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Chapter 494 Inspection (Part )

"My humble self, Zhao Dahong, greets the princess."

"My humble self, Fang Yu, greets the princess."

Zhao Dahong is about fifty years old, with half white hair. He is the highest-ranking craftsman in the Ministry of Works and is good at repairing river embankments.

Fang Yu is younger, looking to be in his forties, and is good at topographic survey, mapping and calculation.

These two were top craftsmen who really knew how to deal with floods. Zheng Chen asked around and then brought them over.

Jiang Shaohua glanced at them and said with a smile, "You two stand up and stay by my side today in case I ask you any questions at any time."

Zhao Dahong responded respectfully, but Fang Yu hesitated for a moment and whispered, "Princess, the Minister has been urging us to come up with a plan for riverbank construction these past two days. I have been busy in the government office for several days and nights, and today I am at the most critical moment..."

"How dare you! Shut up!" Minister Zhou's face suddenly darkened. "The princess is here on behalf of the emperor to inspect the Ministry of Works. It's your blessing to have you by her side. How can you use the excuse of being busy as an excuse to refuse? This is disrespectful to the princess and the emperor!"

Fang Yu was just a craftsman, so he could not bear such a serious crime. He knelt down hurriedly and kowtowed to apologize: "I spoke out of turn, please spare my life, princess."

Minister Zhou deliberately embarrassed Princess Nanyang who "disturbed the Ministry of Works" by reprimanding the craftsmen.

Jiang Shaohua smiled in his heart and said calmly: "Stand up, you work diligently and conscientiously, and you are a model of craftsmen. How can this princess blame you? This princess hopes that the Ministry of Works is full of people like you who work diligently, so that the river embankment can be built more solidly and safely, so that the river embankment will not be washed away every year, causing floods and disasters for the people, and the Ministry of Revenue will spend a lot of money and grain every year."

Who doesn't know how to make indirect accusations?
Minister Zhou felt so humiliated by these words that his face burned. He coughed and said, "Fang Yu, you will stay with the princess today. If the princess asks you anything, you must tell her everything you know."

Fang Yu dared not to refuse and nodded his head.

Jiang Shaohua glanced at Minister Zhou with a smile: "The Ministry of Works is busy with work, Minister Zhou just needs to focus on his own business. This princess will just take a look around, so I won't bother Minister Zhou to accompany me."

Minister Zhou thought that everything that should be hidden had been hidden these days, and everyone was of the same opinion, so he expected that a young girl like you wouldn't be able to see any problems. So he simply agreed and returned to his signing room with a group of officials from the Ministry of Works. There really wasn't even an accompanying official.

Jiang Shaohua sneered in his heart again.

It seems that Minister Zhou not only has a grievance against her, but is also quite angry!

Zheng Chen was also unhappy, frowning and whispering, "With no one to lead us, where can the princess start?"

Jiang Shaohua smiled faintly: "This princess has hands and feet, I can see everything wherever I go, and if I don't understand something, I can ask. Why do I need someone to accompany me?"

Having said that, he stepped forward.

Zheng Chen looked at the graceful figure of the girl in front of him, and complex emotions flashed in his eyes. In just a few days, Jiang Shaohua stabilized the situation with thunderous means, and the scheming and tactics she showed were truly amazing. Even he, her former lover, now felt strange looking at her.

In his past and present lives, he had not changed. But she was like a new person, completely abandoning the past and revealing her ambitions...

Wait, why did Jiang Shaohua go there?

Zheng Chen came back to his senses and quickly chased after him: "Princess, the signing room of Minister Zhou and the two assistant ministers is over there. In front is where the craftsmen stay. There are many people talking and they are quite vulgar." Jiang Shaohua did not stop and continued to move forward: "Well, this is where the princess wants to see it."

Zheng Chen's mouth twitched slightly. This was the biggest change in Jiang Shaohua.

As a noble princess of Daliang, I don't know why I like to inspect. I inspected the county in Nanyang County for half a year, stayed in the barracks with the soldiers, chatted with the farmers in the fields, and watched how the common people lived... Now I came to the Ministry of Works, and I had to watch a group of rough craftsmen work.

Is this something a princess should do?

Jiang Shaohua ignored Zheng Chen's complaints and walked into the place where the craftsmen were working.

This was a very spacious room, divided into four small rooms by wooden boards. Each room had a table and several chairs, with wooden rulers and other tools piled on the table, and several pieces of waste paper thrown on the floor. The craftsmen had already found their familiar positions and were about to discuss the previous issues when they caught a glimpse of the princess from the corner of their eyes and were startled.

Before the craftsmen kowtowed, Jiang Shaohua quickly stopped them: "You all go about your own business and just pretend that I am not here."

The craftsmen agreed reluctantly, thinking that with the princess being a living being here and that Zheng Sheren who was eyeing them covetously, how could they concentrate on their work?

Who would have thought that the princess actually found a chair and sat down in the corner.

Zheng Sheren stood for a while, then found a chair and sat down.

Zhao Dahong and Fang Yu, who were standing by the princess's side, stood there with stiff hands and feet for half an hour before they slowly recovered. The two exchanged glances from a distance.

Are we just going to sit here and watch?

What else? I can't just leave the princess to draw the blueprints!

Jiang Shaohua's voice sounded slowly: "Zhao Dahong, tell me how you usually repair the river bank?"

Zhao Dahong answered without hesitation: "My lord, the first step in repairing a river embankment is to clear the river. Then we need to choose to build a dam according to the terrain. Generally speaking, in shallow water, we fill bags with sand and stones, and then stack them layer by layer to form a simple river embankment. This method is not suitable for places with deep and fast water..."

Jiang Shaohua listened carefully and asked from time to time: "How to build a river bank in deep water?"

"According to what you said, the plan for building the river bank should be fine. Why are the river banks destroyed every year? This year, more than 80 miles of river banks were destroyed, and two county towns were flooded. Could it be because the craftsmen were not careful?"

Zhao Dahong was being led to speak more and more excitedly, and accidentally blurted out the truth: "It's not our fault, we are the craftsmen. We all work hard. The people who were conscripted by the government office also had a hard time. They brought their own dry food and water, and they did the hardest job. The materials bought by the Ministry of Works were substandard and were soaked in water for a long time, so they were useless. Once the flood came, wouldn't it be washed away?"

Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Fang Yu suddenly started coughing violently, his face almost turning red.

Zhao Dahong then realized that he had said the wrong thing. His face suddenly turned red, then pale. He hesitated between kneeling down to apologize to the princess and kneeling down in front of Minister Zhou to apologize.

Jiang Shaohua said calmly: "Don't panic, these things are not your fault, this princess knows everything. If you know anything else, just tell me."

Zhao Dahong luckily escaped the disaster, but he felt a chill on the back of his neck. He dared not say anything more and kept saying no.