Chapter 348: Zhang Chun Wants to Divide the Cake

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Upon learning that Zhang Chun had important matters to discuss with them, Ma Xiao Jiao and Yuan Qing Cheng ended their argument and came together to Zhang Chun’s palace.

When Ma Xiao Jiao and Yuan Qing Cheng arrived at Zhang Chun’s palace, Zhang Chun and Li Lin were already there; only Ye Shi Yun had not yet arrived.

Zhang Chun led Li Lin, Ma Xiao Jiao, and Yuan Qing Cheng to her secret chamber and ordered palace attendants to bring tea, fruit, and dried nuts.

After Li Shishi and her entourage left, Yuan Qing Cheng asked Zhang Chun: “What matter is so urgent that you summoned us all like this?”

But Zhang Chun still delayed, saying: “No rush—wait until Shi Yun arrives, then we’ll speak together.”

With that, Zhang Chun picked up her tea bowl and sipped slowly, calm and composed.

Lately, Zhang Chun had been riding high—her son Zhao Tang had repeatedly earned battlefield merits and was now quietly becoming the prince with the most military achievements among all the imperial sons.

Not only Zhao Tang, but also Zhang Chun’s second son Zhao Kai had begun to shine on the front lines, his military achievements now rivaling those of the battle-hardened princes Zhao Tang, Zhao Di, Zhao Qing, and Zhao Shou, and he was steadily ascending into the top tier.

With her sons’ glory, Zhang Chun had revived her pride, reminiscent of when she once aspired to be the leader among the five women.

In truth, the reason these five women’s sons were such formidable warriors was not only due to their mothers’ superior upbringing, but also because they were assigned elite guards and commanders.

Take Zhao Tang as an example.

The man protecting Zhao Tang on the battlefield was Yue Fei—if he hadn’t delivered such battlefield results, that would have been the real problem.

Recall that in history, Yue Fei was a master of strategy: he could win with fewer troops against superior cavalry, achieving miracles at the battles of Yancheng and Yingchang; he excelled at grand strategic planning, forging a network linking the He Shuo region and leaving the Jin army to lament, “It is easier to shake a mountain than to shake Yue’s army.” His tactics were flexible—ambushes, steadfast defense—always precisely targeting enemy weaknesses and seizing battlefield initiative. In military discipline, he enforced ironclad rules: “Rather freeze than dismantle a house; rather starve than plunder.” This forged Yue’s army into the people’s “Army of Benevolence and Righteousness.” Such cohesion far surpassed ordinary forces; soldiers were willing to die for him, and thus their combat power naturally dwarfed the norm.

Throughout Chinese history, few could combine top-tier tactics, strict discipline, and noble conviction—Yue Fei was one of them.

With Yue Fei fighting for Zhao Tang, how could it be surprising that Zhao Tang achieved repeated battlefield triumphs?

Not just Zhao Tang—among all five women’s sons, and indeed all of Zhao Yu’s sons who had taken the field, each was accompanied by capable generals: among them, future luminaries like Yue Fei, Liu Qi, Yang Yizhong, Niu Gao, and Zhang Xian.

Li Lin, who understood the army and frontline warfare better, knew that although Zhao Yu’s sons appeared impressive, most of them—including Zhao Tang and Zhao Kai—were merely above-average commanders. Their dazzling achievements stemmed not from their own brilliance, but from the exceptional men who guided them.

To proud Li Lin, what was there to be proud of?

So Li Lin ignored Zhang Chun’s rising arrogance and bluntly told Ma Xiao Jiao and Yuan Qing Cheng: “We’ve discovered a new continent—rubber, corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, chili peppers, and sunflowers—all brought back.”

Ma Xiao Jiao and Yuan Qing Cheng were overjoyed!

With rubber trees, the impetus they would give to the Industrial Revolution was nothing short of transformative.

Rubber’s most immediate value lay in its natural advantages of elasticity and sealing. In industrial machinery, transmission joints and pipe seals had long relied on leather or metal—leather wore out quickly, metal was hard to adapt, both remaining bottlenecks limiting machine efficiency.

Rubber products—whether drive belts or sealing gaskets—could withstand high-speed mechanical friction while tightly conforming to interfaces of varying sizes, drastically reducing machine failure rates and enabling steam engines, textile machines, and other core equipment to operate stably and persistently, boosting efficiency manyfold.

More crucially, rubber’s insulating properties laid the foundation for the coming electrical age.

Previously, Song’s electrical wiring had been hampered by poor conductive materials, preventing the development of electrical appliances; though electric lamps and telegraphs had been invented, they remained useless due to wiring issues.

Rubber’s non-conductive nature made it the ideal outer coating for wires, eliminating the danger of current leakage and enabling electricity to be transmitted over long distances through cables—it would inevitably drive electric motors to replace steam engines as the new core power source of industry.

Moreover, rubber’s plasticity would spawn countless new industrial components: shock-absorbing tires, precision gaskets, wear-resistant conveyor belts, flexible hoses—all these rubber-based parts would make machines more compact, run smoother, and vastly expand the applications of industrial equipment.

Put simply, from small-scale items like wooden bicycles, hand carts, textile factory fine-spindle machines, to large-scale ones like automobiles and trains, all would see dramatic performance leaps with the addition of rubber components.

In short, rubber’s arrival was like installing a “shock absorber” and “lubricant” for the Industrial Revolution, allowing this inevitable global technological transformation to advance more smoothly and deeply.

For Ma Xiao Jiao, the leader of the Industrial Revolution, acquiring rubber was like drought-stricken land receiving life-giving rain—her long-held industrial blueprints finally had a foundation to take root.

Ma Xiao Jiao exclaimed excitedly: “With rubber, locomotive braking systems can be upgraded a level, carriage suspension systems can be completely revolutionized, train speed and capacity will double. And wiring—at last we can abandon the layered resin-and-hemp wrapping…”

Ma Xiao Jiao rattled off dozens of uses for rubber, eloquent and unrestrained.

Clearly, acquiring rubber had filled Ma Xiao Jiao with immense joy.

Yuan Qing Cheng was also delighted. Though her efforts had already multiplied Song’s grain yields several times over and enriched its fruits and vegetables, the introduction of corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes held transformative significance for Song’s food security and social stability.

These three crops were drought- and poor-soil tolerant, far more adaptable than traditional rice and wheat—they could take root in northern drylands and mountains, and thrive in southern hills and barren plots, greatly expanding arable land boundaries. In famine years, rice and wheat might fail entirely due to flood or drought, but potatoes and sweet potatoes, buried underground, were highly resilient, serving as the people’s “lifesaving grain.” Their high yields would directly increase total food output; test plantings showed one mu of sweet potatoes could yield several times more than rice or wheat, meaning the same land could feed far more people, fundamentally easing the tension between Song’s growing population and food shortages, reducing displaced refugees and stabilizing household registration, thus providing ample labor for social production.