Chapter 901
Agricultural Tool Improvement
Cao Jixiang was more shrewd than all the civil and military officials. Among the eunuchs, he was the most loyal and upright. However, he was still better at reading people's expressions and understanding the times than the civil and military officials.
When the late emperor died and the new emperor ascended the throne, he knew his fate was sealed.
The late emperor still had feelings for him. If he worked hard and made meritorious contributions, he might be transferred back to the capital. Does the new emperor even know who he is?
They, as eunuchs, were different from the civil and military officials. They were somewhat like the concubines in the harem, where they only heard the laughter of new concubines and never heard the cries of old ones.
So, after thinking about it all night, he made a snap decision to win over Pan Yun.
Times have changed. Who made Pan Yun the Imperial Advisor?
He has been looking for an opportunity.
He was very patient, and he waited for two months.
After the Zhejiang anti-pirate army achieved a great victory, Quanzhou Guard also destroyed two pirate ships, but compared with the Zhejiang anti-pirate army's achievements, it was really not worth mentioning.
Cao Jixiang had long disliked Quanzhou Guard, and he knew that Pan Yun also disliked them.
So when he submitted two memorials, he also secretly wrote a letter to Pan Yun.
The letter praised Miaozhen, Miaohe, and Tao Yanbai repeatedly. The Zhejiang anti-Japanese naval forces and Quanzhou garrison were able to achieve a great victory this time, and the disciples of Longhu Mountain Academy, led by Miaozhen, deserved a lot of credit. If it weren't for their help in gathering information and adjusting firearms, this naval battle would not have been so easy to win.
He said, "The pirates that were wiped out were called pirates, but in reality they were the Japanese navy."
He added, “The Japanese are untrustworthy. They have already sold the mountains around Omori Township to our Great Ming for the purpose of pacifying the people, but now they want to go back on their word and forcibly drive out our Han people. I heard that thanks to the Taoist priests Miaozhen and others who led people to provide support, otherwise the Han people in Omori Township would have been massacred.”
Anyway, the letter praised Miaozhen and the other two repeatedly, only mentioning Chen Wen of Quanzhou Garrison at the end, saying: "In my opinion, apart from Chen Wen, everyone in Quanzhou Garrison is an incompetent fool. They were in a great position, but Ningbo Garrison took the lead. Jiang Fangzheng, a big incompetent fool, raised a bunch of little incompetent fools. Now that Jiang Fangzheng is gone, they are even more like headless flies. Quanzhou Garrison should have been reorganized long ago..."
Cao Jixiang's words implied that besides recommending himself, he was also recommending Chen Wen.
Pan Yun closed the letter, casually tossed it into the brazier, and hugged the curled-up Pan Xiaohei to keep warm: "He has realized that my relationship with Chen Wen is unusual."
Pan Xiaohei: "Are you going to help him?"
Pan Yun shook his head: "I do not actively participate in court politics."
Pan Xiaohei rolled her eyes at her; that was just something to fool others. Wasn't it her idea that Xue Shao was secretly giving Deng Maoqi advice?
But Pan Yun had a good persona; in the emperor's eyes, she was a woman of her word. If he didn't ask, she would never bring up politics.
Her favorite thing to do was to go to the weapon workshops of the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Works to study weapons and various tools with the craftsmen.
In the end, they didn't build the cannon, but they did build a windmill and improved the plow and various farm tools.
The plow used in the Ming Dynasty was already a curved plow, but Pan Jun felt that it could be made even more labor-saving and dig deeper, so he made some minor modifications to the data, such as slightly modifying the curvature of the plowshare and the plowshare, and making the plowshare into different triangles according to different farming needs.
For example, in the north, because the land is arid and the soil is relatively hard, triangles with a 45-degree angle are formed, while in the south, because the soil is looser, triangles with a 60-degree angle are formed.
Wind-powered waterwheels also worked well; they conducted experiments in the suburbs of Beijing.
The wind is strong in the north. When the wind blows, the fan blades turn, and the waterwheel starts to whir, carrying the river water upwards. In one night, it can irrigate nearly a hundred acres of land.
The people from the Ministry of Works were excited, and the people from the Ministry of Agriculture were also excited, but only for a moment, and everyone soon sighed.
Pan Yun couldn't help but ask, "Why are you sighing?"
"Your Excellency, you may not know this, but although the tool has been developed, it still needs to be promoted by local county governments before it can be used by the general public, but..."
“But some are diligent, and some are not. The Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Agriculture provide a lot of agricultural tools to various places every year, but only about seventy are actually usable, and of those, only about half are used by ordinary people.” Pan Yun: “That’s 35% of the total, right? What do they do with the rest?”
"Thirty percent of them were left to gather dust in the warehouse, and another thirty-five percent were used by county officials or taken away at low prices by gentry and landlords. Ordinary people would not even have heard of them, let alone use them."
How could that be? She was thinking that they should quickly increase production and improve labor efficiency to free up more labor and help the whole country enter a technological society so she could enjoy life. How could she be defeated by a group of inactive county officials?
Pan Yun sat on the palace road that Yu Qian always passed on his way home from get off work, holding a bunch of blueprints and sighing.
Yu Qian had already seen her, but he walked past her without looking at her.
Pan Yun sighed.
Yu Qian had already taken seven or eight steps when he couldn't help but pause. After a moment of silence, he turned around and walked back, stopping in front of her.
Pan Yun smiled, looked up, and pointed to the stone opposite him, saying, "Lord Yu, please have a seat."
Yu Qian glanced at the stone on the ground, felt it looked familiar, and asked, "This stone..."
"I just casually brought it from the palace, and I find it very comfortable to sit on."
Yu Qian's lips trembled slightly, unable to speak, and he silently sat down opposite her.
He glanced at the drawings in her hand and asked, "What is this?"
"This is a matter of people's livelihood."
Yu Qian frowned slightly, reached out and took the blueprints, and began to carefully examine them.
He wasn't a levitation person; one could tell at a glance that these were all tools used for farming.
He looked at Pan Yun in surprise: "Isn't the Imperial Advisor researching weapons in the Ministry of War?"
“I designed a furnace for them that can smelt steel, but it can’t be built in a short time. I saw that the Ministry of Works next door was very lively, so I went to join in the fun and discovered these good things.” Pan Yun praised the officials and master craftsmen of the Ministry of Works without reservation: “You gentlemen and craftsmen are very capable. These are all things that are of great benefit to the people.”
Yu Qian nodded slightly: "That's good, what worries does the Imperial Preceptor have?"
Pan Yun described the current situation, then shook his head and sighed, "Thoughts determine actions. Indeed, the political ideology of officials in our Great Ming Dynasty still needs improvement. If an official doesn't serve the people, he might as well go home and farm. I know that among such a large number of officials, there will inevitably be one or two who slack off, but I didn't expect it to be this serious. At the lowest level, only 35% of county officials know how to promote agricultural tools. And what about the higher up..."
Yu Qian's face was gloomy, and he said in a deep voice, "The Grand Preceptor is right, it is indeed time to rectify the bureaucracy."
Pan Yun smiled with satisfaction and stood up.
Yu Qian casually rolled up the blueprints and put them in his pocket, then stood up.
Pan Yun waved his hand casually, and the stone on the ground disappeared. Yu Qian's eyebrows twitched, but he pretended not to see it.
After Pan Yun became the Imperial Preceptor, the rules of the Celestial Master's Mansion and the Daoist Records Office were rendered meaningless to her.
Pan Yun bowed and left.
Yu Qian stood there for a while before leaving. (End of Chapter)