He had previously done a few business ventures with the Empress, but those were all the Empress's private property. Moreover, with so much money needed for road repairs, the previous business ventures were just a drop in the ocean.

It's unrealistic for anyone to come up with this kind of money unless the country becomes fully developed, the people have money in their hands, and the taxes they pay increase. Using that money for infrastructure construction would be the most practical approach.

This wasn't something Jiang Jiuniang should be worrying about, but since her family was all here—her children and grandchildren would all live on this land—she figured if she did more now, her children would have less to do later.

Most importantly, she has a spatial ability and knows a lot about the future, which gives her a significant advantage. If she does nothing, wouldn't that be a waste?

Lu Baichuan guessed what she was thinking, but didn't know what she wanted to do, so he just said, "Just do your best."

No matter what my wife wants to do, I will always go along with her.

After all, she does good things that benefit people's livelihoods, and having such a daughter-in-law is a blessing earned over many lifetimes.

Jiang Jiuniang had many thoughts in her mind, but she held them back and said, "No rush, no rush. Let's focus on doing the current things well before thinking about anything else. There are too many things to prepare, so we can't be careless."

There are still many imperfections in the country, and it will take many years to improve them; it's not something that can be done overnight.

Jiang Jiuniang's idea was that if you're going to do something, you should do it well. You absolutely can't let it turn into a bad project. Otherwise, you'll just be wasting money and failing to get things done, which would be a huge waste.

Therefore, preparation is very important.

Another point is that we still don't know what the situation is overseas. We should take the opportunity to go and see for ourselves. Otherwise, the emperor certainly wouldn't dare to act recklessly in the face of unknown risks.

They themselves dare not make any guarantees, because if something goes wrong, no one can be held responsible.

Seeing her like this, Lu Baichuan felt even more sorry for her. He carefully placed the deboned fish into her bowl and said, "There are many things we can do. We can't do everything ourselves. Don't worry too much and don't exhaust yourself."

Jiang Jiuniang put all the fish meat into her mouth and nodded repeatedly: "Don't worry, I know!"

Strangely enough, she used to be a cold person who felt that nothing in this world had anything to do with her and that she just needed to live her own life. But now she is so enthusiastic about creating a better world. It's probably because she has something to hold her back.

Although her current life is quite tiring and contrary to her original ideas, it is very fulfilling. The thought that everything she is building is for the benefit of her descendants gives her a lot of motivation. Even though she is tired, she is happy.

The men sent by the prefect were quite capable. Within a few days, they uncovered evidence of collusion between the county magistrate and the Zhang family. They found a lot of gold and jewelry in the county magistrate's residence. Furthermore, Zhang Feng, the eldest son of the Zhang family's eldest branch, revealed that the county magistrate had an improper relationship with his mother. At the same time, Jiang Jiuniang produced the confession of Li Shi that she had obtained earlier, and the county magistrate was arrested and imprisoned that same day.

Later, they found the Zhang family's children who had been taken away in a small clinic in the city. There were only a few children; Yin's husband, the second son of the Zhang family, had already run away and disappeared without a trace.

The children were not sick, but poisoned. Upon examination, it was found that Ms. Yin had personally poisoned her grandchildren.

Among them, Li's daughter was the most severely poisoned. Yin couldn't bear to harm her grandson, so she gave all the poison to her granddaughter who was less than a year old.

Fortunately, it wasn't a particularly potent poison, and with Jiang Jiuniang's best efforts, the child woke up.

Holding her daughter, Li cried her heart out. If it weren't for the fact that Li was going to be drowned in a pig cage for her shameless deeds, she would have really wanted to take a knife and stab Yin a few times.

Yin's two sons, Zhang Feng and Zhang Duo, were also found guilty of varying degrees and were to be imprisoned for several years. In the end, only the two daughters-in-law and a group of children were found innocent.

Li kowtowed to Jiang Jiuniang while holding the child, then got up and left. Jiang Jiuniang looked at the little girl, who was about the same age as her own daughter, and felt a pang of pity. She asked Li, "Where do you plan to go to make a living?"

Li sighed and said, "Now that things are like this, we have no choice but to go and seek refuge with our parents."

Her family was quite well-off; otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to marry into the Zhang family.

She had two older brothers and her own dowry, so she was always able to raise her children safely.

Jiang Jiuniang nodded and said, "You are now a free person and are not implicated by the Zhang family's affairs. You can do whatever you want, and the government will not make things difficult for you."

Li nodded, thanked Jiang Jiuniang again, and left with the child in her arms.

After the matter was completely resolved, Jiang Jiuniang began to accept seafood brought by the villagers. It was all caught that day and delivered very fresh.

Lu Baichuan bought a large water tank and kept all the seafood in it. Looking at the various seafood inside, he said, "I wonder how long we can keep them alive."

I had no prior experience raising fish, and the water wasn't flowing, so it would be very difficult to keep them alive.

"No rush, I'm doing it right now."

Jiang Jiuniang held up the half-finished water pump in her hand. Once this thing was made, it would improve the survival rate of the fish.

The problem is that there is no electricity now, so we need a manual generator that we can shake every now and then to generate electricity.

It's a bit troublesome, but this is the best we can do under the current conditions.

She does have some finished products in her space, but they can only be used by herself and cannot be widely used. In the future, the only one that will be used in large quantities is this semi-automatic water pump.

Having spent so much time with Jiang Jiuniang, Lu Baichuan had come into contact with a lot of high-tech things, so he wasn't surprised to see this now. In fact, he was even a little eager to try it out. He walked over and said, "Tell me the principle behind it, and let me give it a try."

"sure!"

Jiang Jiuniang valued Lu Baichuan's studious nature; having more skills was never a bad thing, which was her consistent belief.

The two squatted in the yard for an entire afternoon studying the pump. Lu Baichuan finally figured it out and confidently declared that he could make the water pump.

"Mother, my sister is awake! I'm busy, go and see her!"

The barking of a dog came from inside the house; he was teaching Zhuzi to write and couldn't leave for the time being.

"They're here!"

Jiang Jiuniang stood up, washed her hands in the basin next to her, and told Lu Baichuan, "Take your time, I'm going to check on my daughter first!"

Once inside the house, Xiangxiang's crying stopped abruptly.

"Let Mommy see why our little darling is crying."

"Oh, you need to poop! Mommy will take you there!"

Xiangxiang was clever. As soon as she saw Jiang Jiuniang, she started to strain. Jiang Jiuniang knew what she was going to do as soon as she saw her like that, and quickly took her to the toilet.

Even when wearing diapers, Xiangxiang rarely poops directly in them; she always cries and asks her parents to take her to the toilet.

After settling this important life event, Jiang Jiuniang carried her to the yard to watch her father tinker with the water pump. Then the little one saw the fish in the water tank and excitedly tried to go over, waving her arms and legs, "Ah, ah..."