After Transmigration: Building a Kingdom in Turbulent Times-Chapter 915 - 901: Request for Cattle

Liu Kun was still enthusiastically greeting Zhao Hanzhang, unaware of the attention, and seeing Zhao Hanzhang’s gaze on the vegetable shoots, he casually suggested, "These vegetables are fresh and tender, with a slightly sweet taste, quite unique. Would you like to try them, Hanzhang?"

Zhao Hanzhang smiled at Liu Kun but didn’t eat the vegetable shoots, instead picking up the beef from the plate beside, asking, "Is there still beef to eat at this time?"

Liu Kun burst into hearty laughter, "This is Bingzhou. Bingzhou has grasslands where herdsmen raise quite a few cattle and sheep, so there’s no shortage of beef or mutton."

Zhao Hanzhang sighed upon hearing this, "It’s different in the Central Plains. We’re very short on cattle. Every spring ploughing season, I’m troubled by the hardships people face with pulling plows and unloading goods."

Most of the cattle on the grasslands are yellow cattle, primarily grassland cattle and Qin Chuan cattle. Cattle in pastoral areas are mainly for dairy and meat production, but some are chosen to bear the burden of transporting goods and migrating;

Not every herdsman can use horses to pull carts; most still rely on cattle as the primary driving force.

In agricultural areas, cattle are mainly used for labor.

Cattle from both sides have commonalities. With some training, beef cattle can be used as draft cattle for farming.

Over the past four years, Zhao Hanzhang and Liu Kun have cooperated on horses, sheep, and also cattle, but the focus of trade has always been on horses. Now they realize, their scope could be broader, cattle trade could also be vigorously developed.

Not having asked about their number of cattle this time, Zhao Hanzhang straightforwardly asks, "So many herdsmen raise cattle and sheep in the territory? How many households are there, and what’s the average number of livestock per household? If one-year-old cattle are the target, how many could they produce annually?"

Liu Kun could answer all these questions and realized Zhao Hanzhang’s focal point, smiling, "If Hanzhang likes cattle, I’ll give you a batch when you leave. But one-year-old beef is too tender, not much flavor, it should be raised longer."

Zhao Hanzhang: "...I plan to use them as draft cattle."

Such a decent person, understanding civilian life, why not think it through more?

Liu Kun said, "Then one-year-old cattle are too small, they should be two years old."

Zhao Hanzhang: "From Bingzhou to Yu State, with cattle driving, it takes at least two months, if delayed on the road, three or four months is normal, by the time they are distributed to people through various departments, they’d be about one and a half years old, raise them a bit more and train them, they’d be around two years."

So one-year-old cattle are the best, both from the perspective of service life and cost.

Since Liu Kun is so generous now, Zhao Hanzhang wants to take this opportunity to agree on the price of cattle. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

But Liu Kun feels at this moment he just wants to enjoy music, not very interested in this, and seeing Zhao Hanzhang so persistent about cattle, simply waved his hand generously, "When Hanzhang leaves, I’ll gift you one thousand cattle."

A thousand cattle, even if it’s one cattle per three households, it could solve the draft cattle problem for three thousand households.

Zhao Hanzhang gladly accepted, so seamlessly didn’t bring up the issue again, focusing on enjoying the food and drink.

Zhao Hanzhang didn’t touch the plate with vegetable shoots, only ate the other dishes; seeing this, all members of the Zhao Family Army followed suit and dared not touch the vegetable shoots.

In the eyes of the opposing Jinyang faction officials, it appeared the Zhao Family Army particularly favored meat and didn’t like vegetables.

Bingzhou’s pastures are extensive, officials never lack meat, but vegetables are scarce. Seeing this makes them think the Zhao Family Army doesn’t appreciate that vegetables are the best tasting, how come they only eat meat?

Especially these small vegetable shoots, not everyone can afford them, they’re expensive outside, and even with money, sometimes can’t buy them.

People from the Zhao Family Army internally complained about the Jinyang officials on the opposite side, acting as if they’ve never had greens before. If you’re capable, put more vegetable dishes on the table.

They follow the governor, eating less of other things, but can they eat less vegetables?

At the banquet, not only were there delicious dishes but also fine wine, and servants entered in a line, serving drinks at each table, Zhao Hanzhang and Liu Kun’s table was different, even using glass cups.

Liu Kun added, "These glass cups are brought from Yu State."

Zhao Hanzhang was generous too, "If Yue Shi likes them, I’ll send you eight or ten sets later, all exquisite glass cups, hard to come by even in Yu State."

Such a gift, in Liu Kun’s view, was more precious than his one thousand cattle. As a straightforward character, he didn’t want to lose to a friend in this regard, immediately said, "Then I’ll give you two jars of fine wine, would that be good?"

Zhao Hanzhang while pouring the clear, fruity grape wine from the jug, said, "I don’t love wine, but cattle more."