After a few days of contact, Ninth Princess had gradually figured out Jin Feng’s personality.
Knowing that he did not much like overly serious ways of talking, she covered her mouth and teased, “It seems Mister is very popular. This palace has noticed that many girls look at Mister with eyes full of tender affection.”
Hearing this, Qing Munlan turned back to look at Ninth Princess with a face full of surprise.
In Qing Munlan’s impression, Ninth Princess had become extremely serious ever since she started helping Chen Ji review memorials. Now she had actually learned to joke around.
How could she know that Ninth Princess was deliberately trying to mend relations with Jin Feng?
The group chatted casually as they walked through the textile workshop and arrived at the entrance of the smelting workshop.
Here, Ninth Princess witnessed the forging process of black knives.
Although Ninth Princess was very interested in the huge iron furnace inside the workshop, she remembered that because of the salt-making formula incident, some estrangement had already arisen between her and Jin Feng. Therefore, she only offered a few words of praise and did not ask anything about the furnace at all.
Jin Feng was no fool. From Ninth Princess’s reaction, he roughly guessed her thoughts. The wariness he felt toward her lessened slightly, though he did not completely relax his guard. When they passed the laboratory door and Qing Munlan suggested taking Ninth Princess inside for a look, Jin Feng refused.
Because Guan Xiaorou and Wan Niang often made soap in the laboratory, and with Ninth Princess’s intelligence, she would probably master it after watching just once.
This was also the reason Jin Feng had brought Ninth Princess to stay at Cat Cat Mountain instead of Iron Can Mountain.
Soap was currently one of the main sources of funds for the Jinchuan Merchant Association. If the soap formula leaked out, the construction of Xihe Bay would suffer a major blow.
Ninth Princess, being clever and perceptive, noticed that Jin Feng did not respond to Qing Munlan’s words. She took the initiative to walk toward the door.
As she walked, she casually asked, “Mister, how many people are now working in Xihe Bay?”
“I really don’t know the exact number,” Jin Feng said, turning to Tang Xiaobei. “Do you know?”
“There were originally three hundred and three villagers in Xihe Bay. Apart from them, if we add the male and female workers in all the factories, the male and female soldiers of the escort bureau, and their families, the total comes to more than three thousand seven hundred people.”
Tang Xiaobei smiled and replied, “If we also count Iron Can Mountain, Double Camel Peak, Tiger Head Mountain, Black Water Ditch, and all the helpers employed by the Jinchuan Merchant Association, the number is even higher. I can’t remember the exact figure.”
“So many?”
Ninth Princess had only asked casually, but upon hearing the number, she could not help stopping in her tracks. “I remember that the total population of Jinchuan County is just over forty thousand, is it not?”
In feudal times, because grain yields were very low, too many people could not be supported. Medical conditions were also backward, and the child mortality rate was high. The population of Great Kang had been declining for years.
Several decades ago, before the Dangxiang and Khitan invaded the Central Plains and taxes were not yet so heavy, the total population of Jinchuan had once reached sixty thousand. In just a few short decades, the population had fallen by a third.
No matter the era, this was an extremely serious matter.
Unfortunately, the emperor and the court ministers had never realised how grave the situation was.
The whole county had fewer than forty thousand people, yet one village, Xihe Bay, had gathered more than three thousand, nearly a tenth of the county’s total population.
How could Ninth Princess not be shocked?
“Yes,” Tang Xiaobei nodded with some pride. “A while ago, several factories in the village started operating at the same time. Some villages moved here entirely.”
“Mister is truly remarkable to be able to support so many people.”
Ninth Princess sighed in admiration.
Jin Feng smiled but said nothing.
A few thousand people was nothing. In his previous life, factories with tens of thousands of workers had been far too common.
After leaving the factories, the group continued forward while chatting idly. A little girl approached them. It was Jin Feng’s second disciple, Zhou Jin.
Seeing Jin Feng, Zhou Jin’s face lit up with joy. She ran over, affectionately took his arm, and asked with a beaming smile, “Master, when did you get back?”
“I’ve been back for a while. Didn’t you hear the village head call everyone to the meeting?” Jin Feng asked.
“I heard, but Doctor Wei was seeing patients and didn’t let me go.” Zhou Jin smiled. “If I’d known Master was back, I definitely would have gone.”
“Doctor Wei is still in Xihe Bay?” Jin Feng asked in surprise.
Before going to Wulang Mountain, Wei Wuya had brought people from Fengshui Town to thank him, but Jin Feng had immediately set off for Wulang Mountain after receiving a female soldier’s urgent request for help from A-Mei.
Then he had gone to the ferry to welcome Ninth Princess. Coming and going, nearly ten days had passed. He had assumed Wei Wuya would have left long ago.
“He’s still here. Doctor Wei said he wanted to wait for Master to return so they could discuss medicine.”
Zhou Jin looked up as she spoke.
“He is the best doctor in Guangyuan. I only know a tiny bit about medicine. What medical skills could he possibly want to discuss with me?”
Jin Feng laughed in spite of himself.
He knew his own abilities. If Wei Wuya wanted to talk about smelting techniques, Jin Feng would not be the least bit nervous.
But his medical knowledge barely filled half a bottle. What could he possibly discuss with Wei Wuya?
“That’s not true at all. After Doctor Wei saw Master’s suturing technique and alcohol disinfection, he could not stop praising them. He said the surgical methods Master proposed could found an entire new school of medicine!”
Zhou Jin answered earnestly. “Doctor Wei said that if these methods were passed to the army, more than half of the wounded soldiers on the battlefield could survive!”
Wei Wuya had studied traditional Chinese medicine. Although it included surgery, wound treatment was far from standardised. One only had to look at how dirty cloth was casually used to bind wounds on the battlefield.
Yet this could not really be blamed on Chinese medicine. In fact, in feudal times, Western medicine was even more outrageous.
To sum it up in one sentence: arm hurts, chop off the arm; leg hurts, chop off the leg.
The effect was certainly immediate. Once it was chopped off, it no longer hurt, did it?
Only later, with the invention of the microscope, did Western medicine open the door to a new world and advance by leaps and bounds.
If not for the affairs at Wulang Mountain and with Ninth Princess, Jin Feng had planned to start producing glass this time upon his return.
Although a microscope required high precision, Jin Feng was confident that with a few years at most, he could definitely make one.
Ninth Princess had only been listening idly from the side, but when she heard Zhou Jin’s words, her expression changed at once.
She grabbed Zhou Jin and asked, “What did you just say? Say it again!”
“Who are you? You’re hurting me!” Zhou Jin pulled her arm free and glared angrily at Ninth Princess.
“Jin’er, do not be rude! This is Her Highness the current Ninth Princess!”
Jin Feng hurriedly tapped Zhou Jin on the head, then apologised to Ninth Princess. “My foolish disciple has never seen the world and has offended Your Highness. I hope Your Highness will forgive her!”
“Prin… Princess?!”
Zhou Jin’s eyes widened as she curiously looked Ninth Princess up and down.
After all, she was just a girl raised in the mountains and did not yet understand what a princess meant.
“What are you staring at? Hurry up and kowtow to Her Highness!”
Tang Xiaobei kicked Zhou Jin lightly on the leg.
“Jin’er kowtows to Your Highness!”
Only then did Zhou Jin come back to her senses. She knelt down and kowtowed to Ninth Princess.
“Quickly, rise!”
When she had earlier accepted the obeisance of Guan Xiaorou and Tang Xiaobei, Ninth Princess had remained seated in her carriage, but now she personally reached out and pulled Zhou Jin to her feet.
Greatly agitated, she asked, “Little girl, what did you just say? Is it really possible to make more than half of the wounded soldiers on the battlefield survive?”
