Ji Yuan and Ming Yu were shocked, standing up abruptly and turning to look at Zhao Hanzhang in astonishment.

Zhao Hanzhang was still sitting in her chair, just with eyebrows raised high, looking intrigued and somewhat surprised.

Good, understood. She didn’t initiate it, so…

“Did Wang Dun strike first?”

The Secretary looked troubled. “The tax grain that Jingzhou was sending to Luoyang was intercepted midway by Yangzhou. Inspector Wang was furious and had General Wang lead troops to attack Wuchang Commandery’s Shayang County. They have now captured both Shayang and Shaxian counties.”

Zhao Hanzhang clicked her tongue. “Wuchang Commandery is under Jingzhou’s jurisdiction. This counts as Jingzhou reclaiming its administered territory. How is this ‘fighting’?”

Hearing this, Ji Yuan sat back down and asked: “So we’re not getting involved?”

Zhao Hanzhang thought for a moment. “If Yangzhou doesn’t report it, we’ll pretend not to know and let Jingzhou handle it as they see fit.”

She also wanted to see whether Wang Siniang and Wang Xuan could reclaim all of Jingzhou.

Wang Siniang went to Jingzhou late. By then, the Prince of Langya had already occupied most of Jingzhou. After she arrived, she seized back quite a few commanderies and counties by taking advantage of pacifying the Ba and Shu rebels.

Plus, her own uncle had died at Wang Dun’s hands. The two sides had fought several times, barely managing to contain Wang Dun’s forces outside Cloud Dream Marsh.

Wuchang Commandery had a special position. Jingzhou had only seized back half of it; the other half remained in Yangzhou’s hands.

However, over the past two years, Wang Siniang had also taken advantage of opportunities to expand south and east, similarly seizing some of Yangzhou’s territory.

Both Jingzhou and Yangzhou were too large. She decided that after unifying the realm, these two provinces needed to be further divided for better administration.

Having made up her mind, she said to Ji Yuan: “However, Yangzhou robbing the court’s tax grain is a major case that can’t be ignored. Select a censor from the Censorate to go south together with officials from the Ministry of War, Ministry of Justice, and the Court of Judicial Review to investigate. If true, the Prince of Langya should give us an explanation.”

Ji Yuan asked: “Who does the Grand General think is suitable?”

Zhao Hanzhang thought for a moment. “Lu Xing from the Censorate is good. For the Ministry of War, have Cheng Da and Ping Yi go. As for the Ministry of Justice and Court of Judicial Review candidates, do Ji teacher and Ming teacher have recommendations?”

Ji Yuan and Ming Yu thought for a moment and each recommended two people, with one overlapping.

Zhao Hanzhang immediately made her selections and had Zhao Yunxin draft the edict, telling them to prepare and depart in three days.

Three days would also be enough for Lu Xing’s backside to heal.

After all the edicts were issued, Zhao Hanzhang looked at the still-waiting Secretary. “Tell Jingzhou I know.”

The Secretary waited a moment. Finding there was no next sentence, he bowed and immediately went to reply.

Zhao Hanzhang glanced at the sky outside. It was getting dark. She stood up. “It’s going to be dark. I’m leaving work to go home. Will you two teachers join me?”

Ji Yuan and Ming Yu both declined. Although there were no more official documents to handle, the two of them wanted to chat privately—for instance, to discuss whether you were planning to attack Jiangnan.

Zhao Hanzhang looked down at them, making eye contact. She really wanted to tell them: if you have questions, just ask me directly—no need to guess. But seeing they seemed to enjoy guessing her intentions, she didn’t point it out. She walked out with her hands behind her back, calling Zeng Yue, who had been waiting since early on, and left.

As Deputy Commander of the Imperial Guards, Zeng Yue basically managed the Imperial Guards. Although he didn’t need to train them personally, there was still plenty to do.

When Zhao Hanzhang was handling matters in the palace, he would go handle these tasks, occasionally practicing with his subordinates. When Zhao Hanzhang needed to leave the palace, he would accompany her.

Zhao Hanzhang strolled out of the palace. As soon as she exited the palace gates, home was right there. She went back to change into casual clothes, then took Zeng Yue out to the main street. “Let’s eat out.”

It was dark, but the street was still very lively. Most of the lanterns hung during Mid-Autumn Festival hadn’t been taken down. Merchants would add candles or lamp oil to them, so there were quite a few lights on the street.

Curfew time was after the hour of Hai, meaning after nine o’clock at night. Generally, by the middle of the Xu hour—around eight o’clock—there would be no one on the streets.

It was now early winter, darkness fell early. Though it was only past six, the sky was nearly but not completely dark, so there were still quite a few people.

Zhao Hanzhang wandered aimlessly on the street. Zeng Yue didn’t know what she wanted to eat either. Every time they passed a restaurant, he wanted to mention it, but seeing her continuing forward without stopping, he could only swallow his words and silently follow her.

Zhao Hanzhang walked to the end of the street. In all of Luoyang, only this one main street had customers. Other streets were pitch black, with occasionally someone passing by carrying a lantern, but no shops were open.

Because Luoyang still had too few people, and they were too poor.

After a year of recovery, the common people had only caught their breath. They were still far, very far from stability and prosperity.

Zhao Hanzhang turned around and walked back from the end of the street. By the time she was nearly back at the end, various shops and stalls had been successively sending off customers and were about to close. She randomly chose a noodle shop to sit down and ordered a bowl of noodles to eat.

Zhao Hanzhang picked up a pair of chopsticks, deep in thought. Looking up, she finally noticed the standing Zeng Yue and beckoned. “You all sit down and eat something too. It’s late.”

Zeng Yue nodded to the personal guards, then chose to sit across from Zhao Hanzhang and also ordered a bowl of noodles.

“Miss, are you missing the master?”

Zhao Hanzhang didn’t answer. After finishing the noodles, she rushed home. Ji Yuan and Ming Yu wanted to guess whether she was planning to use military force against Jiangnan, and in fact, she was also thinking about this question.

Returning to the Grand General’s Mansion, Zhao Hanzhang went straight to the telegraph room, dismissing everyone else except one telegraph operator.

Seeing this, Zeng Yue stood guard outside.

Zhao Hanzhang said: “Contact Yuanli. Reply to me using the alternate codebook.”

Although only her side currently had telegraph stations, too many had been distributed, and the number of people who knew about them was gradually increasing. She trusted them but couldn’t guarantee that all telegraph operators would never leak secrets.

So particularly confidential coded messages required a different codebook.

After quite a while, the telegraph operator said: “Miss, contact established.”

Zhao Hanzhang paced in place twice before saying: “Tell Yuanli to sow discord between the Prince of Langya and Wang Dun, sow discord between Wang Dun and Wang Dao, and persuade the Prince of Langya to return to court.”

The telegraph operator acknowledged and immediately sent the message.

Zhao Hanzhang pondered for a moment. “Tell him to use Liu Kui and Wang Ying.”

Far away in Jiankang, Yuanli looked at the decoded secret message in his hand, deep in thought. His confidant Xue Hong was completely baffled and couldn’t help lowering his voice to complain: “Did the Grand General make a mistake? How can Liu Kui and Wang Ying be used together?”

Liu Kui and Wang Ying were mortal enemies, the kind who wanted to devour each other’s flesh and drink each other’s blood.

Yuanli glanced at Xue Hong. “You don’t understand because you’re not clever enough.”

At first, he also only had a vague understanding, hadn’t grasped that point. Because what Zhao Hanzhang ordered was to sow discord between the Prince of Langya and Wang Dun, not Wang Dao, and also to sow discord between Wang Dao and Wang Dun. The Miss wanted to split the Wang clan in two, making it fall apart.

This time, the target wasn’t just Jiangnan but also included the Wang clan.

With Zhao Hanzhang’s mention of Liu Kui and Wang Ying, he knew how to proceed.