"In the past, when people asked about the wealth of a country, how many horses could be used to counter it? The military was responsible for everything. The army began at Xuanyuan. The horses carried armored soldiers, did the work for them, prepared the border to defend against humiliation, and were able to break and charge. The force was so great that it was so powerful.
The beauty of merit is that you don’t want to raise it! That’s why the ancients used horses first to raise money and food, so they counted the horses to counterattack. The merit of the horse is not only to prepare the army, but also if the king is wise, the power of the horse can pull the plows, drive the dung carts, and open up fertile soil.
Tian, its power is very limited, so those who valued it in ancient times did so."——Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang
Emperor Taizu Gao was the horse emperor and knew the importance of horses very well. Therefore, he established a series of institutions such as the Royal Horse Supervisor, the Taipu Temple in Liangjing, the Xingtaipu Temple, and the Yuanma Temple to govern horse administration. Among them, the one who really played a central role was
, is the Liangjing Taipu Temple responsible for private horse breeding.
In order to implement the horse policy, he decided to bring horses to the people and encourage private horse breeding. There are three ways to raise horses among the people, namely the household system, the ding system, and the acre system. The household system is five households in the north and ten to ten in the south.
One horse is raised per household; under the ding system, one horse is raised for every fifteen ding, and if the number exceeds 15 ding, two horses are raised; under the acre system, one male horse corresponds to fifty acres of land, and double the amount for a female horse.
Adopters are exempted from turning in public food.
Farmers who raise horses can be exempted from a certain amount of money and grain. Taizu believed that this method of raising horses was beneficial to both the people and the country. However, it ended up becoming a tyranny that shifted the burden to the people.
The government gives the farmer a mare (horse), and the farmer must deliver a pony next year. This has actually reached the breeding limit of the stallion. If the mare does not die, the farmer will have to deliver cubs every year. But who can
What about ensuring that the mare will be pregnant every year and must give birth? The government doesn't care about it. If it can't be paid, it will have to compensate.
The government fosters fine horses in farmers' homes, and no one can guarantee that the horses will not suffer from headaches, fever, birth, old age, illness, or death. The government does not care what they do. "Any horse that dies or does not breed enough must be compensated according to the market price."
Two or even fifty or sixty taels, which is equivalent to the annual income of an average middle-class family. "The civil official's horse is tired, and one horse is at home, fed day and night, until it is tied up and cannot run around for food and clothing."
A dozen households raise a horse in total. In practice, there is often a phenomenon that whichever family has more males and is more powerful does not need to contribute money and effort, while whichever family has fewer males, orphans and widowed mothers have to work more. "There are more males."
The family relies on the powerful to oppress the good people, and makes the young people take turns to raise children. It relies on harming the common people, and even has little support. It makes the young children, the widows, the sick and disabled all go out to prepare money, which is against the morals." This is counterproductive.
It increases the burden on the poor.
Raising a good horse is not just finished, it has to be sent to the Taipu Temple, which manages horse administration, for acceptance. It often travels dozens of miles or hundreds of miles, and people are sleepy and exhausted, and horses are exhausted. It costs a lot to eat horses and chew them. When you reach your destination, it’s too
The masters of the Pusi strictly inspected the horses, and the return rate reached 40 to 50%. Not only did they raise the horses for a year, but they also had to pay for the horses. In order to reduce losses, the people had to pool money to bribe the inspectors and let them go.
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"Official herding is given to the border towns, and civilian herding is given to the Beijing army." There are many disadvantages in raising horses among the people, and there are also many disadvantages in official raising horses. "The disadvantages of horse administration have existed since the capital and spread throughout the world, but Shaanxi prison
The disadvantages are particularly serious because of the large amount of animal husbandry (Yuanma Temple)." "The two Taipu Temples in the north and south and Jingying have horse breeding pastures on each side, and the latter areas are mostly invaded by powerful men."
The private breeding of horses harmed the people, and most of the pastures where official horses were raised were occupied by powerful men. As a result, the Ming army lacked war horses and needed to purchase horses from Xifan.
After Zhu Hengjia came to power, in order to streamline the organization and unify the government orders, he abolished Taipu Temple, Xingtaipu Temple, and Yuanma Temple in the two capitals, and established the War Horse Bureau of the Chariot and Driving Department of the Ministry of War to take charge of military horse farms in various places. He no longer forced people to raise horses, but allowed them to do whatever they wanted.
On the voluntary basis of the people, each province's chief envoy will appoint a political officer or councilor to take charge of civil affairs.
Emperor Guangwu was ruthless. After taking office, he used an iron fist to control the invasion of fields by guards and the occupation of pastures by powerful men. He achieved good results. He set up 36 horse farms across the country and raised more than 100,000 army horses. He also passed the tea horse market and imported goods from Mongolia.
, the Western Regions and other places have obtained a large number of war horses, and there is no shortage of war horses.
However, after the reform of the e-mail system, various inns needed a large number of horses to transport letters and parcels, and the number of horses became insufficient. Emperor Guangwu then ordered the officials responsible for horse administration in each province to find ways to encourage private horse breeding. As for how to encourage it, there was no good way to do it for the time being.
The solution is to simply let each province formulate methods based on actual conditions, explore experience, and then submit them to the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Cabinet for review.
Each province has different methods, such as reducing or exempting land taxes, providing financial subsidies, and building merit memorials for large horse owners, but the effect is not great.
When the crown prince recommended Gu Yanwu to serve as a counselor in charge of Gansu's horse affairs, the old emperor originally refused to agree. This man had a bad idea and wrote a bad book called "Rizhilu", advocating "send the power of the world to
"People of the world", bad guys! They want to divide my power! Let such people become unworthy messengers. If they are not killed, it is already a blessing. How can they be used? If he uses them, wouldn't it be my country?
Unstable?
However, it is now difficult to implement horse policies in various provinces, resulting in high horse prices. The high horse prices have also pushed up transportation costs. Most of the business of the Civil Information Bureau in various post stations is in a state of loss, and a capable minister is needed to break the deadlock. In addition,
The son also assured himself repeatedly that Gu Yanwu had completely changed his past and believed that democracy would not work in the Ming Dynasty, and dictatorship was better! The more dictatorial, the better!
The old emperor thought about it and found that Gu Yanwu was still capable. He once gave himself a memorandum on the reform of Yi Chuan, which contained many insights. Now that he has realized his mistake, if he wants to be the king's loyal dog, he can't give him a stick.
After beating the person to death, let him serve as a counselor for a period of time to see the effect.
It is against this background that Gansu Senator Gu Yanwu took office.
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In the middle of the Hexi Corridor, there is a beautiful city: Ganzhou, which is the intersection of the north and south lines of the "Silk Road" and the "Juyan Ancient Road", with constant business travel and wealthy people.
When Emperor Guangwu first established the province of Gansu, he felt that Ganzhou was close to the border. In order to allow the frontier officials to guard the frontier, he ordered the Gansu governor's office to move to Ganzhou, and Ganzhou was made the capital of Gansu. From the Qilian Mountains in the south, to the north
It is composed of Heli Mountain, Longshou Mountain and the central corridor plain.
Gu Yanwu and his family traveled thousands of miles to Ganzhou. As soon as they entered Ganzhou, they were attracted by the beauty of this city.
"Sir, this is the Qilian Snow Mountain," the guide said enthusiastically.
Gu Yanwu nodded and looked at the snow-capped mountains in the distance.
The carriage went around the snow-capped mountains, and the scenery alternated between grasslands and deserts.
Suddenly, the carriage traveled to an oasis, with a large river running through it, cattle and sheep everywhere, and lush vegetation.
"Sir, this is the Zhangye oasis known as the 'Fortress on the South of the Yangtze River', and the big river is the Black River," the guide explained.
"It's so beautiful!"
Gu Yanwu sighed, and suddenly became confused, "Why can't Ma Zheng be implemented in such a suitable place for grazing?"
This chapter has been completed!