Kloster is a small village in Leyre County, East Friesland Province, North Sea Country, which is one of the richest rural areas in North Sea Country due to its proximity to the Emes River, which is characterized by strong agriculture.

By the time the morning sun was shining, the small village of only 300 people was already boiling. It is now the beginning of March, and although it is still a little cold in northern Germany, the best planting period has not yet arrived, but farming in the North Sea Country has already begun.

The matter of cultivating land and loosening the soil can be done in advance. Of course, not too far in advance. Otherwise, after a few rains, the land will be solidified again.

However, because in this era, cattle and horses were used to plough the land, and it was too late to plow the land when it was time to sow seeds. Therefore, in the early spring of March, the farmers took their ploughing oxen to plough the soil.

There was no shortage of cattle in the North Sea State, and although some of the 10,000 cattle imported from the Crimean Khanate each year were killed for meat, most of them remained and were bred as farming cattle.

Marin's plan to kill the cow was very meticulous, first of all, he would not give the order to kill the cow. Unless, the cow is too old to have children. Or, there is a significant defect that does not leave a healthy offspring. Therefore, every time the cattle are imported, the vast majority of the cows are kept and distributed to the villages.

As for the bulls, it's more miserable. Marlin will first select the strongest group of bulls, and the most breeding cattle will be kept. In addition, hornless bulls are also prioritized as breeding cattle. As for the rest of the bulls, Marin will also let people do a test, that is-listen or not......

First of all, Marlin would put nose rings on all the bulls. If you resist fiercely when you put on the nose ring, you will be slaughtered on the spot. And when the nose ring is applied, the cows are pulled into the field to see if they are being greeted.

Those who listen to the greetings will naturally stay as ploughing cattle. If he doesn't listen to the call, Marin will let his subordinates make another choice. It's just that this time the selection process is a bit cruel - all these bulls will be castrated...... The bullwhip will be disposed of uniformly and handed over to the nobles to make the bullwhip soup nourishment......

After castration, these bulls are kept for a month. When the time comes, pull it out again and try to plow the land. If you have become irritable at this time, and are willing to obey the command honestly, you will stay and be assigned to work as a ploughing cattle. And those who continue to resist can only be given a knife......

After layers of screening, the thorns were slaughtered, and the remaining bulls and cows, including the eunuch cows, were basically cows that worked very honestly.

For example, the 50 ploughing cattle in the village of Kloster include 35 cows, 6 bulls and 9 eunuch cows. These 35 cows not only have the obligation to dry goods, but also have to be responsible for reproducing offspring and giving birth to calves.

Of course, once a cow is pregnant with a calf, it will definitely not be allowed to work. But what if you encounter spring ploughing? No, Franz, the steward of the village manor, was busy with this......

"Jeno, go and get some of the cattle herders, and come with me to the cattle farm in the town of Mormorland to borrow three cows. Three cows on the farm are pregnant and can't go to the field, so we have to go to the town's cattle farm to borrow three cows for a while! ”

The young man named Jeno immediately ran away and called for a few middle-aged farmers who were good at herding cattle. Franz then boarded a carriage with a few men and drove from the country road to the town of Mormerland.

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It should be noted that since the start of the live cattle trade with the Crimean Khanate, Marin has gradually replaced the ploughing horses with ploughing cattle in areas such as East Friesland. Originally, the East Friesian region was a parallel area of horse farming and cattle farming, but horse farming was the mainstream. Because, most of the farmland in Germany belonged to the aristocracy and Junker landlords, who had money in their families and naturally admired horse farming. Only a small number of small, poor landowners would use cheap cattle for farming. This is mainly because, in the past, there was no cow nose ring, and it was difficult to train cattle, so only a small number of obedient cattle could be used to plow the land, and most of the cattle could not be used. After Marin brought the cow nose ring technology, cattle taming became much easier, and cattle farming could naturally be vigorously promoted.

As for the former ploughing horses, most of them were collected by Marin. The ploughing horses with excellent physical conditions were arranged by Marin to go to the breeding center to continue to breed horses. The bad horses were more miserable, and they were also arranged by Marin to go to the breeding center, but they went to breed with donkeys and breed another kind of livestock - mules......

Of course, each estate also generally keeps two or three horses for pulling carts. For example, in the village of Klost, there are three carriages in the village. One of them had a very novel purpose – it was a "school bus" for the children of the village. The task was to send the children of the village to the only primary school in the town of Mormerland on school days. Give it away in the morning and pick it up in the evening. There is no way, there are few schools in Beihai now, and there is generally only one school in a town of tens or hundreds of square kilometers.

The other two are usually used to send villagers to the town to catch the market during the market - every 10 days, the town of Mormerland will open a village market for the people of the town to buy supplies.

When there is no township market, it is mainly at the disposal of the manor steward. For example, when there is a shortage of cattle in the village, the Franz steward will take someone to the town's cattle farm to borrow a few cows to return.

This kind of cattle secondment system is also a new thing developed by Marin, mainly considering the problem that cows cannot plow the land after pregnancy. Anyway, it doesn't cost much to set up a cattle farm in the town. After all, it's okay for cows to eat grass in normal times.

And between each village and town, there are also country roads. This kind of country road, of course, is not the rural cement road of later generations. After all, the production of cement is not high now. These rural roads are basically country roads built from the village to the town by the officials of each township and town organized by the villagers during the slack season. There was no cement, but there were a lot of pebbles and pebbles from the river. After being crushed by the cow-pulled stones, it is usually very smooth. Unless, in the rainy season, it will be soaked by abundant rainwater and then deformed. But in the off-season, the town will send people to repair and press it again with stones, but there is no problem.

Franz took a few cattle handles, took advantage of the carriage, and soon came to the town's cattle farm. After grading and showing the manor's name tag, Franz finally borrowed three cows. Then, let a few cattle herders put the cattle on their halts and began to drive back down the country road.

When I returned to the village, it was just in time for noon, and the village canteen was opened......

Then, when Franz and his party entered the village, they saw a long queue outside the canteen in the middle of the village......

The village canteen is a major feature of the Beihai manor, which is a bit like the collective farms of later generations, but it is different.

Although the farmers in Kloster Village went to the canteen at noon to queue up to receive food, they were free to choose whether to stay in the canteen or not.

Moreover, the cafeteria is only open at noon and not at night. However, when people line up at noon, they will take home the evening's bread and salted fish.