Can't a princess ascend the throne?

Chapter 250 Wool
"Uncle, do wild horses never come to our ranch? I heard that wild horses have a wide range of activity, shouldn't they be running around all over the grassland?"

With such a vast grassland, who knows, they might wander onto Dajing's ranch? Haven't they come over even once in all these years?

"Isn't it those cunning barbarians? They specifically stationed men at the border to drive back any wild horses that tried to charge. Those cunning bastards have no intention of letting our army's horses advance a step. I'm telling you, they're too petty. Wild horses on the grasslands are ownerless; whoever comes across them owns them. But they treat them like their own playthings. One day, I will lead my army to conquer the grasslands and bring all the fine horses under the Great Jing's command. Then, our cavalry will be more than ten times larger. With horses that suit our needs, the soldiers' fighting power will also rise to a new level..."

Hearing General Yuchi's description, Jiuque couldn't help but feel a longing. She had been at the border for quite some time now, and she hadn't yet seen the grasslands. Many people had imagined the scene of "a lone plume of smoke rising straight from the desert, and the setting sun sinking into the long river." Now that she was so close to the grasslands, she had to see them with her own eyes.

But not now. Jiu Que pulled his thoughts back, took another look at the blood-stained sheepskin, and revealed a thoughtful expression.

"So we're raising a large number of cattle and sheep ourselves?"

"Cough cough cough."

General Yuchi glanced around like a thief, and it was obvious without asking that he was feeling guilty.

"Why are you asking this? We do raise cattle and sheep, but you know how poor our Northern Frontier Army is. We can't usually eat those cattle and sheep ourselves; most of them are transported to the interior to be sold to wealthy people. Otherwise, we would have starved to death long ago if we had been waiting for the court to allocate rations and pay to us. But this is something you and I should keep to ourselves; don't tell anyone else. It's an unspoken understanding. His Majesty is always late with rations and pay, so we have to find a way for our brothers to survive. That's why, only because you came, did we have the heart to slaughter the lambs that weren't fully grown yet to make roast whole lamb. If we let them grow for another two years, they would have gained a lot of meat."

Hearing this, Jiu Que roughly understood. The northern frontier was too desolate and had no special products. Only cattle and sheep were rare commodities for wealthy people in the interior. It wasn't surprising that the northern frontier army sold cattle and sheep.

"But our northern border only has cattle and sheep. Wouldn't selling them there be a sure-fire way to make money? Why do I see that you uncles are still not very wealthy?"

Jiu Que's words were quite euphemistic. The Northern Frontier Army was not only poor, but practically dirt poor! They couldn't even afford meat, yet they raised so many cattle and sheep. What exactly was the problem?

Speaking of this, General Yuchi was heartbroken.

"Those cattle and sheep are so lively and energetic when they're in our northern border region, but they always get sick and die during the transport inland. Sigh, I transport a thousand, and three or four hundred of them die for one reason or another. It's a miracle if more than half survive. And those rich people are so picky; they only eat fresh, live sheep. It's a miracle if we don't lose money on this trip, let alone make a fortune!" "That's not right, Uncle. We have a unique commodity, so why do we have to transport our cattle and sheep all the way inland? Those rich people want fresh beef and mutton, why don't we let them buy it themselves? Besides, aren't there any caravans willing to take on this business?"

Upon hearing General Yuchi's words, Jiu Que keenly sensed that something was amiss, but to her surprise, the other party looked completely bewildered when she asked him a question.

"But we're the ones selling things, shouldn't we be the ones delivering the live cattle and sheep to them safely?"

"..."

Jiu Que finally understood why the Northern Frontier Army was so poor from top to bottom. They were simply a bunch of naive fools. It was easy to imagine how much those so-called rich people had taken advantage of them over the years.

"Uncle, you've all been fooled. That's not how business is done at all. Never mind, we'll talk about that later. What I want to know now is, how do you process the wool from these sheep? I've seen them; these are long-haired sheep. If you don't remove their long wool in the summer, they must be very uncomfortable. What do you do with the wool that's been removed?"

General Yuchi was still unaware of what had happened, and he turned to look at his strategist with a blank expression. Cui Wenhe was a complete scholar; handling military affairs and writing documents was second nature to him, but he was utterly inept at business. However, he was a clever man, and he had already sensed something amiss from Jiu Que's few words, and his expression turned serious.

Did they lose money in the mutton business from the very beginning? No wonder those inland merchants and rich people always smile like flowers whenever they see them; it turns out they made so much profit from them.
Of course, these were just Cui Wenhe's own guesses. He quickly answered Jiu Que's question. After all, this child was capable of extracting so much rations from His Majesty; he must have some extraordinary abilities. It would be great if he could receive some guidance from him.

"There's just too much wool. I've heard they make wool blankets over on the grasslands, but we're all roughnecks and don't know how to do it. It would be such a waste to just throw it away, so I decided to pile it all up in the warehouse. To be honest, Lord Ying, I've tried having the military households' families sort the wool, but it's really smelly and pungent, no matter how you process it, it still has a odor. Of course, as long as it's usable, we don't care about the smell. But the problem is that the wool is thick and coarse. Even if it's made into blankets, it'll still be thick and heavy, and the insulation won't be very good. In previous years, when it got really cold, we'd pile up the wool into small mountains and crawl inside, which would barely keep us warm. But then we couldn't move around, our mobility was too limited. I wonder what Jiu Que thinks about that wool?"

"To be honest, Strategist Cui, I do have designs on that wool. If we could spin it into yarn and then weave it into clothes, it would surely be quite warm. After all, sheep's wool helps them withstand the harsh winter winds, so why can't people wear clothes made of wool? However, this requires a certain method, and I need to conduct several experiments to confirm its feasibility. Therefore, I would like to ask Strategist Cui for some wool. I wonder if you..."

"Sure! Of course! I'll send someone to bring the wool right away. It's just sitting there anyway, and we don't even know what to do with it. Go ahead and do your experiments. Don't worry, whether it succeeds or not, everyone in the Northern Frontier Army knows you want to do something for us. Go ahead and do it!"

(End of this chapter)