lt;pgt;Scholar from

The old blacksmith knew that education was the only way out. He tightened his belt and sent his young son, Xiao Jin Feng, to school, hoping that one day he would pass the imperial examinations and become a successful official.,Years of continuous warfare had depleted the male population in the Kang dynasty. To stimulate population growth, the imperial court mandated that men aged eighteen and above, and women aged seventeen and above, were required to marry. Failure to comply would result in a threefold increase in land tax.,They are all like Jin Feng, belonging to the kind of people in the village who would rather let their daughters participate in a lottery for marriage than allow them to be married.。