Chapter 483 – Spring Plowing (1)
Jiang Nong Qin looked at Shangguan Wan’s serious profile and sighed inwardly.
If a woman’s growth must be built on suffering, that would be far too cruel.
After a brief rest, everyone in the troop was back on the road.
After the fifth day of the new year, the city of Xiangyang snapped out of its New Year joy, and restaurants and tea houses began to open one after another.
The county officials also started actively preparing for the battles post-spring plowing, with soldier training becoming increasingly strict while recruitment was happening everywhere.
In other words, the subordinates were still working overtime, while Jiang Pengji, the Lord, was still slacking off.
However, she now had one more sidekick in her leisure, and that was Zhang Ping from the Mo family.
As the saying goes, a nap needs a pillow; Jiang Pengji had previously complained about the Mo scholars seemingly having gone extinct, with not a shadow in sight, when Zhang Ping had then come knocking at her door. After observing him closely, she discovered he was quite bright and had potential.
Thus, she kept him by her side all day long, teaching him about the Woodworking Workshop.
“Your Lord’s brilliant ideas truly leave me in awe…”
For a craftsman lost in machines, what could be more appealing than various models and figurines?
Jiang Pengji showed him various siege weapon models. The craftsmen in the Woodworking Workshop, after her screening and training, could already create some simple machine models according to blueprints, and these models weren’t just for show.
If scaled up, they would become actual siege weapons.
Zhang Ping never realized that siege warfare could be so engaging—this was simply fascinating.
Initially indifferent, Zhang Ping’s interest was now piqued.
How could defenses incur the least cost to protect the city?
How could attackers minimize costs to capture the city?
His mind was full of these thoughts, to the point he temporarily set aside the waterwheel he had been working on.
If Jiang Pengji hadn’t inadvertently spotted his work, he wondered when that waterwheel would ever see the light of day.
“What’s this?” Jiang Pengji poked at the waterwheel model, “Did you make it?”
Zhang Ping paused for a moment, then smiled, “Yes, I saw farmers struggling to irrigate, so I thought about how to save labor and make irrigation easier. However, I’ve tried several times, but it always fails. You see, this one is too clunky, and I just don’t know what the problem is.”
Zhang Ping’s ambition was to live as a hermit, with a plum wife and crane children, content to live life leisurely.
His research inclined towards people’s livelihoods, unlike Jiang Pengji, whose focus, aside from improving farming tools initially, leaned towards warfare applications.
Jiang Pengji said, “Let me take a look.”
Indeed, the waterwheel was quite an audacious design. To the audience in the live stream, it seemed perfectly normal, but in this world, it was a genuinely astonishing innovation. If Zhang Ping succeeded in his research and put it into practice, who knows how many common people could benefit?
Jiang Pengji paid great attention to people’s livelihoods, naturally wishing for the waterwheel to succeed.
In addition to the waterwheel, Zhang Ping also had a pulley for lifting water.
This was something already existing, yet not widely used. Zhang Ping intended to employ it for fetching water.
His explanation was simple: some common people live high in the mountains while rivers lie below. If they wanted water, they had to descend the mountain, which was time-consuming and labor-intensive. But with this pulley, they could attach a wooden bucket with rope and drop it down the mountain, making it easy and strength-saving.
This could also be installed on top of water wells, making it easier for the people to draw water.
“That’s indeed a good idea…” Jiang Pengji nodded in agreement.
She didn’t care how it would be installed on the mountain, but the well installation was certainly attainable.
Previously, when she looked at the county archives, several records mentioned drowning cases at the wells happening when a water bucket was too heavy, causing it to tip and fall, resulting in a tragic death.
If this pulley was installed at the wellhead, common people would only need to crouch by it to safely draw water, significantly increasing safety.
In the dead of winter, Feng Jin and the others watched with cold expressions as Zhang Ping busily organized the craftsmen at the Woodworking Workshop to install pulleys on the water wells of Xiangyang City and diligently taught the locals how to use them…
This was still the harsh winter! What kind of allure could possibly entice a hermit, completely detached from society, to willingly bear such grueling labor?
“What are you all staring at?”
Jiang Pengji comfortably sipped hot tea to warm herself, planning to dry some nuts next year for tea in winter. Upon lifting her head, she noticed several subordinates looking at her with strange expressions, making her feel a bit uncomfortable, “Have the improved seeds for spring plowing been distributed? Are the tools ready? Have the oxen been allocated? Have all households finished surveying their fields… What are you staring at me for? Go work!”
Everyone internally sighed coldly and then buried themselves in hard labor.
Never had they met such a brazen person!
This person was actually their lord!
The only one unfazed was probably Wei Ci.
Ever since he decided to push Zhang Ping into the fray, he had known this day would come.
As a friend, he didn’t want Zhang Ping’s talents to be wasted in the mountains. In this world, simply hiding away wouldn’t guarantee safety.
With that thought, Wei Ci felt justified in filtering suitable candidates.
He planned to conquer Fengyi County after the spring plowing and send letters to his little partners one by one.
As someone still recuperating from an injury, he couldn’t work too long. Watching a group of colleagues toil day in and day out, he felt quite guilty. The only solution was to find someone to share the workload.
Talent! Talent! It was so scarce. If it weren’t for Zhang Ping’s lack of competency in administration, he would have pulled him over to work like a dog.
The administrative office’s workload was quite heavy; the only thing worth praising was the food from the small kitchen.
“Ke really loves this sweet and sour braised pork; it’s so tangy and delicious! I really can’t fathom where the lord found such a great cook; this has put everything I’ve eaten before to shame,” Xu Ke said, with ten small plates laid out in front of him, each filled with a few pieces of dish.
Though it was all meaty, there were also two bowls of vegetarian soup, and it tasted amazing.
Feng Jin silently agreed with this, subtly patting his bulging belly under his sleeve.
It was so delicious that he wished he could eat at the county office three meals a day.
Only the food could erase their grievances about working overtime.
Jiang Pengji’s meal was no different from her subordinates’, but she had a larger appetite, with each meal being three or four times that of others.
“I just remembered something,” Jiang Pengji said, “What if we secretly opened a restaurant?”
The group, finishing their meal and sipping tea to aid digestion, tensed up at the thought of what Jiang Pengji might concoct next.
Wei Ci, however, gently interjected, “Why would the lord think of something like that?”
Those in power shouldn’t compete with the people for profits; otherwise, what chance of survival would the commoners have amid a collision of officials and merchants?
If their lord took the lead in such matters, it would set a very difficult precedent to curb.
“Well, in war, people will die. When soldiers fall, their family members remain, maybe with old mothers and young children at home. In this world, we should encourage widows to remarry and procreate; we can’t let them waste their lives in solitude. However, if a widow remarries, who will look after the elderly and children left behind…” Jiang Pengji continued, “Wherever we win, we will open a food business. Seventy percent of the profits will go towards caring for these orphans and widows, and the remaining thirty percent for the business operations… What do you all think?”
