EES - Chapter 34

Chapter 34

Liu Bushi's matter was merely an interlude. After it passed, An Lin quickly settled into an even busier rhythm. Memorials from across the realm began arriving in Qiong'an like snowflakes, more than doubling the volume from a few months prior.

Because July had arrived.

It was well known that around July was the peak season for floods and droughts. While high temperatures and abundant rainfall could maximize rice growth, heavy precipitation easily triggered flooding, washing away fields and damaging dikes was commonplace.

Measures to prevent floods and droughts had already been discussed through several rounds during morning court.

The fruits of the various ministries' hard work to boost their performance metrics were beginning to show in these discussions. An Lin sat at the top, listening to officials from each ministry and bureau debate for quite some time. Once they wore themselves out, she finally spoke up. "How many irrigation waterwheels and curved-shaft ploughs has the Ministry of Works produced?"

Hearing those two names, some insiders couldn't help but exchange strange looks. This project had originally been ordered by An Lin to continue after Liu Guanglin's degree was revoked following the Authorship Disputation at the Imperial Academy, and she had assigned Song Ling to optimize it. Upon hearing the emperor's question, the Vice Minister of Works stepped forward to answer. "In response to Your Majesty's inquiry, we have produced one hundred twenty irrigation waterwheels and one hundred seventy curved-shaft ploughs."

Compared to the nation's total farmland, this number was indeed a drop in the bucket, completely insufficient. However, An Lin never intended for the Ministry of Works to manufacture everything and distribute it in one step anyway. So upon hearing the figures, she said nothing further, simply issuing an order: "This year's Agricultural Extension Officers, when departing for their respective prefectures, counties, and districts, are to carry one set of waterwheel and plough components each. They must also commit the assembly methods to memory."

The Director of Agriculture from the Bureau of Agriculture acknowledged the order.

"Furthermore, multiple sections of the Liang River in Liangxiang, the Qiuqu Weir in Yue Mountain Prefecture, and the Kuitang Weir in Bu Commandery are blocked by accumulated river sand. All local administrations must promptly assign personnel to clear them. Additionally, Quxian County suffers from inadequate irrigation and requires the construction of irrigation dams to ensure sufficient water supply for the next three months. Minister Lu (Minister of Works), upon returning today, your ministry should make the extra effort to determine the most suitable location for building such a dam in Quxian based on field surveys and maps."

An Lin had barely finished speaking when, unexpectedly, the Minister of Works had already prepared himself. Stepping forward confidently, he replied, "In response to Your Majesty, our ministry completed the survey for the optimal dam site in Quxian seven days ago. Please take a look, Your Majesty..."

Minister Lu drew a map of Quxian County from his sleeve and unfurled it. Three circles drawn with ink on the map formed a perfect isosceles triangle when connected.

The Minister of Works stroked his beard. "If we construct an irrigation dam at each of these three locations, all the farmland in Quxian County will be irrigated. Not just for three months, not even for three years: we'll have no worries!"

"Excellent." An Lin looked closely and smiled in satisfaction.

What was this called?

This was called official initiative.

Who said working overtime for performance metrics didn't count as effective overwork?

Seeing their sovereign's pleased and appreciative expression, and then glancing at the minister's pre-prepared map, other courtiers couldn't help but develop a new understanding of effective overwork.

A few days later, the Agricultural Extension Officers dispatched by the Bureau of Agriculture to various regions departed with the first batch of newly manufactured waterwheels and ploughs, heavy wooden items that needed to be transported by donkey carts and assembled on-site. No one expected the officers to push a plough while carrying a waterwheel on their shoulders as they set out.

---

In recent days, the county magistrate of Liangxiang had been deeply troubled, his usually prosperous face slick with sweat.

Probably mostly from the heat.

The weather wasn't just hot for people; the land was parched too. Despite decent rainfall recently, the ground dried up almost immediately after the rain stopped. Lately, village heads from nearby settlements had been coming daily to report that their fields lacked water, asking him to decide what to do.

But he couldn't conjure water out of thin air. Today he took the yamen constables to one village to help dig channels for irrigation, and tomorrow he'd have to go to another. Before long, the county magistrate was practically a seasoned ditch-digger, having lost who knows how many pounds of flesh.

Today, the magistrate arrived at the county office early. The village heads hadn't come yet. After finishing a bowl of hot minced-meat noodles in the morning, the rising heat made his stomach feel heavy and nauseous, so he downed several cups of water just to suppress the taste.

"Assistant Magistrate Zhou," he asked, "how many villages have we visited up to today?"

"Seven, Your Excellency," replied Zhou Bokang, the assistant magistrate addressed as such, without looking up. His hand held a brush, diligently recording something in a ledger on the desk.

"Seven..." The magistrate counted on his fingers. "Then the ones arriving today should be from Taqiu Village. That's a bit far from the county town. Tell everyone to buy some flatbread before setting out, so they can eat when hungry."

Zhou Bokang didn't reply this time. His brush tip lingered on the ledger for a moment before tentatively noting down "Taqiu Village".

But today, neither the magistrate nor the assistant magistrate, nor anyone else in the yamen, expected the first visitors to be village heads. Instead, it was an Agricultural Extension Officer from Qiong'an.

The magistrate's feelings toward the officer's arrival were complicated. Sometimes he hoped they would come, sometimes he didn't.

In previous years, whenever an extension officer came, they would say nothing and immediately pull out several sacks of seeds, claiming they were new improved varieties cultivated by the Bureau of Agriculture. They'd ask him to arrange planting in Liangxiang's fields and record the growth and yield rates.

The problem was, while the officer brought the seeds, the actual task of persuading farmers to plant them still fell to the Liangxiang yamen.

Farmers whose existing seeds were working fine rarely dared to blindly switch to new varieties. Without the capacity to withstand natural disasters, peasants who relied entirely on their harvests to survive year-round simply lacked the courage to experiment. Unsold improved seeds inevitably ended up planted on the yamen's state farmlands, with profits and losses borne by the officials.

Nevertheless, the magistrate went out to greet the Agricultural Extension Officer who had traveled all the way from Qiong'an.

This time, the officer was different from previous years, a much younger man. Arriving at the yamen gate, the young officer didn't wait for anyone to help him unload the piles of wooden items from the donkey cart. He did it himself, sweating profusely but wearing a bright, open smile.

"What are these things?" the magistrate glanced at the pile of wood on the ground.

"We have been ordered by Your Majesty to promote new farming tools," the officer explained, running his hand over the smooth wood. "There are two types inside: one is a simple plough for tilling, and the other is an irrigation waterwheel. I heard that Liangxiang's farmlands face significant inconvenience regarding irrigation?"

"Ah, yes," the magistrate replied blankly. "The water sources in Liangxiang sit at a lower elevation than the fields. Except for villages naturally crossed by rivers and lakes, other fields require digging channels, but farmers still have to manually carry water up and pour it into the ditches."

The officer listened, a hint of concern crossing his face, but soon offered a reassuring smile. "Do not worry. This waterwheel is perfectly suited to handle exactly this situation!"

The assistant magistrate also looked at the pile of wooden items. "These things? Can they really work?"

"Of course," the officer said. "However, time is tight. Qiong'an couldn't produce enough waterwheels and ploughs in time. I only brought one set of each this time. To solve Liangxiang's irrigation crisis, we'll need local craftsmen organized to mass-produce them. Magistrate, you see..."

The magistrate called upon felt a slight panic. Is this reliable? he muttered inwardly.

Relying on the yamen to organize craftsmen meant extra expense. The yamen's budget was already strained. Commissioning a large batch of new gadgets would be a significant expenditure. If they turned out useless and gathered dust, they wouldn't be able to pay salaries for months.

Just as the magistrate was about to tactfully suggest testing the results first, opening his mouth to begin, an old man leaning on a cane shuffled into the yamen gate. His voice reached them before he did. "Magistrate! Our village's fields are running out of water. Please come take a look!"

Interrupted, the magistrate instantly forgot what he was going to say. Instinctively, he looked toward the gate.

The village head of Taqiu Village had arrived.

At this point, Assistant Magistrate Zhou Bokang's mind raced faster than the magistrate's. Seeing the elderly village head stumbling in, remembering the grueling days just a few days prior when even a civil clerk like him had to shoulder a hoe and help dig ditches, and noticing how clearly interested the extension officer was in the sudden visitor, he spoke up. "Since this is the case, might I suggest the Agricultural Officer accompany us to Taqiu Village? It would be the perfect opportunity to test these two new tools. What do you think?"

"Ah? I'm fine with that." The officer thought for a moment, then politely asked the magistrate, "Magistrate Wang, may I join you?"

"Naturally, naturally!"

Receiving his answer, the young officer loaded the previously unloaded waterwheel and plough parts back onto the donkey cart, and together with the magistrate and assistant magistrate, headed to Taqiu Village.

By the time they reached Taqiu Village, Magistrate Wang realized the farmland conditions there were even worse than he had imagined.

Unlike the villages that had asked the yamen to dig ditches in previous days, Taqiu Village had actually dug their channels beforehand. The problem was distance. The village was simply too far from the water source. Even with ditches dug, the soil remained only slightly damp. Water for the paddy fields was carried up bucket by bucket by human labor. Essentially, a farmer could only irrigate less than two mu of land per day using manpower. Only households with more family members and laborers could manage a few extra mu.

"The water level is significantly lower this year," the magistrate observed, letting out a sigh.

"Indeed," the Taqiu village head said anxiously. "If the weather gets any hotter, the speed of drawing water won't even catch up with the rate of water loss. We've tried collecting rainwater, but it doesn't last long."

"The slope here is too steep. When rainfall is sufficient, it's not noticeable, but once the water drops, the flow cuts off easily," the officer noted, walking several mu out along the fields. After assessing the situation, he asked, "Have you tried digging a channel to divert water from the lower-lying fields at the edge?"

The magistrate couldn't help but glance sideways.

It seemed this extension officer was truly different from the last one. Was he actually knowledgeable about farming?

"The soil over there is poor. The water won't rise even if we try," the village head shook his head.

"How about this, Elder Village Head. Find me a few able-bodied men to give me a hand," the officer said confidently after a moment's thought. "Install this waterwheel I brought at the bottom of the slope, with one end near the upper channel we already dug. The height difference will allow it to lift the water up."

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