Chapter 1108: Warden

Residents at the foot of the mountain could already wear summer clothes, but on Tianhe Plain, one still had to drape a cloak. But this place was originally a barren land, high mountains and Gobi, with only herdsmen grazing some sheep, how could it be the appearance of water and soil beauty today? He Lingchuan said earnestly: "Scholar, times have changed!"

After driving Fu Shanlie away from Yuheng City and completely taking over Longchuan, another year had passed, and the world had welcomed seven Imperial Flowing Nectars in succession, with one on average less than every two months, all of which were fortunate events for the human world.

The suddenly abundant spiritual energy pushed the landforms of the entire Panlong Wasteland to undergo drastic changes. Precipitation became abundant, grass grew and warblers flew everywhere, and even the wasteland was draped in new tender green clothes.

Even high mountain Gobi like Tianhe Plain, after more than two years of intentional cultivation by Panlongcheng, had turned into high-quality natural pastures!

At this time, a group of horses was passing by the lake, with three or four hundred of them, galloping and flying pearls and splashing jade, startling the large patches of gulls and egrets walking by the lake into the sky.

The sky was full of white, like a big snow.

This was the fifth herd of horses they had passed.

Sun Fuling asked He Lingchuan with a smile: "Warden He, how many horses are raised on this grassland?"

Currently, He Lingchuan was the acting warden of Tianhe Plain—

Yes, after Zhong Shengguang transferred him away from Yuheng City, he sent him here to supervise the pasture and monitor the breeding of warhorses.

"Tianhe Pasture raises a total of 9,716 warhorses, and another 700 are being transported here. Commander Zhong hopes that the number can reach 20,000 by the end of the year."

Sun Fuling looked at the beautiful scenery in front of her: "With such a beautiful grassland, free-ranging 20,000 warhorses is too few."

"Yes, step by step, what's the rush?" He Lingchuan pointed to the west, "The thousands of qing of farmland there also need to be returned to pasture to cultivate grassland. The residents will move to Tianhe City in these two days. Sigh, I've been busy with this recently."

Sun Fuling asked strangely: "The farmland also needs to be returned?"

"Yes. Although Panlong Wasteland has changed, the land power of Maohe Plain is better, and grain production is far higher than Panlong Wasteland. With this big granary as a backing, large areas of land in Panlong Wasteland can be opened up as pastures. For example, Tianhe Plain is located in high cold, long mountains and big valleys, and has beautiful grass and sweet springs, allowing horses to gallop to their heart's content. In fact, this place was also a pasture two hundred years ago, and later degraded into Gobi."

"Panlongcheng didn't dare to do this before; the land needed to raise one warhorse could be used to farm and support at least thirty people!" Panlong Wasteland had insufficient land power, and the land that could be cultivated was originally small, and it had to support the city population on the wasteland, how could it be luxuriously opened as a pasture?

Over the past hundred years, due to population and food pressure, pastures on the wasteland were constantly converted into farmland. People competed with horses for land, so horses had no place to be raised.

Why had Panlongcheng never dared to expand outward? Besides the population never being able to go up, the lack of warhorses was also one of the restrictive factors.

Without warhorses, where would the cavalry come from?

Although Chipa Plateau was fertile, the area was limited, and the number of horses raised was limited.

Until recent years, the frequent arrival of Imperial Flowing Nectar finally changed this situation.

This world had become vibrant, and Panlong Wasteland had also become vibrant.

If this continued, Panlong Wasteland would soon be renamed Panlong Plain.

He Lingchuan patted the warhorse's neck: "This big guy is the horse king of the East Tian Yuan Pasture, its father is a black mottled beast. I spent two days and two nights to tame it, almost exhausted!"

Sun Fuling asked curiously: "Where do the horses come from?"

"Some were purchased from overseas, transported from Bai Sha Port, the journey was long, some were sent as gifts by small nations bullied by Baling, and some were offered by the Jin Tao Nation." He Lingchuan laughed, "Last year, the Jin Tao Nation was beaten into submission by us, and among the compensation sent according to Panlongcheng's requirements were more than 3,000 warhorses. Heh, they have two good pastures, and the horse breeds are also famous. We chose the best, and didn't want the worse ones, until we gathered 3,000."

"When spring started, many little foals grew on the grassland." With his existing experience, he could compile a book, "Postpartum Care for Mares."

Sun Fuling saw he was in a good mood and couldn't help but say: "Commander Zhong transferred you, a dignified commander, to raise horses; are you really not angry?"

After defeating Fu Shanlie and the Xiji puppet army and taking over Longchuan, Yuheng City and Maohe Plain were safe.

Then the future development focus of Yuheng City was adjusted from military to internal affairs in stages.

He Lingchuan's mission was completed, so Zhong Shengguang transferred him back to Panlongcheng and temporarily assigned him to Tianhe Plain to supervise the horse farm.

"Why be angry?" He Lingchuan laughed, "I'm just a jack-of-all-trades, go wherever I'm needed. Besides, how important warhorses are to Panlongcheng, no need to say."

Once Zhong Shengguang transferred him to manage warhorses, he understood Panlongcheng's ambition.

Always staying in Panlong Wasteland, how could Zhong Shengguang complete the grand wish he made?

The annexation of Maohe Plain and the outbreak of Imperial Flowing Nectar were the foundations for Panlongcheng's true outward expansion.

But He Lingchuan understood that Zhong Shengguang's conception was not yet time to be made public.

To do a good job, one must first sharpen one's tools.

Raising warhorses was just one of the preparatory works in the early stage.

Besides, having this experience and this background was also of great benefit to He Lingchuan's future planning in reality.

The Yangshan Guard Team trained by Qiu Hu was currently mainly infantry.

The environment of the archipelago was not open enough, nor was it suitable for cavalry.

But he and his army would always have to return to land. In the future, he would also face the same problem as Panlongcheng.

Hmm, Bailie only had one pasture, where would he get batches of good horses in the future? "Hey, still there?" Sun Fuling raised her hand and waved in front of his eyes; this fellow could be distracted while talking to her? Are warhorses important to Panlongcheng? Of course they are important.

But Panlongcheng had many talents; why did Zhong Shengguang send anyone to raise horses, why did he have to send He Lingchuan? He Lingchuan achieved a great victory in Yuheng City, shattered Beijia's conspiracy in Xiji, and dug out the rotten sore of the Longchuan water bandits for Panlongcheng... Did Panlongcheng, which had always been clear about rewards and punishments, reward him for so many merits? No.

Zhong Shengguang instead threw a dignified commander onto this sparsely populated grassland to raise horses.

Without a doubt, this was exile, punishment! Interested people could naturally understand, and Sun Fuling was worried that he would feel uncomfortable in his heart.

"Here!" He Lingchuan came back to his senses, showing no unwillingness, "How is Yuheng City?"

"Very good, increasingly prosperous, and more than 20,000 people have been added in the past half year." Yuheng City was the bridgehead and barometer of Maohe Plain; local economy improved, grain harvest, trade developed, so the surrounding population would move to Yuheng City endlessly, "Yuheng Academy has a lot of new students, and this spring enrollment is very busy. Master Liu went to get the lesson plan during the break, and the students waited for a long time without seeing him appear; they sent someone to look for him, only to find Master Liu sleeping on the corridor. Sigh, fortunately, the newly recruited masters will arrive one after another in these few days."

He Lingchuan sighed: "Mr. Wen is still amazing."

After the great victory in Yuheng City, the city people and village elders jointly wrote to Panlongcheng, urging Wen Daolun to return to preside over internal affairs.

During Wen Daolun's tenure in Yuheng City, his policies were clear and bright, and he listened to the people's voices, deeply winning people's hearts.

Zhong Shengguang would not go against the public will, so he followed the trend and sent Wen Daolun back to Yuheng City to continue governing.

The attitude of the city people toward He Lingchuan and Wen Daolun was like heaven and earth.

Sun Fuling looked at him twice more before patting the bundle on her shoulder: "Mr. Wen knew I was going back to Panlongcheng on business, so he specifically asked me to bring a few boxes of cloud cakes for you, some with sesame, some with peanuts."

"Mr. Wen has a heart, they are all my favorites."

Sun Fuling pouted slightly: "He is always worried that you are angry with him."

He Lingchuan shook his head: "The people of Yuheng City hate me because I didn't do well, what does it have to do with Mr. Wen? Why should I be angry with him?"

After the result of the Yuheng City battle reached Panlongcheng, what he waited for was not commendation.

According to reliable sources, in the Gange Hall, the high-level officials of Panlongcheng severely condemned his combat plan.

The focus of the criticism was on his risking an ambush with Yuheng City as bait.

"Greedy for merit and advancing rashly, where did you put the safety of the people of Yuheng City!"

"If this battle failed, Fu Shanlie would bloodbath Yuheng City, how would He Lingchuan answer to Commander Zhong?"

Fu Shanlie's reason for sneaking into Yuheng City was very clear; even if he took it, he couldn't occupy it for long. What he wanted to do was to bloodbath the entire Yuheng City, making all of Panlongcheng's supporters pay a bloody price, letting the world know the consequences of offending Beijia!

So once Fu Shanlie's sneak attack succeeded, he would likely slaughter the city.

Beijia had done this in the Yuan Nation, and that was a price Yuheng City could not bear.

"Taking a risk, and also dragging in a Zhao Linyang!"

Zhao Linyang, who replaced Wen Daolun, governed meticulously and was very capable, but died in the sneak attack of the insect monsters in the Battle of Yuheng City.

"Panlongcheng has always emphasized the unity of the army and the people. If he can do this, can we do this in the future? How he treats the people of Yuheng City, should we treat the people of Panlongcheng like this in the future?"

After the meeting, Zhong Shengguang transferred He Lingchuan to raise horses to appease public anger.

Sun Fuling patted his face: "Are you really not angry?"

"The first few days after being transferred to the grassland, I was a bit unhappy." After all, he saved Yuheng City. In the real history, Yuheng City was not defended in the first sneak attack by water bandits, and it was defeated repeatedly afterward, with all the city residents in deep water.

But he had no way to tell everyone, I helped you reverse the tragic fate.

Even though he fought such a beautiful victory, the people of Yuheng City still didn't understand him or like him.

"But I've been raising horses here for half a year, and I've slowly thought it through."

Sun Fuling looked up, listening to him say a sentence gently and plainly:

"I was wrong."

"As a superior..."

He Lingchuan held her hand with a smile: "As a superior, one cannot easily admit mistakes. I remember your words. But this sentence is for myself."

He added casually: "There are still two days on the return journey, let's change to a carriage."

He took Sun Fuling to ride a horse, which was to let her feel the vastness and beauty of Tianhe Plain.

If they really rode back all the way, it would be very tiring.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 1109 =====