Chapter 1515: The Great Khan Zhu Muzhen

The crack of whips rang out, the rumble of hooves rolling like thunder.

The Great River Basin was in the season of clear, brisk autumn weather, and even the air seemed especially fresh. On the grassland, already turned golden, one small yurt after another had appeared, ringed together by great wagons. Flocks of sheep like white clouds and gentle steppe cattle flowed across the golden grassland, driven by mounted "Mongols" in leather robes. The scene did not look like the New Continent at all, but rather like the Mongolian steppe.

Niu Laoliu also felt as though he had returned to his hometown of Jining, the place his soul had yearned for in dreams. When he herded horses and cattle for Centurion Li's household, it had been almost exactly like this! How he missed those days.

Of course, there were still a few differences.

When he herded cattle and horses in Jining, the cattle and horses had all belonged to other people; he only tended them. But now, he owned a herd of his own — thirty or forty sheep, ten head of cattle, and seven horses. The herd was not large, but it was the property of Niu Laoliu's family.

Having been poor for more than twenty years, Niu Laoliu naturally treasured the cattle, sheep, and horses distributed to him from above. He looked after every one of them as if they were his own children. Far from slaughtering any for meat, he was even cautious about milking the cows and ewes.

There was another difference: when he had worked for Centurion Li's household at Jining Guard, he had not even been able to eat his fill. Now he ate meat until he was sick of it. In more than twenty years of life, he had never had this strange feeling — at every mealtime, watching his wife bring out a big basin of meat, he had no appetite at all!

What was wrong? How could he not get meat down? Could he be ill? Yet everyone who knew him said he was glowing with health, that he even looked younger, nothing like a man who was sick and failing!

His wife, Yang Erniang, had quite a good appetite. After several months of eating and drinking heartily, she had undergone a "second growth spurt" — she looked radiant, enough to make a man's mouth water — and she had also become pregnant with a "sixth child," her belly already swelling.

Although his appetite was a little poor, in the eyes of the officers above, Niu Laoliu had still passed the "meat-eating barrier" and had more or less "given up grain."

After successfully achieving "giving up grain and eating meat," the second barrier Niu Laoliu had to pass was the nomadic herding barrier. At Jining Guard he had grazed herds, but he had never nomadically herded.

Nomadic herding and settled grazing are not the same. The former means living in clusters and constantly migrating — called "following water and grass to dwell," meaning that once the grass in one place is grazed down, you move to another place and keep grazing. The latter means living scattered and settled, dividing up pastureland and running it like a farm — a far more comfortable way of life.

Within the present territory of the New Continent United States, there were many settled ranches, mainly distributed near the America Gulf and in the Great River Basin. The cattle, sheep, horses, and cured meat now supplied to "trainee nomads" like Niu Laoliu were mostly produced by these ranches.

But Niu Laoliu and his kind could not scatter and settle, because a nomadic myriad-household was strong enough only when concentrated. Once divided too thinly — for example, in groups of a few dozen households — it was fine if there was no strong enemy, but if they encountered a larger number of enemies, they would have no choice but to take a beating.

Historically, the strength of the steppe nomads was also connected to their clustered, nomadic way of life. If they were too scattered, no matter how good their horsemanship, they would be nothing more than a band of horse thieves.

So the Prince of Huai Myriad-Household to which Niu Laoliu belonged had, since the beginning of autumn, entered the Great River Basin in groups and begun to dwell nomadically there, following water and grass.

The nomadic route had, of course, been planned in advance by the Grand General's Office of the United States. It had to skirt the military-household farms and estates in the Great River Basin, so as not to seize the pastures of the settled military households or damage their fields and gardens.

According to the Grand General's Office's plan, the Prince of Huai Myriad-Household and the Prince of De Myriad-Household were to herd nomadically in the Great River Basin until autumn of the following year.

The reason for herding nomadically for so long, apart from learning all kinds of nomadic skills and mounted tactics, was to allow nomadic military households like Niu Laoliu's to expand their own herds.

Inside the Great River Basin they could live on supplies from the Ministry of War of the United States, but once they herded nomadically onto the Great Plains, they would have to fend for themselves. Although the wild bison on the Great Plains were extremely numerous, it was impossible for twenty thousand Chinese households to wipe them out.

But the Great Plains were immensely vast, and the bison were rather scattered. The two myriad-households had over 100,000 people. If they concentrated together, how large a bison herd would it take to feed them? And the two myriad-households were only a beginning; in the future, newly formed nomadic myriad-households would certainly herd and migrate across the northern New Continent grasslands.

So bison could not become the main food source, only an important supplement. Their most reliable, long-term, stable food source could only be the herds they themselves owned!

Gazing at the ewes and cows in his own herd, their bellies gradually swelling, Niu Laoliu — whose face now looked at most thirty years old (he was twenty-six this year; when he left Jining he had looked about forty, and now he had dropped to thirty) — finally showed a gratified smile.

If this trend continued, by autumn of next year his family's herd would probably number over a hundred, wouldn't it?

Centurion Li's livestock had been about that many, hadn't it? Just thinking about it made him happy!

"Woo-woo..."

A long, drawn-out horn call suddenly sounded by Niu Laoliu's ear.

This was the assembly call. When he heard it, he had to immediately drive his cattle and sheep back to the camp of his own Prince of Huai Third Chiliarch — at present, the Prince of Huai Myriad-Household was herding nomadically in chiliarch units, scattered across the grassland on the west bank of the great river. The Prince of De Myriad-Household, meanwhile, was herding nomadically on the grassland of the east bank.

Hearing the horn, Niu Laoliu did not dare delay. He hurriedly drove his cattle and sheep toward the camp, and only after driving them for more than a full two-hour period did he arrive outside a camp encircled by who knew how many four-wheeled great wagons linked end to end.

These four-wheeled great wagons with canvas canopies had also been issued by the Ministry of War of the United States to the nomadic military households, in principle one wagon per household. When migrating, the women and children rode in the wagons, and all the household's belongings were loaded on as well. The mistress of the household or an older daughter drove the wagon. The male head of the household, meanwhile, had to ride and drive the livestock, and also take responsibility for sentry duty or other military tasks assigned from above.

When making camp, these four-wheeled covered wagons would be linked end to end to form an enormous ring. The yurts — that is, the tents — were pitched inside the ring.

Outside the ring, livestock pens were made of long spears and ropes. The pens were shared by ten households — two pens for ten households, one for cattle and one for sheep. Each household's cattle and sheep bore marks, and there were dedicated men to watch them (the ten households took turns sending men).

Just as Niu Laoliu was driving his cattle and sheep into the pen, a clatter of hoofbeats came from afar, drawing nearer. Old Niu turned his head to look and saw a cloud of dust flying up, with a dozen or so black-clad riders faintly visible, galloping toward him. Only when they reached the gate of the chiliarch camp where Niu Laoliu was did they rein in their horses. After a burst of shrill warhorse neighing, the riders on horseback shouted in unison: "The Great Khan has arrived! All officers and men, come out to welcome him!"

So it was the freshly minted Great Plains Khan come on an inspection tour!

The New Continent Great Khan was, of course, Zhu Hehao. The reason he had given himself a khan title was certainly not for amusement, but to emphasize the "nomadic character" of the two nomadic myriad-households.

In his view, to gain a firm foothold on the Great Plains, they had to persist in nomadic herding for the long term — at least for several decades, until the population of the New Continent United States had climbed several more steps, and only then could they turn to settled herding or farming.

But persisting in nomadic herding on the Great Plains was not easy, because the land of the Great Plains was too rich, and there was no shortage of water. It was entirely a heaven-chosen land for farming!

Settling and farming there would be far more comfortable than following water and grass as nomads — and people always like comfort and ease!

But once a nomadic myriad-household turned into a settled myriad-household, how much territory could ten thousand military households control? When that happened, they would probably shrink back into the valleys on the eastern slopes of the Great Stone Mountains to live comfortable lives.

So Zhu Hehao had to work hard to preserve the nomadic capability of the Huaizhou Myriad-Household and the Dezhou Myriad-Household. Calling himself Great Plains Khan was only one of many means of maintaining nomadism.

(End of Chapter)