Chapter 316: Nick's Career (Part 1)

In the seed collection room of the farm's biological laboratory, Hu Yicheng held a glass jar filled with semen, capped it tightly, and placed it carefully into an enamel pot filled with ice cubes. It would be sent for sperm motility testing shortly.

Ice cubes were precious commodities, produced by a freezer. Freezers and refrigerators were luxury items of the highest order in this era; apart from those aboard the Feng City, only the Demonstration Farm and Bairen General Hospital possessed them.

Yet this semen was even more precious—freshly collected from a Tieling draft stallion, quite possibly the only Tieling draft horse in this entire timeline. The Ministry of Agriculture was preparing to use it to inseminate the department's mares, thereby expanding the breed's population. Yang Baogui scoffed at allowing animals to mate naturally—such breeding efficiency was far too low. The studs would simply have to endure the indignity of "being milked." For the past several days, everyone in the biological department had been occupied with this work: first a boar, then a stallion, then a jackass... Only poultry like roosters and drakes had thus far escaped this fate. A group of grown men desperately assisting animals with the process—not only were the animals depressed, but so were the men.

With spring's arrival, Yang Baogui had been laboring tirelessly at the Demonstration Farm to increase the animal population. The situation demanded it. The transmigrators' resources were limited; the semen of various improved livestock breeds, stored in liquid nitrogen tanks in the ship's cold storage, couldn't be preserved indefinitely. Suitable mothers had to be found as quickly as possible. Several local yellow cattle were already pregnant with Dutch Holstein calves. The day when transmigrators could enjoy milk in abundance was drawing near. Meanwhile, Wu Nanhai was experimenting with planting alfalfa and corn on chemically poor highlands to solve the fodder problem.

"Mr. Hu!" Someone shouted from outside the laboratory while he was absorbed in his work. The address startled him. No one here called him "Mr."—usually it was "Little Hu" or "Fox," or else indigenous staff calling him "Chief" or "Comrade." "Mr." probably meant that Australian. He went out to look. Sure enough, it was Nick, emanating his customary aura of horse manure.

"Your transfer order!" Nick thrust a piece of paper into his hand. Hu Yicheng was baffled—he hadn't applied for any transfer. Life on the farm was quite pleasant; he had no intention of being stuffed somewhere else.

Opening it, he saw it was a transfer to the Pharmaceutical Factory. I don't have a background in pharmaceuticals, he thought, caught between laughter and dismay. Fortunately, the Pharmaceutical Factory was also located on the farm, so he wouldn't need to relocate. He had grown comfortable in his quarters.

"Where is Da Tie?" Da Tie—"Big Iron"—was the name the Agricultural Committee had bestowed upon the Tieling draft stallion. The mare, naturally, was called Xiao Tie—"Little Iron."

"In the shed out back. Finished with him." Hu Yicheng tucked the transfer order into his pocket and breathed a sigh of relief. On second thought, this pharmaceutical factory was jointly operated with the Ministry of Health. Perhaps there would be ample opportunities to encounter young nurses in the future. Though they were all indigenous girls, after a few months of training—dressed in those blue nurse uniforms—they looked rather appealing.

After delivering the notice, Nick hurried to check on his horse. Da Tie was led out. Despite having just been milked, the stallion showed no fatigue. Seeing Nick approach, it even snorted excitedly.

Nick patted Da Tie's neck and inspected the animal for injuries before slowly leading it toward the stable.

Walking along the cinder-paved road, gazing at the high A-frame roof of the stable in the distance and the horses grazing and drinking on the grass before it, Nick felt a profound contentment. He couldn't help drifting into memory.

It had happened shortly after the farm's completion, when Yang Baogui had gathered all the scattered livestock and driven them to the new facility. Among them was Nick's beloved retired racehorse, Alanchi—Blue Lightning had already died in the chaos of the initial landing. Nick had mourned privately for several nights.

Since handing the horses over to the Agricultural Committee, he had worried about them constantly. After Blue Lightning's death, he had run to the temporary horse pen every few days. When he heard the horses had been relocated to the farm at Bairen, he rushed over to inspect them.

Following someone's directions, Nick quickly found the nascent farm. In the crude stable, he discovered his treasure alongside several other horses of varying sizes and breeds—as well as Ye Yuming, who was observing them with a distinctly troubled expression. Clearly the man didn't understand these large animals.

"I've already troubled everyone enough. I'm very happy that you and Mr. Nanhai have found this shelter for them. Thank you very much." As a token of gratitude, he produced two boxes containing twenty bottles of "Ten Drops Water" from his satchel and handed them over.

"I apologize—normally I'd be embarrassed to offer such things, but this is all I can do at the moment. These are highly effective for preventing and relieving heatstroke. For people working under the scorching sun every day, they'll certainly prove useful. Also—" He suddenly remembered something and extracted several small bags from his luggage. "—soybean seeds, oat grains, millet, corn, and radish seeds I brought with me. These are essential feed for horses and pigeons. I'm not skilled at farming, so I'll rely on you and Nanhai to cultivate them here."

"This..." Ye Yuming looked uncomfortable. It wasn't that he minded the trouble, but he knew nothing about raising horses. Asking him to care for these animals would be risking their lives. Yang Baogui had emphasized how delicate horses could be.

"Actually, I think you should come and raise the horses yourself," Ye Yuming suggested. "Only Dr. Yang has any knowledge here, but he's a veterinarian and can't attend to the horses daily. You probably wouldn't feel at ease letting others feed them, either."

This was true enough. Among the five hundred or so transmigrators, only Nick could genuinely be counted as someone who knew how to raise horses. "But—" he hesitated. "—I agreed with the Military Committee to serve as their equestrian instructor. To organize cavalry."

"Equestrian instructor?" Ye Yuming said. "What sort of cavalry can you organize with just these few horses? Right now, our priority should be letting the mares produce more foals to expand the herd, shouldn't it?"

Nick considered this and conceded the point. So he returned to the Executive Committee and negotiated. Thus, besides his position as "General Instructor of Cavalry," he acquired a new title: "General Manager of Horse Husbandry." He ended up spending far more time at the farm than with the New Army—running himself ragged for the horses earned him the nickname "Horse Maniac" among certain wits.

Nick's taking exclusive charge of horse husbandry was precisely what Wu Nanhai had hoped for. He'd been worrying about what to do with the pair of Tieling draft horses and two donkeys, let alone the horses captured in battle.

Nick soon discovered that the farm was an excellent place. It had everything and abundant supplies. More importantly, it wasn't chaotic like the beach camp or the main Bairen City. He built himself a plank house beside the horse pen. Most people would have considered the location undesirable—the smell of horse manure was omnipresent—but opening the rear window allowed him to see the stable at a glance. Next to the house, he constructed a pigeon loft. Among the animals brought aboard the Feng City, only he had brought pigeons—several dozen of them. In the chaos following D-Day, he had lost not only a horse but also several birds, including a carrier pigeon named "Phoenix Wings," which he suspected had ended up in some glutton's belly. He felt more at ease guarding these creatures himself.

Besides the pair of Tieling draft horses and his Alanchi, the stable housed three captured Dian horses. He inspected them all. Nearly every animal showed varying degrees of weight loss. Horses were sensitive creatures; adapting to unfamiliar environments took considerable time. They hadn't been well cared for in the interim. Nick's heart ached at the sight.

The Dian horses were in even worse condition, all exhibiting some degree of skin disease. Judging from the distinctive deformities of their hooves, these animals had apparently never been shod—indicating they couldn't withstand high-intensity labor. During the transport of the recent Great Migration, transmigrators who knew nothing about driving horses had caused severe wear to their hooves on the rugged roads.

Accordingly, Nick announced that horse use was suspended. While asking Yang Baogui to prepare local remedies to treat the skin diseases, he dug hoof-trimming tools from his luggage—his baggage allowance had included quite a few such items. Working by candlelight, he trimmed the hooves of these unfortunate animals through the night. Not just the native horses, either: even the horses they'd brought with them hadn't had their hooves scraped since landing.

The following day, he drove off Planning Committee personnel who attempted to commandeer horses for transporting goods. Nick brandished a heavy stick, declaring that anyone who wished to take the horses would have to step over his corpse first. The nickname "Horse Maniac" spread like wildfire.

That night, he caught someone attempting to steal and eat one of the pigeons. He initially intended to drag the culprit to Ran Yao, but then discovered the man was a high-ranking military leader on the Executive Committee. After the man repeatedly pledged to provide maximum support for the horse-breeding program, Nick reluctantly released him.

Nick rose early and worked until dark every day. Using a dedicated stable wheelbarrow he'd brought himself, he shoveled manure and transported fodder. He scoured the East Gate Market for miscellaneous grains suitable for horses. He searched everywhere for appropriate grazing land. He hadn't known how to shoe horses before, so he asked Yang Baogui for help. To avoid perpetually troubling others, he apprenticed himself and learned the craft. When installing a dedicated drinking channel for the stable, he visited the construction department repeatedly and supervised the work on-site day and night. During the period when miscellaneous grains were scarcest, he even reclaimed a small plot himself and had someone teach him to plant soybeans and corn.

His professional dedication moved many people. "Horse Maniac" gradually became a term of admiration. Everyone respected him: it was truly remarkable that someone who had once raced horses and lived a privileged life in Australia could accomplish so much under such arduous material conditions.

(End of Chapter)