"Oh, right." The chief official remembered something. "I heard from the people that they want to build a workshop on the expanded land at the city gate."
They were so tired that they couldn't stand up straight. After eating during the lunch break, they fell into a deep sleep.
When he woke up because he had to urinate, he vaguely heard the people next to him discussing which workshop to work in.
He immediately closed his eyes, pretending to be still asleep, and forced himself to listen for a while.
"Build a workshop!?" Qu Yutang looked at the chief official in surprise.
"What kind of workshop needs such a large space?"
Prefect Deng worked hard for a long time to expand the city wall 30 miles towards Bailong City. Was it just to build a workshop?
Is there anything wrong with your brain?
There is absolutely no problem in building a workshop outside the city.
It’s right at the city gate, so there’s no need to build a city wall.
No matter how hard he thought about it, he couldn't figure out whether Magistrate Deng's brain had been hit by a door, which was why he did such a thing that put the cart before the horse.
The chief official thought about it carefully and said, "It seems that they want to build several workshops, including a wine-making workshop, a textile workshop, and perhaps also a paper-making workshop."
It's not that he didn't listen carefully.
He was in a hurry to pee at the time, so he was almost concentrating on eavesdropping.
It is really hard for these people to explain it clearly. What they mentioned most are wine-making workshops and textile workshops.
These older people all want to work in these two workshops.
They said that the workshops on the east side of the official road were used by intellectuals, and they were afraid that their rough hands would damage the precious things.
He also said that making paper is complicated.
So he guessed that there should be a workshop for pens, ink, paper and inkstones in the east.
However, the workshop for making pens, ink, paper and inkstone is so large, I'm afraid it's of no use.
Those bookstores have no shortage of pens, ink, paper, inkstones, books, etc., but they lack people to buy them.
That thing is not something that ordinary people can afford.
If you open such a large workshop to make pens, ink, paper and inkstones, you probably won’t be able to make a profit for hundreds of years.
He said it would be better to open a book copying workshop, gather all the poor scholars and students in Qianhuang City together, and copy books from morning to night every day, which would make a lot of money.
Qu Yutang was stunned and frowned tightly.
He was a little confused about what Magistrate Deng was doing.
As for these workshops, there is nothing particularly outstanding about them.
There are dozens of such workshops of all sizes in every city.
So what if Magistrate Deng’s business is big enough? It just means there are more people working there.
But these things are not easy to sell, and they are not particularly profitable projects.
After thinking for a moment, Qu Yutang pursed his tasteless lips.
"Could it be that they said it on purpose for you to hear?"
"Didn't anyone mention expanding the city walls and recruiting soldiers?"
These two matters were specifically mentioned in the secret memorial submitted by the prefect of Bailong City.
It’s just that every city has conscription every year, especially border cities, where there are often fighting and casualties.
When the troops are insufficient, the general stationed on the border will order the recruitment of soldiers from the surrounding areas to replenish the troops.
Therefore, Emperor Tianwu only mentioned this matter briefly and asked him to come and see why Qianhuang City needed to recruit soldiers.
However, Emperor Tianwu did not mention the issue of military pay and food at all, although he wanted to mention it several times.
It is possible that the drought caused the soldiers to lack food and water, which led to an increase in the number of deaths and a shortage of manpower.
However, Emperor Tianwu did not give him the chance to speak about these things and directly sent him out of the imperial study.
He was not the kind of person who was tactless. Emperor Tianwu obviously did not want to transport food and grass to the border. If he insisted, he would definitely be scolded.
Emperor Tianwu now treasures everything in the national treasury and private treasury very much, and uses them very carefully.
In fact, with so much food and grass shipped from the south, it would be no problem to use some of it to support these drought-stricken cities.
Unfortunately, all the civil and military officials in the capital disagreed, saying that it would rain soon and that the prefectural governments in each city had stored grain and could cope with the situation.
Along the way, he saw many refugees who had starved to death on the roadside.
The people are really sad.
The officer was slightly startled and shook his head.
"I didn't mention it much, I just said that being a soldier is well paid."
"As for how good it is, I didn't dare to ask."
When he couldn't hold it anymore and sat up, those people saw that he was awake and immediately shut up and squatted beside him to pull weeds.
It can be seen that these people are on guard against them.
Then he naturally had to pretend that he didn't hear it, so that he wouldn't be able to eavesdrop next time he wanted to.
Qu Yutang frowned and tapped the table lightly with his fingers.
"Gurgle~"
In the serious atmosphere, Qu Yutang's stomach growled at an inopportune time.
He pursed his lips awkwardly.
The aroma of steamed buns rushed into his nose, and he was so hungry that he couldn't think.
The chief official quickly flattered him,
"Sir, let's eat first. You've been hungry all day. Fill your stomach first, and then we can make a long-term plan."
This matter cannot be explained clearly in the short term.
The people of Qianhuang City were all crazy. None of them were afraid of the officials at all. They wanted to use their status to pressure them and make them tell the truth about Qianhuang City, but it was impossible.
I really don’t know how Magistrate Deng made these untouchables become so arrogant.
"You're right." Qu Yutang nodded, "Then let's eat first."
Qu Yutang looked at the pile of big white steamed buns.
"Take...30...24 steamed buns back and share them with them first."
"There are still more than a hundred people who haven't returned yet. I don't know if they have gotten food, so I left some for them."
44 steamed buns, shared by 200 people, it’s heartbreaking to think about it.
I just hope that those more than 100 people have eaten outside.
"Yes." The chief officer responded, "It's all up to you, sir."
When they came back, each of them had two large bowls of thick rice porridge.
He felt full at the time, but that thing was really not filling, and after just a short while, he felt hungry again.
Why cook rice porridge? It’s so thick. It’s better to cook white rice for them.
However, he was just thinking about it.
If there were no rice porridge, they would have nothing to quench their thirst when they were working.
Drinking rice porridge is worse than making tea.
At least rice porridge is sweet and it makes me feel happy when I drink it.
Qu Yutang stared at the chief official taking away 24 steamed buns from the table, and felt a pang of pain in his heart.
Just as the chief officer was about to take his men away, Qu Yutang stopped them.
"They have enough energy after eating the steamed buns. Let them get up and clean the corridor. And wash the clothes and shoes in the room in the backyard."
His room reeked of feces, and the large bunk beds where the officials lived must have been even more smelly. No wonder the people at the post station were so angry.
It was a nice post station, but it was filled with the stench of shit, which was really unbearable.
However, in the final analysis, they should blame the people at the post station for not preparing food for them, otherwise they would not be in such a mess.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
