Chapter 137

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Protagonist:

Song Miao

That minor clerk hurriedly said: "I merely help with odd jobs and running errands; how would I know about these behind-the-scenes matters."

Fearing he would be questioned further, he put down the roster and hurried away.

Only Cai Xiu remained, and the more he pondered, the more he felt something was not right.

Previously, Vice Chancellor Li Zhai had sent someone to retrieve Han Li's writings on water affairs, and according to what the superior said, the writings were mostly alarmist, claiming the Liu Ta He would surely go wrong and bring disaster to the country and people.

At the time he just listened and let it pass, but now seeing that Han Li had gone to Hua Prefecture, he suddenly could not sit still.

Could it be that the Liu Ta He truly has some hidden danger unknown to others?

It shouldn't be!

Cai Xiu hurriedly went to find a trusted aide of that Guan Kou, and inquired indirectly.

Upon hearing this, the other laughed heartily and said: "Most likely it's because Lin Song, Lin Gongshi, disliked him, so he wouldn't let him go!"

This person kindly gave Cai Xiu the inside story, saying: "Li Canzheng retrieved Han Li's writings, and I heard he found several officials to review them; among them was Lin Gongshi — Lin Gongshi was so angry he took up his brush on the spot and refuted point by point; it's said when he came out he even cursed at his attendants, 'How dare a mere stripling!'"

"Your group going to the Liu Ta He, most of you will have to work under Lin Gongshi; with things stirred up like this, it's not impossible that everyone surnamed Han will be implicated; normally they'd have to keep their tails tucked; if Han Li hears even a word of it, it would be strange if he didn't hide."

Cai Xiu had inquired earlier and knew that Lin Song had been in the Du Shui Jian for many years, a recognized expert in water affairs.

After this person finished speaking, he again praised Cai Xiu a bit, then said: "These past few days many people have come looking for Gongshi; whenever yours is mentioned, none fail to praise, all saying you know how to handle affairs!"

Cai Xiu smiled and modestly said: "It's all the officials' overpraise, too much praise, too much praise!"

But in his expression, he was quite pleased with himself.

Getting one person's praise is easy; getting many people's praise is hard.

Since the Liu Ta He is a hot stove, naturally many people will eye it.

Digging canals is hard labor for some, but for others it's a lucrative post.

From material procurement, to conscripting civilian laborers, allocating soldiers, and so on, there is room for manipulation in all of it.

There are also some who can't get a hand in; seeing this place seems easy to gain merit, though unwilling to send their own nephews, they're still willing to use it as a favor.

So ever since Cai Xiu successively received the students' rosters, discovering many among them had marriage ties or connections with the powerful and noble, he has not had a moment's leisure.

He made groupings and arrangements, trying to ensure each group containing a student needing special attention also had several who could help do the work; this way it wouldn't affect progress, nor would it cause those official scions to complain bitterly or file accusations behind backs.

Good deeds naturally cannot be done for nothing.

He inevitably had to privately socialize with everyone, first asking what the other wanted to do; though he didn't reveal what he would do for them, no one is stupid; once the groupings were released early, who wouldn't know the situation behind it.

For a time he won a chorus of praise in that small circle; everyone said this Cai Cai Zi knows how to handle affairs, knows advance and retreat.

Now his reputation has spread back into the Du Shui Jian; in the future it will naturally become another fine stepping stone for himself.

Clearly having figured out the whole story, yet when Cai Xiu walked out of the official residence, his steps were heavier than usual.

By rights, being liked while Han Li is disliked is a beautiful dream come true; he ought to be happy.

For some reason, he clearly felt proud and satisfied in his heart, but that "proud" and "satisfied" kept wavering, and with one careless moment they would spill out, leaving a messy, hard-to-clean-up feeling all over the ground.

The assignment has been taken, the people have been counted, he himself will soon set out; of course he cannot give up such a great opportunity just because of this bit of strange awkwardness.

Moreover, the Chao Zhong allocated so much silver and manpower to repair the Liu Ta He; whether in the Chao Zhong or in the Du Shui Jian, though there are many doubtful voices, even more officials experienced in water affairs came out in strong support, and quite a few powerful nobles placed their disciples and relatives in positions; all this, can it not serve as corroboration?

Thinking this through, Cai Xiu's pace once again became light and quick, and a smile hung on his lips again.

Han Zhengyan, cold bench not comfortable to sit on?

Hehe, you have today too!

Though he cannot order people about, on second thought, when he returns from the Liu Ta He having earned merit, the other still won't know where he's bowing his waist digging earth; that too is another kind of satisfaction!

Cai Xiu acted as leader, and brought along that group of people with some background; naturally he wouldn't be casual about it.

When the day of departure arrived, he specially asked his superior, and requested the Tong Jian Du Shui Jian Cheng to come out and give an admonition to the group of students.

The Du Shui Jian official residence is not large; naturally it cannot accommodate these hundred-odd people.

For a moment everyone gathered by the side of Yu Jie; there were clamorous voices, responding voices, noisy talking voices, attracting commoners on both sides to come watch; upon hearing it was the Du Shui Jian leading students to the Liu Ta He to dig canals, they discussed even more heatedly.

Cai Xiu was skilled at poetry; he had brush and ink prepared, and composed three poems on the spot.

His poems had been prepared early on; who knows how many times he had polished and studied them; they were magnificent and grand, not only depicting today's scene, but also praising the Emperor's sagacity, the Du Shui Jian's capable staff, and the students, especially Taixue students, caring deeply about state affairs — truly the dynasty's fortune.

With such ministers, the Liu Ta He will surely soon be opened, and water disasters completely eliminated.

Not only that, in one of the poems he specially embedded his own name and Han Li's, only saying that once they were both among the Four Sons of Taixue, today the two each go their separate ways, one to the Liu Ta, one to Hua Prefecture; he for digging canals to control water, the other for repairing embankments and dams; though difficulty differs, complexity varies, both are for water affairs, for the common people — how stirring.

Such poems presented, even if quality is mediocre, people outside would still play along; moreover they are indeed written quite well.

Also because Cai Xiu had spent silver and owed favors earlier, privately asking people to help, once these poems were finished they were quickly copied; not only circulated inside Taixue and the Du Shui Jian, but some took them out to various poetry gatherings and literary meetings for appreciation, creating quite a stir.

Scholars in the Capital, few didn't know that Cai Xiu led hundreds of students to the Liu Ta He to serve, while Han Li, originally clearly the foremost of the Four Sons of Taixue, went with only ten-odd people to the ignored Hua Prefecture.

Also spread by Cai Xiu's people in private, so the matter of Han Li having previously written many articles opposing the excavation of the Liu Ta He, even causing the Du Shui Jian's water-affairs specialists to speak up in refutation, slowly spread among students.

Cai Xiu's original intention was to have people compare: both being Four Sons, why is the treatment they receive in the Du Shui Jian so far apart; Han Li is just loud-mouthed, his reputation exceeds his substance, and he often makes sensational claims to grab attention.

At the start, with guidance, it did develop in the direction he hoped; but sometimes, once words spread widely, they often cannot be controlled.

The Capital floods every few days; not to mention Chao Zhong ministers, even old men and children by the roadside, once they start talking, who wouldn't curse a few sentences; moreover students with the idlest mouths — precisely the time when seeing roadside dogs fight, they'd go up and bark along.

The Chao Zhong excavating the Liu Ta He was also a huge uproar at the time, not without opponents; students half-understand, think they understand, and at this moment joined the uproar.

Someone somehow got hold of Han Li's previous water-affairs essays, along with other opponents' essays, and together they argued until heaven and earth darkened over whether the Liu Ta He should be built; they even dragged their own teachers into it and argued another round.

By the end, almost no one remembered what they were arguing for originally, and no one cared about Han or Cai anymore; they only cared about whether they themselves could win the argument.

The group of students bound for Hua Prefecture, blocked by water halfway, naturally still didn't know what had happened in the Capital.

Early the next day, everyone packed up according to the hour, gathered in the shrine hall; inside, large bamboo steamers were already set out — inside the steamers lay nothing but steamed buns.

Meat was hard to come by in the village, but eggs were easy to buy, so Song Miao used eggs to make do.

Those steamed buns had fillings of dried shiitake, carrot, and egg; leek and egg; pork fat mixed with chopped cornelian cherry and lettuce heart; and one with chopped cornelian cherry stir-fried with sour pickled vegetables and egg.

The steamed buns were fragrant where they should be fragrant, sweet where they should be sweet, sour where they should be sour, spicy where they should be spicy; each one had thin skin and generous filling, white and plump.

The most popular filling inside was not leek and egg, but dried shiitake, carrot, and egg.

The shiitake were dried shiitake rehydrated; compared to fresh mushrooms, the fungal flavor was thicker and more fragrant. The eggs were stir-fried extremely fluffy, and wrapped fluffy too; clearly already stir-fried then steamed, yet eating them they were surprisingly still tender and smooth. And because the carrot was cut into suitably sized granules, it was cooked just right — biting down yielded a bit of sweet juice, yet neither too soft nor too hard.

Song Miao also added a bit of dried shrimp skin to lift the umami.

Eating this one steamed bun, although what was eaten was entirely the ingredients' original flavors, because the filling was prepared well, the mushrooms, eggs, carrots, and dried shrimp skin mutually infused and borrowed flavor from each other, making the mushrooms more fresh, the eggs more fragrant, the carrots sweeter, and even the steamed bun skin was soaked a little by the steamed-out soup essence; the soaked red parts of the carrot were particularly fragrant and sweet.

For breakfast Song Miao paired it with rice tea.

Taking rice and stir-frying it, no oil added, stir-fried to a scorched yellow color, then directly boiled with water; drinking it the scorched rice aroma was very strong, faintly sweet, faintly astringent, but not bitter at all, very flavorful.

After eating the steamed buns, at the side there were also dried lotus leaf wrapped ren tou bing.

Large sheets stacked in the bamboo basket, and also individually lotus leaf wrapped dishes placed in a food box with hot charcoal: egg stir-fried sour pickled vegetables, chopped cornelian cherry stir-fried carrot threads, vegetarian stir-fried shiitake threads — for everyone to take at noon to eat with the bing.

The group slept their fill, ate their fill, and set out to survey; moreover Han Li taught each one by one, guiding them one by one to do it, so not even a reason to slack off could be found.

Busy until noon, they found a few stones, laid down oil paper, and sat down to eat.

The bing had gone cold, yet was still very soft; eating it, it was still chewy. Cold bing sandwiching hot dishes made the bing become warm, and the dishes not so hot either, so they could eat in big mouthfuls. Originally delicious, and being hungry made it even more delicious, full of flavor.

Returning in the evening, the staple was rice, but as soon as they sat down, seeing that large basin of fragrant fried fish pieces brought up, everyone forgot about eating rice, each person scrambling to grab fish pieces first.

The fish pieces were coated in flour paste and fried; just out of the wok, the outer skin was extremely crisp, a thin layer, one bite gave a "crack" sound.

The hot oil forced the fish's fat out, wrapped inside the shell, still scorching hot, extremely fresh and fragrant; especially when eating the belly meat, the fattest part of the belly, one could bite out oil juice, especially delicious, also with a bit of glutinous texture; the fish back was very firm and dry-fragrant.

These fish pieces were completely fried through, the whole body fragrant, salty-fresh-spicy, very well removed the muddy taste of grass carp — not only the meat, even the bones could be chewed and eaten — especially the tail bones, both crisp and fragrant.

Rice not yet eaten, a group of people finished off a basin of fragrant fried fish pieces.

For a moment everyone was full; they packed up their things, just about to each return to their rooms, when Lu Wenming was suddenly called to a stop by someone.

He turned his head to look, only to discover it was actually Kong Fuyang.

"Zheng Yan wants to find you to sit a while."

The other students all left, leaving only himself alone; clearly the seat he sat in was the same as just now, the person coming opposite was also someone he had interacted with daily recently, actually more than twenty years younger than himself, a student, but very strange — in Lu Wenming's heart there was a bit of constraint.

Han Li placed a stack of papers on the desk, and then cut straight to the chase: "Today delaying Brother Lu a moment, there are a few places I want to ask for advice."

Finished speaking, he faced the content on those papers, asking one by one.

What was asked included calculation methods, also specific practices, and also certain characters on the original record sheets.

Although Lu Wenming did not know the other party's purpose, he still answered all of them seriously.

Then he heard that Han Li say: "There is one matter I want to trouble Brother Lu with — right now manpower is insufficient; during daytime surveying, I want to divide people into three groups: I lead one group, Kong Fuyang leads one group, and Brother Lu also leads one group; I wonder what you think?"

Lu Wenming subconsciously shook his head, smiled bitterly and said: "Head Han sees that I, Lu Wenming, have the oldest qualifications, so he entrusts this matter to me? Actually no need to mind this; although I am older in years and of mediocre aptitude, whether surveying or calculation speed, I cannot compare to those young people; better to call someone who can actually hold this position."

Han Li shook his head and said: "Not because of qualifications."

He pointed at that stack of pages, and said: "I have followed along for several days straight; Brother Lu is the only one who would measure the same point four times to take the average, one more time than my instructions, and your verification calculations are the most accurate, almost never making a mistake; although speed is not as fast as others, surveying is originally not about seeking speed — you are willing to use two algorithms to verify the flow path, you already deserve this position."

And said: "You conduct yourself steady and even, unhurried; encountering others who don't understand, you are also willing to patiently teach — so many benefits, what does that have to do with qualifications?"

Seeing Han Li enumerate those merits one by one, all were things he himself had quietly done in daily routine over nearly ten years, originally just habitual conduct, never thinking someone would notice them.

But only now did he know, turns out being noticed by someone, and spoken out loud, that indescribable emotion in his heart would inexplicably turn into sour-salty liquid, wanting to surge out from his eyes.

He still wanted to say a few polite words, but before the words left his mouth, his nose was already faintly sore; hurriedly as if covering up, he turned his body sideways, coughed twice, pretended to cover his mouth with his hand, but actually used his sleeve to randomly wipe at those unpromising eyes.

In the end Lu Wenming still accepted this group leader position.

Only he couldn't help asking: "We are only going to help Hua Prefecture repair the embankment and dam; this journey of surveying, what is it for?"

Han Li said: "Does Brother Lu know Wang Jinghe?"

Lu Wenming nodded.

Han Li said: "Repairing the embankment is only a stopgap measure; even if repaired well, according to this year's water momentum, waiting until the summer flood season, eight or nine out of ten the river embankment will still collapse — but this time the Yellow River changes course, precisely toward Hua Prefecture's northwest direction; among them one larger tributary is only four li from the western section tributary of Wang Jinghe."

"The Yellow River has changed course several times; Wang Jinghe has been repeatedly used and abandoned; since the last time it carried water has been over eighty years, but the river channel remains, the canals also remain; in its eight hundred plus years of construction, preservation, and restoration, the Yellow River on this route rarely flooded; even if the embankment breached, its momentum was controllable."

He said: "I have already persuaded Inspector Cen and the Wu Gong sent by the Du Shui Jian this time — we will dig it through."

Clearly just one sentence, but as Lu Wenming listened, he only felt his whole body feverish and unbearable, blood hot and uncomfortable, hating that he couldn't immediately go dig the river.

This is a light-hearted story; for the sake of plot satisfaction I'll do anything, so I hope everyone doesn't bring their brains to fact-check, otherwise you really might not be able to keep reading; it's just a down-to-eat-with-rice read, not to be taken as real.