Chapter 67: Hundred Years Plan (Patreon)

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As the Patriarch, Wang Shoujie usually only needs to make strategic decisions and doesn't need to participate in every step of the plan. Therefore, he has been staying in the main residence, practicing his cultivation every day, or "bullying" one of his younger brothers or sisters.

With abundant resources, his cultivation progress has been rapid, and he has already reached the peak of the sixth layer. He only needs to polish his skills for a few days before he can try to break through to the seventh layer of the Qi Refining Realm.

However, today, he needs to take action.

After making arrangements with Wang Gui, he summoned a child from the family to come over.

Not long after, a woman in her thirties with a beautiful face, accompanied by a ten-year-old boy, arrived at Wang Shoujie's study.

"Greetings, Patriarch," the woman said, bowing. The boy, however, seemed a bit afraid, hiding behind his mother.

"No need for so much courtesy, Sixth Aunt. Just call me Guardian," Wang Shoujie replied, inviting her to sit down. "Please, have a seat."

This woman from the Chen Clan was the wife of Sixth Uncle Wang Dinghai, a direct descendant of the Chen Clan from Donggang. The Wang Clan and the Chen Clan have intermarried frequently in the sixth generation, with two Wang Clan members marrying Chen Clan women and two Wang Clan aunts marrying into the Chen Clan.

Now, the two families have started to intermarry in the direct line, and their relationship can be said to be very close.

After Wang Gui served tea and fruit, he retreated to the side.

Wang Shoujie chatted with the woman from the Chen Clan, exchanging pleasantries before turning his attention to the boy, smiling and asking, "Shouye, how's your schoolwork lately?"

This boy was the youngest male member of the seventh generation, Wang Shouye, who was only ten years old and ranked seventh in the family.

Why was he considered the youngest? Of course, it was because the sixth generation's elders still had the energy and vitality to have more children. For example, Third Uncle Wang Dingzu and Sixth Uncle Wang Dinghai might still have more children.

This was not without precedent, as seen in the case of Eldest Uncle Wang Dingchuan, who had Wang Shouyong, the fifth-ranked member of the seventh generation, at the age of 50. It was truly a case of "old but still vigorous."

Of course, this was also thanks to Eldest Aunt, who was still able to give birth in her forties and had a special talent for raising children.

Let's not digress.

Wang Shouye was clearly a bit shy and very respectful of Wang Shoujie, and upon hearing the question, his face turned white, and he tightly grasped the woman's clothes: "F-fourth Brother... I-I'm doing okay..."

"Don't worry, Guardian," the woman explained, "this child has been shy since he was young... But recently, he's been working hard..."

As she spoke, she stole a glance at Wang Shoujie.

Wang Shoujie understood that Wang Shouye had heard about the Great Demon King's reputation and was afraid of being tested by his Fourth Brother, so he had started working hard early.

This was a good thing.

Wang Shoujie sipped his tea, feeling more and more satisfied with the Great Demon King's reputation, which was like a sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of his younger brothers and sisters, as well as the younger generation.

Well, let's take advantage of the situation and test him.

Wang Shoujie began to test Wang Shouye, covering basic literature, basic arithmetic, and understanding of martial arts and combat techniques.

At first, Wang Shouye was terrified, answering hesitantly and stumbling over his words. But with Wang Shoujie's encouragement, he began to answer fluently, showing that his foundation was still solid, and he had indeed been working hard recently.

"Not bad, not bad," Wang Shoujie praised, smiling. "Shouye is quite promising. This is your reward." Wang Shoujie directly gave him a reward of ten gold coins, praising the first child to pass his test.

"Thank you, Fourth Brother," Wang Shouye exclaimed, his small face flushing red, his eyes and speech becoming more confident.

Recently, the Great Demon King's intimidation had made the younger generation and the children feel anxious, and giving rewards to the excellent ones would certainly arouse some envy.

Wang Shoujie believed that the "carrot and stick" policy would make the family's young children excel even more.

Wang Shouye's good performance also made the woman from the Chen Clan very happy, as every mother wanted their child to succeed.

After the test, Wang Shoujie turned to the main topic: "Sixth Aunt, I'll have Shouye accompany me to Xingsheng Farm later to pay respects to Sixth Grandfather." The implication was, of course, that she didn't need to go.

Wang Shoujie was not opposed to Chen Clan going together, but he felt that as the male head of the household, he was relying too much on his mother.

Looking at Wang Luoqiu, who was only one year older than him, he had already started to shout about wanting to slay gods and Buddhas, and take on the heavy responsibility of leading the family to rise to prominence alone.

Although Wang Shoujie couldn't understand how slaying gods and Buddhas was related to the family's rise to prominence... Moreover, the so-called "lonely girl" who shouldered the family's fate... had a strong middle school girl aura, which made him want to roll his eyes. Was this treating the entire family like a bunch of fools?

However, this didn't stop Wang Shoujie from admiring Wang Luoqiu's spirit of being full of energy and ambition.

Therefore, Wang Shoujie still wanted to let his younger brother leave their mother's embrace early and quickly grow into a young man.

"Everything will be up to you, Shouye," said Sixth Aunt Chen Clan, although she was a bit heartbroken to let go of her younger brother, she still followed his words.

Later, Wang Shoujie took Wang Shouye and walked from the backyard waterway to Xingsheng Farm. He had grown to like walking along the waterway more and more, enjoying the peaceful and natural scenery, with a broad view, and in harmony with nature, which gave him ample time to plan for the family's future.

For example, on the way to Xingsheng Farm, the waterway was flanked by low-lying wetlands, which were now filled with reeds. Some farmers from nearby villages were trudging through the mud to harvest the reeds.

Although reeds were not valuable, they had many uses. For instance, after drying, they could be used to thatch roofs for earthen houses, or woven into reed mats, which could make the coming summer cooler, and if nothing else, could be used as fuel after drying.

However, reeds were not very effective as insulation, looking like cotton but without the warmth. If on Earth, reeds could even be used to make paper.

Some information stored in his brain was triggered by this scene, faintly appearing.

Wait, cotton, paper?

Cotton, which had been cultivated in Da Qian Kingdom for a long time, was an industry for some aristocratic families. If Wang Shoujie wanted to get involved, it wouldn't be an easy task, as those families had mastered the techniques of cotton cultivation.

But paper?

There was, of course, paper in this world, used in books, letters, and everywhere. The quality of paper ranged from high to low, and the prices were mostly expensive. The reason was simple: the paper-making technique was monopolized by a few powerful forces.

He rummaged through his memory, but at least he hadn't heard of any aristocratic family in Changning Guard owning the paper-making technique.

The paper used by everyone was imported from afar by Qian's Trading Company.

The principle of paper-making was very simple, much easier than producing Glutamate Sodium or Jenny Loom. Even Wang Shoujie had a rough idea of the paper-making process.

This was a promising venture.

Wang Shoujie secretly recorded this idea and incorporated it into his future plans. At the same time, he also had some thoughts about the large areas of wetlands on both sides of the waterway.

His ancestors had chosen the best land to open up farms, considering factors like abundant water sources, flat terrain, fertile soil, and expandability, which could reduce the cost of opening up the land.

As generation after generation of his ancestors occupied the advantageous land and expanded, the remaining unopened land had various disadvantages.

For example, the wetlands on both sides had low-lying terrain. Once it rained, they would form large-scale swamps. Even in the dry season, they were full of puddles and mud.

To turn them into farmland, massive landfills would be needed to raise the entire terrain. Even in a mechanized era, this would be a huge project, let alone in a world with underdeveloped productivity.

However, in the relatively safe and familiar lands of Ping'an Town, it was already difficult to find large areas of land that could be easily opened up into fertile farmland. Either they would have to merge with self-farming peasants' land or squeeze the living space of rival families.

Therefore, every time Wang Shoujie passed by these two large areas of wasteland, he would think about how to develop this area.

If they were to implement a land reclamation strategy, where would the soil come from? How would it be transported?

Moreover, if the two large areas of wetlands were raised, their water storage capacity would disappear once the rainy season came. Under the condition of constant total water volume, this part of the water would flow into the rivers, Zhuwei Lake, and other water bodies.

If the rainfall was a bit heavier, it would likely cause the water levels of the rivers, Zhuwei Lake, and other water bodies to overflow, leading to flooding.

The best solution would be to conduct large-scale dredging of Zhuwei Lake, filling the silt into the wetlands. This way, not only could the water storage capacity of Zhuwei Lake be increased during the rainy season, but the wetlands could also be gradually turned into fertile farmland.

Moreover, the deeper water level of Zhuwei Lake after the dredging could also be used for large-scale artificial fish farming, which would be a truly wonderful thing.

The only problem was that this project was too massive, requiring a huge amount of manpower, material resources, and time, even more than the project of opening up Fenggu Farm by his ancestors.

[Heartfelt thankyou for the support! SlaySaga]

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