Chapter 31: The Unfruitful Inquiry

Fusu accompanied Gao to the outside of the house, watched him board the carriage, and saw him return under the escort of a troop of soldiers, then asked with a frown, "Does Gao live at Shangyan Mountain?"

Tian An reported, "Prince Gao lives in the palace; he studies at Shangyan Mountain during the day and returns to the palace at night."

Watching the carriage travel further and further away, Fusu glanced toward the riverbed, where the croaking of frogs rose and fell in succession.

The next morning, as soon as the sun emerged, the scorching heat rushed toward them; Jian Lu was leading a team, pulling cart after cart of timber to the riverside.

Fusu stood by the river and saw the laborers holding small wooden mallets in their hands, hammering at the wooden planks of the bridge deck.

They used the tenon and mortise structure to secure the planks; although it could not be called seamless, it was very sturdy.

This Xianyang Bridge, besides facilitating the two banks of the Wei River, was also to be used for the passage of troops and horses and the transport of grain and fodder, so the bridge deck was thirty-seven feet wide, capable of accommodating five warhorses passing side by side.

It spanned the two banks of the West Wei River, with a length of one thousand two hundred feet.

This great bridge was, to date, the largest bridge on the two banks of the Wei River.

Great Qin had unified the world and naturally adopted a fearless attitude; when building a bridge, one must choose the most critical location, use the best timber, and construct the most beautiful bridge.

Fusu was very satisfied with Jian Lu's design; although he had merely named it Xianyang Bridge, in later generations, it was originally called Xianyang Bridge anyway, so how could it not be pleasing?

In his spare time, Fusu would read the military reports sent by Zhang Han; as the general overseeing the construction of the Shangyan Mountain canal, he was as dutiful as ever, reporting every detail daily, as well as the progress of excavating the canal and the shafts.

Great Qin was still a very classical business environment; even the people of the present day were mostly in a state of barter, and grain was the most trustworthy medium of exchange.

Fusu watched the laborers diligently hammering at the bridge deck; in another three months, a beautiful Xianyang Bridge would be born from their hands.

The laborers held the wooden mallets in their hands, hammering again and again; as the sun climbed higher and the weather grew hotter, beads of sweat as large as beans dripped one after another onto the newly repaired bridge deck.

Fusu saw a Shefu run quickly toward Zhang Cang; upon reaching him, he said in a fluster, "Reporting to the Prefect of the Works Office, there are a few people who refuse to tie their safety ropes."

The construction requirements were set by Prince Fusu; everyone who went onto the bridge to lay the deck had to tie a thick hemp rope around their waist to ensure safety.

It was currently the rising period of the Wei River; with such a wide river surface, once one fell into the river, it would be too late to save them.

Hearing this, Zhang Cang said with a stern expression, "Pick those people out and fine them one day's wages."

The Shefu ran off quickly to give the order.

The position of Shefu had always been a link closer to the grassroots in the state governance system, and in this Great Qin, which was currently carrying out centralized rule, the Shefu still played a very important role; the Shefu of a county usually knew the population distribution of a place, how many were in their prime, how many were young, and how many were elderly.

Among the Shefu, some were responsible for mobilizing laborers, some for managing horses, or for overseeing households in various counties and pavilions that possessed weapons.

Thus, if anything happened, or if someone died, or even if there was a private feud, these Shefu could provide information to the government at the first opportunity.

Generally, these Shefu were most involved in matters related to construction and corvée labor.

They were also the practitioners of the concept in Qin law of "taking law as the teaching and officials as the teachers."

Fusu stood on the side, watching his teacher Zhang Cang give instructions to this Shefu.

Consequently, the few people who did not tie their safety ropes were fined one day's worth of grain.

Fusu felt the various troubles people encountered in the process of implementing Qin law, and these troubles were also being resolved one by one, item by item, under Zhang Cang's methodical arrangements.

Originally, Zhang Cang was a Censor of Great Qin and was a great talent; using him to manage this construction project of several hundred people was indeed using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

In the evening, a thunderstorm began; the rain fell in response, and one could see the current of the Wei River becoming increasingly turbulent and the water level rising higher and higher.

By the bridge, it was monotonous for the vast majority of the time.

Fusu heard that Gao had truly persuaded Shusun Tong, allowing Gao to attend lectures with the children of the servants and to live at Shangyan Mountain.

His original intention was for this younger brother to be able to stand on his own feet early; he was indeed very sensible and was doing very well.

The only interesting thing was that Wang Bi would occasionally bring a group of beauties, and everyone could listen to the sound of silk and bamboo instruments while drinking wine, eating meat, and watching the beauties dance.

Fusu remembered that on the day they were watching the beauties dance and drinking wine, his teacher Zhang Cang had once said that Mao Heng was a man who loved beauties and fine wine the most.

It was just that now Mao Heng could only eat flatbread and teach at Shangyan Mountain; he probably could not see beauties or drink fine wine.

After the eighth month, he did not see Wang Bi come to check on the Xianyang Bridge project again; perhaps there were more important matters in the imperial court that needed to be handled, and he heard this matter was related to the south.

Fusu could only let Tian An find out some fragmented news and did not know the full picture of the matter.

When the fun was gone, people were weary of this long summer, hoping that this long and scorching summer would leave sooner.

And the bridge construction project was a matter that required extreme patience; it could not be accomplished overnight and could only be built step by step, down to earth.

Fusu thought of Meng Tian, who was still building the Great Wall in the north; he likely had similar thoughts.

Fusu fanned himself with a cattail-leaf fan, sitting alone under the eaves, looking at the book in his hand; hearing the sound of wooden mallets hammering on the planks on the bridge, his heart felt at ease.

This meant the laborers were all working hard; one could even tell if they were more diligent or slacking today by listening to whether the sound of the hammers was dense.

The laborers' sweat soaked the bridge deck that had just been hammered flat; someone stepped on a plank soaked with sweat, slipped, and fell to one side.

The bridge deck on one side had not been paved well, and he fell off the bridge.

Fusu heard the exclamation, moved his gaze away from the book in his hand, and looked up to see a person hanging under the bridge, very close to the water surface; the thick hemp rope around his waist had saved his life.

Then, one after another, Shefu walked toward the bridge.

The person hanging under the bridge was pulled back onto the bridge bit by bit, and Fusu withdrew his gaze and continued reading the book in his hand.

Jian Lu came in a hurry to report, "Prince, the person has been pulled up, he is unharmed."

Fusu instructed, "Safety aspects must be strict."

"Your subject obeys."

Tian An was in the back, washing celery for the Prince and preparing the day's meal; he said in a low voice, "Prince, General Zhang Han sent someone to say that the mulberry trees at the foot of the mountain are growing very well; in the future, these mulberry trees should all be planted by the riverside, and the mulberries they bear will be black and sweet."

Hearing this, Fusu nodded, changed to a different scroll of Bamboo Slip, and continued reading.

When the hammering on the bridge deck stopped, the laborers finally ended their half-day of toil; they gathered in twos and threes and left the bridge deck.

The perilous incident that happened today became a topic of conversation for the laborers.

Fusu continued to look at the book in his hand; this scroll came from the Lushi Spring and Autumn Annals and was brought from the library among Lv Buwei's legacy, which contained many theories of the Hundred Schools of Thought, and what he was reading at the moment was agricultural science.

In the Lushi Spring and Autumn Annals, there were also detailed descriptions of agricultural affairs; the chapters on "Appointing Land" and "Distinguishing Soil" recorded information about crops in the lands of the various states.

Among them were records of the Shu region, that granary, and the black soil of Liaodong.

Fusu looked while picking up the writing brush placed to the side, recording carefully.

Adhering to the preparation of doing what one reads about, Fusu cleared a piece of land by the river and planted a type of millet; this millet was sown in the sixth month and could be harvested by the tenth month.

Fusu held a book in one hand and came to the edge of the field he had cleared himself; ignoring the scorching sun overhead, he looked at the millet he had planted.

The millet grown from this type of grain was also a pale yellow, discovered in the west at Hexi; this type of millet generally grows in river valleys.

Fusu crushed the outer husk of the grain to obtain a single millet seed; the grain was very small, smaller even than the millet of Guanzhong.

Although the harvest was not good, Fusu was not discouraged.

Grain has always been the foundation of a state; this could be seen from the era of the warring states. The Lushi Spring and Autumn Annals records that Guan Zhong advocated for enriching the state and strengthening the military, making a great issue of grain to annex small states one by one; these words and deeds of Guan Zhong were also the main tenets of the Legalist school in Qi.

In fact, the Legalists of this world were not limited to Qin; as early as the time of Shang Jun, there was a Legalist school, and they were scattered among the various states.

By the end of the eighth month in Guanzhong, the various counties of Guanzhong had begun to harvest grain one after another.

Zhang Cang let the able-bodied laborers go back, leaving behind several dozen elderly men who still had strength to continue repairing the bridge deck.

As for the remaining matters, there was no need for this Prince of Great Qin to worry; Fusu felt that he did not need to participate in the rest, and that Zhang Cang would implement the construction standards he had formulated very well.

When he was idle, Fusu had the leisure to study crops; after researching for more than a month, apart from planting some millet, it could be said he had gained nothing—truly, he had gained nothing.

Because there were not many grain seeds that could be found in Guanzhong.

Tian An saw the Prince sitting by the river, the Prince's expression showing much disappointment and frustration; he stepped forward and said, "Prince, Nanjun is going to build a highway."

Fusu nodded slightly, paying no heed.

Tian An stood to one side and said no more.

With the laborers suddenly leaving in large numbers, the burden on Zhang Cang was much lighter; he sat on the bridge deck, looking at the article he had written the previous night.

The Prince had once heard that during the era of the warring states, the population would sometimes plummet while the land always remained the same; if all the arable land in the world were divided equally, how many mu of land would each person get at minimum?

Zhang Cang remembered his answer to the Prince at that time; the initial answer was that land could not be divided equally, for first the land belonged to the sovereign, then to the nobles, then to the scholar-officials, and finally to the Commoners.

Therefore, equal distribution of land was an impossible thing.

Later, the Prince used the County System as a condition to ask questions, which led to the Prince's subsequent inquiries: namely, how many people could the County System and the Feudal System each support?

Great Qin annexed the Six States, obtained the wealth and land of the Six States, eliminated so many nobles, and caused the sovereigns of various states to lose their land; after implementing the County System, could it support a larger population than the Feudal System period of the various states?

Zhang Cang wrote an article, providing a brief question and answer.

After thinking it over repeatedly, Zhang Cang put down the Bamboo Slip in his hand, always feeling that many conditions were missing, such as how to farm, how to distribute land taxes, and how to divide the fields.

A big problem often leads to many small problems.

Regarding this question raised by the Prince, Zhang Cang had been thinking about it for half a year, from last year until now.

Half a year had passed, and Zhang Cang still had not obtained an answer that satisfied him.

Looking into the distance, Zhang Cang saw the Prince holding a stalk of wheat and observing it.

By the ninth month in Guanzhong, laborers had returned one after another; the construction of Xianyang Bridge was finally to resume. The main body of the bridge was finished, and the rest was fine work on the bridge; it did not require as many hands as before.

As the Director of the Office of Works, Zhang Cang could mobilize craftsmen, so he brought a team of craftsmen from the palace to the side of Xianyang Bridge.

Fusu discovered that he had grown taller again; the clothes from last year were a bit short on him.

Tian An looked at him and said, "I shall have new clothes made in the palace."

Fusu did not mind; the clothes were originally loose, so they did not restrict his movements when worn. He stepped forward and said, "Teacher, how are things at court?"

Zhang Cang smiled and replied, "Everything is well at court; there is a great harvest in Guanzhong this year."

Fusu said, "That is wonderful; with this year's harvest, I can finally breathe a sigh of relief."

Zhang Cang hesitated and said, "I did hear of one thing."

Seeing his teacher's poor expression, Fusu asked, "What is it?"

"The Hundred Yue."

Zhang Cang said the two words briefly, and Fusu fell silent.

Zhang Cang explained further, "During the Court Discussion today, there was debate in the court and among the public over whether to launch a southern expedition against the Hundred Yue; I only heard of it."

Fusu said, "The court and the public will likely continue to debate it."

Zhang Cang nodded, "Prince, there are Xiongnu harassing the border in the north, and the south is not actually secure. The Prime Minister is still pushing for the Standardization of Writing, and at this time the court and public are arguing endlessly; some say we can take the five hundred thousand convicts of the Six States to the south to garrison the border and reclaim land."

Looking at what was before him, Fusu said again, "Let us focus on repairing the bridge for now."

Zhang Cang bowed and said, "I accept the order."

At Shangyan Mountain, the current Shusun Tong had changed from the Confucian Scholar attire he wore when he first arrived in Qin; now, he spoke with a thick Guanzhong accent. After this year's harvest, the granaries in every county were very full.

Especially when seeing the storehouses of Shangyan Mountain filled to the brim with grain, Shusun Tong laughed until tears were about to come out.

The river canal had been dug for nearly a hundred miles, irrigating hundreds of qing of land; even though only a small half was completed, it had already turned large tracts of dry land into fertile fields.

Shusun Tong had been here for a year; this year he witnessed people laboring to dig the canal, witnessed wasteland becoming fertile fields, and he was truly very happy at this moment.

Li You had been digging vertical shafts here for a year; he had participated in the excavation of fifteen vertical shafts along the river canal.

Li You wore coarse hemp clothes, sat on the side with bare feet, his whole person had turned dark, and calluses had grown on the webbing between his thumbs and index fingers; he was talking and laughing with an old man.

As they were talking, a court official hurried over, found Li You, and said loudly, "The Prime Minister requests the Commandant to return home."

Hearing this, Li You straightened his clothes and said, "I thought my father had forgotten me."

Seeing Li You stand up, the official subconsciously took a step back; he suddenly felt that this Li You had grown much taller, and even his bearing when speaking was different from before.

Li You patted the dust off his body and, under the official's surprised gaze, returned to Xianyang just like that.

(End of chapter)