Chapter 580 – Northern Border Horse Plague (7)
Due to the unique nature of war horses, most stallions are castrated; gelded war horses are much more docile and easier to train, making them convenient to manage.
A few select quality stallions are kept to serve as breeding sires, ensuring the birth of the finest offspring.
The current king of the Northern Border isn’t exactly renowned for his wisdom and martial prowess, but he harbors ambition and is open to counsel. Following the advice of the “wise,” he consolidated business alliances, keeping the horse farm resources firmly under the royal court’s control, preventing the easy sale of war horses.
This decision mitigated external commercial impacts, boosting domestic competitive capacities, while simultaneously increasing the Northern Border’s military strength and the royal court’s authority. In the past, anyone with money could easily buy quality war horses from the Northern Border’s farms, but that is no longer the case.
To provide better war horses for the Northern Border’s soldiers and enhance overall combat capabilities, the Northern Border Royal Court allocates funds each year to buy the legendary horses from Shalan Kingdom, then rents these horses out to major horse farms, ensuring that the second-generation war horses cannot be sold.
With the three clans of the Northern Border primarily relying on cavalry for military strength, their battle power surged rapidly using this method.
Before the fall of the Great Xia Dynasty, the three clans of the Northern Border considered Great Xia their suzerain, acting as a vassal state, paying tribute yearly and proclaiming their allegiance.
Now that Great Xia has fallen, the Nine Provinces are divided into five nations.
Previously, the same vassal states as the three clans—South Barbarians—destroyed the Southern Prosperity Kingdom’s royal family a year ago, seizing half its territory and transforming from a vassal state to dominion over its former suzerain. This boosted the confidence of the three clans, fueling their ambitions even further.
If the South Barbarians can achieve this, why not the three clans of the Northern Border?
Dongqing is in turmoil with constant internal strife, presenting an excellent opportunity for the Northern Border to invade the Central Plains and seize control over the world!
In order to cultivate more fighting strength, the Northern Border Royal Court has steadily increased the number of legendary horses purchased from Shalan Kingdom each year.
Initially, it was just one or two to test the waters, but now it’s often more than a dozen or even twenty.
This year, they planned to purchase thirty-five horses, but unfortunately, some died during the journey due to the unfamiliar environment.
Nevertheless, the Northern Border still bought nineteen legendary horses, distributing them according to the size of each horse farm.
Then—
According to the usual practice, the horse farm began to breed the stallions and mares. Given the excellent management of the farm and the favorable climate in the Northern Border, the mares are continuously in heat, while the legendary horses sent from Shalan Kingdom are around four years old—just the right age for breeding.
The rented legendary horses from the Northern Border Royal Court are on a time limit, and the farm cannot afford to waste any.
Every year at this time, the farm is bustling with activity.
Of course, the busy ones are the slaves tending to the horses.
They only have rare moments to gather in small groups and whisper among themselves.
“Have you guys noticed something strange—these legendary horses seem particularly weak this year?”
Another slave replied, “It’s probably the unfamiliar environment. Besides, last year they were sent in spring and summer. This year they arrived late, so it’s natural they seem off.”
“That’s true—”
Being a breeding stallion isn’t easy, with hundreds of suitable mares, but the farm only got one or two legendary horses to work with. That sounds exhausting!
After about half a month, the slaves caring for the legendary horses were horrified to find one of them inexplicably collapsed on the ground.
They called for a vet, only to discover that the legendary horse was gravely ill.
“It was just fine before! How could this happen—”
The slaves were sweating bullets, their teeth chattering in fear.
As slaves of the horse farm, they were worth less than a single strand of mane from a legendary horse.
Now, with this precious legendary horse falling ill, they know they could face dire consequences!
Even worse, the sick legendary horse started coughing up blood, with its skin showing signs of bruising.
The farm suspected that the slaves had secretly harmed the legendary horse in a fit of anger, and they were furious, immediately punishing a batch of slaves.
Despite the vet’s desperate attempts to treat it, the horse ultimately died.
The corpse quickly began to rot and stink, attracting a swarm of insects and flies.
A single legendary horse is worth around four to five hundred thousand coins; losing one means a massive financial blow that’s hard to swallow!
Since these legendary horses were rented from the Northern Border Royal Court, the farm holds full responsibility for the losses.
In the end, as the investigation progressed, none of the slaves tending to the legendary horses would escape blame, and they were all cruelly executed, buried alongside the horse.
The Northern Border’s three clans practice sky burials, and when the legendary horse was examined by the vet and deemed to have died from a strange sickness, it too was given a sky burial.
This seemed to mark the beginning; just half a month after the first legendary horse’s demise, news came from another farm that yet another legendary horse had fallen gravely ill.
The symptoms of the second sick horse were identical to those of the first.
The Northern Border had never experienced a horse plague, so it never crossed their minds that these two sick horses could be linked. Even if it did, they would likely dismiss the idea.
From what they understood, horses infected with horse plague typically show symptoms within a week, and in acute cases, severe signs can appear in as little as one or two days.
They had only heard about horse plague from horse dealers in Shalan Kingdom; there was no such thing in the Northern Border.
The legendary horses had traveled thousands of miles from Shalan Kingdom, taking nearly a year to arrive, and after more than half a month of breeding in the Northern Border, they showed no signs of sickness, perhaps just a bit lethargic. If it were horse plague, they would have died in droves, right?
Little did they know, horse plague comes in different varieties.
The horse plague from Shalan Kingdom is acute, with symptoms manifesting within half a month of infection, and a mortality rate exceeding ninety percent.
However, the source of the current plague is not Shalan Kingdom but rather the journey itself; even the horse dealers there are unaware of when they contracted it.
The incubation period can be long, ranging from one to four months depending on the horse’s health and resistance.
Of course, once symptoms appear, it means the condition has already deteriorated beyond remedy.
Take the first legendary horse that died; its organs were almost filled with bruises and toxic fluid, and its skin was mottled with large areas of bruising.
Thus, the farm’s owner began to suspect that the slaves had vented their anger on the legendary horse, causing it severe internal injuries.
More importantly, the corpses of these sick horses must be cremated; otherwise, the insects and flies will spread infection to other hosts.
Hosts such as horses, mules, and donkeys are all susceptible, particularly pregnant mares and weak foals.
With one horse falling ill, it naturally followed that a second and third would follow in quick succession.
At this moment, the breeding season at the farm is nearing its end.
The consecutive deaths of legendary horses have drawn serious attention from the Northern Border Royal Court, prompting the king to order a thorough investigation into the matter.
At this point, everyone belatedly remembered the horse dealers from Shalan Kingdom, but those folks had already departed two months ago with their payment.
Before they could uncover the truth, more dire news arrived from the farm—the nineteen high-priced horses had all perished without a single survivor.
Each of the nineteen legendary horses was priced between four hundred and fifty to six hundred thousand coins; for them, the royal court had allocated at least ten million coins in gold and jewels. Now, with them all dead just after one round of breeding, who will take accountability for this loss?
In the face of this disaster, the king of the Northern Border roared in anger.
“Did the Shalan Kingdom sell us these nineteen sick horses as if they were healthy? Are they trying to swindle our money?”
