Great Tang Idyll Volume 02 Chapter 36

Volume 02 Chapter 36: Having Difficulties In Making Measurements

Doctor Pang was already very careful, but he didn't notice any expressions of pain on the Young Master’s face. He felt that Madam Zhang was overreacting, and at the same time he was pleasantly surprised by the Young Master’s tenacity. In order to get back early, the little boy rode a horse back and severely chafed his legs. Even when his wounds were treated with medicine, he didn’t even furrow his eyebrows, and it was as if the injuries were on another person’s body. 

However, he still had to be more careful. When he was still just a medic, he wasn’t quite proficient at handling a few types of medicinal ingredients. After arriving at the Zhang Manor, the manor bought a lot of medicinal materials to help him improve his medical skills. They also gave him an opportunity to continue to study, and now he has become an actual doctor.

He understood that his current position was established upon the Zhang Manor’s money and he had signed a life-long contract with the manor. Some time ago, the Zhang Manor would not buy medicinal materials that were too expensive, but now as long as he can name it, the Zhang Manor would try to obtain the item for him.

He naturally knew that the Young Master was the one who paid the money. Now he was treating the Young Master, so how could he dare to be uncareful? It was time to present his medical skills.

He had a small apothecary in his own yard. The items inside were worth nearly a thousand taels of silver. If his Young Master was unhappy with him, then he would have nothing. Who would be willing to spend a thousand taels of silver to raise an idler?

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Therefore, he could only carefully observe the Young Master’s and Young Miss’ expressions while applying medicine to their wounds. His hand movements were so gentle that they couldn't be any gentler.

"Doctor Pang, hurry up. You’re applying medicine, not embroidering. The pain will pass after a while. Juan’juan and I believe in your medical skills."

Zhang Xiao'bao maintained a position without moving so that it was convenient for Doctor Pang to apply the medicine, but he didn't expect that Doctor Pang moved an inch and inch at a time. What a waste of time. 

"Okay, Young Master, I’ll finish up right now. However, there are still some new patches of chafed skin that need to be cleaned up. Please bear with me."

Doctor Pang was finally convinced that the Young Master and Young Miss really didn't seem to care about the pain at all. As he spoke, he worked a bit faster. 

"Give us the scalpel and we’ll do it ourselves. You’re too slow. Remember in the future, you must be fast when you treat the residents. It will be fine to just bear with the pain for just a bit."

While talking, Zhang Xiao'bao and Wang Juan reached out to take the scalpel. They removed the white skin and a bit of flesh around the wounds themselves. Their faces were still calm, but the movements of their hands were not slow at all. After a while, the dead skin and flesh was cut off, and red blood seeped out from the edges.

"It’s done. Apply the medicine quickly. We still have other important things to discuss." Zhang Xiao'bao turned the scalpel around and handed the handle to Doctor Pang and urged him to work more quickly.

Doctor Pang was speechless. Right now, all he could do was follow hig Young Master’s instructions. He quickly applied the medicine, and when he was about to use cloth to wrap it up,  Wang Juan spoke up, 

"No need to wrap the wounds, that will slow down the recovery process. Just leave it this way, and it will scab over by tomorrow. Children’s bodies recover quickly, and it’s easy for the skin to heal.  Thank you Doctor Pang."

Doctor Pang had no choice but to leave. He really couldn't understand why the Young Master and Young Miss were that good at withstanding. If he was treating an adult, the person would wait for him to explain to the person what to pay attention to. However, the Young Master and Young Miss seemed to understand these types of external injuries better than him.

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"Xiao'bao, Juan'juan, does it hurt? Ah, I can’t believe that this family depends on you two. Honestly speaking, if you two arrived a bit later, we would have really taken all 5,000 mu of that  land. It’s all my fault, I don’t understand much about the things of the outer world. I didn’t know that this would cause us trouble."

The Zhang family and the Wang family were all sitting around Zhang Xiao'bao and Wang Juan. When they watched the two children cut their own flesh with a knife, they felt that the knife did not cut their children's body, but their hearts. 

They understood that the Zhang and Wang manors could look like what they looked like now only because of these two children. In other people’s families, the adult took care of the children, but to their surprise, this was flipped in their own family and the children in their families took care of the adults. Although they felt a bit relieved, they were more wistful.

Madam Zhang-Wang's hand touched the faces of her son and daughter-in-law, and spoke sadly.

Zhang Xiao'bao smiled, "Mother, don't worry, the pain is nothing. No matter how painful it is, it is not as painful as when you gave birth to me. That little kid Li Xun keeps on targeting our family. If we really take that 5,000 mu of land, then he will have an excuse to do something to our family. His father is the governor of our Prefecture. We absolutely cannot let them find a chance."

Wang Juan, who was sitting beside him, added, "Mother, don't worry about our injuries. It will get better if we chaf our skin more often in the future. Let's go look at the place now. Xiao'bao already has an idea. On the surface, it looks like we have tossed away that 1,000 mu of land, but in fact, it’s still ours. The actual number of workers on the two manors is only about 400 people, so there are more than 100 open spots.

We need to consider this carefully. Should we wait for the children on the manors to grow up and then let them fill up the spots, or should we buy people from outside of the manors? I think we should wait. The children will eventually grow up. If we consider right now, then saving the spots for them will motivate the adults of their family to work harder.

If we think about it in the long term, we should leave the spots empty and let them wait. We can also let other people who want to join the manor to have some hope. For our two manors, having a fiefdom of five hundred households is nothing. In the future, it might be one thousand, or even two thousand. "

"That’s right. I have a good son and a good daughter-in-law so things would be even better in the future. Those poultries should also come back now. When they come back, every family will be able to eat meat. However, chicken meat is hard to sell. Ordinary families wouldn’t be able to afford it, and the wealthy families wouldn’t want to eat it. Let’s go now. Someone, come carry the Young Master and Young Miss."

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At this time, Madam Zhang-Wang was in charge of the two families; not only because she was Zhang Xiao'bao’s mother, but also because she was smart and learned quickly. Her bookkeeping at home never had any errors, and just like her calligraphy, she was beautiful. Otherwise, Father Zhang would not be so afraid of his wife.

The Wang family did not put forward any different opinions. What they feared most was that they angered Zhang Xiao'bao and he no longer wanted Juan'juan. From where would they be able to find such a capable son-in-law or grandson-in-law?

What made them feel relieved the most was that regardless of what happened, Zhang Xiao'bao would be able to remain level-headed and then devise plans. It was fine if he was a deity or a demon. He knew how to show filial piety to his parents and help his family, so it didn’t matter what he was. 

The Wang Manor had gained a lot this time too because they had a good daughter, or a good granddaughter. Otherwise, why would Zhang Xiao'bao care for the Wang family?

The people of the Wang family naturally understood this. A Martial Rider Officer was a sub- seventh-rank official. Although it’s just an honorary title, if something does happen, a Martial Rider Officer not only doesn't have to kneel in front of the Magistrate at the administrative office, but will be given a seat to sit on. In the future, they also won’t have to be subjected to the Village Elder’s or Junior Officer’s control. Those two didn’t even have a rank, so how could they even dare to fight with a seventh-rank official?

As long as another little boy is born in the Wang family, then they won't have to worry anymore in the future.

For this reason, Wang Juan's father also discussed with his father whether he should find a concubine, but he was severely scolded by Old Grandfather Wang.

When Old Grandfather Wang saw his granddaughter and grandson-in-law together, he knew that they would never allow the adults in the family to find a concubine for their father. If this was a different family, the adults of the family would never care about the young children’s opinions. However, how could the Zhang and Wang families not care? 

That Zhang Xiao'bao had his own personal staff and social circle. Song Jing’gong, Er’niu, Xiao’hong, Ying’tao, Shi’liu, Er’gou, Xu Si, and Hu’zi only listen to Zhang Xiao’bao’s orders. He also considered how the servants of the inner courtyard treated the two children. How could he possibly kill these two children just to find another woman?

When Wang Juan’s father heard the Old Grandfather's words, he finally dispelled the idea of ​​looking for another woman. In order to have a son, he could only work harder. He asked his future son-in-law for some lamb kidneys, lamb testicles, beef kidneys, and beef testicles.

Thinking of his son-in-law, Wang Juan’s father felt satisfied in an indescribable way. He was a good son-in-law. Not only did he give him those things, but he also told him to eat more soybeans and green onions, how to prepare dog meat stew, and eat less celery. All of these food items were aphrodisiacs. From where could he find a son-in-law like him?

As a result, the plan of finding a concubine came to an end under this extremely odd constraint. Father Wang admitted that he did not dare to test his daughter’s and son-in-law’s boundaries.

*

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A group of more than 20 people walked towards the Little Quan Mountain near the manor. The adults walked there by themselves, but Zhang Xiao'bao and Wang Juan were injured, so they were carried over there on a simple sedan chair. 

The chair had to be carried by four people and Zhang Xiao'bao and Wang Juan sat side by side. The group marched towards that place.

"Xiao'bao, how come this place looks like it more than 5,000 mu?" Wang Juan had a wooden straw in her mouth and she sucked up the juice in her cup. After she scanned the hills in the area, she asked Zhang Xiao’bao. 

"The problem lies in the measurement method. It was measured with a person’s steps, so how can it be compared with measuring with light? It would be inaccurate to use light to measure the mountains though, since it can only be used to measure the distance of a straight line. It’s possible if you measure it several times, and then use calculus to calculate the limit. If you really want to measure it, use a micrometer.

People have a habit of making unnaturally longer strides when going downhill. When going uphill, they have to deliberately take longer strides in order to measure accurately. I estimate that the surface area of ​​these mountains is nearly 6,000 mu. What’s to blame is that there’s no high-altitude mapping techniques in this era. "

Zhang Xiao'bao was thinking about how to get 4,000 mu of land. The process was not that standardized to begin with, so what if someone's strides were shorter? He had to be more careful, or else other people would use this against them.

When people surveyed the area back then, it was about 5,000 mu. If his families only occupied 4,000 mu, then there would be nearly 2,000 mu of land leftover. It was really hard to make a decision. 

"Xiao'bao, you’re right. The surveying techniques of this era are not so accurate. Have you thought of a way yet?"

Wang Juan also understood the difficulty of making a decision at this time. They had to either take less than 4,000 mu of land, or take more than 4,000 mu. If they used the original method of surveying this area, this was not something easy to do.

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