At the Xie Manor in Jiangning, the usual sophisticated atmosphere was gone, replaced by the scene of a brewing conspiracy.
Wang Ruhai, Patriarch Zhao, and Patriarch Ouyang—the three great magnates of Jiangnan—sat around a circular table, their faces uglier than if they had just swallowed dead flies. Xie An gripped the secret letter in his hand so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
"That old geezer from the Xu family sold us out," Xie An's voice was hoarse and grating. "The new tax policy of merging the poll tax into the land tax—this knife is already at our throats."
"Then what do we do? That Xu girl is holding the Imperial Sword of Authority, and that mad dog Xiao Jingxing is right outside!" Wang Ruhai slapped his thigh anxiously. "Fight them head-on? How could our private troops ever defeat the Black Armor Guards?"
"Fighting head-on is courting death. We have to play dirty."
Xie An stood up and walked to the window. Looking at the sky outside, his tone dripped with malice.
"Doesn't Xu Qinghuan want to implement her new policies? Doesn't she want the commoners to live good lives? Fine, let's help her achieve that."
Xie An sneered, turned around, and held up a single finger. "Pass down the order. Pick out the most barren land we own, along with the poorest tenant farmers attached to those fields."
"Forbid them from planting grain."
Patriarch Zhao paused, stunned. "If they don't plant grain, what do they plant? Grass?"
"Plant cotton," Xie An spat out the words with a certain cruelty.
"Cotton?" The others looked at each other in dismay.
In the Great Qian Dynasty, although cotton could be woven into cloth, the technology was backward and the yield was very low. Moreover, it could neither be eaten nor drunk. Only wealthy families planted a little as ornamental flowers or to stuff pillows. For tenant farmers who scraped a living from the earth, planting cotton was tantamount to suicide.
"Right, plant cotton." A sinister smile tugged at the corners of Xie An's mouth. "Tell those mud-legged peasants that this is in response to the imperial court's call for a hundred flowers to bloom. Plant all tens of thousands of acres of this rotten land with cotton. Not a single grain of food is allowed to be sown!"
"When the time comes, tens of thousands of mouths will have no food to eat, and refugees will be everywhere. I want to see if Xu Qinghuan, holding her Imperial Sword, can turn cotton into steamed buns, or if she can eat the Imperial Sword for dinner!"
"This move is a plot of absolute ruin."
...
Three days later, outside Jiangning City.
The spring plowing scene, which should have been bustling with fiery energy, now exuded an aura of dead silence.
The Eldest Prince, Xiao Jingxing, sat on his horse, looking at the scene before him. His head felt like it was going to explode from anger.
Across vast stretches of saline-alkali land, tenant farmers were digging holes with tears streaming down their faces. Piled up beside them were not rice seeds, but bundles of cotton seedlings.
"Bastards! Absolute bastards!"
Xiao Jingxing drew the Imperial Sword of Authority, the blade humming. "Right in the middle of spring plowing, they aren't planting grain but these useless flowers? Are they trying to starve the commoners to death?! These aristocratic beasts, this Prince will cleave them in half alive!"
He turned to look at Xu Qinghuan behind him, gnashing his teeth. "County Princess Xu! This Prince will take the Black Armor Guards right now to raid the Wang family, seize their grain, and distribute it!"
Of course, the Eldest Prince, that old fox, was just acting.
Xu Qinghuan sat at the front of the carriage, holding a hand warmer, her eyelids twitching.
Her current mood was very complicated.
As someone possessing a modern soul, when she heard the words plant cotton, her first reaction wasn't anger, but—
Did I hear that wrong?
Could there really be such a good thing?!
She was just worrying that now she had built the Spinning Jenny, she had nowhere to get the raw materials. The land in Jiangning was all controlled by the aristocratic families to grow grain. If she forcefully changed the rice fields to cotton, she would have to bear the infamy of destroying arable land.
But now, the aristocratic families had voluntarily cleared the land for her? And even helped her organize the most difficult-to-manage tenant farmers?
What kind of spirit was this? This was the spirit of utter devotion!
"Eldest Prince, calm down. Impulsiveness is the devil." Xu Qinghuan forcefully suppressed the corners of her mouth that were about to curl into a smile, trying her best to put on a deeply worried expression. "Let's go up ahead and take a look."
On the ridge of the field, the Wang family's steward, Wang Cai, was sitting with his legs crossed, a piece of foxtail grass dangling from his mouth. He looked at the weeping tenant farmers with a face full of arrogance.
Seeing Xu Qinghuan and the Eldest Prince approaching, Wang Cai knelt down according to etiquette, but still cupped his hands in a mocking, sarcastic manner and said.
"Greetings to the Eldest Prince. Greetings to County Princess Xu. What wind blew the two of you here?"
Xiao Jingxing pointed the tip of his sword right at his nose. "Why is the Wang family not planting grain?!"
"Plant grain?" Wang Cai exaggeratedly widened his eyes. "Your Highness, this land is too barren; grain won't grow here. Our Patriarch is kind-hearted and thought of planting some cotton, which is at least something to look at. What? Does imperial law stipulate that we must plant grain and are forbidden to plant flowers?"
This was just playing the rogue.
I didn't abandon the fields, I planted something, it's just that the crop isn't edible.
"You!" Xiao Jingxing trembled with anger, just about to erupt.
"Steward Wang is right."
Xu Qinghuan suddenly spoke up, her voice crisp and even carrying a hint of a smile. She jumped down from the carriage, patted the dust off the hem of her skirt, walked over to the pile of cotton seedlings, and crouched down to take a look.
Although these cotton seedlings looked wilted, as long as they were tended to properly, they would turn into shining white silver!
"County Princess Xu?" Wang Cai was stunned. Was this woman's brain broken?
Xu Qinghuan stood up and looked around at the tens of thousands of acres of land and the tenant farmers.
In the eyes of the aristocratic families, this was a burden, trash, waste material used to disgust the imperial court.
But in the eyes of Xu Qinghuan, this was a raw material base, a labor force, the spark of the Industrial Revolution!
"Since this land can't grow grain, and the Wang family doesn't want to manage it..." Xu Qinghuan turned around and looked at Wang Cai, her gaze so sincere it was terrifying. "Then why don't we make a deal?"
"What deal?" Wang Cai's heart skipped a beat.
"According to the laws of the Great Qian Dynasty, in this jurisdiction, since you are planting flowers and not grain, it does not fall under the administration of the Court of National Granaries, but the Bureau of Commerce."
Xu Qinghuan pulled out an official document from her sleeve. It was the Jiangning Special Economic Crop Management Regulations she had stayed up late drafting the night before.
"From today onwards, these thirty thousand acres of barren land planted with cotton, along with these thousands of starving tenant farmer households, will be taken over by the Jiangning County Office."
"Since the Wang family feels this is a burden, then I, Xu Qinghuan, will shoulder it for you."
The entire area fell dead silent.
Even Xiao Jingxing was dumbfounded and lowered his voice: "County Princess Xu, are you crazy? This is thirty thousand acres of barren land! Thousands of mouths! If you take this over, just handing out porridge every day will eat through your meager savings! The aristocratic families are digging a pit for you!"
Wang Cai came to his senses and almost burst out laughing.
He had originally been worried that Xu Qinghuan would forcefully requisition grain. He never expected this woman to be stupid to such a degree, actually volunteering to take over these burdens!
"Hahahaha! County Princess Xu is truly kind-hearted!" Wang Cai shouted loudly, terrified she would go back on her word. "Since the County Princess is willing to take over this mess, our Wang family absolutely supports it! This land, these people, they are all yours! Whoever backs out is a coward!"
"Good, it's a deal."
Xu Qinghuan didn't hesitate. She immediately had Li Sheng bring out the land deed transfer document (forced management version) and made Wang Cai press his thumbprint on it.
After pressing his thumbprint, Wang Cai ran off with his men. As he ran, he kept looking back to mock her, staring at Xu Qinghuan as if she were a total fool.
His triumphant laughter carried in the wind: "Idiot! Just wait to be eaten into bankruptcy by those paupers!"
On the field ridge, all that remained were the tenant farmers shivering in the cold wind, and a heavy-faced Xiao Jingxing.
"County Princess Xu," Xiao Jingxing looked at Xu Qinghuan's profile, his eyes turning red with emotion. "To prevent the common people from losing their homes, you are actually willing to shoulder such a heavy burden... It is this prince's incompetence that has forced you to suffer such a grievance."
In his mental little notebook, he was scribbling furiously: County Princess Xu is truly righteous! For the sake of the people of Jiangning, she did not hesitate to take over this rotten land. What incredible loyalty and devotion!
However, for such a unique talent, it was probably best if he didn't try to recruit her.
Xu Qinghuan looked at the wasteland covering the mountains and plains, then thought about the Spinning Jenny sitting in the warehouse just waiting to start operating, and she finally couldn't hold it in anymore.
She turned around, her back facing the crowd, her shoulders trembling violently.
Xiao Jingxing said, "County Princess Xu, please do not cry. This prince will return to the capital right now to beg Imperial Father to allocate grain..."
"Pfft... Cough, cough, cough!"
Xu Qinghuan pinched her own thigh, forcibly stifling her wild laughter into a fit of coughing.
Cry?
Like hell I'm crying!
I am laughing!
Those old geezers from the Wang family actually thought that throwing the worst land and the poorest people at me was a lethal scheme to ruin me?
Little did they know, this is called targeted poverty alleviation! This is called a closed-loop industry!
These ancient country bumpkins had absolutely no idea that when cotton meets industrialization, the wealth produced could buy up all their grain and pile it into mountains!
"Li Sheng!" Xu Qinghuan's face was flushed (from holding back her laughter).
"Present!" Li Sheng looked at the Eldest Miss's expression and couldn't help but feel that something was very off.
"Pass down the order!"
Xu Qinghuan pointed at the expanse of land, her aura incredibly imposing:
"From today onwards, we are going to build Jiangning's Number One Cotton Mill."
"A true factory in every modern sense of the word."
