Xingtaifu Temple is subordinate to the Ministry of War, in charge of the world's various guards, camps, forts and other horse administration, the yamen in the capital is located in a very inconspicuous corner on the side of the Ministry of War.

Although the yamen is small, but the importance of the war horse is undoubted, it is the right to raise horses and manage the horse is not small, the responsibility is also significant, there can be no half-point difference pool, but the good place to raise horses is basically located in the north, so the line Taifu Temple is scattered all over the place, and the temple yamen all over the temple has a person from the three products, a young Qing, six or seven officials, specific to the local horse farm, the manager is the temple.

It is impossible to keep a large number of war horses in captivity in the capital, so the yamen is just an ornament, collecting official documents sent from all over the country, summarizing and transcribing a piece and sending it to the military department for review.

Every spring and autumn season, all localities inspect their own horses, increase the consumption of teeth, etc., every three years by the officials of the Taifu Temple in the capital to go out collectively, check once in various places, if there is a decrease in horses or officials are illegally derelict in their duties, they will be dealt with by the emperor through the Ministry of War.

In other words, Xu Hao is only busy once every three years, and he just finished the comparison last year. The Taifu Temple in the capital can't manage the local horse farms on weekdays, and the highest officials are all from the three grades, and everyone is at the same level. In fact, even the local chief and judge were not allowed to interfere in Ma Zheng, so that the local yamen had some real power, and the capital was first-class deserted.

Because of this, the military department did not send Xu Hao out of Beijing, deliberately let him have nothing to do, and deliberately took care of it, the two adults of the Taifu Temple understood this, and they were afraid that the new temple would not raise horses at a young age, and no one could afford to make a mistake, so they did not send him to the horse garden outside the capital.

Xu Hao wished it was like this, he was not a veterinarian before he crossed, and he had never seen a horse a few times, let alone raising horses. There are no good pastures near Jinling, and the horse garden is divided into three classes, with 10,000 horses in the upper class, 7,000 in the middle and 4,000 in the lower class, and ten inferior horse farms in the suburbs of the capital. The largest horse garden does not exceed a thousand good horses, and the military department sends special personnel to keep an eye on it, and if a horse dies for no reason, it must be severely reprimanded, in case of a plague or something, no one can think about it.

Anyway, he came to gild, Xu Hao didn't plan to have nothing to do, even if he could raise horses, he had to hide them, and if he didn't cultivate a capable official, he couldn't do without horses for the rest of his life.

Come over every day and sit in a cramped hut. Eating, eating, eating, writing, writing, and studying the Book of Raising Horses, sometimes sitting in a daze, he has thought about moving his hands and feet, so that Zhu Yunwen will have no horses available in the future, and then vetoed himself, war horses are too important to the Ming Dynasty, every well-trained horse is a treasure, and it must not be spoiled casually, and the horses are so docile and cute. I really can't bear to kill or maim me.

On this day, Xu Hao was tired of reading books, and wandered around in the courtyard of the yamen, when the supreme commander Ma Daren returned from the military department and walked over with a black face.

Suddenly, Master Ma stopped. said: "If you make a mistake, you will reprimand your own officer, and you won't look at what kind of officers are transferred from the military department, a group of wine bags and rice bags who only know what to do, and they can't even raise a horse." ”

Lord Shaoqing Niu next to him is in his forties this year. At the age of 30, he was admitted to the Jinshi and became the deputy supervisor of the ninth grade, raised a war horse for more than ten years, and traveled all over the north with rich experience. When he first entered the career, he was a beautiful literati, but now he has been weathered and looks no different from the old farmers in the fields.

Lord Niu said bitterly: "When we were officials in the past, what hardships did we have to endure in order to learn to raise horses? Today's young people are bent on promotion, who wants to deal with horses? It is a pity that the capable officials cannot be promoted due to their status, and every three years they are occupied by a group of newly promoted jinshi, which makes people uncertain, and they resign one after another to raise horses for Haoqiang. ”

Master Ma sighed: "No one is available, look at that one, don't do anything, don't care about anything, leisurely, what the way of the world." ”

Xu Hao was going to pretend that he didn't hear it, but after thinking about it, he said, "Two adults, why don't you play the court according to the truth?" Ma Zheng is the most important thing in the country, how can the ministers of the DPRK and China turn a blind eye and listen to it? ”

Lord Ma snorted angrily, and Lord Niu smiled bitterly: "Why haven't you started playing?" Scholars are reluctant to go to various places to raise horses, even if they go, it is a corpse vegetarian meal, a few years ago, the imperial court sent a group of Guozijian students, taught three months of horse breeding, but did not wait to be sent out and asked for leave to pretend to be sick and ran away for more than half, the rest went to go, less than half a year have been complaining, zuihou there are not a few left. And the laws of the imperial court stipulate that military households are not allowed to transfer their nationality, let alone be promoted, and they are not high, not to mention that they can't keep people, and they can't even save their lives once something happens, so those who have military positions are unwilling to raise horses and would rather lead troops to fight. As for the junior officials and grooms who have no status, they don't have ten or eight years of qualifications and great merit, so don't think about never being transferred to a full-time official. ”

Xu Hao was a little puzzled, and said: "It's a pity that when I first arrived, I was only shallow in my studies, and I couldn't share the worries of the two adults." ”

Master Ma felt that Xu Hao was quite modest, his face softened a little, and he muttered: "The affairs of the yamen have their own officials and Lord Niu to discuss carefully, so you don't need to worry about it." In this way, a new batch of war horses were brought into the palace, and the original temple was to be sent to the horse farm where the accident occurred to deal with the aftermath. There is no one available on the left and right, you are from the brocade guard, there are naturally acquaintances in the palace, you go over, no matter what, you must try your best to raise the horses, there is an official here in the military department to bear it for you, even if one or two horses have an accident, you will be fine. ”

Sent by his boss, Xu Hao couldn't refuse, nodded immediately, and took the errand head-on. Lord Niu was very sincere, and called him to the house to explain the experience of raising horses, but the time was too tight to talk on paper, and it had no effect.

When he returned home in the evening, Xu Hao thought about raising horses, and always felt that someone had deliberately dug a pit, because he was a newcomer, to say the least, he had to have a half-year preparation period, who would dare to let you pick the lead without experience? Sicheng doesn't need to feed the horses himself, but he has the main responsibility, and if a few horses die for no reason, his black gauze hat can't be saved.

Do you want to live in the stables day and night with men? It's okay for a month or two, don't live and it's endless, and it's hard to prevent thieves day and night, someone really deliberately makes it bad, and it's useless to sleep with the horse every day.

Because he has been close to horses at every turn recently, and people who come in and out all have the smell of horses, Xu Hao first returned to Jiangxuezhai to bathe and change clothes, and then went to Qianshoutang to greet the elders.

At the same time, in a painting boat on the Qinhuai River, Ouyang Lun and Li Fang were smiling and enjoying the song and dance, while Xu Ji frowned and looked at the scenery on the other side absentmindedly.

After three rounds of drinking, Li Fang greeted the prostitute who came over with heavy makeup, hugged and kissed her, and said with a smile: "Life must be happy, Brother Xu, what are you doing in a daze?" At present, the beauty should not hurry up and make the gold bottle empty to the moon. ”

Ouyang Lun said with a smile: "It's nothing more than looking for you to buy a few subordinates, the third child of your family is deeply favored, he guarantees that this matter is fine, at most he will be punished." However, after this incident, I should ask the national eunuch to recommend you, at least a county prince in the coming year, so that you can be the last term and go to Beijing to reunite with your family. ”

Xu Ji is right to think about it, what can happen to the third child? It's just a matter of casually entering the palace to admit your mistake, and you have got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, which must not be missed.

Picking up the wine like this, Xu Ji said, "Thank you for carrying the horse, thank you in advance." To tell the truth, yesterday my father was severely humiliated by the uncle who had just returned to Beijing in front of the Governor's Mansion, and my father resigned in a fit of anger. The brother was angry, and he couldn't help but complain a few words in public in front of the noon gate, but he was beaten by the lobby brother Xu Jingqin who brought someone to beat him, who knew that the boss was deliberately partial, and framed the brother for being the first to speak out and beat the thirty boards, almost beating the brother to death. I, Xu Ji, must fight for my family and get ahead as soon as possible, and the whole family in the province will be bullied. ”

Li Fang suddenly shouted: "Brother Xu said it well, the third child of your family doesn't care about family affection, with my uncle-in-law to help you, after you come out, who will not respect you for three points." ”

Ouyang Lun couldn't help but be curious, and asked, "Why did your family get into such a field?" Brothers turn against each other? ”

Xu Ji couldn't tell the past when his father insisted on going his own way and secretly took refuge in Lanyu to set up his own door, but sighed: "It's all because the third and sixth relatives don't recognize it, and they have the audacity to kill the relatives over there, which has affected my father." ”

Ouyang Lun immediately understood, and he wanted to kill Xu Hao with a knife, and after Xu Hao killed someone that night, he ordered his subordinates to throw himself into the river and almost drowned.

Anyway, this matter is really strange, Xu Hao killed a brocade guard, naturally it was from Bixia's dictation, so why didn't Bixia uproot the Xu family? On the contrary, as soon as he was impeached by Yu Shi, he removed Xu Hao's Jinyi Guard.

The more Ouyang Lun thought about it, the more envious and jealous he felt, in his opinion, Xu Hao borrowed the lives of the Xu family's relatives to draw a line with the Xu family, in order to save his own little life, and Bixia really liked him too much, and did not want to order him to lead the Jinyi guard to destroy his own family, and saved the mind of preserving his reputation.

Ouyang Lun said slowly: "Xu Hao is bold and careful, and he is the most proficient at slapping horses, he tried every means to betray the family, and with Bixia's favor, it can be said that his life will be worry-free in the future." Both of you brothers have to learn from him. ”

Li Fang said disdainfully: "What is his ability?" Without the support of the Holy Lord, who would be able to afford it? desperately stammered with my mother and got my Li family's mansion. When I become a parent, my mother will not be able to control me, and sooner or later Lao Tzu will drive his whole family out and become a lost dog. ”

Xu Ji smiled bitterly: "Since the third child became a guard, my family has been restless day and night, and the family is unfortunate. ”

Ouyang Lun said without yin or yang: "Uncle Wei is not saying frustrating words, your family is angry, and you may be implicated by the Duke of Wei and send the life of the whole family one day in the future." You can get this matter done, become an official one day earlier and quickly split up your family, and maybe you can escape the catastrophe. ”

Xu Ji was stunned for a moment, and said in disbelief: "Won't it?" How could the Holy One be so ruthless? ”

Ouyang Lun smiled coldly and glanced at Li Fang, Xu Ji quickly turned his head, and saw Li Fang with tears in his eyes, and said faintly: "In the past, there were six founding princes, how many are left?" The marquis of the past, now he has entered the house? ”

Xu Ji's face changed, becoming as pale as paper, and muttered: "Marquis, I don't know, I only know that the Duke of Guo is the only one left in the Xu family!" (To be continued......)