Free Web NovelChapter 112: Chapter 112
Chapter 112
The chaos that had erupted was quickly resolved. The Third Prince intervened to help the villagers by ordering the soldiers to take care of the situation. The soldiers retrieved the bodies of their comrades, which had floated in the water, and gave them proper burials. This significant incident was reported to the capital by the Eighth Prince.
Naturally, the Third Prince did not receive any punishment. Instead, the Young General was ordered by the Emperor to remain in the capital for six months. This essentially deprived him of any opportunities to make his mark. From a competitive perspective, there were many Young Generals eager to create an achievement. The Young General, son of the General of the East, being put on what seemed like suspension gave these other Young Generals more hope.
Everyone hurried to create their accomplishments, including those in the Crown Prince’s faction. He supported capable contenders for the position of Great General, allowing them to create achievements. This thing went on during the period when the Young General, whom everyone believed to be the most capable, was faltering—whether in terms of his duties or even his ethics.
The Young General’s burdens were not limited to his professional duties. He also had to take Liu Sun as a concubine, which hindered his progress. This was because Liu Sun had stumbled. Initially, she should be able to support him in certain matters. With the scandal surrounding her, even Liu Sun’s own family did not welcome her, and in his manor, his mother no longer favored this woman.
The turmoil at home left the handsome Young General without any time to rest.
This situation was in stark contrast to that of the woman known as the villainess. Even now, she was happily wielding her brush, with two young children by her side diligently remembering the characters.
"Sister-in-law, I’ve memorized all the characters in this book." Little Xiao Long set his brush on the ink tray.
Today, their sister-in-law had told them that once they finished memorizing this basic text, there would be a task for them to help with. It seemed that soon they would have to prepare to move elsewhere. He had overheard his sister-in-law and big brother talking about it, though he didn’t know why they had to move. Regardless of the reason, if his big brother and sister-in-law had thought it through, he was ready to support and follow them.
"Mmm, then pack up your supplies. Didn’t your big brother buy a lot of things yesterday?" Yueqian also stopped copying the novel onto paper. Today, she and the children had been sitting since morning. Even though copying the novel was urgent work—because Brother Yuandong had already expressed his desire to release a new novel every two months—her workload was quite heavy.
She had to relocate to a nearby city in the next three to four months. Once there, it was expected to take a year before she could return. Therefore, she needed to complete the copy of eight volumes of the novel within the next few months.
Copying characters beautifully and neatly required immense patience. The handwriting style of " Butterfly Moving Wings " was distinctive. Initially, she thought she had plenty of time, so she meticulously copied the novel with a special handwriting style. Now, this had become a problem for her.
Well, no matter how urgent the work was, rushing through it was not her way. Yueqian knew how miserable the life of a salaried worker could be, as she had been one herself. Every time she had to go to work, it felt like being imprisoned, doing a job she neither loved nor enjoyed, in a highly stressful environment, with a boss who only asked for the work and did not care to see how the employees were doing.
Having a chance to live again, Yueqian resolved not to live that way again.
Thus, she dedicated her mornings to endure the back pain, copying others’ works while letting the children learn characters and gain knowledge through reading. As for the afternoons, Yueqian had many more tasks to complete.’
As previously mentioned, they would soon have to move to a city in a different kingdom. However, calling that city desolate would be an understatement. Mu Heng had explained that the area was a small city surrounded by enemies. Due to its isolated valley location, achieving peaceful unity was difficult.
The city they would be moving to was located in one such valley and was under the jurisdiction of the Bai Kingdom. Therefore, soldiers were sent to protect it, but this came at the cost of paying protection fees, or what was essentially an annual tax.
Fortunately, the valley of this city contained a continuous growth of rare herbs, which they could trade for money or use to pay taxes. Otherwise, they might have had to sell themselves into slavery.
Unfortunately, the herb in question was "Red Mo." This plant thrived in areas with limited sunlight and ample water. Thus, they were found in the valleys. However, it couldn’t be consumed directly and had to be mixed with other herbs to treat blood circulation disorders. If eaten alone, it caused internal bleeding from all seven orifices, a fatal effect with no cure.
Thus, Red Mo, which grew abundantly, was inedible. Growing other crops was extremely challenging. Living in the mountains, where valleys were more common, the spread of Red Mo took up a lot of territory.
Some had tried to clear land to grow other crops, only to find that these crops couldn’t grow. Moreover, within a radius of several kilometers, people could not succeed in cultivating anything, the area was left deserted since no matter how much efforts, any seeds planted would die.
The already limited arable land was further reduced by the toxic spread of Red Mo!
This caused the prices of many vegetables to increase. Ironically, finding a horse was easier. As a result, the city’s reputation and that of the tribes skilled in herding horses became widely renowned.
They were great mounted warriors. It was said that their battles within each tribe were even more formidable than those between kingdoms, as they fought entirely on horseback. This skill made the nomadic tribes highly coveted by the Bai Kingdom. However, bringing these capable nomadic tribes under their control was no easy task.
The Bai Kingdom lacked appealing offers, while the nomads were rich in pride, beliefs, and ideologies, all of which were different. This made uniting them nearly impossible.
Due to the stubbornness of the nomadic tribes, when Mu Heng revealed his plan, the Wang of the Bai Kingdom took great interest. This interest stemmed from their previous failures. The cunning Wang had attempted to conquer the nomadic tribes before, but to no avail.
Upon hearing Mu Heng confidently said that he could persuade the nomadic tribes to submit and become a fighting force for the Bai Kingdom, how could the Wang refuse? Offering the position of governor of a failing city was insignificant. Even if Mu Heng desired the position of a general in the Bai Kingdom, the Wang wouldn’t hesitate to grant it—if Mu Heng could truly unite the nomadic tribes and have them work under the Bai Kingdom.
However, before thinking of inviting the nomadic tribes to join the Bai Kingdom, Mu Heng and Yueqian first had to think of how to survive in the barren city.
Growing crops was challenging, and most food supplies were expensive, sourced from other cities at the base of the mountain. They would face difficulties in transportation and dealing with forest bandits. Despite the government sending many soldiers to help, the situation made them question whether it was worth it.
Yueqian had gathered preliminary information from Mu Heng, who had read from the secret note of the Wang’s soldier. Additionally, she had researched various details herself. Thus, what she wanted to do now was to find ways to preserve large quantities of food. These methods needed to be shared with the townspeople whom Mu Heng would govern. freёwebnoѵel.com
Becoming the overseer of a city is no easy task. She did not know what others had in minds when rising to power, but Yueqian wouldn’t let the villagers under their care face hardships without solutions.
These villagers had to work not only to sustain themselves but also to pay protection fees in the form of taxes to the authorities. Therefore, they must get worthwhile care. If not, they would start to drift away, and soon the small town under incompetent leadership would lack capable residents as they moved to other tribes.
Yueqian wanted to help Mu Heng, but before she would think about a way to attract the nomadic tribes, now she must think how to ensure that the people in their town remained registered citizens.
The first method she thought of was food preservation. If they could descend from the mountain to buy large quantities of fresh produce, it would be more economical. There were many methods of food preservation, and the people probably already knew several. However, she knew even more food preservation techniques.
One method was sour pickling. By salting vegetables and mixing boiling saltwater with vinegar, then pouring this mixture over the vegetables once it had cooled, and sealing the container tightly, which was the last step. This method required about seven days of fermentation before the vegetables could be consumed. It worked well with vegetables like mustard greens, bean sprouts, and cabbage.
Yueqian was particularly interested in pickling bean sprouts because they could be eaten right away and were highly nutritious. Growing them wasn’t difficult either. They just needed to buy seeds on their trips down the mountain, and within seven days, they could eat it. Additionally, they could pickle them to make them last longer. During the period before they would take another trip down the mountain, they would still have bean sprouts to eat. freeweɓnovel.cѳm
Besides sour pickling, sweet pickling was also popular in the world she came from. This sweet pickling method could be used with cabbage, just like the previous method, and it also worked well with various fruits. However, it was quite costly because it required large amounts of sugar, which was expensive and not widely available in this era.
Next was salt curing, which seemed to be the best option. While salt was also expensive, it was not as hard to find as sugar. Salt curing could be done with meat, vegetables, and fruits. Yueqian planned to make salted eggs since they could last the longest. However, this salt curing method would be quite challenging if they had to buy and transport eggs up the mountain. The eggs would certainly get damaged during the route. Therefore, if they could hire someone at the base to cure the eggs, the townspeople could buy pre-cooked salted eggs when they descended the mountain.
Yueqian believed that even these methods alone would significantly improve the townspeople’s quality of life. Although this was just a preliminary solution, it was better than doing nothing. Besides, she had plans for the future as well, but everything should progress gradually.
For now, she only wanted to disseminate this knowledge to the children and prepare samples to take to the place, including the pickling techniques and the soil-free method of growing bean sprouts.
"Once you’ve finished packing, please help me bring in the small clay jars your big brother bought from below," Yueqian told Xiao Long. She planned to use a simple method to grow bean sprouts in the jar. By drilling a drainage hole at the bottom of the jar, and then adding soaked mung beans that had been left in water overnight into it.
Growing bean sprouts in the valley was a viable option. Yueqian would advise the villagers who had struggled to grow vegetables in the valley due to the soil toxicity caused by Red Mo to grow them in jars. They could elevate the jars on wooden planks. Since the valley had a stream running through it, watering would be so easy.
