This memorial…

Hmm, it was more like her culinary research records.

In simpler terms, Qiao Yan wrote about her experiences since arriving at the fiefdom.

She noticed the significant differences between this place and her previous residence in Yanzhou.

For instance, she planned to try cultivating yams artificially, which grew longer here compared to those in Yanzhou.

Because of the unique environment of Iron Rod Mountain, the yams here were stickier and more solid than others of the same kind.

It would be a waste to only use them for making soup, so various kinds of pastries were created.

In these few lines, a vivid picture of her somewhat childish research was painted.

A few days ago, Liu Hong had also looked at the feudal system written by Qiao Yan.

At this moment, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of comparison.

No matter how he looked at it, these two didn’t seem like they were written by the same person.

But considering Qiao Yan’s age, he didn’t find it much of a problem.

However, Qiao Yan’s thoughts were indeed more profound than ordinary children of her age.

She mentioned that when making these pastries, she used yams and polygonatum, both of which were good for tonifying the body and replenishing qi.

It was a pity that recent disasters had reduced their yield in the mountains.

If not for this, it would have been beneficial to promote them for body strengthening.

This made her further think that, as she had seen in books before, after major chaos often came pandemics, and His Majesty should pay more attention to this.

Of course, before that, the ruler should take care of his health.

Therefore, she presented these pastries.

Pandemics…

Liu Hong couldn’t help but frown.

He furrowed his brow.

Only five years had passed since the last major epidemic in Guanghe.

If it weren’t for the outbreak of this epidemic, the Yellow Turban Dao would probably not have had the conditions to gain the final push for prestige.

But as Qiao Yan said, after wars often come epidemics.

The chaos caused by the Yellow Turbans rebellion across various regions was sure to result in casualties.

If any of these disturbances were not properly addressed, it would undoubtedly lead to extremely serious consequences, possibly resulting in another epidemic next year.

But what else could he do? He had already instructed the eunuchs and court officials to distribute medicines.

Ultimately, the reminder in this memorial was just empty talk.

He didn’t realize that because of this reminder about the epidemic, he temporarily put aside the matter of accommodating the population of Black Mountain bandits that Qiao Yan had brought up.

He only thought that during his reign, there had already been four major epidemics. If a fifth one were to occur, it would undoubtedly be troublesome.

Previously, Cai Yong had written memorials stating that the appearance of disasters and epidemics was due to the failure of those in power to select and appoint capable individuals and the misuse of eunuch influence.

But if what he said was true, then who should he rely on?

In this light, leaving Cai Yong in Leping might not be a bad thing.

At least he wouldn’t be able to present memorials directly to him.

Even if he picked up a pen and wrote something, there was probably no way for it to spread widely in the capital.

In this half-annoyed and half-relieved mood, his gaze unconsciously shifted from the memorial presented by Qiao Yan to the wooden box beside it.

The special sealing with wax and the difficulty of opening the box even after removing the wax seal meant that the food inside, which should have deteriorated somewhat within a few days of being presented to him, was still almost intact.

It was quite intriguing.

He pointed to it and asked Bao Hong, “Is it possible to use this sealing method for transporting military provisions?”

As soon as he said this, Bao Hong almost couldn’t contain his shock.

Perhaps Liu Hong was thinking about improving the soldiers’ diet. Eating dry rations and cakes all the time could be somewhat monotonous, but—

“Your Majesty, this wax sealing method is extremely expensive. How can it be widely used?”

Why is it hard for scholars to make ends meet? Isn’t it because if they want to study late at night, they have to light candles and use wax, which is a considerable expense.

If Qiao Yan could afford to melt wax and use it as a sealing material, Liu Hong could naturally do the same.

But when it came to matters that already required saving money, it sounded impractical.

Qiao Yan had no idea that Liu Hong had just come up with an idea that sounded a lot like “Why not eat meat porridge” at this moment.

With Cheng Li and Xi Zhicai’s help in figuring out how to phrase the words in the memorial, she felt she could minimize the impact of accommodating the Black Mountain bandits.

She had been busy since the autumn harvest season.

The next phase of things was crucial, and she didn’t have the extra energy to worry about Liu Hong’s reaction.

Snow fell in the capital, and signs of cooling were evident in Leping County a while ago.

Even though the environment surrounded by mountains could somewhat block the wind and make the temperature feel warmer, it couldn’t change the indiscriminate attacks of the Little Ice Age.

And severe cold was a killer no less impactful than a major epidemic.

Despite a considerable amount of food stored in Leping’s warehouses and the Black Mountain labor reform team preparing firewood in the county, the lack of warm clothing was still an undeniable fact.

Apart from the small amount of cotton recorded in the attire of the imperial dynasty, cotton cultivation and textile production were far from being promoted in the Central Plains in this era.

Even if she knew that cotton had excellent insulation properties, she obviously couldn’t conjure it out of thin air.

Rashly suggesting a trip south to find materials, in a time when transportation wasn’t convenient and many people regarded the southern regions as barbaric, clearly wasn’t a suitable decision.

Cotton was obviously out of the question.

The next thing Qiao Yan thought of was the down feathers of chickens and ducks.

But it was obvious that in the face of food shortages, there was no surplus food to rear chickens and ducks.

Even if there were, it clearly wouldn’t be enough to make warm clothing.

Qiao Yan was headache-inducing.

Because now wasn’t the time when one could abundantly use charcoal for heating; physical insulation was the primary means of keeping warm.

It was precisely at this time that she heard an interesting piece of news from Lu Yuan.

She said that since Cai Lun improved papermaking, as paper was not easy to preserve, most people still used bamboo slips.

However, servants in families where conditions allowed the use of paper, if they couldn’t afford winter fur coats, often used discarded paper from the master’s house as insulation in their clothes.

Paper was thin, and the idea of using it for insulation sounded somewhat absurd, but for people with limited means of keeping warm, it was not an unreasonable choice.

Considering that the materials used in the improved papermaking process were mostly inexpensive, for people in urgent need of additional lifesaving items, it undoubtedly had feasibility.

After these people set an example, there were also attempts by the common people to use similar methods to keep warm.

Perhaps this couldn’t be called paper but rather an accumulation of tree bark fibers.

Upon realizing this option, Qiao Yan immediately ordered people to search the mountains for a type of tree called the mulberry tree.

This was also a plant that would grow within the boundaries of Shanxi Province. In such a vast Taihang Mountain Range, it was impossible not to find a single mulberry tree forest.

Why search for mulberry trees?

Because this tree’s bark fibers had extremely high content, enough to meet the insulation needs.

This was also why mulberry bark paper coats appeared in later generations.

With Qiao Yan’s current conditions, she couldn’t yet produce mulberry bark paper.

But compressing mulberry bark fibers into a layer needed for clothing to get through this winter was undoubtedly feasible.

What’s even more fortunate is that the Black Mountain bandits, who had been active in the Taihang Mountains, not only informed her of the recent locations of mulberry trees but also brought back two additional items while they were harvesting the bark.

One was the polygonatum added to the sweet potato cakes.

The other was the sap of the mulberry tree, which Qiao Yan added to the wax seal of the wooden box.

When Bao Hong arrived in the capital, it happened to be the time when the first rough version of mulberry bark clothing appeared in Leping.

Because of her young age and her ability to speak freely, Cai Yan looked at Qiao Yan’s joyful expression as she held the mulberry bark clothing and asked a soul-searching question in a low voice, “So, the gift from Marquis Qiao to His Majesty… isn’t it just some scraps?”

“Isn’t it just some scraps?”