Chapter 166 1/3

County Town.

Governor Zhang opened the food box again, taking out a thick stack of papers from it.

These were the “Water Management Strategies” organized by Li Qingzhi according to the manuscript left by Li Zhao.

He didn’t bother to eat and eagerly started reading.

The book contained many things, such as how to prevent epidemics after floods.

Some of the methods mentioned inside were unheard of to him, but after the book explained the reasons behind them, he immediately realized that they were right.

Following this book to deal with floods could really reduce losses and save more lives!

This was a good book, and also a remarkable one.

Governor Zhang felt that this book was worth reading and memorizing repeatedly. He also felt that those who wanted to become officials, the students preparing for the imperial examinations, should read this book.

This book, which he had only read the beginning of a few days ago, already made him regret Li Zhao’s fate.

When he finished reading… Governor Zhang sighed deeply.

Thinking of Li Zhao, who had passed away five years ago, his mood became inexplicably heavy. After a long time, he called his confidant and had him copy it again before sending it to the Shen family.

His confidant used to ask Governor Zhang a few questions while copying “Chronicles of Fleeing the Disaster”, such as how Dusan managed to write books so quickly, but now, he didn’t ask anything.

He just wanted to copy the book quickly and send it to the Shen family.

He had been waiting for them.

His fleet was already ready, scheduled to depart in two days. Now, with the delay in departure, he wanted to have “Water Management Strategies” printed.

Ten thousand copies of “Chronicles of Fleeing the Disaster” had already been printed and bound, but “Water Management Strategies”… Dusan hadn’t finished writing it yet.

Every day’s delay of the fleet would result in significant financial losses, but even so, he planned to wait until Dusan finished writing the book, had it printed, and then set off.

Regardless of whether it was “Chronicles of Fleeing the Disaster” or “Water Management Strategies”, the master of the Shen family had read them both.

He considered himself a cold-hearted person, but when he read “Chronicles of Fleeing the Disaster”, he felt extremely uncomfortable.

Especially when he saw people inside eagerly waiting for the government to come to their aid, only to receive nothing.

Moreover… when he read “Chronicles of Fleeing the Disaster”, he felt that Li Zhao, the county magistrate of Yuxi, was a good official, and then… “Water Management Strategies” came out!

There was no doubt that Li Zhao was very capable but also a good official.

It was a pity that such an official was beheaded, or rather, the whole family was executed!

How tragic! According to what he knew, six years ago, the relief funds for the Yuxi flood disaster disappeared, which was closely related to King Jin, and since Li Laogen’s hometown was in Yuxi, he became even more incompatible with King Jin because of this incident.

When this book was sent to the capital, King Jin would definitely be pleased, and the faction supporting King Jin would suffer a heavy blow.

The Shen family originally joined King Jin’s side out of necessity.

But for whatever reason, they had already sided with King Jin. Therefore, they should do their best for King Jin.

According to what he knew… King Jin was definitely several times better than King Jin.

King Jin had always been vengeful, and their Shen family might have been hated by King Jin long ago.

What the master of the Shen family feared most was King Jin ascending to the throne!

When he saw people coming from Governor Zhang from afar, the master of the Shen family greeted them with a smile.

Then, he saw the young man who rarely spoke and hardly spoke to him say, “Water Management Strategies” has been completed, and Mr. Dusan said he would not write any more books in the near future.”

The master of the Shen family breathed a sigh of relief and immediately went to the bookshop.

Chongcheng County.

“Chronicles of Fleeing the Disaster” and “Water Management Strategies” were written by Li Qingzhi for a month.

He was quite tired after writing, and after finishing, he just wanted to rest for a few days. For this reason, he specifically told Governor Zhang that he would not write books temporarily.

When he woke up this morning and realized that he didn’t need to write anymore, Li Qingzhi went downstairs in a very good mood and made breakfast himself.

He made noodles with shredded pork and pickled vegetables, with a golden fried egg on each bowl of noodles.

Li Damao and Li Ermao were especially happy because the days when Li Qingzhi didn’t cook meant they had porridge every day.

“Dad, the noodles are really delicious!” Li Ermao said with his mouth full of noodles, his voice muffled.

Li Qingzhi said, “Your dad’s cooking can’t possibly be bad! Damao and Ermao, do you want dumplings for lunch?”

“Yes!” Li Damao and Li Ermao answered in unison.

People in Chongcheng County almost never ate dumplings, and their family had never eaten them before.

Li Damao and Li Ermao knew about dumplings because Li Qingzhi mentioned them when telling stories.

“This noon, I’ll make dumplings for you!” Li Qingzhi said.

He had written more than 200,000 words in two books, earning more than two thousand taels of silver… Li Qingzhi felt that he should reward himself.

As for how to reward himself… making dumplings for himself was good enough.

After sending Li Damao and Li Ermao to Li Xiucai’s school, Li Qingzhi bought a lot of flour and went home to start kneading dough and making dumplings.

He prepared two kinds of fillings for dumplings, one was pure pork, and the other was pork with shiitake mushrooms and dried bamboo shoots.

Li Qingzhi didn’t like to eat pure meat, feeling that adding something else made it tastier, but people like Li Laogen loved to eat pure meat filling.

Speaking of which, when it came to mixing the fillings, Li Qingzhi realized how expensive shiitake mushrooms were these days.

The shiitake mushrooms had to be soaked first, as did the dried bamboo shoots. When chopping the fillings, the old parts of the bamboo shoots had to be cut off to prevent hard bamboo shoots from affecting the taste of the dumplings.

Li Qingzhi spent the whole morning making a lot of dumplings. He planned to have his family eat only dumplings for lunch today.

In addition, he also prepared some dumplings for those female workers to eat. He calculated the numbers carefully, giving each of them two large dumplings with pure meat filling.

Now that the weather had turned cooler, the vegetable seeds planted by the villagers in the fields in Chongcheng County had already sprouted… The vegetables they ate for lunch today were dumplings with vegetables and egg soup.

The female workers were served a large bowl of rice, topped with dumplings and egg soup with vegetables, and they ate to their heart’s content.

“These dumplings are delicious.”

“This is the first time

 I’ve ever eaten dumplings!”

“Me too, I never knew there was such food.”

“There’s so much meat inside!”

“I heard from Li Xiucai that people in the north eat this as their staple food… they eat so well!”

“Surely not everyone can use this as a staple food, how can ordinary people afford to eat so much meat?”

……

The female workers from Miaoqian Village had finished their dumplings, but many of the female workers recruited from the county town didn’t eat dumplings, or only ate one.

They left the remaining dumplings to take home to their children.

“These are dumplings made by Li Xiucai himself. I want to take them home for my children to taste.”

“Me too, I’ll eat one and bring the rest home for my children.”

“I won’t eat any, I’ll bring them all home for my children… but I can buy some flour and pork for my mother-in-law to make for me.”