Hengheng's hard days of physical training officially began

Chapter 19: Heng Heng's hard days of physical training officially begin

On the first day after his birthday, Heng Heng was still asleep when Chu Huaibei woke him up to wash up. It was the Chu family tradition to wake up at 1 a.m. and do morning exercises.

Chu Huaibei's arm had long since recovered, and he had been eager to start training his child. He warmed Hengheng up first, getting him moving. Then, Chu Huaibei taught him to stand in horse stance, starting with three minutes, then five, gradually increasing the duration until he could stand for an hour straight.

It was still a bit chilly in the northern part of May, but both father and son were sweating profusely. After their morning exercise, they returned to their room to shower, change clothes, and go to breakfast together.

Hengheng was so exhausted after practicing for the first day that he fell asleep with his head on the table while still eating breakfast.

Aunt Wen gently carried the child to the concubine's room and let him continue to sleep. Sun Mingsi's eyebrows showed some concern, thinking that the training intensity was a bit too much for a child who was only three years old.

When the concubine saw this, she said to Sun Mingsi, "Huzhi, don't worry. Shenzhi went through the same thing back then. The children of the Chu family have always been very strong."

When Sun Mingsi heard the concubine say this, he put his heart at ease, "Yes, mother, I'm sorry to have embarrassed you."

After breakfast, Chu Huaibei took his teacher to the military camp as usual. Sun Mingsi met Jin Wu in the main courtyard.

Jin Wu knelt and saluted: "This subordinate greets the master."

Sun Mingsi called him up and asked him to report all the information he had found in the past few months.

"Master, I have been following the clues left by the Empress. The imperial physicians and midwives I have found so far have either died suddenly at home or been murdered by bandits while out, so the trail was cut short. Recently, I have found Wang Wenpo's assistant in a village two hundred miles from Fengjing. She escaped because she was not in the palace that day. When the Imperial Concubine gave birth, she had caught a cold and developed a cough two days before, so she was left behind. When Wang Wenpo failed to return the next day, she fled Fengjing overnight."

"According to her, noble families usually return home the same day they give birth. If they can't, it means something happened to the master's family. So she fled back to her hometown overnight, got married and had children in the village, and never returned to Fengjing again."

"Since she didn't know much, I spared her life. Before she left, she remembered someone. This person had only come to see Wang Wenpo once, at night, wearing black clothes and a hood that completely covered her body. She couldn't see their face, but she thought their voice was unusual. They only said one sentence: 'The master wants you to proceed according to the original plan.' She said the voice was high-pitched, not manly, but very feminine. She had never heard anyone speak like that before, and she has remembered it ever since."

"I guessed that this person was a eunuch, so I looked up the records of eunuchs entering and leaving the palace one month before and after the imperial concubine gave birth. This is the list from that year." Jin Wu took out a booklet from his arms and handed it to Sun Mingsi.

Sun Mingsi opened the booklet, which contained eighteen names, with the corresponding master written behind each name.

Eunuch Fu, the godson of the former queen's eunuch chief, Eunuch Liu, who was in charge of the palace's purchases, the eunuchs in the palaces of several concubines at the time, and the eunuchs in the palaces of the three princes at the time. They were very good, but each of them wanted to kill his mother and him directly.

"I followed this lead and discovered that both Eunuch Fu and Eunuch Liu had contact with the eunuchs in the Prince's Palace. However, the trail was cut off. Eunuch Fu was executed, and Eunuch Liu was killed on his way home after retirement. The eunuchs in the Prince's Palace were each killed for their own reasons."

"It's okay, no need to check. I already know who did it. I'm afraid it will be difficult to get the antidote." Sun Mingsi was silent for a while.

"I will do my best." Jin Wu said firmly.

"Let me think about it again. Don't act on your own. Not only will you sacrifice yourself in vain, but you will also alert the enemy." Sun Mingsi instructed.

"Yes, I obey your command." Jin Wu replied.

"Now that you're back, stay in the palace. Jin Yi has gone out to do some work. Now there are only Jin San and Jin Si here. You can live there." Sun Mingsi ordered.

"As you command, I'll take my leave." Jin Wu took his leave and left.

Sun Mingsi sat in the chair for a long time without moving. Until Hengheng's baby voice came from outside the door: "Mom~~ Hengheng has rested well, I came to see you~"

Sun Mingsi came to his senses, looked at the child running towards him, squatted down, hugged the child, and buried his head in the child's little chest.

Hengheng has always been very sensitive to other people's emotions. He asked, "Mom, what's wrong with you? Are you unhappy?"

"Mom, no, I'm just happy to see Hengheng." Sun Mingsi adjusted his mood and replied.

"Mom, are you worried about Hengheng? Hengheng is fine. Grandma said that Dad was trained in the same way by Grandpa back then. It doesn't matter. Hengheng is not tired at all." Little Yiheng said, hugging his mother's head.

Sun Mingsi listened to the resonance of the child's chest, rubbed his small chest, raised her head and kissed the child's cheek. "Okay, Mommy won't worry anymore."

Seeing his mother was well again, Xiao Yiheng smiled and chattered with him about what his teacher had taught him. Sun Mingsi listened and responded to the child, and the room became lively again.

Chu Huaibei in the military camp was not in such a good mood. The deputy general brought Chen Sinong's memorial and opened it. Chen Sinong said that there had not been much rainfall in the north for more than two months, which led to drought in the wheat fields. Now was the time when the wheat was about to mature. Even if the whole family went to the battlefield together and carried water to irrigate the crops every day, I am afraid the harvest would not be very good. Moreover, many soldiers' families had conflicts over carrying water.

Chu Huaibei put down the memorial and prepared to go and see the situation in person. He said to his adjutant, "Let's go to the Sino-Agricultural Office."

When Chu Huaibei arrived at Sinong's office, he found that except for two people who were left to guard the door, the rest of the people had gone out with Chen Sinong. After asking for the location, Chu Huaibei rode there with his deputy general.

From a distance, he saw a group of people gathered together, not knowing what they were doing. Chu Huaibei rode his horse closer and saw that it was Chen Sinong, talking to the person opposite him.

"Chen Sinong!" Chu Huaibei shouted.

Chen Sinong turned around when he heard the voice, and everyone else turned around as well. When they saw the person coming, they dispersed a little and bowed, "Greetings, Your Highness."

Chu Huaibei dismounted, told them not to be polite, walked to Chen Sinong's side, and asked, "What's going on?"

"Your Highness, we are discussing digging ditches to divert water, but we haven't reached an agreement yet." Chen Sinong replied.

"What's wrong with that?" Chu Huaibei asked. Isn't digging ditches to divert water a normal thing?

"Your Highness, you don't know that the fields here look flat, but they are actually lower in the east and higher in the west. If the water diversion channel is not dug deep enough when it reaches the west, it will easily flood the land near the river in the east, while there will still be no water in the west." Chen Sinong replied.

Well, I didn't expect that. The place is so big that you can't really tell there's any difference in terrain. Chu Huaibei thought for a moment and asked, "Don't you have a waterwheel?"

"There is a waterwheel. It is set up by the river." Chen Sinong replied.

Chu Huaibei walked closer and saw that there was indeed a waterwheel, a drum wheel, which diverted the river water into the deep canal beside the field ridge, making it convenient for everyone to carry water for irrigation.

"Is this the kind of waterwheel?" Chu Huaibei asked.

This question stumped Chen Sinong. After a pause, Chen Sinong asked cautiously, "Your Highness, is there another kind of waterwheel?"

Chu Huaibei suddenly realized, "You've never seen a dragon-bone waterwheel?"

Chen Sinong wiped his sweat and said, "Your Highness, I have never heard of a dragon bone waterwheel in all these years."

Well, it looked like another creative project was in the works. Chu Huaibei first instructed them to dig a ditch. It didn't need to be very deep, but both horizontally and vertically. The depth could be adjusted temporarily. He left a few people from the Sino-Agricultural Office to guide the digging, and the rest followed Chu Huaibei back to the Sino-Agricultural Office.

Sitting in the Ministry of Agriculture, Chu Huaibei pulled out his previously completed dictation booklet and charcoal pencil from his pocket and began to draw lines on it. While still abstract, it was much better than the diagrams he'd drawn with a brush. Chu Huaibei's brush calligraphy was decent, having been forced to practice by his father, but painting wasn't something a general needed to know. That's why his first drawing of farm tools was ridiculed by his deputy general.

When he finished, he held up the booklet and explained it to the people at the Ministry of Agriculture. They suddenly understood that it was indeed not difficult. Furthermore, considering they already had a drum wheel, they hadn't thought of making this more convenient and flexible keel waterwheel for so many years. They didn't know if they were just too stupid, or if the prince was just too clever.

If Chu Huaibei could hear their inner voices, in the current situation, she would definitely say that it’s not that you are too stupid, but the original author is not a human being, and only cares about half of everything, so get rid of him!

Chu Huaibei drew both hand-cranked and foot-operated water wheels and asked them to make them themselves. The number of water wheels he made was equal to the total number of ditches he was ordered to dig today, and he ensured that there was one in each ditch.

After dealing with this matter, Chu Huaibei saw that it was getting late, so he went straight back to the palace. Since there was no particularly important military affairs, he would continue to deal with them tomorrow.

Oh, she really has to work wherever she goes. I have to say that she may be a natural working queen.

On the way home, the deputy general began to look at him expectantly again, "You heard how it was done today. Go back and ask your craftsmen to do it themselves. The Ministry of Agriculture is very busy, so it's not your turn." Chu Huaibei replied directly.

"Hey, Your Majesty, you won't cover it up this time?" asked the deputy general.

"How can we hide this? Just take it out from the military farms and use it. It's so simple, you'll understand it once you see it. Besides, the common people will suffer the most from the reduced wheat production. Do the aristocratic families have any problem with that?" Chu Huaibei explained.

"Yes, it is indeed difficult. My mother said that if the harvest is not good this year, the rent for the hired farmers will be reduced." The deputy general also expressed his emotion.

After returning home, the deputy general went straight to his mother Zhuang's yard and described the style of the dragon-bone waterwheel to her with gestures. Zhuang was confused. Finally, the next day, she summoned the best carpenter in the manor to the mansion and asked the deputy general to demonstrate it directly to the carpenter. The carpenter's eyes lit up when he understood it, and he went back and studied it with his companions with great interest.

Three days later, the Sino-Agricultural Office completed its first batch of three pedal-operated keel waterwheels and took them to the military settlement for testing. The rear of the keel waterwheel was placed in a deep canal, with the pedals at the head resting on a newly dug canal between the fields. Two people stood on the pedals and stepped hard, causing river water to slowly surge into the canal. As the two pedaled faster and faster, the water quickly flowed away.

Chen Sinong told the people in the military settlement to dig the canals quickly, and that the water trucks behind would deliver water as soon as they were finished. Soon all the fields would be able to receive water for irrigation.

All the people watching by the fields were cheering with joy. When the soldiers saw Chu Huaibei that day and knew that this was the waterwheel made by King Zhenbei, they began to call out to King Zhenbei. Others asked why, and soon the news spread from one to ten, and from ten to a hundred, and everyone in the military settlement knew that this dragon-bone waterwheel was made by King Zhenbei.