Chapter 151
This tour lasted for one year and two months. Qin Su and his party set off from the capital in the spring and returned to the capital the following summer.
On the return journey, everyone rode at full speed, covered in dust, but no one rested much. After a few days of rest and recuperation, they quickly threw themselves into their new work.
Every day at the morning assembly, new matters and measures are proposed and discussed in a lively manner.
The officials who accompanied the inspection tour were alright, as they all knew what had happened, but the officials who remained in the capital were completely bewildered.
Dams for water collection, water power for building armor, ball bearings for modifying vehicle frames, coal ink printing to replace woodblock printing, sugar beet cultivation so that sugar will never be scarce again...
What? Even gunpowder needs improvement? How? You don't know?
What is all this nonsense?!
Compared to these perplexing matters, Emperor Jingxi's order for the Ministry of Works to conduct separate recruitment in various regions and Princess Zhaoyang's formal participation in court discussions were not such major issues.
Not only were court officials seeing the princess more and more often, but street patrolmen in the capital were also seeing her out and about more and more frequently.
Qin Su was going out of the city to visit the coal mine with Ye Yan and to watch the masters research gunpowder blasting.
The study of gunpowder is also closely related to the grasslands.
When Emperor Jingxi and his entourage toured the north, they witnessed the steppe cavalry firsthand, which greatly displeased them.
Qin Su and Ye Yan said privately, "Being on horseback and wielding a sharp weapon is a huge advantage. Foot soldiers are powerless against cavalry. The Great Yu has a shortage of horses, which is a great hidden danger."
Even though the grasslands have gradually shifted towards sheep farming in the past two years, the quantity and quality of horses still far surpass those of Dayu.
Some people might ask, why can't the Great Yu raise its own horses?
This was a common problem in ancient Central China: the cost of raising horses was too high.
Warhorses are not tolerant of high temperatures, require vast lands for training and running, and can damage local vegetation. They are only suitable for breeding in cold northern regions, so warhorses in the Central Plains have always relied on grassland trade.
Unless the grasslands are conquered and brought back into our territory, then the things of the grasslands will forever be the things of the Central Plains. Otherwise, it will always be a knife hanging over the neck of the Central Plains.
To fight against the grasslands, the first thing to face is their cavalry.
Ye Yan pondered and said, "In the era of cold weapons, cavalry naturally had the advantage over all armies. The only solution to this problem is firearms."
For example, gunpowder.
As is well known, the legendary gunpowder formula is one part sulfur, two parts saltpeter, and three parts charcoal, but in reality, if you only follow this ratio, the gunpowder produced will have very little lethality.
The proportions of gunpowder with mass destructive power cannot be seen on the surface. Ye Yan has been law-abiding in both his lives and has never specifically studied these things. But fortunately, he has chemical knowledge and knows that upgraded gunpowder, such as cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine, also known as RDX, is made using the nitric acid process, which requires nitroglycerin.
The proportions required will need to be tested gradually.
...
The fifteenth year of Jingxi passed by in such a thriving scene.
In the sixteenth year of the Jingxi reign, Emperor Jingxi suffered from mouth ulcers due to the hot summer weather and busy political affairs. Qin Su and Ye Yan then created Watermelon Frost.
The effect was immediate, causing a sensation throughout the Imperial Medical Academy.
Qin Su said it was very simple: hollow out a watermelon, fill it with sodium sulfate, seal it in a ceramic jar for a few days, and a layer of white frost will condense on the outside of the watermelon rind. You can just scrape it off.
Ancient watermelons were not as sweet and juicy as modern watermelons; they had more white flesh than red flesh and tasted bitter, so they were not widely cultivated. However, after this medicine was developed, the scale of watermelon cultivation expanded rapidly.
In the eighteenth year of the Jingxi reign, Hou Dongrui's hard work in researching a new rice variety led to a historic breakthrough, which could double the existing yield. This variety was named Jiahe, meaning auspiciousness and national prosperity.
In the nineteenth year of the Jingxi reign, the problem of the purity of glazed glass was finally solved, and it no longer turned bluish-green, slowly approaching the quality of modern glass.
In the twentieth year of Jingxi, the Great Yu army was basically fully equipped with armor, and the prices of wool and cotton in the civilian market were incredibly low. The manufacture of RDX could not be carried out on a large scale due to the restriction of sulfuric acid glycerin, but the pellet gunpowder had been perfected.
In the twenty-third year of Jingxi, Qin Su was thirteen years old and Ye Yan was fifteen. Annam rebelled, and Ye Yan went to Annam as a deputy general to quell the rebellion. The war ended quickly, but maintaining stability and governance required a lot of time, and this trip lasted for three years.
...
Qin Su stood in the long corridor, looking at the old swing in the courtyard of Zhaoning Palace, and poured out a few red beans from the envelope sent by Ye Yan.
The letter was very short, only saying: "On my way, I passed a mountain and saw that the red beans on the mountain were growing in abundance, so I sent it to you to see together."
She smiled slightly, and her stunning beauty, which had blossomed in recent years, captivated the palace servants around her, causing them to lower their heads in awe.
Only Qingmei tacitly handed over a wooden box, which Qin Su opened, and Qin Su put the red beans inside.
The wooden box contained many ordinary little things, all sent by Ye Yan.
There was the first branch in the Annamite government office to sprout green buds in spring, the half-open flower buds that Ye Yan saw late at night when he was busy, the reeds on the bank when he waded across the stream, and the porcelain bottle that contained Annam's first snow.
Although the capital city was thousands of miles away from Annam, every road he traveled, every river he crossed, and every landscape he saw reflected her image.
Because I miss you, whenever I look at mountains, rivers, flowers, grass, stars, or the moon, I always think of you and want to share it with you.
...
In the autumn of the twenty-sixth year of Jingxi, Ye Yan returned to the capital, and Qin Su personally went outside the city to welcome him.
Their eyes met, and the three years that had passed seemed to act as a catalyst for their growing feelings, making their gazes locked together and unable to look away.
Finally, Qin Su chuckled softly and said to Ye Yan, "General Ye has made outstanding contributions. I have come to welcome General Ye back to the court."
Ye Yan looked straight at her, his voice deep and mature: "I'm sorry to have troubled Your Highness with all this. I will need Your Highness's continued care in the future."
Under the watchful eyes of everyone, neither of them made a superfluous movement, but as their horses brushed past each other, Qin Su's hem brushed against Ye Yan's armor, and Ye Yan froze as stiff as a stone.
That evening, Emperor Jingxi left Ye Yan alone in the Imperial Study. It is unknown what they discussed, but the Auxiliary General's Mansion subsequently informed all those who came to propose marriage that Ye Yan's marriage was settled.
...
In the twenty-eighth year of the Jingxi Emperor's reign, the third prince, Qin Yu, was married. The Jingxi Emperor bestowed upon him the title of Prince An. People from the grasslands came to pay their respects and kept the son of a chieftain of a large tribe in the grasslands. Under the guise of letting the child learn the culture of the Central Plains, the real purpose was to use him as a hostage.
In the twenty-ninth year of Jingxi's reign, just after the third prince Qin Yu turned sixteen, his wife gave birth to a daughter, whom they named Congxia.
Half a year later, Chu Congxia, who was reborn with memories of two lifetimes, finally broke free from the limitations of her infant body and saw the world clearly.
She gazed longingly at the antique-style room, thinking that this time, she would definitely protect her loved ones well.
As her emotions were churning, a maidservant entered with a porcelain plate and said to her mother, "Your Highness, the cake you requested has arrived, and this time it comes with ice cream."
Chu Congxia, filled with hatred, paused for a moment: ? ? ?
What...what is that?!
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