Zhao Hanzhang picked up a chopstick-full of the just-served pan-fried tofu and sighed. “Master Qian calls such delicate food coarse. Then how extremely crude must bean rice be? Yet most people under my jurisdiction are still filling their bellies with bean rice.”

Zhu Chuan was also displeased. He said to Qian Wei, who had been raising objections, “Perhaps these dishes don’t suit Master Qian’s taste.”

He was hosting a banquet, yet this person kept chattering about how bean products were crude. Wasn’t he saying his ingredients were crude?

These people were too ignorant.

Yes, he decided on these dishes indeed influenced by the Zhao family cook, but these dishes truly were delicious!

Anyway, before the banquet, he had tasted every dish. A few each day. Each time he tasted new dishes, he was very happy.

These dishes were also selected by him from among many options. The rejected dishes were twice as many.

He had been so dedicated, and the dishes indeed were excellent. Yet the other party was nitpicking just because beans were eaten by commoners. He wasn’t made of clay and naturally couldn’t tolerate it.

Everyone watched them argue. After looking up and down, they turned to look at Zhao Ming.

Zhao Ming was leisurely eating the dishes on his table, seemingly unaware of their dispute.

Seeing this, everyone busied themselves with their own affairs—either conversing with each other, eating, or some simply stopped sitting and stood up to walk outside.

The confrontation between the three people thus ended anticlimactically. Zhao Hanzhang had a breath stuck in her chest that couldn’t be released. Zhu Chuan was also unhappy. Qian Wei, who had raised objections, was also unhappy because clearly many people disliked the bean products on the table like him, yet they wouldn’t speak up and just stood by watching.

Fu Tinghan glanced at Zhao Ming opposite him, lowered his eyes in thought. After tasting all the dishes, he pulled Zhao Hanzhang to walk in the courtyard. “Your prestige among commoners is growing, but in the eyes of Xiping County’s aristocratic families, you still can’t compare to Uncle Ming.”

He said, “They watch his expressions and act accordingly, not yours. Getting angry now won’t help. Better to think about how to replace Zhao Ming’s position among the aristocracy.”

Zhao Hanzhang snorted. “Originally I wanted to take it slowly. After all, Xiping County is in my hands. Prestige—doing more things naturally brings it. But now, I’ve changed my mind.”

Fu Tinghan: “Hmm?”

“Hmph, I won’t bother with them anymore.” Originally, Zhao Hanzhang was quite domineering. She not only wanted to be a good magistrate of Xiping County and gain recognition from ordinary people but also wanted recognition from Xiping’s aristocratic families, separating her from the Zhao clan. It would be best if they only followed her orders as county magistrate. But now…

Zhao Hanzhang decided to give up on the quibbling lot. A cold light flickered in her eyes as she snorted. “I’ll establish a new set of rules. As for what they think, if they have reason, fine. If not, they can keep it to themselves.”

That’s what she said, but at that moment, Zhao Hanzhang didn’t have many clear ideas. She just sensed the obstacles her ideas faced during implementation.

At the lower levels, her ideas could flow unobstructed. But at the upper levels, everyone basically did their own thing, at most considering the Zhao clan’s thoughts and fearing the troops in her hands. Few truly listened to her ideas.

Now, she had suddenly broken through a barrier and understood the key. As she wrote her plan, she couldn’t help laughing toward the sky, her face fierce. “Rural surrounding urban, rural surrounding urban! Whether aristocratic families or powerful clans, isn’t the foundation still people?”

Fu Tinghan held his pen, staring at her blankly. After quite a while, he finally found his voice. “What can I help you with?”

Zhao Hanzhang immediately took her plan over. “Refine this. The plan is this plan, but the specific supply quantities need to be calculated.”

Fu Tinghan scanned through it quickly. “Rewards?”

“Right.” Zhao Hanzhang said, “What we donate to Shangcai can be distributed as relief supplies, but within our Xiping County, it’s not relief but rewards.”

Relief—just hearing the word wasn’t good. Only when disasters occurred would there be relief.

Zhao Hanzhang counted on her fingers the reasons she could think of for distributing things. “Students in the school—those who study well, the top five in each class can receive different rewards. At various work-for-relief points, the top ten outstanding workers will also be selected for distribution. There are also elderly, children, filial sons, filial daughters, and filial daughters-in-law in the county town who can all receive rewards…”

“Besides this, I plan to hold some competitive activities in the county town starting from Little New Year.”

Fu Tinghan first thought of this: “This way, the population coming to the county town will definitely increase, which can invigorate the economy.”

These past months, Zhao Hanzhang’s work-for-relief had given the county town some vitality, but commercial transactions weren’t many.

Nearly one-third of the shops on the main street outside the county office still hadn’t opened. Those that had opened didn’t receive many customers per day.

Even Zhao Hanzhang’s own Treasure Pavilion had only sporadic customers here and there.

Currently, the largest transaction was still provided by Zhu Chuan.

Fu Tinghan had long felt Xiping County’s commerce was too stagnant, but because it had just gone through war, he thought it should be given time to recover.

Zhao Hanzhang also felt this was an opportunity. “So help me calculate how many various reward items I need to prepare.”

She said, “Oil needs to be pressed. At least we need to prepare some things in advance.”

Fu Tinghan agreed. “Tomorrow I’ll find Chief Clerk Chang. After confirming the reward quantities, I’ll calculate it for you.”

“No, let’s calculate based on production capacity.” Zhao Hanzhang said, “It has to be within my means to bear.”

Fu Tinghan nodded. “Alright.”

Zhao Hanzhang sighed. “Alas, I don’t know if Zhu Chuan sold his woks. Thinking about it, I feel quite sorry for him. I’ve caused him trouble twice in a row.”

Fu Tinghan couldn’t help laughing and asked her, “Then do you want to buy the woks back?”

“Forget it.” Zhao Hanzhang immediately changed her tune. “Master Zhu isn’t someone short on money.”

But she had to support so many people—she was short on it.

Zhu Chuan actually did sell them.

Regardless of whether they mentally felt bean products were cheap and crude, they indeed experienced the wonders of pan-frying and stir-frying.

Moreover, weren’t you all disdaining beans as cheap and crude?

Iron woks were valuable! So some people genuinely loved the food, while others cared about face. Thus, quite a few people asked Zhu Chuan about the woks’ origin and price.

Days earlier, Zhu Chuan already knew Zhao Hanzhang had someone take down the two woks from Treasure Pavilion. Now the shop only had one left.

So he unconcernedly directed everyone to the source. Thus, some people sent servants to ask at Treasure Pavilion.

Coincidentally, the somewhat guilty Zhao Hanzhang had just ordered the last wok also taken off the shelves. When people came to ask, the shop assistant said, “The last wok was just bought by an outsider.”

“So there are none left?”

The shop assistant looked troubled. “Iron implements are hard to come by. Our shop only obtained these few woks. Earlier, Master Zhu bought nine in one go, leaving just one in the shop. Unfortunately, it was also just bought.”

Hearing this, they immediately turned to find Zhu Chuan.

When Zhu Chuan heard this, he breathed a huge sigh of relief. The smile on his face became much more genuine, and he felt considerably more favorable toward Zhao Hanzhang.