Because Shu Xiaohan had high requirements for the inspection, the originally planned one-day inspection in Xinliang was repeatedly postponed, and by the time they arrived in Xinliang, five days had already passed.
Once they left Xinliang territory, Gu Yuzhi sat on the carriage shaft with Xueye in his arms, imitating Chief Secretary Xie and letting out a long sigh: "Indeed, the official road is much more comfortable."
It's not only pleasing to the eye, but also comfortable to walk on.
Apart from the extremely narrow road that had been cleared by human hands, the rest of Xinliang was wasteland. The carriage bumped and stumbled its way to the center of Xinliang and could go no further. Gu Yuzhi had hardly ever ridden in a carriage.
Fortunately, Shu Xiaohan had collected most of the data and spoke up in time; otherwise, Gu Yuzhi felt he might have fallen ill again.
While organizing the data, Shu Xiaohan said, "As I said before, if you want to get rich, you must first build roads. If the Prince's Xinliang is to develop, the official roads must be connected. Only in this way can Manager Wen's business develop, and only then can my specialty, agriculture, be brought out of Xinliang."
Gu Yuzhi nodded subconsciously. This trip to Xinliang had truly made him realize the importance of roads: "Teacher Shu is right." Judging from Teacher Shu's reaction, it was likely that his fiefdom would be located in Xinliang.
However, he scratched his head, realizing that he still needed to go back and discuss the specifics with Xie Changshi and the others.
Shu Xiaohan smiled with relief. Since they were going to help the young prince, the agricultural products could not just be enough to satisfy their own needs. The most important thing was to discover new species and increase crop yields.
Whether in modern times or ancient times, Shu Xiaohan has only one goal: to increase grain production, lower grain prices, and enable more people to fill their stomachs.
With this dream in mind, Shu Xiaohan looked at the messy documents in front of her with great enthusiasm, and kept burying herself in sorting them out until the group stopped to rest.
The meals prepared by Granny Xu had long been eaten up, and Gu Yuzhi had been eating rice cakes with his entourage for the past two days.
When Gu Yuzhi first ate rice cakes, Qi Chenglang and the others were secretly observing him. After all, in their eyes, Gu Yuzhi was a pampered young prince, and even if he had suffered some hardships during this period, he would definitely not be used to such coarse dry food.
But to everyone's surprise, although Gu Yuzhi's face was slightly wrinkled and he ate very slowly, he did not waste a single bite. In addition, during the past few days in Xinliang, Gu Yuzhi tried to walk by himself as much as possible, never complaining about hardship or fatigue. He would only ask the guards to take turns carrying him when he could no longer persevere. As a result, the guards became even more loyal to Gu Yuzhi.
Who wouldn't love such a sensible and hardworking young master?
Only Shu Xiaohan pushed up her glasses and stared into thought as she looked at the rice cake in Gu Yuzhi's hand.
She hadn't noticed before why the cakes these people were eating were all called rice cakes.
"Young Prince, what are the rations you have made of?"
Gu Yuzhi swallowed the last piece of rice cake in his mouth, took the water handed to him by Xie Changshi and drank two mouthfuls: "It's rice cake. Xie Changshi said it's made by mixing rice and brown rice together, crushing them with a stone mill, and grinding them into powder."
Shu Xiaohan blurted out, "Don't you guys eat flatbread?"
Gu Yuzhi blinked, looking puzzled, and asked, "Teacher Shu, what is a flatbread?"
Shu Xiaohan remained silent, her brows furrowed in thought.
That shouldn't be the case.
Based on the details of the guards' official titles and titles, it is highly likely that the Sang Dynasty was modeled after the Song and Ming Dynasties. Agriculture at that time should have been relatively developed, especially wheat, which was one of the five grains in ancient times and held an irreplaceable position among my country's food crops. How could the Sang Kingdom not have wheat?
This realization shocked Shu Xiaohan: "May I ask, Your Highness, what is the main food of Sang Kingdom? Does anyone grow wheat?"
Gu Yuzhi shook his head, took the snow night, and seeing that Teacher Shu seemed to regard it as very important, he thought for a moment and then asked in a low voice, "Chief Secretary Xie, do you know about wheat?"
He's only five years old and hasn't seen much, but Xie Changshi travels around studying, so he might know something.
Under Gu Yuzhi's expectant gaze, Xie Changshi shook his head: "I have never seen or heard of this wheat. What is it? How did Your Highness learn about it?"
Oh no!
Gu Yuzhi lowered his eyes and ruffled Xue Ye's fur. How was he supposed to explain this?
He puffed out his cheeks and said, "I heard it from those exiled people. Maybe I misheard, anyway, they were speaking Sichuan dialect, and the intonation was so convoluted that I couldn't understand it very well."
Yesterday, when the group was leaving Xinliang, they happened to run into the group of exiled people. Qi Chenglang was extra cautious. Prefect Qi sent someone to talk to the official for a bit and learned that these people came from Sichuan and were not vicious people. They were just unlucky and someone in their clan had chosen the wrong side.
The officers were quite good-natured, so the prisoners didn't suffer too much, and they could even sit together and chat during their breaks.
Hearing these seemingly incomprehensible words, Gu Yuzhi asked a few questions out of curiosity, so Xie Changshi didn't doubt him when he said this.
Shu Xiaohan was now absolutely certain that Sang Kingdom no longer had wheat: "Your Highness, if I have the chance, I would like to travel further north to look for any traces of wheat."
Historical records indicate that wheat was first discovered in the Xinjiang region, so she believes that Sangguo (a state in ancient China) also had wheat, but it had not yet been discovered.
"If we can't find it within the territory of Sang Kingdom, it would be best to go to the Northern Barbarians." Seeing Gu Yuzhi's terrified expression, she explained in a low voice, "Wheat is a very important food. If we can grow and cultivate good wheat, Your Highness, you will make a very outstanding contribution to Sang Kingdom, and even the entire continent."
Young Gu Yuzhi had no interest in any outstanding contributions; he simply didn't want to go to the Northern Barbarians: "I heard from the palace servants that the Northern Barbarians eat raw meat and drink raw blood, just like wild beasts. They are all taller and stronger than Guard Qi, and they ride horses incredibly fast. Moreover, the Northern Barbarians eat children!"
Gu Yuzhi was terrified just thinking about it, and pouted, saying, "Especially me, if I go to the Northern Barbarians, they'll definitely catch me and eat me!"
Shu Xiaohan was silent for a moment, then suddenly burst into laughter: "Who told you all this? Historically, the Northern Di people were indeed brave and skilled in battle, but it's not as exaggerated as they say. The claim of eating raw meat and drinking blood is just an exaggeration."
Even so, it couldn't soothe Gu Yuzhi's fear. He buried his face in his arms and kept muttering, "I won't listen, I won't listen," as if that would save him from facing the Northern Di people.
"Besides, Your Highness, you are a prince. You don't need to do everything yourself. Even if you really have no choice but to go to the Northern Barbarians, you only need to send a few agile people who are good at identification."
What's that saying again? If you can't lead a team, you'll just work yourself to death.
This saying is equally applicable to princes.
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