Chapter 1055 - Current Conditions and Systemic Flaws

Arriving with Nick at Jeju were cadet soldiers drawn from the Cavalry Training Unit, the Logistics Training Unit, and the Artillery Training Unit. All three branches required extensive use of draught horses, so back in Lingao they had rotated through the Mopanling Ranch to gain practical experience in horse husbandry and training.

The Cavalry Training Unit, apart from a skeleton crew left in Lingao to maintain the organization, had deployed one company to Shandong. Nearly all remaining personnel and equipment were being transferred to Jeju. By order of the General Staff, the Cavalry Training Unit's base was relocating from Lingao to Jeju Island. Henceforth, Jeju would serve as the Bravery Wave Army's cavalry formation and training base.

Additionally, both the Logistics and Artillery Training Units would establish their own draught horse training squadrons on Jeju Island, dedicated to training their respective horse drivers and handlers.

This batch of over two hundred cadets transferred from Lingao was largely composed of inexperienced first-year soldiers, yet they still formed the core force Nick could trust most. Compared to the lifeless local Volunteer Corps, they were far superior in both enthusiasm and loyalty. Moreover, having completed three months of recruit training and being armed, they constituted a force that could be relied upon.

Since these cadets had arrived at Jeju, Nangong Wudi felt he could free up additional mobile forces to advance governance into every corner of the island—the cadets could serve as the Jeju City garrison.

The cadets established their respective temporary camps by branch on the periphery of the paddock. Although housing was available for them in Jeju City, Nick insisted that the cadets become accustomed to the smell of horse manure and horses. Only then would they be qualified for horse husbandry and driving work in the future.

The camps were crude. Apart from having four walls, they differed little from horse sheds: stone walls of volcanic rock, wooden-plank roofs coated with a thick layer of clay for fire prevention.

Inside, the floors were compacted clay. Along two walls, stone platforms served as bed frames, with standard-issue bed boards laid on top—conditions somewhat more austere than the barracks in Lingao. Each room slept one platoon. The most refined feature was the glass-paned windows, which attracted many curious local onlookers.

With personnel and horses all in place, Nick brought his apprentices and ranch hands to begin training the cadets and Volunteer Corps members.

Training was conducted on-the-job—or rather, hands-on apprenticeship—learning horse care and husbandry through actual work.

First came screening all the horses: inspecting, evaluating, and classifying each animal.

Sick horses were separated and placed in the infirmary stable for treatment. Healthy horses suitable for work were sorted by sex. Nick noted that weight loss was quite common, though most horses were otherwise healthy—the relatively lower temperatures of Jeju Island's winters apparently benefited horse health.

Weight loss was relatively easy to remedy: with improved management and increased concentrated feed, recovery would come quickly.

However, almost none of the horses had been shod, and their hooves had not been regularly trimmed. Many had varying degrees of hoof wear, which was detrimental to their use.

Nick knew this was quite common throughout East Asia—particularly among civilian horses, which generally went unshod. He had therefore brought a large quantity of factory-manufactured horseshoes, along with a specialist farrier.

Some of the cadets had learned hoof trimming and shoeing; he immediately assigned them to trim and shoe the horses. He himself began examining the reproductive status of the healthy horses selected for work.

Overall, the horses from the Jeju Provincial Office and Jocheon relay station were in considerable disarray. The herd included old horses and young horses, mares and geldings, as well as uncastrated stallions—a thoroughly mixed composition.

He took rough measurements of each uncastrated stallion of suitable age. The tallest stood 131 cm; the shortest, 105 cm. The average height was approximately 120 cm.

Even compared to the average for ordinary Mongolian horses, this was on the low side. Whether for riding or draught work, these horses were rather slight. They did not even match the average shoulder height of Shandong donkeys, which stood a full 130 cm.

Nick knew that in the modern timeline, intensively bred Mongolian stallions averaged about 130 cm, with mares reaching 125 cm. The Mongolian horses on Jeju Island were clearly substandard.

The reasons were obviously linked to a lack of scientific breeding. Jeju Island's native breed was originally a pony. Even after the introduction of Mongolian blood for improvement, the pony genes persisted. Without proper control over breeding lines, horse quality would inevitably decline.

Clearly, local horse breeding had been extremely lax. Stallion castration was not strictly enforced; some inferior stallions had been put to work without being gelded. They had not been separated from mares either. One could easily imagine that come spring breeding season, these inferior stallions would mate indiscriminately with mares—not only wasting mare resources but also doing nothing to improve foal quality.

Moreover, young stallions, mature stallions, and old stallions were all worked together. Prime-age stallions in their optimal breeding years did not have access to enough mares, while young and elderly stallions were consuming valuable mare resources.

Scientific horse breeding began with selecting the best breeding stallions. Keeping too many stallions was both pointless and prevented bloodline optimization.

Additionally, Nick noticed that elderly stallions made up a disproportionately high percentage—roughly half of all stallions. Considering that working horses at the Provincial Office and garrisons were primarily used for labor, it was hard to imagine why so many elderly stallions would be retained.

Under normal circumstances, working stallions would be gelded for easier management and use. Finding many stallions—including many elderly ones—among the working horses was highly abnormal.

The mare situation was equally unsatisfactory. Not only were mares of all ages worked together, but many showed signs of overwork. As with the stallions, elderly mares made up a disproportionately large percentage.

Malnutrition and overwork led to a predictable result: mares that went into heat but did not conceive—"empty breeding"—wasted both the mare's breeding opportunity and the stallion's siring potential.

Nick carefully examined each stallion and mare. Using this opportunity, he and Laibao and several cadets compiled new "horse dossiers." During his on-site investigation, he had discovered that the Jeju Provincial Office's horse records were in chaos. Not only were there cases of records without horses and horses without records, but more commonly the records did not match the brands on the horses.

Obviously, considerable fraud was involved with these official horses. Nick summoned the retained horse clerks and grooms; they readily admitted to the extensive corruption.

According to the horse clerks' testimony, every year a batch of new horses was brought in from the official pastures to replenish the official stock at the three provincial offices and nine garrisons, replacing those that had died or been culled.

But the incoming horses were often swapped out the moment they arrived at the offices and garrisons. Strong, quality horses newly requisitioned were frequently replaced through sleight of hand with animals that should have been culled.

The officials at the government pastures were no fools either. Operating on the principle of "sharing the benefits," every time they supplied new horses to the offices and garrisons, they mixed in useless old or inferior animals. The receiving officials turned a blind eye—after all, with more old horses, deaths came faster, which meant faster replenishment with new horses. Everyone benefited.

As for the annual embezzlement of fodder, that was standard practice. A large portion of the grain allotted for working horses—coarse grains like sorghum, buckwheat, and barley—was routinely embezzled and resold by officials at every level. If even ten percent of the concentrated feed actually reached the feed troughs, that was considered good.

"So that's how it is!" Nick sighed. No wonder the mortality rate here was so high.

Though he had roughly guessed the situation, his horse-loving nature made such "stealing from the horses' mouths" all the more infuriating.

More practically, given that Jeju Island's herds had been in the hands of such people, there was no question that horse quality would be poor.

This being the case, breeding stallions needed to be imported from Lingao as soon as possible to begin improving the local stock.

During his three years in Lingao, Nick had used the Tieling draught horses brought by the Exemplar Council and "Aranchi," the English Thoroughbred racehorse he had personally brought, as studs to breed a new generation of breeding stock. He had already begun differentiating between riding and draught lines.

Originally, he had worried that the sea voyage might be too rough—that transporting breeding stallions could cause deaths. The death of "Landian" had left deep psychological scars, making him reluctant to ship horses by sea. Obtaining even a few breeding horses was no easy matter. A mare's gestation period was eleven months. Even using the practice of breeding a mare immediately after foaling, a pair of breeding horses could produce at most three foals in three years. Moreover, to protect breeding mare fertility, Nick was reluctant to do this. Thus, apart from the original pair of purebred Tieling draught horses—Datie and Xiaotie—only two more had been added, one of which was a stallion.

Of course, there were over twenty so-called improved foals sired by Tieling stallions on Mongolian mares. There were also several horses born from earlier matings with Yunnan mares. To distinguish them from purebred Tieling stallions, Nick had named the former "Gaoshanling" and the latter "Wenlanjiang." Among them were several sexually mature colts identified as potential breeding stallions. After much deliberation, Nick decided to transfer some of these studs to Jeju Island. After all, Lingao's horse stock was too small for the studs to be used effectively there.

As long as even one breeding stallion arrived safely, Nick was confident that artificial insemination could impregnate fifty or more mares. This meant that by 1633 he would have fifty direct descendants of the stud. From these, superior breeding stallions and mares could be selected.

After careful consideration, Nick decided to cable the Agriculture Commission in Lingao, requesting they prepare two Gaoshanling-line stallions and one Wenlanjiang-line stallion for transport to Jeju Island.

In his message he wrote: "Every effort should be made to ensure the safety of the horses during transport."

(End of Chapter)