Chapter 12: The Doctor of Qi and Lu

Recently, a new type of food has appeared at the foot of Shangyan Mountain: a very large flatbread. A single piece of this bread is as large as a wooden laundry basin, and a person with a normal appetite can eat it for four or five days.

A family of four can get through two meals by eating just one piece of this bread.

Fusu discovered that ever since he created this bread, it had become the food the household servants were most enthusiastic about.

If they could eat their fill, it could be considered a guarantee that their own household property was perfectly secure.

Every person is a precious productive force.

These days, Fusu occasionally asks about the farming techniques of the Old Qin People.

The autumn rains have passed, and both the summer and autumn harvests have concluded, so idlers with nothing to do have appeared in Guanzhong once again.

In particular, there are more idlers around Shangyan Mountain than elsewhere; these idlers all want to find some work here, helping to transport soil or dig a canal.

The weather has turned to winter, and every household is worried that their own grain will not be enough to eat; wanting to find some work to trade for more grain is natural, as not everyone has sufficient grain.

The manpower Zhang Han wants is not great; he only wants those with great strength who also require little grain, and they must have the identification issued by the county magistrate. Only after their identities are verified will they be given grain after working.

And Zhang Han selects the manpower himself; he even inspects whether the newcomers are sturdy or not, and he also checks their teeth. Watching for too long makes people feel quite uncomfortable.

Zhang Han picks people as if he were picking livestock.

Fusu turns his head away to avoid looking at him, holding a brush and recording on a Bamboo Slip; what he records are matters of agriculture, diet, climate, and soil.

Fusu feels that he could also write a book like Jia Sixie; how rare is the *Essential Techniques of the Common People* authored by Jia Sixie.

Then, in the present day, could one also write a volume of a book?

It would be useful in any case; it would be good if people's meals were a bit more abundant.

The brush in Fusu's hand does not stop, and he continues to write.

Tian An is an old man with very strong practical skills, not just in making furniture and daily necessities, but also in his level of cooking.

He learned the technique of kneading dough as soon as he was taught; it is likely because Tian An was a Qi person in his youth that he was familiar with rice and flour foods from a young age, so after slightly changing the dough-kneading technique, he mastered it very quickly.

At this moment, Tian An is teaching several old women how to knead dough; if someone does it wrong, he will scold them.

Although Tian An is an old Attendant, he is tall and sturdy; just standing there, he possesses quite a bit of majesty.

In the palace, Tian An used to arrange for the servants of Gaoquan Palace to do things, so when facing these people, he also possesses an air of dignity that commands respect without anger, making these household servants listen and obey.

On the third day after Li You returned home, this man came back again; this time, it was not just him who came to Shangyan Mountain.

Following Li You to this place were two middle-aged men, one fat and one thin.

Li You introduced them: "Prince, these two are Doctors of Confucianism who have entered the court by the Emperor's decree."

"Your subject Shusun Tong, having long heard of the Prince's virtuous name, has come specifically to pay a visit."

Fusu bows in return.

The other man also bows and says: "This old man has entered Qin by the decree of the First Emperor; having heard of the Prince's deeds, I have come specifically to pay a visit."

Because there is no manor here, Fusu can only set up a banquet beside the newly excavated canal.

It is just that the household servants here do not have pleasant expressions when they see the guests; if they were laborers doing hard work, that would be one thing, as those people would not eat grain for free.

But guests are different; they eat and leave, and once they leave, they will come again.

Among the household servants is a little girl named Nuer; this name was given to her by Tian An, and the girl is probably only nine years old.

Tian An likes her very much, so he adopted her as his granddaughter to raise.

"Nuer" is a term for a little cat, and this girl is as agile and clever as a little cat.

In daily life, Tian An calls her Nuer.

Even in the palace, there were not many people who could gain Tian An's appreciation.

Now, Nuer places a bowl of dough slices and a bowl of pickled radishes on the guests' table, and then she stands not far away, holding a small wooden basin with a very displeased expression.

Every time those three guests eat an extra mouthful of grain, Nuer purses her lips, feeling that much more distressed.

Li You ate a satisfying meal, still chewing on a pickled radish, and said: "I don't know why, but ever since I went back, I have constantly been thinking of the Prince's food."

After speaking, the bread and vegetables on the table were all finished, and even that large bowl of dough slices was not left over.

As for the two Doctors, one of them looks much older; this person's temples are already white, and there are quite a few white hairs among his beard and hair.

"Your subject has reached such an age that there is not much I can eat." He bows and says: "Your subject Fu Sheng; it was Chunyu Yue who persuaded this old man to come and pay a visit to the Prince, and then I met the Prime Minister's son who introduced me, so I have come to intrude."

Shusun Tong looks fatter and slightly shorter.

Fu Sheng looks taller and thinner.

Both of these men are people of considerable reputation in the Confucian academic circle, otherwise Li You would not value them so much.

Since Li You values them, then his teacher values them as well, especially the influence of these two.

Behind these two are a large group of famous scholars and students from Qi and Lu.

Fu Sheng strokes his beard and asks: "I have long heard that the Prince is fond of learning and likes to read books."

Now that Qin has unified the Six States, this world is all Qin's territory; the First Emperor has accomplished an extraordinary feat.

Since the beginning of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, a task that no one had managed to complete in five hundred years has been completed by Qin.

Therefore, the Great Qin of today has the greatest influence on the world, and the First Emperor's eldest son—that is, I, this Prince Fusu—naturally receives much attention due to the status of being a Prince of Qin.

As well as the love of reading books, and what books one loves to read.

Moreover, discussing the Prince of Qin has likely become a topic of conversation for the old nobility of the Six States after tea and meals.

Only they, who were once the highest class, would be concerned with such topics.

From starting to love reading the books of Han Fei, to taking the Prime Minister Li Si as a teacher, and all that has happened over the past half year, perhaps Fusu's reputation has been spreading for a long time.

That Wang Wan who left Xianyang; after this person left, he traveled everywhere, whether to cry and complain or to celebrate surviving a disaster.

How Li Si is, how Prince Fusu is—through Wang Wan, this has already reached the ears of many people.

Fusu collects his thoughts, pours a bowl of hot tea, and says: "In daily life, I read some books; I have dabbled in the books of the various masters."

There is no help for it; in this monotonous and joyless life of the Qin people, reading is a very rare pastime; in any case, Xianyang Palace has an endless supply of books to read.

Fu Sheng's gaze turns to the side of the table, where a scroll of Bamboo Slip is placed; when the Prince came to meet them, he was holding this scroll of Bamboo Slip to perform a bow.

Facing a Prince of Qin, as a famous Confucian scholar from Qi and Lu, Fu Sheng still had vigilance in his eyes and would not say too much to the Prince; coming to Xianyang to face the First Emperor, he also held back, for not many of the Hundred Schools of Thought from those years had survived the wars to the present day.

There were only these few families of the descendants of the Hundred Schools still active across the world, and the fear was that the First Emperor would kill a few more.

Fu Sheng asked, "May this old man be permitted to look at this scroll of the Prince's?"

Fusu handed over the Bamboo Slip and said, "These are just notes written in daily life."

Tian An looked at the two famous Confucian scholars with a smile on his face and added, "The Prince has a habit of writing notes whenever he reads."

Fu Sheng looked at the content on the notes, his expression shifting between confusion and relief.

Shusun Tong also very much wanted to see what the notes written by the Prince of Qin would be like, but the three of them were sitting side by side with Li You wedged in the middle, so he could not see them at all.

Fu Sheng looked very carefully and very slowly, even being able to hear the sound of the Bamboo Slip slowly unrolling in his hands.

Afterwards, this old man put this scroll of Bamboo Slip away, bowed, and said, "Prince, could this old subject take this book back to my residence in Xianyang and return it to the Prince tomorrow?"

Fusu stood up and said, "No matter."

Fu Sheng bowed in salute and then turned and left.

Having only eaten a few bites of food and said barely two sentences, this Fu Sheng was leaving as soon as he said he would; Shusun Tong said, "Oh, I just remembered there are still relatives in Xianyang that need to be visited."

Fusu understood the other's meaning and replied knowingly, "The old gentleman may come again whenever he wishes."

Shusun Tong looked the Prince of Great Qin up and down, then nodded slowly and turned to follow in Fu Sheng's footsteps.

After the two had walked far away, Li You said, "Prince, why not take these two as guest ministers?"

Fusu said, "These two old gentlemen are clearly extraordinary figures."

Li You lowered his voice and leaned in, saying, "Prince, that Fu Sheng is a descendant of a disciple of Confucius and has quite a reputation in the Qi and Lu regions; furthermore, Shusun Tong is a disciple of Kong Fu."

Fusu had heard of this man Kong Fu; he was the eighth-generation grandson of Confucius, a living descendant of the old master Confucius himself.

The Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods had only passed for five hundred years or so, and the descendants of the old master Confucius were still alive to this day.

Li You sighed, "Originally, my father wanted to invite Kong Fu to enter Qin, but Kong Fu was unwilling, yet he let his disciple Shusun Tong come to Qin."

Of the Doctors from the Six States who have come to Qin now, Fusu has heard of four: Chunyu Yue, Zhou Qingchen, Fu Sheng, and Shusun Tong.

Fusu said, "Are you not going to escort these two Doctors back to Xianyang?"

Li You grinned and said, "There is one more person coming today."

"Who?"

No sooner had the words fallen than the sound of horse hooves was heard approaching from afar; the person arriving was wearing Qin Army armor and reined in the horse upon reaching them.

Likely because the ride was too hurried, Fusu saw that the horse's belly still had quite a bit of dried mud, and looking at the person before him, it was none other than the Minister of the Lesser Treasury Wang Bi, who had left Xianyang with Li You and had only now returned.

Flipping off the horse, Wang Bi reached out and slapped Li You heavily on the back.

This caused Li You to let out a miserable cry.

The current Li You was very thin and weak; being slapped like that, he let out a miserable cry on the spot and then leaned against a nearby tree, coughing.

Wang Bi said with displeasure, "How did you end up in this state?"

Li You stepped back two paces and said, "You have the smell of blood on you."

Wang Bi raised his arm and sniffed carefully, smelling it thoroughly, then added, "This general brought some wine from Nanjun to offer to the Prince."

Wine is very valuable nowadays; the economic behavior of people in this era is very primitive, and a jar of wine can be exchanged for quite a bit of grain.

Fusu was very happy to let Tian An take some men to move the wine jars down from the carriage and store them all in the storeroom.

Wealth is accumulated bit by bit; grain and population are also part of wealth.

As the wine was poured into a bowl, Wang Bi first gulped down a large mouthful and said, "The affairs in Nanjun are finally settled."

Li You was already somewhat drunk after drinking three large bowls; he whispered, "Prince, actually, I didn't save anyone in Shangjun either; I don't know how to save people, and I don't know how to treat illnesses. Actually, I am the same as Wang Bi; neither of us is any better than the other."

With the alcohol going to his head, Li You's expression was pained, likely recalling the various events in Shangjun again; he whispered, "You, Wang Bi, kill people, and I, Li You, bury people; both are dirty and tiring jobs."

Before long, Wang Bi was drunk and returned to Xianyang City.

Fusu looked at the drunken Li You and saw that night had fallen, with the cold wind still howling outside, so he could only stay behind to look after him.

"Prince, this was cooked by Grandpa Tian."

A bowl of cooked mutton soup was placed in front of him, steaming hot.

Fusu said, "Nuer, do you have a dream?"

Nuer frowned and said, "What is a dream?"

"It is the thing you want."

She smiled and squinted her eyes, saying, "Father and Mother often say, if only there were endless grain to eat, and a very, very big home; since the Prince came, we have been able to eat our fill, and Nuer wants..."

Her words paused, and she added, "Wants the Prince to never die."

Fusu smiled and said, "Go home and rest early."

The girl hummed a little tune as she left.

This small hut could not be considered a mansion; it could only hold a bookshelf, a desk, and a stove, but being able to shelter from the wind and rain was already very good.

Li You's snoring rose and fell.

Fusu thought of Nuer's words; most likely, at her age, she had already seen much death, and she felt that once people died, they would never return.

Taking a scroll of Bamboo Slip from the bookshelf, Fusu sat by the oil lamp and began to write his notes; these displayed notes were equivalent to a report investigating the livelihood of the people in Guanzhong.

The vast majority of farming households in Guanzhong had fields to till, and basically every household had one or two able-bodied men in the army.

The family structure of Guanzhong farming households was not complex; each household had as few as one or two people, and as many as ten or more. These family conditions were observed starting from the time of Spring Ploughing.

Most of them took the family as a unit, with each family tilling five or more than ten mu of land.

For example, if a family had three brothers, each with a wife and children, then a family of ten or more people was also a common occurrence.

Fusu had become accustomed to this kind of observation; observation requires meticulous detail and patience.

To see if the current people of Qin were living according to the laws of harvesting in autumn and storing in winter, or what their daily routines were.

Even if the results were minimal, Fusu felt that only this kind of down-to-earth work would yield the most precious harvest.

Ever since the Zheng Guo Canal was opened, the hundreds of li of fields along the northwest line had become fertile soil; the population of Guanzhong was actually not desolate, yet the cultivated land was still insufficient.

It was not until daybreak that Fusu realized, without noticing, that an entire night had passed.

Tian An, despite his advanced age, had remained standing inside the room the whole time; it was likely he was already accustomed to sleeping while standing, able to fall asleep with his back leaning slightly against the wall.

Fusu stood up and had only taken two steps when Tian An woke up; he looked around and said, "It is dawn, Prince, it is time to wash."

Fusu said, "Pack up and we shall return to the palace."

Half an hour later, Tian An had already prepared the carriage for the return to the palace, and Fusu saw that Li You was no longer in the room.

The notes that Fu Sheng had taken earlier were part of the livelihood survey, and Fusu had waited here for the better part of the day without seeing anyone return the notes.

Could it be that a famous scholar and great Confucian would break his word? He would not want to lend them out again in the future.

(End of this chapter)