Chapter 42: Turning Stone into Gold (Part 2) Update
The two of them wilted in an instant, just like eggplants hit by frost.
Xiying couldn't help but wonder, "What's wrong?"
"No, nothing." Ah Huan forced himself to cheer up and replied, "Thank you, Xiying. We understand."
Xiying thought that Ah Huan and Ah Bi stayed in the mansion every day, wandering around the young marquis's courtyard. Occasionally, they went out to the street to buy daily necessities for the young marquis. The young marquis must have arranged these trivial matters for them.
He said, "If there's anything you still need to finish, tell me. I'm quick and will go get it done for you right now before the young marquis returns to the courtyard!"
Ah Huan was touched and smiled bitterly, "Thank you, Xiying. We actually, actually, have done it. You've been running around outside the city with the young marquis all day. Go and rest for a while and have dinner."
"Okay! I'll go first. Just call me if you have any problems!" After saying that, Xiying ran away in a hurry.
·
In the study of the Marquis' Mansion, as soon as Liu Ziye came back, he called Du Hui and Hao Wenchang, who had also been busy all day.
Tea had already been ordered in the study. Du Hui took two sips to quench his thirst before announcing, "This piece of land in West City is the best. It's flat and has few wild shrubs. Our chain plows break up the soil with the front plow and loosen it with the middle plow. Finally, we use oxen to vibrate the dirt cart. The three-layer bamboo sieve bed removes rocks, debris, and grass roots from the soil, leaving only clean soil to fill the land. The results are quite good. Today, our team of more than ten people in the Marquis' Mansion has reclaimed a total of eight acres of wasteland."
Liu Ziye nodded in satisfaction: "Very good, very good. Has your day been smooth?"
Du Hui: "We encountered some problems at the beginning. Two plots of land seemed to be fairly flat on the surface, but when we plowed them, we discovered a lot of old tree roots deep inside. Our chain plows couldn't break them up. It's not impossible to deal with them, though. We could use oxen to pull the claws and break or pull out the roots..."
Liu Ziye immediately said, "No need. This would be too time-consuming and laborious! We have a lot of open land outside Yucheng, and we've already surveyed plenty of options for land reclamation! Let's abandon this place and find another good location."
"Young Marquis is right!"
Du Hui praised enthusiastically, "I agree with the young marquis, so I discussed it with the Fu clan leader and Fu clan leader right on the spot. We marked out all the plots of land that the Fu clan members had problems with on the map one by one and put them on hold for the time being."
"Okay." Liu Ziye nodded.
Du Hui continued, "There are several other sloping plots. Although they don't look very smooth, the soil is surprisingly good when plowed. The young Fu clan leaders have also put in a lot of effort. At the end of the day, the two hundred or so people from the Fu clan have cleared nearly seventy acres of land. However..."
He calculated and said, "Although we can open up dozens of acres of land a day, the manpower and carts used for land reclamation will inevitably decrease. We need to constantly adjust the manpower to the newly reclaimed land, carefully cultivate it, sow seeds and cultivate the soil, so as to catch the farming season. By the summer and autumn, we can see the first harvest. Our mansion only charges the silver for the one-time sale of these land reclamation and land cultivation machines and the subsequent use of them."
"In my opinion, the Qingcheng Fuyu clan will hear the news soon. They won't be able to catch up with the land reclamation this year, but they are still very likely to purchase some curved plows."
Liu Ziye said, "That's all. We'll expand it year by year. The first time we made such a big noise, we had to deal with Wang Yanpeng and his men investigating. This Marquis gets annoyed just by looking at him!"
Du Hui and Hao Wenchang couldn't help but smile knowingly when they heard Liu Ziye say this.
Although Wang Yanpeng is not as snobbish and bullying as the previous Iberly, he is petty and calculative, which makes him very unpopular.
"There's one more question."
Du Hui added, "Take the Fu clan, for example. Our chain plows and vibrating screens for land reclamation are extremely popular. However, the curved-beam plow, while excellent, hasn't been fully adopted by the Fu clan. Clan leader Fu once told me that many of the craftsmen in our clan used to make agricultural tools for a living. But once the curved-beam plow came out, orders for their straight-beam and long-beam plows suddenly dried up, and they resolutely resisted the curved-beam plow."
Liu Ziye couldn't understand: "Why? Is it good for them to continue to use three times the effort to achieve the same result?"
Drawing on her own experience, she disagreed, saying, "No one can resist the advancement of technology. If you cling to the old ways, you'll eventually be left behind."
Du Hui pondered for a moment before saying, "Young Marquis, what you said is quite reasonable. However, we cannot interfere in the specific affairs of the Fu clan. For the time being, the Fu clan leader and the Fu clan junior leader have their own discretion in handling matters."
Liu Ziye sighed!
"Is there any news about the Buyeo clan?" she asked instead.
Du Hui heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that the young marquis did not continue to dwell on this matter.
He said, "Not yet, but the people we sent out to spread the news left the day before yesterday. Fuyu Changqing is a shrewd man. After experiencing the cooperation with our Marquisate and the Fu family last winter, he will definitely take action as soon as he hears the news."
"become!"
After Liu Ziye finished speaking, he asked about another matter he had previously told them.
She asked, "Gentlemen, how have you progressed with the plan we mentioned earlier to open a school in our mansion this spring and invite a professor to teach the most basic literacy and arithmetic?"
This matter was organized by Hao Wenchang. Upon hearing this, he said, "Young Marquis, the candidate for the teacher has been selected. Our requirements are not high, just need to teach literacy and arithmetic, so Mr. Du and I have an idea and are preparing to ask the young marquis for his advice."
"Sir, please speak."
"Ever since we sent out the news that we were looking for a professor, there have been seven or eight applicants for the teaching position at the Marquis's academy. Mr. Du and I have reviewed them and have found two suitable candidates. One is a former private school teacher in Yucheng. He knows the family inside and out, and is proficient in literacy and arithmetic. He also teaches some elementary textbooks for children and classics for scholars. If we were to hire him, the tuition and treatment we would offer would undoubtedly be much higher. The other is a non-local from Xiguan County. He heard about the Marquis's recruitment and volunteered to apply. He's proficient in literacy and arithmetic, and even seems quite knowledgeable in arithmetic. He even expressed great interest in the mechanics of the plows, harrows, and other plowing tools we have in Xiguan County this year! But if you ask him about the Confucian classics, he's clueless..."
Hao Wenchang knew that this matter was not handled well, so he took the initiative to say: "If the young marquis feels that neither of these two is to his liking, our study hall in the marquis' mansion will open as usual, and Mr. Du and I will take turns to support him."
Unexpectedly, after hearing this, Liu Ziye said, "No. I think both of them are good. You should invite them both back today."
"Please invite two professors?" Du Hui was a little surprised.
Speaking of which, he and Hao Wenchang each hold the title of professor in the Marquis' Mansion, but in fact they do not do the work of a professor most of the time.
There are only a few dozen people in the Marquis' Mansion now. Not to mention that Liu Ziye no longer needs such a teacher to teach him, including the families of people like Hao Wenchang, there are only ten children in the mansion.
It is already an extraordinary favor that the young marquis is willing to hire a teacher for these children, but now he wants to hire two?
"Yes."
Liu Ziye said, "You two are already busy with your work, so it's not good to waste your energy on teaching literacy."
"At the same time, I hope that after you two gentlemen arrive, you will give lectures in the side courtyard outside the west gate of the south courtyard of the Marquis's mansion. The earthen walls of the side courtyard will be demolished and replaced with a half-man-high wooden fence. When the gentlemen are giving lectures, if anyone from outside the west gate of the Marquis' mansion comes to listen, they will not be driven away or barricaded."
Liu Ziye continued to express her thoughts: "For those of us in the Marquis' Mansion, all the children must go to school on a set schedule. Young and middle-aged people must also go, but they still have work to do during the day. So, let's set up a night class."
Du and Hao were surprised.
The young marquis actually even wants to consider taking classes with the adults in the mansion?
Even the teaching venue was opened to the public, obviously so that ordinary people in Yucheng could also benefit from it.
However, as educated people, they understood that this was by no means a bad thing. "If you learn the truth in the morning, you can die in the evening," he said. It's never too late for anyone to learn, as long as they're determined to learn. Their young marquis's willingness to learn was truly rare!
Besides, the Marquis' Mansion was not short of money to hire another gentleman, so the two of them nodded in agreement in shock.
"OK!"
Having almost finished what was to be discussed today, Liu Ziye stood up from his desk. "It's getting late, gentlemen. You two have been working hard all day. Go have a meal and rest first!"
Upon hearing the voice, Du Hui and Hao Wenchang stood up, said goodbye and temporarily returned to the courtyard where they were.
Liu Ziye left the study and saw Xiying had returned, waiting for her at the door. When she saw him, Xiying opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but held it back.
She took a quick look, pretended not to notice, and walked silently ahead back to her own yard.
After a winter of tempering, Liu Ziye can now basically judge that the things that make Xiying hesitate and don't know whether to say them must be those unimportant things that he couldn't help but blurt out in the past.
He can still tell what are the truly important things and would never act like this.
Xiying swallowed back what she was about to say about Ah Huan and Ah Bi seeming to be in a bad mood, and followed behind obediently. After arriving at the yard, she reported to Liu Ziye and went back to her own residence for dinner.
Ah Huan and Ah Bi had already prepared the meal. Liu Ziye was still growing in his current state, and he was starving after running in and out of the city all day.
A meal with a balanced combination of meat and vegetables prepared in the kitchen, eaten cleanly.
After the meal, Liu Ziye looked at Ahuan and Abi who were serving him carefully, and he knew what these two were worried about without having to think about it.
She said mercilessly: "After dinner, wait for me in the study room."
Where are we going now?
It's still far from the high-spirited state she was in when she was preparing for the college entrance examination in her previous life!
Considering that the two little girls have never experienced the hardship of studying, I have been quite gentle to them.
She looked up and down the two personal maids of the original owner and smiled slightly: Your good days are still to come!
"Click—"
Liu Ziye seemed to be able to hear the sound of Asi's heart beating. He tried hard to control his expression but could not hide the pressure and tension.
Ah Huan couldn't help but want to shout in his heart: This little marquis of theirs is... too scary!
But she was still in a relatively better state than Asi, who was in a state of weakness. While supporting Asi with one hand, she pinched herself hard in her sleeve with the other hand and replied, "Yes, young marquis!"
That night, Xiying stood guard outside the door of the so-called "study room" and heard the sobbing voices of Abi and Ahuan coming from the room from time to time.
"Young Marquis...we were wrong...we must work harder tomorrow!"
"Young Marquis, but... this servant... this servant is stupid..."
"Is that what you mean, young marquis?!"
And so on.
In the evening, I witnessed with my own eyes that the two of them had failed to complete the young marquis's mission, and they suffered such a cruel punishment at night...
Xiying couldn't help but shudder.
Originally, he was quite satisfied with his performance in following the young marquis's steps and strictly implementing his requirements. But now it seems...
I'm afraid I haven't done enough!
Liu Ziye checked and gave some guidance on the homework of Ahuan and Abi with satisfaction.
She had discovered before that the educational level of the people in Xiguanhou Mansion was quite low.
Even the two maids who always accompanied the Marquis couldn't recognize even the most basic characters. Xiying was slightly better, but she could only roughly understand a notice outside.
She immediately thought of asking a teacher to teach her how to read and do arithmetic.
Everyone in the mansion who didn't know how to read had to come and learn to read first. As for the future, she also had plans to teach a whole set of professional subjects in the school.
In addition to the core first echelon that turns everything into gold, the extensive and high-quality second echelon is also a crucial link for her to expand the strength of Xiguan County and obtain more points!
As for Ah Huan and Ah Bi's lessons, even if they cannot recognize all the characters, they can still learn some basic principles of mechanics and mechanical design.
Returning to her bedroom, she finished her daily homework as usual, and turned off the lights and went to bed at 11:00 PM.
The next morning, after Liu Ziye got up, he stretched and walked out of the room, where he was immediately met with three pairs of panda-like black eyes.
Dark Circles·Ah Huan: "Morning, young marquis."
Dark Circles·Api: "Young Marquis, good morning."
Dark Circles·Xiying: "Young Marquis, good morning..."
Liu Ziye glared at Xiying: "Forget about those two, what did you do last night!?"
Seeing the young marquis's expression change, Xiying quickly stood up straight. "Xiying, Xiying, Mr. Du said that gentlemen all wake up three times a day, so I woke up once before going to bed."
Liu Ziye understood: "And then? 'Woke up' this morning?!"
Xiying lowered her head: "Young Marquis, Xiying was wrong..."
Looking at the three black pandas in the house that looked like they were hit by frost, Liu Ziye felt that all the energy he had replenished all night was about to be sucked away by them.
She sat down in the dining room and waved her hand casually: "Everyone go back and take a nap for an hour before coming back! Xiying, before you go to bed, call Jin Jie to take your place!"
Xiying tried to struggle: "Young Marquis, I don't need to rest..."
Liu Ziye interrupted directly: "When you are mentally exhausted, the probability of making mistakes in anything you do is several times higher than usual. If you follow me like this, I will worry about whether you will make mistakes."
One sentence put an end to Xiying's struggle.
Although he couldn't understand what the young marquis meant by "probability", in short, it was -
The young marquis thought that he was prone to making mistakes and would delay his work.
What he feared most now was making a mistake in front of the young marquis. The young marquis's words were like strangling his life.
"Besides, just because I'm asking you to make up for an hour doesn't mean you don't have to do your work today."
Liu Ziye added: "When you wake up, work overtime and don't miss a single thing you were supposed to do today."
Xiying's spirit trembled: "Hey, Xiying promises that I will complete the task!"
The young marquis still asked him to do something!
"Okay, go call Jin Jie over." Liu Ziye waved his hand.
"Okay!" Xiying responded and ran out.
Liu Ziye glanced at the hesitant Ah Huan and Ah Bi again and said, "I can eat by myself."
"Yes, then Ah Huan and Ah Bi will withdraw first."
The breakfast dishes that Liu Ziye asked her family to prepare for her were always fixed. She specifically requested cow's and sheep's milk and boiled eggs, and the rest were just a combination of staple food, vegetables, and meat.
People of this era obviously did not have such clear nutritional matching habits, but as a marquis of a mansion, since she asked for it, the old butler Liu Biao would definitely not give her any discounts.
Everything was fresh and delicious, making her breakfast very enjoyable.
When Jin Jie arrived, Liu Ziye had only finished half of his breakfast. After a simple greeting, he automatically and consciously stood a few steps away from the dining table, waiting. He glanced at the breakfast dishes in front of Liu Ziye, which were of different colors and combinations, and then looked away without a sound.
He had just stopped for a moment when someone else came to the young marquis's courtyard. The steward Liu Bing came to announce, "Young marquis."
Liu Ziye swallowed half of the egg in his mouth and said, "Go ahead."
Liu Bing, following his usual practice, outlined the main farming plan for the day. "We have ten people available to work the fields today. One person sweated profusely yesterday and got caught in a cold draft, so the steward has allowed him a day off. We completed most of the plowing yesterday, so the steward and I have agreed to allocate half the people starting today to sow the corn and wheat seeds using the new ox seed drill that Mr. Du just sent us."
Liu Ziye thought about it and nodded as there was no problem.
She really wanted to get some high-yield grain seeds, but her [Mechanical Civilization System] didn't provide any. Although her current illness was caused by her own carelessness, since the housekeeper had arranged for her to rest, and humans weren't machines after all, she thought it was understandable.
Liu Bing bowed, said goodbye and left.
During the quarter-hour breakfast time, in addition to Liu Bing, Du Hui and others also came one after another. They all had a brief discussion and reported their whereabouts, and then began their enthusiastic life of doing their own job for the day.
Fu Zhen'er, who was always busy with the farming affairs of the tribe and had no time to spare, also asked his tribesmen to send the wild flowers he picked in the fields and the pheasants he hunted.
Liu Ziye looked at it carefully and asked Jin Jie to send the game to the kitchen, and let him find a vase outside to put the wild flowers.
The people in the mansion are now very familiar with the habit of their young master having breakfast in the hall at 1 a.m. every day, so they have also developed the habit of reporting the important affairs of the day to him on time.
The meal was finally over. Liu Ziye wiped his hands, stood up, and said to Jin Jie, "Let's go to Xisai Lake."
"yes."
Jin Jie responded, followed Liu Ziye, and walked out quickly.
A few days ago, Liu Ziye took Jin Jie, Xi Ying and the others out of the house and unexpectedly found the suspicious governor Wang Yanpeng on the street.
That day, she saw the Xiguan Governor Wang Yanpeng disguised himself and walked out of the side door of the Governor's Mansion.
If Jin Jie hadn't pointed it out, Liu Ziye almost wouldn't have recognized it.
Wang Yanpeng, who had been appointed after Yi Boli was dismissed, came from one of the prominent local clans: the Liyang Wang family. However, his family was a neglected branch of the Wang family. Therefore, in the Zhou Dynasty, which valued family background for official positions, he had fallen into the position of serving as an official under the humble Yi Boli.
In the original world line, Wang Yanpeng seemed to be overshadowed by the rising Iberly, and there was nothing eye-catching about him at all.
But now, he has become the governor of Xiguan County who replaced Iberi, and Liu Ziye has to pay more attention to him.
Seeing Wang Yanpeng's sneaky behavior, Liu Ziye said to Jin Jie, "Abandon your horses and follow him."
As soon as Wang Yanpeng left the governor's mansion, he looked around for a moment, then walked onto the street pretending nothing had happened.
At first, he was not confident about his disguise, fearing that as the governor of a county, his voice and appearance would leave too deep a impression on the people of Xiguan County, and even if he changed his appearance, he would be recognized at a glance by ordinary people on the street.
However, he walked with full concentration, a little while, and then a little while...
Wang Yanpeng found that those who were supposed to be selling goods at the stalls were doing so, and those who were busy carrying farm tools and driving farm carts passed by him. No one paid any attention to him at all.
Wang Yanpeng gradually felt relieved, but he couldn't help but touch his face, which was just painted darker and his eyebrows slightly changed.
Don't you recognize me? I'm your governor.
While Wang Yanpeng was distracted, a farm cart came towards him. He was too slow to dodge and was nearly hit. The man pushing the cart cried out "Ouch!" and quickly used his hands to hold the bag on the cart that was about to fall over. This was the seed material he was transporting to the reclaimed land, and he must not let it spill!
He held the wheat seed sack with one hand to make sure that no grain would spill out.
He immediately got angry and scolded, "What's wrong with you?! It's such a wide road, but you don't walk properly and you cross the road and hit my car!"
Wang Yanpeng: You're so mean to me? You're so mean to me?
He was furious: "How can you talk like that? Do you know who I am?"
"Who is it? How could anyone be so blind? Even if the young marquis of Xiguan went out, he wouldn't rush around like you!"
The man stiffened his neck and retorted bluntly, then pushed his cart away, heading for the fields, not bothering to waste words with this inexplicable person.
Wang Yanpeng stood there in amazement, looking at the direction the man left. He still couldn't get over the situation he had just been confronted with.
Finally, he swung his sleeve vigorously and said, "So what if he's the young Marquis of Xiguan? The people in his house can't even afford to eat, and they're suffering as they follow Fu Shi's ass to open up wasteland!"
He was furious, but he also thought that he had sneaked out in disguise today because he had important business to attend to, so how could he lose his composure because of this ignorant poor man?
After finding his position, Wang Yanpeng let out a breath, straightened his chest, and continued to move forward.
Liu Ziye, Xiying and Jin Jie followed closely behind him. Seeing Wang Yanpeng's rare act of swallowing his anger in front of the people, they didn't say much and just continued to follow him silently.
Yucheng was not big to begin with, and soon Wang Yanpeng stopped at the entrance of an alley and knocked on the door of the first courtyard at the entrance of the alley.
From Liu Ziye's observation, this was a relatively common residence in Yucheng, typical of a moderately affluent household. It had adobe walls and a grayish-gray tiled roof. It had a simple small gatehouse and a wooden door, topped with two copper knockers.
The wooden door opened, and the person inside was completely invisible as Wang Yanpeng walked in.
Soon, the door closed again.
Liu Ziye looked at the courtyard wall that blocked his view, then turned back and whispered to Jin Jie, "Could you follow me in?"
Jin Jie nodded: "It should be possible."
"Don't get caught."
"yes."
Jin Jie nodded, then flashed to the back of the house, and jumped onto the wall in a place close to the main house but blocked from view.
They were getting closer and could faintly hear voices coming from the main house. Jin Ji listened carefully and found that there seemed to be more than two people talking.
He concentrated his attention and listened carefully, the sound of talking, breathing, and coughing...
There were at least thirty people living in the three or five large rooms and front and back yards of this medium-sized family house!
These people had heavy footsteps and breathed steadily and powerfully. They were obviously adult men, and most likely they were soldiers or people who had practiced martial arts for many years.
It is impossible to go in and investigate the specific words and deeds of Wang Yanpeng and others without attracting attention.
Jin Jie no longer rushed forward, quickly jumped off the wall, and went back to report the situation in detail to Liu Ziye.
I thought that after hearing my inquiries, the young marquis would be surprised by the inexplicable increase in soldiers.
Unexpectedly, the young marquis only smiled knowingly and said, "I'll be right here."
Even though spring had only just begun and the snow had melted and the roads were open, they had already arrived in Yucheng.
It was much more urgent than Liu Ziye had originally thought!
When Xiying heard what Jin Jie said, a series of questions popped up in her mind.
What the hell is Wang Yanpeng up to? Is he so audacious as to rebel?
But he had become accustomed to holding back from asking questions so as not to affect Liu Ziye's thinking.
Liu Ziye then said to Jin Jie, "Let's go to the western suburbs of Yucheng first. After returning to the mansion in the evening, arrange for a few of the Marquis's private guards to monitor the every move of the people in this house starting tomorrow."
"Yes." Jin Jie nodded.
The three of them then left the street unnoticed.
Just yesterday, Jin Jie reported to Liu Ziye that they had been sent to monitor the courtyard filled with private soldiers.
According to the report from the people they sent, they discovered that these private soldiers had been disguised and heading towards the north bank of Xisai Lake for four or five consecutive days.
The shore of Xisai Lake is flat and wide, making it difficult to hide their tracks, so they couldn't follow too closely.
But what is certain is that these private soldiers who arrived at the north bank of Xisai Lake in groups were all behind the pine forest on the north bank of Xisai Lake, and they spent a whole day there.
It is almost impossible to do so without doing something shameful.
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