Chapter Thirty-One: The Xu Family Brickyard

  One autumn rain brings one cool spell.

  After the autumn rain, the temperature dropped sharply, pedestrians had taken off their thin summer clothes and started wearing autumn clothes.

  "Call"

  Yang You stepped down from the horse carriage and onto the clean and tidy brick road. After being washed by the heavy rain, the brick road looked brand new.

  It had just stopped raining, and the sun had just come out. The air was filled with the scent of mud.

  As the pedestrians who had stopped because of the heavy rain began to move forward again, carriage after carriage rattled over the brick road, occasionally interspersed with a new-fashioned four-wheeled carriage whizzing by.

  At a three-forked road, Yang You got off his horse-drawn carriage and walked on the red-brick paved sidewalk.

  "I report to Your Majesty, this is the longest brick road we have built so far. The entire road spans across Jingzhao, with Daxing as its center, extending west to the border of Fufeng County and east to Yongfeng Warehouse. Currently, only the section from Yongfeng Warehouse to Tongguan is still under construction."

  Xu Dang reported in advance that the construction of the brick road was all coordinated and supervised by him, and he was most familiar with these situations.

  "Mmm!" Yang You nodded slightly in appreciation.

  "In addition, brick roads leading to various counties in Jingzhao are being actively planned."

  Yang You looked at the brick road under his feet and still felt proud. In the Sui Dynasty, where there was no cement or asphalt, he was able to build such a brick road, which was not easy either.

  "The king's deputy is a rare talent, with a keen eye for innovation. The brick road's craftsmanship is simple, and all the refugees can find work to do, and it's solid, durable, convenient and quick. After the rain, it can be used immediately, just like in peacetime. I believe that after this big rain, no one will doubt the king's deputy again."

  Xu Duan said excitedly, looking at Yang You with a hint of admiration.

  Xu Duan has also been in high spirits lately, not only preserving his reputation but also climbing up to the rank of King's Palace. He put his heart and soul into building the brick road, and as he watched it stretch out before him, he felt an unutterable sense of pride.

  "The allocated funds have already arrived!" The brick road will be Yang You's greatest achievement, and Yang You attaches great importance to it. After the donation storm passed, there was enough money again.

  "Please be assured, Your Highness, the funds have arrived and there is still a surplus. The cost of building this section of brick road is very low, and many kilns are willing to burn red bricks. For the time being, 50 kilns have been selected, each of which is willing to pay a royalty of 500,000 bricks, which has saved a lot of expenses."

  "Moreover, red bricks are cheap, and I am the pioneer of such red bricks, so I know them inside out. Plus, our usage is huge, almost all at cost price."

  Yang You nodded in satisfaction, although it was at cost price, but due to the current Daxing's strong labor force and low labor costs, the kiln factory also had a considerable profit.

  Yang let out a sigh of relief, knowing that he had passed the test of the refugees this time. With sufficient funds, cheap labor, and a large number of basic engineering projects under construction, by next year at the latest, Daxing's economy will definitely make a huge leap forward.

  It's not just Yang You who can see this point. In the past few days, the officials of Daxing have stopped whispering to each other in front of Yang You.

  It is clear that the fait accompli created by Yang You has already been taken for granted. Even if Yang Guang were to return, seeing the greatly changed Daxing, he would only offer praise, and everyone would be considered a great success.

  Further consideration, Da Wang Gongxia thus made a meritorious act and entered the emperor's line of sight, increasing his chances of succession. It was also beneficial for them to reuse these old ministers!

  This is a win-win situation.

  "Let go, let me pass!" A commotion broke Yang You's meditation.

  As far as the eye could see, only an old man in green clothes was entangled with a plainclothes guard. He was none other than Wang Bo Shi, who often looked at notices at the gate of the government office. It's unknown how he found this place.

  Yang You's trip this time was also in casual attire, and the guards who followed him were also dressed in casual clothes. Although they didn't wear guard uniforms, these guards were all very fierce and ordinary people wouldn't easily provoke them.

  Here again on the main road, there aren't many people around, so there's only one possibility: Dr. Wang came here himself.

  "Please leave, our young master is discussing matters." The guard politely asked Dr. Wang to leave.

  "Xu Dang that kid can still discuss what kind of business, isn't he just selling his red brick head? I'm looking for him is the real deal." Dr. Wang said bluntly, treating the guard as Xu Dang's follower.

  The guards were somewhat annoyed, Dr. Wang had already disturbed the Crown Prince, seeing that he was old and had been very polite to him, but he still wouldn't give in.

  He thought for a moment, then prepared to use force to ask him to leave.

  "Get out of the way, this is the right granted to me by His Highness the Crown Prince, no one has the right to stop me." Dr. Wang suddenly dropped a bombshell.

  The power bestowed by the king, the guard subconsciously glanced at Yang You, and his hand hesitated involuntarily.

  Dr. Wang swiftly dashed in.

  "Fantastic!" Dr. Wang exclaimed loudly.

  "Zhuang Jia?" Yang You's heart skipped a beat, this name was very familiar!

  "This is what they call it." Xu Dang's face turned bright red, and he sighed inwardly, not having expected to lose face again in front of the substitute king.

  "Not bad, this nickname is not bad." Yang You said with a straight face, stifling a smile.

  A guard lost his wits and let Dr. Wang run in, chasing after him all the way to the back, sprinting two steps, making a flying tackle, and bear-hugging him from behind.

  "Let me go, I'm here to find Xu Zhuanjia on the orders of Prince Dai." Dr. Wang knew that bringing up Prince Dai's name was very useful, and he used this old trick again.

  "My orders?" Yang You looked at Xu Dang with confusion.

  "When Your Highness established the Disaster Relief Agency, you announced that disaster relief would be open and transparent, with free auditing. You promised that every single penny could be traced to its final use, but unexpectedly, respondents flocked in, and almost all officials of the Disaster Relief Agency were intercepted by these citizens." Xǔ Dēng seemed to recall the scene where he was surrounded by dozens of scholars a few days ago, and his heart skipped a beat.

  Among all the volunteers who came to audit accounts, the most crazy ones were those xiucai.

  A scholar is already half an official, but whether or not he has an official position, he enjoys some privileges in daily life and can live without worrying about food and clothing. The excess energy will be vented on empty talk about governing the country, but often others do not understand, and are ridiculed as a pedantic scholar.

  Now that the times have changed, a single order from the king has given them hope for a comeback. The Disaster Relief Agency is allowed to freely investigate accounts and track the final use of funds. Normally they would criticize current events and scold corrupt officials, but now they can finally take real action.

  In less than three days, a yushi who was in charge of distributing relief supplies was found to be corrupt and was dismissed by the county magistrate Su Sheng, after which all the enthusiasm of the xiucai was ignited.

  One by one, corrupt officials were caught, and at their most ferocious, they directly pulled down the chief official of a county that had been in power for ten thousand years.

  Nowadays, almost every county magistrate has a group of xiucai following behind him. As soon as they find a problem, they immediately step forward and ask to confront the county magistrate. These magistrates don't dare to do anything because these people always mention "on behalf of the king" whenever they open their mouths.

  Xu Dang finished speaking with a sense of grievance, and gave Yang You a resentful glance. He had heard before that when he was in office, he was so mighty and powerful, but now that it was his turn, he was having such bad luck, being chased by people every day.

  "This..." Yang You was also stunned, never thinking that his simple decisions to address some of the shortcomings of later generations would have such an effect.

  Why didn't those Reds in later generations do it this way! This is probably a mystery of the century! Or rather, an open mystery of the century.