Following Emperor Kangxi's imperial edict, the bureaucracy mobilized to prepare for the Southern Tour. Yinreng successfully secured his position on the travel roster. His meticulous planning had paid off; he was finally returning to the Jiangnan region he remembered from his past life.
Before the September departure, Yinreng finalized his domestic affairs. His new commercial venture, Huaxin Daily Necessities, officially opened. For its manager, Yinreng appointed Tang Nineteen.
Months ago, when the state absorbed Yinreng's private horse ranch, Tang Nineteen had been stripped of his authority and relegated to teaching. He had endured the demotion without a word of complaint. Analysis: He possesses both the capability to wield power and the patience to endure obscurity, Yinreng concluded. 'He is ready.'
Songgotu, observing this appointment, immediately understood Yinreng's underlying strategy. Tang Nineteen was no longer just a promoted scholar; Yinreng was actively forging a future Minister of State. Recognizing this shift in the political landscape, Songgotu discarded his aristocratic arrogance and began treating Tang Nineteen as an equal. In imperial politics, cultivating goodwill with the Crown Prince's inner circle was basic survival.
Simultaneously, the imperial court spent two months locked in heated debates regarding the logistics of the newly proposed Ministry of Commerce. By late August, the disputes over jurisdiction, office location, and bureaucratic ranking were settled. The Ministry was officially established. Though currently small, it was the foundation of a modern economic administration.
***
Securing the Rearguard
In September, the imperial procession prepared to depart. Yinreng pulled his younger brother, the Fourth Prince Yinzhen, aside. Due to his young age, Yinzhen was not permitted to join the tour.
"While I am gone," Yinreng instructed, "you will continue residing here in my Yuqing Palace."
Yinzhen hesitated. "Second Brother, if you are not here, it is a breach of protocol for me to stay. I should return to Consort Tong in the Chengqian Palace. I have my servants to protect me; she will not try anything."
Observation: Yinzhen's adoptive environment remains emotionally hostile. Yinreng glared at him. "You will not return there. If anyone questions your presence, you have an airtight alibi: I have assigned you extensive research projects based on the new academy curriculum. The necessary reference texts are exclusively located in Yuqing Palace, and they are too fragile to be moved. Therefore, you must sleep here to complete your assignments."
Yinzhen's eyes widened, realizing the brilliance of the bureaucratic loophole. "Understood."
"If a genuine crisis occurs, bypass everyone and go directly to the Grand Empress Dowager," Yinreng added. Satisfied that his brother was insulated from harem politics, Yinreng joined the imperial convoy.
***
The Yellow River Inspection
By October, the imperial entourage arrived in Shandong Province. Jin Fu, the Director-General of River Conservancy, guided Kangxi along the Yellow River, detailing water levels, disaster mitigation, and the progress of the new "Middle Canal" project.
The Middle Canal was a massive infrastructural undertaking. Historically, grain transport ships had to navigate a treacherous 180-mile stretch of the volatile Yellow River. The new canal would create an entirely separate, parallel waterway, isolating commercial logistics from the river's deadly currents. It was a permanent solution to a centuries-old logistical nightmare.
As Jin Fu explained the engineering, he bowed to Yinreng. "We must thank His Highness. The cement and the masons you dispatched have revolutionized our work. The workers utilized your concrete to cast hollow bricks for the riverbanks."
Yinreng's eyes lit up. 'Hollow concrete blocks.' He had introduced the raw material, but the ancient laborers had autonomously engineered the structural application. "What is the optimal hollow ratio?" Yinreng asked immediately.
"Testing confirms a thirty to fifty percent hollow ratio is best, Your Highness," Jin Fu replied.
Strategic Value: Hollow blocks require less material, reduce structural weight, and absorb kinetic energy. Yinreng turned to Kangxi. "Imperial Father, this technology extends beyond dams. It must be applied to civilian architecture, particularly in earthquake-prone regions. The hollow structure dissipates seismic shockwaves."
Kangxi smiled faintly. "Director-General Jin already submitted that report. I have already dispatched engineers to test its seismic limits."
As the technical discussion continued, Yinreng eagerly participated. While he lacked Jin Fu's localized hydrological expertise, his grasp of modern mathematics and fluid dynamics introduced innovative measurement techniques that left the veteran engineer astonished.
***
The Economics of Subsistence
By midday, stomachs began to growl. Rather than returning to the city for a luxurious meal, Kangxi decided to eat on-site. "We will eat what the river workers eat," the Emperor decreed, sitting on a stack of concrete bricks under a tattered canopy.
Following the Emperor's lead, Yinreng pragmatically sat on a brick. The Eldest Prince, Yinzhi, grimaced but complied.
The meal was served: a bowl of white rice topped with boiled green vegetables.
Yinzhi stared at his bowl. "Is there no meat?"
The worker distributing the food frowned, unaware of their royal identities. "Young master, we had meat three days ago. We only receive a meat ration once every seven days."
Seeing Yinzhi's disgust, the worker defended his meal. "You are wealthy, so seven days without meat seems impossible. But to us, this is a feast. Before we came to the river, we couldn't afford meat once a month. Having dry white rice every day is a miracle. It is all thanks to the Emperor and the Crown Prince's hybrid rice. In the past, poor harvests meant starvation. Now, yields have doubled. We have enough to eat, and in the off-season, we can seek wages at the new glass factories or medical bureaus."
The worker's tone shifted to solemn gratitude. "Because of the surplus, I am saving my wages. Soon, my entire family will purchase the cowpox vaccine for one tael of silver. My aunt died of smallpox. Her village forced her into a cave to prevent transmission. When she died, they burned her body to ashes to kill the plague. I will gladly pay one tael to buy my family's lives."
Yinreng remained silent. Analysis: From a modern epidemiological standpoint, quarantining the infected and cremating the remains is the correct protocol to contain a highly lethal virus without a vaccine. However, to the peasantry, denying a traditional burial is a profound psychological trauma.
"Our village, and many others, have erected longevity tablets to pray for the Emperor," the worker concluded, smiling.
Kangxi ate his plain rice with profound satisfaction.
Before departing, Kangxi quietly ordered Jin Fu to increase the workers' meat rations to once every five days, funded directly by the imperial treasury.
"Make it every three days," Yinreng whispered. "If the treasury lacks the funds, I will cover it."
"No, Your Highness," Jin Fu interjected firmly. "You must not."
Yinreng frowned. "Why?"
"Macroeconomics and supply chains," Jin Fu explained patiently. "First, these workers are not all conscripts; many are wage laborers. If we make the conditions here too luxurious, every peasant will abandon their fields to work on the river, crippling the local agricultural sector. Second, local logistics cannot support it. If we buy meat every three days for thousands of workers, we will exhaust the entire regional pig population, leaving nothing for the local citizenry."
"If there are not enough pigs, the locals should breed more," Yinreng countered. "It creates a new agricultural industry. A pig yields roughly three hundred pounds of meat, does it not?"
Jin Fu stared at the Crown Prince in bewilderment. "Your Highness... raising a pig takes an entire year, and they rarely exceed one hundred and fifty pounds. To grow a three-hundred-pound pig requires feeding it massive amounts of grain. Grain is for human consumption. Pigs eat grass and slop."
Yinreng froze, his modern assumptions shattering. Realization: Without high-caloric, protein-dense feed, livestock cannot reach modern market weights. Ancient pigs are stunted by malnutrition.
The solution was glaringly obvious: Scientific Animal Feed.
Silage alone was insufficient for massive weight gain. Pigs required a calculated mix of roughage, green fodder, and protein, supplemented with specific vitamins and minerals to maximize biological conversion rates without depleting human grain reserves.
Yinreng immediately pulled out his notebook and drafted a technical letter to Lingguang back at the royal academy in the capital. He sealed it with wax and dispatched a courier.
He had successfully provided the empire with sufficient grain. Now, it was time to systematically engineer their access to meat.