"Lord Fang is truly formidable. I heard he also channeled water to several villages under Anhe County in Hezhou. Lord Zhao, do you know how that explosive was made? I'm awfully curious."
Zhao Song shook his head. "How would I know that?"
"Lord Fang is twenty-one now, isn't he?" someone asked.
Zhao Song said, "Yes, already twenty-two."
"Three years from now, when he comes back, he'll be twenty-six—not yet thirty—and already poised for a second-grade post. Lord Fang truly makes the rest of us green with envy."
The others nodded along. "No kidding."
Zhao Song furrowed his brow. "Lord Cheng, you're speaking too soon."
"Not too soon at all."
Fang Zichen enjoyed imperial favor and had such achievements under his belt. Promotion and elevation were only a matter of time.
They themselves had slaved away diligently for most of their lives, and now they were only third- or fourth-grade officials.
How old was Fang Zichen?
Back when Xia Jinghong overrode all objections and sent Fang Zichen to "hold down" Hezhou, everyone thought it was a bad move. But now that Lao Gu had returned and said that, barring any accidents, after this autumn harvest, no one in Hezhou would ever starve again.
In other words—everyone would have enough to eat.
How long had Fang Zichen been posted to Hezhou? At most, a year and a half!
Every year, people starved to death in Hezhou. And if they asked themselves honestly—could they have done the same if they'd been sent there?
They knew their own limits. No wonder the Emperor favored him.
Someone else chimed in, praising how the Zhao family's ger had excellent taste—picking such a formidable husband at first try. And not just formidable—they'd heard that Fang Zichen hadn't taken any concubines in Hezhou either.
At first, when Fang Zichen didn't take any concubines, people thought it might have been out of fear of the Zhao family. But later, even after he and Zhao Song had both reached the third rank, he still hadn't — which could only mean that the Zhao family's ger truly knew how to manage his husband
And even if he did take concubines, so what?
The Zhao family's ger already had three children to secure his position.
With such a son-in-law, Zhao Song was bound to have a smooth official career, with no one daring to cross him.
What a lucky man!
Some were envious, others bitterly jealous.
Zhao Song listened to their praise of Fang Zichen, swelling with pride. His chest puffed out, and he practically walked with a spring in his step.
When the Left Chancellor returned home, his wife hurried over.
"Master, is that chemical fertilizer business true?"
"Yes." A maid served tea, and the Left Chancellor took a sip before continuing: "Lord Gu from the Ministry of Revenue and several others saw it with their own eyes."
Back then, they hadn't announced it at court—not because they suspected the imperial guard of lying, but because talking about it would have been useless. No one would have believed it.
Now that the Ministry of Revenue people had gone in person, and the officials had forcibly spread chemical fertilizer on all villages under the eight towns around the capital, reports had come back from each town a few days ago. Most fields that received fertilizer yielded around three dan and four dou per mu; even the poorer ones reached three dan (150 kg). Lao Gu and the others said the top-dressing was applied late, so the effect wasn't even at its peak—but before, the absolute maximum had been about two dan and one or two dou. Who could still doubt it now?
Since it worked, chemical fertilizer factories would have to be built on a large scale across Da Xia. Xia Jinghong put Meng Ruzhi in charge of this.
It was a lucrative assignment.
The Left Chancellor knew that the Emperor wasn't giving Meng Ruzhi this job out of consideration for him, but out of consideration for Fang Zichen—because Fang Zichen had previously swindled many fine goods out of Meng Ruzhi, and he must have felt a twinge of guilt. He'd specifically told Lao Gu, saying he and Meng Ruzhi were good buddies, and "water shouldn't flow to outsiders' fields"—so he suggested to the Emperor that Meng Ruzhi be put in charge of building the factories.
Once someone reached the third rank, moving up any further was tough without substantial political achievements. For Meng Ruzhi, this was a golden opportunity.
The Left Chancellor's wife slowly exhaled and said, "Well, that's wonderful news for our Da Xia. When I first heard the Chao Kingdom had attacked, I was really worried about this."
Though she was a woman of the inner courtyard, the Left Chancellor's wife had a clear grasp of the court's situation—unlike Zheng Peiyao.
Two years ago, there was a disaster in Jiangzhong, and the court had to send a huge amount of silver and grain there. Then two years before that, the region along the Huai River had run into trouble, and they still hadn't fully recovered from it. Now the Chao Kingdom had struck—they'd timed it perfectly. It had to be said: they'd chosen an excellent moment.
Once two kingdoms went to war, the toll on both the people and the treasury was immense. Enormous sums of silver would have to be spent on tens of thousands of weapons, suits of armor, and massive stockpiles of grain.
War meant casualties.
Da Xia would have to conscript large numbers of men—beyond the standing army, new recruits would be raised immediately, both to fill existing gaps and to support the logistical supply lines for distant expeditions. With poor transportation, moving supplies to the front was extraordinarily difficult, and along the way, the conscripted laborers and draft animals would consume huge amounts of grain—so that by the time supplies reached the front lines, very little remained.
Once fighting broke out, frontline troops would need huge amounts of all kinds of weapons over long stretches of time, which would mean drafting large numbers of craftsmen. And then there were the horses—to keep them fit for battle, they couldn't survive on grass alone.
If it were a small kingdom like Beimang attacking, going up against the Qin Family Army, the whole affair would be over in half a year or so. But the Chao Kingdom had strength on par with Da Xia, and they'd been preparing for a long time. As formidable as the Qin Family Army was, they couldn't crush the Chao Kingdom in a short period.
So this would likely drag on.
With the treasury far from full, the war effort couldn't be sustained for long. This weighed heavily not just on the Emperor, but on many of the court ministers as well.
Meng Ruqing had married into the Qin family, so the Left Chancellor's wife naturally paid more attention to these matters.
And ever since the war broke out between Da Xia and the Chao Kingdom, the old and the young at home had all worn long faces. But the day before yesterday, when Meng Ruzhi came back, there wasn't a trace of worry or gloom on his face at all. At dinner, the Left Chancellor's wife asked him a couple of questions about it. Since it wasn't anything that couldn't be spoken of, Meng Ruzhi told her.
The Left Chancellor's wife tossed and turned all night and couldn't sleep a wink. She found the whole thing utterly miraculous. The Left Chancellor himself had been at the palace all day, discussing state affairs, and hadn't come home. The moment he arrived today, she couldn't wait to ask him.
Now, seeing the Left Chancellor nod, she broke into a smile, her tone full of warmth: "So Young Fang does have ability after all! I said it from the start—that young man reminds me of our own Qing Ger. But you kept insisting he was unreliable, said he looked too flighty and not like someone who could do great things. Well, look at him now—he gets things done!"
The Left Chancellor curled his lip: "He gets things done, all right, but he's still an odd one. You don't know—he had a solid gold necklace made for Guaizai."
At that, the Left Chancellor's wife looked displeased: "So what if he did? Is Guaizai not allowed to wear a gold necklace or something?"
The Left Chancellor said, "I'm not saying he can't wear one. If he really wanted one, I'd have sent one over myself even if he didn't have it. But Young Fang went and had one made that weighs twenty jin."
The Left Chancellor's wife: "······"
Guaizai was a tiny little thing—big head, scrawny neck. She already thought that poor little neck was working hard enough just holding up that basin-sized head of his. If he had to wear a twenty-jin necklace on top of that, wouldn't his neck just snap?
No comments:
Post a Comment