You became an emperor by letting me AFK.

It must be very sturdy.

The soldiers at the beacon tower were very familiar with the surrounding terrain. Although Mount Kurong was large, there were only two passes that allowed cavalry to pass through on a large scale, both of which were blocked by the Daqian. Once a battle broke out, they would retreat to those passes.

They gathered at the two passes of Ku and Rong, clenching their fists tightly to make it easier to strike.

"However, the mountain people who collect here may be in danger. Remember to inform them to be vigilant and not to be careless."

"Yes, we need to send more people..."

In fact, some of the mountain people were originally refugees from the barbarian camps that relied on the mountains. They fled into the deep mountains and forests because they were afraid of the Great Qian Dynasty.

The results of it?

Naturally, they lived a life of hardship, barely able to feed themselves, and had to rely on trade with the Great Qian to survive. Now, with the Great Qian becoming increasingly prosperous, many people have voluntarily descended the mountain to submit. Of course, a very small number have also expressed their submission, but have adapted to life on the mountain and simply continue to make a living from it.

It just so happened that Xia County also needed mountain delicacies, so they hit it off immediately.

Everything is just as Feng Tianyin predicted back then: "They will still come back." As long as the Great Qian is strong, some problems simply do not apply.

Back then, some people worried about bandits running rampant, but now it seems that was not the case at all.

Therefore, if the people on the front line of the beacon tower are evacuated, the mountain people will also be taken care of.

However, some of them also traded with the barbarians, or even became bandits, making the situation difficult to manage. Therefore, the garrison only mentioned it briefly and did not actually mobilize them; they were left to their own devices.

a few days later.

A reconnaissance team entered Xiayi and was immediately dumbfounded. Why was it different from when they left last time? It had only been half a year since they last came back, but every time they returned, it felt like everything was changing rapidly.

"Have you noticed? There are ballistae on the city walls; those things are incredibly powerful."

"It should be in the trial stage, otherwise, given the High Priest's personality, it would have been transported to the Ku Rong and Gui Guan immediately."

"The river has widened? It must have been dredged..."

From a distance, it was clear that a group of people were busy in the riverbed, mostly slaves. Not only were there manual laborers, but also large machinery. Every autumn and winter, when the riverbed was low and the water level dropped, Xiayi would organize people to dredge the river and remove silt.

Otherwise, things won't go smoothly next year.

In reality, this is only a western tributary of the stream. The truly wide main stream on the east side doesn't even need dredging; it flows turbulently towards the East China Sea.

Seeing the team members by the Mother River after so long was quite an emotional experience.

Go home.

The northern desert region also has its share of rivers, but most of them run north to south. Moreover, they freeze in winter and turn into mud in summer, making walking extremely difficult and arduous during the "frost-covered period."

On the other hand, it further corroborates the northern barbarians' offensive plans, indicating that both sides would have their cards on the table if war broke out.

They cannot attack when the river thaws.

“Every time I come back, it feels like I’ve arrived in a new city; the changes are too great.”

"Yes, the market has expanded again, and there are more and more blacksmith shops outside. They're really noisy."

"My family does this kind of business, and we should have a good income this year."

Under the high priest's continuous and meticulous planning, Xia Yi had become a center for handicraft manufacturing, with countless blacksmith shops and carpentry shops. Moreover, resources could be quickly distributed through shipping, making it increasingly bustling.

Of course, there were also costs involved.

The surrounding area is barren, with fewer and fewer trees, and even logging camps have been built on the mountains.

This will probably be the case for many years.

The group crossed the suburbs and arrived at the majestic gate. Upon seeing their flags and tokens, the imperial guards who were guarding the city immediately entered the temple area without any hindrance. They then followed the procedure to categorize and store the collected items before heading to the academy for safekeeping.

Today, the former college has actually evolved into the "College District" complex.

If the "temple district" is a combination of office buildings, hospitals, clerks' residences, priests' residences, and daily religious activities, then it is also very lively.

Libraries, museums, academies, and research institutes are all located here.

The college and temple areas are located side by side.

Over time, they evolved into the two most prominent high-rise buildings in Xiayi city, majestic and aesthetically pleasing. From a distance, their silhouettes appear on the horizon, and they are constantly being raised, covered in scaffolding.

To create wonders.

This is where Feng Tianyin's rare human touch lies: functional buildings should be built as wonders as possible, the taller and grander the better, to be solidified to stand for a thousand years.

She didn't have many hobbies; they were simply sculpting statues and building wonders. One was small but exquisite, the other large and beautiful.

The items collected by the team thus entered the museum's collection.

They exchanged ideas and took notes with scholars, meticulously verifying intelligence about the northern desert. In a sense, this place was an information gathering center, responsible for memorization, while analysis was left to the temple.

Therefore, the scholars who received them asked questions with a rigorous attitude, making the scouts sweat profusely.

"High Priest, what brings you here!"

The Grand Scholar was pointing the way for Feng Tianyin, and she immediately spotted the group of people sorting and collecting items.

"I heard you found a lot of minerals, right? Show them all."

It's rare to see Feng Tianyin so interested.

Now that the order had been given, all the scholars immediately got to work, neatly arranging all the samples they had collected in the northern desert on the table.

Even the dean of the college got involved, carefully categorizing each item.

He was the permanent senior clerk in charge of this department, with a background in mathematical research. He had previously worked as a financial clerk before being promoted to oversee the entire department. I've forgotten his name; people often confuse him because of his surname.

Dean Xue.

Over time, he lost his real name. People got used to calling him by his real name and forgot it. Besides, most people called him "teacher".

The college is now effectively responsible for education.

Anyone who has worked with Feng Tianyin will find that the High Priest hopes to popularize education among the entire population.

However, this is hampered by productivity limitations.

Therefore, she selects candidates through examinations. In addition to the examination papers for selecting clerks, the Daqian examinations have developed mathematics, physics, and chemistry papers in recent years. In the absence of basic education, the examinations test talent, and those who pass are all geniuses.

These geniuses all entered the academy for further studies, and occasionally Feng Tianyin would personally teach them.

She tends to teach whatever comes to mind, exhibiting a lack of "continuous thematic thinking" in the classroom; one moment she's teaching math, and the next she's drifting off to physics.

It sounds incredibly imaginative after just one listen.

But the people in the academy are able to coordinate their brainwaves.

Impressed.

This group of people are exceptionally intelligent, so they are often responsible for carrying out various engineering tasks assigned by Feng Tianyin. In addition, the most crucial task is "natural history survey," which requires confirming natural information first.

For example, right now, dozens of scholars are using magnifying glasses to identify minerals one by one, dividing them into known and unknown categories.

The gray-haired girl stood before the unknown mineral with her hands behind her back.

"Gemstones?"

Feng Tianyin picked out a few of them and murmured, "They should be usable for carving."

Dean Xue, standing beside him, said with a puzzled look, "It's strange. Sapphires, rubies, and crystals are usually very rare, so why are there so many in the northern desert? We can't grow crops, but we have tons of minerals. The world is truly amazing."

"Were they mainly dug up in Linchun?"

"How did you know?" The reconnaissance team looked at each other in bewilderment. The report was full of gems, but when they wrote the letter, they didn't mention where the gems mainly came from.

"Because Linchun is backed by a longitudinal volcanic mountain range, geological activity is frequent."

Thanks to the volcano that is considered sacred by the people, the surrounding area has a considerable area of ​​nutrient-rich mineral land, making it one of the few regions where crops can be grown and yield high yields. In addition, it is rich in geothermal energy, even having hot springs, and the nearby rivers and lakes do not freeze in winter.

It is spring-like all year round.

It is a unique flower in the vast grasslands of northern Mongolia, hence the name Linchun.

The volcanic ash soil alone is enough to make it a settlement of 100,000 people in this era, and that's far from the limit. Given time, it wouldn't be difficult for it to even become a rare inland metropolis.

Unfortunately, the two sides are almost a thousand miles apart, making it unrealistic to exert control over them, which is of little use in Feng Tianyin's judgment.

Her gaze swept over the gemstone.

They finally settled on a dark, unsightly rock, which immediately drew curious glances from the others.

This thing looks so unremarkable, why is it worth paying attention to? Everyone had no doubt about the High Priest's judgment; it must be some kind of powerful mineral.

"coal."

"—And it's a very high-quality open-pit mine."

Feng Tianyin cast an inquiring glance, and the reconnaissance team immediately explained that there was a "black soil" area between the northern foot of Kurong Mountain and Linchun, which should be a coal-rich area.

Eighty percent of the reserves are quite substantial and easy to mine, and even in the industrial age, they were considered expensive.

She weighed it in her mind for a moment and then fell into deep thought.

He then followed up with, "It's a very precious mineral, but its application will come later. And mining it generates a lot of wastewater. Is there any water available?"

"My lord, there are many lakes in the northern desert, and they are all very deep."

The captain unfolded a map, and indeed there were quite a few. Moreover, although the surface area seemed small, it was very deep, with several places estimated to be 500 meters deep, and there were more than one place said to be at a depth of 1,000 meters, indicating that the water resources were quite abundant.

They all have geothermal geysers underneath, so they don't freeze in winter and are very noticeable.

That's right.

Nature operates on logic, with everything interconnected.

Frequent volcanic activity in northern Mobei has created major tectonic faults, resulting in numerous water-filled lakes, volcanic ash soil, and uplifted rare minerals... and certainly more than just these gains.

Feng Tianyin continued to examine the collected items, scrutinizing each one and nodding sincerely, leaving the other scholars completely bewildered.

"Sir, what is this?"

"It would be too troublesome to describe in detail, it's just a collection of various metal mineral deposits."

She was right; there were more varieties than she had imagined, thanks to active geological changes that had brought forth all sorts of rare metals.

but.

After all, it is located inland, lacks shipping, and has high mining costs.

There were indeed good things inside, even tungsten and rare earth elements, all of which were clearly visible to Feng Tianyin with a single scan, filling her with delight. However, who knows when they could actually utilize them? The prerequisites were countless.

But there is no doubt that it is priceless.