Su Wanyan didn't disturb them, and after staying for a while, she left the mansion with Qiuye and Huangye.
"Where are you going, sister?" She bumped into Su Chien as she went out.
"Want to go for a walk?" Su Wanyan asked with a smile.
Su Chien immediately perked up: "Yes!"
He had been staying in the villa in the outskirts of Beijing. He had long wanted to go out with Su Wanyan, but he hadn't been able to find the opportunity.
The people of Wengcheng had almost no entertainment. In contrast, in the capital, March was the season for boating and flower viewing, and wealthy young ladies would gather to compose poems, compete in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting.
But here, only ordinary people are out selling their wares at the market, and the place still looks desolate.
With few people and a small population, coupled with natural disasters and man-made calamities, and an unfavorable geographical location, Su Wanyan was walking down the street. On the wide avenue, apart from people struggling to make a living, she encountered very few pedestrians.
However, although there were few pedestrians, we encountered three caravans in just two quarters of an hour today. They were all passing through Wengcheng and were transporting their goods to the Great Jin Dynasty.
Su Wanyan asked curiously, "Are these all merchant caravans from the East China Sea?"
Even during such extraordinary times, there are still caravans from the East China Sea coming to trade?
When Su Wanyan asked this, Qiu Ye also asked curiously, "It's strange, there aren't usually this many caravans."
Su Wanyan kept this in mind and decided to talk to Yu Nanqing about it when she got back.
"Your Majesty, over there!" Su Wanyan looked in the direction Qiu Ye pointed and saw the city wall of Wengcheng.
Upon seeing it, Su Wanyan was stunned, then her eyes brightened slightly, somewhat surprised: "This city wall... has it been repaired?"
When she came to Wengcheng to learn about the situation before, she found that the city wall was in disrepair and the bricks and stones on the wall were aging. She wrote down this problem, thinking that she would ask Yu Nanqing to refer to it in the future, hoping that it could help.
Now, the city wall she saw clearly showed signs of repair; the potholes had been filled in, and the aging bricks appeared to have been reinforced.
This was a joyous occasion, and Su Wanyan was genuinely happy.
"This project cannot be completed in a day or two."
"Actually, before Her Highness left, the Prince instructed us to tackle the questions raised in Her Highness's collection one by one. That's why I and Guard Tian are still staying in the house."
As far as I can remember, Yu Nanqing had just arrived in Wengcheng when he immediately set off back to the capital. Although he had said he would put it into practice as soon as possible, I did not expect it to happen so quickly.
Qiu Ye smiled and said, "Your Highness, the Prince really cares about everything concerning you."
Su Wanyan glanced at her teasing expression: "This is something that benefits the people and the country."
After a moment, he asked again, "So, is the city wall repaired?"
"From the time Her Majesty left until now, five months have passed, and it was just completed at the beginning of this month. It was the manpower organized by Guard Xiao Bu and Guard Tian, and General Lü also mobilized troops to help."
Su Wanyan smiled, feeling quite satisfied. "Well, it's good that I can help."
After viewing the city walls, Qiuye took her by carriage to the outside of the city.
The land in Wengcheng is barren, and many crops are not suitable for growing there. Su Wanyan also noted this problem in her notebook.
After she left Ongcheng, Xiaobu and Tanaka visited various places and discovered that it wasn't that the people there didn't know how to grow crops, nor that they lacked planting knowledge; it was simply that many people were unwilling to stay in Ongcheng because of the war.
Therefore, the remaining people could grow very little.
With few varieties and low yields, the seeds couldn't be preserved, and those who couldn't survive eventually left the city. This cycle repeated itself, and eventually, no one wanted to farm anymore.
Since neither Xiaobu nor Tanaka knew how to farm, they sought advice from experienced local farmers on how to farm well under these circumstances.
Then there are issues like buying seeds and getting water for irrigation.
In fact, Su Wanyan's booklet included solutions. The nearest river to Wengcheng was only five kilometers away, so reclaiming wasteland on both sides of the river was no problem at all.
Although digging canals to divert water will require some manpower and resources, in the long run, it is entirely beneficial.
These plans are easy to put on paper, but difficult to implement. The local people have been living in the cracks for many years, and getting by is their habitual mentality.
The most difficult thing for Xiaobu and Tianzhong is to mobilize the hearts and minds of the people.
Fortunately, there were still willing people in Wengcheng to do the work. Moreover, with the Longqi Army stationed there and General Lü assisting, the repair of the city wall was carried out at the same time as the reclamation of wasteland.
This inadvertently gave the people a glimmer of hope. Originally, only a few people started digging, but later more and more people joined in.
After they joined, Xiaobu and Tanaka learned that many people in the city owned their own land.
However, since no one cared for or cultivated the land, it was abandoned. When they picked up their hoes again, the cultivated fields were unconsciously separated.
The common people cultivated the land, while the dispatched Dragon Flag Army was responsible for digging canals to divert water.
This was a huge project, so when Su Wanyan arrived, the irrigation canal was still being dug little by little. The straight-line distance between the water source and the city was five kilometers, but if it was to be dug to cover the farmland in an intricate manner, the distance to be dug would be much more than five kilometers.
It's a time-consuming and laborious task.
When Su Wanyan saw everyone working together, a strange emotion welled up in her heart. She never thought that what she left behind would be realized so quickly.
She thought those were things she would do a year or several years later.
Moreover, she was a novice in this field. When she made these suggestions, she did not expect them to be fully adopted. However, Yu Nanqing did not hesitate to have them done, which clearly shows how much importance he attached to them.
"Yes, Your Majesty, there's one more thing," Qiu Ye said enthusiastically, unable to stop.
Su Wanyan suppressed her surging emotions and asked with a smile, "What?"
Qiu Ye took out an envelope from her bosom: "Your Majesty, this is a letter that Brother Wei sent a month ago."
Wei Xiang!
Su Wanyan quickly took it and opened it.
These letters record the locations of the pharmacies along the way. Although only a few months have passed, more than ten pharmacies of all sizes have already opened in the Great Jin Dynasty.
The pharmacy had all the necessary medicines and doctors. Perhaps knowing that Su Wanyan would need them, Wei Xiang had opened several more pharmacies near the border.
The money for opening a pharmacy and purchasing medicinal herbs all came from the money earned from trading.
The letter had two pages, and Su Wanyan paused slightly when she saw the second page.
When they were purchasing medicinal herbs, a mysterious customer secretly sold them herbs from Daliang at low prices.
Wei Xiang sent people to investigate, but they couldn't find any trace of this person. He was uneasy, so he wrote a letter to Su Wanyan to inform her, fearing that there might be some kind of trap.
This was something Su Wanyan hadn't expected. The pharmacy wasn't opened with great fanfare, and it was even under Wei Xiang's name. Unless someone paid special attention, no one should notice.
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