On Great Tang’s territorial map, Lingnan had always been a special existence. Ever since Qin Shi Huang dispatched great armies to conquer Lingnan, that narrow, closed, barren land had finally been breached. Three hundred thousand Han people flooded in, bringing fundamental change to Lingnan.

Looking at the sparse few cities on the Lingnan map, Yun Ye couldn’t help but unconsciously recall that famous saying: “When Huguang is ripe, all under heaven is satisfied.”

Those prosperous cities were now still mountains and marshlands. The Two Lakes region was viewed by officials as a dreaded destination, let alone the distant Two Guangs. The court’s presence there was only nominal. In reality, the area was still ruled by local tribes and native kings.

Dialects differed every three li, customs every ten li. Each tribe was a small nation. They had lived generation after generation among the mountains and marshes, isolated from the world, self-farming and self-sufficient. If Great Tang’s Guanzhong could be called the most advanced region in agriculture and industry of this era, then Lingnan was still in the primitive society period of slash-and-burn agriculture.

The Yangtze’s abundant water volume created numerous lakes in the Two Lakes region during this era. It could be said there were marshes everywhere, miasma pervading the wilderness. Not to mention humans being unsuitable for living here—even wild beasts would choose to leave.

The small amounts of land suitable for human habitation were also occupied by those short barbarians. If Yun Ye wanted to develop Lingnan, he had to find another path. Only exiles would go to Lingnan—what good person would go to that godforsaken place?

Guanzhong had long been overpopulated, and the land, after a thousand years of cultivation, was already utterly barren. Great Tang’s land allocation system would sooner or later completely divide up Guanzhong. Wei Zheng was the first to propose the idea of moving Guanzhong’s people to fill the frontier. The result was that as soon as he proposed it, he was struck down and heavily trampled by ten thousand feet.

The fearless Wei Zheng, after failing to obtain even one person’s support, could only abandon this highly forward-looking proposal.

Great Tang’s population was too small—less than two million eight hundred thousand households. The north alone accounted for two million households, while the remaining eight hundred thousand households were scattered sparsely across Great Tang’s vast wilderness.

Those native kings were quite interesting. They somehow learned that as long as they pledged allegiance to the Central Plains emperor, there would be endless benefits to enjoy. This was actually true—the Emperor was always extraordinarily lenient toward voluntary surrenders from regions he couldn’t control.

The ministers would also consider this a merit of civil governance, far more glorious than military conquest. The so-called “Emperor widely spreads virtue and grace, benevolently receiving submission from all directions”—such strange words.

Although he didn’t know the meaning of that phrase from military strategy, “to subdue the enemy without fighting,” Yun Ye knew that in feudal dynasties, what ultimately decided fate was always a war. Subduing the enemy without fighting might be the highest military principle, but documented successful examples were truly too few.

No one in court would agree to such a foolish decision as sending troops to Lingnan. After expending vast amounts of money and lives, the harvest would only be a large expanse of wilderness even ghosts wouldn’t visit. Except for Qin Shi Huang, who harbored the ideal of unifying all under heaven, no one was willing to fight for ideals.

Li Anlan dreamed of having her own domain. To maximize the realization of her will, she was willing to exchange everything she had.

If she didn’t have Yun Ye to threaten, she actually didn’t reject Meng Shezhao. That thunderstorm night that terrified her to the extreme made her understand she actually had nothing. As long as there was someone who could help her realize her dreams, she didn’t want to miss them.

Yun Ye might be a clever person, but he was a clever person without great ambitions. He focused solely on his academy, preferring to huddle in Yushan raising pigs rather than take one more step toward court. This disappointed Li Anlan extremely—what she craved, Yun Ye couldn’t give her.

Ever since entrusting matters to Yun Ye, Li Anlan had completely relaxed. She and Little Lingdang had already begun preparing luggage for the journey.

While Yun Ye stared foolishly at maps, Tang Jian was trembling. Those native kings were angrily smashing everything breakable in their bedrooms. The porcelain they’d been so fond of yesterday was shattered into small fragments on the floor.

Meng Shezhao shook the door, hoarsely shouting for Tang Jian to return the worry-forgetting grass that had been confiscated. Light yellow sweat soaked through his clothing, and his dark face became crazed and fierce.

Tang Jian, standing in the courtyard with eyes closed, felt waves of dizziness that made him almost unable to stand. Swaying, he was supported by officials to sit on a low couch under the eaves.

The roars in the rooms gradually lowered, turning into pleading voices. From the interpreter’s mouth, Tang Jian received information that was no different from what Yun Ye had described. To obtain worry-forgetting grass, the native kings offered condition after condition that Tang Jian wouldn’t dare dream of.

“Unable to live, unable to die—this is a hell flower, truly a hell flower. Only demons could cultivate such a terrifying thing.” Tang Jian’s back was also soaked with sweat. The draft wind blowing through sent chills throughout his body.

Calling over an old family servant, he instructed: “Go home and find Madam. Have her pack the family’s bright moon jade pendant in the finest box and have Shanshi personally deliver it to the Yun family. The courtesies must be fully observed—no matter what, you must ask Marquis Yun to accept it.”

The old servant was puzzled. The bright moon jade pendant had always been the young master’s treasure, rarely shown to others. Now it was to be respectfully given away. He looked up at his master, saw him sitting with eyes closed and silent, so he could only bow and hurry home to tell the old mistress this news.

The old servant didn’t see that his master’s little finger kept trembling.

Taking a deep breath, Tang Jian used a wooden box to pack a large piece of opium and ordered officials to surround the guesthouse completely—not even a bird was permitted to fly out. He himself boarded a carriage and hurriedly drove toward the imperial palace.

Looking at the opium in the box, Li Er didn’t seem very surprised. He said to Tang Jian: “My dear minister worries too much. If it were you all presenting this to me, when my headache and wind disease flared up, I would certainly use such a miraculous medicine, and perhaps such a scheme would succeed. But they found several native monkeys to present the medicine—do you think I would let them have their way?”

Looking at the trembling Tang Jian, Li Er spoke gentle words of comfort.

“This matter is a failing of the Bai Qi Si and has nothing to do with you, Minister. That you could expose this matter amid your busy schedule shows that describing you as meticulous is most appropriate. With Minister Tang here, I have no worries.”

“Your Majesty truly overestimates this humble minister. This matter was first exposed by Princess Anlan. This humble minister merely enjoyed the fruits of her labor. I request Your Majesty issue a decree to commend the princess.”

Tang Jian was quite trustworthy—what he promised Yun Ye, he completed meticulously.

“Anlan first exposed this matter? How is that possible? She’s long dwelled in the deep palace—how would she recognize this thing? Even I’m hearing of it for the first time. How would she know? Minister Tang, there’s no need to claim merit for others. What exactly happened? Speak quickly.”

“Marquis of Lantian Yun Ye came to visit the Court of State Ceremonial and inadvertently discovered this item. He told this humble minister and used this matter to threaten me, swindling away my family’s bright moon jade pendant. Finally, he told this humble minister that this matter was discovered by the princess and had nothing to do with him.”

If Yun Ye were here, he would definitely strangle Tang Jian to death to vent his fury.

“Hehe, visiting your Court of State Ceremonial? More like he wanted to strangle Meng Shezhao to death. That useless daughter of mine would recognize this thing? And casually pinning credit on someone—does she think rewards from my Great Tang can be claimed by just anyone? Minister Tang, withdraw. This matter will be handled by the Bai Qi Si. Hand over all the criminals to Hong Cheng. These days, the Bai Qi Si has been too lax.”

Leaving Taiji Palace, Tang Jian finally let out a long breath. Li Er’s meaningful words had left him not daring to hide anything just now. He mentally said sorry to Yun Ye, but just thinking of the ancestral bright moon jade pendant, that trace of guilt was immediately drowned by piercing pain.

As an engineer by training, what Yun Ye most loved to see were bustling construction sites, especially the Yun family estate’s construction teams working in an orderly manner—most pleasing to watch.

The Yun family tenants, wearing coarse cloth short tops and long pants, bustled continuously at the construction site. Some were digging wells—this was to prepare water for the site. Because they now had some cement, building houses required large amounts of water. Chang’an’s terrain was relatively high, making digging a well difficult. Moreover, more than half the wells produced salt water that couldn’t be drunk. So in Chang’an, residences with sweet water wells cost much more than other houses.

The Jinshui River that flowed through had become utterly filthy after flowing through half of Chang’an city. Chang’an residents simply dumped their household wastewater into the river, making half the city reek. It was comparable to Beijing’s Longxugou in later times.

What was terrible was that many people still relied on this stinking ditch’s water for washing clothes and cooking. Yun Ye had personally witnessed upstream households scrubbing chamber pots while downstream people washed vegetables and cooked in that river water.

Covering his mouth and looking back at the Yun family servants—servants who were already intimately familiar with their master’s psychology—they looked disdainfully at the household washing vegetables in dirty water and said to Yun Ye with raised heads: “My lord, if our household also made you drink dirty water, we servants should be dragged out and beaten to death. The water the masters drink is hauled back daily by our family’s water carts from springs outside the city. Even the water we servants drink is well water from home. Our household’s rule is water isn’t drunk unless boiled. Who’s like them drinking any water? I’ve seen them drink rainwater from donkey hoofprints—a bunch of filthy ghosts.”

Now the Yun family servants had sufficient reason to mock their former neighbors. Three sets of work clothes a year, even the hemp cloth servant uniforms—spring had spring robes, summer had summer wear, winter had fur coats—far beyond what those poor households wearing one outfit for several years could compare to.

Except for more rules that made people somewhat unaccustomed—like not drinking raw water, not spitting anywhere, having to bathe once every three days—after punishing a few people at the start, to keep their copper coins from being taken back by the master, servants slowly formed habits. Now no matter how thirsty, no one would drink that raw water. No matter how tired, they would take a bath. Now seeing those disheveled old acquaintances, they didn’t want to greet them, fearing it would lower their status.

This wouldn’t do. No wonder plagues in Chang’an city had never ceased—there were fully sixteen recorded instances in history alone.

The Yun family tenants also didn’t have the habit of drinking raw water. The household continuously sent cooled boiled water to the construction site. Each person had a large bamboo tube—once filled, it was enough for a day’s drinking. These country folk also began to look down on city people they used to look up to.