Raising good horses is definitely a long-term money-burning project!

There should be at least two horse farms covering thousands of acres - this is Mirbao's suggestion, because horses can get pestilence, so you can't put all the horses together, or a horse plague will be wasted! Therefore, it is necessary to establish at least two small horse farms covering an area of more than 5,000 acres, and they must be relatively closed.

Each horse farm must have a horse breeding team including horsemen, grooms, veterinarians, and guards, so that stallions are not stolen or the horses are outflowed, or the mare is led by foreign stallions......

It is best to have four stallions, two each for the Persian breed and the Great Eater breed. Each stallion must have a separate area for activity and a herd of mares to match it. At the same time, a horse account is established and each stallion and mare are are immediately scored, so that the best mating plan can be formulated.

As for the grass and concentrate that the horses eat, they are naturally invested at any cost, so there is no need to mention this.

And this method of raising horses as treasures is not a year or two years to be effective, it must take twenty or thirty years, so that the horse can be bred for six to seven generations, and it is possible to finalize a relatively good breed. I am afraid that the amount of money required will be in the hundreds of thousands.

And for at least twenty years only to burn money, there will be no return!

It takes 20 years to breed horses, and it also takes a long time to educate people. And the money that needs to be burned to educate people is definitely much more than that of breeding horses!

And the investment in educating people must not be saved! Because in Wu Haogu's view, the failure of the Great Song Dynasty in history was not because there were no horses, nor because there was no blood, let alone Confucius could not be allowed to carry the black pot, and it was not even the fault of releasing military power with a glass of wine.

There is only one root cause of the problem, that is, Da Song did not do a good job in education! The failure of the Song Dynasty is the failure of education! Although the Song Dynasty also ran official schools, it also engaged in a imperial examination system that seemed to promote education. But it is undeniable that education in the Song Dynasty, whether private or government-run, was actually low-cost and low-level.

The kind of education that "boys want to fulfill their aspirations in life, and read the Five Classics diligently in front of the window" cannot cultivate talents who can govern the country and secure the world. Compared with the "Six Arts Education", which was monopolized by a few aristocratic elites before, it is actually much inferior, and only the "way to promotion from the poor" can be taken out and talked about.

And to overcome this problem, in Wu Haogu's opinion, it is actually quite easy, it is nothing more than to increase investment in education!

Compared with the education of the Six Arts and the Five Classics, the disadvantage is that it is expensive! And the advantage of Pentateuch education is precisely that it is cheap.

It's a pity that it's cheap and there are no good people...... In this question, people are the same as horses!

And Wu Haogu wants to be a "good person", so he can't be afraid of burning money.

In accordance with the requirements of Wu Haogu, the "Six Arts Academy", which carries the cultivation of useful Confucianism for China, has now begun to work. The Six Arts Academy is not within the "urban area" of Jiehe Shang City, but outside the moats and embankments of the Shang City. It is built on the east side of the downtown area, next to the Jiehe River, and in order to facilitate transportation, it also has its own wharf and, of course, its own flood control embankment.

Wu Haogu went to see the academy construction site with Ma Zhi on the fourth day after arriving at Jiehe. Hundreds of small workers are busy there, and the No. 1 main building of the Six Arts Academy already has a little appearance. The three-story tube building has already been built, and there are people leveling the land next to it, and plans are to build buildings 2 and 3.

"The first phase is the No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 study buildings, the No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 accommodation buildings, and the teachers' buildings."

Wu Haogu rode on a horse and said to Ma Zhi, who was walking with him: "This academy is not a Mongolian hall, and the students in the future will be teenagers over the age of nine. The duration of the school is six years, divided into six grades, which are organized according to numbers, ranging from grades 1 to 6. One grade occupies one study building and one dormitory building, and it is planned to open three grades next year, and then add one grade a year......"

"Start three grades first?" Ma Zhi didn't understand what Wu Haogu meant, "Didn't you start reading it in the first grade?" ”

"Usually it starts from the first grade," Wu Haogu said with a smile, "but the students I received when it first opened must be good and bad, some students have a foundation, they can start from the second and third grades, and those who don't have a foundation start from the first grade." ”

Allowing some students to start reading directly from the second and third grades is naturally the need for quick talents. Wu Haogu knows that with the expansion of Jiehe Commercial City and the promotion of his own officialdom, many talents will be needed in the future.

At the beginning, it is also necessary to lower some requirements appropriately and cultivate some rapid talents. Otherwise, a few years later, when Jiehe Shang City began to take shape, Wu Haogu would be unavailable.

In fact, Wu Haogu already felt that the talents in his hands were not enough at this time!

"Someone else working over there?" At this time, Ma Zhi noticed that there were still people working east of the "Six Arts Academy", as if they were enclosing the land with a wooden fence.

"There's the Lighthouse University and the Harbour Master's School," said Wu Hao, "and further east is the South Shore Racecourse." ”

The South Bank Horse Farm is one of the two horse farms used to raise the "Boundary Hippopotamus". However, there are not only these two horse farms in Jiehe Commercial City, but also the Six Arts Academy, Lighthouse University, Ship Master School, Police Patrol Station, Construction Office, Dadu Bao Office and other institutions will have their own dedicated horse farms. Among them, the police patrol station, the construction office, and the horse farm of the metropolitan protection office will be located on the north bank of the Jiehe River.

In addition, Wu Haogu also planned to build a racecourse and a polo field in Jiehe Commercial City, in order to arouse the interest of merchants in raising and playing horses.

If the development goes well, more horse farms will be built on the north bank of the Jiehe River in the future.

In short, the prospects look good, but they need a lot of silk (money) to pave the way forward.

……

When Wu Haogu and Ma Zhi returned to the urban area of Jiehe Commercial City, on the right side of Zhengsho Street (that is, the temporary street where the government office, the construction office, the police patrol office, and the finance office are located), several cowhide tents were being built, and some people who looked like traders shuttled back and forth, and in front of one of the largest cowhide tents, there was also a recognition flag with the three Chinese characters "Aladdin" written on it.

It turned out that Bai Siwen of the Aladdin Chamber of Commerce had arrived!

This Bai Siwen left Kaifeng Mansion with Wu Haogu, and the two traveled all the way, but when they entered the northern part of Cangzhou, the convoy led by Bai Siwen couldn't go fast because there were too many vehicles and goods, so they fell behind. I just arrived at Jiehe Commercial Market today.

Although Wu Haogu did not welcome Bai Siwen, a wealthy merchant of the Heavenly Sect, to enter Jiehe City, his arrival added a bit of a commercial atmosphere to Jiehe Market. Because the vendors brought by Bai Siwen set up stalls and goods in front of several cowhide tents, in fact, there were not many good things, that is, some cloth and silk from Kaifeng Prefecture and porcelain wholesale from Daimyo's Mansion.

There are also a few stalls that sell food, one of them sells a kind of cake-like thing that is steamed and pressed with walnut kernels, raisins, sesame seeds, jujubes and other miscellaneous things, which startled Wu Haogu, isn't this thing cutting cakes? How did the Song Dynasty come into existence?

Just when Wu Haogu was a little stunned, one of the tents was lifted, and a few people came out, and the first one was Bai Siwen, looking at Wu Haogu is a fat man: "Big official, Bai Siwen is polite." ”

Behind Bai Siwen, there were two blonde girls with fluttering blond hair, beautiful facial features, skin like snow, and graceful bodies, who also followed Bai Siwen to make a blessing.

"Outside the white staff," Wu Haogu looked at the beauty behind him, and then pointed his finger to "cut the cake", "What is this?" ”

Bai Siwen was stunned, he originally thought that Wu Haogu would ask the beauty behind him - those were the two stunners that Bai Siwen asked the Aladdin Chamber of Commerce to carefully select and train for him, both of which were slave girls from the Western Kingdom of Kyiv.

But why did the Wu officials ask about Marentang? Is he hungry? Fortunately, I have already asked people to prepare a banquet.

"Back to the words of the senior official," Bai Siwen said with a smile, "this is maren candy, which is a must-have for long-distance merchants, and it is also an item that our Aladdin Chamber of Commerce is preparing to sell in the Jiehe Merchant Market. ”

How did the Aladdin Chamber of Commerce change its business to selling cut cakes?

"Isn't your family a maritime merchant?" Wu Haogu asked, "How do you do such a small business?" ”

Bai Siwen explained with a smile: "The big officials don't know, my family has no foundation in the Northland Sea, I am not familiar with the sea conditions, I don't know the direction of the wind, and the ports along the coast have no foundation. Therefore, we can't rush into the sea, but we should do some small business first and lay a solid foundation.

Besides, this maren candy and other deals are not small. Whether you walk the Silk Road in the west or go by sea in the south, you need to prepare food for merchants, and it must be something that has been specially boiled, easy to store, light in weight, and can fill your stomach. Maren is just one of them.

And...... This merchant dry food is just a small business for my family to take root in Jiehe Commercial City. It doesn't matter how much you earn, you just need to be able to make a foothold. ”

Wu Hao Guxin said: Selling cut cakes is based on, so what do you rely on to make a lot of money?

"Two big officials." Bai Siwen smiled all over his face, saluted again, and then pointed to the tent behind him, "Xiaodi has prepared a table of thin wine, and I want to invite the two of you to talk while eating, I wonder if you can appreciate your face?" ”

"What are you talking about?" Wu Haogu didn't move, but asked.

He is now a great Confucian of self-cultivation, and he doesn't want to go to any banquet if he doesn't have to, not to mention hurting his body, and wasting time. If you have time to eat and drink, you might as well read more of the teachings of Confucius and Mencius.

"Let's talk about attracting investment." Bai Siwen still had a smile on his face, looking like he was wishing you prosperity. "The big official is now the director of the city...... Attracting investment for Jiehe Commercial City, but it is a dispatch from the big officials. The small bottom is not talented, and there are some business friends in Quanzhou and Guangzhou, and there are all those who do it. It is possible to attract merchants from all over the world for the big officials. ”