Pick up a princess to be your wife

Of the four Ferghana horses, Lin Xiong kept one of them.

He needs to do favors for the other three horses.

Such a fine horse, I suppose even the governor doesn't have one, and maybe not even the provincial governor does.

If his superiors find out in the future that he rides a better horse than those important figures, his career will be over.

So he wanted to send three horses up to the higher-ups to curry favor with them.

The governor was a newly established official position in the Da Ning Dynasty; previously, the local officials were called military governors.

The military governorship of Da Ning was abolished, and the position of provincial governor was headed by a civil official, holding the rank of second grade. The military supervisor was headed by a military official.

The military governor of the previous dynasty was only a third-rank official. But the military governor of Da Ning was a second-rank official, on par with the governor.

The governor of Hexi Circuit, named Lin Yetian, was a pillar of the Lin clan of Hexi.

Lin Yetian was an avid collector of fine horses, and he owned more than 300 of them.

Lin Xiong delivered the three horses to the governor's mansion and asked the governor to send them up the next level.

In this way, Lin Xiong not only pleased the prefect, but also the governor.

Knowing that Lin Yetian loved horses, the governor kept the worst of the three horses and sent the remaining two to Lin Yetian's residence.

Lin Yetian was overjoyed to receive two fine horses.

Upon learning that the two horses were a gift from Lin Xiong, he began to consider promoting Lin Xiong.

Although Lin Xiong is not a direct descendant of the Lin family, but only a collateral descendant, they are still of the same clan.

Lin Xiong remembered his preferences, and he couldn't let his subordinate down.

These horses are truly rare gems!

He admired the two horses as if they were beautiful women, then asked a question to a man beside him.

"Ye Xuan, shall we choose one?"

"How could I dare to take what my elder brother desires? Please keep both horses."

"After seeing these two horses, I realized that all the hundreds of horses I owned were just ordinary, substandard! This one horse is worth as many as all those hundreds of horses!"

Lin Yetian observed carefully, especially noting that one of the horses appeared particularly tall.

The horse was covered in deep red fur, with an exceptionally thick mane, making it look majestic.

But Lin Yetian was suddenly terrified.

"This, this, this!"

"Brother, what's wrong?"

"This is... Dayuan!"

Lin Yetian suddenly gasped.

"Dayuan? Is that the legendary Akhal-Teke horse? Oh, congratulations, brother! Congratulations on acquiring such a fine steed!" Lin Yexuan repeatedly cupped his hands in greeting.

"The Ferghana horses come from the Ferghana Kingdom, which was conquered by the imperial court last year. Before that, the entire Da Ning Dynasty only had one thousand Ferghana horses! And all one thousand Ferghana horses were controlled by the White Horse Army! Where did these horses come from?" Lin Yetian asked quickly.

"Well... I don't know either."

Lin Xiong only said that the good horse was given to Lin Yetian, but did not explain where the horse came from.

Lin Yetian was a little worried because this horse came from the White Horse Army.

“By the way, brother, didn’t you say that the imperial court seized hundreds of thousands of Ferghana horses from the Ferghana Kingdom? Maybe someone in the army secretly sold the horses, and after changing hands several times, they ended up in Lin Xiong’s hands. Lin Xiong knew that you loved horses, so he gave them to you,” Lin Yexuan said.

"Well, it's not impossible." Lin Yetian nodded.

If the imperial court had not launched a campaign against Dayuan, then the two warhorses before us must have come from the White Horse Army.

However, it is quite possible that some people in the army secretly sold the hundreds of thousands of horses that the court seized last year for personal gain.

"Do you know how much silver a Ferghana horse costs?" Lin Yetian asked.

"How many?"

"The starting price is 20,000 taels, and for these two horses, it'll start at 40,000 taels, maybe even higher," Lin Yetian said.

Lin Yexuan was extremely shocked to hear Lin Yetian's words.

He knew that warhorses were extremely expensive during wartime, with ordinary warhorses costing seven or eight thousand taels, or even easily tens of thousands of taels, while Ferghana horses were so rare that even with money, you couldn't buy one.

Horse prices have come down now, with ordinary warhorses costing two to three thousand taels, but the price of Ferghana horses is ten times that of ordinary warhorses!

Forty thousand taels of silver is not a large sum of money for the Lin family.

Even if Lin Xiong, the magistrate of Tongling County, bought the warhorses from others, it would still cost him at least 40,000 taels of silver.

"Do you think Lin Xiong, even if he has that much money, would be willing to spend tens of thousands of taels of silver to buy two horses for me?" Lin Yetian asked.

"This one……"

"The horses were sent by the governor's office, so they've already passed through a middleman. I estimate that the governor's office also received at least one horse from Lin Xiong."

Given Lin Xiong's personality, he might have kept one for himself as well, so conservatively speaking, Lin Xiong acquired at least four Ferghana horses.

Do you think Lin Xiong would be willing to spend 80,000 taels of silver to buy a few horses?

Lin Yetian then asked.

Thinking about it this way, let alone Lin Xiong, even if Lin Yexuan himself could come up with 80,000 taels of silver, he might not be willing to buy a few horses.

“I’m talking about a conservative price. If this warhorse is resold and the price reaches 30,000 taels, then the four horses will be worth at least 100,000 taels,” Lin Yetian added.

"Brother, what do you mean?" Lin Yexuan asked.

"These four horses are not simple. You need to investigate them quickly and find out where they came from. You must find out their background. If they were just resold, that's fine. I'm afraid they were obtained through some other channel," Lin Yetian said.

"Brother, I'll go investigate right away. These horses have a history, so finding out shouldn't be too difficult." Lin Yexuan said, then turned and left.

Looking at the two horses in front of him, Lin Yetian revealed a look of rapture.

As expected of the legendary Akhal-Teke horse, it's simply irresistible.

He only hoped that Lin Xiong had bought the four horses from a third party.

With these two horses in the stable, he felt his life was about to be perfect.

This is the BMW he's always dreamed of owning.

Seeing that the horse harness was somewhat worn, Lin Yetian immediately had it replaced with a set that he had spent a lot of money to make but had always been reluctant to use.

Now that a good horse has arrived, naturally a good horse needs a good saddle.

He couldn't wait to ride it and try it out.

Riding on a tall horse, he felt as if he were ruling the world.

After riding a horse for a while, Lin Yetian became increasingly engrossed in the ride.

This horse was much smarter than all his other horses; it could follow many commands and reacted extremely quickly.

When it runs, it's like lightning, which makes people feel proud.

As expected of the legendary Ferghana horse!

Soon after, Lin Yetian found out the exact origin of these horses.

Just as he had guessed, Lin Xiong kept one horse, and the governor's mansion kept one horse.

These four horses were seized from two traveling merchants by a foreman of the Tongling County government, without costing a single tael of silver.

Lin Yetian guessed that it must have been sold privately by some people in the military who wanted to seek personal gain.

The two traveling merchants dared not sell warhorses in the Central Plains, so they brought them to Tongling.

But the two merchants were unlucky; they ran into the constable, who forcibly took their two horses from them.

Those two businessmen would most likely have no choice but to accept this loss with a heavy heart.

Even the most audacious merchants wouldn't dare report the illegal trade of warhorses to the authorities.

The horse administration of the Da Ning Dynasty followed the previous dynasty, with all warhorses belonging to the army.

It seems that Lin Yetian can enjoy these two horses.