During the Ming Dynasty, both the army and the government needed a large number of horses. The shepherding and supply of official horses is a very important matter, which is related to the construction of the Ming Dynasty army and the conduct of official government activities. The Ming court has always attached great importance to the pastoral issue of official horses.

In the 28th year of Hongwu, the government began to practice civil herdsmanship on a small scale. In the early years of Yongle, the North Parallel Taifu Temple was changed to Beijing Taifu Temple, and its official pasture was changed to a private pastor, so that Beijing Taifu Temple was in charge of the horse administration of Suntian, Baoding, Hejian, Zhending, Shunde, Guangping, Daimyo, and Yongping "Gyeonggi Eight Mansions". In the sixth year of Hongzhi, the Ming Dynasty stipulated that the "tax-free grain and horse breeding system" was implemented in the "Eight Prefectures of Gyeonggi", and one stallion was adopted for every 50 acres of land and one horse for every 100 acres of land.

As a small county in Baoding Prefecture, Qingdu County naturally wants to implement the system of supporting officials and horses on behalf of the people. Although Zhou Zhi's family only has eight acres of land, it is difficult to escape, and there are six other households with similar households, and they have almost forty or fifty acres of land together, and they raise a horse. And the six families of them implemented a three-year rotation for each family. A month ago this year, it happened to be the turn of the Zhou family.

It stands to reason that only 100 acres of land will adopt a horse, but in Baiyue Village, there are rich families like the Chen family and the Yue family, although each family has hundreds of acres of fertile land, but they rely on their relationship with the government and do not need to raise an official horse on their behalf. "The poor receive food, and the rich enjoy coolness." That's it. So in Baiyue Village, there are only a few dozen acres of land, so I have to adopt a horse.

Although the official horses raised by the households were exempted from tax grain, the feed that the horses ate was much higher than the tax grain that should be paid. Let the official horse go to work in the fields as animal power, that is not to think about it, once someone sues the official, he will be punished. This official horse must be carefully served, and a foal must be paid for three years. If you can't pay the foal, you will be fined six taels of silver. Moreover, if the official horse is thin, he will also be fined silver, and if the official horse is dead, he will be fined ten taels of silver.

If you catch up with the unlucky people, if you can't produce a foal, or if the official horse dies, where will the ordinary people come up with a few taels of silver? That is to sell the house, land, bankruptcy, and even sell children and daughters to tide over the difficulties.

Of course, if the horses produced more than one foal in three years, the government will also buy it back for five taels of silver each.

Therefore, the official horse must be carefully served, and it is known as "Uncle Ma" among the people.

Of the four main rooms of Zhou Zhi's house, the westernmost one is now used as a stable. This house used to be the bedroom of her sister Zhou Luyun, and now Zhou Luyun has to spend the night at a neighbor's house.

Zhou Zhi walked into the stable and first carefully checked the situation of the horse. This is a swarthy horse, not fat and strong, but definitely in good spirits. These days, Zhou Zhi always fed it alone, and after Zhou Zhi just entered the stable, the horse snorted for a while, very excited, and expressed affection and welcome to Zhou Zhi.

Zhou Zhi first mixed the feed for the horses, which was a mixture of crushed rice stalks mixed with black beans, yellow rice bran, and a little yellow rice flour. There is no way, this horse is to serve like an ancestor, the life of a horse is to a large extent more expensive than human life, and what people eat every day may not be as good as this horse. Moreover, half a month ago, the horse was pregnant with a foal, and it was even more ambiguous.

The black horse plunged into the trough and ate leisurely. Zhou Zhi took advantage of this opportunity to comb its whole body, and the horse looked even more shiny and smooth.

The government stipulates that there is a herd leader for every ten horses and a herd leader for every fifty horses. The group leader and the group leader are responsible for supervising and managing these official horses raised by the people. Every ten days, the group leader should come to Zhou Zhi's house to observe the physical condition of the horse, and at the same time make a record and report to the group leader. If the horse's body is in condition, Zhou Zhijia will be punished. The light is a reprimand, and the heavy is a fine.

Half an hour passed, the horse left the trough, and Zhou Zhi hurriedly returned to the room to bring a bucket of warm water to drink the horse. The warm water was boiled by Zhou Luyun, and Zhou Luyun, like Zhou Zhi, was also worried about the situation of the horse, and he was very concerned every day.

The black horse was full of food and drink, and seemed to look at Zhou Zhi very gratefully, and then lay down on the ground, resting and recuperating in peace.

After everything was settled, Zhou Zhi poured more than half an hour of forage, and did not stop working until he was sweating all over.

At this time, a bright moon hung high in the night sky in the southeast outside the window, sprinkling a faint light like water, and the stable was unusually bright. Zhou Zhi squatted in the corner of the stable, picked up a straw stalk, and wrote on the ground one by one.

Today, I bet with Chen Wenju to read the "Thousand Character Text". As a well-known college graduate in later generations, he is still very familiar with the Mongolian books of the Ming Dynasty at this time, such as "Thousand Character Text", "Three Character Classic", "Hundred Family Names", "Mengqiu" and so on. Although it is not up to the level of memorization, it is definitely catchy to read.

But these readings in later generations are all simplified characters, but now they are in the Ming Dynasty, and the characters are all in traditional Chinese. Zhou Zhi can't write some traditional Chinese characters very smoothly, so he can recall and practice writing at this time.

The family is poor, and there is no pen and paper, so they can only write and draw on the ground like this. In fact, Zhou Zhi of later generations was still an amateur calligraphy enthusiast and could write a good hand. He was particularly passionate about the calligraphy of Zhao Mengfu and Guan Sheng.

As for the Four Books and Five Classics of the Imperial Examination and the like, Zhou Zhi has also read most of them in later generations, but the reading in later generations is definitely a little bit of water, and he does not seek to understand much. As for what kind of system, doing Bagu Wen, etc., the study of later generations has never dabbled in such a course, so Zhou Zhi doesn't know anything.

Now, through the middle of the Ming Dynasty, in this era of the heyday of the imperial examination, the national talent ceremony must not be an official if it is not the imperial examination. Zhou Zhi knew that if he wanted to do something in the future, he had to participate in the scientific examination.

According to the understanding of later generations, it is much more difficult to be a talent in the Ming Dynasty than to be admitted to a famous university in later generations. And the current family situation, poor and miserable, from a poor family, in fact, it seems that it is not even a poor family, because there is no door at home. How can such a family afford to pay a high bondage? Zhou Zhi wants to go to school and study at this time, which is difficult.

Although the north of the Ming Dynasty is not as talented as the south, and there are many talents in the imperial examination, Baoding Mansion occupies geographical and other advantages, and there are not many talents for scientific examinations. Although Qingdu County is under the jurisdiction of Baoding Prefecture, it is a small county, far away from the city, the geographical location is remote, and it is not convenient to study and scientific research, so Qingdu County has not produced a Jinshi in recent years.

Zhou Zhi traveled to a place like this era, and it was such a poor family, and the situation could not but be said to be very bad. But Zhou Zhi has an optimistic heart, at least after the crossing, although the body is slightly thin, but it is very healthy, very strong, and looks really good. and at least did not be born in a pariah-like family such as "prostitute, superior, subordinate, and pawn", and was deprived of the right to scientific research. Moreover, Zhou Zhi of later generations also lived in the northern countryside since he was a child, and he was very familiar with many things in the countryside, which also made Zhou Zhi very pleased.

Zhou Zhi often thinks that after all, not many people are as lucky as him to have a second life. In fact, all this is okay, although the road ahead is boundless, but the imperial examination must be participated, but it is just to take it slowly.

Zhou Zhi was immersed in practicing calligraphy, when suddenly a rough voice sounded in his ears, "Hey! Xiaochi, I'm writing! With this voice, Zhou Zhi's shoulder was slapped heavily.

Hearing this voice, Zhou Zhi didn't need to look at it to know that it was Zhang Hudan.