While the inner court's concubines wasted their energy calculating how to exploit Consort Tongjia's physical collapse, Crown Prince Yinreng focused on tangible assets. The cement factory's construction phase was complete; it had successfully transitioned into operational testing. With the system's blueprints guiding the process, the industrial progression was flawless.
With his material projects stable, Yinreng analyzed his remaining vulnerability: his brother, Yinzhen.
Yinreng had previously intimidated Yinzhen's servants into compliance. It was an effective short-term patch, but structurally unsound. The servants feared him, but they also feared Tongjia. Once Tongjia recovered her faculties, she would inevitably resume using Yinzhen as a political pawn against Consort De. The servants, caught in the crossfire of absolute authority, would default to obeying their direct master.
Yinreng's Deduction: Consort De won the recent conflict. Logically, she should have capitalized on Tongjia's weakness to secure her biological son, Yinzhen. Yet, she remained entirely passive. She was waiting for someone else to expend their political capital to solve the problem.
'I cannot afford to wait,' Yinreng concluded. 'If Tongjia recovers before the boy is secured, the window of opportunity closes.' Executing his strategy, Yinreng began escorting Yinzhen to the Grand Empress Dowager's residence at Cining Palace every single day.
***
The Calculus of Inaction
In Yonghe Palace, Consort De received the surveillance reports regarding Yinreng's daily visits to Cining Palace. She smiled, signaling her maid, Yuchan, to halt any covert operations regarding Yinzhen.
"We will do nothing," Consort De ordered.
Yuchan was confused. "But Her Ladyship Tongjia is incapacitated. Now is the time to infiltrate her staff."
"The Crown Prince has taken Yinzhen to the Grand Empress three times," De explained, outlining her tactical read. "Yinreng is highly intelligent. He has analyzed Tongjia's subtle abuse of Yinzhen and recognized the threat. He is moving to protect the boy."
De's Internal Analysis: This was a war of attrition. She had refused to move, forcing Yinreng to act first. If De intervened directly to help Yinzhen, she would contradict her carefully maintained public persona of a detached, compliant concubine who respected Tongjia's maternal authority. Furthermore, Tongjia still retained the Emperor's favor. Any aggressive move by De would trigger unnecessary retaliation while Yonghe Palace was currently trying to smuggle the compromised wet nurse, Ilha, out of the palace.
"Our primary objective is absolute stealth," De finalized. "Let the Crown Prince dismantle Tongjia's control. We remain invisible."
***
Leveraging the Absolute Hierarchy
At Cining Palace, Yinreng initiated his request with the Grand Empress Dowager.
"Great-Grandmother, I need Yinzhen's primary staff replaced," Yinreng stated directly.
The Grand Empress raised an eyebrow. "His biological mother does not intervene, yet you scheme on his behalf. Why do you need my authority?"
Yinreng laid out the political architecture. "Jurisdiction. I am the Crown Prince, but I am a junior generation. Tongjia holds the rank of Vice-Empress and is his legal adoptive mother. If I replace his servants, she can easily countermand the order or accuse me of planting spies in her palace. My authority is easily contested."
He leaned in. "Your authority, however, is absolute. You are the apex of the hierarchy. If 'you' order his maids transferred—claiming you simply require their specific skills—Tongjia has no legal or social mechanism to refuse. The new servants you provide will carry your implicit protection, immunizing Yinzhen against further sabotage."
The Grand Empress smiled at the ruthless efficiency of his logic. "Very well. I will requisition his current maids, Cuiyan and Cuiyun, and issue him replacements tomorrow."
The following day, Yinzhen's staff was completely overhauled.
Cuiyan, sensing her impending doom, intercepted Yinreng after his morning classes, begging for mercy. She argued she had never directly harmed Yinzhen, claiming that Tongjia's head maid, Chunying, would frequently take over the night shifts, implying the boy's deliberate exposure to the cold was not her fault.
Yinreng cut off her defense. "I already extracted that data from Yinzhen. You allowed an external operative to compromise your primary duty. You are structurally obsolete."
He did not order her execution. He simply commanded her to report to Cining Palace for "re-education." It was a permanent end to her career, but it spared her life. This calculated deployment of mercy and absolute power instantly recalibrated the remaining servants in Chengqian Palace. Terrified of the Crown Prince's reach, the new staff discarded their loyalty to Tongjia and dedicated themselves entirely to Yinzhen's well-being.
The vulnerability was neutralized.
***
Industrial Deployment
By late July, the hybrid rice yield data arrived. Across all tested provinces, north and south, the harvest stabilized at an unprecedented 800 'jin' per 'mu'. The agricultural foundation of the empire was fundamentally secured, sending shockwaves of approval through all societal strata.
While Emperor Kangxi was euphoric over the grain surplus, Yinreng presented his next asset: the completed cement production.
Kangxi immediately organized an inspection of the suburban factory, accompanied by key officials. The facility had been intentionally built in a non-residential, non-agricultural zone to contain industrial runoff and maintain operational secrecy.
The immediate evidence of success was the infrastructure. What was once a muddy, impassable path had been transformed into a perfectly flat, sixty-by-forty-meter concrete staging ground.
Official Li Guangdi stamped his boots on the solid ground, astounded. "Crown Prince, this is the new material?"
"It is," Yinreng confirmed, leading the Emperor toward an active paving crew.
Lingguang, the system's designated engineer, briefed the Emperor. "Your Majesty, cement functions as a binding agent. When mechanically mixed with aggregates like sand and gravel, it creates concrete."
Kangxi observed the crew laying the material, noting a specific detail. "Why are there uniform, straight gaps cut into the solid surface? They do not look like natural fractures."
"Contraction joints," Lingguang explained clinically. "The hydration process of cement is exothermic; it generates massive heat. When the chemical reaction concludes, the material cools and contracts. Thermal contraction causes random, destructive fracturing across the slab. By cutting these joints, we pre-determine the lines of structural failure, directing the stress to prevent the road from tearing itself apart."
The Qing dynasty officials stared at him, utterly failing to process the thermodynamics.
Yinreng seamlessly translated the concept. "Father, if you pour cold water into a glass that just held boiling tea, the glass shatters randomly due to the temperature shock. The road does the exact same thing when it cools. These cuts control where the road 'shatters' so it remains usable."
Kangxi grasped the logic instantly. "A specialized understanding of material behavior."
Lingguang then pointed to the painted white grids on the concrete. "These are designated parking vectors. Anticipating the Ministry of Works taking over this facility, centralized traffic will increase. These grids optimize spatial efficiency, allowing carriages to dock uniformly without bottlenecking the entrance."
After a thorough inspection and physical load-testing by the officials, Kangxi recognized the immense strategic value of rapid, durable infrastructure deployment.
"Seal this perimeter," Kangxi ordered. The factory was immediately classified as a state secret, heavily militarized, and shifted to maximum production capacity.
Within half a month, the first paved concrete artery appeared in the capital.
The efficiency of the construction baffled the public. Rumors rapidly mutated into mythology. The populace rationalized the impossibly smooth roads as divine intervention, meant to assist the Emperor in reinforcing the Yellow River dams against flooding. Lingguang, the pragmatic engineer, was abruptly hailed by the masses as a divine envoy sent by the heavens.
Inside the factory, Lingguang could only react with profound, rational confusion.