Actually, everyone didn’t have much of an issue with the academy preferentially treating the flower bears. They just wanted to use this small matter to tell everyone how the academy didn’t pay attention to minor details and wantonly wasted state funds. Someone had calculated that one flower bear’s daily living expenses were four copper coins. In one day, three bears cost twelve copper coins. A year would require forty silver coins to support them. This money was enough to keep a family of three fed and warmly clothed. Now wasting it on wild beasts was extremely unworthy.
By this reasoning, the academy currently had one thousand three hundred students, over two hundred teachers, plus stewards and servants. One could predict this waste was absolutely an astonishing figure. As for the exact number, statistics were still being compiled.
The academy’s cook was nearly scared crazy. When common people entered the Court of Judicial Review, it was like entering the gates of hell. What kind of place was the Court of Judicial Review? It was specifically for trying criminal officials. If he himself had committed a crime, at most he’d enter the county office—that would be incredible enough. Seeing the three officials in the great hall, his legs were so weak he couldn’t stand. In one breath, he revealed all the expenses of raising pandas to the very bottom, and swore oaths that he hadn’t stolen the pandas’ rations.
Censors reported matters based on hearsay. The memorial was only submitted in the morning, and by afternoon, he was already packing to take office in Yazhou. Truly “a memorial reaches the Nine Heavens at dawn, demoted eight thousand li to Yazhou by dusk.” Originally he was to be demoted to Annan to accompany savages, but under Wei Zheng and others’ bitter pleas, he was only demoted to Yazhou.
Impeaching the Emperor wouldn’t be this miserable. As for Crown Prince Li Chengqian, he was like a broken drum—anyone could beat him. Anyone could impeach him. Even impeaching wrongly was fine. Censors—weren’t they supposed to report on hearsay? Those impeached should reform if there was truth, and be vigilant if not.
In Great Tang, there was one person who couldn’t be impeached—Princess Jinyang. The flower bears belonged to Princess Jinyang. Even if they were kept at the academy, they were still Little Princess Jinyang’s. The expenses for raising the flower bears all came from Little Princess Jinyang’s stipend.
From this point, one could see the little girl’s loveliness. Hearing from her nanny that all places had a fixed amount of money, if the academy raised pandas, then three students wouldn’t have food to eat. To prevent the academy students from going hungry, she paid from her own pocket. Every ten days, she personally brought a basket of eggs to see the flower bears. The eggs the cook fed to the flower bears were all brought by the little princess. When it came time for lunch each day, the cook would put in six eggs to nourish the three bears.
So impeaching the academy for extravagant waste was actually impeaching Jinyang. For this misunderstanding, even the Empress didn’t plead for clemency. Ever since Yun Ye and Sun Simiao determined this child couldn’t live long, Li Er and Zhangsun doted on this child even more, unable to tolerate others saying half a dissenting word.
The academy’s cook tremblingly emerged from the Court of Judicial Review. After being frightened for half a month, once half a month passed, he boasted to everyone about his adventure at the Court of Judicial Review.
With Yun Ye and Xu Jingzong at the academy, there was no way to compile statistics on the academy’s assets. Now the Ministry of Revenue no longer hoped to uncover any loopholes—they only wanted to figure out exactly what assets the academy had. After all, Li Er was also curious. Yushan Academy’s massive scale surprised even him, so thoroughly understanding the academy’s details was very important.
Two imperial edicts came down. Yun Ye needed to bring people from the Ministry of Works and the Imperial Workshop to investigate the Great Tang Chang’an Industrial Zone, to see if there was any other potential to tap. Currently, Great Tang’s steel refining, coal mining, coking, casting, forging, and processing had entered a new bottleneck. They needed someone with great wisdom to re-establish standards for these industries. The entire court unanimously believed this work could only be done by Yun Ye.
As for Xu Jingzong, he was to investigate the Ever-Normal Granaries—not only Chang’an’s, but also Luoyang’s, Jinyang’s, and Yangzhou’s Ever-Normal Granaries all needed to be inspected together, to see exactly how great Great Tang’s ability to resist disasters was.
Neither of these assignments could be completed just by moving one’s lips. They required seeing with one’s own eyes, touching with one’s own hands, and both were equally important, not to be neglected.
Yun Ye didn’t want to see the faces of the Five Officers, yet he had to bring four officers along. Currently, the court’s regulations on these details were very strict. As soon as Yun Ye took up his post, the four officers would follow closely and record his every word and deed during this time period. This made Yun Ye very nostalgic for the past happy years when he could complete official business amid wine pools and forests of meat, light songs and graceful dances.
Teachers from the academy who specialized in researching steel and iron needed to be brought along, those researching mining also had to come, master craftsmen were indispensable, and finally adding Old Gongshu formed a super luxurious inspection team.
Xu Jingzong was also quite pleased now. Back when he was alone facing such assignments, they would have worked him to death. Now it wasn’t necessary—students in advanced years studying mathematics and agriculture could be grabbed by the handful. He even brought teachers along, using them as his laborers, calling it beautifully “practical classroom experience.”
The two men cheerfully parted at Ba Bridge with cupped hands—one taking a boat straight down to Jiangnan, the other riding a horse straight to the plateau. Who cared what they had to do? As long as they temporarily weren’t staying at Chang’an, this volcanic crater, everything would be fine. For this reason, Xu Jingzong chose Yangzhou, a thousand li away, as his first inspection site.
If Longshou Plateau was truly a dragon’s head, then the tall chimneys before Yun Ye’s eyes were the small horns on the giant dragon’s head. This was perhaps Great Tang’s tallest building. Yun Ye hadn’t expected that the Tang people could erect a chimney twenty zhang tall here. The enormous waterwheel creaked and groaned, slowly turning, driving thick horizontal beams. Square timbers then drove a smaller gear, decreasing this way. By the time it reached the final gear half a man’s height, it was already spinning rapidly, driving enormous bellows to blow air into the blast furnace. From the small observation hole emerged a foot-long pale blue flame.
Yun Ye’s first stop was the steel refining plant. While listening to the steward explain, he carefully observed the blast furnace’s operation process. The bellows blowing wasn’t ideal—it couldn’t blow continuously. No matter what, there was always a rest period. Just looking at the flames emerging, one could tell—extending and contracting, like breathing.
“Marquis, as you can see, this is how it is. This humble officer and others have already adjusted all joints that could be adjusted. Currently, this is the optimal state. This humble officer believes steel refining still has enormous room for improvement, but the temperature of burning coke is only this high. There are still many impurities in the steel that can’t be refined away. We ladle out these impurities and store them—they should all be good things. When we find better fuel in the future, we can refine them and see exactly what treasures they are.”
The accompanying Teacher Zhou originally came from the Imperial Workshop. He was special talent Yun Ye had poached from there. By his generation, they had been refining steel for a full three hundred years. The method of stir-frying steel wasn’t unfamiliar to him—he just couldn’t understand why frying was necessary to produce good steel. If Yun Ye hadn’t explained to him the role of carbon in it, even after frying steel for another three hundred years, he probably wouldn’t understand the principle.
Three hundred years of steel refining experience had allowed the Zhou Family to accumulate enough experience—they just couldn’t break through that final layer of window paper. After this fellow came to the academy, he had circled around Yun Ye for several months. After squeezing dry Yun Ye’s pitiful steel refining knowledge, he plunged into the small workshop he’d built at the academy, wearing a short jacket, hammering iron blocks all day like a blacksmith.
With Old Zhou’s addition, the academy had already earned considerable money from steel industry giants like the Zhangsun Family. Now suddenly it had slowed down. Wanting to advance an inch was harder than ascending to heaven.
This was the knowledge barrier naturally produced after the new knowledge Yun Ye brought was digested. Chemistry was still at a very primitive stage. Yun Ye could use lime to produce oxygen in the laboratory, but in real life, that bit of oxygen was useless.
Later generations used electric furnaces. Steel plants used coke. To squeeze dry the energy from coke required blowing oxygen. Where would Yun Ye get so much oxygen for them to blow into the furnaces?
Just as they were speaking, ten oxen pulled over the gantry crane. They looked very practiced in their coordination. Once in position, the craftsmen drove the oxen away. Iron hooks held an enormous ladle that slowly descended to the steel outlet.
Then that idiot with his upper body bare shouted, “Steel’s coming!” The steel refining furnace’s gate was opened, and a stream of orange-red molten steel flowed from the outlet, falling into the ladle and splashing up countless steel sparks.
One furnace of steel wasn’t much—it only filled one ladle. In the distance, the herd of oxen continued under the craftsmen’s calls, pulling the heavy gantry toward the casting ground on the other side. A burly man, also bare-chested above, turned the enormous ring on the ladle. The ladle gradually tilted, aimed at the sand mold’s pouring opening, and unhurriedly poured the molten steel in. One had to admit it was skilled work. Before finishing the pour, he stopped. Yun Ye asked Old Zhou in puzzlement why.
“Marquis, now the craftsman is waiting for the air in the mold to escape. Look, when air is heated, it expands. If poured all at once, the air would form air pockets in the casting. Look, the air is coming out.”
Sure enough, a stream of white airflow hissed out from another hole. Yun Ye estimated the temperature of that steam must be terrifyingly high.
The craftsman poured again, not stopping until the steel overflowed the pouring opening. Due to thermal expansion and contraction, always pouring a bit extra was necessary.
The casting didn’t look large because three molds were arranged side by side. Molten steel could be stored for a while in the ladle coated with clay. In less than half an hour, the craftsman had finished pouring all the molten steel from the ladle.
When the burly man rested and picked up an enormous water jar to drink, Yun Ye pointed at his scar-covered upper body and asked, “Why aren’t you wearing the clothes designated for you?”
“Too hot, can’t wear them.” The burly man had just said one sentence when the steel plant steward kicked him in the back of the knee. The burly man looked at the steward with great dissatisfaction, then reluctantly knelt on one knee and cupped his fists in greeting.
“No need for that. This is a work site—don’t show off those vulgar courtesies here. I only ask you, just because it’s hot you can not wear that labor protection equipment? Look at yourself—is there any good skin left on your whole body? Since you’re in this line of work, don’t you know the common sense that molten steel splashes when it meets air?”