Zhang Jun stared at Shu Jiming and said nothing. Shu Jiming did not show weakness and stared at Zhang Jun as well.
The moon streaked across the sky, casting mottled shadows in the bamboo forest. The breeze blows, and the bamboo leaves make a rustling sound. The fighting stopped, and several unknown insects suddenly started chirping and squeaking.
After a long time, Zhang Jun suddenly laughed and said: "Zhi Niang, I'm in a bad mood today, and I'm angry with you guys! That's it, that's it, I've had a fight, I've vented my anger, so that's it for today!" If I have any regrets, please bear with me!"
After saying that, he handed over his hands to Shu Jiming and the other five people.
For a moment, Shu Jiming and the other five were unable to react. Suddenly the fight started, and Zhang Jun suddenly changed his face again, all frozen there.
Wang Zhongfu stepped forward and said: "It was originally a trivial matter that led to a fight, but it was just motivated by emotion. Brother, if you don't care about it, why should we care about it? Today we are destined to have a glass of wine with you, how about it?"
Zhang Jun said: "Looking at you, you are all students from the nearby military academy. How much money do you have on you who go to school? I'm treating you to a drink with you today! Make sure you don't get drunk and don't come back!"
After saying that, he smiled and took Lu Cheng and the others back first. Wang Zhongfu motioned to the rest of the group and followed Zhang Jun and the others.
After the fight just now, Zhang Jun's anger disappeared. Suddenly I realized that for the sake of my future, it would be best to attend a military school for two years. Why are you afraid of being laughed at by others? Zhang Jun always does things unexpectedly. I happened to meet some students from the military academy today, so I asked them what life was like in the military academy. When I have free time from official duties, I will go to the military academy and become a military commander.
Rangdong Town is located between Rang County and Nanyang County. The land is flat and fertile, so-called fertile land. The breeding farm for cattle and sheep established by Wang Xiaolie is here, and it has achieved remarkable results in the past two years. On April 13th, Wang Xiaolie and Chen Qiudao, accompanied by Gao Ying, the magistrate of Dengzhou, arrived at the breeding ground. As the situation calmed down, Wang Xiaolie intended to inspect the states under his rule with Chen Qiudao.
Yang Shou from Tiji Breeding Farm and his officials were waiting on the road early to greet Wang Xiaolie and his party.
Not far from the entrance, a separate courtyard is built, which is where the breeding farm works. The yard is not big and is kept very neatly. Many flowers and trees were planted around, and a pond was built in the east, with a pavilion beside the pond.
Entering the courtyard, Yang Shou said: "The world is getting hot. Zhenfu should take a rest in the pavilion first."
Sitting in the pavilion, Wang Xiaolie said: "In the past two years, Councilor Chen was not familiar with many things like building a breeding farm. Now that you are here today, please tell me why you built this breeding farm. What happened in the past two years? What effect?"
Yang Shou said yes. Said: "The cattle in Xiangyang and Dengzhou used to be sold from Jinghu North Road. After Jingkang, there were so many bandits on Jinghu Road and there were many fewer cattle traders. In order to prevent the local shortage of cattle, the governor occupied Xiangyang Soon, this breeding farm was set up specifically to raise calves and sell them to farmers. In more than two years, the farm has grown from a few dozen cows to nearly a thousand now, and has also been set up in five surrounding states. The cattle farm has achieved quite a lot. In addition, in compliance with the order of the town governor, we have selected high-quality breeding cattle and cows to optimize the breed of cattle. Since last year, we have selected high-quality farm cattle, and we are planning to expand this year and next year. Population.”
Chen Qiudao said: "The turmoil in Jinghu has indeed caused a shortage of cattle on Jingxi Road. The governor of Yuanyuan built a cattle farm here long ago."
Wang Xiaolie said: "It's not just cattle farms, there are also horse, donkey and mule farms in Fangcheng County, and there are sheep farms in Lushan County. Now, we have good breeds and we want to promote them to other states and counties, and add more. There are several places. To build these breeding farms, one is to cut off the source of cattle protection, and the other is to optimize the breeds. With good breeds, it will be of great benefit to the people."
Chen Qiudao said: "That's what Zhen Fu said."
Of course, people in the Song Dynasty knew that cattle, donkeys, horses, mules, and even chickens and sheep had good varieties and origins, and some were bad. But people in this era have no clear concept of breeding, let alone scientific methods.
Wang Xiaolie said to Yang Shou, "Are the cows you bred better than the ones before?"
Yang Shou said: "Back to Zhenfu, we compared it carefully and found that it was better than the previous cows. The most important thing is that the characteristics of the calves born by these cows are basically stable. It is no longer like before when you raise a cow and you don't know how the calves will be. .The first one did well, but the latter one didn’t know how.”
Wang Xiaolie nodded. He said to Chen Qiudao: "This is one of the purposes of setting up a breeding farm. If there are good varieties, they should be preserved and continued. If you do it consciously, the varieties can slowly improve and become better and better."
Chen Qiudao nodded and said nothing. He always felt that he couldn't understand the knowledge about high-quality seed breeding that Wang Xiaolie had told him earlier. But it doesn't make sense, and the breeding farm does have results, so I can only accept it.
After asking about the situation at the breeding farm, Wang Xiaolie said: "What are the benefits of the breed of cattle you chose? I have nothing to do today. Let's listen."
Yang Shoudao: "The breed selected now, according to Zhen Fu, can be regarded as a large-scale cattle used for both meat and labor. The bull is about four feet three inches tall, and the cow is about three feet eight inches tall. An adult bull weighs one thousand kilograms, and an adult female weighs one thousand kilograms. It weighs about 800 kilograms. It can be used when it is about two years old, but it cannot do heavy work. When it is five years old, its body will grow, and it can be used for ten years after that. "
Wang Xiaolie said: "Most cows are like this. But considering its height and weight, it is indeed a rare big cow. How about work?"
Yang Shou said: "If it is an adult ox, it can plow three acres a day. If it is a big steer, it can plow five acres a day. It can pull a thousand kilograms of goods and travel sixty miles a day without being tired. Such cattle, in the past, can Cows are far inferior."
Wang Xiaolie thought for a while and said: "Plowing three acres of land a day is still a bit slow. It takes ten days for a household to plow thirty acres of land."
Yang Shou said: "It's fast enough. We checked the nearby farmers and found that each household uses one cow, which is enough to plow the fields. It can also be used to transport harvested grain to home. I don't know how convenient it is."
Wang Xiaolie said: "Our requirement is that one cow per household, and preferably a donkey or mule, can cultivate all the land. I don't see many people growing rice around here. Each household needs more than thirty acres of land to do this. It’s a lot of work.”
Yang Shou said: "Most of the farmers nearby plant wheat in one season and beans in the next. Sometimes it's soybeans, sometimes peas or black beans. In the past two years, soybeans have been used to squeeze oil and make tofu. There are more soybeans. .Compared with other crops, soybean straw is a good feed. When used to feed cattle, you can feed a lot less concentrate. The cattle are raised well here, which is related to this."
Legumes have nitrogen-fixing rhizobia, which can increase soil fertility and are good seasonal crops. Dengzhou is relatively warm, so it takes a longer time to grow wheat after harvesting, and the yield of soybeans is not bad. Further north, the yield of soybeans is pitiful.
In fact, it is impossible for a household to grow wheat or rice on all their thirty acres of land. Whether it is for crop rotation or other purposes, other crops will always be planted to stagger the farming and harvesting seasons. One cow per household should be enough.
In this era, there are fewer people and more land, and resources are not very scarce. Wang Xiaolie's ideal well-off family is a family with 30 to 40 acres of land, five people, and one cow and one donkey. Farm work is not very stressful, and you can also do other things to make money and support your family.
