HUS Chapter 67: I Want to Be Quiet
HUS Chapter 67: I Want to Be Quiet
January 4
After spring plowing and spring planting, it wasn't as if farmers had nothing more to do.
The busy farming process was still far from over.
The results of "plant one grain in spring, harvest ten thousand seeds in autumn" couldn't be achieved just by scattering seeds.
Three parts depended on planting, seven parts on management. Next came the major matter of irrigation.
This was the most important task after spring sowing, directly affecting the crop emergence rate.
If there was spring drought, villagers had to use water wheels, water buckets, channels, and all available tools to draw water from rivers, wells, and ponds to irrigate fields. However, most fields here relied on water from the Dragon River for irrigation.
Water diverted from the Dragon River traversed the thousand-li plains, leaving irrigation networks like tree branches.
When Yang Can was inspecting the fields, he discovered another area that could be improved: water wheels.
Although being able to use Dragon River water for irrigation was already this land's uniquely favorable water conservancy conditions but constrained by the characteristic that water flows downward, some plots clearly had excellent soil but, simply because they were at higher elevation, irrigation was difficult, so they couldn't be vigorously developed.
Zhang Yunyi's hidden fields and hidden households, being developed later, had to open wasteland at higher elevations because the best easily irrigated land had already been developed by local people early on.
Therefore, they couldn't open more fields. It wasn't that land was insufficient, but that they couldn't manage to water everything when irrigating.
Feng'an Estate also had water wheels, but water wheels of this era needed to be driven by human or animal power.
Whether foot-pedaling, hand-cranking, or using an old ox pulling a harness, the efficiency was naturally quite low.
Moreover, human power had limits. It couldn't operate continuously.
At the same time, this old-style water wheel could only lift water to a limited height.
Therefore, as long as the terrain was slightly higher, even if it was fertile soil, it couldn't be vigorously developed.
Yang Can was delighted at first glance. This was simple, even simpler than the curved-shaft plow research process.
This was good. This guy could show off his abilities again!
Before long, the first fully water-powered high-lift tube water wheel improved by Estate Head Yang was erected.
One such water wheel could lift water to a height with a ten-zhang drop.
If a water storage pond was built at the ten-zhang height to let the lifted water flow, and another water wheel was built at the flow point, it could continue lifting water even higher.
With this irrigation tool, many high-elevation lands could be completely developed into good farmland.
Yang Can once again showed off his abilities. As news spread, the three words "Yang Can's Wheel" spread throughout the world again.
If Yang Can's secret wasn't that he slept with the eldest branch's young mistress of the Yu family, based on this achievement alone, his position in the Yu family would be as stable as Mount Tai.
The Yu family could no longer easily sacrifice Yang Can now.
If they did, the Yu family's reputation would be destroyed by the murmuring mouths of countless people.
This made Yu Xinglong both hate and love Yang Can.
What he loved was that Yang Can's two improvements could allow the Yu family's strength to step up a major level. However, if the Yu family just produced more grain, that alone wasn't enough to support a substantial increase in the Yu family's strength.
Especially in the political ecology that had balanced and stabilized after hundreds of years of development but a large increase in grain output, that quantitative change could produce qualitative change.
For the Yu family, Yang Can now had distinguished service through hard work.
Yu Xinglong was precisely at a time when he needed people. This Yang Can, he now couldn't bear to use as a sacrificial piece no matter what.
Moreover, he now didn't need to investigate Yang Can to trust this person because no clan would send out such a person as a spy.
No spy would provide such a major weapon that could increase strength for their infiltration target.
This Yang Can, he would keep.
If not for the fact that in a short time, Yang Can had already successively assumed the positions of Second Steward of the eldest branch and Feng'an Estate Head, making it inappropriate to immediately promote Yang Can again, the talent-hungry Yu Xinglong would definitely promote him once more.
No matter what, this treasure, he was determined to keep but some pits still needed people to fill them, and some blame still needed people to take.
This person both had to be expendable without heartache and have status and position convincing enough, which was difficult.
Clan Head Yu now not only lacked talent but was also hard-pressed to find a suitable scapegoat.
"Little Deng..."
After much deliberation, Yu Xinglong inquired of Butler Deng Xun, who had been his study companion since childhood and accompanied him into old age.
"What do you think of Li Youcai?"
...
This water wheel didn't need careful observation. One glance and you'd know where its improvement lay.
Therefore, it spread especially quickly.
Soon, its blueprints appeared in Dailai City, in the Black Water Pavilion of the Northern Palace Separate Estate.
Although the person drawing wasn't professional and the water wheel looked a bit crooked, the principle was clear at a glance.
"Have people build it according to the diagram immediately!"
Yu Huanhu rose from his seat with a slap on the table.
"Where is Ziming? Hasn't he established contact with Yang Can yet?"
"Master, Yang Can is stirring up wind and rain at Feng'an Estate. Many people are watching him. Young Master said that on this trip he must act as naturally as possible and not arouse suspicion. Therefore, Young Master needs to do some things and hasn't yet made contact with Yang Can."
"Good. Tell him to increase the stakes. This Yang Can, I must have him!"
"Yes!"
His subordinate immediately hurried to arrange it, urgently reporting to Yu Rui.
As for what stakes to add, nothing more than wealth and daughters, merit and profit.
As Yu Huanhu's successor, Yu Rui could decide these matters with one word, not needing his father to specify clearly.
...
Yang Can only improved the water wheel. The remaining matters were still entirely left to Estate Head Zhang Yunyi to handle.
Thinning seedlings, replanting, weeding, pest control, fertilizing...
Although these tasks were complicated, anyone from a farming family could do them.
More people were busy in the fields because it no longer required only able-bodied laborers.
The old and weak, women and children, half-grown kids, all could handle these tasks.
Kang Zhengyang could finally begin his long-planned scheme: doing business.
What he would do was also small-capital business, so implementation would be easy. However, the commerce Yang Can wanted to do was to first parasitize the Suo and Yu families until growing strong enough to replace them.
This business started at a much higher level, so there wasn't even a hint of it yet.
Thanks to Yang Can's plow, the Kang family saved quite a few able-bodied laborers and at this time, the most exhausting stage of spring plowing and planting had passed. Women and children at home could all be put to use, further liberating the labor force.
Kang Zhengyang decided to use this rare opportunity to make a good profit.
He gathered the Kang family's able-bodied men, pooled a sum of money, and headed to Tianshui City.
When they went, they weren't empty-handed either. Honey, beeswax, angelica, astragalus, felt blankets, cloth...
These things were all collected from the estate.
They brought these agricultural products and textiles produced by the estate's women to Tianshui.
When they arrived, they would sell these agricultural commodities. Combined with the cash they brought, they could buy a batch of daily necessities urgently needed by nomadic tribes, go out through Feihu Pass, and do another business transaction with the nomadic tribes.
Coming and going like this, the profit for them was already a very considerable sum of wealth.
This matter naturally couldn't be hidden from people, and Kang Zhengyang never thought of hiding it from anyone.
So from the moment he first gathered his relatives and proposed this vision, all of Feng'an Estate already knew.
Many people were extremely envious, but not everyone had the ability to imitate him.
Moreover, his caravan scale wasn't large yet. Currently, relatives, friends, and close retainer families were enough. He didn't need to recruit that many people.
Those envious common people could only remain envious.
...
At night, the Kang family caravan's group lodged at Tielin Ridge.
Tomorrow morning, they would be able to reach Tianshui City.
Leading the team was Kang Zhengyang's third younger brother, Kang Zhengyan.
The Kang family's second brother, Kang Zhengyi, was too honest and straightforward, unsuitable for business, so Kang Zhengyang chose the third brother.
Tielin Ridge was a canyon. The mountain had many pine trees that looked like cast iron in the night, hence the name.
Kang Zhengyan's group had twenty-one people altogether, escorting four large carts. These were goods purchased at Feng'an Estate.
Halfway up the canyon mountain was a cave that their local people all knew about.
Lighting fires in the cave could drive away mosquitoes, flies, snakes, and insects.
This was an excellent lodging place.
At midnight, Kang Licheng groggily got up to relieve himself.
Kang Licheng was the eldest son of the Kang family's second brother Kang Zhengyi, Kang Zhengyan's nephew.
It was now late April. The mountain nights in Longshang were still quite cool.
He feared snakes and insects in the grass, so he didn't dare walk toward densely vegetated areas.
Fortunately, this was in the wilderness, so he didn't need to worry about too much.
Kang Licheng was urinating when he suddenly heard a "tap" sound, as if someone had tossed a pebble.
Kang Licheng immediately grew suspicious. He hurriedly tied his belt, drew his saber, and looked around alertly.
"Tap tap tap..."
The sound of another pebble rolling came.
Kang Licheng held his breath and carefully walked in the direction of the sound.
Turning around a rock, he clearly saw two fire pits on the mountain path.
Four horse carts were stopped by the fire pits, the same number as theirs.
The horses had been unhitched and tied to trees.
Over twenty burly men surrounded the two campfires, roasting something and talking and laughing in low voices.
Kang Licheng noticed that all four large carts were covered with rain-proof tarpaulins.
Rain tarps of this era were mainly oilcloth and lacquered cloth.
Oilcloth was relatively expensive. Lacquered cloth had better cost-effectiveness.
It seemed these were merchants from afar because he saw the rain tarp, Kang Licheng suddenly understood.
Short-distance merchants like them didn't have rain tarps. Although lacquered cloth was cheaper than oilcloth, it was still an expense.
Their small-capital business couldn't afford to purchase it.
Seeing they were just a team of traveling merchants, Kang Licheng wanted to quietly retreat but he hadn't anticipated that suddenly a rock also fell among those strong men surrounding the campfire.
This rock was fist-sized. Smashing into the fire pit, sparks immediately scattered everywhere.
The people surrounding the campfire jumped up one after another. Someone cursed loudly, "Who the hell is fooling around?"
"Hey, who is it? Stop!"
Suddenly someone saw a figure flash and disappear from beside the rock and immediately shouted.
Kang Licheng saw these burly men were all imposing with sabers at their sides and knew they weren't easy to deal with.
Like his father, he was honest and didn't want to cause trouble, so he didn't respond, only quickening his pace.
This made those people even more suspicious, and they immediately drew their sabers and gave chase.
This group of people was precisely those transporting "mountain goods" for "Mountain Lord."
What they carried on their carts, they knew most clearly.
They knew that once this matter was exposed, it would very likely bring fatal disaster.
Encountering a suspicious person now, they naturally wouldn't easily let him go.
"Stop! Run again and we'll shoot arrows!"
The people behind shouted loudly as they chased.
Kang Licheng paid no attention and just ran toward the cave.
How difficult it was to shoot a running person in this darkness.
Kang Licheng usually followed his father up the mountain hunting and was very skilled with bow and arrow.
He understood this all too well and wasn't afraid of their threats at all.
"Third Uncle, Third Uncle, wake up quickly! Someone's causing trouble."
Seeing he'd reached the cave, Kang Licheng immediately shouted loudly.
Kang Zhengyan and the others sleeping in the cave suddenly woke.
Hearing Kang Licheng's alarmed cry, everyone scrambled up, grabbed their weapons, and rushed out of the cave.
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