Chapter 261: Episode 153: Wrong Everywhere, Right Everywhere
Yun Ce took the book clamped under Feng An’s arm, glanced at the title, and gave it back to him.
The book was《Advanced Mathematics》.
“Have you been reading this book lately?”
Feng An smiled and said, “Huo Liao claims to have understood some of it.”
Yun Ce thought this was Huo Liao talking nonsense; not to mention anything else, just the symbols in the book alone, even if Huo Liao were a supreme scholar, he couldn’t possibly understand them.
“Better not to read it anymore; read something else, maybe you’ll gain something.”
Feng An shook his head and said, “If you don’t understand it, don’t learn it—that’s not the way to seek knowledge.”
“The problem is, if you don’t understand, you should seek guidance from those who do. Knowing you don’t know but not asking—that’s also not the way to seek knowledge.”
Feng An looked at Yun Ce and said, “The problem is that Huo Liao understands it.”
Yun Ce sighed, first looking at those arrogant women in the camp and the men like lapdogs, then at Feng An the stubborn donkey; for the first time, he began to doubt whether his dream of relying on these people to build Yun City was correct.
1 “Qua—”
1 A Black Feathered Eagle took off from flat ground in a sprouting onion style, circled a few times in the air, then shot straight into the clear sky like an arrow until it became a small black dot, then began diving, its form enlarging again; just when it seemed about to crash to the ground and die, it spread its wings and flew level along the horizon.
1 Yun Ce covered his face with both hands; he had been very much looking forward to this eagle’s growth, but he hadn’t anticipated it growing into this neurotic-like state.
1 The Red Date Horse chased after the Black Feathered Eagle…
1 Yun Ce spent a full day inspecting the development of Yun Clan Villa; first, he checked the granary. The granary on the manor was enormous, filled with grain that couldn’t fit in the Jin Suo Pass warehouse storage. Without careful inspection, just roughly gauging the height, length, and width of the grain piles gave a general figure.
1 Just the stored grain in Yun Clan Villa was enough to feed the entire Yun Clan for three years, not to mention the even larger quantity stored in Jin Suo Pass.
1 This was just one year’s output. Yun Ce thought that if the world were at peace, after the Yun Clan planted grain for two more years, there would be no need to plant grain for the next dozen or so years.
1 It was laughable: nowadays, grain supply was extremely tight in many places south of the Great Wall, yet at Yun Clan Villa north of the Great Wall, people were worrying about having too much grain.
1 Feng An had already begun working on converting the grain, one method being winemaking. The winemaking process was provided by Doggy, but the brewing yeast came from Wu Tong in Chang’an.
1 Doggy studied the brewing yeast of Great Han lands; the ancient nature of the yeast strains here shocked Doggy, even traceable back to the Western Han.
2 Doggy reached this conclusion, which in Yun Ce’s view was an obvious result: wine existed in the Yellow Emperor era, and the earliest brewing yeast was made from spicy grass.
2 This thing had been used for many years; by the Han Dynasty, spicy grass was still used to make brewing yeast, so Great Han’s brewing yeast undoubtedly also used spicy grass. However, this plant might not exist on Great Han lands, so substitutes were certainly used.
2 Precisely because the substitutes were unknown, they asked Wu Tong to send some brewing yeast over. Once Doggy analyzed it, in the future, the villa could brew wine without buying expensive brewing yeast.
2 That’s right: in Great Han lands, they couldn’t enforce a salt and iron monopoly, so they enforced an alcohol monopoly, and the core of the alcohol monopoly was the brewing yeast monopoly.
2 The best grain for winemaking was naturally sorghum, which happened to grow in Yongzhou; outside Yongzhou, no other states had a single stalk. Even if busybodies transplanted sorghum to other states, it wouldn’t grow, and even if it did, it wouldn’t produce seeds.
2 Yun Ce suspected Shehuo was behind it.
2 Speaking of which, the people in Yun Clan Villa seemed unreliable, yet this group of unreliable people had made the entire Yun Clan prosper.
2 Every task was carried out methodically, neither panicked nor lax. After Yun Ce’s inspection, he had to admit everything was under control.
2 “It’s just not good-looking, not beautiful!”
2 Feng An, who had followed Yun Ce on the day’s inspection and found no issues when Yun Ce checked, gave his own work an unsatisfactory verdict.
3 “Where is it unsuitable, where is it not beautiful?”
3 Seeing Yun Ce press the question, Feng An sighed and said, “Everything is not to my liking, yet everything achieves the goal. Many things are done rigidly, abruptly, without any beauty—not like the book says ‘governance should be like flowing water’.”
3 Yun Ce didn’t know the source of ‘governance should be like flowing water’, but from the literal meaning, he could see that the highest requirement of Great Han politics was that ruling should be as smooth as water.
3 Politics itself means management, and management itself violates human nature. Now, to demand that a management system violating human nature be executed as smooth as water—how is that possible?
3 “Liang Kun’s governance in Xiangcheng has now entered a critical period. If his merchant recruitment plan succeeds this time, Xiangcheng will have a chance to become a commercial town in Pingzhou.
3 But Liang Kun insists on keeping Xiangcheng’s commerce in his own hands. When he executes the close the door and beat the dog strategy, I’m worried his previous merchant recruitment work will go down the drain.”
3 Feng An walked while advising Yun Ce.
3 Yun Ce said softly, “Great Han gives too much power to merchants; giant merchants emerge endlessly, profiting immensely from buying and selling. In this way, merchants will sooner or later threaten the government officials’ rule.
3 In my view, businesses concerning livelihood should be controlled by the government officials, not run by merchants themselves.”
3 Feng An nodded and said, “I understand; this is the legal basis for Liang Kun’s future close the door and beat the dog strategy in Xiangcheng. Since the lord suppresses the lawless with authority everywhere, why does the lord advise Qin Shu and then ignore him?
4 According to He Qingfang, the only army the lord is satisfied with now is those thirty-six children with red triangle scarves tied around their necks.”
4 Yun Ce said, “In another five years, Qin Shu, He Qingfang, and the five hundred cavalrymen they command will return home. Among the people under our rule, we can’t select qualified soldiers, so cultivating children from a young age is our only way out.”
4 Feng An said, “We can’t have five years of such peaceful times. Qin Shu and the others have proposed a new idea to the lord through me, hoping the lord will adopt it.”
4 Yun Ce nodded and said, “Mercenaries? Zhang Min already told me. You can tell Qin Shu that I agree with this suggestion. I permit them to use money and grain to recruit five thousand warriors from Iron Enclosure Pass or the world.”
4 A smile appeared on Feng An’s face; he stood, saluted Yun Ce, and went straight to handle the matter.
4 Watching Feng An’s back, Yun Ce believed that with their efficiency, soon Yun Clan Villa would have a mercenary force that wasn’t too good but definitely not weak.
4 When Yun Ce returned to the manor, E Ji had also returned, but she was dizzy and groggy, her little face flushed, and reeking of alcohol.
4 “The wife inspected the winery today and became like this after only half the inspection.”
4 An Ji, reporting the matter to Yun Ce, was also swaying side to side, clearly drunk.
4 “Did you go to the alcohol workshop today?”
5 “Yeah, yeah, we started with brewing, then watched distilling; while watching, the wife started acting strange.”
5 An Ji was indeed very off; she was supposed to attend to E Ji for bedtime, but instead kept circling Yun Ce, finally collapsing into his arms as if overcome by alcohol.
5 Looking down, Yun Ce quickly looked away; this naughty girl, to seduce him, wasn’t even wearing a chest wrap, just a loosely tied stomach band inside, the beautiful view fully exposed.
5 Yun Ce picked up E Ji, tucked her into the quilt, thought for a moment, then picked up An Ji and tucked her into the quilt too. He prepared warm water for them and left, closing the door.
5 As soon as Yun Ce left, E Ji opened her eyes and looked at the cowering An Ji. “Didn’t you say this trick works well?”
5 An Ji said aggrievedly, “The women in the mansion before always succeeded with this trick.”
5 E Ji threw off the quilt and sat up abruptly, pounding the quilt twice. “Zhang Min succeeded again.”
5 Yun Ce arrived at Zhang Min’s room and found her sitting in a chair waiting for him. Seeing her mouth twitch about to mock, Yun Ce immediately said, “If you want to sarcasm me, I’ll leave right now.”
5 Zhang Min changed her words. “Haven’t you noticed your big wife has been too much lately?”
5 Yun Ce spread his hands. “I’ve only been back ten days.”
6 “She’s becoming more and more like a vixen, and you fall for it every time.”
6 Yun Ce hugged Zhang Min and said, “Letting her succeed is less trouble than not; better to let her have her way. She’s a big-bellied woman about to give birth; now she’s just suspicious and insecure, which I think is already good. Using some harmless tricks on me, I can completely understand and am willing to let her succeed to keep her in a pleasant mood.”
6 “What about me? I’m also big-bellied, always made her target.”
6 “So I come to comfort you every time.”
6 Yun Ce didn’t understand where he’d gone wrong again; Zhang Min butted his back with her head, driving him out of the bedroom.
6 Fortunately, the moonlight was good tonight; Yun Ce could drink alone under it. He’d only drunk one pot of wine, half of which the Red Date Horse drank, and his drinking mood hadn’t even risen when the two big-bellied women who’d driven him out invited him back to sleep.
6 Deciding whose room to return to and sleep with was a profound question, so Yun Ce, overcome by alcohol, sprawled on the stone table, preparing to sleep with the Red Date Horse tonight.
