June 5, Songcheng (now Katherine, Australia).

"These seven or eight sheep are brought back from Europe, which is tens of thousands of miles away. You must take good care of them and don't cause any losses due to slackness and negligence!" Several officials from the Animal Husbandry Department of the Ministry of Agriculture looked at the Barbary animals.

The Merino sheep brought by the pirates happily gnawed the green grass on the ground, and solemnly said to the ranch steward: "The sheep's adaptation and growth must be carefully observed and recorded in detail. I will wait for ten days."

Check back again.”

A few years ago, when Qi was trading with the Barbary pirates, they 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 were interested in Spanish sheep, given that Hanzhou offered an irresistible price, the Barbary pirates took over the business. They were nothing more than plundering the Spanish coast.

In the towns, apart from capturing some white slaves and taking a few sheep, the only trouble they caused was probably how to avoid the death of the sheep when crossing tens of thousands of miles of sea route.

Who would have known that the sheep "easily" brought from Spain for several consecutive years were rejected by the Han people, saying that they had violated the professional spirit and randomly used some ordinary sheep to make up the numbers, fooling and deceiving the Han people. This made Barbary

The pirates were very angry. The sheep they sent were clearly "led" from Spain. They had gone through so much trouble time and time again and traveled across thousands of mountains and rivers to deliver them to you, but their professional ethics were actually questioned!

However, after the Barbary pirates seriously inquired about the situation of Merino sheep in Spain in Europe, they suddenly became a little uneasy.

Merino sheep are actually treated as a national treasure in the Spanish country, and any form of export is prohibited. Anyone who takes Merino sheep out of Spain will be convicted and sentenced to hanging. Because of the uniqueness of Merino sheep,

Cashmere production ratio

Ordinary sheep have high wool density, uniform fineness, white oily sweat, good color and softness. Wool is one of the few local products in Spain that can be exported in exchange for "foreign exchange", and it is the most important wool market in Europe.

One of the raw materials supplied.

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 mountains and hilly areas, and is owned by large farmers.

Perhaps in order to prove their professionalism or to show the majesty of the Barbary pirates, during a certain Spanish "hunting" activity, the daring Moors launched a raid deep into the interior. They landed in Almeria and attacked.

They traveled more than 30 kilometers into the hinterland of Spain, destroyed several towns and farms, kidnapped more than 1,800 people, and seized more than 300 livestock, which shocked the whole of Spain.

It was through this raid that the brave Barbary pirates finally obtained dozens of real Merino sheep, which were then packed up and shipped to Hanzhou together with the female slaves they handed over.

In fact, the only person in Hanzhou who can truly identify the breed of Merino sheep is Qi Tian. This is because he saw tens of thousands of Australian Merino sheep when he visited Australia in his previous life.

The country on the back of a sheep is astonishing. You must know that Australia once set a historical record of 174 million sheep, with an annual wool output of up to 1 million tons, accounting for more than one-third of the world's wool production.

At present, the number of sheep of various types in Hanzhou has only exceeded 200,000, which can barely maintain the processing production of Kaiyuan Woolen Mill for a year.

However, the Hanzhou continent has unique livestock conditions, and it is natural for the number of sheep to increase explosively. 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 Hanzhou mainland is still very sparse. Apart from nearly half a million Han people, the rest are hundreds of thousands of ignorant and backward Hanzhou natives. There is no conflict between man and land at all, and naturally it will not happen.

The sheep-eating enclosure movement in British history.

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June 12, on the banks of the Song River (now Katherine River, Australia).

Thousands of cattle, horses, and sheep were lined up near the river beach, with their heads lowered, drinking the river water. A dozen herdsmen on horses, waving whips in their hands, kept riding their horses near the river beach.

Mercedes-Benz, blowing the horn in his hand from time to time.

There are tens of thousands of crocodiles living near the river beaches along the Song River. If we don't make the noise louder to scare away these mouth-stealing crocodiles, they might take advantage of the opportunity for cattle and sheep to drink water and quickly attack them.

Drag it deep into the river beach and have a full meal.

Songcheng is located in the transition zone between forests and deserts in the north. Once the forest land reaches here, it gradually becomes scarce, but the grassland area expands and grows unusually lush. Coupled with the dry climate and strong sunshine, it naturally becomes the best.

Pastures. There are more than ten government-run pastures of various sizes distributed in this area, with no less than 50,000 livestock grazing. It is one of the most important livestock bases in northern Hanzhou.

A group of children who were herding sheep nearby raised their heads one by one and watched the herdsmen riding tall horses galloping back and forth, with envy on their faces.

"Want to ride?" A bearded herdsman tightened the reins in his hands, raising the horse's front hooves high, and then stepped heavily on the soft river beach.

Several bold children nodded immediately, with longing in their eyes.

"Haha..." The herdsman laughed, stretched out a hand, took a child's arm, and pulled him on the horse, "I will take you for a ride to see the horses from India.

Magnificent!"

"Pan Laosan, don't throw someone's child down, or he will fight for you!" Several herdsmen shouted with a smile.

"I have been riding a horse for so many years. When did I get thrown off the horse?" The herdsman lightly knocked the horse's belly with his legs and began to increase the horse's speed. "I just can't stand the restraints of the military, otherwise

, I have already been promoted and made a fortune in the cavalry regiment!... Drive!"

Several children turned their heads to look at the horse running out quickly, their eyes gleaming with excitement, and then they all turned to look at the other herdsmen on horseback.

"Not all of them have hair evenly, but they are quite brave!" Seeing the helpless looks of several children, the herdsmen couldn't help but smile.

While the herdsmen were teasing and playing with a dozen children by the river, several villagers came close with a few donkeys, licking 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 in Hanzhou is close to 17,000. 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 capability.

Financial resources can be used. In private individual transportation, the riding or pulling tools used by ordinary people are a large number of donkeys and mules.

Because compared to horses, donkeys have very strong survivability and are not picky about forage. They don't need to prepare special grains for feeding. Some straws, roadside weeds, sweet potato vines, and soybean straws can be fed.

It fills its stomach. Therefore, its ability to survive is very strong. It is precisely because of this that they rarely get sick and their average life span can reach about 25 to 30 years.

Horses are different. They seem a bit superior. In addition to pasture, they also need to prepare special grains, bean cakes and other supplementary foods to feed them. Otherwise, they will easily get sick. It is precisely because of this that their lifespan is shorter than that of donkeys.

Many, usually by the time they reach 16 years old they are old horses.

Ordinary families cannot afford to raise horses, and only some wealthy families can raise horses. After all, the cost of raising horses is very high, and they are difficult to raise and can easily get sick.

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

What's even more rare is that donkey meat obtained after a donkey is slaughtered is a very delicious delicacy. Some people even use the phrase "dragon meat in the sky, donkey meat underground" to express their love for donkey meat. However, horse meat is

It has a slightly sour taste and is chewy, but the taste is far different. There is a popular saying among the people: "Horse meat is smelly, donkey meat is fragrant, and you will starve to death without eating snail meat."

In addition, donkey skin can also be made into leather, and it also has high medicinal value. It is also the raw material of the precious traditional Chinese medicine "Donkey-hide gelatin".

As for mules, although they are sterile and cannot reproduce themselves, mules have higher endurance. They are neither as precious as horses nor as fragile as donkeys. They also combine all the advantages of horses and donkeys and are disease-resistant.

Good ability, strong explosive power, tall body, etc.

Moreover, mules have a long life span and can be extended. In addition, as long as you feed them some corn kernels or wheat straw, they can eat them with gusto. Perhaps because they are hybrids, mules have a calm personality, no matter what kind of conditions they have.

It can complete all dirty and tiring work well. Mules are very strong and are capable of grinding, grinding and plowing the land.

Therefore, in the countryside of Hanzhou, donkeys, mules and oxen are the most common tools of labor and transportation. Some villagers who own donkeys hope to use the horses in the official pastures to produce some mules for their families, so that they can sell more mules than donkeys.

High price.

————————————

It was already dark. Sun Chengjie was carrying a hoe and holding a bundle of firewood in his left hand. He drove seven sheep toward the village with a tigerish face. Behind him were the six-year-old eldest son and the five-year-old second son, with stains on his face and head.

It was covered with grass leaves and mud. The eldest son was still sobbing slightly, holding his sister's hand and following closely behind his father.

After a busy day in the farmland, I should have gone home with a very relaxed mood to have a delicious dinner. However, the boss, who was taking his sister to herd sheep in the nearby grassland, actually lost two sheep because of his playfulness.

This made Sun Chengjie very angry. Taking advantage of the twilight, he searched around the pastures and woods, but could not find the lost sheep.

In a fit of anger, he slapped his son. He was really a prodigal son. Seeing that the sheep shearing season was coming in August and September, he let a naughty child lose two sheep. Maybe they were picked up by the thylacine that appeared nearby.

, or accidentally entered the river swamp and was dragged into the water by a crocodile. This is not a loss of two or three dollars at once!

Nine years ago (1643), Sun Chengjie was still one of the thousands of bandits in the Ming Dynasty. Because he was dispersed by the army, he was frightened and fled all the way. He ran to the canal and became a refugee again. However, he met again.

When Jiannu entered the pass and plundered, they wreaked havoc in Hebei and Shandong, and their troops were directed towards the Jiaoxi area. He continued to run east, and when he arrived at Penglai, he met Hanzhou people. In order not to starve to death, he received a piece of cake and went on board.

Boat.

After serving in Mintun for three years, Zurujuju was granted 40 acres of land by the local government (requiring crop rotation and fallow), including 15 acres of paddy fields, 15 acres of dry fields, and 10 acres of slopes near mountains and forests. When he arrived in the village,

He was also assigned an adobe house and received farm tools and seeds. However, he also owed a lot of debt to the government for this.

Less than half a year later, the government assigned him an Annan daughter-in-law. In this way, he had a family, a house and land, and had truly taken root in Hanzhou and established a family.

Three years ago, I saw that more and more farmers in the village had borrowed sheep from the government. After shearing the wool in August and September every year, they sold it to buying merchants in the city. They could get a lot of cash, which was really enviable. So Sun Chengjie gritted his teeth.

, and also loaned three sheep to the official family in the village to increase the family's income.

After staying in Hanzhou for several years, I found that the government here was not as vicious as the Ming Dynasty. Although the various agricultural taxes and retentions were not much less than those in the Ming Dynasty, there were no additional apportionments and levies. After all, the burden of farming was still

Much lighter than the Ming Dynasty.

In addition, he also found that even if he owed money to the government for farm tools, seeds, livestock, etc., he would not be violently pressed by the government every year. If he encountered a natural disaster or was unable to make ends meet due to family difficulties, as long as the village provided proof, the debt would be eliminated.

It can be partially reduced or deferred.

Since the government is considerate, why not collect some of the government's wool? If you raise sheep and make money, you will naturally add extra income to the family, which can improve the family's life to some extent.

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

"The little beast lost two sheep!" Sun Chengjie said in a sullen voice: "After I got off the field, I went to search around the nearby pastures and forests, which wasted my time."

"Have you found it?" Mrs. Ruan glanced at her son whose face was covered with tears and dirt, and there was a slap mark on his face, and she couldn't help but feel a little distressed.

"I don't know when it was lost. How can I find it?" Sun Chengjie sighed lightly, "It was probably eaten by thylacines in the wild... What a pity."

"This evening, the village office clerk came to my home to take stock of the family members and said that they wanted to arrange for children over six years old to go to school." Ruan said softly.

"Ah, are you going to school?" Sun Chengjie couldn't help but be startled, and looked back at his eldest son, "The eldest brother is going to school, who will take care of the sheep at home? Who will take care of the sheep?"

"There is a custody service for collective sheep herding in the village. I can take care of my sister now that she is so big." Ruan said with a smile: "It is not only an official rule for the eldest son to go to school, but it is also a major event that affects his life.

.Maybe he will be successful in the future."

"If you can lose the sheep while herding sheep, what's the point?" Sun Chengjie agreed with his wife's statement in his heart, but he still said disdainfully: "Okay, if you go to school, you can read Braille and gain some knowledge.

...Sigh, I entrusted the village collective to herd sheep. I don’t know if those people are careful. Don’t let the sheep lose their fat and hair, which will affect our income.”

"Don't you think so?" Ruan asked the two children to wash their hands and prepare for dinner. "After all, we have to pay money to others every month."

"If it's not his own animal, he probably won't pay attention... Let's take a look." Sun Chengjie saw that the two children had picked up a corn bun in one hand and started chewing it. He couldn't help but swallow his saliva, and his stomach immediately growled.
Chapter completed!