor's intention."
Liu Wenjing smiled and said, "Your Highness, do you know the reason?"
"what reason?"
"The court wanted our ten thousand camels, but Your Highness refused to give them to us. Because of this, the court is no longer willing to give us fodder for free."
Xiao Xia thought for a moment and said, "We don't need 10,000 camels anyway, so let's give them to the court! Otherwise, I can't ask the emperor for fodder." "I understand. I will notify the court and the camels will be sent on the road as soon as possible!"
Xiao Xia added, "One more thing. Inform the local governments that when all farmlands are fallow, they should not be left idle, but used to grow black beans. For every acre of black beans planted, the General Administration will reward 50 kilograms of horse manure fertilizer."
Xiao Xia deeply realized what it meant to raise 30,000 military horses. Raising 30,000 military horses was equivalent to raising 300,000 people. Back then, the Chen Dynasty only raised tens of thousands of horses with the whole country's strength.
This is also because Xiao Xia had so many military horses after destroying Tuyuhun. How could the Central Plains army have so many horses? The army of King Yang Ling of Qi had only 10,000 military horses, and the real war horses were at most two or three thousand.
In the afternoon, Xiao Xia returned to Prince Jin's Mansion, where they were busy cleaning up. They would move into the city next month, and this place would be transformed into the Jiangdu Palace to welcome the emperor's southern tour.
His wife Cui Yu walked forward, suddenly covered her nose, and looked at her husband in surprise.
Xiao Xia smiled bitterly and said, "I just came back from the horse farm and went into the horse manure warehouse. I must smell bad. I need to take a shower first."
Xiaoqing said quickly: "I'll go prepare a hot spring for my husband!"
Having hot springs is convenient. If we move to the city and there are no hot springs, we can only boil water to take a bath.
The hot spring was steaming. Xiaoqing helped her husband take off his clothes, then she took off her own clothes and entered the pool. After being away from home for five or six days, Xiaoxia felt a burning fire in her heart.
He simply held Xiaoqing in his arms, and Xiaoqing whispered in her husband's ear: "These two days are exactly my fertile period. I will serve my husband well at night. I am afraid I can't get pregnant here."
Xiao Xia smiled and said, "If you plant flowers with care, they won't grow, but if you plant willows without care, they will grow into shade trees. Now is the best time to get pregnant because the heat is rising. If you give birth to a daughter, her nickname will be Ah Quan."
Xiaoqing had no choice but to let the maid go out, and she reluctantly obeyed her husband.
Xiao Xia took a nice bath and spent some time with Xiao Qing lovingly. He felt relaxed both physically and mentally. He changed into clean and comfortable underwear and robe, then followed Xiao Qing to the dining hall, where Cui Yu, Zhang Qiao and the children were waiting for him.
Xiao Xia sat down comfortably and said with a smile: "The horse-raising problem has been bothering me for half a year. I tried every possible way to finally solve it. You don't know the hardship until you do it yourself. Raising 30,000 horses is equivalent to raising 300,000 people. I didn't realize it before, but now I know how difficult it is to raise horses in Jiangnan."
Cui Yu also laughed and said, "In the Jiangnan area, people mainly travel by boat. Even in Jiangdu City, people mainly travel by ox cart. It is rare to see people riding horses, and even fewer horse-drawn carriages. So far, I don't think I have seen many."
"But the army needs horses for combat. Soldiers walking on two legs is not only slow, but also consumes a lot of physical energy. When they are exhausted, once they encounter an ambush, they are basically doomed. Therefore, the army has to tighten its belt to raise horses."
At this time, the maid came in with food.
Xiao Xia then noticed that there were lanterns hanging above his head. He suddenly realized, "Is today the Lantern Festival?"
Cui Yu smiled and said, "My husband left on the tenth day and has been gone for five days. Isn't today the Lantern Festival?"
Xiao Xia asked with a smile: "Do you want to go to the city to watch the lanterns tonight?"
"No!" the three women said in unison.
Xiao Xia was stunned, "Why?"
Zhang Qiao said after a while, "I have told my wife about the assassination of the young master in Luoyang!"
Cui Yu said slowly, "When we go to the city to watch the lanterns, there will be a huge crowd. If there are assassins among the crowd, we can't hide from them. So there is a saying that you can hide from the first day, but not the fifteenth day. Today is the fifteenth day, so we should just stay at home!"
(End of this chapter)