The leisurely life of the Qin people

Chapter 324 The Words the New Emperor Won't Say

This document records the price of mules and horses in the Western Regions' Cheshi Kingdom, as well as the number of camel caravans that have recently traveled to and from Loulan Kingdom.

When his wife brought over a bowl of noodles, Fusu then handed his daughter to her.

Wang Tang'er said, "Heng'er wrote to Father, saying that he is leaving Yingchuan for Chu."

Fusu nodded and said, "I have read Chen Ping's documents. Their journey is going smoothly."

As night deepened, the chill of late autumn crept into the main hall, and Fusu draped his woolen cloak over his wife.

After tidying up all the documents on the table, the couple walked back to Takasen-gyu together.

The cold autumn wind swept through Xianyang, and the sound of the wind could still be heard between the palace walls.

The moonlight was quite nice tonight. When I returned to Gaoquan Palace, I saw Granny Wang and Tian An tidying up the palace.

Wang Tang'er took her daughter and went to rest first, while Fusu sat in the hall still looking at documents.

The Western Regions remain wild and sparsely populated. It is said that the Yuezhi people cast a statue of a god in gold, and there are many small towns scattered along the ancient roads of Wusun.

This year, the felt hat presented by the Western Regions also has a precious gem on it, which is a glass bead.

Between the deserts and snow-capped mountains of the Western Regions, the ancient cities and numerous small kingdoms along the Silk Road today seem like another civilization to the Qin Dynasty.

Since the construction of the Hexi Corridor, the Western Regions and Qin began to have contact and exchanges, and people from the two places also began to connect.

In the past, due to the isolation imposed by the Xiongnu, few merchants from the Western Regions were able to break through the Xiongnu blockade and reach Guanzhong.

The exchange between the two places has made the Hexi Corridor increasingly prosperous.

The next day, with a layer of white frost still covering the Guanzhong Plain in the morning, Fusu went to the court meeting early.

It wasn't until the afternoon, after lunch, that Fusu met with Master Wang from the Imperial Academy.

Wang Yu, the prefect of the Imperial Academy, spoke about the recent progress of the teaching support program.

A year has passed since the emperor ordered the eradication of illiteracy last year, and this year the emperor is still paying attention to the issue of supporting education in rural areas.

This emperor was like that; he inquired about every detail of the implementation of his decrees and verified the situation of the teaching support programs in each region.

Wang Yu spoke of the situation in Shu and the Master Han, who was none other than Zhang Liang, who had been plotting to rebel against Qin.

Fusu took a piece of paper from Wang Yu. The words on the paper were written by Zhang Liang. His clerical script was very well written. It was said that Zhang Liang was handsome and his handwriting was just as beautiful.

Wang Yu said, "Reporting to the Emperor, he only sent this letter and said nothing else."

Fusu carefully read the contents of the letter. In the letter, he also expressed his views on the cause of supporting education in rural areas. He felt that the cause of supporting education in rural areas was not only about Confucius, but also about books.

After reading the letter, Fusu put it aside and said in a low voice, "As long as he doesn't rebel against Qin, let him continue teaching in Shu."

"Yes."

After Wang Yu finished his report, he left. Fu Su was looking at the documents from various counties in Guanzhong. Jingye County had finally succeeded in brewing soy sauce.

Fusu suddenly smiled, but then felt a pang of conscience. After all, the workshops in Jingye County were the emperor's private property, and the workshops built by Shusun Tong and Zhang Han were also the emperor's private property. All the accounts had already been presented to him.

Soy sauce was a new thing in Guanzhong, and its appearance immediately increased people's demand for beans.

Making tofu also requires soybeans, but after so many years, tofu has not been widely promoted, and this food is only found in Guanzhong.

Furthermore, even in Guanzhong, tofu is only sold in a few scattered restaurants in each county.

In response, Fu Su felt that the promotion of soy sauce was not optimistic. Although Jingye County had gained an early advantage, it was only an early advantage.

Even now, the Qin Dynasty remains in an extremely primitive agricultural era, where the barter system is still prevalent.

Jingye County's early advantage may not yield significant benefits.

Gongzi Li came up with another brilliant idea: to exchange two bushels of beans for a jug of soy sauce.

This method quickly gained favor in various counties. Firstly, brewing soy sauce requires soybeans, and secondly, for those who came to exchange soybeans for soy sauce, exchanging soybeans for soy sauce only saved them the labor of working in the workshop, so having extra soybeans was not a problem.

Nowadays, everyone in Guanzhong is equally poor. They have no money, only grain. Trading beans for soy sauce is the most acceptable way for the people of Guanzhong to get what they need.

Jingye County can also recoup its costs. Moreover, there is always a surplus of beans after each exchange, which can be stored up, so Jingye County will not lack food.

Long ago, the people of the county were worried about going hungry, and they would feel anxious about whether they could eat a little more or a little less food.

This anxiety still exists, but it's not as urgent as it used to be.

Among the many documents of today, Fusu found a scroll of paper. Unfolding the scroll, he found it contained the grain transport route written by Du Shuichang.

Back then, this Du Shuichang traveled all over the Central Plains. Now, after so many years in Yan, I've heard that he's had a very successful harvest of grain in Liaodong.

While reclaiming wasteland in Liaodong, this water chief also drew a map showing the locations of granaries in various places and the routes for transporting grain.

In the map of the Dushui River, grain from the south can be transported across the Yangtze River first, arriving at the Yangzhou granary, then the Heyin granary, and finally the Taiyin granary.

This process is lengthy, and waterway construction is currently underdeveloped, with almost no waterway infrastructure in some areas.

During the warring states of the past, everyone was on guard against each other, so there were almost no large-scale projects involving the mobilization of the entire population during the six hundred years of the Spring and Autumn Period.

Even after Qin unified the Central Plains, the first major project it launched was the construction of the Great Wall. The price Qin paid for this northern defense line was enormous, and its impact is still felt today.

Fortunately, the Northern Expedition was successful; otherwise, Fusu might not have known how the situation would have turned out, and the six states might have been restored to power.

It's likely that the Emperor and the Prime Minister had already prepared for the worst.

A palace guard came to report, "Prefect Xiao has come to pay his respects."

Fusu, still holding the map in his hand, nodded to signal someone to enter the hall.

Xiao He visited Zhangtai Palace only a handful of times: once when the new emperor ascended the throne, and a few times during New Year's court discussions.

Upon reaching the main hall of Zhangtai Palace, Xiao He took a deep breath and looked up to see the emperor sitting on the throne at the head of the hall.

This emperor was popular from a young age, and even today the people of Guanzhong still firmly believe that this emperor can make their lives better. Some say that the new emperor is like Duke Xiao of Qin.

Xiao He took off his shoes and walked into the main hall. The autumn wind blew into the hall, bringing with it the unique scent of wood that the palace had.

"Your subject Xiao He pays his respects to the Emperor."

"No need to be polite."

Xiao He handed over a scroll, bowed, and said, "The Qizhou horse farm has been fully constructed and can accommodate three thousand warhorses."

Fusu took Xiao He's dossier from Tian An, read the text inside, and said, "Let the Chief Steward of the Imperial Household Department make a trip there."

Tian An nodded and went to the Prime Minister's residence to deliver the message.

Fusu looked at Xiao He standing below him and said, "I and the Prime Minister's office have witnessed the construction in the counties north of the Wei River this year. You have done a good job. You can consider returning to Chu." Xiao He replied, "I would like to stay for another two years."

Fusu looked at the other person and nodded, saying, "Yes, I also need to think carefully about what you should do after you go to Chu."

At this point, Fusu had Tian An hand Xiao He the map of the Chief of the Waterways, and said, "This is the Yangtze River and its waterways. In the past, when the states were fighting each other, these waterways were blocked and silted up. The Chief of the Waterways is good at water management."

After Qin unified the states, transporting grain and taxes to various regions became a huge burden. Du Shuichang hoped to build granaries in various places and transport grain by waterway every year.

Currently, it takes ninety days to transport grain from the Jianghuai region to Xianyang, with an annual grain transport volume of one million shi (a unit of dry measure). If the grain is transported by water and new routes are opened, the time can be shortened to forty days. This not only reduces the time but also reduces the number of laborers required by 50%.

A country cannot be governed without taxes; without taxes, it cannot support a sufficient number of officials and soldiers.

Today, large tracts of land in the Central Plains are still barren. As long as the situation is stable, the more barren land is distributed, the more the population will continue to grow before all the land is distributed equally. This is an inevitable result.

Xiao He understood the emperor's intentions by calculating a relatively simple account.

Fusu looked at Xiao He's file and said, "I'm not in a hurry."

The emperor is currently at the height of his power, and Xiao He is also in his prime; the two emperors and their ministers have a long time to prepare.

Inside the main hall of Zhangtai Palace, Fusu and Xiao He talked for a long time and suddenly realized that they had the same idea in many ways.

This country needs to accumulate strength, strengthen its administration and education, enhance the education of the people in the former lands of the six states, and continue to reclaim wasteland and stockpile grain.

This country needs to accumulate strength gradually and make progress step by step.

After Xiao He left, Fusu was still looking at a stove in the hall, where coal was burning. This coal was newly made honeycomb briquettes, and the method of making this coal was very simple, mainly using coal and yellow mud.

For the Qin Dynasty today, such things are plentiful; there are countless open-pit coal mines.

Tian An's favorite type of stove is this kind of wind stove, which has a hole at the bottom and honeycomb briquettes burning inside. This kind of fire is the best for cooking.

The old stove was not very useful for Tian An because it did not burn for long enough and required constant addition of firewood.

The best thing about this kind of coal is its long burnability; nowadays, only the palace has it.

Fusu asked, "Have the coal mines in various places been brought under control?"

"It's all on record."

Looking at the burning coal, Fusu felt a long-lost feeling, a feeling so long ago that it seemed like something from a past life.

Even after living another lifetime, Fusu could never forget the coal smoke drifting from every household in those alleyways.

The somewhat pungent smell awakened memories deep within Fusu's heart: the sounds of children playing in the alley, the pungent coal smoke mixed with the aroma of food, and the sizzling sound of oil in the pan as the spatula flipped the vegetables.

Before them stood the main hall of Zhangtai Palace, and standing beside them was Tian An.

Fusu said, "Let's start digging coal in Tongchuan."

Tian An bowed and said, "Yes."

When faced with the basic needs of life, environmental and ecological issues can be set aside; people must first survive.

This is the bottom line that Fusu insists on: the country needs coal.

In the third year of the new emperor's reign, during the Frost's Descent season, Ying Zheng looked at the stove in front of him, with his grandson Li Zili and prime minister Li Si standing beside him.

A quarter of an hour passed and the coal was still burning. The water in the stove finally boiled, so the servant changed the water and continued boiling.

Grandpa's life on Mount Li was too leisurely and boring. So leisurely that he had nothing to do on the mountain, except watch as a furnace of coal was used to boil a few kettles of water.

Ying Zheng chewed on a date and remained silent.

Li Si noticed that the flames inside the stove had weakened considerably; this was the second pot of water that had been boiled in the stove.

Behind them was a row of eunuchs, each carrying a pot of water.

Seeing this scene, Li felt sorry for the eunuchs, but he also felt that as long as his grandfather was happy, it was okay for them to work hard.

This somewhat uninteresting experiment eventually concluded that with this type of honeycomb briquette and this stove, three kettles of water could be boiled, but the third kettle could only be heated, not boiled.

The wind tunnel under the furnace should face the wind direction; the stronger the wind, the bigger the fire inside the furnace.

Ying Zheng slowly turned his head to look at Li Si beside him.

Li Si said, "This is a very good thing. With this, people will no longer need to spend two or three hours every day chopping wood, and they will be able to live better lives."

Ying Zheng said in a low voice, "In the past, I invited scholars from the six states to Qin. You and I personally investigated the skills of those scholars. Why couldn't they create this thing back then? This thing..."

Li Si said, "They are probably not good at this."

Ying Zheng countered, "How did Fusu learn of this?"

Li Si fell silent again. How could he explain it? Who knew how the new emperor had learned of this?

Ying Zheng looked at his grandson standing to the side.

Li replied, "Grandpa, I've heard Father Emperor talk about coal before, but many of the things Father Emperor instructed were arranged by Grandpa Tian. I really didn't know that Father Emperor could use coal to such an extent."

Ying Zheng looked at the coal that had been taken out of the furnace. The coal had burned out, was brown in color, and had some cracks, making it fragile.

"Li, you should take some with you to the county as well."

"Thank you, Grandpa."

Li Si watched as Gongzi Li left with a basket of coal and whispered, "Two years ago, the emperor went to inspect Pinyang County and established Tongchuan County next to it. There was a coal mine there, and the emperor ordered the magistrate of Tongchuan County to surround it."

Ying Zheng hesitated and said, "So he had planned this all along."

Li Si continued, “The emperor did not publicize the creation of this new item. Instead, he first fenced off the coal mine area, thus knowing its purpose. If someone were to profit from it, it could make someone rich within a few years if it got out of control. This item must not fall into the hands of others; it can only be controlled by the emperor.”

Ying Zheng said, "This child is as cunning as ever."

Li Si sighed with emotion. He had watched the new emperor grow up from his childhood. Even then, Prince Fusu was very shrewd and would plan things for years in advance. But even then, the prince was already very shrewd and calculating. It wasn't until the excavation in Jingye County was successfully completed that he realized how much he had learned.

What followed, including his teaching assignments and the construction of Tongguan, revealed that the young man had learned to hide his thoughts and plans.

Even now, the Qin court under the new emperor has not appointed another prime minister, and the officials are unaware of the new emperor's thoughts.

Just like when he was young, there are some things the new emperor will not say to his ministers; he will keep them to himself.

Even Meng Tian, ​​and even Zhang Cang, whom he had known for many years.

This includes his own teacher and the father of the new emperor before him.

(End of this chapter)