A raven flew into Runestone Castle. Maester Denwen, who cared for the ravens, opened the wooden tube tied to its leg, took out the scroll, and examined the wax seal: a Qilin head (a dragon's head).
He immediately took the message to the tailoring room on the second floor and knocked on the door.
"My lady, a message has arrived from Gulltown..."
Delia, who had been gazing out the window and thinking things over carefully, was somewhat puzzled.
It had only been a few days, and Su Qin was already sending a raven? What message was so urgent?
Delia immediately replied.
"Come in, Maester."
After handing the letter to Delia, the maester left!
Delia sat at the little table and checked whether the wax seal was intact. Then she carefully opened the letter, and its contents came into view.
[To my dear fiancée, Delia Royce:
Gulltown needs large numbers of refugees. I have heard that the Brotherhood Without Banners is running rampant in Featherwood, leaving many refugees homeless and displaced. Spread word in Featherwood that Gulltown accepts refugees of any age.
Signed: Su Qin Herculys
House seal: House Hercules]
Delia put the note away and sat deep in thought for a moment. Then she took out two small sheets of writing paper and began to write:
[To my loyal chief tailor of the Kingdom of the Reach:
All available gold tailors and silver tailors in the Kingdom of the Reach are hereby ordered to take their scissors to Featherwood. Assist Lili, chief tailor of Featherwood, in spreading the word that Gulltown needs...
Signed: Crone
Seal: gold tailor (butterfly-shaped)]
[To my loyal chief tailor of the Featherwood region:
The Featherwood region is hereby ordered...
Signed: Crone
Seal: ...]
When she finished, Delia slowly set down her pen, applied the wax seals, and summoned a woman wearing a golden mask, handing both letters to her!...
Inside Gulltown's new, large smithy.
Su Qin was watching a group of craftsmen with the level 2 farm, studying how to arrange its placement.
"I think we should start from the Gull River and build villages and towns directly along both banks!"
One craftsman spoke.
"No, the Gull River floods frequently. If it floods, half a year's harvest, or even a whole year's, will be lost, and the farmers will starve! I object!"
The craftsmen nodded in agreement.
"Besides, the three-li stretch on either bank is important grazing land. We can't touch the riverbanks!"
"Then tell us how to solve the irrigation problem. We can't just keep depending on the weather as we did before!"
"Most of Gulltown's rainfall falls in the Gull Mountains. Irrigation is the key. We can accept a total crop failure once in a while, but not poor harvests year after year because of irrigation problems! That would severely limit Gulltown's population growth! If we put them on the banks of the Gull River, where will we raise cattle, sheep, and horses in the future? Besides, there's only so much riverbank, and it wouldn't be easy to protect everything together!" The craftsmen all nodded. It made sense.
It was a troublesome matter. They disagreed over the location of the new farming town!
The Gull River was hardly gentle. There was nothing wrong with keeping some distance from it!
Su Qin went outside and looked up at the bright moon, considering how the ancients back home had solved the problem of irrigation away from rivers.
Suddenly, something occurred to him. During the Warring States period, Qin had built a canal from the Si River to the Luo River, a full three hundred li long! It had solved irrigation problems in many parts of Guanzhong, turning the area into Guanzhong's granary!
After thinking it over, Su Qin had an idea and slowly walked back inside.
Everyone pondered in silence. Neither this nor that would work. Solving food problems in this era was truly difficult!
Because they depended on the weather, most farmland in the Gull Territory yielded only two hundred jin of rye or buckwheat per mu-and these were large mu of one thousand square meters!
The soil of the Gull alluvial plain was so fertile, yet grain yields were so low. It was truly a pity!
After Su Qin came in,
suddenly,
his words interrupted their thoughts. "Do you have the skills to build small canals? The kind three or four meters wide and two or three meters deep?"
Su Qin's words prompted them, because the miracle itself had instilled some crafting skills in these people of Westeros without changing their memories!
Their culture itself lacked the agrarian idea of conquering nature to serve humanity, so they had not thought of this!
They had a new line of thought!
The group immediately replied, "My lord, we have the skills to build inverted-trapezoid canals, but that would consume a great deal of time, manpower, and money!"
"Besides, my lord, how would we solve the problem of stagnant water? Building a stagnant canal would be an insult to our craftsmanship!"
Su Qin nodded. That was indeed true!
He thought carefully again, then voiced his idea.
"Start on the east bank of the Gull River upstream, twelve li from Gulltown. Build a square-ring-shaped area six li east to west and six li north to south as the first construction area. Leave three li beside the river for grazing."
"Since the Gull Territory is generally higher in the north and west and lower in the south and east, water will flow from the upstream canal to the downstream canal, then rejoin the Gull River. That way, the water won't stagnate, and it will solve the irrigation problem. Later, we can build reservoirs in the farmland's interior and extend smaller canals from them! It will also solve the flooding problem! Four gains in one stroke. Craftsmen, what do you think of this plan?"
The craftsmen began to think...
Su Qin continued:
"You happen to have a new lime mortar production technique. I'll order the smiths to forge iron spikes a meter long and drive them straight into the inverted-trapezoid earth channel, forming a grid of spikes!"
"Lay large stone bricks in alternating sections of the grid, leaving half the space empty."
"Then pour lime mortar into the spaces deliberately left open. That way, the sections secured with stone bricks and mortar will interlock, along with wooden stakes! There'll be no fear of leaks or shifting!"
"Do you think this plan will work?"
Although he already had a solution, he still needed the craftsmen to consider carefully whether anything had been overlooked.
As for limestone, the main ingredient in lime mortar, the Storm Mountains of the Storm Kingdom had plenty! Building materials in this world were very advanced!
Leaving the room, Su Qin went into the courtyard and looked at the well to the east. Gulltown had abundant groundwater, so domestic water needs could be met very conveniently!
But irrigation was the core problem limiting population in this era! Once it was properly solved, there would be no need to follow custom and build villages and towns beside rivers. Farms with excellent harvests could be established in the interior of the plains!
Inside the smithy's woodworking room.
The craftsmen began discussing among themselves. After a while, they finished their discussion and made some professional revisions to Su Qin's idea, unanimously agreeing that the revised plan was foolproof.
The large smithy was enormous: 3,600 square meters! The courtyard outside the building was paved with stone slabs.
It stayed relatively clean even when it rained!
The paving was made of hard slate. Slate itself had a layered structure and was an excellent material, abundant in the Storm Kingdom!
Gery came out with Downton.
As soon as he stepped outside, he saw Su Qin deep in thought, his hands behind his back and wearing silver-gull attire. He led the others over to him.
"My lord, after making revisions to the plan, we believe it can perfectly solve Gulltown's irrigation problem. Once it is expanded throughout the territory, together with the other river flowing through Runestone, it could even solve Runestone's irrigation problem!"
Su Qin slowly turned his head, relieved, though his brow remained furrowed. "Foolproof?"
Gery and Downton exchanged glances and nodded.
"My lord, foolproof!"
"Good. First, draw up detailed engineering plans for a plot of land served by the square-ring canal, down to the meter. Conduct more on-site surveys. Design the main roads in both the grazing area and the farming town to be forty meters wide, the secondary roads twenty meters, and the alleys just ten meters!"
To keep things clean, the roads needed a special design! Pedestrian paths would be separated from carriage roads! The main roadway would be dirt, with raised paving along the sides for pedestrians, so there would be no need to worry about sanitation problems such as dung on the dirt road! Wastewater would also be easier to handle when it rained!
"Yes, my lord!" The craftsmen were all delighted, because they now had work to do!
Su Qin nodded in satisfaction, called his personal maid Yira, and slowly returned to the castle.
With a major worry resolved, Su Qin was very happy. As for spending gold coins on building materials for the farms?
That was no problem at all! With all his knowledge, could he not earn a little money? He even had a powerful system to help him. If he ended up dying in poverty, he might as well bash his head against a wall!