dognovel Chapter 95 An Unsolvable Infinite Loop
Chapter 95 An Unsolvable Infinite Loop
There has always been a peculiar phenomenon in the Zhongyuan Hall: when children are not by their parents' side, the parents will involuntarily miss their children, but when the children return to their parents' side for a period of time, they will be disliked by their parents.
This phenomenon is most vividly reflected in the university students of later generations.
Zhu Lao Er and Zhu Lao San were not college students, nor did they have any of the bad habits of sleeping in late or being picky eaters after returning home. However, coincidentally, Zhu Lao Er, Zhu Shuang, was only thirteen years old, and Zhu Lao San, Zhu Gang, was twelve years old. The two brothers had just passed through the annoying childhood stage and officially entered the teenage adolescence stage that gave their parents headaches.
Therefore, when Emperor Zhu Chongba (Zhu the Eighth) and his brothers Zhu Lao Er (Zhu the Second) and Zhu Lao San (Zhu the Third) arrived in Ningyang County, he found the two brothers extremely displeasing, especially the few small bumps on Zhu Lao Er's (Zhu Shuang's) face, which made Emperor Zhu even more annoyed.
Compared to the two brothers, the two girls, Jin'er and Yu'er, were much more pleasing to the eye.
"Those two bastards must have given you a lot of trouble on the way here, right?"
Ignoring the mournful looks in the eyes of the two brothers, Zhu Chongba, the Emperor Zhu, smiled and said to Jin'er and Yu'er, "I never expected that my sister would be willing to let you two come to Ningyang County."
"But it's all good. Magistrate Yang is a young and talented man, with extensive knowledge and a handsome appearance. It's a good match for the two of you to stay by his side."
Jin'er nodded obediently and replied, "Yes, Your Highness is good to us servants, and we all know that."
Emperor Zhu Chongba feigned displeasure and frowned, "Still calling me 'Empress'? From now on, my sister will be your godmother, and I will be your godfather—I was just about to say that when I came here, but you didn't call me godfather but Your Majesty. It's just too formal."
Jin'er panicked and quickly pulled Yu'er to bow down to Emperor Zhu Chongba, saying, "Daughter greets godfather."
Emperor Zhu Chongba's expression softened. He reached out to help Jin'er and Yu'er to their feet, then turned to Zhu Lao Er and Zhu Lao San, asking, "You two, how did you address your two older sisters on the way here?"
Zhu Lao Er, Zhu Shuang, raised his head and replied, "Of course, you should call me Eldest Sister, Second Sister."
Zhu Laosan said urgently, "I called her 'sister' first!"
Emperor Zhu Chongba nodded and said to Jin'er, "Your mother told us in her letter that after you arrive in Ningyang County, you should take a look. If you like each other and are mutually interested, your mother will arrange the marriage. If you don't like each other, then it will be as if it was never mentioned. Our daughters will not have to worry about marriage."
Jin'er nodded obediently again, "Yes, daughter remembers."
Emperor Zhu Chongba glanced at his two sons again, "When you two arrive in Ningyang County, you must listen to your sister and not put on any airs of princes. If I find out that you've been causing trouble in Ningyang County, do you think I'll side with you two or with the people of Ningyang County?"
Zhu Lao Er and Zhu Lao San both shivered and said in unison, "Please rest assured, Father, your sons would never dare to act recklessly."
Emperor Zhu then turned his gaze to the two brothers, Chang Mao and Chang Sheng: "You two have been spoiled since childhood. In the past, I didn't want to discipline you too much, thinking that you could grow up on your own."
"But this time is different from before. If you two dare to cause trouble in Ningyang County, even if we don't hold it against you, your father will break your legs. Remember that?"
The Chang brothers, Chang Mao and Chang Sheng, couldn't help but wail inwardly.
What the hell is going on? How did my own father get involved?!
Left with no other choice, the Chang brothers, Chang Mao and Chang Sheng, could only pat their chests and promise that they would behave themselves and not cause trouble, or they would break their own legs if they did.
Emperor Zhu grunted in agreement, then instructed Zhu Lao Er and Zhu Lao San: "Go on, you two are both twelve or thirteen years old now. Accompany your sister to Ningyang County for three to five days, and learn some skills from Magistrate Yang. We'll be waiting for you to return in Yanzhou Prefecture."
……
When the brothers Chang Mao and Chang Sheng escorted Zhu Lao Er, Zhu Lao San, Jin'er, and Yu'er to Ningyang County, Magistrate Yang Shaofeng had already been hiding in the county government office for several days.
In fact, after seeing Chang Yuchun and his 30,000-strong army off to war, Yang Shaofeng, the county magistrate, returned to the county office, completely forgetting about things like chicken farms, pig farms, livestock farms, and digging lakes and repairing canals.
For Ningyang County right now, the most important thing is to plow and till the land. Once the land is leveled, winter wheat can be planted on the land after the soybeans have been used to conserve fertilizer.
The magistrate's duty was to randomly inspect each village during this process, preach the importance of honest farming to the villagers, and persuade them not to slack off or neglect their duties.
Of course, this workload was not too heavy for Magistrate Yang, since Ningyang County only had eight communities and sixteen villages, and the task of encouraging agriculture and sericulture could be completed in about ten days.
For Yang Daxian himself, the most important thing right now is to find a way to solve the problem of road construction materials.
Yang Shaofeng admitted that he had been thinking too simply before.
When Yang Shaofeng decided to build the road, he considered various materials, including raw soil, tamped soil, stone slabs, blue bricks, cement or concrete, and asphalt.
Among them, raw soil and stone slab roads were the first to be abandoned by Magistrate Yang. Blue brick roads were also abandoned because there were no brick kilns. Cement and asphalt were also abandoned one after another due to technical limitations and other reasons. Finally, when there was no other choice, tamped soil was chosen as the material.
However, when the foundation was dug and the soil was sifted and roasted, Magistrate Yang Shaofeng sadly discovered that if the road was built using the same fertile soil as the Qin Straight Road, the straight road from Ningyang County to Yanzhou Prefecture would probably be delayed for ages.
As for increasing manpower...
Not to mention that Ningyang County itself has a lot of work that requires manpower, such as autumn sowing, land reclamation, lake digging, and canal repair, so it is impossible to spare many people to repair roads. Even if it were possible, it would be impossible to avoid the processes of sifting soil, steaming or roasting soil, paving roads, and tamping soil. And any one of these processes requires a large number of people.
If there is a shortage of manpower, not enough topsoil can be produced, which will slow down the road construction progress.
If road construction is slow, Ningyang County's development will be slow, the number of migrant workers will not increase quickly, and there will still be a shortage of manpower in the future.
It's essentially an unsolvable infinite loop.
Left with no other option, Magistrate Yang could only consider changing the road construction materials in order to speed up the road construction process and minimize the reliance on manpower for road construction.