Chapter 1681 — The Footsteps of That Heavenly Venerable
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 4
Making money beget money, that is the true way. If my lord does not know how to make money beget money, I can teach you. " The Star Source lord bowed. "I beg the Prime Minister's instruction! " "With this money you may open more state workshops, turn out more goods, and trade among the various heavens.
When the people take work in those workshops, the money they earn is the fruit of their own labor, and their hearts will not turn wicked.
" Si Yunxiang went on, "You must also open the people's minds and found schools, more academies and halls of learning. When the people's learning is greater, their wealth will grow of itself, and grow ever greater still. " The Star Source lord hesitated, then said, "To speak plainly, the Star Source Heaven is no rich land like Jingping, nor have we such a host of talents.
State workshops, academies, halls of learning — they would be very hard to establish here. " Si Yunxiang beamed. "Jingping can help you.
Jingping has craftsmen in plenty, and academies and halls of learning in plenty. Let them come and help you build more state workshops and found more academies and halls, and in a few decades the Star Source Heaven will have men and wealth enough. Of course, Jingping does not do this for nothing.
" Meaningfully she added, "The money that ought to be spent, my lord had best spend. " Months later, Si Yunxiang shipped those barges of Da Feng coins back to Jingping; yet the gain to the Star Source Heaven was plain for all to see. With Jingping's workshops and academies behind it, this frontier land of the Star Source Heaven was bound to become the strongest and richest of all the heavens of the north. In the Gushing River Heaven Palace, the Village Chief, the Butcher, the Mute Artisan, the Blind Elder and the rest looked Shen Mu over and over, up and down, until the Butcher could hold it in no longer and burst out laughing. Shen Mu's face darkened.
He gave a cold snort.
"What are you laughing at, Grandpa Butcher? I'm far better off than you were in your day — I have legs! " From the roots of his thighs two thin little legs had grown, and below them, tender little feet. Shen Mu stood there, his head no higher than the others' waists.
Which was, even so, about the height of the Blind Elder. Since his return from the Star Source Heaven he had cultivated night and day, and it had taken four or five months before his shins had barely grown out.
"He won't be able to share a bed with his wife for some while yet," Granny Zhu said with regret, sighing. "And there I was, hoping to hold a baby before long.
. .
" With that she took out the little shoes she had made for an infant and held them up against Shen Mu's feet.
Shen Mu acted as though he had heard nothing.
He set the plank door upright and studied it closely.