“That’s because they’re orphans who have to serve the General after they finish their studies. Our children aren’t orphans.”

“I wish they were orphans. I used to think about leaving my children at the school gate and pretending they were orphans so they could study and learn skills.” One person said, “That’s a school the General personally opened. Once they finish their studies, they can serve the General. Isn’t that better than us scraping a living from the soil and being displaced everywhere?”

Following Zhao Hanzhang meant that even if war broke out again, their chances of survival would be better than following them.

So when the regulations were announced, he was among the first to send his children to school.

But more people kept their children back to help with household work, preventing them from going to school.

Don’t underestimate how young the children were—they could actually do quite a lot. Three-year-old children who could barely speak two sentences were everywhere, yet they could be taken to the fields to pull weeds. Five-year-olds could plant rice seedlings, scatter wheat seeds and vegetable seeds, and catch insects…

When they got a bit older, they could use hoes.

Farm work was tedious but required a lot of manpower.

They had been allocated land and had to pay taxes every year, so they had to work hard.

And in Luoyang city, six out of ten households consisted of orphans, widows, and elderly people raising children without able-bodied adults. This meant they needed to spend even more time in the fields.

Zhao Hanzhang knew this too, and she had a headache about it, with no better solution for now.

As for the manpower problem, she couldn’t provide them with machinery to share the labor.

Zhao Hanzhang sighed repeatedly. As she left the water mill and rode back, she slowed her horse’s pace, leisurely heading toward the capital.

By this time, the sun had already set. Large bonfires were being lit at the city gate entrance, and people continued to queue for inspection to enter the city.

Because there were six groups, the speed was fast. However, they had brought too many goods that needed to be counted and calculated, so many people and convoys were still blocked outside.

Knowing that the city gates wouldn’t close tonight, some clever common people made pancakes, steamed buns, and stuffed buns at home. After asking the gate soldiers and learning they could still enter after going out, they immediately picked up their goods and cheerfully went out, selling along the queue.

Those remaining now were stewards, assistants, and guards—their masters had already entered the city.

But the stewards, assistants, and guards also had appetites. When they had nothing, they were naturally willing to eat dry rations, but now the peddler had lifted a corner of the cloth, and hot steam rushed out from the bamboo basket. In the fading light of dusk, it rose in wisps, and then the fragrance spread with the steam, eagerly rushing into their noses.

The assistants’ stomachs couldn’t help but growl. The steward, who was filling out the city entry documents in the last bit of light, couldn’t help but look over following the smell.

He glanced at the queue ahead, estimated it would take another half hour to reach them, so he rolled up the documents, put them away, and walked over with his hands behind his back, asking, “How much for these buns?”

The peddler bent over and said, “The plain ones are three coins for two, the filled ones are two coins each.”

“What fillings?”

“Mustard greens with pork and cabbage with pork.”

The steward raised his eyebrows and asked, “Is there much meat?”

The peddler smiled and said, “Not much, but there’s plenty of fat. The meat we use for making buns is all fatty, with just a tiny bit of lean. When you chop it open, you definitely won’t taste even a bit of lean meat.”

Hearing this, the steward immediately said, “Give us twenty-eight plain buns and thirty filled ones.”

Including himself, there were twenty-eight people from his household remaining here.

The steward turned to the assistants and guards and said, “Share them out—two buns per person. Take them and get back to your positions quickly. Watch the goods carefully. Once the master sells them, we’ll have our good days.”

The assistants and guards happily agreed and lined up in groups to come forward.

The peddler cheerfully lifted the cloth curtain to give them buns. Of course, they had nothing to carry them in, so each person had one plain bun and one filled bun stuffed in their hands. When there was finally one plain bun and three filled ones left, the steward took them himself.

The peddler wrapped them in a leaf for him and discreetly added one more meat-filled bun inside.

The steward was very satisfied with this. He counted out two coins and gave them to him, then handed him a string of coins, smiling, “Check if the count is correct.”

The peddler chuckled. How could he count? So he turned and shouted toward the distance. Before long, a half-grown boy came running over.

The peddler said, “Xiao Liu, this steward wants twenty-eight plain buns and thirty filled buns.”

Just as his words fell, the boy said, “One hundred and two coins.”

The peddler showed him the string of coins.

The boy’s fingers quickly grabbed and slid across the copper coins. Soon he returned them to the peddler. “Correct count.”

The peddler was delighted and repeatedly said to the steward, “Correct count, correct count. Thank you for your patronage, honored customer.”

The steward nodded and looked at the boy curiously, asking, “Is this your son?”

“Ah? No, no,” the peddler quickly smiled and waved his hand, saying, “This is a neighbor’s child. He’s very good at studying, especially good at calculating.”

Someone else called “Xiao Liu” from not far away. The boy bowed to the steward and peddler, then immediately turned and ran over to help another person calculate.

The steward couldn’t help but sigh. “This is truly amazing. Who would have imagined in the past that a scholar would run around helping a peddler calculate accounts?”

The steward from the adjacent convoy walked over holding a pancake. “In the past? In the past, would you have seen the capital’s gates opened all night for us merchants and traders?”

He gestured in a circle and said, “Look, the only ones left outside the city are us lowly people. Even if they closed the city gates, so what? But the General actually keeps the city gates wide open all night so we can enter, and has county office officials and Imperial Academy students work through the night inspecting for us.”

“In the past, not only would this never happen, even thinking about it would be a sin.” So under the General’s rule, no matter what happened, he wasn’t surprised.

The departing peddler soon returned, his steps quick. He had already sold everything. As he passed by them, he smiled at the steward, then jogged into the city.

For ordinary common people like them, entering and leaving the city was very quick, with no special inspection needed. When entering, they just had to let the gate soldiers glance at their empty bamboo baskets.

Once the peddler entered the city, his speed increased even more. He practically ran all the way home.

His house was filled with steam and smoke. His mother, wife, and two widowed sisters-in-law were leading a group of children in making buns. His mother placed the kneaded dough covered with a cloth on the stovetop.

The temperature was high here, so the dough rose faster—about two quarters of an hour would do.

Seeing him return with the bamboo baskets, she froze. “Didn’t they sell?”

The old woman’s heart sank. They were finished—they had kneaded a lot of dough.

The peddler grinned widely and said, “They all sold! Mother, there are still many people outside who want to buy. Are there any ready? I’ll take another load out.”

Everyone in the kitchen perked up and quickly said, “Yes, yes, yes! Two pots just came out. I’ll pack them for you.”

The peddler took out the money he’d earned tonight and gave it to his mother. “You hold onto it, in case I drop it carrying it on me. Many people have taken food out to sell. I estimate I can sell two more rounds. You make four more pots and that should be about right.”

The old woman listened and became worried. “We don’t have that much wheat flour at home.”

These buns were made by mixing wheat flour and bean flour together. They still had plenty of bean flour, but not much wheat flour.

Whose household would grind so much wheat flour at home?

The peddler thought for a moment and said, “Make as much as you can. I’ll take this load out to sell first.”

“Be careful on the road.”

“Don’t worry. The gate soldiers tonight are very reasonable, and there are Zhao Family Army patrols outside. No one dares bully us.”

If it were other soldiers, they’d really be afraid—not only of bandits on the road robbing the buns, but also of those soldiers robbing them. But the Zhao Family Army wouldn’t.

The old woman also felt relieved and had Fifth Sister-in-law see Fifth Brother off.

—