I am Emperor Shizu of Song

Chapter 38 Another Fanboy

Zhao Zi said that the communication with Jia Dan was very smooth.

This man was very observant and knew what Mr. Liang was planning as soon as he heard it.

Before the research and development is successful, it is considered that the people below are working independently and taking on private work on their own. They will only take it out if the superiors decide to use it.

If it is discovered in advance, then we can say that it was just a guess without any thought of its use, and no one will try to use it to claim that we are "cutting corners to do things for His Majesty."

Moreover, Jia Dan is also a pragmatic technical official. Although he is mixed up in the dirty quagmire, he has some technical and management skills.

He assisted Liu Geng and just repaired the Mingtang for the emperor this year. A few years later, he was also ordered to repair the Taimiao. He did a good job in project management.

As a contractor, Jia Dan quickly saw the value of the "cement imitation stone" technology mentioned by Zhao Zicheng. He began to gather craftsmen that day, starting with traditional glutinous rice mortar, and gradually adding various materials according to Zhao Zicheng's instructions.

Alternatively, some pre-processing process of calcination may be performed before mixing the powders, the details of which need not be elaborated.

Anyway, Zhao Zicheng, a liberal arts student, only knew the general direction. He didn't know what other ingredients were needed besides limestone, clay and peat, so he just did experiments slowly.

Liang Shicheng gave him one or two months to do the experiment, so there was no need to rush.

Of course, the most important thing in this process is to give Jia Dan confidence, making him feel that Zhao Zicheng's ideas are reliable and not in vain, so that he will have the motivation to keep trying and making mistakes.

Therefore, Zhao Zicheng also took multiple approaches and tried every possible way to paint a rosy picture for Jia Dan.

First, he followed the old routine he used when dealing with Master Liang before, and Zhao Zicheng directly gave Jia Dan a down jacket and down quilt.

The thing is not valuable. The key is to make Jia Dan believe that Zhao Zicheng is a "serial entrepreneur with a successful resume", proving that Zhao Zicheng has a good vision.

After Jia Dan accepted it, his inner uneasiness was greatly relieved, so he was willing to continue to accompany Zhao Zicheng in the trial, instead of changing direction randomly after a little setback.

In addition to making cement, Zhao Zicheng also thought of some other small technical tricks that would be used in supervising the repair of Gen Yue. He also shared some of them with Jia Dan in private to further enhance his credibility.

For example, as the name suggests, the Hua Shi Gang is divided into two major categories: "flowers" and "stones". The materials that the emperor needed to transport from the south of the Yangtze River to repair Gen Yue, in addition to the bulk of "stone", the rest were mainly exotic flowers and trees.

Zhao Zi said that after a brief observation, he found that people in the Northern Song Dynasty were still very primitive in cultivating exotic flowers and trees, or in other words, they completely relied on nature.

Zhao Zi said that although he did not study agronomy or gardening in his previous life, he had read some ancient Chinese literature before traveling through time and knew that Gong Zizhen of the Qing Dynasty wrote "Record of the Sick Plum Pavilion".

In later generations, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, in order to cater to the literati's aesthetic preference for "the beauty of plum blossoms lies in their crookedness", the business community had already developed various techniques for pruning trees and forcing them to grow into increasingly bizarre shapes. Grafting technology was even developed during the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Song Yingxing of the Ming Dynasty wrote "The Exploitation of the Works of Nature", in which he also recorded agricultural techniques such as "picking cotton stars", indicating that by the Ming Dynasty, people generally knew that by cutting off certain branches of plants, they could concentrate nutrients and allow other branches that humans wanted to grow fully to grow rapidly.

People in the Song Dynasty had no idea about these things.

After Zhao Zicheng personally observed the actual operations of the craftsmen, he became convinced that these people only relied on nature for their livelihood, and that the plants would grow as they pleased.

Zhao Zicheng then revealed to them some tips on how to artificially induce the strange growth of flowers and trees. After hearing them, Jia Dan was immediately amazed.

"Is there really such a miraculous technique? If we could make flowers and trees grow the way we want them, we could save a lot of money on transporting the exotic plum blossoms from Jiangnan for the Flower and Stone Gang. Can't we just find common flowers and trees and cultivate them right here in Bianjing? And that would save us a lot of money on shipping them thousands of miles!"

Faced with Jia Dan's surprise, Zhao Zicheng was not at all concerned: "We'll know if it works after trying it. However, this matter also needs time to verify. It will take at least one or two months for the pruned trees to grow again to see the effect." Jia Dan was no longer anxious about this: "It doesn't matter. It's never too late to live. Master Zhao has so many wonderful ideas. Why should I not believe them? I just have one thing I don't understand -

Each of these skills has a way to make money. If presented correctly, it can also benefit one's career, or create auspicious signs and offer them as tribute. Why is Master Zhao so generous?"

Zhao Zicheng made no secret of this and spoke frankly, "Although these techniques can generate income, I lack connections and the energy to find someone to run them. Furthermore, if these techniques are made public, and we want to use them when we build Genyue, wouldn't everyone in the world know that they 'save materials'? This would be detrimental to the royal family's reputation."

If that's the case, it would be better to give it to the royal family first, so that the world doesn't know about it. Although it won't benefit me personally, it will save people's energy and reduce the court's levy of flowers and stones, which is a great benefit to the people of Jiangnan. My personal gains and losses are not worth worrying about.

Zhao Zi said he never considered using these two skills to gain wealth or official positions. He was more concerned with gaining fame.

Although these technologies are kept secret now, once they are used, they may be leaked slowly over a few years due to the passage of time.

Even more so, if one day Zhao Zicheng's power expands rapidly and he is promoted quickly, he may be transferred to Bian Jing by the emperor to serve as an official in the capital. In that case, Zhao Zicheng can take the initiative to leak secrets and offend the emperor, so that the emperor will suppress him and continue to send him away.

The Song Dynasty did not kill scholars and officials. For many people who could become officials in Beijing, being sent to other places was considered a punishment.

Zhao Zi said that he had a card in his hand and could use "offending the emperor and being exiled" to exchange for fame at any time, so why not do it?
When the day comes when these two technologies are leaked, everyone in the world will know: there was a righteous man in the royal family who invented the technology of cement imitation stone and artificial pruning and grafting to cultivate rare trees, just to allow the emperor to use less flowers and stones when carrying out large-scale construction projects and to reduce the burden on the people in the south of the Yangtze River.

Isn't this kind of selfless person who speaks up for the people a moral role model among the royal family?
By then, how much support and popularity could Zhao Zicheng gain in Jiangnan? The more the people of Jiangnan hated Zhu Jie, the more sympathy they would have for Zhao Zicheng.

Of course, the disclosure of all these secrets must be postponed until at least Zhu Jie loses power.

If you leak the information too early, it won't win people's favor, but will only make yourself uncomfortable.

……

In just a few days, Zhao Zicheng completely convinced Jia Dan, the chief clerk of the Ministry of Works, with his brilliant ideas and selfless openness.
This made the other party no longer dare to judge friendship based on the level of official position, but instead treat Zhao Zicheng as a teacher in private.

The two technologies of trial-producing cement for garden landscapes and cultivating unusually shaped trees have also entered the track of steady research and development and experimentation.

All that was left was to wait for the results slowly. Zhao Zicheng would have to worry about much less. At most, he would go to the workshop every few days to take a look around and give some advice. The rest of the daily work would be completed by Jia Dan and the craftsmen.

Zhao Zicheng was very frank with Jia Dan and told him: when they succeed in the future and report it to Liang Shicheng, it doesn't matter if Jia Dan takes more credit and says that most of the credit is the result of Jia Dan's own hard work.

Zhao Zi said he didn't care.

He originally wanted to hide his incompetence a little to avoid being used as an engineering and technical tool by Liang Shicheng and being forced to stay in Bian Jing.

It would be just right to let Liang Shicheng feel that he only has wild ideas but lacks the ability to implement them.

Zhao Zicheng's attitude is naturally a great benefit to Jia Dan.

Jia Dan was originally an official in the capital, and he was seeking a promotion within the Ministry of Works. Zhao Zicheng said that giving him this credit would be of great benefit to his career.

So even though Jia Dan is already in his thirties or forties, he is becoming more and more like a fanboy of Zhao Zicheng. He respects him more and more in private and does not bother him too much during research and development. He does things that he can do himself.

Now that the work at the Ministry of Works was on track, Zhao Zicheng finally had some free time. He had time to deal with his own affairs, or just wander around Bianjing, waiting for the results.

(End of this chapter)