nucmednet Chapter 340 This is the true application of knowledge to the world!
Chapter 340 This is the true application of knowledge to the world!
On the day he left office, the people of Puyang saw him off for ten miles.
A man secretly handed Su Yue a pair of cloth shoes with fine stitching: "Sir, this is something my wife asked me to give you... She said thank you for letting me have enough food to eat so that I can have the energy to sew the soles for her shoes."
Su Yue didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but still accepted it.
As the carriage slowly drove away from Puyang, Gu Qingyan suddenly said, "Actually, meeting you is a blessing for Aze and me."
Liang Junze chuckled: "Yes, if we were in someone else's house, we would probably just be tools for reproduction."
Su Yue shook her head: "This isn't the way the world should be."
"But at least," Liang Junze held her hand, "in our little home, you are the wife and the mistress, and our beloved."
Outside the carriage, the setting sun was as blazing as fire, dyeing Puyang City golden.
This city finally welcomed its light.
Capital
The empress twisted the silk report just presented by the secret guard with her fingertips, and the candlelight illuminated the Puyang water system map clearly.
She suddenly chuckled. "What a 'sponge city'! The Minister of Industry spent twenty years writing about flood control, but it's no match for a peasant girl's brilliant idea."
The female official in charge of ink was grinding cinnabar carefully. "Your Majesty, can Su's method really save 30% of the river industry silver?"
"More than that." The empress used a silver knife to pick open another secret letter. "She turned waste manure into treasure. This autumn, Puyang's tax revenue increased by 20,000 dan compared to previous years." The tip of the knife drew a deep red mark under the words "composting to increase production."
The sound of a night watchman's drum was heard outside the hall, it was already three o'clock in the morning.
After the court meeting the next day, the empress deliberately kept the president of the Hanlin Academy.
"Your Excellency, when you reviewed the top-ranking paper, said Su Yue's policy essays were 'empty'?" The Empress casually toyed with the jade paperweight. "Now, her improved kiln firing method has saved Puyang 100,000 kilograms of firewood."
The white-haired old scholar was sweating through his heavy clothes: "I...I was..."
"I remember she mentioned 'investigating things and applying them to practical use' during the palace examination." The empress suddenly slammed the paperweight down. "You laugh at her country jargon, but have you ever thought about—" She unfolded the cement sample sent from Puyang, "this is the true application of knowledge to the world!"
The old scholar stared at the gray, hard object and suddenly knelt down: "This old minister is willing to go to Puyang in person..."
"No need." The empress stood up and said, "Issue an imperial decree to promote Su Yue to the position of Langzhong of the Dushui Division, in charge of the Jianghuai water conservancy."
The Empress's favorite third princess, Zhou Wenxi, was throwing a tantrum in Prince Rui's Mansion.
"The Queen Mother actually let a peasant girl take charge of the Jianghuai Water Conservancy Project!" She smashed an entire set of Yuguotian celadon porcelain. "Aunt, don't you think this is a slap in the face of our family?"
Prince Rui Zhou Jin stroked his teacup and said, "What's the rush? The Jianghuai nobles are so intertwined and intertwined, who can she possibly touch?" He suddenly lowered his voice and said, "But you, quickly silence Yang Hongyu..."
"It's too late." A man wearing a bronze mask stepped out from the shadows. "Last night in the imperial prison, someone sent a bowl of bird's nest to Yang."
Zhou Wenxi gasped: "Drug for the machine?"
"No." The man chuckled. "It's the 'detoxification pill' invented by Su Yue, and Yang is signing it now."
The teacup in Prince Rui's hand cracked with a "crack".
At five o'clock in the morning, the empress stood alone at the highest point of the imperial city. Behind her, the commander of the secret guards reported in a low voice: "Su Yue distributed medicine to the disaster victims, and specifically marked it as 'not for use by pregnant men'..."
"She's quite cautious." The empress looked towards Puyang. "How do the men react?"
"Someone secretly learned to write, and..." the secret guard hesitated, "a woman had a fight with her husband because he didn't get his wages."
The empress suddenly laughed: "Great! This is exactly the kind of chaos I want!" She turned around with a gleam in her eyes, "Pass the secret order to Su Yue. I grant her the right to execute first and report later."
On the way back to the capital from Puyang, Su Yue knelt down and remained silent for a long time after receiving the imperial edict.
Liang Junze unfolded the enclosed secret letter: "Your Majesty actually knew that we had secretly hidden the cement formula..."
"She knows everything." Su Yue burned the secret letter. "This is telling me—" The firelight reflected her solemn face. "Either become the sword of the emperor, or be doomed forever."
Gu Qingyan suddenly pressed the hilt of the knife: "There is someone outside the yard."
When the door opened, a man covered in blood stood there. "Su... Lord Su... please save my sister..." He handed over the blood-stained account book. "Yang was greedy for money... and ended up in Prince Rui's mansion..."
Su Yue looked at the familiar secret marks on the account book and finally understood the empress's true intention.
The journey from Puyang to Beijing takes about five or six days.
To Su Yue's surprise, they were safe and sound on the road.
Su Yue was surprised that so many people were indifferent after the incident.
As soon as Su Yue got off the carriage, the palace lady-in-waiting told her that the empress invited Su Yue to the palace for a chat and also prepared a celebration banquet for her.
They had no choice but to split into two groups. Liang Junze and Gu Qingyan went back first to report their safety.
In the palace, there was only the empress, and not even a servant was waiting by her side.
The empress looked at Su Yue kneeling in the palace, and suddenly felt that this peasant girl was more calm than when she left Beijing.
The wind and frost of Puyang carved a bit of determination between her brows, and the hem of her blue satin official uniform was still stained with river mud.
"Your Majesty has lost weight," the Empress personally handed over a cup of ginseng tea. "I heard that your improved composting method doubled the yield per mu of saline-alkali land in Puyang?"
Su Yue took the teacup with both hands and said, "Thanks to your Majesty's great blessing, I have only slightly improved the ancient method in the Qi Min Yao Shu."
"Oh?" The Empress raised an eyebrow. "So 'cement' is also an ancient method?"
The copper clock in the corner of the palace was ticking. Su Yue knew that the empress was waiting for her to explain.
"When I was young, I saw the villagers burning lime and accidentally discovered that mixing it with clay would make it more water-resistant." She deliberately showed an uneasy look. "This time, since flood control is urgent, I dared to give it a try..."
The empress suddenly chuckled. "Stand up," she pointed to the memorial on the table. "Prince Rui has impeached you for arbitrarily changing the ancestral system. What do you think?"
Su Yue's heart skipped a beat. She was being asked to choose a side.
The sound of the empress's fingertips tapping on the gilded handrail was particularly clear in the silent hall.
The dripping sound of the copper leak suddenly became extremely slow, as if time was frozen by the power of this king.
Su Yue's knuckles turned slightly white as she held the teacup. The heat from the ginseng tea rose into a mist, forming tiny droplets on her eyelashes, like cold sweat.
"Volume 3 of 'Qimin Yaoshu' does indeed record that 'lime mixed with clay can strengthen embankments.'" She gently placed the teacup on the jade table, the porcelain clattering with a clear sound. "I simply added a little extra iron powder." She raised her eyes, a scholar's enthusiasm perfectly revealed. "It just so happens that the previous dynasty's 'Tiangong Kaiwu' mentioned..."
"My dear minister." The empress suddenly opened the memorial with a silver knife, the blade reflecting a cold light on the four characters "hen rooster crows at dawn". "I am asking about the ancestral system."
Outside the palace, the clinking of armor could be heard as the Imperial Guards changed shifts. Su Yue caught a glimpse of her own reflection on the gilded dragon pillar, twisting into a strange shape.
"I believe..." She suddenly knelt, the hem of her official robe sweeping across the lingering tea stains on the gold bricks. "The essence of the ancestral system lies in the four words 'the people are the foundation of the state.'" The moment she raised her head, the uneasiness on her face vanished. "If King Yu had stuck to the ancestral system, how could he have helped the people?"
The silver knife in the empress's hand suddenly stopped in mid-air.
Su Yue took the opportunity to pull out a lump of earth wrapped in oilcloth from his sleeve. "These are bricks made by the people of Puyang using a new method. Your Majesty, please take a look." The lump of earth cracked, revealing a golden core mixed with straw. "Mixed with straw ash, it's 70% cheaper than green bricks."
"Interesting." The Empress picked up a crumb with the tip of her knife. "Prince Rui said your method is a waste of money and manpower..."
"Here are my account books," Su Yue immediately handed over the mud-stained booklet. "Every expense has been signed by the victims." She deliberately flipped to a certain page. "In fact, in the Yang family's accounts from previous years, the expenses for glutinous rice mortar were enough to build two dams."
The copper clock suddenly made a soft "click." The empress's eyes flickered between the "glutinous rice" and the "straw," and she chuckled softly, "Get up." She casually tossed Prince Rui's memorial into the incense burner. "I want to see which is harder: the thousand-year-old ancestral system or your new brick."
As Su Yue bowed her head and left, she heard the empress say to the female official in charge of the seal: "Order the prince of Rui to come to the palace immediately to accompany the emperor in his studies."
The corners of her mouth curved up almost imperceptibly - this was the most beautiful check and balance in the emperor's mind.