She Became A Downfall Noble Lady
Chapter 314 - 313: Three Tasks of Wan Yan

Chapter 314: Chapter 313: Three Tasks of Wan Yan

Wan Yan returned this time, to be precise, with three missions.

One was to deliver the courtyard drawing of Prince Yu’s other mansion to His Majesty, explaining why he couldn’t return to the capital and incidentally reflecting his free-spirited lifestyle through the layout of the courtyard. This mission was considered to be successfully completed.

Another task was to transport back a fermented cheese, marketed as Flavored Cheese, to be sold as a top-tier ingredient. Thanks to some marketing strategies that had been rolled out beforehand, the fermented cheese, priced at two hundred taels of silver per jin, had not been recommended to any wealthy family for sampling. Instead, it was placed in Prince Yu’s South and North Goods Store, with a reserved attitude, to be sold to the highest bidder.

This approach didn’t result in the fermented cheese being neglected; on the contrary, it piqued the curiosity of wealthy households. Even if the taste of the cheese wasn’t to the liking of nobles and the wealthy on first try, it didn’t stop them from continuing to buy and taste this expensive upper-class ingredient. Fortunately, it didn’t take many such ’misguided purchases’ for the Flavored Cheese to make its way onto the dining tables of nobility in the capital.

What Wan Yan needed to do was to find a cellar with appropriate temperature and humidity, good ventilation, and place the fermented cheeses appropriately, then entrust them to a reliable steward.

The third important matter was railroad transportation.

Strictly speaking, this matter was not very related to Wan Yan. The railroad transportation proposal had been sent to the capital a month ago. Wan Yan’s role was, if anyone should ask if he was aware of the use of railroads, he was to naturally tell the inquirer that the Construction Industry tasked with building the dairy product workshop for his lord had made use of such equipment. It was quite ordinary.

Indeed, someone had asked Wan Yan about the railroad handcar, but the question was asked casually and not in earnest. Those who were genuinely interested in the matter had already inquired about the details from minor officials under Prince Yu’s command after the rumors were leaked.

By the end of the year, court officials had many formalities to observe with each other, and even the government-registered craftsmen would gather with colleagues they were familiar with for a drink and casual conversation.

The news of railroads being used in the civilian construction industry began to spread among those who were interested. Although they had not witnessed the use of pushcarts and railroads like Jiang Yifan and Hu Jing, the officials and craftsmen involved in related affairs were soon moved by this labor-saving device, aided by enthusiastic endorsements.

Consequently, people started to come up with various ideas on where and how railroads could be applied and what they could achieve. Some even saw it as an opportunity for promotion and began to draft memorials to the Emperor.

Among these people were supporters of Prince Fu as well as the Crown Prince. The difference was that after taking a tumble with Jinrong, Prince Fu’s supporters were much more cautious about this matter, unlike the Crown Prince’s, who were not very guarded against Jinrong.

The Crown Prince’s Mansion had its own official assistants monitoring the situation. As soon as there were rumors of railroad use in the capital, the Crown Prince’s Mansion started to pay attention. Hence, the proposal from the Crown Prince’s Mansion to promote the use of railroads was prepared earlier and was relatively comprehensive.

Therefore, after the court officials admired Prince Yu’s courtyard design, there were successive memorials to the Emperor, suggesting that the court could widely collect methods of using railroads, applying them in the simplest and most effective ways to various industries.

Although many officials submitted memorials, including Tan Weixian, the registrar of the Crown Prince’s Mansion—whose memorial was clearly superior to others—it was overshadowed by Dong Bolin, Minister of Public Works, the day after.

Dong Bolin, as a clandestine supporter of Jinrong, received the railroad transportation proposal early on. With such a comprehensive plan at hand, all he needed to do was extract the concepts that could be brought up in the early stages, not to mention this fell within his area of expertise, making it easy for him to accomplish.

As a result, the memorial on railroad transportation by Dong Bolin, with its innovative and comprehensive suggestions, took an absolute lead, capturing the attention of His Majesty and several Chancellors.

Once Dong Bolin’s proposal was presented, His Majesty was enticed by the prospects outlined by Dong Bolin and placed the memorial with the Cabinet, instructing the three Chancellors to gather experts for consultation.

What Dong Bolin described in the Imperial Court about railroad operation was just the succinct part of Wan Yan’s elaborate details. Naturally, the specific regulations could not be discussed in the Imperial Court for one or two Shichen Chinese Time. So when the three Chancellors actually took the memorial to review in detail and consult with related parties, the scenarios sketched out in the document truly startled them for a moment.

If the railroads were to be constructed as suggested in the Minister of Public Works’ proposal and could operate successfully, then the entire mode of transportation in the Great Xia Dynasty would undergo a revolutionary change.

Take the capital city, for example. If two lanes of horse-drawn railroads, one in each direction, were built along the main routes circling the city and properly regulated, it would greatly relieve the capital’s traffic congestion, easing and directing the often chaotic flow of vehicles.

Although the officials involved in the discussions were senior court ministers, they naturally could not make decisions on such a grand project by themselves.

After much deliberation, the officials decided that Prime Minister Han would step forward during the next morning’s court session to explain the details of the railroad transportation mentioned in Vice Minister Dong’s memorial to His Majesty, and the immense scale and cost of the project if carried out according to the proposal.

Prime Minister Han was a capable minister and, while explaining the enormity of the railroad project, also clarified that if railroad transportation was put into use, the transportation of important materials for the court would become much more convenient, saving countless man-hours and provisions. Moreover, the speed of transportation would significantly increase. Although it couldn’t compare with canal transport in terms of convenience, it had the advantage of being applicable to a wide range of areas, covering a broad and vast extent.