Gu Yihan frowned and thought for a moment. “Is Baby Nuo referring to maps?”
Map recorded the entire country’s mountains, rivers, cities, towns, and lands.
Usually, only the ruler of a country would have the most detailed map. Some of the more detailed local maps were kept in the hands of the local prefectural governor.
It was also considered a kind of military secret, avoiding the possibility of having wily people from other countries stealing the map and taking the opportunity to study the routes to attack their country.
This shouldn’t be something that was within Gu Nuo’er’s understanding and knowledge.
Therefore, Gu Yihan was very surprised when she suddenly mentioned it.
“Where did Baby Nuo find out about maps from?”
The child looked up, her eyes as big as ice jade grapes.
“The uncles in the imperial court have all mentioned it before. Previously, when I was playing in Father’s study, I also heard the official uncles mentioning it.”
Since Gu Nuo’er was young, she liked to follow Gu Yihan to the imperial study to listen to government affairs.
Although she came every time, most of the time, she would just sit obediently on the soft couch at the side and play with her fabric tiger.
She didn’t seem to be listening to them seriously at all.
Gu Yihan didn’t expect her to remember such details.
Gu Yihan suddenly felt the pride of an old father.
He hugged Gu Nuo’er and asked with a smile, “Then why do you want to see the map? There’s no record of where the candy figurine sellers’ stalls are.”
The child wrinkled her nose and snorted. “Father! You underestimate Nuo’er too much! Of course it’s not for the sugar figurines!
“Father, think about it. Every winter, the food and medicinal herbs in our capital will decrease correspondingly, right? This is because it has started snowing in many places outside.
The heavy snow would seal off the roads, causing many supplies to be unable to be transported into the capital. This time, Nuo’er, Second Brother, and Third Brother went to the military camp to visit.
“We discovered that during winter, not only did the prices of many ordinary medicinal herbs surge, but the supply also became lower!”
Gu Yihan was interested when he heard this. He raised his eyebrows. “Then what does this matter have to do with the map?”
Gu Nuo’er let out a huge sigh.
“Father is so stupid. If we build a waterway for ships, we’ll be able to have shipments coming in even in winter!”
She was a small carp celestial, to begin with. To her, there was nothing faster than swimming.
The Great Qi’s territory was filled with rivers and this provided a great convenience.
Gu Yihan’s eyes lit up. “Good girl, continue!”
Gu Nuo’er placed her hands on her hips and turned her head to snort. “Baby Nuo will only know what to say if Father brings the map over.”
How could Gu Yihan not agree to that?
He hurriedly called out, “Chunshou! Set up a table and bring out the map.”
Gu Nuo’er lay in her father’s arms, her big eyes blinking. She watched as Eunuch Chunshou brought four to five eunuchs and put together six tables.
Then, they worked together to bring out a long scroll from the national treasury.
When the map was completely and slowly rolled out, Gu Nuo’er’s mouth opened slightly. “Wow! It’s so big!”
As the ruler of the empire, Gu Yihan naturally had the map that entailed all the territories within the Great Qi.
This was a map that contained the prefectures and states. It was very detailed, especially the records on the rivers, lakes, and seas, as well as various checkpoints and fortresses.
Even though Eunuch Chunshou was a head eunuch, he was not qualified to look at the map from the side.
Hence, he left with the other eunuchs.
Gu Yihan placed Gu Nuo’er on the rolled-out scroll and let his daughter crawl around on it.
“Dear Baby Nuo, if we want to build a waterway according to what you said just now, we’ll have to start from the capital and start from the Meng River here.”