Longzang

Chapter 451 Autumn turns to winter, it is time to meet the Emperor
The promulgation of the new civilian system caused a huge uproar in Qingming. Countless people cheered and even hoped that the Wu tribe would come to fight a few more battles so that they could have more military merits.

People would secretly go to see where the land was, what it looked like, and gesture about which plots they would exchange if they could get it.

However, there were also some discontented voices. Many merchant caravans that traded between Qingming and Qingming had their own complaints about the land grants that could not be resold, and they expressed their dissatisfaction openly and secretly.

Some people also attacked the 20% tax on land grants, saying that those farmers who were affiliated with powerful families did not have to pay taxes to the court at all, and that the 20% tax was simply sucking their marrow dry.

Several people who were causing a ruckus were caught red-handed by Wei Yuan, who then arranged for them to be tied up in the downtown area and slapped a hundred times, leaving their faces bruised and battered. In an instant, the criticism subsided considerably.

Anyone who dared to plead for these people was slapped fifty times, finally making the caravan members understand whose territory they were operating on.

After the implementation of the merit-based land grant system, there was still a great deal of tedious and complex work to be done, such as how to convert the military merits of civilians into land, which plot of land to grant, and how to ensure that subsequent land grants could be consolidated into one area, etc. Each of these details meant a large amount of complicated work.

Fortunately, the mortal realm is best at handling such a large number of trivial matters, and it can also enhance the spirituality of one's Dao foundation. Ever since Wei Yuan allowed the girl to define the area for entering the mortal realm, he has relaxed the restrictions on entering the mortal realm, and the spirituality of his Dharma form has increased again as the number of mortals has increased.

But Bao Yun tried many times and still couldn't get in.

Most people who enter the mortal realm serve as basic task units, while those who wish to enhance their Dao Foundation spirituality must become processing nodes like Cui Yu. Only a handful of Dao Foundation cultivators can be assigned as nodes; they must either have accumulated sufficient merit or possess outstanding potential, and all must swear a blood oath of eternal loyalty.

Others who wish to improve their Dao Foundation quality also need to accumulate merit and prove their loyalty, and finally swear a blood oath. This is the last upward path in the Qingming cultivation system, so Wei Yuan controls it extremely tightly; only those who are wholeheartedly loyal to Qingming have a chance to obtain it.

At this moment, as the world was just beginning to unfold, the research institute finally achieved its goal: a new generation of silk weaving machines!
The principle behind this textile machine is not difficult; its core breakthrough lies in one point: using a spiritual energy array as the power source to drive the machine's operation.

The mortals living in the mundane world are already accustomed to the concept of power, and the design of any machine takes power as the first consideration. And the most mature technology now is spiritual energy power driven by magic arrays.

If there are no spiritual objects, then Dao Foundation cultivators can be used as a power source. Therefore, the research institute proposed to cultivate a group of Dao Foundation cultivators with long endurance who can continuously and stably output mana as soon as possible, suggesting starting with water, wood, and earth elements, with water element being the best and wood element being the second best.

Upon seeing this, Wei Yuan's expression became somewhat strange. It seemed that if his Dao Foundation Warriors used the improved Water Blade Technique to drive the blade wheel, they could power more than a dozen looms and keep them running for several days without needing to replenish them.

However, this kind of work is naturally suitable for those new Dao Foundation cultivators who have broken through the limits of the Human Rank Dao Foundation. Wei Yuan has already seen the scene of a large number of newly promoted Dao Foundation cultivators not being able to find jobs in the future, so he naturally will not compete with them for jobs.

Besides the power system, there are many other minor improvements to the new loom, such as a feeding system that can continuously and stably supply yarn automatically, and the ability to change the core of the loom body to create silk patterns by changing the machine plate.

The research institute also has further improvement plans, such as replacing the existing fixed-size model with a new model whose pattern can be changed by adjusting the control panel, and so on.

According to the evaluation by the Tiandi Chukai Research Institute, the efficiency of the new loom is twenty times that of the traditional Ningjin loom. It can reduce the weaving cost of a bolt of Ningjin from about two taels of silver to one qian. Therefore, the cost of a bolt of Ningjin is directly reduced to one tael and six qian, of which one tael is for miscellaneous expenses, including storage, transportation, customs duties, various miscellaneous taxes, and losses. This part can also be significantly reduced in the future.

However, during the Western Jin Dynasty, the cost of weaving and miscellaneous expenses in brocade could not be reduced; on the contrary, the miscellaneous expenses tended to rise. For example, a few months earlier, the Prince of Jin, disregarding opposition, added a one-qian tax to every piece of brocade levied on the northern brocade.

In addition, with the high price of silk, the cost of a piece of brocade has reached four taels and three mace, while the selling price is five taels, resulting in a very thin profit. Any roadblock could easily turn it into a loss.

If sold to the Wu tribe, the goods obtained in exchange would be converted into silver, and a piece of brocade could be sold for about fifteen taels.

Wei Yuan was very satisfied with the new looms and began to secretly mass-produce them. However, all the looms produced were sealed away and not used for the time being, because it was not the right time yet.

Once the new loom was successfully developed, Wei Yuan went to find the True Man of the Farming Cutter, as the next crucial step was with him.

The current residence of the True Man of the Hoeing Fields is located next to the medicinal herb garden, and the entire adjacent large spiritual land has been transformed into his experimental grounds. In the center of this land, there is a three-foot square flower bed, surrounded by an intricate array. Inside the flower bed are four mulberry seedlings, each of a different variety.

Master Chuhe led Wei Yuan to the flower bed and pointed to one of the mulberry seedlings, saying, "This is a mulberry seedling that I cultivated using the spiritual soil bestowed by Ancestor Huangyun. This one is more in line with our requirements. If we cultivate it in this direction, it should be ready to use after two or three generations."

Upon closer inspection, Wei Yuan noticed a faint chill emanating from the branches and leaves of the mulberry sapling, with the branches tinged with a pale blue. The leaves also felt somewhat cool to the touch.

Master Chuhe carefully plucked a leaf and fed it to a plump silkworm in the insect garden beside the flower bed. After eating the leaf, the silkworm felt a slight chill within its body. Although subtle, Wei Yuan could clearly sense it. Master Chuhe said, "This mulberry seedling is naturally cold and yin, already possessing some characteristics of a spiritual plant. Feeding insects with its leaves produces silk that is naturally cool and more resilient. This silk can be called ice silk, and compared to current mulberry silk, it is of superior quality. As long as we promote the new mulberry seedlings, mulberry farmers will naturally switch to planting it."

Since the new mulberry seedlings possess a certain spiritual quality, they will automatically alter their surrounding environment after being planted. From my observation, they will gradually transform the soil into gravelly soil, allowing their roots to penetrate deep into the soil. In less than three years, this land will no longer be suitable for growing grain.”

Wei Yuan said, "That's right. But new mulberry seedlings need time to grow, and mulberry farmers wouldn't cut down mature mulberry trees to plant new seedlings, would they?"

The old Taoist priest chuckled and stroked his beard, saying, "Such a trivial matter is no challenge for Jianmu Palace. These mulberry seedlings don't need to be newly planted. Just cut a new branch, make a slit in the original mulberry tree, and graft it onto it. However, in the initial stage, a cultivator with a foundation in wood cultivation will need to take care of them for several days, nurturing them with his Dao power, and they will survive."

Once the new branches are successfully grafted, ordinary mulberry trees are no match for it. In just one year, an ordinary mulberry tree can be transformed into an ice mulberry. However, ice mulberry trees cannot be planted too densely; some ordinary mulberry trees need to be pruned.

Wei Yuan nodded slowly: "For ordinary mulberry farmers, even a single ice mulberry tree in their field is treasured like a family heirloom. Hmm, persuading large-scale farmers to switch to this variety should be easier. I'll head to the Yao family first!"

Master Chuhe picked up a silk thread from the insect garden and said to Wei Yuan, "This is the newly produced ice silk. Its quality is still lacking. Once all the insects are fed with ice mulberry leaves, its quality will improve even further."

Wei Yuan took the ice silk and found it was indeed a little cold to the touch. He then pulled on it and found it to be much tougher than ordinary mulberry silk.

Master Chuhe chuckled and said, "Clothes woven from ice silk will naturally feel cool to the touch, and I'm sure all the nobles, wealthy families, and powerful figures will not miss out on them. Once the finished products are ready, we only need to present a batch as tribute to the Prince of Jin..."

Wei Yuan had to admit that, apart from his extensive experience with the Legend of Sword and Fairy, Chuhe Zhenren was truly a rare talent in other areas.

The ice silk was an unexpected find. Wei Yuan's original intention was simply to find a modified mulberry tree that, over time, would render the land unsuitable for growing crops, thus cutting off the path for the seven prefectures of Ningxi to switch from mulberry cultivation to grain production. Given Qingming's current expansion rate, it could fill the food shortage in the seven prefectures in the future, at which point Wei Yuan would be invincible.

The emergence of ice mulberry and grafting techniques not only fully satisfied Wei Yuan's needs, but also created a type of ice brocade that could potentially sweep across the Western Jin Dynasty. According to the experience of the outer world, when the wealthy and powerful have so much money they don't know what to do with it, they will spend it on such so-called luxury goods.

Although Wei Yuan found it hard to understand the behavior of buying luxury goods in the outer world, he seemed to understand it a little when he saw the powerful and wealthy people of Da Tang playing with coral, jade and pearls.

Most of these people have reached the end of their cultivation path and have no hope of advancement. Most of the cultivators who still have the possibility of advancing are focused on cultivation and are eyeing spiritual objects and medicines.

However, how many cultivators in the Great Soup can actually advance? The vast majority have no way to advance. For them, there's not much difference between the early and late stages of the Foundation Establishment realm, so they might as well enjoy themselves.

Wei Yuan exclaimed, "This grafting technique is truly divine!"

The old Daoist Chu He humbly replied, "Hehe, this is really nothing. This was originally a method used by my Jianmu Hall to cultivate rare spiritual plants, so it is naturally very effective when used on ordinary wood. It's just that there aren't enough Dao Foundation cultivators to cast spells. These days, I've come up with a way to quickly achieve Dao Foundation. From the next batch of cultivators who advance to Dao Foundation, we need to select a group of people to specialize in cultivating this kind of Dao Foundation."

Wei Yuan immediately agreed.

The new Dao foundation of the True Man of the Hoeing Fields is named the Taiyi Tongtian Divine Tree. The difficulty of cultivating a single branch or bud is similar to that of the Great Bright Subduing Demon Sword.

Wei Yuan, however, immediately saw the benefits of this foundation.

Its Dao power is dense and long-lasting, and its energy returns quite quickly. Even if it's not used for cultivating and grafting Ice Mulberry, it can be used to care for other spiritual plants, and at the very least, it's adept at operating a loom. Although this Dao foundation isn't good at fighting, it's never short of work.

In terms of future prospects, it's even better than the Pseudo-Sun Cultivator. If the Pseudo-Sun Cultivator doesn't start fires or fight, then all they can do is work as a security guard.

Therefore, Wei Yuan immediately decided to vigorously promote the new Dao Foundation.

At this moment, a new chapter has slowly begun. Autumn is in full swing, and heavy snow is falling in the north. In the blink of an eye, winter has arrived, the New Year is coming, and it is time for Wei Yuan to go to the capital to meet the emperor.

(End of this chapter)