Chapter 33: City Patrol
The next day, Yan Xuanyu changed into the clothes of Feng Guangwei's follower, changed his facial features into a dark square face, and blended in behind Feng Guangwei.
Feng Guangwei was shocked when he saw Yan Xuanyu. He said "this this this" several times, "I've only heard of it from rumors before. I didn't expect the art of disguise to really exist. It's truly amazing!"
The Great Zhou Dynasty does not have as many people who are skilled in disguise as in martial arts movies and TV dramas. This is considered a secret of the Great Zhou royal family. It was originally a life-saving method left by the founding emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty to his descendants, and passed down by generations of secret guards.
"What is Lord Feng going to do?"
Feng Guangwei and Yan Xuanyu were about to leave the house when they heard a voice from the distance to the right and behind. Yan Xuanyu followed Feng Guangwei silently. Feng Guangwei smiled and greeted him with a bow, "Master Wen, I am about to go on a city tour. Would you like to come with me?"
Wen Yongwang glanced at the sun above his head. It is said that the autumn sun is the most poisonous, and it feels scorching on people's faces.
He glanced at Feng Guangwei and the group of people behind him, realizing they were all clerks, officers, and soldiers from the prefectural government. He then recalled the news he had gathered from others after arriving in Fengxian City, saying that Feng Guangwei would patrol the city every day. He smiled and said, "Although I have accompanied Your Majesty from the capital, I heard that Your Majesty is in the palace today. I am afraid of causing gossip if I travel with Prefect Feng, so I will not go."
Feng Guangwei didn't continue the greetings and left with his group.
Yan Xuanyu walked past Wen Yongwang with a swagger.
It's not that Wen Yongwang didn't notice this ugly and eccentric follower, but he couldn't think of it as Yan Xuanyu no matter how hard he tried. He just thought that Lord Feng was really unconventional in recruiting talents.
...
This is the time to pay attention to hygiene. Since a vegetable market was opened in Fengxian City under the leadership of the prefect, the sanitary conditions of the main roads have improved a lot.
However, it can be seen that the gap between the capital and the outside of the capital is still quite obvious. Most of the pedestrians in Fengxian City are ordinary people wearing linen clothes, and occasionally a few carriages pass by.
"What do you do when you patrol the city all day?" Yan Xuanyu asked curiously.
The security here is not bad, and patrols by soldiers can almost solve all problems.
Feng Guangwei smiled and shook his head, "Your Majesty, you don't know."
Now that the group was outside, Yan Xuanyu was not in a position to say much. He just followed Feng Guangwei and looked around, thinking about how Fengxian City should be positioned and developed.
If you want to change something in the capital, it is impossible to achieve it now, but in Fengxian City, there is Feng Guangwei, the convincing prefect who saved the people of Fengxian City from dire straits. There are not many powerful people entrenched in this place, so it is quite easy to do anything you want.
He came to his senses and looked at Feng Guangwei in front of him. He saw that the man was walking so stiffly that he almost moved his hands and feet together. Fortunately, it was hidden under the loose outer robe. Yan Xuanyu secretly patted Feng Guangwei twice and whispered, "Be more natural."
How did the governor of Fengxian City quickly become a clumsy fool? Is his acting so bad? He's afraid others won't know there's something fishy going on here.
However, he overlooked how much pressure the monarch put on his subjects at this time.
At first, Yan Xuanyu walked behind Feng Guangwei, which put Feng Guangwei under great psychological pressure. But after a while, he didn't care about "Your Majesty is walking behind me" anymore...
Where there are many people, there are quarrels, but here the quarrels are nothing more than trivial matters.
In front of them, there was a woman carrying a basket arguing with a hawker. There were also a few people around who were watching the fun. Feng Guangwei walked over there.
"Hey, Wang Laosi, you still don't admit it, right?! I bought this melon from you!"
The vendor, known as Wang Laosi, shouted, "All my melons are sweet. You might have bought one from somewhere and you're blaming melon on me!"
The woman's face flushed with anger: "Can I still lie?"
"That means you can't taste sweetness anymore. Go see Doctor Zhao right away."
“…”
The traffic on both sides was getting more and more crowded. Someone shouted:
"Lord Feng is here!"
The woman saw Feng Guangwei and his group approaching and said, "Sir, please make the decision for me!"
Then, the two Taoists consciously made way for Feng Guangwei to pass.
At the beginning, Feng Guangwei was exempted from the kneeling ceremony, but the people would still kneel on the ground when they saw Feng Guangwei. Now that Lord Feng patrols the city of Fengxian all day long, the people no longer kneel on the ground.
"How much are you selling this melon?" Feng Guangwei walked over and asked.
When Wang Laosi saw that it was Master Feng, his expression suddenly changed. He said with a smile, "My lord, this one is six coins, and the bigger one is eight coins."
,
Feng Guangwei fished in his sleeve, took out six coins and placed them on the board. "I want this."
This melon is a specialty of Fengxian City. Now it is the end of summer and it is not the best time for it to ripen.
Yan Xuanyu looks a bit like the melon in later generations, but is bigger than a melon.
Feng Guangwei just broke it open and took a bite, then said after a while, "It's definitely not sweet."
The melon vendor had promised the woman that the melons were sweet and that she would not be paid if they were not. So the woman chose his melon vendor among several others. After returning home and her family tasted the melons and found they were not tasty, the woman went back to the vendor, but he turned his back on her and refused to admit his mistake.
In the end, the peddler returned four cents to the woman and ran away in shame.
The people around were talking about it, saying that Wang Laosi had always been like this and had cheated many people.
For a moment, it was very gratifying.
Yan Xuanyu: “…”
Well, for the ancient people who valued integrity, this was indeed a big deal.
The people have a natural fear of officials, and because there are many corrupt officials in the Great Zhou Dynasty, the people only fear the local officials, not respect them.
That's why Feng Guangwei walked from the prefectural government to Fengxian City. The people spread the word, which always convinced them. Although it was just a small matter, it was actually changing the people's minds imperceptibly.
Yan Xuanyu probably understood that, just as it was said in history books that Shang Yang promised to move the wood to the north gate as a reward of gold before the reform, this also established credibility in the hearts of the people for future reforms.
In this parallel universe, there was no Shang Yang in history. Feng Guangwei used his own method, which was to go to Fengxian City and establish his credibility by doing trivial things in the market.
Perhaps the two are essentially the same.
Yan Xuanyu chuckled: "If you were to stay in the capital, it would be a waste of your talent."
Feng Guangwei said with neither arrogance nor servility: "I am a mediocre person, but I am fortunate to be appreciated by Your Majesty."
Yan Xuanyu laughed out loud. Did Feng Guangwei also take the opportunity to brag about his ability to judge people?
"Lord Feng, there is no need to be modest."
If talents like Feng Guangwei are mediocre, what will become of the officials in the court?
...
Prefect Feng continued to patrol Fengxian City, and finally ended with Yan Xuanyu unable to hold on.
If he hadn't gained a lot today, Yan Xuanyu would really start to hate this body. Although there were imperial physicians taking care of him, the people in the Imperial Hospital just couldn't figure out why the original owner's health was getting worse and worse. Yan Xuanyu had a hunch that someone was playing tricks, but the original owner's memory was almost blank. If there really was someone behind the scenes, they wouldn't reveal it easily. Yan Xuanyu could only suffer this loss in silence for the time being.
Later, an imperial physician prescribed a prescription using the most precious medicinal herbs for treatment. Yan Xuanyu felt much better, but he still could not walk for a long time.
So he had to go back home, but before leaving, he did not forget to ask Feng Guangwei to send someone to pick some wild flowers outside the city and bring them back.
...
After returning home, Yan Xuanyu started studying in his room.
In the Zhou Dynasty, "bath beans" and what was later commonly known as "pancreas" had already appeared. They were used by the upper class nobles for bathing and cleansing. However, these two things are too expensive to make nowadays. They require a large amount of pig pancreas, and ordinary people certainly cannot afford them. Not to mention ordinary people, even some wealthy families would not be so extravagant.
After the flood in Fengxian City was over, Feng Guangwei ordered people to maintain personal hygiene by simply boiling clothes and making herbal juice for people to drink as a preventive measure.
But as far as Yan Xuanyu knew, pancreas could be made from sugar and wood ash, requiring only a small amount of pig pancreas or lard. Wood ash was easy to obtain, and the manufacturing cost was greatly reduced.
What a coincidence, Yan Xuanyu had made sugar on the farm before.
As for why we didn’t prepare the land for planting first, it all started with the geographical location of Fengxian City.
Fengxian City is located at the junction of the south and the north of the Great Zhou Dynasty. It is a hub for various routes. However, this place has the plum rain days of the south, but not the fertile land of the south. The crop yield of Fengxian City is lower than that of its surrounding neighbors. This is why the people of Fengxian City are more oppressed than those of other cities.
Coupled with natural disasters and man-made calamities, the people basically lived in dire straits. They worked hard in the fields all year round but in the end they could not get much food to survive the winter. Their living conditions were more harsh than those of people in other places, and they lived in greater poverty.
Yan Xuanyu had tried the fertilization method before, and the results would be seen this autumn, but if he wanted to fertilize the fields outside Fengxian City on a large scale, he still had to proceed slowly. Besides, there was too much uncultivated land in the Great Zhou Dynasty. Yan Xuanyu felt that there was no need to be so urgent to improve the land in Fengxian City at the moment.
He had another idea.
When Yan Xuanyu left the capital, the story of the Jiang girl in Fengxian City and Fan Xiliang had just reached the capital. Although Feng Guangwei had said more than once that it was just a story, most people in Fengxian City still firmly believed that it was true.
Why not use this opportunity to promote Fengxian City and turn it into a paradise?
What has not been achieved in the capital before can be achieved here.
At this time, a highly skilled imperial physician named Xue, who was brought with Yan Xuanyu, came in under the guidance of Li Zhongxian. He reported to Yan Xuanyu that the flower was non-toxic and had a pleasant fragrance.
"I ate four petals of the flower three quarters of an hour ago. If nothing happens after a quarter of an hour, you can take this flower. However, I don't know its medicinal effect, and it is not recorded in ancient books." Doctor Xue said, stroking his beard.
"The petals of this flower are slightly sweet, not astringent." Doctor Xue said as if reminiscing.
Yan Xuanyu: “….”
Unexpectedly, the old doctor he brought with him also had the spirit of Shennong tasting hundreds of herbs.
"Actually, if you want to test whether this flower is poisonous or not, you can use a rabbit or mouse to test it. You don't have to do it yourself..."
Sorry, Mouse and Bunny.
Unexpectedly, after hearing Yan Xuanyu's words, Doctor Xue simply bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I am accustomed to testing medicines on myself."
Then Doctor Xue continued to talk, the gist of which was that only by tasting it yourself could you know the specific details, for example, if a certain grass can cause pain in the body after eating it, where is the pain and to what extent.
After hearing this, Yan Xuanyu felt admiration and thought that Doctor Xue was lucky, as he could live to such an old age despite eating whatever he wanted.
Thinking that in the previous life, this imperial physician seemed to have been dragged away and chopped by the original owner because he was unhappy, Yan Xuanyu felt angina pangs just by thinking about it.
"You go down first." After saying that, Yan Xuanyu was still worried, and asked Li Zhongxian to send someone to keep an eye on Doctor Xue to make sure nothing really happened.
Doctor Xue thanked him again, and when he turned to leave, he took out a worn and yellowed book from his sleeve and looked through it.
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