Ye Jingchen has recently been studying topographical maps of Jizhou County and its surrounding areas.

Those 30,000 to 40,000 rebelling troops must be punished. If they are suspected of rebellion and are not punished, what will happen if others follow suit?

However, they cannot be severely punished, since they are all citizens of Dayuan. The main responsibility for the rebellion lies with the Jiang family and the former prefect; they were merely following orders. Severe punishment would damage the emperor's reputation and could easily sow the seeds of hatred.

This raises the question of how to handle the situation.

And their follow-up arrangements—

It would be a pity to abandon 30,000 to 40,000 elite troops, but if we use them, everyone except the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion will have reservations.

But if it were given to the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion, then the person who harbors resentment would become the emperor.

Ye Jingchen thought about it all night, and the best solution was to have them work on improving people's livelihoods, bringing benefits to the people, and generating revenue for the country at the same time.

Jizhou County has many mountains and forests, and some locations are nestled against mountains and by water, with fertile land. They can be sent to cultivate wasteland and perform corvée labor.

Besides reclaiming wasteland, roads can also be built. Once the roads are built, more merchants will be attracted to do business there, which will boost the local economy.

In addition, they can dig ditches, build dikes, and construct water conservancy projects, thus preventing both drought and floods.

In this era, ordinary people depend on the weather for their livelihood, and disaster years inevitably bring widespread suffering. If water conservancy projects are implemented effectively, their lives will be much better.

At least we won't be as passive as we are now, with our fate completely out of our control.

The civil service is for a period of three years. The troops under their command are all strong and well-trained soldiers who are more obedient to orders and easier to manage than ordinary people. In three years, Jizhou County will surely be transformed.

As long as the emperor sees the benefits, this method can be extended to the entire Da Yuan, and then the whole Da Yuan will benefit, and these soldiers will also have a place to realize their value.

Ye Jingchen wrote down his scattered thoughts, writing down whatever came to mind.

Although he grew up in the countryside, he didn't have many opportunities to farm. And the knowledge he learned from books was too one-sided without practical application, so he didn't dare to write in too much detail for fear of misleading others.

Even though it was just a rough draft, it still filled several pages.

After meeting Xie Chang'an, he handed over what he had written and asked him to deliver it to Xie Shaoling.

Xie Shaoling had spent some time in Jizhou County and was very familiar with the terrain there. It was hoped that his ideas could inspire Xie Shaoling to develop a comprehensive plan that suited local conditions.

Ever since Ye Jingchen handed the things to Xie Chang'an, he couldn't wait to see what Ye Jingchen had written to his father.

Although Ye Jingchen clearly stated that these things were for his father, Xie Chang'an felt that Ye Jingchen was too cunning. To prevent his father from being sold out and then helping him count the money, he should first check the goods for his father.

So, after school, on the carriage back home, he peeked at those things with a particularly righteous sense of justice.

However, the more Xie Chang'an looked, the more serious his expression became.

Although the plans on the paper were not very detailed or complete, and seemed to have been written down casually by Ye Jingchen, as a ruler who had been an emperor for more than ten years, he quickly understood the value of these few sheets of paper.

He hadn't expected that Ye Jingchen would be so skilled in matters concerning people's livelihoods.

Just when he thought he had a good enough understanding of Ye Jingchen, Ye Jingchen would always say or do something that would make him look at him in a new light.

He now even began to doubt whether Ye Jingchen was omniscient and omnipotent.

The carriage arrived at the gate of the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion. Before the carriage had even come to a complete stop, he jumped off the carriage impatiently and rushed into the mansion like a whirlwind.

"Is Father home?" he asked as he passed by the gatehouse.

"The young master is at the training ground," the gatekeeper said respectfully.

However, by the time he finished speaking, the young prince had already run far away, and it was unclear whether he had heard him or not.

The gatekeeper was surprised to see the usually composed and un-childlike young prince acting so erratically. He kept watching the young prince's back until he disappeared from his sight.

Inside the training ground, Xie Shaoling and Xu Jingjing were locked in a fierce and evenly matched fight.

Neither of them used their preferred weapons, but instead used their fists and feet, exchanging blows and countering each other's moves. The father was dashing and handsome, while the mother's figure was like a butterfly fluttering in the air. It was more like flirting than a competition. Xie Chang'an only glanced at it before he couldn't bear to watch.

He was eager for his father to see the contents of those papers, so he ran between the two men without hesitation.

Xie Shaoling swiftly lifted Xie Chang'an up; if he had been a second slower, the little brat might have been kicked three zhang away by his own mother.

"Didn't you see your mother and I are sparring? You're just asking for a beating by running over here so rashly?" Xie Shaoling lifted Xie Chang'an up to eye level with one hand, and raised his fist at him with the other, threateningly.

"Chang'an, you must not be so reckless next time." Xu Jingjing quickly took Xie Chang'an from Xie Shaoling's arms and touched and pinched him here and there.

"Jingjing, don't worry, you didn't kick him." Xie Shaoling stood to the side with his arms crossed, speaking calmly.

"Mother, I'm fine, please put me down!" Xie Chang'an struggled a few times, looking rather uncomfortable.

"Didn't you love it when I held you when you were little? You're not even grown up yet, and you're already not close to me anymore!" Xu Jingjing said, but still put Xie Chang'an down.

After his feet touched the ground, Xie Chang'an first straightened his clothes, which had been disheveled by the couple, before saying to Xie Shaoling with a serious expression, "Father, I want to show you something. Let's go to the study."

"What's making you so anxious?" Xie Shaoling asked leisurely.

"I'll go check the kitchen. It's almost time for dinner. You two shouldn't linger in the study for too long," Xu Jingjing said, and headed towards the kitchen.

Inside the study, before Xie Shaoling could even sit down, Xie Chang'an took out the few sheets of paper that Ye Jingchen had given him from his sleeve.

“He gave it to you,” he said.

The "he" Xie Chang'an refers to usually refers specifically to Ye Jingchen.

Xie Shaoling took it with some curiosity and looked at it for a long time, his expression the same as Xie Chang'an's when he saw these things before.

"How lucky Ye Shengping is to have such a crown prince who is loyal, filial, benevolent, righteous, and exceptionally intelligent!" he exclaimed as he read the contents of the paper.

“My father is more familiar with the mountains and rivers of Jizhou. If we do as he says, what can we accomplish in three years?”

Xie Chang'an ignored his father's praise of Ye Jingchen and asked directly.

Xie Shaoling became more and more excited as he looked around. He was a man of action, and his mind was already starting to conceive of which location would be more suitable for cultivating wasteland, which location would be more efficient for digging ditches, and which location would be more stable and have a stronger water storage capacity for building dikes.

He answered Xie Chang'an's question casually, "Why limit ourselves to a three-year timeframe? As long as we do as His Highness the Crown Prince says, Jizhou will surely become the most prosperous region in the Nine Provinces!"