Chapter 266 Delivering the Plan

Chapter 266 Delivering the Plan

It is inconvenient to elaborate in the text, but Xie Wanniang wrote down all the relevant knowledge and experience stored in her mind without reservation.

As she wrote, Xie Wanniang silently thanked the progress of the times and the development of civilization. After all, if she hadn't lived in an era where most knowledge and skills were readily available, she wouldn't have been able to learn so much of the wisdom of her predecessors simply through books, computers, and the internet.

It is worth mentioning that, in addition to the three aspects of "material substitution, process simplification, and tool reuse", Xie Wanniang also gave some directions and ideas on "technological innovation".

As for the specifics of her actions, please forgive her. She just watched some strange documentaries and short videos in her spare time, and she's not an expert in this field.

She's already remarkable for being able to memorize the wisdom of her predecessors so well, but there's no way she can delve deeper beyond simply copying it. She's already provided the direction and thought process; the rest is up to the collective wisdom of the working people.

With that in mind, Xie Wanniang wrote the last stroke without any guilt, planning to call Haitang in and ask her to help copy it after the ink on the paper had dried naturally.

The document contained four documents: woodblock printing, movable type printing, a series of measures to lower the prices of writing brushes, ink, paper and inkstones, and a general action plan to lower the threshold for reading by first secretly preparing and then fully implementing it nationwide. It took Haitang two whole days to copy them all.

The little girl didn't like reading and writing, but now Xie Wanniang had entrusted her with an important task, so she had no choice but to write. So, although she was very serious and careful throughout the process, she kept a bitter face.

After finally managing to copy all the materials, Haitang didn't even bother to check them and simply stuffed the entire stack of papers into Xie Wanniang's hands.

Xie Wanniang originally wanted to remind her that she hadn't checked, but seeing her tearful expression, Xie Wanniang couldn't bear to continue torturing the girl mentally.

She sighed and resigned herself to reading it over from beginning to end.

Finding no errors or omissions, she then began to plan how to "send gifts" to the Marquis's residence.

It was only early April, and there was still some time before the Dragon Boat Festival. Sending festival gifts was indeed a bit early, but Xie Wanniang didn't want to delay what she was supposed to do any longer. After thinking it over, she simply used the excuse of going to the prefectural city to check on the two new shops her family had acquired to leave Zijing Pass once again.

As before, she brought a large entourage of guards with her.

The reason is simple: neither the Tatars nor the Princess of Nanyang have found an opportunity to attack her yet, and Xie Wanniang doesn't believe they will be forced to give up just because she is on high alert.

More likely, their people are secretly watching her, just waiting for her to relax and reveal a weakness.

If she were traveling alone, she might have considered fishing, but now that she has her daughter with her, she wouldn't dare take that risk.

Apart from Haitang, Xiaomei, and Xiaoyang, no one knew that she not only brought a lot of guards, but also dragged Jiang Yuan along to personally modify the carriage, installing many strange things inside the carriage that no one else had ever thought of.

Perhaps because of their large numbers, or perhaps because her departure was too sudden, those who were secretly watching her did not have time to mobilize their forces or set up an ambush. Xie Wanniang arrived in Baoding Prefecture smoothly this time.

The day after moving into the county princess's mansion with her daughter, Xie Wanniang, as was customary, sent a visiting card to the marquis's mansion.

Her behavior was neither abrupt nor strange. After all, the Marquis's Mansion held a prestigious position in Baoding Prefecture, and anyone who wished to maintain a good relationship with the Marquis's Mansion would not forget to be as courteous as possible when facing them.

Not only Xie Wanniang, but other officials and powerful families who do not usually live here, as soon as they come to the prefectural city, will send a visiting card to the Marquis's mansion.

Of course, the masters of the Marquis's mansion would not make time to meet with the vast majority of these people.

Many people's visiting cards never even reached the masters of the Marquis's residence. The stewards in charge of this matter would simply filter out the less important visiting cards.

Other visiting cards that cannot be directly rejected, but are not particularly important, will be sent to a certain place and will be taken out and read when the masters have the time and mood.

Only those like Xie Wanniang, who were favored by one or even several masters of the Marquis's mansion, or who had always maintained a close relationship with the Marquis's mansion, would have their visiting cards delivered to the masters of the Marquis's mansion by the stewards in the first instance.

Lady Hou, who had been waiting for Xie Wanniang to come to her door, sent a reply to the county princess's residence as soon as she received Xie Wanniang's visiting card, inviting Xie Wanniang to come and have a chat the next morning.

Xie Wanniang had anticipated this. The next morning, she left Haitang and others to look after An'an, while she took Lady Wang to the Marquis's residence to meet with the Marquis's wife.

Following Xie Wanniang's instructions, Lady Wang prepared a generous gift in advance. In addition, Xie Wanniang also brought a food box containing what was said to be jujube paste cake and hawthorn cake made by Xie Wanniang herself.

Although it was strange that Xie Wanniang would start making pastries so early in the morning and even take them to the Marquis's residence to give to the Marquis's wife, the Lady Wang was not surprised by it.

As a competent servant, she knew very well what questions she should ask and what questions she shouldn't ask.

The two boarded the carriage together, and then, escorted by guards, arrived at the second gate of the Marquis's residence.

After getting off the carriage, the lady of the house's trusted maidservant greeted them with a smile and then eagerly led them to see the lady of the house.

Just like last time, after the two exchanged pleasantries, Lady Hou sent all the servants out of the room.

Following Xie Wanniang's signal, Lady Wang also withdrew with the other servants.

Only when Xie Wanniang and Madam Hou were left in the room did Xie Wanniang reopen the food box and take out the woodblocks and movable type samples that were placed at the bottom, as well as the stack of papers that were pressed down by them.

She had already bound the pages together with hemp rope in order, and to prevent the writing from being stained by any residual oil on the food box, Xie Wanniang had also wrapped the pages with a layer of oil paper beforehand.

The oil paper package, carrying a slight aroma of pastries, was slowly opened by Xie Wanniang. The Lady Hou glanced at the first page inside and saw the striking words "Lower the threshold for education and break the monopoly of knowledge." She immediately picked up a damp cloth and wiped the oil stains off her hands.

She carefully picked up the poorly bound, illegible booklet. "This...who did you ask to copy this booklet for you?"

Putting everything else aside, the characters themselves are so uniquely ugly that most people couldn't imitate them.