Chapter 33: Soilless Soil: Solving the Fatal Flaw of Past Dynasties

The Great Han, Weiyang Palace.

Liu Che turned to look at Wei Qing: "Grand General!"

"You often say that when marching beyond the pass, provisions must precede the troops."

"With cattle and horses carrying grain, half is lost before reaching the halfway point."

"The Great Han's iron cavalry is often forced to retreat due to a lack of supplies."

Wei Qing stepped forward, knelt on one knee, and his eyes shone with light.

"Your Majesty!"

"If we can master this technique, every time the army captures a city, we can build houses and plant grain right there."

"No need for transport from a thousand li behind."

"The Great Han's military edge can then extend infinitely northward!"

Liu Che paced back and forth within the hall.

The north of the pass is bitterly cold; in these desolate lands, not a blade of grass grows.

Yet the iron house in the Sky Screen managed to grow grain right in a snow pit.

"Excellent!"

"Minister of the Household, empty the National Treasury and have me figure out these glazed ware houses and the water-cultivation method."

"I want the Great Han's granaries to be built wherever the army goes."

The Great Tang, Taiji Palace.

Li Shimin knew better than anyone where the fatal flaw of feudal dynasties lay.

Natural disasters.

Great droughts, great floods, great cold.

In the early years of Zhenguan, the world had just been stabilized.

Guanzhong suffered consecutive years of great drought, with locust swarms blocking out the sun.

Li Shimin once personally swallowed live locusts, praying to Heaven for rain.

He knew better than anyone that beneath that dragon throne lay the starving corpses of countless refugees.

When the climate changes, the fields yield nothing.

Refugees sell their sons and daughters; if anyone raises a hand and calls out, the Great Tang's realm will turn to scorched earth in an instant.

The lifeline of a feudal dynasty hangs on Heaven's whims of sun and cloud, wax and wane.

But the youth in the Sky Screen pierced through the solution to the deadlock with just a few words.

In the extreme cold where water freezes into ice, in the boundless starry void beyond the sky, grain can be grown.

As long as one masters light, water, and fertilizer, even deserts can become granaries.

A near-mad obsession burst forth in the depths of the emperor's eyes.

"Minister of Works!"

The Minister of Works scrambled out of the ranks, rolling and crawling.

"Your servant is here!"

"Immediately designate a plot of empty land within the imperial gardens!"

"Send swift horses to the kilns outside the city and transport all the transparent Glazed Ware fired in the last two days into the palace."

"Build wooden frames, lay mud walls, and construct a glazed ware house for me that lets light through on all four sides."

The Minister of Works sweated like rain, his mind racing.

"Your Majesty, Glazed Ware lets light through, but in winter water freezes into ice; how will the plants inside survive the severe cold?"

"Foolish!" Li Shimin kicked the Minister of Works on the shoulder, "Did you not see the Sky Screen say that the room has heating?"

"The Great Tang has no heating, but the Great Tang has heated brick beds!"

Li Shimin pointed north.

"Dig tunnels beneath the glazed ware house for me and lay out heated brick beds."

"Stuff them with firewood; do not let them stop for twelve hours, and bake the ground beneath the room until it radiates the scorching heat of the dog days!"

The Minister got up and kowtowed repeatedly.

"Then... how will roots take hold without soil?"

Li Shimin's eyes were bloodshot, the extreme excitement of having pierced through the national fate's deadlock.

"Idiot, use large wooden basins! Use ceramic jars!"

"Go find veteran farmers, dig up rotting leaves in the woods, and fetch manure water from the latrines."

"Mix it with well water and prepare the most fertile juice for me."

"Fill the wooden basins and suspend the vegetable seedlings' roots above the juice!"

"I give you a deadline of three months."

"Before winter sets in, this Glazed Ware warm room must be completed!"

"When the winter snow falls heavily, I will invite the entire court to taste summer melons and fruits grown by the Great Tang itself!"

Countless craftsmen flooded into the imperial gardens.

Imperial guards uprooted a patch of rare flowers and exotic grasses within Taiji Palace.

Over a hundred masons waved iron picks, digging deep trenches into the flat ground.

Green bricks were laid to form interlocking dragon-shaped heated brick beds, extending all the way to the fire pits outside.

Large slabs of transparent Glazed Ware, just transported from the kilns outside the city, were carefully inlaid by carpenters between the massive agarwood pillars.

Light passed through on all four sides, blocking the cold wind.

The old farmer from the Ministry of Agriculture was urgently summoned into the palace.

They carried large wooden buckets, mixing fermented manure water and rotting fallen leaves into well water.

Holding wooden sticks, they stirred constantly, attempting to mimic the "industrial nutrient solution" Lin Xuan had spoken of.

Carpenters rushed to produce hundreds of huge, shallow wooden basins, arranging them in sequence above the newly built earthen kang beds.

Under the guidance of a thousand-year leap in technology, the might of the Great Tang forcibly launched a grand attempt to reverse the agricultural seasons.

The first primitive greenhouse of the Great Tang broke ground in the very heart of Chang'an.

After personally visiting the most advanced modern plant greenhouses, the two returned to the apartment.

Xiao Sizi changed out of her soft-soled running shoes, stepped into slippers, and walked straight to the coffee table.

Scattered on the carpet was the massive world map they had assembled earlier.

Xiao Sizi squatted down, her gaze sweeping over vast expanses of blue ocean.

Finally, it settled on that small yellow area on the eastern side of the Asian plate.

That was the location of Chang'an.

She extended her index finger, pressing her fingertip gently against that piece of cardboard.

Lin Xuan hung his backpack on the coat rack, holding two glasses of water as he walked over.

"What are you looking at?"

"Looking at Chang'an," Xiao Sizi replied, taking the glass of water and looking down at the map, her voice muffled. "Lin Xuan, this map is too big."

"The Great Tang on it is only the size of a fingernail."

"I cannot find Taiji Palace, nor can I find the Big Wild Goose Pagoda."

She raised her head, a layer of mist covering her large eyes.

"I... I miss the city walls of Chang'an."

"And the Big Wild Goose Pagoda; at night, wind chimes hang from the top of the tower."

"When the wind blows, the sound is extremely pleasant."

Lin Xuan froze in the act of drinking his water.

A four-year-old child, separated from her parents, crossing a thousand years.

Even after witnessing so much of the prosperity and wonders of the future, the homesickness deep in her bones would always come back with a frenzy in some idle moment.

Even after witnessing so much of the prosperity and wonders of the future, the homesickness deep in her bones would always come back with a frenzy in some idle moment.

"The city walls of Chang'an cannot be moved, but I can get you a Big Wild Goose Pagoda."

Lin Xuan walked to the sofa and picked up his mobile phone.

Xiao Sizi paused, holding her glass of water as she stood up.

"The Big Wild Goose Pagoda is built of brick, stone, and rammed earth, towering into the clouds."

"How will you get it? Do you intend to go to Chang'an and dismantle it?"

Lin Xuan's fingers swiped quickly across the screen, opening a local shopping app.

"No dismantling; we will build one ourselves."

He typed into the search bar: Desktop 3D Printer.

He checked the option for same-city ultra-fast delivery.

He selected a top-spec fully enclosed model, plus two rolls of white PLA filament.

Lin Xuan tossed his mobile phone onto the sofa. "Wait a moment; you'll see it very soon."

Above the Sky Screen, Lin Xuan's voice echoed across Jiuzhou.

The Great Tang, Taiji Palace.

Li Shimin, hands clasped behind his back, watched his daughter's despondent expression on the Sky Screen, and his heart suddenly ached.

"Sizi is homesick," Zhangsun Huanghou said, her eyes red as she took out a handkerchief to wipe her eyes.

Li Shimin put his arm around his wife's shoulder, though his gaze held a hint of confusion.

"Build a Big Wild Goose Pagoda himself?" Li Shimin looked at the Minister of Works below the steps. "That youth of the future lives among buildings, in rooms no larger than a square inch."

"How will he build a tower? Does he intend to go outside to dig up mud and water, then mold a clay figure inside to fool Sizi?"

The Minister of Works bowed and replied, "Your Majesty, artifacts of the future are exquisite."

"Perhaps he knows the art of wood carving and can carve a miniature wooden tower from a single piece of wood."

The ministers nodded in agreement.

Beyond this, the ancients could think of no other means to "build a tower" indoors.