Xu Manor.
Xu Xingzhi returned to the manor with heavy steps.
His dejected appearance made him look exactly like a rooster that had lost a fight.
Seeing this, Madam Xu hurriedly went up to him and asked with a face full of concern.
"Husband, what happened to you?"
"Alas—"
"This post as Director of the Seed Selection Department can go to hell!"
Having said that, Xu Xingzhi did not even eat dinner. He shut himself away in his study.
Leaving Madam Xu standing there in utter bewilderment.
"Wasn't everything fine yesterday? You said the Ninth Prince being transferred into the Seed Selection Department was a good thing."
"You also said that the Ninth Prince entering the Seed Selection Department meant His Majesty was beginning to value it, and that it would have great prospects in the future."
"How did it..."
Madam Xu was consumed with worry, yet she had no idea what exactly had happened.
In just one day, her husband's state of mind had undergone such an earth-shaking change.
Madam Xu understood her husband very well.
Outsiders only knew that he was upright and incorruptible, with sleeves swept clean by the breeze.
But as the person closest to him, Madam Xu knew even better that her husband possessed a heart that wished to save the world and aid its people.
Her maternal family also had connections within the imperial court.
If they truly wished to pull strings, her husband would long since have had the opportunity to leave the Seed Selection Department and be posted as a county magistrate elsewhere.
At the root of it all, her husband still had a knot in his heart and was unwilling to leave the Seed Selection Department.
When he was young, her husband had obtained an inheritance from the ancient Agricultural School.
From then on, he had made a grand vow to grow high-yield crops.
So that all the people under heaven could afford three meals a day.
"Husband..."
Madam Xu let out a faint sigh.
Inside the study.
Xu Xingzhi furrowed his brow deeply and sighed again and again.
"My career as an official is over."
"There is no room whatsoever to turn things around in this Capital Inspection."
Xu Xingzhi knew clearly that if the Ninth Prince kept carrying on like this.
He would be the unluckiest one.
When the Capital Inspection came, the Ministry of Personnel's assessment would certainly find the Seed Selection Department unqualified.
The Ninth Prince was an imperial prince. Did the Ministry of Personnel have the guts to lay a hand on him?
Even if some hardheaded censor truly impeached the Ninth Prince.
His Majesty's punishment would most likely be merely for show.
A year's deduction of salary, or three months of confinement.
But as the chief official of the Seed Selection Department and the Ninth Prince's nominal superior.
He could not escape blame. Demotion was inevitable.
Perhaps he would even follow in the footsteps of the previous Director of the Seed Selection Department and be demoted to Yazhou.
Rather than being demoted to Yazhou, he might as well resign of his own accord, retire to his hometown, open an academy, and teach students.
The thought of retiring to his hometown took root and sprouted in Xu Xingzhi's mind the moment it appeared.
He picked up his brush and wrote the three words "Request Retirement" on a memorial.
Yet when he tried to write further.
The grand vow of his younger days surfaced in his mind once more—to let all the people under heaven afford food.
For a time, his heart twisted through a hundred turns.
The wolf-hair brush in his hand lifted... lowered... then lifted again after being lowered...
After agonizing over it for half the night, the memorial still contained only the three words "Request Retirement."
"Your Highness, the hot water is ready."
"This servant will attend to your bath."
"Aunt Yun, I've told you already. In my heart, you are an elder; there is no need to call yourself this servant."
"Your Highness, propriety must not be abandoned. This servant is this servant!"
Yun Menglan gently attended Fang Heng as she removed his clothes. Her five pale, jade-like fingers brushed over his skin, bringing a delicate and tender sensation.
Watching the beautiful mature woman before him, every gesture of hers was gentle as flowing water, perfectly matching his image of a tender beauty from the water towns of Jiangnan.
Fang Heng soaked in the steaming bath, and the heat left every muscle and bone in his body relaxed and comfortable.
Yun Menglan's ten fingers moved in succession as she massaged Fang Heng.
Lightly gathering, slowly twisting, wiping, then plucking—her exquisite technique nearly made Fang Heng moan.
"Aunt Yun, how many Spirit Farmers are there in the manor? The Seed Selection Department needs Spirit Farmers to help."
"Your Highness, this servant has cultivated the methods of a Spirit Farmer."
"If it is only tending one or two thousand mu of fields, I can manage it alone."
"Aunt Yun, you cultivated Spirit Farmer methods?"
Fang Heng turned around, surprise in his eyes.
"More than ten years ago, I found a bargain at a market and obtained an Agricultural School inheritance. I practiced it for fun whenever I had the time."
Yun Menglan's voice was gentle as she spoke of something from more than ten years ago.
At the mention of the Agricultural School, Fang Heng became interested in the ancient Hundred Schools of Thought.
"Aunt Yun, I read in the history books that in ancient times, cultivation methods did not consist solely of the Martial, Daoist, and Buddhist paths."
"The Hundred Schools of Thought could all cultivate."
"Only later did every one of the Hundred Schools of Thought decline."
"Your Highness is correct. In ancient times, cultivation methods bloomed like a hundred flowers."
"After the great waves washed away the sand, only the Martial, Daoist, and Buddhist paths remained."
"However, not all the cultivation methods of the Hundred Schools of Thought were lost."
"For instance, the methods of the Agricultural School, Yin-Yang School, and Mohist School were absorbed by the Daoist path, becoming the three lineages of Spirit Farmers, Heavenly Mechanism Masters, and Puppet Masters."
"As for the Military School, it was absorbed into the martial path."
"The Divine Generals of the current court not only possess profound martial cultivation, but also excel in military strategy, able to plan within the command tent and secure victory a thousand li away."
"Schools such as the Agricultural School, Yin-Yang School, Mohist School, and Military School were considered fortunate."
"They were absorbed into other cultivation systems, so their inheritances were not completely severed."
"Schools such as the Legalist School, Fiction School, and Miscellaneous School were the truly pitiful ones. Their inheritances were completely cut off, without even a few texts left behind."
Yun Menglan knew quite a bit about the Hundred Schools of Thought and explained them to Fang Heng one by one.
Fang Heng had seen all of this while reading history books.
But what he found most puzzling was this.
The history books contained no record of the Confucian School.
When he had first read those histories, the records of the Hundred Schools of Thought had been more or less the same as those of Huaxia.
They gave Fang Heng a strong sense of déjà vu.
Except there was no Confucian School.
In the history of Huaxia, the Confucian School had been a prominent school of thought.
Yet in the histories of Great Qian, there was not a single record of it.
There was not even half a sentence.
It made Fang Heng feel as if, in this world, the Confucian School had been erased by some mysterious force.
"Aunt Yun, have you ever heard of a school among the Hundred Schools of Thought called the Confucian School?"
"The Confucian School?"
"I have never heard of it!"
"Where did Your Highness hear of it?"
"I saw it in some miscellaneous book. Mm... perhaps I remembered wrongly."
Fang Heng did not want Yun Menglan to overthink it, so he quickly changed the subject.
"Aunt Yun, teach me the methods of a Spirit Farmer."
"Teaching you is naturally no problem."
"But why has Your Highness suddenly become interested in Spirit Farmer methods?"
Yun Menglan's willow brows furrowed slightly as doubts rose in her heart.
Her Ladyship dislikes His Highness entering the Seed Selection Department and has always been planning for positions in the Ministry of War and Divine General's Estate.
If I teach His Highness Spirit Farmer methods, will that displease Her Ladyship?
"Since I hold a post in the Seed Selection Department, it will ultimately be inconvenient if I do not know Spirit Farmer methods."
Fang Heng sighed, not noticing the change in Yun Menglan's mood.
Although the Awakening of Insects Master's ability to transfer life force was useful.
If he wanted to cultivate Hybrid Rice on a large scale and used the Awakening of Insects Master for everything, would that not exhaust him to death?
Compared to ancient Huaxia, the Great Qian Dynasty possessed the Daoist profession of Spirit Farmers.
Thus, its agricultural standards were stronger than those of ancient Huaxia.
Of course, that was limited to powerful clans and great families.
After all, cultivating and recruiting Spirit Farmers was not something just anyone could afford.
Fields tended by Spirit Farmers not only had higher yields, but crops also matured faster.
Even in the Northern Border, rice could be harvested three times a year under a Spirit Farmer's care.
As for the south, it could achieve a terrifying six harvests a year, or even seven.
Furthermore, rice fields tended by Spirit Farmers could yield over a thousand jin per mu.
A yield of over a thousand jin per mu would still be above average even in modern society.
It was equivalent to Spirit Farmer spells smoothing over the effects of Hybrid Rice, chemical fertilizer, and a whole series of modern technologies.
Moreover, their ability to produce multiple harvests a year was something even modern technology could not reach.
This was the situation when powerful clans and great families used Spirit Farmers to grow rice.
As for ordinary commoners, Spirit Farmers were beyond their reach, and their yield per mu was less than four hundred jin.
It was roughly at the same level as ancient Huaxia.
By Fang Heng's estimate, merely developing Hybrid Rice, even without the aid of chemical fertilizer, could raise yields to six or seven hundred jin per mu.
That was equivalent to doubling the yield per mu!
Food was the first necessity of the people!
Grain meant population.
Population meant the number of Martial Artists and cultivators.
A larger base meant more prodigies.
It could be said that once Hybrid Rice was widely promoted, Great Qian's national strength could increase by at least fifty percent.
"Your Highness, has your seed selection work in the Seed Selection Department made any progress?"
"Of course it has!"
"Aunt Yun, what kind of sight do you think it would be if rice yields across the realm doubled?"
Yun Menglan, who had been massaging Fang Heng, froze slightly.
Her pale, moist jade-like fingers stopped.
Double the yield per mu?
Was that possible?
Before you continue