"Suonanjie, let me see if your place is a pilot project for captive grazing in Xuanwu Banner?
"The officials are really smart, and you can see it at a glance. Yes, our family is a pilot for captive grazing in Qili. It seems that we are the only seventy-five households out of a thousand."
"How long has your family been piloting captive grazing?"
"Including this year, it has been three years."
"What do you think? It doesn't matter, just open up and say whatever you have." Zhao Si encouraged.
"Guan Jia, I'm a rough guy. I don't understand any big principles, and I can't tell you anything. I'm just going to speak based on my personal experience in the past three years."
"Okay, I just want you to experience it for yourself."
"In the past, when we were grazing, we would live by grass. Wherever there was grass, we would drive the cattle and sheep there. When the grass there was almost eaten, we would move to a new place. We say we lived by grass, but in fact we lived by water.
Wherever there is water, the grass will grow well."
"This pasture grazing method has been passed down from generation to generation for hundreds of years. It has been used for generations, and it may have been modified in the middle. It is definitely useful. But it also has many disadvantages. First of all, it is troublesome."
Suo Nanjie said slowly.
"In one month or two months, the grass on this land has been exhausted, and we must move. We dismantle the felt tents, load them into cars, ride horses, drive cattle and sheep, and move to a distant place. Wherever we can move, we will see the longevity.
It is God’s arrangement. Some places were lush with water and grass last year, but this year they are dry and barren, so they can only move to other places. In a year, you will have to move at least five or six times, and at most ten times."
Zhao Si nodded. The grass is lush in different places. Compared with Helin, Hulun Lake and other areas, it is much drier and the grass is not that lush. A few months or two will be enough.
Almost finished.
"More moves bring more troubles."
Sonamjie continued.
"It's not only the tediousness of moving, relocating, and re-erecting felt bags, but also the struggle. Everyone wants to find a place with water and grass. Sometimes they find the same place. What should I do? Thousands of households are divided into pastures, and they are only divided into one.
perhaps..."
"The pasture I was assigned has little water and grass this year. I can't just stay there and wait to die. As soon as I drive the cattle and sheep out, it is easy to wander into other people's territory... Every time I go back and forth, there will be quarrels.
The second quarrel will lead to action. So many wars and killings on the grasslands in the past have a lot to do with this reason."
"In addition, there are other reasons, such as greed and laziness, which can easily cause pasture to dry up..."
At this time, Suonanjie's wife Zhuo Xinla added from the side: "Our neighbors, the Sakengji family twenty miles away to the north, suffered not because of greed and laziness. Alas, this is the destiny of immortality."
Punishment. When it was time to move last year, it was delayed because his father was ill and there were not enough manpower."
"...Cows and sheep are all animals, so how can we care about so much. They only know how to fill their stomachs. After eating the grass on the ground, they dig the roots of the grass in the ground. When the Sakenji family moved back this year, that pasture
Just like a leprous... Now is the time to gain weight, but their cattle and sheep are starving... Oh, how will they survive this winter? I'm afraid they can only apply for relief subsidies... I only apply once.
The status of the principal household is gone, and you have to transfer back to the deputy household for a few years."
Relief subsidies on the grassland are not so easy to apply for. Once you apply, your "household registration" will be downgraded by one level, the principal household will be changed to a deputy household, and the deputy household will be changed to an assistant household. The "employment" period of the assistant household will be extended.
This is related to the traditional practice of the Song Dynasty.
In the Song Dynasty, when there was a natural disaster in the past, the desperate victims would be recruited as Xiang troops. Now the new system is to recruit them into agricultural reclamation troops to reclaim new farmland.
In this era, there is no such thing as social welfare. If the government can protect your family from starving to death, it is already a benevolent government.
After Suo Nanjie and his wife chatted for a while, they finally turned to the main topic.
"I think the biggest advantage of captive grazing is that it avoids the previous disadvantages. The cattle, sheep and horses are enclosed with barbed wire and let out for a spin regularly. More often, we ride horses and pull lawn mowers and ox carts
, cut the grass back and feed it to the cattle and sheep... I used to rely on the sky to feed the cattle and sheep, but now I have to grow my own grass..."
"The grass seeds distributed by Nongke, such as alfalfa, cat's ear grass, and string grass... are all good things. They are very easy to grow. After they are sown, they will grow all over the mountains and fields in one spring. Moreover, these grasses are very easy to gain weight.
One pound of this kind of grass is worth five or six pounds of the old grass... Now we only need to move two or three times a year... Everything else is good, but we are a little tired."
After listening to Suo Nanjie's words, Zhao Si said to the hundreds and thousands of households around him: "Captive grazing first started in Hexi and Shuofang. Hexi is better, with melted ice and snow from the Qilian Mountains. Shuofang County is not good, and the whole country
It was irrigated by a Yellow River. The imperial court spent a lot of effort there, organizing the Institute of Agricultural Sciences, the Institute of Geography and other institutions, and tried every means there, and finally found out such a half-farming, half-pastoral method."
"One of the keys to captive grazing is grass seed. It must be good grass that is easy to survive, grows quickly, and has enough fertilizer. The Northwest Agricultural Science Institute traveled all over the northwest, Tubo, Yinshan, Jinshan and Mobei, and selected fifteen kinds of improved varieties.
Grasses are suitable for planting in different areas."
"Another key is iron wire, on which cattle and sheep are kept together. This kind of thing looks simple, but it is not simple to produce. Cast iron, molding, drawing, pickling, hot-melt galvanizing, and after being made into iron wire, it is then tied
Flowers, hoisting, and adding spikes to the circles of wire, and finally turned into the spiked wire that everyone uses now."
"For this circle of iron wire, the Institute of Steel and Chemistry of the Gewu Institute formed a joint development team and worked day and night, and finally made it..."
Zhuo Xinla was very surprised when he heard it, "It turns out that this wire is so complicated. But it is indeed a good thing. With these spiked wires, the home has become much safer. There are two layers of spiked wire on the outside, felt bags and cows.
The sheepfold is also surrounded by an extra layer. The wolves wandering outside can't get in at all, so you don't have to worry anymore..."
Her words resonated with several families.
"Yes, yes, what we were most afraid of in the past were horse thieves and wolves. Especially wolves, they are the most cunning and difficult to guard against. I remember that there were several people in my house and neighbors, and wild wolves sneaked in, biting and dragging people to death.
Let’s go. Especially in winter, the hungry wolves dare to get into the felt bag directly.”
"It's better now. Since the Holy Emperor Khan took charge of us, the horse thieves on the grassland have almost disappeared. Now with barbed wire fences, no matter how cunning and ferocious the wolves are, they can't get in. In the past two years, the wolves are getting worse and worse.
The number of people has decreased, and some have no choice but to catch rabbits and voles to feed themselves. Alas, life is forcing us to do so!"
We chatted with each other, and when it came to the afternoon, Zhao Si took his leave. In order to express his gratitude to Suonanjie's family for their hospitality, Zhao Si presented ten packs of tea cakes, ten pounds of sugar, six pieces of cotton cloth and three books of "Natural Knowledge"
"textbook.
Seeing Zhao Si and his party disappear at the edge of the grassland covered in the sparkling light of the sunset, Suo Nanjie held a lot of gifts and murmured: "He is really an approachable and noble man."
Zhuo Xinla, who was on the side, touched the brightly colored cotton cloth fondly and praised it profusely: "I see, it must be a man of ten thousand households, but he has a heart as kind and generous as a Bodhisattva."
Suokeji couldn't help but said: "What do you know? Do you know what official means?"
"Isn't it the title of Wanhu and other noble people?"
"This is His Majesty the Great Emperor Tenjili."
Suo Nanjie and Zhuo Xinla opened their mouths and their eyes widened, almost popping out of their eyes.
Looking at the envious eyes of households A, B and Q, they also believed it. The hands holding the gifts were trembling, as if they were holding towering golden mountains stretching for thousands of miles.
