Tang Dynasty Little Godfather

Chapter 267 Competition
Although these four brats are despicable, given their previous behavior, it's hard to argue with them.

Ultimately, everything comes down to results.

Wang Xi, who was born into a family of cunning people, now hates cunning people like Wang Maozhong and Lady Zixia the most. He originally only planned to take a short break, but seeing how cunning Lady Zixia was, he went on to drink until he was full.

However, during this time, they also invited a few old coal miners over, sat down, and had a couple of drinks.

It was almost dark when they finally made their way to the coal mine.

Guang Sheng and several old men were seen squatting beside the mine, whispering to each other.

These old men are no ordinary craftsmen; they were previously officials in the Ministry of Works, specializing in coal mining, and have now been recruited by Madam Zixia.

Wang Xi and the others went over and took a look, then said to Madam Zixia, "Auntie, have you finished looking? We've finished and are about to go back."

Lady Zixia asked in surprise, "You've already finished watching?"

If she remembered correctly, they had just arrived!

Li Jie said sheepishly, "There's nothing to see here!"

Wang Xi nodded in agreement.

He really didn't understand why his aunt and the others had been looking at such a shallow hole for so long.

Lady Zixia asked, quite puzzled, "Is this how you usually work?"

"Yup!"

Wang Xi nodded, and then said earnestly, "Auntie, what is destined to be yours will be yours, and what is not, you cannot force. Don't make yourself so tired."

Lady Zixia found this conversation strange, wondering if it was going against the natural order, but she still smiled and nodded, saying, "Thank you for your concern, Sparrow."

"Then let's go back first."

"Ah."

Seeing the four of them with their arms around each other, laughing and joking, Guang Sheng said, "It's unbelievable that the Minister of Works would entrust such an important task to these lads."

Lady Zixia said with a hint of frustration, "It's because they were able to achieve so much success."

An old man next to us suddenly said, "If they can do better than us even like this, then we might as well go home and wait to die."

Lady Zixia glanced at them, pondered for a moment, and said, "Then you two must prove yourselves!"

The old men immediately patted their chests and guaranteed it.

In fact, given Madam Zixia's personality, she wouldn't want to do everything herself; she prefers to cooperate with others.

She had just had the same thought: why not just hand it over to Wang Xi and the others and reap the benefits herself?

However, given Wang Xi and his team's performance, it was difficult for her to wait with peace of mind, as this was extremely crucial for the winery.

Moreover, she was also somewhat competitive. Wang Xi's attitude made her feel that they weren't good partners. If she could surpass them in this aspect, there would be no reason to deepen her relationship with them in the future. Besides, it didn't make sense; there were so many of us, yet we couldn't even compare to a few children.

She was also determined to have a competition with Wang Xi and the others.

However, to be fair, it wasn't that Wang Xi was deliberately showing off. It was genuinely because there wasn't much to see here. It was basically just mining surface coal. You could see right to the bottom of the well, which was probably no more than two zhang (approximately 6.6 meters) deep.

It's basically just digging a hole.

What's there to see? Besides, they already learned some information from the old coal miners while they were drinking down there.

Back in the city, they all went home. Wang Xi now had a beautiful wife waiting for him at home, and his evening entertainment options had become more plentiful, making him more eager to go home than anyone else.

The next day, upon arriving at the academy, Wang Xi spent the morning practicing ballet with Xue Bao'er and Ashina Mi. It wasn't until noon that Wang Xi reunited with his brothers.

"Where is Monk Nian?"

Upon arriving at the back room, they found Li Jieman and Wang Shuang eating, and couldn't help but ask.

Wang Shuang looked up, her mouth full of rice, and mumbled, "She didn't come!"

They buried themselves in their work and worked diligently.

On the contrary, Li Jieman, the fat man, ate very elegantly, took a small sip of wine, and chuckled, "It's impossible for him to come."

Wang Xi sat down, poured himself a drink, and asked, "What do you mean?"

Li Jie said, "That guy is definitely trying to find ways to mine more coal."

Wang Shuang looked up again, "Even the monk Nianke didn't work that hard."

Li Jie said, “This isn’t about hard work, it’s about competition. You all saw it yesterday, Que Ge’er’s aunt is also trying to find a way to mine coal. Seng Nian definitely won’t admit defeat.”

Wang Xi said, "Xiaoman's analysis is correct, then we won't wait for him."

"Huh? We have to wait for our food?"

Wang Shuang put down her empty bowl and looked at Wang Xi with great shame.

He never waits for anyone when he cooks; he eats whenever he's hungry.

Wang Xi laughed and said, "It's just polite talk, don't take it seriously. We brothers don't talk about these things."

"That really scared me to death."

Wang Shuang patted his chest.

Before he could finish speaking, there was a creaking sound, and Huangfu Sengnian walked in.

Li Jieman feigned curiosity and asked, "Sengnian, where did you go all morning?"

Huangfu Sengnian said calmly, "I met the orphans on the way, so I went with them to check out the Chemistry Academy."

The School of Chemistry wasn't assigned here; it was located in the suburbs, while the School of Physics was assigned by the river.

After all, these kinds of studies are very dangerous.

Li Jieman responded with an "Oh," and asked, "Have you eaten?"

Huangfu Sengnian said, "I've already eaten."

After saying that, he added, "I discovered something in the Chemistry Department that might be helpful for our coal mining." Li Jieman and Wang Xi exchanged glances but didn't press the matter. "What did you discover?"

Huangfu Sengnian said, "Didn't Que Ge'er arrange for them to record some changes in alchemy techniques? Among them, Sun Simiao made a record about gunpowder. So Dou E and the others used this gunpowder to fry loaches in the fields."

Wang Xi immediately broke out in a cold sweat and said, "Is this how they conduct experiments?"

Huangfu Sengnian said, "That's not the key point. The key point is whether I can use this gunpowder to blast the coal mine bigger."

Li Jie thought for a moment and said, "Will this work? How powerful can that thing be?"

Wang Xi's eyes darted around. "Yes, how come I didn't think of using gunpowder? No, no, no, it's not that I'm stupid, it's just that I didn't think about it much. If I wanted to, I definitely could have come up with it."

He's a professional in this area, far more skilled than in medicine, since gunpowder is frequently used on film sets.

However, he was unsure how effective the gunpowder currently available would be for coal mining, since he had never mined coal before.

Huangfu Sengnian said, "Let's try it first. If it works, it will save a lot of manpower."

"Whatever!" Wang Xi nodded, then suddenly joked, "Seng Nian, did you get any rest last night?"

Huangfu Sengnian replied without hesitation, "Of course I'm resting. It's just that I went to the Chemistry Department just now, and it gave me some inspiration."

Li Jie chuckled and said, "That's quite a coincidence."

Huangfu Sengnian said very seriously, "That is the truth."

Li Jie said, "I didn't say that this isn't true, but we have a lot of things to do, so let's put it off for now."

Wang Xi nodded with a smile in his eyes, "Xiaoman is right."

Huangfu Sengnian glanced at the two of them and said, "Do you really want to see your aunt showing off in front of us again?"

Wang Xi chuckled and said, "You just want to show off in front of my aunt, don't you?"

Huangfu Sengnian snorted, "Don't you want to?"

Wang Xi said, "Of course I'm interested too. However, we need to be patient!"

Huangfu Sengnian looked at him curiously.

Wang Xi said, "The most painful thing in this world is when you have tried your best, only to find that it is just a piece of cake for others."

Huangfu Sengnian nodded knowingly.

Regardless, with Wang Maozhong, Madam Zixia, and Wang Xi all focusing their attention on coal, it's clear that a revolution in fuels is imminent.

It just happened so fast, so suddenly.

But the reason is actually very simple: large-scale production, whether it's wine or fertilizer.

If it's a family-run operation, you can easily get the job done by chopping some firewood or gathering some straw from the field.

On the contrary, going to mine coal is very unprofitable.

It's so convenient to carry a bunch of straw from the field, and it's close to home. It's much simpler than going hundreds of miles away to dig up a basket of coal with a hoe.

However, mass production is the exact opposite.

You would have to send so many people to collect straw from each household's fields, and if you were to cut down trees on a large scale, the imperial court wouldn't allow it. Mining coal would be more cost-effective.

That's industry. The same thing, if the scale is increased a hundredfold, is no longer the same thing.

Wang Maozhong has entrusted almost the entire task to the Nameless Academy. He is currently in Luoyang, battling with those powerful figures.

Ultimately, even a powerful dragon can't suppress a local snake.

When these powerful figures rise to prominence, their influence should not be underestimated.

They certainly wouldn't go themselves, but instead had their tenant farmers and retainers block the riverbed, preventing the laborers from carrying away the silt.

They even forbid building fertilizer plants nearby.

After all, transporting silt is very costly. Wang Maozhong's solution was to build a fertilizer factory nearby and construct a special channel to use water flow to pump the silt into the fertilizer factory.

However, after a heavy rain, the entire riverbed became quiet.

They suddenly realized that water from some nearby tributaries had overflowed into their fields, which meant a flood was imminent!

The problem is that this rain shouldn't have caused flooding.

Upon closer inspection, it was discovered that the river management project had stalled halfway through, causing much of the water flow to be blocked by silt.

This is absolutely terrible!

If the blockage isn't cleared soon, a few more heavy rains will ruin all the surrounding fields.

But they were unwilling to give up easily, so they sent officials in Luoyang to pressure Wang Maozhong, saying that he should stop immediately, otherwise everyone would die if a flood occurred!
Wang Maozhong, however, stated that they were the ones blocking the river channel, and if anything went wrong, they would be responsible.

I acted on the imperial decree, and everything I did was not illegal.

Upon seeing this situation, the officials in Luoyang immediately turned their guns on the powerful and influential, saying, "If you continue to obstruct us, I can't take responsibility if anything goes wrong."

We will immediately submit a report explaining the situation. It was all your doing, and we will not take the blame.

No one can take the blame for this.

The key point is that when the flood came, Wang Maozhong didn't suffer any losses at all; it was all his family's fields that were flooded. Who would be worried about that!

On the third day after the torrential rain, the powerful finally relented and allowed them to pour the silt into the fertilizer plant.

Wang Maozhong achieved a great victory.

When the powerful and wealthy saw that once the river was dredged, it would carry the silt into the fertilizer factory, they realized that everything had been planned.

It was Wang Maozhong who deliberately caused the floods to force them to compromise.

Many people still submitted memorials to the imperial court, criticizing Wang Maozhong.

But Wang Maozhong didn't care at all. He said, "Sue us however you want. You can't stop us from working."

(End of this chapter)