Chapter 811

The wind on the grasslands made Dolgor’s golden tent flutter.

Inside the golden tent, Geltu’s words received the approval of most of the banner chiefs. Continuous defeats had caused them to lose confidence.

They could no longer bear the loss of tribal cavalry. After all, besides the Great Yu Empire, they also faced the threat of the Ottoman Empire in the Western Regions. And in the north of the grasslands, there were also some small tribes coveting the grasslands, known as Tatars. The ancestors of these people came from Persia and had always lived near the North Sea.

Closing his eyes in contemplation for a long time, Dolgor gradually calmed down. Despite his deep dislike for Geltu, he admitted that Geltu’s words were correct.

The cities occupied by the Great Yu Empire could not be recaptured by them. And losing the cities meant losing most of their slaves and tribesmen.

He believed that the Great Yu Empire would take advantage of this great victory to continue conquering the remaining three cities before winter, and with their current military strength, he was completely powerless to stop them.

Moreover, for him, a more threatening person than the Great Yu Empire’s Emperor had emerged: Geltu.

Lost cities could be recaptured by them, but if the Golden Tent Khanate fractured internally, their glory would become a thing of the past.

Clearly, Geltu was now challenging his authority. If he were to commit the tribe to war with the Great Yu Empire again, Geltu would very likely rebel and seize his position as Khan.

After all, the sons who were qualified to inherit his position as Khan were all dead.

So, for him, the most important thing now was to win over the banner chiefs of these tribes. And to win them over, he had to follow their wishes.

After a long silence, Dolgor said, “You are right. I will no longer send my tribesmen to their deaths. But now the Great Yu Empire is pressing closer step by step. What should we do?”

“Migrate west. Now, we should migrate west,” a banner chief said. “Next, the Great Yu Empire will attack Raozhou. Shengdu is too close to Raozhou. Now we must migrate west. The grasslands are our homeland.”

Dolgor sighed. In fact, nomadic tribes on the grasslands had never looked down on the tribesmen who farmed in the six cities.

In their view, only those who lived on horseback were noble.

“Order all tribesmen in Raozhou, Jianzhou, and Yingzhou to withdraw from the cities, and burn the cities to the ground. Leave nothing for the Great Yu Empire,” Geltu said sternly.

Dolgor nodded. Without the protection of the cavalry, these three cities simply could not withstand the Great Yu Empire’s attack.

Continued resistance would only allow the Great Yu Empire to gain more tribesmen and slaves. He knew very well what the Great Yu Empire had done to their tribesmen after occupying the cities.

“Dolan, you are to immediately go to Jianzhou. Baru, you are to immediately go to Yingzhou. Utu, you are to immediately go to Raozhou. Tell the tribesmen to burn the cities, kill any slaves who refuse to leave, and leave nothing for the Great Yu Empire,” Dolgor said bitterly.

The three Golden Tent Khanate soldiers responded and left.

The banner chiefs nodded in satisfaction upon hearing this. Although this was a result none of them wished to see, it was clear that they currently had no ability to stop the Great Yu Empire army’s attack on the three cities below them.

On the grasslands, they moved with the water and grass. Facing threats, they could migrate at any time. But cities were different; they couldn’t take the cities with them.

Geltu had intended to use this matter to unite the banner chiefs against Dolgor, but now Dolgor’s decision left him with no excuse. He gently snorted, looking at Dolgor with defiance in his eyes.

In his heart, the current plight of the Golden Tent Khanate was all caused by Dolgor. He was no longer fit to be the Great Khan of the Golden Tent Khanate.

However, the banner chiefs who supported Dolgor were still numerous. Directly confronting him now would bring no benefit. But he would not give up. On the grasslands, their Grey Hawk Tribe was powerful.

…

Qingzhou Province.

After three days of continuous drizzle, the weather gradually cleared, and the common people, worried that their grain would rot in the fields, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The Qingzhou provincial office then issued orders to the production teams in various prefectures and counties, instructing them to quickly harvest to avoid unnecessary losses.

Although the imperial court had now opened up private commerce to the common people, the Great Yu Empire had never relaxed its regulation of various industries. Freedom needed restraint; otherwise, boundless freedom would only lead to disaster and national turmoil.

Xiao Ming saw this very clearly. Therefore, the Great Yu Empire’s economy was not a completely free market economy now. Behind the free circulation, Xiao Ming always kept a hand.

Beyond industry and commerce, Xiao Ming naturally did not let agriculture develop wildly. The current situation of the Great Yu Empire was not yet suitable for the common people to do as they pleased. In fact, during times of national difficulty, the state often implemented planned economies, as the New Deal during World War II fully demonstrated.

During this period, the United States abandoned its previously adopted liberal economic policies and began to systematically intervene in certain areas of the market economy. The centralized economy at this time exerted its powerful advantages.

Precisely because of this consideration, Xiao Ming believed that the most suitable approach for the Great Yu Empire, currently recovering from a multitude of difficulties, was a combination of centralized economy and free market. Only when the Great Yu Empire reached a preliminary level of prosperity like Europe would he gradually let go.

“Your Majesty, I must say this machinery department was established just in time. This spring plowing, we first had this horse-powered drill seeder, which increased the efficiency of cultivation in the plantations by twentyfold. Now we also have a horse-powered harvester, and the saved slaves can completely open up twenty more plantations,” Zhan Xingchang said, accompanying Xiao Ming on a walk through the fields.

It was almost June, the season when wheat ripened. Outside Qingzhou City, the golden wheat fields were a delightful sight, and many common people were already harvesting in the fields.

Every year during the harvest season, Xiao Ming would visit the farmlands and plantations around Qingzhou City. Each time he saw these grains, his heart felt a little more at ease.

If judged by contemporary standards, most of the Great Yu Empire’s regions were below the poverty line. These regions were very fragile. Once a natural or man-made disaster occurred, production could decrease or even completely fail, which would be a disaster.

Looking at the horse-powered harvester pulled by three horses in the field, Xiao Ming said, “That is why I often say that technology is productivity. What used to require twenty people to do can now be accomplished by just two.”

As he spoke, Xiao Ming and Zhan Xingchang descended into the fields.

This was the imperial court’s plantation. What was being used in the fields now was an early model of a horse-drawn disc cutter harvester. Compared to the common people who used sickles to cut wheat stalk by stalk.

This horse-drawn disc harvester could cut wheat in swathes. The people behind only needed to bundle the wheat and pull it back to the threshing ground.

For this type of harvester, the time to harvest one mu of wheat was usually the time it took for a horse to walk back and forth, which was about an hour.

But if it were to be harvested by common people, fifty people would be needed to achieve this effect.