Chapter 297: Receiving the Horses

The claims about “exceptionally high bone density” and the Japanese dissecting “Haenyeo” to discover that their resistance to cold and ability to dive for long periods were related to their long-term consumption of “dwarf horse bone powder” were, in Feng Zongze’s opinion, nothing more than “stories” to trick tourists into buying health products.

Feng Zongze had owned a small pharmacy and held a pharmacist’s license. He knew that from a purely calcium supplementation perspective, there was little difference in the effectiveness of bone powder, whether it came from horses, pigs, or cows. The claim that the Jeju dwarf horse had particularly high bone density and was especially good for calcium supplementation was just a way to inflate its price.

Although the dwarf horse had its advantages, being more convenient for use in mountainous terrain, its excessively small size and limited carrying capacity made it an impractical draft and riding horse.

The Mongols had introduced their own horse breeds to improve the island’s stock and make them suitable for riding and draft purposes. They had no need, nor was it possible, to specifically preserve and breed a dwarf horse with limited utility.

The Joseon court required Jeju Island to contribute horses annually for the army, post stations, and ceremonial use. The dwarf horse was useless in all these aspects. Therefore, although the Jeju dwarf horse might have been preserved, it would not have been the mainstream breed on the island’s pastures.

“Your analysis makes sense. I also think the horses I’ve seen are typical Mongolian horses,” Nick said. “I want to start putting together a team right away to conduct a screening of the existing horses.”

“No problem,” Feng Zongze, himself a horse enthusiast, readily agreed. “You can choose the location—but you have to ensure its safety. You can also choose the horses and the men.”

“I’ll need a translator…”

“I have a suitable person here,” Feng Zongze said and sent for Park Deok-maeng.

Unlike his brother, Park Deok-maeng did not have many “external affairs.” He mainly stayed within the military administration committee to help with clerical work and act as a translator—of course, the “brush talk” kind of translation. But young people learn languages easily, and since he knew Chinese characters, he could soon communicate with them in simple Mandarin.

“I know you rarely go out in Lin’gao, and Gaoshanling is a green zone, so it’s fine for you to go out with a few apprentices without weapons or guards. But this is a purple zone. I have to ensure your safety.”

Inside the city walls was a blue zone, and only within the county magistrate’s office was it a green zone. Basically, as soon as a Senator left the confines of the Jeju city walls, they were entering a dangerous area where they had to carry weapons. Feng Zongze knew that Nick disliked pomp and ceremony and hated armed guards, so he gave him a special reminder.

“Those few Japanese soldiers are enough to protect me.”

Afterward, led by Park Deok-maeng, they inspected several locations inside and outside Jeju town. Jeju town had a very large horse enclosure—every year, after the “sealing and presenting of tribute horses,” the selected horses were driven here to await their sea journey.

Because in the peak years, up to 700 horses had to be presented as tribute, a horse enclosure capable of holding over a thousand horses had been built outside the city. But after a site inspection, Nick was rather disappointed. The enclosure was very rudimentary—so rudimentary that it could hardly be called a “building.” It was just an open-air fence. The muddy ground, trampled by the horses, was bare and looked very desolate. There were some facilities like water troughs and reservoirs. Since it was early in the year, and the tribute horse presentation was still more than half a year away, there were no horses here, and even the fence was incomplete, with large sections missing and other parts in disrepair. The only roofed building was the residence of the enclosure’s keepers.

The official in charge of the horse enclosure, the pasture clerk, told Nick that this was just a temporary enclosure. The horses that had passed inspection were only kept here for a few days until the weather and sea conditions were suitable for them to set off for Jocheonpo, where they would be loaded onto ships for the mainland.

As for roofed stables, they were only found at the post station, the garrison headquarters, and the barracks.

Nick listened carefully to the pasture clerk’s introduction through the translator, asking a few questions from time to time. He was particularly concerned about the winter fodder reserves.

Jeju did store some fodder like hay, but the quantity was not large. It was mainly for the official horses of the Jeju garrison, the local garrison, and the post station.

Nick inspected the fodder storehouse and was disappointed to find that not only was the hay stock limited, but there was also almost no concentrated feed. No wonder the horses he had seen along the way were in poor condition, with significant weight loss.

Next, he inspected the various confiscated official horses. Most of these were the horses of the Jeju garrison.

“How many horses are there now?” Nick asked with a frown, looking at the listless horses in the enclosure and the mess of manure-filled, unchanged bedding on the ground.

A naturalized citizen cadre responsible for receiving and tending to the horses quickly reported, “Reporting, sir: a total of 195 horses, in four enclosures. There are another 40 at Jocheonpo.”

“How many horses have died in Jeju town since we took it?”

Seeing Nick’s grim expression, the man was frightened and stammered, “Re… re… reporting, 25 have died…”

“Why so many deaths?”

“Re… reporting, sir: the Korean pasture clerk said that many horses die every winter…”

“Bastard!” Nick could no longer hold back his anger. “Just because many horses die every year, you can let many horses continue to die? What are you people here for?!”

The naturalized citizen cadre was so scared he shrank back, not daring to say a word. If he hadn’t received enough education, he might have knelt down and shouted things like “This humble one deserves to die, my lord, spare my life!”

Seeing his pale face and trembling body, Nick’s heart softened.

“Forget it. You’re not a professional. It was a mistake to put you in charge of the horse enclosure in the first place!” He waved his hand. “Which department are you from?”

“This humble one… no, I’m from the Planning Institute’s Special Search Task Force…”

So he was from the Planning Institute. No wonder he’s guarding the horses—horses are also spoils of war, Nick thought. But this group was good at confiscating property and doing statistics; asking them to take care of living creatures was a different matter.

Thinking of this, his expression softened slightly, and he asked, “What about the horse keepers? Who are they?”

“Reporting, sir: the horse keepers are all the original local grooms, government slaves from the garrison. After we finished counting and receiving the horses, they were the ones who continued to feed and care for them.”

“And the men?” Nick found this a bit strange. Since they had kept on the specialized grooms, although these men were unprofessional and had many bad habits, cleaning the enclosures, changing the bedding, and grooming the horses were the usual duties of a groom, no matter the country.

From the look of the place, the bedding hadn’t been changed for at least ten days, and the horses hadn’t been groomed for many days either.

“They were conscripted to build houses two weeks ago,” the cadre from the Planning Institute said in a low voice. “They go during the day and come back at night to feed the horses and give them water…”

“Outrageous!” Nick flared up again. They were always shouting about not having enough horses, but when they actually had them, they treated them with such a careless and indifferent attitude!

He then checked the condition of the horses again. Most had lost a lot of weight—clearly, they were not being fed enough, and some showed signs of being overworked. There was no time to lose. He had to get the Korean grooms back immediately. Combined with the men he had brought, they had to quickly give the horses a chance to recover and gain weight, so they could survive the winter safely.

Nick went to see Feng Zongze, who was very accommodating and agreed to all his requests. He immediately assigned all the grooms to him and said he had already ordered all horse-related facilities and materials to be handed over to him. He then gave him a register.

As for the horse enclosure, although the one outside the city was practically non-existent, Nick thought it was better to set it up there—even though Feng Zongze believed there was enough wasteland inside the city and that the city walls would provide protection and make it easier to guard.

“No, animals like horses cannot be kept in densely populated areas,” Nick shook his head. “Besides, when the refugees arrive in large numbers, we’ll have to set up refugee camps in the city. A high density of people and horses will make both susceptible to disease.”

Although the area outside the city was not easy to defend, it was vast, and in the spring, it would be convenient to graze the horses on the wild grass nearby. There was also a river, which would make it easy to water the horses—horses consume a lot of water. If the enclosure were inside the city, water supply would become a major problem in the future.

“Alright. I’ll assign a team of guards to help you defend it,” Feng Zongze said. “I’ll arrange for the construction work immediately—you’ll have to provide the design plans.”

“That’s no problem. I’ll draw them myself.”

After the grooms who had been conscripted to build roads and houses returned, Nick appointed his apprentice, Lai Bao, as the general manager of the horse enclosure, with full responsibility for the work at the Jeju horse enclosure. He also appointed the stockmen he had brought with him as team leaders.

“You know what to do. Drill what I’ve taught you into their heads,” Nick instructed. “First things first! Have these grooms take a good bath and go through the full purification process! Horses are clean animals!”

Lai Bao immediately set to work, directing the grooms to clean out the enclosures, change the bedding, and groom the horses. He also separated the horses in the enclosures one by one, putting those with severe weight loss, injuries, illnesses, or old age into separate enclosures for targeted feeding and treatment.

Nick personally questioned the grooms and studied the horse mortality rates over the years. Because these were all official horses, each horse had a corresponding “horse file,” which recorded its work status, feed quota, illnesses, and deaths.

In general, the mortality rate of the horses was highest in the winter—directly related to overwork, insufficient fattening in the autumn, and a lack of fodder in the winter.

Nick discovered that the garrison headquarters and barracks had very limited reserves of hay for the winter and rarely stored concentrated feed. They often drove the horses into the wild to forage for dry grass themselves. The winters on Jeju Island were relatively mild, and the snow was not thick. There was a lot of dry grass in the wild. This feeding method was low-cost but too extensive. If the horses were not sufficiently fattened in the autumn and were overworked in the winter, they would easily lose weight and die.

This practice was actually very similar to that of nomadic pastoralists’ herd horses. The problem was that the nomads’ horses were generally not worked in the winter, so a poorer and scarcer diet was generally manageable. But for official and military horses that were frequently worked, it was not nutritious enough.