Chapter 398
"Your Majesty," Lao Gu said, his voice hoarse and so worn out he looked ready to collapse, as if he might drop dead any second. Xia Jinghong cuit in, "Minister Gu..." Please rest first—we can talk tomorrow.
But Lao Gu was urgent. "Your Majesty, Lord Fang has something excellent."
"What?"
"Lord Fang knows how to build cement roads." And toilet paper too—he loved that stuff most of all. On the way back, using the latrines without toilet paper had made every squat miserable.
Xia Jinghong's expression remained unchanged.
He had heard of that. Just a road, nothing more. When the imperial guards returned after New Year, they'd brought so much news that Xia Jinghong had been overwhelmed—he'd focused on the explosives and fertilizer and hadn't paid much attention to the cement road. Later, when he did think of it, it hadn't seemed like a big deal.
It was just a road, after all.
Seeing that the emperor wasn't taking it seriously, Lao Gu grew anxious.
That cement road was a marvelous thing—hard as rock. He'd taken a hammer to it himself and pounded for ages, and the cement road stayed perfectly intact.
Aside from how smooth and comfortable it would be to travel on such roads outside, if they used it to build city walls, they wouldn't have to fear enemy attacks.
Fang Zichen had said: "First we'll make the city gates out of iron. If the enemy really comes, they won't even be able to get into the city. Then let's see them fight!"
Lao Gu thought this plan was very sound.
Lao Gu was so persistent that Xia Jinghong began to take it seriously: "Is the cement really that good?"
"I would never dare deceive Your Majesty." Lao Gu explained in detail. As Xia Jinghong listened, his eyebrows shot up—he immediately caught a whiff of "scheming."
That rascal never does anything without angling for something in return. Going on and on to Minister Gu about those cement roads—he's probably after a share of the profits himself!
The little bastard. Always going on about loving the people like his own children and treating money like dirt. If that were really the case, why only talk up the cement and never offer to supply it?
But this couldn't be rushed. Down south, the Chao Kingdom had already stirred up hostilities, and the top priority right now was getting the chemical fertilizer produced. Otherwise, if the war dragged on for years, grain supplies might fall short—and besides, things had to be handled one step at a time.
Xia Jinghong had deep pockets and plenty of manpower to throw at the problem. By the middle of the eighth month, the chemical fertilizer was already being rolled out.
But the common people out there didn't believe in the chemical fertilizer at all!
They had exactly the same mindset as the people of Hezhou in the beginning.
They didn't trust it, so they wouldn't buy it—and if they put it in their fields, it might even end up ruining the crops.
At that point, talking until their lips went dry was useless. So they resorted to force.
They wouldn't buy it, and they wouldn't use it. Fine—the officials went and did it themselves.
The farmers couldn't stop them. They didn't dare speak up or curse. They just stood at the edge of the ridges, wiping away tears as they watched the officials head toward their fields, praying they wouldn't kill the crops—otherwise, what would they eat next year?
After spreading the chemical fertilizer, the officials left.
The chemical fertilizer came in little pellets. Some farmers tried to pick them back up, but there were too many—and once the pellets touched water, they turned sticky and dissolved right in. There was no picking them out.
Everyone could only go home.
Later, they came to check on their fields every day. When they saw the crops weren't harmed, they breathed a sigh of relief—but soon, they started noticing something off.
The chemical fertilizer had been applied as a top-dressing, and a bit late at that, so the results weren't particularly dramatic.
Still, each mu yielded over three hundred jin.
That was enough to shock them.
The farmers wiped their sweat and looked at each other in disbelief. The chemical fertilizer worked.
The very next day, they flooded the local yamen.
"My lord, we want to buy chemical fertilizer! We want to buy chemical fertilizer!"
The officials watched them rush in, all red-faced and frantic, practically fighting over it. Finally, the officials felt a sense of vindication.
Serves you right for rushing now. Back then when we told you to buy it, you refused and came up with every excuse possible. You insisted that after farming your whole lives, you knew better, and that nothing you just throw in the ground could possibly double the yield.
And now what happened to all that experience you were so proud of?
There were many traveling merchants on the road, and news of the chemical fertilizer spread like wildfire. All across Da Xia, common people couldn't stop talking about it whenever they rested. It truly caused quite a stir for a while.
"Is the chemical fertilizer really that miraculous?"
"Why would I lie to you?"
"I've heard about this too. It's no lie—it's all over Shangyang. They say Lord Fang came up with it."
"Lord Fang? Who's that?"
"Oh, you don't even know who Lord Fang is? That Little Six-Time Champion from a few years ago! The handsome one—I heard that during his parade, even a little girl was so smitten she wanted to jump off a building, screaming she was madly in love with him, throwing buns at him nonstop, and his horse almost got knocked dead by all the coin pouches flying at it."
"Oh, now that you mention it, I remember. He really made this chemical fertilizer?"
"Yes, absolutely true. I heard he got transferred to Hezhou..."
"Hezhou? Where's that? Never heard of it."
"Oh, it's a godforsaken place, dirt poor and far from here. No wonder you haven't heard of it."
"I see. Go on, then."
"When Lord Fang got there, he saw how much the people were suffering—they couldn't even get enough to eat—so he came up with the chemical fertilizer. I heard that now, everyone over there can fill their bellies."
"Really? No kidding?"
"Absolutely true, I swear."
"Well, that's incredible. No wonder he's the Little Six-Time Champion. How is his brain even wired? How could he possibly come up with something like that?"
"No idea. But right now, the common folk are the lucky ones. Lord Fang is a good man!"
"No kidding."
"That's how an official should be."
From then on, not just in Hezhou, but almost everywhere in Da Xia that ate rice, everyone knew who Lord Fang was.
---
Zhao Song had been going through a rough stretch lately—not because of anything serious, but simply because after his shifts ended, he still had to run around handling social obligations.
Just as he was leaving the palace after duty, several officials came over to chat him up.
"Lord Zhao, your son-in-law is truly something else!"
Privately, Zhao Song also thought Fang Zichen was pretty impressive, but he had to be polite: "Oh, not at all, not at all."
"Don't be so modest," one official said. "Lord Gu has told us all about it since he got back."
Who was Lao Gu?
Though his official rank was only third-grade—not especially high—the man was famously tight-lipped with praise, as if his eyes were on top of his head and no one was good enough for him.
But this time, after returning from Hezhou, though he looked thinner, his spirits were excellent. He told everyone he met: "Now this is how an official should be—just like Lord Fang! You have no idea, when I got there, the common folk were so warm. They'd shove things into my hands as I walked down the road, and I couldn't even refuse. I could tell it was because Lord Fang had done right by them—he truly has skill."
And skill he certainly had.
Poor, rugged places breed unruly people. Just managing to stay in Hezhou for a year without getting beaten to a pulp by the locals—and coming back with all limbs intact—that itself was a sign of ability.
Back when Lao Gu first said all this, nobody knew about the chemical fertilizer yet. It wasn't until morning court, when they learned of it, that everyone—stunned and shaken—realized: with an achievement this big, once Fang Zichen returned in four years, he'd likely be promoted straight to second-grade official.
Better start sucking up now.
The group of officials clustered around Zhao Song as they walked out of the palace together.
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