Chapter 282 — The Dragon Lord's Invitation

Once the great bridge had been completed, the many officials of the Ministry of Works rose into the air and scattered to inspect the riverbanks. Shen Mu saw men with iron rods, driving one rod after another, each several zhang long, into the river embankments at intervals of a hundred zhang. A man stood beside every rod, and someone had set a huge bell in midstream; when a resounding dong rang out, the rods shook in concert, and those standing beside them leaned close to hear the quivering tone that ran along the metal.

"What are they doing? " Shen Mu wondered. Ling Yuxiu walked over to him and said, "This is something you would not know.

In the old days, the Tu River was forever flooding, and my imperial father, Emperor Jingping, ordered the Vice Minister of Works to come and tame it.

The Vice Minister spent an incalculable amount of wealth. My father was angry and asked him why he had spent so much and where the money had gone. The Vice Minister said that he had laid a wall of dark copper along each bank of the Tu, two inches thick and two feet high, running along the dikes for ten thousand li. The wall was covered with inscribed runes. Whenever they wanted to test the dikes for hidden cracks or for places worn thin by the water, they had only to strike the bronze bell; the bell-note stimulated the rune marks on the dark-copper wall and set it resonating, and by the sound-waves they could judge where the dike was cracked and where it had thinned. " Si Yunxiang came up and said, "The Emperor nearly had his head cut off because he spent so much. " Ling Yuxiu glanced at her. "The Vice Minister spent too much, it is true. In those years, he built flying towered ships for the sky, painted barges for the water, land-going boats and flywheel carts for the roads, smelting works for the mines, military workshops and ordnance factories everywhere, renovated every city gate and tower, laid out the sewers and paved the streets, made siege cloud-carts, built the frontier stockades, and fabricated machinery of every kind. I had not yet been born then, but later my second brother told me that in those years the Vice Minister's spending forced my father and all the princes, the crown prince, the honored consorts, and the Empress Dowager to tighten their belts until their faces turned green with hunger; the treasury was emptied at once, and officials' salaries went unpaid for months.

" "And then?

" Si Yunxiang asked, smiling. Ling Yuxiu sighed. "Afterward, the smelting works spread, and the towered ships and painted barges were sold to merchants, and the ordnance factories produced one after another without stopping. In no more than two years the treasury was full, so they built several more treasuries to hold the money. My father congratulated himself and said, 'Thank heaven I did not execute him! ' Apart from the Vice Minister, the biggest spenders in the Ministry are the directors of the Waterways Bureau. They built water-lifting carts, flood-relief lakes, all sorts of dams and great bridges, and cut canals; their spending was no less than a river in flood, but they also made the common folk wealthy. " Si Yunxiang blinked. "It seems as if all the spending was done by the Vice Minister and the Bureau directors.

What does the Minister of Works do?

The actual work appears to be done by the Vice Minister, Shan Youxin, and his people; the Minister never seems to do anything. " Ling Yuxiu blinked too. "The Minister of Works supervises their spending. " Then Ling Yuxiu let her gaze rest on Si Yunxiang. "Junior Sister Yunxiang seems very interested in the Celestial Sage Sect. " Si Yunxiang smiled sweetly. "This little sister has no talent, but as the Holy Maiden of the Celestial Sage Sect, I naturally pay it a little attention.

Sect Leader Shen is our sect leader and holy teacher, and he is also very concerned with these matters. As the Holy Maiden, the questions I ask the Princess are exactly the questions the sect leader cares about. " The two young women stared at each other with wide eyes.

Shen Mu ignored them.

Looking into the distance, he saw officials from the Waterways Bureau and the Farmlands Bureau inspecting the irrigation works, and the Bureau of Gardens and Husbandry checking fruit trees and vegetables, so he walked over.

The assistant director of the Gardens and Husbandry Bureau, an Incense Master of the Agriculture Hall, was digging in the dirt. He rummaged about, examined the soil, picked out some insect eggs, and said to Shen Mu, "Sect Leader, when the crops are turning from green to yellow, there will most likely be an insect plague. The winter snows were devastatingly cold, yet these pest eggs cannot be frozen to death.

In another three or five days, when the weather warms, they will hatch into insects.

In winter the refugees chopped down and burned all the grass and trees, so the insects will have nothing to eat but the crops. We must take precautions early, prevent the plague before it begins, and kill the insects as soon as they are born. " Shen Mu asked, "Incense Master, how does one prevent an insect plague?

" "Station experts in swordsmanship in the fields, have experts in magic apply the needle arts, or summon masters who raise gu insects to release creatures that will eat the pests.

" The assistant director stood up and clapped his hands; his body and hands were covered with mud. "Disciples from the Sword Hall, the Dharma Hall, and the Gu Hall can all come out to gain experience. " Shen Mu nodded and asked Fan Yunxiao to come over. "Brother Fan, pass along my order: the Sword Hall, the Dharma Hall, and the Gu Hall are each to send a dozen or more disciples here. " Fan Yunxiao summoned a bandit and ordered him to convey the message. Meanwhile the Waterways Bureau was putting the waterworks in order, dredging the silt out of channels and rerouting the waterways so that farmland could be irrigated more easily. On the other side, Farmlands Bureau officials were surveying the fields.

They took out sky-measuring rulers one after another and animated them with primal qi; each folded ruler unfolded and stretched longer and longer, and graduated scales appeared on its face.

Beside them, Imperial College scholars recorded the numbers while their primal qi grew into strange, many-part abacuses that clicked and snapped. The Vice Minister of Works, for his part, led the Ministry staff into midair, looked down over all the roads of Jiazhou, noted where they were damaged, and then went down to repair them.

"Shan Youxin is a capable man! " Shen Mu felt genuine admiration.

The Ministry of Works officials of the Jingping state handled their affairs in an orderly way, and everything they did truly benefited the state and the people. At the prefectural residence, the Prefect of Jiazhou gave Ling Yushu a report on the state of the prefecture.

Ling Yushu listened all night, then summoned the chief clerk to inspect the records and stayed busy without sleeping.

By the next day, both Ling Yushu and the Prefect were exhausted. No sooner had they stepped out than the Minister of Works, the Vice Minister, Shen Mu and the others were already waiting outside.

Vice Minister Shan Youxin presented several rolls of documents and said, "Your Highness, the irrigation, roads, fruit and vegetable problems in Jiazhou have all been handled properly; only the matters of the Farmlands Bureau require your attention. " "So quickly? " Ling Yushu exclaimed in surprise. Shan Youxin said, "Once Your Highness has read these, you can prepare to execute people.

" Ling Yushu's expression turned grave. "Is the annexation of land so serious?

" Shan Youxin nodded.

Ling Yushu summoned the Prefect, put the documents into his hands, and said with a dark face, "You are not to sleep yet. I will not sleep either.

You will read with me! Even as we read, we will arrest and we will execute.