New Song Dynasty: My Wife is an Imperial Princess

Whether it was a lucky break or sheer good fortune, Tang Qian's move to bribe Wan Yanxi's personal maid, Xiao Li, was the right one.

After carefully reviewing the two design drafts drawn by Tang Qian, Wanyan Xi praised them highly.

As Tang Qian said, the solution of modifying the floor is indeed much more complicated. It requires digging out a network of flues in the ground, then covering them with wooden boards, filling the gaps with clay, and then laying another layer of wooden boards on top, leaving smoke outlets on both sides. In this way, the heat generated by combustion will spread throughout the room along the flues and eventually be discharged from the smoke outlets.

Tang Qian calls this system underfloor heating.

The second option is relatively simple: build a flue along the wall that leads directly to the roof. Once the flue is opened up, it becomes a simple tin charcoal stove, which Tang Qian calls a fireplace.

Although they differ in complexity, they are similar in purpose. Moreover, both schemes require common materials that are readily available and do not require military supplies. Even ordinary people can build them.

"If this can be promoted, the tragedy of people freezing to death will never happen again in our Great Jin."

Xiao Li, who had just received Tang Qian's gift, immediately winked at Wan Yanxi: "According to Your Highness, Tang Qian is not just a playboy who only knows how to indulge in pleasure; he also has some skills."

Wan Yanxi nodded without hesitation. If this person only knew how to enjoy himself, there would be no need to draw up a second plan. Because of the use of open flame, the effect of the fireplace is similar to that of the traditional charcoal brazier. The safety factor has indeed increased a lot, but it is far less reassuring than the underfloor heating that builds the stove outside and only allows the heat to flow into the room.

However, fireplaces have the advantage of being simple to build and inexpensive, making them very suitable for ordinary people. If we elevate this to a political level, it becomes a matter of people's livelihood.

From this, it can be seen that Tang Qian must have been well-versed in the art of governing the people.

Thinking of the investigation materials about Tang Qian on her desk, Wanyan Xi suddenly realized: "It's not surprising that he could think of these things. His father was the Vice Minister of Revenue of the Song Dynasty. Perhaps he was exposed to it so much that he became proficient through practice."

Xiao Li half-squatted down, opened the seal of the charcoal stove, used a bamboo skewer to pick out two small pieces of scarlet charcoal, carefully placed them into the hand warmer given to her by Tang Qian, closed the stove lid, opened the cloth bag to put the hand warmer inside, and presented it to Wan Yanxi with both hands.

Wanyan Xi reached out and took the stove, placing it in her bosom. A warm current flowed from her palm to all parts of her body, making her feel comfortable. Even her slightly aching lower abdomen seemed to feel much better.

"Since Tang Qian knows how to govern the people, why not grant his wish and recruit him into the princess's residence as an advisor? Isn't Your Highness also troubled by the governance of Youzhou?"

Wanyan Xi was granted the title of Lord of Youzhou City only because the Jin emperor doted on his youngest daughter and knew that she longed for the culture of the Song Dynasty. Therefore, he agreed to let her build her princess residence in Youzhou.

Although everything in the manor was provided by the royal family, since Youzhou was her fiefdom, the Seventh Princess felt it was her responsibility to ensure that the people in her fiefdom were well-fed and clothed.

Youzhou was never a wealthy place to begin with. Coupled with the exploitation by the Yelü family of the Liao Kingdom for hundreds of years and the constant wars in recent years, it was left with nothing but an empty shell when it was handed over to Wanyan Xi. The total population of the city, including the elderly, women and children, was less than 80,000. It was a miracle that such a weathered city could still stand.

Faced with such a mess, Wanyan Xi, despite his ambition, had no way to improve people's livelihoods. His accompanying advisors were equally helpless. The only strategy was to endure the harsh winter and wait until spring when the people could plant crops in the fields, which might improve the situation in Youzhou.

Since there is no other way but to wait, calling Tang Qian over for advice is not a bad idea. After all, the worst situation can't be worse than the current one.

We'll just treat it as a last resort.

The next day at noon, a group of soldiers walked out of the city lord's mansion and split into four groups on the main street outside the mansion gate. With the crack of their whips, the warhorses under their mounts neighed and galloped toward the inner city gate. The few pedestrians who were there were startled and immediately scattered to both sides of the street. After the soldiers had gone far away, they gathered together and whispered among themselves.

"Is another war about to break out?"

"Who knows? Well, as long as they don't raise taxes, that's fine."

"These days are chaotic with war and chaos. The Liao people have left, and now the Jin people have come. Even if you have a lot of money, you can't withstand such exploitation."

The soldiers arrived at the city gate, selected a blank spot on the bulletin board set up on one side of the road, applied paste to it, and posted a copy of the latest notice issued by the city lord's mansion.

After the group rode away, people who had been hiding on both sides of the street slowly approached, pointing at the notice, not knowing what it said.

Soon, a literate young man was led to the notice. Urged by the crowd, he read the contents of the notice aloud, word by word: "There are transparent crystal blocks and mineral salt stones in Yanshan. Anyone who brings them to the Princess's residence can exchange them for grain according to their weight. There is an information desk outside the Princess's residence. Anyone with doubts can go there to inquire."

After the notice was read aloud, everyone's minds were still a complete mess. Salt was easy to find, but they really didn't understand what transparent crystals were, and even if they wanted to use them to exchange for food, they didn't know where to find them.

Someone's heart skipped a beat: "Why don't we go to the princess's residence and ask? Maybe we can get a good meal there."

"That's right. This princess of the Great Jin Dynasty has been quite good to the people of our Youzhou City. She has already distributed porridge to the entire city several times recently. I don't think she would do such a deceptive thing."

Some people, however, were skeptical: "Since it's something the princess's residence wants, it must be something extremely rare. The entire Yanshan area is so vast, how could it be so easy to find? Besides, isn't that so-called mineral salt just poisonous salt from the mountains? People will die if they eat it, what would the princess want it for?"

The crowd agreed with this person's deduction. However, since they had nothing better to do, they decided to go outside the city gate to watch the excitement. Most of the people felt that it was better to avoid trouble and just treat it as a joke. Instead of going into the mountains to find the transparent crystal, they thought it would be more worthwhile to gather more firewood outside the city to spend the night.

A small group of people gathered outside the princess's residence. Sure enough, a long table had been set up in front of the gate, with a steelyard on it. Several bags of grain were piled up on the ground next to it. Behind the long table sat a young man who smiled at the small groups of people. He did not seem to be a corrupt official.

Seeing that it was almost time, Tang Qian cleared his throat and stood up. He knew that he wouldn't be able to collect much quartz sand and mineral salt today; he only needed to make a sample. Once the people knew that they could really exchange stones from the mountains for grain, these raw materials would naturally flock to the area.

"As you can see, the notice issued by the Princess's residence is absolutely true and valid. As long as you bring over the stones that the Princess needs, you can receive the corresponding amount of food."

Immediately, Tang Qian took out a fist-sized object from his pocket. The crowd mustered their courage and gathered around, finally able to see clearly what this so-called transparent crystal actually looked like.

Shaped like a stone and completely transparent, someone in the crowd exclaimed in surprise with a hint of doubt: "This thing... isn't it the transparent stone I often encounter in the mountains?"

Tang Qian looked up and followed the sound. He felt that the speaker seemed familiar. After thinking for a moment, he suddenly smiled faintly: "Is this brother the stonemason from the quartermaster department?"

Upon realizing that the young man had recognized him, the stonemason was startled. He then looked Tang Qian over carefully and suddenly understood: "Young master, are you the gentleman who asked me to make the mold a few days ago?"

Seeing Tang Qian nod, the stonemason became even more certain of his earlier guess.

"Does the princess's residence really want those useless stones?"

"Whether it's useful or not, just take it. Fifteen catties of stones or salt can be exchanged for one catty of grain."

The stonemason was still somewhat incredulous. Those stones were in the mountains, everywhere, and he could carry back more than thirty pounds on his own trip.

"Can it really be exchanged for grain?"

"A gentleman's words are followed by a swift whip."