Chapter 47: Bohai
The ferment fertilizer alone, relying on peasant family livestock manure, would definitely not be enough. There aren’t many peasant households near the border city, and even if we offered one coin per basket, we wouldn’t collect much.
Jinsui thought Han Xing was leading people to dig the river channel, so she hurried over with Hei Hu to take a look. She then instructed the Tuntian Camp to prepare supplies and bring back all the river mud to fertilize the land.
Riding a horse and strolling leisurely through the border city, this place is truly desolate, but the scenery is also truly beautiful.
Walking in the wilderness truly gives the feeling of ‘the sky is like a dome, covering the four wilds.’ The borderlands are lush green right now, with grass half a person’s height in many places.
The border army didn’t raise too many sheep, and the herdsmen from beyond the domain naturally wouldn’t dare to graze their livestock near the border army.
This resulted in the grass in this area growing extremely deep. Every day, people from the Tuntian Camp would come to cut grass and store it as winter horse feed.
They would carefully pick out any edible wild vegetables and dry them to serve as winter provisions.
Jinsui waved from afar to the soldiers cutting grass. Walking further, she saw a river like a jade belt, adorning this verdant land.
Turning a corner, she saw a group of soldiers diligently digging river mud. Han Xing had also rolled up her trouser legs to her knees and was digging mud in the river, showing no airs of a Captain.
The only one not working was Cheng Yu, who sat on the river embankment, enjoying the summer breeze, drinking wine from his gourd, and occasionally reciting poetry.
His gaze, however, was fixed in the direction of Yanzhou City, and his eyes were very gentle, as if his lover stood there.
Jinsui knew that Wei Assistant Secretary wholeheartedly wanted to return to Chang’an. She had asked Cheng Yu where he wanted to go.
As a result, Cheng Yu himself said he just wanted to die in the borderlands and go nowhere else.
Seeing the Prince arrive, the soldiers happily saluted. Han Xing quickly came to report the progress, guaranteeing the river channel would be cleared before September.
Jinsui saw the piles of black and yellow, foul-smelling mud and told Han Xing that Tuntian Soldiers would come to haul it away soon to fertilize the land.
Han Xing washed her hands and feet and came up to reply. Jinsui looked at the calm river surface, then glanced towards the source, wondering how many mountains and ridges this river had traversed to reach the border city.
Looking towards the East again, she casually asked, “Where does this river flow to?”
Han Xing quickly replied, “It merges into the Bohai Sea.”
Hearing this familiar sea name, Jinsui felt a sense of closeness.
Having transmigrated to another world, even hearing a place name identical to her previous life gave her a feeling of being close to home.
She sighed, “I really want to go and see it!”
Hei Hu was stunned and asked, “See what?”
Cheng Yu walked over unsteadily, “If the Prince wants to go, then go. It’s not far, only a little over a hundred li.”
Jinsui was stunned at first, then asked in surprise, “What did you say?”
Cheng Yu smiled, “I said, this place is only a little over a hundred li from the Bohai Sea, a bit further than Yanzhou City. If the Prince wants to see the sea, just go.”
Jinsui was overjoyed and confirmed with Han Xing, “Really? Have you been there?”
Han Xing didn’t know why the Prince was so happy about seeing the ‘sea’ and quickly smiled:
“We have to clear this river channel all the way to the estuary. We go a few times every year.”
Jinsui called out to Hei Hu, “Let’s go, we’ll go see it today.”
Han Xing said in a tone like coaxing a child:
“Prince, it’s too late today. How about we prepare properly tomorrow, and I’ll escort the Prince.”
They all thought Li King had never seen the sea, which was why he was so excited. But then they heard Li King exclaim excitedly:
“There’s a sea! The border city is so close to the sea, how can we lack salt? How can we lack seafood to eat?”
Cheng Yu thought the Prince was too naive and, fearing he would actually drink seawater, deliberately exaggerated:
“Drinking seawater will kill people!”
Han Xing patiently explained, “Sea salt needs to be boiled, which consumes too much firewood, and the government doesn’t allow the border army to boil salt.”
“Without ships, we can only pick up small seafood by the seaside and gather kelp to eat. The border army can only go a few times a year and can’t bring back much seafood.”
Jinsui felt as if a door to wealth had opened. Li Heng prohibited the border army from going to the seaside, but he couldn’t prohibit Li King!
The entire borderlands, including the estuary, were Li King’s fiefdom.
Others only used the sun-drying salt method, which produced low yields and was costly. But she knew the sun-drying salt method!
By cultivating salt fields, there would be an endless supply of salt.
As for seafood, if we don’t have sea vessels, we’ll build them. Isn’t shallow-water aquaculture delicious?
With over three thousand loyal subordinates, mountains, seas, fields, and pastures, and this space as a cheat, as long as given some time, it would be difficult for the border city not to prosper!
When I’ve fattened up this ‘Li King’ persona and return it to Gu Changxiao, he’ll be so grateful!
Jinsui was too excited to return to the camp. Han Xing, fearing she would run off to see the sea in the middle of the night, stopped digging mud and followed her with Hei Hu.
It wasn’t that Han Xing didn’t trust Hei Hu to keep an eye on the Prince, but rather that Hei Hu was too easily fooled.
Jinsui circled around to the pasturelands outside the pass. Han Xing quickly said:
“There haven’t been any bandits for the past month, but it’s still not safe outside the pass. Prince, please return to the camp quickly!”
Jinsui pointed at the prairie and asked, “There should be many wolves in this area, right? Why don’t you organize people to hunt them?”
Hei Hu pointed to the forest in the east and said, “There are many black bears in there. I told the Prince I’d get him a bear paw to eat, but Brother Han wouldn’t allow it.”
Han Xing glared at him and smiled at Jinsui, “Our weapons are not good enough, and hunting requires encirclement. Otherwise, the soldiers will get injured.”
This was only one reason. Before Li King arrived, the border soldiers had too much hard labor to do, so where would they find the time to go out specifically to hunt?
Jinsui thought of the anesthetic in her space. Combined with Hei Hu’s archery skills, hunting would be a piece of cake!
“It’s not just for meat. We can raise small wild boars, deer, and roe deer. Our border city will open for trade, and these wild game will be an important source of goods.”
Han Xing whispered, “Our border city has insufficient provisions. It’s difficult to even feed the horses.”
Jinsui smiled without speaking. It was too early to boast now. Once the potatoes and sweet potatoes were planted, the border city would no longer lack fodder!
Industries such as animal husbandry, seafood, land reclamation, and salt production all needed to be prepared in advance.
As the three were talking, they suddenly saw Wei Assistant Secretary running towards them, one hand tightly pressing half his face, the other waving vigorously:
“Prince! Prince, quickly return to the camp!”
Jinsui saw his anxious expression and couldn’t immediately tell if it was good news or bad news. She quickly spurred her horse back to the camp.
Halfway there, she heard Wei Assistant Secretary, unable to contain his excitement, say breathlessly, “Great news, Prince.”
Jinsui then stopped and smiled, asking, “Could it be that the Imperial Court has sent an imperial edict?”
She was deliberately teasing Wei Assistant Secretary.
Ever since that memorial reporting safety was sent out, Wei Assistant Secretary had been talking about it every day, wondering when the Emperor would reply to the Prince.
Wei Assistant Secretary shook his head and smiled, “It’s another piece of good news. The head of the Yan Clan has personally come with a generous gift to pay his respects to the Prince.”
Jinsui was stunned for a moment, then turned to ask Han Xing, “Who is the head of the Yan Clan? What good news does his visit bring?”
Wei Assistant Secretary quickly answered, not caring about his toothache, and covering half his face, said happily:
“The Yan Clan is the foremost gentry family in Yanzhou, and ranks among the top three in the entire Sixteen Prefectures of Yandi.”
“The current head of the Yan Clan is Yan Jiulang, known as ‘Jade-Faced Jiulang.’ He is handsome, well-read, and exceptionally talented…”
Jinsui quickly raised her hand to interrupt, “Enough, enough, I’ve only heard of the Jade-Faced Fox!
Don’t the Yanzhou gentry dislike me? Why is he coming?”
Wei Assistant Secretary gave an embarrassed smile, “I asked the head of the Yan family his intentions, and he said he had something to discuss with the Prince.”
Seeing Jinsui’s dismissive attitude, Wei Assistant Secretary earnestly said:
“Prince, you’ve only just arrived in Yanzhou and you’ve already fallen out with the local gentry. This head of the Yan family is actively extending an olive branch. The Prince must seize this opportunity. If you gain the Yan family’s help, the Prince in Yandi…”
Jinsui’s ears were already hurting from these words. She interrupted again:
“Wei Assistant Secretary has a bad tooth. Speak less in the wind. I’ll see him when I see him.”
Was it that she didn’t want to associate with the Yandi gentry? It was clearly the Yandi gentry who didn’t welcome her!
I, the dignified Li King, wouldn’t try to curry favor with you, would I?
Besides, it’s not like I don’t have gentry helping me survive in the borderlands!
Of course, another important reason Jinsui didn’t want to get too close to the local gentry was that she was afraid someone would recognize Li King and expose her as an imposter.
With this thought, on the way back, she passed by the Tuntian Camp and went to see ‘Lord Niu,’ who knew she was an imposter, once more.
My dears, it’s almost the end of the month. Are there any monthly tickets left to cast? Throw them all to Jinsui!
Jinsui held her small basin, waiting for the dears to throw their tickets.
