Xie Nanxiao, in particular, was sour with envy: I won't even mention the one surnamed Yun; after all, he is the Lord's own nephew. But the Great General, sigh, I won't mention the Great General either...
He couldn't compare. He couldn't compare to anyone.
Yao Ji smiled: It's fine. The Lord surely saw that we still have our weapons, and we don't use sabers anyway, which is why she didn't give us any.
In truth, he was also incredibly envious, but he had to maintain his usual gentlemanly demeanor and couldn't let it show.
Xie Nanxiao naturally understood this reasoning. He was just grumbling because the sabers were simply too good; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call them divine weapons.
Zhou Sui and Yun Chengxuan had even wielded the sabers to perform a set of saber techniques in front of them, their imposing manner striking awe into anyone who watched.
They had even tried them out themselves at the time; the blades were unstoppable, slicing through iron as if it were mud.
Meanwhile, Jiang Jin had someone call Mu Qing over.
There were still about two months before the truly cold winter arrived. Crops with long growth cycles, like rice and wheat, didn't have enough time to grow, nor was there enough space to plant them.
But she could bring out a few types of cold-resistant vegetables with short growth cycles and high yields to plant.
She didn't plan to plant too much—there was only so much space inside the city anyway, so she couldn't plant a lot even if she wanted to. As long as it solved the soldiers' vegetable supply for the winter, it would be enough.
Speaking of which, it had been a long time since she had eaten any vegetables, and her whole body felt uncomfortable.
Mu Qing was somewhat surprised, not knowing why Jiang Jin was looking for him. Could it be that she was tired of him being a freeloader?
Come to think of it, he really was just eating for free right now. He started to feel anxious, thinking to himself that if worse came to worst, he would go do hard labor. He just wondered if Kang Sheng would want his old bones.
Jiang Jin handed him several packets of seeds: I've sectioned off a piece of land for you near the horse farm. These are napa cabbage, white radish, and spinach seeds. Plant them as soon as possible.
Mu Qing looked up at Jiang Jin in astonishment: Wh-what? These are vegetable seeds?
Jiang Jin introduced them to him one by one: Napa cabbage is actually just regular cabbage, but mine is an improved, high-quality breed.
These two are vegetable seeds brought in from the west. Both are varieties with short growth cycles and high yields.
Mu Qing's eyes flickered: Are these seeds the Emperor had people search for?
Jiang Jin shook her head: Of course not. I traded for them with a traveling merchant from the west. I traded for more seeds than just these, but only these three are suitable for planting right now.
Plant as much as you can. Napa cabbage and white radish, in particular, store well. When the time comes, we can dig a cellar and eat them right through to next spring.
Mu Qing's eyes lit up, but then he felt it was a bit unbelievable: Lord, did that traveling merchant say what the yield per mu is?
Jiang Jin said casually: He did. Napa cabbage and white radish can reach over ten thousand jin per mu. Spinach is a bit lower, probably around five to six thousand jin.
Mu Qing was so shocked he almost threw the vegetable seeds in his hand away: What did you say?
He had dealt with crops his entire life. It was his first time hearing of a yield of ten thousand jin per mu. What kind of concept was that?
It was dozens, even a hundred times their current yield! How could that be possible?
His voice trembling, he asked again: Is this true?
Jiang Jin understood Mu Qing's shock. After all, the grain yield per mu in this era was extremely low, and the same went for vegetables.
Aside from the chaos of war, low crop yields were a major reason why the common people didn't have enough to eat.
Jiang Jin confirmed: Yes. I even had people test plant them in the back mountain of Yinshan Temple, and the yield was indeed very high. I originally wanted to present them to my royal father to promote them nationwide, but unfortunately, before I had the chance...
Anyway, Yinshan Temple had burned down, so no one would know if what she said was true or false.
Hearing Jiang Jin say she had actually planted them before, there was definitely no mistake. Mu Qing's eyes reddened with excitement as he murmured, "Heaven bless our Great Han, Heaven bless our Yan Country."
He suddenly knelt before Jiang Jin. "My Lord's great virtue gives hope to all the people!"
Jiang Jin quickly helped him up. "There's no need for this. I only bought them with the mindset of giving it a try."
Once Mu Qing's emotions stabilized, she explained the habits and planting methods of these types of vegetables.
Mu Qing had already brought pen and paper to start recording, solemn and pious, as if the contents he was writing down could change the world.
Mu Qing didn't know if it could change the world, but he knew it could save lives—many, many lives!
After giving her instructions, Jiang Jin had Mu Wanbai and Mu Wei assist him in farming, while also allocating some people to clear and plow the wasteland for him.
It was unknown what the land near the horse farm was used for in the past, but it was currently a wasteland anyway, making it perfect for reclamation.
By late September, the charcoal and bricks were finally successfully fired.
Jiang Jin inspected the bricks. The color was even, the sound was crisp when struck, and the strength was good.
She was very satisfied. "You have all done well. Keep firing them, the more the better. Not only bricks, but the roof tiles need to keep up as well."
Xia Zhong and the other supervisors were delighted to receive the praise. "Yes, my Lord."
She then went to check the fired charcoal and asked, "Has this charcoal been tested? How is the quality?"
The person in charge of charcoal firing was also a slave Jiang Jin had bought earlier, named Tian Bai. With a smile on his face, he replied, "It has been tested, and it reaches top-grade quality."
Jiang Jin nodded. "Very good, keep it up. The weather will turn cold very soon, so you all need to speed up."
Riding Little Red, she went to the residential and commercial districts. These two areas were separated only by a newly planned street, essentially next door to each other, making it convenient for residents to shop.
Kang Sheng was directing the commoners in laying the foundations.
In just over ten days, nearly a thousand people had torn down and cleared away this area of dilapidated houses.
In this era, there was no reinforced concrete, and the houses had already mostly collapsed on their own, so tearing them down was relatively easy.
The foundations were also mostly dug out, just waiting for the bricks and tiles to build the houses. Row after row, it looked quite spectacular.
Seeing her, Kang Sheng quickly greeted, "My Lord, you have arrived."
Jiang Jin nodded. "Yes, two kilns of bricks have already been fired. First, build the grocery store and medical clinic I planned for the commercial district."
Paying wages solely in grain wouldn't work forever; it was too inconvenient.
Moreover, the city's residents were currently lacking everything, especially daily necessities like salt, oil, and cloth.
Therefore, she needed to set up the shops first to get the currency circulating, which was the only way to revive the economy.
The role of the medical clinic was even more self-evident.
In fact, four kilns of bricks had been fired, but two of them were large bricks suitable for building city walls, and those had all been transported to the south gate to build the barbican.
The foundation and the underground facilities for the barbican had already been dug out. Now that the bricks were ready, they could be used to build the walls. Of course, the massive city walls couldn't be built entirely of brick; the middle would be mixed with rammed earth structures.
Joy appeared on Kang Sheng's face. He knew very well how large the brick kilns were; two kilns of bricks was quite a lot. Furthermore, having two kilns meant there would soon be four, then six. It seemed the residential district could begin construction very soon as well.
Sure enough, he heard Jiang Jin say, "After the grocery store is built, construct the residential district, the industrial district, the weapons workshop, and the military district. Speed it up, we don't have much time left."
Kang Sheng promised, "Rest assured, My Lady. As long as we have the bricks and tiles, we will definitely complete it on schedule."
Jiang Jin reminded him, "The binding material must be prepared perfectly. The houses have to be sturdy."
In this era, there was no cement. When ordinary commoners built their homes, they mostly used yellow mud mixed with straw, lime, and similar materials as mortar.
Sticky rice mortar, on the other hand, was widely used in the construction of palaces, temples, tombs, and city walls. Not only did it possess incredible adhesive strength, but it also offered excellent anti-corrosion and water-resistant properties.
Since Jiang Jin had collected sticky rice among her grain provisions, she made the highly extravagant decision to have Kang Sheng use sticky rice mortar for their buildings.
One of the essential ingredients for this mortar was slaked lime. Because she already had limestone on hand, producing slaked lime was naturally no problem at all.
