xymnovel Chapter 2153 - 1562: How Is Nomadism Forged?
Chapter 2153 - 1562: How Is Nomadism Forged?
"Chief Divine! Why does your village look like this?...""? Ah Bo, this... um... Jurchen Da’erhan noble is asking questions. Go answer, serve well!"
"Yes! Mr. Bule... Noble, what did you just ask?..."
"... I mean, why do you have so many sheep like cotton in your village? Where are your cattle and horses? Are there just those few?..."
"Ah? Could you slow down, I don’t quite understand. Cotton, what is it?... A lot of sheep? Oh! Yes! The tribe is just like a big sheepfold, everyone relies on sheep milk to live... Cattle? Cattle are for pulling carts, horses are for riding, both are big livestock, not easy to raise, having too many isn’t worth it, just having enough is fine..."
"Right! Sheep produce milk, which can be made into various foods. Sheep sustain lives! Fields? Uh... Noble, I’ve never farmed. I can only herd sheep, milk them, shear wool, make cheese, yogurt dry, and breed sheep... Yes! There’s always work concerning sheep in the tribe. You see, they’re working on sheep tasks. Using stone knives to shear wool, pressing it into felt, making warm clothes and blankets..."
The River-side Tribe is not small, though there are only over four hundred tribespeople, there are as many as six to seven thousand sheep, three to four hundred horses, and two to three hundred cattle. But per capita, it seems one tribesperson only has sixteen sheep, one and a half large livestock, indeed very poor. Among them, the number of sheep takes up ninety percent of all livestock, and it’s the most important production material for the tribe, hmm, grass-eating, milk-producing production material.
With so many sheep, naturally, they couldn’t all be gathered together. They are scattered in the tribe’s main fortress and several surrounding small grazing grounds. In the Huli Ping Main Camp, there are over two thousand sheep! Zuwaro widened his eyes, never seeing so many sheep together, turning the village left by the Ming Dynasty into a gigantic sheepfold.
"Baa! Baa!..."
"Baa! Bah!..."
"Puff! Puff!..."
The dense smell from various livestock gathering made Zuwaro frown and cover his nose. He walked cautiously in the camp, yet occasionally stepped on sheep dung. Fortunately, he wore boots, but the majority of herders in the camp were barefoot. These herders emit a scent ingrained in their skin, like busy two-legged livestock.
"Make way! Make way! The Da’erhan noble is coming! Step aside!..."
Ah Bo whipped the air, producing a crisp "whoosh." Although he is Jurchen, he is a "Nake’er" of the Chieftain’s household, essentially a house slave. The noble chief’s slaves naturally appeared stronger than ordinary tribespeople, and his voice was much louder. Seeing him escorting the "noble from the Ten Thousand Households Tribe," the busy tribespeople hastily knelt down, kowtowing earnestly in the sheep dung.
"Greetings, Da’erhan noble! Bowing to the noble..."
"Da’erhan? Ah Bo, they’re calling me Da’erhan?..."
"Ah?! Noble, aren’t you the Da’erhan noble by the Lord Leader’s side? Could it be you are... Wulusi Warrior? Or a Taiji?"
Ah Bo carefully observed Zuwaro’s expression, musing in his heart. This noble didn’t quite look like a Wulusi Warrior! If he were Taiji, he should openly declare his noble lineage. Only a Da’erhan noble, a "free and easy leisure person," could be a craftsman, scholar, shaman, or a favored subject of the Lord Leader, even a beardless male consort...
"Wulusi Warrior? Taiji?... Hmm... Da’erhan it is! Though this title sounds a bit like the Jurchen word for "Andahan," it sounds a bit clumsy..."
Zuwaro shook his head, shifting his gaze to the tribespeople kowtowing on the ground. They were mostly skinny women, children, and the elderly. These Mongolian tribes are truly hierarchical, aside from the horse-riding, archery warriors, the rest seemed like slaves.
"Ah Bo, what are they doing?"
"Noble! This... they’re sun drying cow dung, sheep dung. Also drying cheese, yogurt."
"Just drying them side by side?"
"Ah? Is there something wrong? Please guide us, noble..."
"..."
Zuwaro said no more, merely observed the life details in Huli Ping Village, this "big sheepfold" within the River-side Tribe closely.
In one corner of the camp, people continually came to place collected cow and sheep dung on the roofs left by the Ming Army to dry. Once dried, it became essential fuel for the winter. Adjacent to this fuel was a group of women milking, forming cheese and yogurt into white balls, sun-drying them for winter staple food. Fuel and food always were the two most important resources for nomadic tribes, intrinsically linked to the sheep herds.
"Chief Divine! Why don’t you raise more four-legged cattle and horses? Those large livestock clearly seem much mightier than these smaller ones! Especially horses, this time we came specifically to buy horses..."
"Ah? Raise more cattle and horses?... Uh, Honorable Da’erhan, you must be from a great tribe! You wouldn’t know the difficulties of our small tribes!..."
Ah Bo wore a pained expression as tears squeezed from his eyes, starting to lament to the nobility sent by Ten Thousand Households, a task given by his master Bule, to surely convey the tribe’s difficulties, hoping for a bit of understanding from the nobles.