Chapter 4

The stables and the carriage house of the Zhao family were not far apart. When Zhao Wuxi returned here and pushed open the gate, the stable boys and herdsmen, who were grooming and feeding the horses, all stopped their work and greeted him with respect.

"Little Master is back."

Perhaps due to the storytelling of the past few days, they looked at Zhao Wuxi as if he were an idol, their eyes sparkling. Over the past ten days, Zhao Wuxi had become someone who could command a hundred men with a single call, and he felt that only here did he feel the most relaxed and at ease.

Zhao Wuxi waved his hand, "Xi, Xia, come over."

Commoners and bondsmen usually had only names, no surnames, and were named according to their professions, so they were called Xi the Stable Boy and Xia the Herdsman.

"Little Master, what do you need from us?"

Zhao Wuxi's gaze lingered on the two of them. Over the past few days, he had secretly observed and found these two to be potential "talents" to cultivate.

Xi, the young boy who had curiously asked Zhao Wuxi where the State of Qi was, was a horse herder, thin and agile like a monkey, smart and nimble. Xia, the cattle herder, was broad-shouldered and strong, with a loyal and honest face, and his strength could topple a calf.

"I want you two to be my deputies and go to Mianshang for the hunt!"

Xi and Xia exchanged glances, their eyes filled with disappointment.

"Little Master, don't joke around. We are just lowly bondsmen, not warriors, and we can't ride in chariots!"

Zhao Wuxi placed his hands on their shoulders, "This is no joke. Although I am now alone, if I become wealthy and powerful in the future, I will never forget you! A gentleman's promise is as binding as a four-horse chariot!"

Although he was now just a commoner with nothing, in a few years, with the Zhao family's name, he could at least become a village magistrate, equivalent to a knight with a fief in medieval Europe.

He could spend his life hunting, feasting, and sleeping with his wife in the manor, occasionally pretending to plow the fields during the spring plowing, and be praised by the village elders as a wise and good lord.

Of course, he would also have to fulfill certain obligations, providing military taxes to his lord, the head of the Zhao family, and, when summoned, bringing the village's soldiers to serve the lord.

The Spring and Autumn period was a class society, and Xi and Xia were at the bottom of the social hierarchy, slaves and servants for generations, dealing with cattle and horses. If they became Zhao Wuxi's first "deputies," they would naturally follow him to his fief as household servants, and their status and position would rise accordingly.

Seeing Zhao Wuxi's promise, the two knelt down without hesitation, bit their fingers, and smeared the blood on their lips, swearing allegiance to Wuxi before the god Taiyi. The other stable boys watched with envy and jealousy.

Zhao Wuxi quietly waited for the ceremony to end, then took the "pledge" they had pressed their blood-stained hands on a stone tablet and carefully stored it. Although he found it a bit uncomfortable, he understood that as a feudal lord, the scholar-gentry had their own dependents, and this was the survival rule of the Spring and Autumn period.

His stepfather, Zhao Yang, later even had thousands of scholars swear allegiance to him in a single event, known as the "Houma Alliance" in later generations...

After the master-servant relationship was established, Wuxi ordered without hesitation, "Pick three good horses and bring out the saddles I made these past few days. We won't ride in chariots; we'll ride horses!"

The Spring and Autumn people valued heavy chariots far more than single horses, so with Wuxi's status, he could still use a few horses. The stable and herd overseers, whose status was far below that of the chariot commander, Wangsun Qi, and who were not even formal household servants, dared not really manage Zhao Wuxi.

One reason for the lack of emphasis on single horses was that, in the Spring and Autumn period, there were no saddles, let alone stirrups.

The horses Wuxi saw in the stables already had reins and bits, but their bodies were only padded with hemp cloth, with ear-like flaps hanging down on both sides. Although simple, this prevented the rider's thighs from chafing. This was called a "jīan," and in later times, there was a poem about Mulan: "In the eastern market, she bought a fine horse; in the western market, she bought a saddle and jīan."

In the absence of saddles, riders had to straddle the bare backs of horses, holding onto the reins or the horse's mane and squeezing the horse's sides with their legs to stay on during gallops. This was unreliable, and long rides could be tiring, making it difficult to use bows effectively while on a galloping horse.

After being thrown into the stables, Wuxi did not idle. Inspired, he recalled the high-bridged saddles he had seen in the future, drew sketches, and, using local materials like oxhide, horns, and scrap copper and tin, directed the stable's craftsmen to make a few simple saddles.

After completing the saddles, he did not plan to make horseshoes, stirrups, or spurs... because these items had no technical complexity and could be easily replicated. He was a bit afraid that his small butterfly effect might benefit the northern nomadic horsemen, causing them to become a major threat to China earlier than expected, which would be disastrous.

Moreover, his current influence was limited to this small stable. He could wait until he took control of the Zhao family and acquired the fine horses from the northern regions of Ji and Yan before introducing this major innovation and fully promoting cavalry.

For now, it was just for emergency use.

Considering the snail-like pace of technological dissemination in this era, Wuxi felt more at ease. For example, in the ancient states of Jin and Lu, where farming traditions were long-standing, ox-drawn plows had already appeared, but it took three hundred years for them to spread to the southern states of Chu and Yue.

After all, commercial exchanges were not frequent, and the Rong and Di tribes scattered in the Central Plains did not primarily use cavalry; the ancient meaning of "Rong" was foot soldiers.

Soon, Xi and Xia led out three fine horses, equipped with the new "saddles" invented by their new master, and waited outside the stable. The stable boys and herdsmen had managed to gather a set of clothes without patches for the two. Although his small force was in a difficult situation, Wuxi could not form a "beggar knight order" and go out to make a laughingstock of himself.

Seeing Wuxi come out, the quick-witted Xi hurriedly approached, knelt on one knee, and fastened a short sword around his waist. The honest-faced Xia lay on the ground, arching his broad back, saying, "Master, please mount."

Wuxi shook his head slightly. No matter what, he had his principles and integrity and could not treat people like animals or stools.

He pulled Xia up and patted his broad shoulder, "Xia, you are a seven-foot-tall man. Don't always lie on the ground. You are my deputy, not my ox or horse. Let's skip this in the future."

Xia's expression actually showed disappointment... the deep-rooted nature of long-term slavery.

Wuxi did not care what Xi and Xia thought, and he leaped onto the horse's back with a hand on the saddle.

His horsemanship was good, and he had not suddenly learned it in the past ten days. In the scattered memories of this life, his silent, face-blurred Di mother often held him on the horseback and rode with him in the stables when he was very young.

It seemed that she had been scolded and insulted by the main wife for this.

So, Wuxi could ride a horse at the age of eight and shoot a short bow on horseback by his teens. In this aspect, this body indeed had great talent.

Blood ties made him very grateful to his mother in this life.

He squeezed his legs, flicked the reins, and the fine horse trotted forward. Xi and Xia, not novices, closely followed their new master, straightening their backs for the first time in front of others, both excited.

...

At this moment, Ji Ying was weaving silk in her boudoir. The best mulberry silk from Lu, bought from Tao, and the snow-white sheep's wool collected from the fields, the loom's sound filled her ears. She was making a winter coat for her brother Wuxi, embroidering the Zhao family's beloved black bird totem, so he could wear new clothes to the winter solstice banquet and the subsequent waxing sacrifice and grand archery ceremony.

At this moment, her servant rushed in with a panicked look, whispering something in Ji Ying's ear.

"What? You say Wuxi rode a horse alone, taking two bondsmen to the hunting ground?" Ji Ying bit her red lips with her white teeth, and the soft silk in her hands was twisted into a ball.

"My clumsy brother is going to cause trouble again!"