As for the production of the printing press, Zhao Ruxi had already left it to Xiao Lingyan to go to the south to covertly produce it. All the turmoil in the capital had nothing to do with her.

In addition to continuing to teach painting to officials from various places, she focused the rest of her energy on books. Occasionally she would go for a walk on Zhuangzi.

Last year, during the slack time in winter, the people in Zhuangzi not only built themselves neat and spacious houses, made a lot of vermicelli, opened rice noodle shops, but also carried out some infrastructure construction according to Zhao Ruxi's instructions.

The chickens, ducks, geese, sheep, pigs, and cows that Zhuangzi originally raised for the owner's family were all raised by Zhuangtou, who organized people to encircle five separate areas at the foot of the mountain and sent special personnel to raise them.

After all, the village servants' own houses are small, with no front or back yard, and they don't have enough to eat. How can they have any surplus grain to feed the livestock? The livestock given to the master's family were all shelled by the master when he was grinding grain for the master's family.

The rice bran that fell off was mixed with vegetable leaves and wild vegetables.

Zhao Ruxi felt that there were two disadvantages to doing this. One was the plague. There had been several chicken plagues in Zhuangzi, and many chickens died. The other was that special people were needed to take care of it, which was a waste of labor.

She simply adopted the method of voluntary adoption, and any farm servants who were willing to raise these livestock could take some back, with the right proportion of male and female, and they would keep a quarter of the chickens, ducks and eggs raised and hand over a quarter.

3. Of course, if all the chickens and ducks raised die, compensation will be based on the cost. If the chickens and ducks are raised well, they will also be rewarded, and a standard has been set for this.

As soon as this method was announced, the farm servants rushed to adopt the livestock.

Poultry like chickens don’t need anyone to worry about at all. They can be fed with some chopped rice bran and vegetable leaves every day. They usually lay eggs, and if they lay four eggs, they can get one. After taking a few chicks, they will grow up in half a year, and then there will be at least one.

It's just my own.

Ducks and geese are a bit more troublesome to get to the pond to stock, and pigs, cattle, and sheep also require a lot of effort, but the elderly and children at home can do these things. If you are diligent, it will take a little effort sooner or later, but the profit will not be small.

However, Qian Duoduo advised them based on their abilities. Chickens, ducks, and pigs were okay, but not everyone could raise cattle and sheep.

Seeing how enthusiastic everyone was, Zhao Ruxi even suggested raising earthworms to raise chickens, ducks and pigs.

She had never done farm work or raised chickens or ducks in her entire life, and she had only seen this method in books and novels.

To be on the safe side, she designated one company as a pilot, and they would not have to bear the consequences if it failed. If successful, their method would be promoted.

The livestock problem was solved, fruit trees were planted on the mountains in winter, fish fry were put in the ponds and contracted by people who were good at raising fish.

Zhao Ruxi wanted to change rice into a cash crop, but these fields were all good paddy fields, so it would be a pity to change the rice fields.

There is still not enough food in the Jin Dynasty, and the court attaches great importance to growing food on farmland. People with paddy fields also have the obligation to grow food to alleviate the food crisis. Seeing that the servants of the village can live a good life by relying on other things

, Zhao Ruxi did not mention changing to planting cash crops.

She actually gave the farm servants some ways to accumulate fertilizer and asked them to cultivate the soil so that they could plant a crop of winter wheat in winter.

She didn't know much about agriculture, and she didn't dare to give orders to the experts at random, so she could only get to this point.

Before I knew it, the time for the county examination had arrived.

Zhao Ruxi had experienced many battles in her previous life and was not nervous about exams at all.

But Mrs. Cui was extremely nervous.

She went to see Princess Shang De in private and said to her: "Princess, I'm worried that Concubine Jin or Princess Pingyang will stumbling upon Zhiwei in the county examination. Zhiwei ranked first in the annual examination, but in the end he failed even in the county examination.

If you can't pass it, you will be ridiculed by the Capital Girls' Academy for some reason."

"I've thought of this too. I'm going to go find the emperor and ask him to pay more attention when he sends someone to supervise the exam."

As Princess Shangde spoke, she stood up and hurried into the palace.

Women participating in the imperial examination are different from men. After all, the number of women is small and their status is special. Therefore, they will not be arranged in the examination room with the male candidates. Instead, they will find a separate courtyard next to the examination room, and the court will appoint two officials to invigilate the examination.

Who these two officials are is very important.

If one of Concubine Jin wants to trip up Zhao Ruxi, there are plenty of ways to do it.

"Brother Emperor, you saw in the last painting competition that some people just couldn't see how good Zhiwei was, so they wanted to make things difficult for Zhiwei. This time she takes part in the imperial examination, and I'm worried that someone will make things difficult for her. Can you appoint an upright person?

To be the examiner for female candidates? I don’t want him to take care of Zhiwei, I just want justice."

"Sure." Xiao Ge agreed.

Even if Princess Shangde didn't mention it, he would still do it.

Zhao Ruxi's paintings can be regarded as national masters. For such people, the court must take protective measures.

Something happened to her last time she participated in the painting competition; if something happened again when she took the imperial examination, Xiao Ge would not be able to explain it to the world. His cousin might scold him in some way.

There were several county examinations, and the level was not high. The officials of the imperial court were busy, so they had to send people who were idle to supervise the examinations.

Xiao Ge already had a candidate in mind, but according to the rules, he couldn't tell Princess Shangde, and Princess Shangde didn't ask again.

On the day of the county examination, Zhao Ruxi arrived at the examination room only one meal early.

When she arrived at the examination room, she saw that there were only four people in the room besides her. Three of them were obviously acquaintances and were whispering together; the other one was sitting awkwardly on the other side.

The three people who were talking saw Zhao Ruxi coming in and looked her over. One of them asked: "Are you Zhao Ruxi?"

Zhao Ruxi nodded: "Exactly."

"We are all from the Capital Women's College." The man added.

Her tone was calm, and the look she looked at Zhao Ruxi was just curious, not arrogant or disdainful.

This is also the result of Zhao Ruxi's participation in the painting competition and her fame.

Her achievements in painting are something that these women can only look up to throughout their lives; not to mention that she ranked first in the annual exam, which gave them a head start.

Therefore, no matter how noble these women are, they cannot be arrogant in front of the truly talented Zhao Ruxi. Otherwise, if others know about it, their reputation will not be good.

When the woman sitting alone heard Zhao Ruxi's name, she also raised her head and looked at Zhao Ruxi with curiosity and admiration.

Zhao Ruxi said "Nice to meet you" and ignored them. She lowered her head and arranged the four treasures of her study.

Since there were only a small number of candidates, there were two officials and two test assistants supervising the examination. No one dared to cheat under the watchful eyes. Therefore, female candidates did not need to be searched; their pens, inks, papers and inkstones did not need to be checked.

Seeing that she had no intention of talking, the three people from the Capital Girls' Academy were a little arrogant, so they stopped talking and the room became quiet.
Chapter completed!