At the same time, the Patriotic Mansion Racecourse.

Fang Jizhong accompanied the old emperor to stand in front of the stable, looking at the shiny horses, and nodding constantly.

Although he didn't understand, he knew when he saw the shape and coat color of the horses that these horses were quite well fed, and they seemed to be taller than the horses of the forbidden army, and Lu Shangshu, who was galloping around the horse farm in the distance, had returned to the old emperor at this time.

Turned over and dismounted, threw the reins to the little servant, and bowed directly to the old emperor.

"Your Majesty, this horse is really well fed, the speed and durability are very powerful, if the horses supplied by the Ministry of War are like this, the minister has nothing to choose, the minister looks at this horse is very good, docile temperament, do you want to try?"

The old emperor gave him a blank look and waved his hand.

"Don't try it, I saw that the horses are all the same, they are not the unique fierce horses of the Tatars, they are just well fed by the Duke of Weiguo, go and see what these horses eat?"

Lu Shangshu said yes, and hurriedly followed the old emperor into the stable, there was no special smell here, it was very bright and tidy, there was no weeds on the ground, and there were some granular things in the manger, and the old emperor was suddenly interested.

"What is this eating, it doesn't seem to be ordinary forage, it seems that Wei Guogong has fed these horses alone, no wonder the horses are so strong!"

At this time, he heard a sound from behind, and Wei Guogong quickly followed a few people in.

"The old minister has seen Your Majesty, I don't know what wind blew Your Majesty over?"

Seeing the suspicion on Wei Guogong's face, the old emperor smiled and said:

"It's just to come out for a walk, I'm also a little depressed, I heard Lu Shangshu say this morning, last time I came to your horse farm for a turn, the horses look stronger than others, I also want to come over to see this in person."

By the way, Aiqing gave the horses something expensive, why is it so strong, is it that Yunmo's kid used all the money to honor you? ”

Wei Guogong looked embarrassed, and quickly bowed down and said:

"The minister has no money, this Your Majesty knows, and it was also because of his preferences before, he raised some fierce beasts, so he exhausted all his family wealth, if it weren't for His Majesty's frequent rewards, he really wouldn't be able to open the pot."

The old emperor glanced at him, and he was good at crying poor, and hurriedly waved his hand at him.

"When I first saw me, I cried poor, right, tell me what this horse feeds, is it expensive?"

Wei Guogong hurriedly smiled and said: "Actually, it is to save money, so I found someone to tinker with the feed for the horses.

Lao Chen asked Zhou Heng for a prescription, let the feeding person mix in the prepared various feeds, not to mention that in more than a month, these horses have eaten less, but they are more strong, and their fur is also shiny, which is gratifying to look at. ”

Saying that, Wei Guogong waved his hand, and an honest boy quickly knelt down to salute, still trembling all over.

"This is Zhao Si, the kid in charge of raising horses, these feeds are all made up by a few of their brothers, hurry up and come over to greet the emperor."

Zhao Si trembled and hurriedly crawled to the ground, kowtowing to the old emperor, banging sound, he was a little silly when he heard this kid.

"The little one has seen the emperor, the emperor is safe!"

The old emperor tried his best to keep a kind smile, raised his hand and said:

"Hurry up and tell me what's in your feed?"

Zhao Si hurriedly got up, walked to the side of the manger, opened a huge tank, scooped it out with a gourd, and poured it into the manger.

Zhao Si picked up the contents and said:

"There are a lot of things here, there are newly planted corn stalks in Tongzhou, and straw stalks, which are useless wastes anyway, not high-quality forage, and there are several herbs added to it, fried black beans, soybean cakes left over from oil extraction, and so on.

We pressed these things into such pellets with a special machine, and the horses ate this kind of feed, which was sixty percent less than what they ate before, but it was more nutritious and less prone to disease. ”

After saying this, not only the old emperor, Lu Shangshu had already widened his eyes, hurried closer, and said in surprise:

"Sixty percent saved? What is the value of your feed compared to forage? Is it also suitable for preservation? ”

In the face of Lu Shangshu's continuous questioning, the old emperor wanted to cover his face, this thing is enchanted, once it can save silver, and let the horses get a good supply, he is like this, the old emperor is not surprised, but he also wants to know.

That Zhao Si looked stunned and looked a little panicked, but seeing Wei Guogong looking at himself and nodding, he hurriedly said:

"In fact, the cost is not high, if we do it ourselves, the price is a little more than twice that of forage, as for transportation and storage, because there are a lot of them before, these days it is also the rainy season, I am afraid that mold will make the horses eat sick, Wei Guogong found Zhou Gongzi and made a special bag for storage, it doesn't matter if it rains, it can be stored for two or three years."

This time there was no need for Lu Shangshu to be surprised, the old emperor was stunned.

Lu Shangshu hurriedly saluted, looking at the old emperor's anxious face.

"Your Majesty, you know that our military department has always had a saying, soldiers and horses go first before moving grain and grass, but the loss of grain and grass is also extremely serious, and sometimes it can become the key to victory or defeat in a war.

The grain is okay, this forage is indeed easy to mildew when it rains on a rainy day, and if it is not found in time, sometimes it is common to lose half of it.

Therefore, every time the grain and grass are allocated, the cost of depreciation must be calculated, and the north is good to say, to the south or the western Sichuan region, the loss can reach fifty or sixty percent, if such feed and bags can be used in the military department, a lot of silver can be saved every year. ”

The old emperor nodded, these Lu Shangshu didn't say that he knew it, and quickly calculated it in his heart, but thinking that this was made by Beishan, a trace of doubt floated in his heart.

"You've been in Beishan?"

Zhao Si hurriedly knelt down again, "If you go back to the emperor, the little one has a cousin in Beishan, so I asked him to help get this bag." ”

The old emperor nodded, he could directly say that it was related, he dispelled his doubts, this can be regarded as going through the back door, looking at Wei Guogong's appearance as if he was completely unaware, he believed it even more.

"Oh, looking for your cousin? Wouldn't it be easier for Wei Guogong to find it? ”

Zhao Si's face was embarrassed, and he raised his eyes to look at the old emperor, who stared at him even more scrutinically, and after a long time of snorting, he continued:

"It's not like you don't want to spend money to get some, this bag is not easy to break, make dozens of them, we can use them for a long time."

After Zhao Si finished speaking, he reached out and touched the inside of the tank, and directly turned to a bag, which looked like an ordinary sack on the surface, but it was a little finer, and he couldn't see any difference.

Without waiting for the old emperor to speak, Lu Shangshu first came over and urged:

"Isn't this just an ordinary sack, just finely woven to keep out the rain?"