Chapter 1513: The Mood of the People

A gratified smile appeared on the crown prince's face, and then he turned his head to look at Mi Su beside him. "Chief Engineer Mi, you've worked hard. This bastion fort is built well; I will report this clearly to the Imperial Father."

"It would be best if Your Highness the Crown Prince is satisfied." He forced a smile. "I have always believed it could resist any enemy's attack and defend your capital."

To tell the truth, although he had always been very confident in the bastion fort he designed, when the cannons were pushed up just now, he still inevitably felt some nervousness in his heart.

If the results were poor, then the future of the trust he had painstakingly gained from the Great Han court would certainly be completely gone, and he might even face deadly calamity.

Fortunately, everything went as he wished.

Although not as exhilarated as Mi Su, the crown prince was also quite delighted in his heart. He felt that with a dozen or twenty artillery platforms surrounding and guarding it, once the cannons were all deployed in place, the capital could now truly be considered as secure as a fortress of metal.

However, the crown prince also understood that preserving the realm did not rely solely on fortresses, but more importantly on the hearts of the people. The former Ming had such a vast realm, so many soldiers, and yet, in the end, did it not lose the realm with shocking speed?

Fortresses and bastion forts must be built, but the most important thing is still not to lose the hearts of the people under heaven — although the crown prince was young, he could still think this principle through clearly.

"Uncle, repairing this shouldn't cost too much, right?" the crown prince asked, slightly worried.

"This degree of damage can be repaired without using too many materials." The Minister of Works immediately dispelled the crown prince's doubts. "Right now the bastion fort is only roughly completed, and quite a few materials and personnel are still left here. Next, let them continue working and just patch up the places that need patching. Your subject was just thinking, His Highness the Crown Prince's method of inspection is, in your subject's opinion, very effective — if a bastion fort cannot even withstand the cannon fire of our own side, then what talk is there of sturdiness? Your subject will later issue a specific detailed regulation, stipulating that every bastion fort and blockhouse must undergo similar measures during inspection, so that the state's funds are not wasted!"

In doing this, he not only wanted to add a method for verifying the sturdiness of bastion forts, but also wanted to use this method to establish the crown prince's authority. After all, the crown prince was his own nephew, and since he had just come out to handle affairs, he ought to help him out a bit.

"Thank you, Uncle." The crown prince did not think that deeply, and merely nodded his head to express thanks to his maternal uncle.

Then, the crown prince took back the telescope, handed it to an attendant, and then let out a long breath. "Staying far away and watching from a height, although one can see the overall situation, it still cannot compare to experiencing it personally. Uncle, let me go inside the bastion fort to take a look again."

"Alright, Crown Prince, please follow your subject." The Minister of Works said nothing more and directly took the lead and walked off.

Thus, a large group of people walked out from the pavilion on the mountain, descended the mountain in a grand procession, and then walked towards the bastion fort.

Along the way, soldiers passed by from time to time, either dragging cannons or carrying guns. Having just fired a round of cannon, their spirits were all very high. Upon seeing the crown prince, they all let out a cheer, and then one after another knelt down on the ground.

"All you officers and men, dispense with the formalities, please rise!"

The crown prince somewhat wanted them to get up, but in his urgency, he could not help them all up one by one, and could only give a wry smile.

These soldiers would later be relieved of their duty to protect the construction site and become the garrison troops of the bastion fort; that is to say, they would carry out the important duty of defending the capital for the Great Han.

Amidst the process of the officers and men paying their respects one after another, the crown prince's group slowly advanced, and finally arrived beneath the bastion fort.

Looking up at this moment, the crown prince discovered that compared to when he was on the mountain earlier, he could feel the oppressive force brought by the bastion fort even more. As far as the eye could see, several faces of the sloped walls were facing him, and inside many gun ports, pitch-black cannons were pointed right at him. Although he understood that these cannons could not possibly fire at him, he still could not help but stiffen for a moment.

This bastion fort guarded a vital communication route, and protected a large stretch of land on the inner line of the capital, also indirectly defending the area of Hebei and Zhili. If it were in the era of the former Ming, it could be called a national treasure. And now, the Mongols had already been repelled a thousand li by the Great Han, and could no longer threaten the capital...

"May the illustrious military achievements of our dynasty never lose their renown in my hands..." he thought to himself in his heart.

Very soon, they arrived at the interior of the bastion fort. Compared to the two high walls on the outside, the space inside the bastion fort was much narrower and more open. Apart from some brick and stone barracks for the soldiers to live in, there were also specially made cellars for storing grain and military ammunition. Right in the middle was a small square for the soldiers to drill.

The crown prince looked around in all directions, silently calculating the interior space of this bastion fort in his heart, and then gradually got a clear idea. He slowly walked along the inner wall corners, looking at the structures everywhere, and incidentally observing whether the materials had been skimped on.

But when he walked to one wall corner, he discovered that there was a group of people building a barracks beside a ladder.

He walked closer, preparing to take a close look at the workers carrying stone materials. He had lived deep within the palace for a long time, and usually followed his teachers in reading books, having very few opportunities to interact with the common people and understand their hardships. Therefore, he planned to use this opportunity to properly understand the populace as well.

He looked out across them and found that these workers were generally still fairly robust in body. Moreover, they were all wearing cotton-padded jackets, showing no signs of suffering from hunger or cold. However, their spirits were not very good, as if they had no enthusiasm for this work and were just perfunctorily handling their duties.

Among this group of workers, there was one worker who particularly stood out. His age seemed to be relatively old, so he was carrying the least amount of stone material. His face was full of wrinkles, and one could tell he had toiled for most of his life. The clothes he wore were still fairly thick, it was just that his clothes were covered in dust, and even his face was covered in yellow and black dirt, making him look as if he had just rolled out of the mud.

Looking at this group of workers, the crown prince's heart ached slightly. The hardships of the people's livelihood, the hardships of the people's livelihood — before, to him, these were merely four words in a book. Only now, seeing it with his own eyes, did he know how bitter it was. And these people at least had guaranteed food and clothing. Among the subjects of the Great Han, who knew how many were living even more bitterly than them right now?

Moreover, it was he himself who had just ordered the cannon bombardment of the bastion fort, adding new work for them for no reason. In a while, they would probably still have to climb up the walls of the bastion fort to repair the damage caused by the shelling.

With that sense of guilt welling up spontaneously within him, the crown prince walked to the side of the barracks.

"His Highness the Crown Prince has arrived, stop work for now!" An overseer walked under the ladder and shouted loudly at the workers on top of the barracks. "Come down quickly, let His Highness the Crown Prince take a look!"

Under the overseer's shouts, upon hearing that His Highness the Crown Prince had actually come to inspect, this group of workers hurriedly stopped the work in their hands, hastily climbed down from the ladder, and then one after another walked before the crown prince's group, knelt down, and repeatedly kowtowed.

"Commoners pay respects to His Highness the Crown Prince!" they shouted while kowtowing.

The crown prince hurriedly told them to dispense with the formalities, telling them that in the new dynasty there was no need to perform such rites, but they had all muddled through from the former Ming, and had long since cultivated a docile nature under the accumulated authority of the government offices. His Highness the Crown Prince's status was who knew how many times higher than the government offices? So no matter what the crown prince said, they would only keep kneeling and dared not rise.

The crown prince sighed inwardly, then walked to the side of that old man he had seen just now, bent down, and looked at the other party with his most amiable expression. "Old uncle, may I ask your venerable age this year?"

The old man blinked his eyes, not reacting for a moment. Only after a short while did he realize that the "old uncle" the crown prince called was actually himself. His face instantly turned pale, and he hurriedly kowtowed again.

"Your Highness the Crown Prince, do not bring calamity upon this commoner by such undue honor, how could this commoner possibly bear it!"

The crown prince tried to persuade him several times, but he still refused to accept the address of "old uncle." In the end, he would only allow the crown prince to call him by his nickname, "Old Sun."

"Old Sun, how old are you this year? Where are you from?" The crown prince was not impatient, and asked again according to the other's request. "Who is in your family now?"

"In reply to His Highness the Crown Prince, this commoner is forty-seven this year, and is a native of Hejian Prefecture in Zhili." The old man raised his head to answer. In this present age, forty-seven was indeed old age, and he might even have grandchildren by now. "This commoner previously farmed at home, and did bricklaying and tiling work during the slack farming season. At home... at home I originally had a wife and two sons. However... however, during the earlier chaos and displacement, my old wife and one son have now passed on. Now I only have one son, but my son is currently working at another construction site, and has already found a wife. Now he has already added a grandson for this commoner. Counting it up, there are now four people in the family..."

When he spoke of the deaths of his wife and son, his tone was extremely flat, as if he had already grown accustomed to his own misery, and even seemed somewhat glad that he still had one son who survived to continue his bloodline.

The crown prince, however, felt a pang of sorrow in his heart as he listened.

The end times of the former Ming — although he himself had not personally experienced it, he had heard many people around him speak of it. Many tragic events were too unbearable to hear. In this great chaos, who knew how many people had died in obscurity, how many families had vanished, probably never to be accurately counted.

May the people of our China never again have to suffer such terrible calamities...

"I imagine your grandson must be very obedient." After enduring the sorrow in his heart, the crown prince continued to ask. "Here at the construction site, how is the food and clothing? Are there any shortages?"

"The food and clothing provisions here are very good. This is a project personally overseen by His Excellency the Minister of Works, so it is managed very strictly from top to bottom. Apart from occasional shortages in winter, the supplies have never been interrupted." The old man answered immediately, and judging from his expression, it was not a perfunctory lie. "The vegetable soup at this site is very good, and there is often meat provided. To tell the truth... it's even better than what this commoner ate at home before. It's just a pity this commoner is too old and cannot eat too much. If only back in those years... back in those years I could have enjoyed such good fortune..."