1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 676 The Development of Hanzhou Animal Husbandry
On June 6, Songcheng (now Katherine, Australia).

"These seven or eight sheep were brought back from Europa, which is tens of thousands of miles away. You have to take good care of them, and don't cause any losses due to slack and negligence!" Several officials from the Animal Husbandry Department of the Ministry of Agriculture looked at the few Barbary sheep. The merino sheep brought by the pirates happily ate the grass on the ground, and solemnly said to the pasture manager: "The adaptation and growth of the sheep must be carefully observed and recorded in detail. In ten days, I will wait Check back."

A few years ago, when the Qi State was trading with the Barbary pirates, it proposed to them that they should try to introduce Merino sheep produced in Spain, and the price was also very high.

Although I don't know why these Hanzhou people are interested in the Spanish sheep, but given the undeniable price offered by Hanzhou, the Barbary pirates still took over the business.It was nothing more than taking some white slaves and a few sheep when they robbed the coastal towns of Spain.The only trouble they have is probably how to avoid the death of sheep when crossing tens of thousands of miles of sea.

Unexpectedly, the sheep brought in from Spain "by hand" for several consecutive years were rejected by the Hanzhou people, saying that they violated professionalism and used some ordinary sheep to make up the number to fool and deceive the Hanzhou people.This made the Barbary pirates very annoyed. The sheep they sent were obviously "led" from Spain, and they finally went through many twists and turns and traveled across thousands of mountains and rivers to send them to you, but they were even questioned. Professional ethics!
However, after the Barbary pirates seriously inquired about the situation of Spanish merino sheep in Europe, they suddenly became a little uneasy.

Merino sheep are regarded as a national treasure in Spain, and any form of export is prohibited. Anyone who takes Merino sheep out of the Spanish border will be convicted—sentenced to hang.Because Merino sheep have higher cashmere production than ordinary sheep, the wool density is also high, and the fineness is uniform, white oil sweat, good color and soft.Wool is one of the few Spanish local products that can be exported in exchange for "foreign exchange", and it is one of the most important raw materials for the European wool market.

This kind of sheep, which is most valued by the Spaniards, naturally does not appear near the coast. It is generally located in the pastures and woodlands of inland mountainous and hilly areas, and belongs to large farmers.

Perhaps to prove their professionalism, or to demonstrate the prestige of the Barbary pirates, during a certain Spanish "hunt", the daring Moors launched a raid deep inland.Landed from Almeria, invaded more than 30 kilometers into the hinterland of Spain, destroyed several towns and farms, kidnapped more than 300 people, and robbed more than [-] livestock (only), which shocked the whole of Spain.

It was through this raid that the brave Barbary pirates finally obtained dozens of real merino sheep, and then packed them all together, and shipped them to Hanzhou together with the handover female slaves.

In fact, Qi Tian is the only person who can truly distinguish the breed of Merino sheep in Hanzhou, and that is because he saw tens of thousands of Australian Merino sheep when he visited Australia in his previous life, and for this reason The kingdom on the back of the sheep is amazed.You must know that Australia once set a historical record of 1.74 million sheep, and its annual wool production reached 100 million tons, accounting for more than one-third of the world's wool production.

At present, the number of all kinds of local sheep in Hanzhou has only exceeded 20, which can barely maintain the processing and production capacity of Kaiyuan Wool Mill for a year.

However, the Hanzhou Continent has unique animal husbandry conditions, and the explosive growth of the number of sheep in herd is also a matter of course.The terrain of Hanzhou is flat, the grassland area is vast, and the sunshine is abundant, which is conducive to the growth of grassland.

What's even more rare is that the population of the Hanzhou mainland is still very small. Except for nearly 50 Han people, the rest are the ignorant and backward hundreds of thousands of Hanzhou natives. There is no conflict between people and land, and naturally there will be no British The enclosure movement where sheep cannibalize people in history.

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On June 6, along the Song River (now Catherine River, Australia).

Thousands of cows, horses, and sheep lined up near the river beach, with their heads down, drinking the river water non-stop. More than a dozen herdsmen on horseback, waving whips in their hands, kept galloping their horses near the river beach Benz, blowing the horn in his hand from time to time.

There are tens of thousands of crocodiles living near the beach along the Song River. If you don't make the noise a little louder to scare away these stealing crocodiles, maybe they will take advantage of the time when the cattle and sheep are drinking water, and quickly kill them. Drag it into the depths of the river beach and have a full meal.

Songcheng is located in the transitional area between the northern forest and the desert. The woodland has gradually become scarce after arriving here, but the area of ​​the grassland has expanded accordingly, and the growth is extremely lush. In addition, the climate is dry and the sunshine is strong, which naturally becomes the best grassland. pasture.There are more than a dozen government-run pastures, large and small, in this area, which raise no less than [-] livestock. It is one of the most important livestock bases in northern Hanzhou.

A group of children who were herding sheep nearby looked up one by one, watching the herdsmen riding tall horses, galloping back and forth, all with envious expressions on their faces.

"Want to ride?" A bearded herdsman pulled the rein in his hand vigorously, the horse's front hooves were raised high, and then it stomped heavily on the soft river beach.

A few bold children nodded immediately, with longing in their eyes.

"Haha..." The herdsman laughed loudly, stretched out a hand, took a child's arm, and pulled him on the horse's back, "I will take you for a walk and experience some horses from India. Heroes!"

"Pan Laosan, don't you want to throw the other's child, be careful that I'm looking for you desperately!" Several herdsmen shouted with a smile.

"I have been riding a horse for so many years, when was I thrown off?" The herdsman tapped the horse's belly lightly with his legs and began to increase the speed of the horse, "I just can't stand the restraint of the army, otherwise , I have already been promoted and made a fortune in the cavalry regiment!... Drive!"

Several children looked sideways at the horse galloping out, their eyes were full of excitement, and then turned their heads to look at the other herdsmen on horseback.

"Not one of them has grown all their hair, but they are quite courageous!" Seeing the eager eyes of several children, the herdsmen couldn't help but smile.

While the herdsmen were playing with a dozen children by the river, several villagers came up to them with donkeys, licked their faces, and begged the herdsmen to allow them to use their female donkeys in heat to breed with the male horses in the herd.

At present, the number of horses owned in Hanzhou is close to [-]. However, in terms of local transportation, horses can be mainly used for pulling carts. Generally, only the government and small-scale trading companies and workshops have this ability. Financial resources can be used.In private individual transportation, the riding or carting tools chosen by ordinary people are a large number of donkeys and mules.

Because, compared with horses, donkeys have a very strong ability to survive, and they are not very picky about forage, and they don’t need to prepare special grains for feeding, such as some straw, roadside weeds, sweet potato vines, and soybean straw. It fills the stomach.Therefore, its survivability is very strong, and it is precisely because of this that they seldom get sick, and their average life expectancy can reach about 25-30 years old.

But horses are different, they seem to be a little high above the ground. In addition to pasture, they also need to prepare special grains, bean cakes and other supplementary food for feeding, otherwise they will easily get sick.It is precisely because of this that their life span is much shorter than that of donkeys, and they generally belong to old horses when they are 16 years old.

Ordinary families can't afford horses, and only some wealthy families will raise horses. After all, the cost of raising horses is very high, and they are not easy to raise, and they are easy to get sick.

Therefore, in the villages of Hanzhou, people prefer to raise donkeys. After all, they are easy to raise, and they can also help with work, which can also reduce the cost of breeding for farmers.

What's even more rare is that the donkey meat obtained after the donkey is slaughtered is a very delicious delicacy. Some people even use the phrase "dragon meat in the sky, donkey meat in the ground" to express their love for donkey meat.However, horse meat is slightly sour and chewy, and the taste is far worse.There is a common saying in the folks that "horse meat smells bad, but donkey meat smells good. If you starve to death, you will not eat snail meat."

In addition, donkey skin can also be made into leather, which has high medicinal value and is also the raw material of the precious Chinese medicine "Ejiao".

As for mules, though sterile, they cannot reproduce themselves.But mules have higher stamina. They are neither as precious as horses nor as fragile as donkeys. They also combine all the advantages of horses and donkeys, such as good disease resistance, strong explosive power, and tall stature.

Moreover, the mule has a long lifespan, and its service life can be extended, and it can eat with relish as long as it is fed with some corn kernels or wheat stalks.Perhaps because it is a hybrid, the mule has a calm personality, no matter what kind of dirty work it has, it can do it very well.Mules are powerful enough to push and grind plowed fields.

Therefore, in the countryside of Hanzhou, donkeys, mules and cattle are the most common tools of labor and transportation.Some villagers who own donkeys hope to use the horses in the government-run ranch to produce some mules for themselves, which can then be sold at a higher price than donkeys.

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It was already dark, and Sun Chengjie was carrying a hoe, holding a bundle of firewood in his left hand, and drove seven sheep towards the village with a tiger face.Behind him was a six-year-old eldest and a five-year-old second, their faces and heads covered with grass leaves and plaster.The eldest was still sobbing softly, holding his younger sister's hand and following closely behind his father.

After a busy day in the farmland, I should have come home with a very relaxed mood and had a delicious dinner.However, the eldest brother who took his younger sister to herd sheep in the nearby grassland lost two sheep because of greed, which made Sun Chengjie very angry.Taking advantage of the afterglow of twilight, I searched around the pastures and forests, but did not find the lost sheep.

In a fit of anger, he slapped his son. What a prodigal son. Seeing that the sheep shearing season was coming in August and September, he let the playful child lose two sheep.Maybe it was picked up by a thylacine that was infested nearby, or it strayed into a river beach swamp and was dragged into the water by a crocodile.This is not a sudden loss of two or three dollars!

Nine years ago (1643), Sun Chengjie was one of the thousands of thieves in the Ming Dynasty. Because he was scattered by the army, he fled in panic all the way, ran to the vicinity of the canal, and became a refugee again.However, when Jiannu entered the customs and looted, they ravaged Hebei and Shandong, and the soldiers pointed directly at the Jiaoxi area.He continued to run east again, and when he arrived in Penglai, he met Hanzhou people.In order not to starve to death, he took a piece of pancake and boarded the boat.

After three years of service in Mintun, the local government granted him [-] mu of land (requires crop rotation and fallow), including [-] mu of paddy field, [-] mu of dry land, and [-] mu of slope land near the mountains and forests. They were also assigned an adobe house, and received farm tools and seeds.However, for this, he also owed a debt to the government.

In less than half a year, they waited for the government to distribute Annan's daughter-in-law. In this way, they have a family, a family, a house and a field, and they have really taken root and settled down in the mainland of Hanzhou.

Three years ago, I saw that more and more farmers in the village borrowed sheep from the government. After shearing the wool every August and September, they sold it to the purchasers in the city for some cash, which was really enviable.So, as soon as Sun Chengjie gritted his teeth, he also borrowed three sheep from the officials in the village to increase the family's income.

After staying in the mainland of Hanzhou for several years, I found that the government here is not as vicious as that of Ming Dynasty. Although the various agricultural tax withdrawals are not much less than those of Daming, there are no additional apportionments and levies. The burden of farming is still Much lighter than Daming.

In addition, he also found that even if he owed the government for farm tools, seeds and animal power, he would not be violently urged by the government every year.If there is a natural disaster or family difficulties make ends meet, as long as the village proves it, the debt will be partially reduced or the repayment will be postponed.

Since the government is sympathetic, why not grab the government's wool like this.If you raise sheep and make money, it will naturally add extra income to the family, which will improve the family's life to some extent.

"Why are you back so late?" Sun Chengjie's Annan's wife, Ruan Shi, asked with concern while holding her child who was under one year old.

"The little bastard lost two of the sheep!" Sun Chengjie said in a sullen voice, "After leaving the field, I went to the nearby pastures and forests to search around, and I wasted my time."

"Have you found it?" Ruan Shi glanced at the slap mark on his son's face covered in tears and dirt, feeling a little distressed in his heart.

"I don't know when it was lost, how can I find it?" Sun Chengjie sighed softly, "It was probably eaten by a thylacine in the wild. It's a pity."

"Today evening, the book office of the village came to the house to count the situation of the family members, and said that it was going to arrange for children over six years old to go to school." Ruan said softly.

"Ah, you're going to school?" Sun Chengjie couldn't help being taken aback, and looked back at his boss, "The boss is going to school, who will keep the sheep at home? Which sister will take it?"

"There is a trusteeship service for collective sheep herding in the village. My sister is so old, I can take care of it." Ruan said with a smile: "The boss's admission to school is not only an official regulation, but also a major event related to his life. .Maybe in the future, there will be promising future."

"If a sheep can lose the sheep, what's the future?" Sun Chengjie agreed with his wife's statement in his heart, but he still said disdainfully: "Okay, after entering school, at least I can read some words and learn some knowledge. ... Sigh, I entrusted the village to herd the sheep collectively, and I don’t know that those people don’t care about it, don’t lose the fat and hair of the sheep at home, it will affect our income.”

"Do you think so?" Ruan called the two children to wash their hands and prepare to eat, "At least we have to pay them money every month."

"It's not my own animal, so it probably doesn't pay attention....Let's take a look." Sun Chengjie saw that the two children had already picked up a cornbread with one hand and started to chew it. He couldn't help swallowing, and his stomach immediately growled. stand up.

(End of this chapter)