Chapter 262: Building a Greenhouse and a Hospital

Nie Rang and the Beihai Prefecture officials vowed to drive Chen Ning out of Beihai Prefecture, but he did not expect that the people they regarded as their mortal enemies did not take them seriously at all.

Shen Ning focused all her attention on the important matters, and the most important one at the moment was: building a greenhouse.

Xiao Baiyan brought back a lot of potato and corn seeds. Now that winter is approaching, Beihai Prefecture will become colder quickly. She wants to build a greenhouse to try out those potato and corn seeds.

If it can really be grown, then with these two high-yield crops, the originally poor Beihai Prefecture will be completely changed... No, not just Beihai Prefecture, the entire Daxuan Dynasty will undergo earth-shaking changes.

In fact, greenhouses already existed in the Xuan Dynasty, but they were not as common as in later generations because the cost was relatively high.

There were greenhouses in the farms on the outskirts of the capital, and also in the imperial palace. They were used to grow vegetables that were easy to grow and survive, for the imperial palace to eat in the winter when vegetables were scarce.

But it’s different here with Chen Ning…

Beihai Prefecture is a vast territory. She is now guarding a mountain of coal and tens of thousands of poor people who are in urgent need of jobs. She has the right time, place and people. Wouldn't it be a waste if she doesn't do something?

She knew the principle of the greenhouse, but did not finalize the plan herself. Instead, she cautiously posted a notice in Beihai City to recruit craftsmen who knew how to build a greenhouse. Unexpectedly, she actually recruited more than a dozen.

In fact, the exiled prisoners here came from all over the world, and they used to do all kinds of things, including being officials, doing business, practicing medicine, and farming.

Shen Ning personally met the dozen or so people and confirmed that they all knew something about greenhouses, so he kept them and discussed and finalized the plan together. At the same time, he began to prepare materials and do the preliminary work for construction.

Building materials and workers are easy to find, the main thing is to choose a site.

After all, the matter was of great importance, so Shen Ning chose a large piece of wasteland next to the city wall in Beihai Prefecture for the greenhouse.

Soon, she confirmed with the experienced craftsmen what the greenhouse would look like: a structure with earthenware-walled windows.

The adobe brick walls are made of loess. The upper part of the wall facing south is designed to be inclined and paper windows are installed. Then a thickened wall is built in the middle of the interior of this prototype greenhouse to arrange artificial heating equipment, such as stoves and kangs, etc. The heating equipment is separated from the loess wall at the back by a paper window as a temperature buffer zone.

This greenhouse combines the current fire chamber greenhouse of the Daxuan Dynasty and the sunlight greenhouse that Shen Ning had seen in her previous life. It can not only let in sunlight to increase temperature, but also effectively isolate the cold while ensuring light.

The huge greenhouses were built in rows of three... for a long section along the entire Beihai City Wall. It was estimated that more than a hundred greenhouses could be built.

Construction has begun at Coal Hill, and the Shipyard has also started to move. Coupled with such a huge greenhouse project, almost all the people in Beihai Prefecture have something to do... More importantly, in order to let the people work with peace of mind, the work under the Princess's Mansion is not only not delayed in paying wages, but all wages are paid before the end of the month.

For a moment, the Beihai City, which had become desolate due to the increasingly cold weather, seemed to come alive.

Fishermen living near the sea also benefit from this.

Because a large number of people had to be hired to work, Hua Yingxue's manager made a deal with the fishermen to deliver seafood, sending a batch to the city every seven days. Those seafood were given as rewards to those who worked the hardest.

As a result, people worked harder, and the coastal fishermen had a way to sell their seafood, and the whole city came alive.

Even the idle little kids in the city could find a way to make a living: pick up dry manure, and when they accumulated a certain weight, they could use it to build greenhouses and sell it to people who specialized in buying manure for copper coins.

It doesn't matter what kind of feces it is, it can be from humans, cows, sheep, pigs, dogs, chickens, or ducks.

The feces on the road could be exchanged for money, so that the environment inside and outside the entire Beihai City changed drastically in just a few days: the dirty feces in the street corners disappeared... Even the butts of passing cows and sheep were followed by some eager-looking dung-picking children.

With their butts being stared at by several pairs of eyes, the cows, sheep, pigs, dogs and the like became very nervous, and they always felt that something seemed to have changed in the world!

The days when there is something to do and food to eat always seem to pass extra quickly. After more than a month, neatly arranged greenhouses were built within the walls of Beihai City.

More than a hundred huge greenhouses are arranged along the city wall, which looks very spectacular.

Even though these greenhouses were built by the people of Beihai City, everyone was still shocked when they saw the buildings created by their hands.

They had never seen anything like this before. Even if some people had seen a greenhouse, they had never seen such a novel-looking greenhouse, and on such a large scale.

Each row of greenhouses is connected by a fire path so that the heat from combustion can be utilized more effectively. The fields indoors have been turned over and fertile soil sprinkled with manure and wood ash has been prepared, and the heated kangs and stoves are also in place.

The only change was that Shen Ning chose the greenhouse closest to the main street and had a row of spacious houses built inside the greenhouse.

The south side of the greenhouse heating equipment is the greenhouse, and the north side leads to the row of buildings. Although the temperature in those houses is not as high as in the greenhouse, they are definitely warm places in the coming cold winter.

Just when people around were curious about what Shen Ning was going to do with these houses, Shen Ning gave the answer: hospital.

Everyone had only heard of "medical clinic", this was the first time they heard of "hospital."

But you can understand it if you imagine that a clinic is a place where medicine is practiced, and a hospital is a yard where medicine is practiced.

But, is such a large space really necessary? Such a large yard?

Qiyue was a little bit against it: "Miss, you shouldn't be practicing medicine here. After all, you are a princess now."

As the future Princess Ding, it is not appropriate for her to be in close contact with the common people all day long.

Shen Ning smiled and comforted her: "It's not me. There are many doctors in this city, but they just suffer from lack of conditions. I just create opportunities for them and give the people in the city a place to treat illnesses and save lives."

It was during this period of time when the greenhouse was being built that Shen Ning realized that there were very few doctors in Beihai Prefecture City. More importantly, few people were willing to spend money on medical treatment before.

Serious illnesses cannot be cured, and minor illnesses have to be endured. I can't even eat enough and can't survive, so how can I talk about health?

A while ago, when she was inspecting the construction site of a greenhouse, she saw an old man coughing non-stop, almost coughing out his lungs, but he still insisted on working.

Shen Ning took the old man's pulse and prescribed medicine. The old man didn't know that this noble lady was actually the Princess of Yong'an. He just smiled bitterly while holding the prescription: "There are few doctors in the city, and the medicine is expensive."

Even though I have earned money from working now, I am reluctant to spend even a penny more. After all, who knows how long such good days can last, and every penny saved counts.

This is how Shen Ning learned about the medical situation in the city: because the city is too poor, there are few doctors. Because there are few doctors, medical expenses are expensive. Because medical expenses are expensive, fewer people go to the hospital for treatment, and there are fewer and fewer doctors. It has become a vicious cycle.

She became interested and posted another notice, looking for someone who knew about medicine in Beihai City.

It’s not that no one wants to take advantage of the situation, but she knows medical skills. After she boldly beat up a thief who wanted to cheat her and tied him up on the street for display, no one dared to come and seek death again.

In this way, up to now, she has found more than 20 doctors who are proficient in medicine.

These people were naturally good and bad, but at least they all knew some medical knowledge. Shen Ning then thought of using the residual heat of the greenhouse to build a simple hospital behind it.

Beihai Prefecture is backed by a mountain, so medicinal herbs are not difficult to find, but it is difficult to find a market for them on a daily basis. If a hospital is built, it can solve the sales problem of many medicinal herbs and benefit the people at the same time. For her, it is just a place to sell her goods.

This little bit of land is just a drop in the bucket in the vast Liaodong region, so why wouldn't she do it...

While Shen Ning was watching the people setting up the hospital and personally training the doctors, outside in the greenhouse, potato seeds and corn seeds were planted...