Shen Ruhui’s expression improved somewhat as he turned to look at Scholar Yu.

Scholar Yu’s face was bright red. He hurriedly returned the bow. “I dare not accept such a grand gesture from you gentlemen. This matter… let’s just consider it settled.”

Only then did Shen Ruhui nod. “Then let’s consider it settled.”

Only then did Zhao Hanzhang soften her expression slightly as she looked at Li Tianhe.

Li Tianhe, kneeling on the ground, had a flushed face. The three military officers behind him weren’t much better off. They guiltily glanced up before immediately avoiding Zhao Hanzhang’s gaze, then clasped their fists toward Shen Ruhui and Scholar Yu. “We apologize. We should not have toyed with you two gentlemen.”

Everyone had admitted their fault. Li Tianhe took a deep breath and also clasped his fists toward Shen Ruhui and Scholar Yu.

Zhao Hanzhang’s expression remained poor as she said directly: “Go receive your punishment from the Imperial Guards.”

Her gaze swept over them as she said coldly: “You all know yourselves whether this behavior was right or wrong, whether you had ulterior motives. Others aren’t fools either.”

“In terms of wisdom, Minister Shen and Scholar Yu far surpass you. It’s simply that those who devote themselves to academic research don’t bother arguing with you.” Zhao Hanzhang looked at Shen Ruhui and Scholar Yu with a gentler expression, saying softly: “You two should go to the Imperial Medical Office to check for injuries before returning to the Ministry of Agriculture.”

Scholar Yu quickly said: “That won’t do. I still need to hurry back and write down everything I heard and thought about today, and select people to go into the mountains tomorrow.”

Zhao Hanzhang said: “The matter of cultivating grain seeds isn’t so urgent.”

Scholar Yu just listened without intending to comply. How could it not be urgent? The weather was already getting cold. If they didn’t go into the mountains soon, the wild wheat and wild rice might all have fallen.

He also didn’t know if they could find any in the mountains. Maybe he should ask the villagers?

Many of them had been refugees for a long time and had been to many mountains. Perhaps they would know where to find wild wheat, wild rice, and other wild species.

In front of all these people, Scholar Yu just spaced out like this.

Zhao Hanzhang, seeing his eyes go blank and his mind clearly elsewhere, let out a long sigh. This was why, although Scholar Yu had more talent than Shen Ruhui in agricultural matters, he hadn’t been appointed as minister but only served as a scholar in the Ministry of Agriculture.

What he needed was someone to support his research and meet all his requirements, not to play politics with colleagues in the government.

If he attended court meetings, within ten days he wouldn’t be schemed to death by others, but he would resign on his own out of frustration.

So Zhao Hanzhang allowed him to report directly to her and gave him an additional salary, letting him serve as a scholar at both the Imperial Academy and the Ministry of Agriculture. She either addressed him as Scholar or as Teacher.

In the entire court, those whom Zhao Hanzhang addressed as Teacher could be counted on one hand.

She had thought this attitude would protect him. Now it seemed it still wasn’t enough.

Zhao Hanzhang nodded to Shen Ruhui, who then took Scholar Yu by the hand and led him out of the palace.

With the two parties involved gone, the others remained either kneeling or standing. Zhao Hanzhang couldn’t be bothered with them. She glared at Li Tianhe and the three military officers behind him, then said in a low voice: “Go receive your punishment first, then come see me.”

She turned around to see the young Emperor carefully lifting his robe as he hurried up the steps.

She couldn’t bear to look, took a deep breath, pretended not to see, and swept her sleeves as she returned to the main hall.

By the time she returned to the main hall, the young Emperor was already sitting in his seat, though panting heavily. Seeing Zhao Hanzhang return, he thought he was being inconspicuous as he wiped the sweat from his face, trying hard to suppress his heaving chest.

Wuwuwu, climbing stairs was too tiring, and he had to climb so fast. Why were the steps to the main hall so long?

Zhao Hanzhang pretended not to know. After flipping through the remaining documents, she said: “It’s getting late. Your Majesty should return to review your lessons. Didn’t Grand Tutor Xun plan to teach the Han Feizi today?”

The young Emperor’s eyes went wide. For the first time, he would rather stay by Zhao Hanzhang’s side looking at these boring and incomprehensible documents than go study.

The Han Feizi was too difficult to learn. Moreover, the more he studied it, the more disappointed and cold Second Uncle’s gaze became when looking at him, and he still couldn’t figure out why.

He dawdled a bit, seeing that Zhao Hanzhang showed no sign of relenting. He could only get up and leave. Forget it—she had just lost her temper, so he’d better not provoke her recently.

After the young Emperor left, Zhao Hanzhang began reviewing documents. After reviewing two, she beckoned an Imperial Guard and asked: “Have they gone to receive their punishment?”

“Censor Lu went to his office first to hand in his documents before going to receive punishment. He’s already been given five strokes and is being carried out of the palace. General Li and the other four have also finished their five strokes and are currently on their way here.”

They had just been beaten and their movements were somewhat impaired, so they were moving slowly.

Palace rod punishment was different from being beaten at home. It was the same as military rods—thick and heavy rods struck down hard. One stroke could draw blood. If the executioner was vicious, a slight shift of the hand could strike the lower back, potentially cracking bones.

Besides the physical harm, palace rod punishment also carried psychological damage. Having one’s clothes lifted and pants pulled down to be beaten on the buttocks was also reported throughout the court and recorded in the historical records.

They were the first people to receive rod punishment since Zhao Hanzhang had taken power. Even when people from the young Emperor’s faction attacked Zhao Hanzhang in court, accusing her of being ambitious and having disloyal intentions, or criticized her based on her female identity, she had never used palace rods.

This showed how angry she was this time.

Li Tianhe and the others didn’t grasp this at first. As they endured the pain and slowly climbed the steps one by one, arriving outside the great hall to kneel, they finally began to realize that to Zhao Hanzhang, humiliating Shen Ruhui and Scholar Yu and other worthy talents was more serious than insulting her.

By the time they knelt outside the great hall, Zhao Hanzhang had already finished reviewing most of the documents on her desk. She didn’t immediately go out, nor did she let them rise. She just let them kneel there while she finished reviewing the remaining documents and handed them to Song Jin, who was on duty today, before finally getting up and walking out.

The Historiographer Wang Hao, who had been crouching in a corner taking notes, brightened up. He immediately held his little notebook and grasped his small brush, following along and standing in the shadows by the door, observing.

Song Jin’s eyes accidentally met his as she passed by. Both were somewhat speechless.

Wang Hao was from the Taiyuan Wang clan. He and the Wang clan were cousins, though they had never met.

After Zhao Hanzhang pacified the Xiongnu, he had shouldered his pack and eagerly rushed to Luoyang, finally arriving at the beginning of this year. He hadn’t gone to meet his unseen cousin, nor had he expressed his identity to Zhao Hanzhang, his convenient niece. Instead, he went straight to the Imperial Academy and used a single essay to knock on Zhao Cheng’s door.

Then, using a historian’s perspective, he received Zhao Cheng’s recommendation and successfully met Zhao Hanzhang, convincing her to restore the Secretariat, a history compilation department.

Zhao Hanzhang changed the current dynasty’s Secretariat to the Secretariat Bureau, establishing positions like Secretariat Supervisor and Historiographer to specifically compile and record history.

It wasn’t until Wang Hao took office and registered his ancestral home and background that Zhao Hanzhang learned this vibrant young man with excellent literary talent was her convenient uncle, separated by who knows how many branches.

He hadn’t used his family background to curry favor, and Zhao Hanzhang wouldn’t use familial ties to bind him into glorifying herself. So the two tacitly agreed not to reveal this relationship, letting him serve as Historiographer in the palace.