I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 410 Returning to Beijing in Victory
On the grassland, it takes 20 acres of grassland to feed one sheep. A herdsman family of 4-5 people needs 300-400 sheep to feed the whole family. So a herdsman family needs 6000-8000 acres of grassland for grazing. This is why nomadic people must be nomadic, because such a large number of livestock can quickly eat up all the grass in one place.

If a herdsman's family eats meat every day, they will have to eat at least 100 sheep a year. With the animal husbandry technology and conditions in ancient times, they would soon run out of food. After all, a foot-and-mouth disease or a cold winter would kill more than half of the cattle and sheep, not to mention that ordinary herdsmen had to pay taxes with live sheep. Therefore, Mongolian herdsmen seldom kill sheep for food. They only kill sheep for food during important festivals and when VIPs come. Even if they do kill sheep, they will give priority to ewes that cannot get pregnant, too many rams, and weak sheep that cannot survive the winter.

Therefore, meat has never been the staple food of nomadic peoples. The staple food of nomadic peoples is dairy products and grains.

If the Mongols could eat meat every day, why would they go through so much trouble to move south?
The productivity of nomadic peoples is still much lower than that of agricultural peoples, and the grasslands are still too barren.
It is precisely because of this that the Ming army captured only more than 50,000 Mongols but harvested more than 4 million livestock, among which sheep accounted for the vast majority, while cattle and horses accounted for a relatively small proportion.

Such a large number of cattle and sheep directly overwhelmed the Ming cavalry. Not to mention that they had never let sheep go before joining the army, even if they had let sheep go, they would be helpless in the face of such a large number of livestock.

But regardless of these livestock, more than 4 million livestock is a huge fortune in any era. In the Ming Dynasty, a sheep was worth half a tael of silver, which is one silver coin. These more than 4 million livestock can be worth 5 or 6 million silver coins, which is enough for all their military expenses for this attack.
If these livestock are not properly cared for, they will soon die or scatter on a large scale. In addition, spring and summer are the peak seasons for epidemics. If one is not careful, a lot of these livestock will be lost. After all, a fortune does not count as fur.

Moreover, after discussing with his generals, Zhu Houzhao felt that these more than 4 million livestock would be of great help in their establishment in Hetao. After all, the dairy products produced by these livestock every day could become an important supplement to military rations. The lactose intolerance of the Chinese was just a lie made up by later generations. The Ming army was also accustomed to eating dairy products. A large amount of dairy products could reduce the pressure on logistics, which was very important for their next move.

So these more than 4 million livestock blocked the attack of the Ming cavalry. They began to drive the captives to herd these livestock. After receiving the news, other Mongolian tribes in the Hetao area had to drive their skinny cattle and sheep away from the Ming army. Many female animals had miscarriages and many livestock died.
The Mongols had no choice. Spring was the weakest time for nomadic peoples. They could not organize a counterattack at this time. Even if they did, it would delay their work in the spring and make it difficult for them to survive in the winter.
The news of victory soon reached the capital. After receiving the news, Zhu Houxuan immediately sent more than 5,000 immigrants and more than 1,000 prisoners to Hetao to start reclamation.

By the way, they also selected 3,000 Mongolian prisoners who had been reformed better from the Battle of Yingzhou and sent them to Hetao.

Zhu Houxun suggested using these Mongolian captives to establish a new nomadic order near Hetao, allocating pastures to these captives, asking them to help with grazing, allowing them to select captured Mongolian women and children to form new families, and using ideas and interests to bind these 3,000 reformed Mongolian captives and make them the Ming army's vassal army in the Hetao area. After all, the consumption of 50,000 Ming cavalry in the Hetao area was still too high, and it was impossible to station so many Ming cavalry in the Hetao area all the time.

Zhu Houzhao returned to the capital on the eighth day of March. This time he only brought back 10,000 cavalry and 30,000 infantry. His return was strongly requested by Zhu Houxuan.

One was to celebrate Zhu Houzhao's victory; the other was that Zhu Houxuan wanted to use this great victory to solve the problem of the Beijing camp.

The result of the Hetao Battle proved that Zhu Houzhao's victory was not a fluke, which made Zhu Houzhao's reputation even greater, giving Zhu Houxun a chance to take advantage of the situation.

Anyway, Jiang Jiangong and Jiang Bin are in charge of the Hetao affairs, so the Mongols can't make any trouble.

"Brother, if you hadn't said that we should hold another victory parade, I wouldn't have been willing to come back from the front line," Zhu Houzhao said to Zhu Houxun in a somewhat arrogant tone. "I know that my brother has many military affairs in Hetao, but there are also many affairs in the capital, and my brother is needed to stay in the capital to deter the villains," Zhu Houxun said hurriedly.

"Okay, stop saying these polite words." Zhu Houzhao waved his hand casually and said.

"The Battle of Hetao was so exciting! I want to tell my brother about it today!" Zhu Houzhao suddenly became excited and began to talk about the Battle of Hetao incessantly.

Zhu Houxuan listened patiently to Zhu Houzhao's story.

"My staff and I simulated all possible scenarios before the battle. All the reactions of the Mongols were within our expectations. It feels so good to be able to predict the enemy from thousands of miles away."

"There was just one thing we didn't expect. We didn't expect to seize so many livestock. More than four million livestock is too scary. The young men of the Guards were almost worried to death. But the young men ate enough mutton."

"."

Zhu Houzhao spoke for a full hour before he stopped with satisfaction.

"What your Majesty said was so wonderful that it made my blood boil. I also have a strategy for governing the Hetao area that I want to share with you," Zhu Houxuan said as he took out a map.

"Oh?" Zhu Houzhao was curious and came over to look at the map.

This is a map of the Hetao River, painted in several colors, with a name written on each color.
"Shuofang Prefecture, Jiuyuan Prefecture, Yunzhong Prefecture, Hexi Prefecture" Zhu Houzhao read out the names softly.
Zhu Houxuan was about to start introducing himself but was interrupted by Zhu Houzhao, "Wait, why do these names sound so familiar to me?" Zhu Houzhao tapped his head.

"Brother, why don't you change 'zhou' to 'jun' and read it again." Zhu Houxuan said with a smile.

"Shuofang County, Emperor Wu of Han? Jiuyuan County. I remember that in the Three Kingdoms story, Lü Bu was from Jiuyuan County. Yunzhong County. What a beautiful name. I can't remember it. Oh, right, the Yunzhong in 'Holding the imperial seal to Yunzhong, when will Feng Tang be sent?'? Is that it? Hexi County. I really can't remember it." Zhu Houzhao pondered for a while.
(End of this chapter)