Chapter 628 Grassland becomes desert (please vote and subscribe)
If you want to restrict the movement of herdsmen and stop them from nomadic, you must first solve the problem of livestock eating grass. At this time, it would be perfect if there is silage or silage, but this seemingly simple thing is as difficult as ascending to heaven for this era.
Silage refers to the fermentation of rice, corn stalks or melon vines and other green plants to delay their decay process and increase storage time, so that in the season without grass, it can also meet the needs of livestock.
The biggest technical difficulty here is not to crush the stalks, which can be done with a guillotine, but it is just a matter of efficiency; nor is there a suitable fermentation agent. Silage requires a large amount of lactic acid bacteria for fermentation. Although the Han tribe does not have this technology now, the herdsmen are born with it. They have been making cheese for a long time. What is cheese? It is the product of lactic acid bacteria fermentation. The Han tribe now has the technology to make wine and wine koji, so it must not be difficult to study a kind of "grass koji" from cheese.
But the most important thing is the sealing problem during fermentation. This is definitely not a difficult task in modern times. Large pieces of plastic cloth are used for cellar storage, and plastic film can be used for packaging. But where can the Han tribe get plastic to isolate the air now?
Luo Chong thought for a long time, but he didn't come up with any good ideas. Use oilcloth and oil paper? Those things can't completely isolate the air, and they can barely prevent water. Use iron barrels to hold silage? This meets the conditions of completely isolating the air, so you can try it, but the production of iron barrels is too difficult, and silage is a large amount of consumables. The cost of using it to hold grass is too high, so don't use it if you can.
Basically, don't consider animal skin bags. There are not so many, and they are too luxurious.
After thinking for a long time, Luo Chong finally remembered the Eucommia forest northwest of Fuma Pass. He had thought about developing the Eucommia forest a long time ago, but that was also intended to be used to make hard plastic or elastic rubber. Eucommia gum, a special rubber, has the dual characteristics of plastic and rubber. It is hard plastic below 60℃, just like a plastic basin, and becomes elastic rubber above 60℃. It is generally used to make aircraft tires in modern times.
However, no one has ever made plastic cloth with Eucommia gum. Luo Chong doesn't know whether the Han tribe can make it. This requires repeated experiments to verify.
But in any case, without plastic cloth, silage cannot be made this year, so the problem of wintering in Qianyang tribe still needs to be solved in advance.
Luo Chong first visited the herdsmen's homes, one to meet them and get familiar with each other, and the other because he wanted to know more about the herdsmen here, which would be of great help in both management and combat.
He followed Ying Rui, and there were several carriages behind him, loaded with many gifts. Every time he arrived at a tent, Luo Chong would call the whole family up, let Ying Rui register their household registration, and then give them an iron pot, a spoon, and a palm-length short knife for them to cut meat for consumption.
At first, Ying Rui opposed this matter, but Luo Chong thought that there was no need to be so defensive against them. Can a family rebel with just a fruit knife? If they really wanted to rebel, wouldn't the bows and arrows on their bodies be more useful? What is called "raising the pole"? That is, you can rebel with a stick or a bamboo pole. It has little to do with whether there is ironware or not. The important thing is to look at the ruling method.
When the Han tribe first came into contact with the Qianyang tribe, their population was less than 2,000, but after a few years of development, it has become a large tribe with more than 2,000 people. But for such a tribe, who would have thought that they were still using stone knives to cut meat, which was almost the same as tearing it with their hands. Therefore, Luo Chong's giving them sharp knives now would only win their gratitude, so how could they rebel?
And even the Han tribe headquarters is the same. Luo Chong has never issued any ban on weapons. Every household has iron spears. Although there are no crossbows, longbows are not prohibited. They are easy to make. It takes two hours to sharpen one. There are a lot of people in the public. If you have money, you can even go to the blacksmith shop to customize the sword. As long as you use it yourself, don't smuggle it outside.
The reason for doing this is not only because Luo Chong is confident that no one will rebel against him, but also for the safety of the people. You must know that the Han tribe is a new tribe. Every year, a large number of wild people who rely on hunting for life join. If you ask them to change hunting to farming and give up all their weapons, they can't get used to it all at once.
Besides, the Han tribe has to open up a large area of farmland every year, and these farmlands are obtained by squeezing the living space of wild beasts. It is also common to encounter wild beasts while doing farm work. Not to mention the Han tribe in this era, even when my country was founded, wild tigers often entered the village and injured people.
So in the Han tribe, don't be surprised if you see a group of farmers carrying hoes, bows and arrows, and swords on their waists to weed in the morning. They are all for self-defense. It's better in places that have been developed for several years. The more newly established counties in the Han tribe, the less rare it is for oxen to be attacked by wild beasts when they are reclaiming wasteland. In places like this, when cultivating land, they usually arrange several neighbors to patrol the surrounding area with weapons. Farming is like fighting a war.
Sure enough, after receiving a knife, each household was very happy. Many herdsmen women and children took out cheese or dried meat to give to Luo Chong, but he just tasted it.
The cheese and dried meat of the herdsmen are as precious as the food of the farmers, and even more important. The farmers have a hard life, so the herdsmen can only suffer more. Farmers at least have a fixed home, but herdsmen can only wander around chasing water and grass. How can Luo Chong eat and drink their food?
However, Luo Chong did not miss this learning opportunity. He focused on investigating the population composition of each herdsman's family, how many people were in a family, what their relationship was, how many cattle, horses and sheep such a family needed to meet the daily food expenses, how many were considered rich, in which season would there be more and less, such as fifty sheep, ten cattle, twenty horses, how much pasture was needed for so many livestock to feed them every day, at what level would they move to another place, etc.
These things may seem insignificant, but they are very useful for understanding and managing them, including the herdsmen's wars. They don't have any military supplies, and even if they fight, they drive cattle and sheep to fight. Those cattle and sheep are their military rations. If they are really hungry, they will even eat war horses.
In addition, there are breeds of cattle, horses and sheep, etc. Although there are no artificially improved breeds at this time, the herdsmen who have been raising livestock for a long time have summed up their own experience. Ling Feng is very proficient in this and gave Luo Chong some very important suggestions.
"Chief, do you see any characteristics of the sheep they are grazing?"
"Characteristics?" Luo Chong looked at Ling Feng in confusion. Seeing him nod, he began to observe the sheep carefully again. This time, he really saw something.
"Well, there are two kinds of sheep in this flock, goats and sheep. There are black-headed sheep and pure white sheep. The black-headed sheep have a thicker body, and the white-haired goats have longer hair. They look different, so there should be three varieties in total, right?" Luo Chong asked tentatively after looking for a while.
"Yes, the chief is still amazing. He can tell that there are three kinds at a glance. But do you know what the characteristics of these three kinds of sheep are?" Ling Feng continued to ask.
Luo Chong thought to himself, how would I know? I'm not a shepherd, so he shook his head and motioned for him to speak directly.
"Chief, this black-headed sheep is sturdy and eats as much as other sheep, but it weighs the most, so it is the main source of meat for herders, and this kind of sheep is also good at producing milk." Ling Feng introduced immediately.
"Oh, you mean this black-headed sheep is used to provide food for herders?" Luo Chong said with sudden enlightenment.
"That's right. The white-haired goat doesn't have any outstanding advantages, but its fur is the most beautiful. Therefore, herders often raise a few of them at home, specifically for skinning and making clothes.
The last type of sheep is very common and has the largest number of sheep. Sheep wool is also the main raw material for herders to make felt, so it accounts for a large proportion.
But these are not the most important. Based on my many years of personal experience in herding, these three breeds can only be roughly divided into two categories." Ling Feng continued to introduce other breeds to Luo Chong.
"Which two categories? Goats and sheep? Is there a big difference?" Luo Chong asked puzzled.
"It's really a big difference. I personally think that if the leader really wants the Han tribe to control the grassland, he must do his best to promote sheep breeding to herders. The smaller the proportion of goats, the better." Ling Feng looked at Luo Chong with a very serious expression and said.
"Why?" Luo Chong saw that he was so serious, and he couldn't help but take it seriously. Is there such a big difference between a goat and a sheep?
"Chief, these goats are easy to raise, can tolerate roughage, and are not picky eaters. However, the land that goats have gnawed on will become a dead land. They often eat the grass roots together when they graze. When the grass is reduced in winter, these goats will even gnaw on tree bark. Often, after a piece of grassland is gnawed by goats, there will be no grass left.
Although sheep are picky about grass, and do not like to gnaw on tree bark and shrubs, and have poor environmental adaptability, they only eat the part on the ground when they graze. New grass will grow on the grassland that they have gnawed in a short time. Therefore, although sheep are picky eaters, they still account for a large proportion of the flock.
I personally think that if the chief wants to occupy the grassland stably for a long time, then sustainable and stable development is the most important, so it is necessary to encourage herders to raise more sheep and fewer goats, or even not raise any goats.
Chief, don't think it's an exaggeration. According to my personal experience, a piece of grassland that I saw in the west when I was a child has been gnawed into a desert by sheep for only a few years." Ling Feng explained again.
Luo Chong opened his mouth in surprise after hearing this. Damn, this goat is so powerful that it even eats grass roots and tree barks. It really destroys the ecological environment. If it is allowed to continue to graze indiscriminately, will this large grassland become a desert in the future?
If you think about it carefully, it is very likely. Why did the nomads in the previous life live on the edge of the desert, and the grasslands were inseparable from the desert? Is it because of grazing that the grasslands are desertified, or is it that nature arranged it this way? But the latitudes of the three northeastern provinces and Inner Mongolia are almost the same, so why is there a primitive forest of the Greater Khingan Range on one side and a grassland and Gobi desert with sparse surface plants on the other side?
However, Luo Chong is more willing to believe that grazing leads to grassland desertification. Cutting down trees can cause soil erosion, so won't eating grass cause grassland desertification?
Thinking about it this way, it is really necessary to vigorously promote sheep that do not eat grass roots and tree barks. As Ling Feng said, stable and sustainable development is more conducive to the long-term control of the Han tribe.
Luo Chong thought of more at this time. Yes, he actually forgot to protect the ecological environment. If Ling Feng hadn't reminded him, he would have almost forgotten it.
Then he heard him say, "Ling Feng, you are right. We should not only encourage sheep breeding, but also take the initiative to improve the ecological environment. We should plant alfalfa, sweet elephant grass, barley grass, ryegrass and other high-quality forage grasses on the existing grasslands. Then we should restrict them to a certain grassland by registering households. Each household can divide its grassland into several small areas and graze them in a rotational grazing manner. We can use limited grassland to raise more livestock, so as to improve the economic income and level of herders, and improve the ecological environment of the grassland."
Ling Feng was very happy to see that Luo Chong accepted his opinion, and he quickly bowed and said, "The leader is very thoughtful. This will not only achieve sustainable development, but also make the herders more grateful to us. But there is still a problem here. I don't know how the leader will solve it?"
"What problem?" Luo Chong asked again.
"It's about how the leader promotes sheep. Goats are the main source of milk and meat for herders. It's unrealistic for the leader to stop them from raising goats." Ling Feng said with a worried look on his face.
Luo Chong nodded, "It is of course unrealistic to stop them from raising sheep directly, but you can indirectly raise the price of sheep. The herders and our city dwellers also need to come into contact, and they also need to sell sheep to us in exchange for some daily necessities.
At this time, we should not only raise the price of purchasing sheep, but also refuse to accept goats, so that they know that there is no way out of raising goats, and only raising sheep can exchange things with us. In this way, they will know what kind of sheep to raise without us promoting it.
In addition, there is the problem of food shortage caused by the reduction in the proportion of goats that you are worried about. This is even less of a problem. If there are fewer goats, can't we raise more cattle and sheep? Just increase the proportion of other breeds in the herd, and even let them do half farming and half grazing. Even if they can't grow much food, it can be used as a food supplement in emergency periods."
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I dedicate a book to a friend, "The Negative Hero",
an adventure story about a brave girl who is plagued by misfortune and meets a pseudo-uncle with a negative personality. The content is light-hearted, and you can go and have a look if you are interested.
(End of this chapter)
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