This southern expedition concluded before the New Year. Yuan Li, Zhao Shi, and Zhao Shen had seized vast amounts of treasure from Wang Dun. Even Zhao Shen, who had seen such wealth before, couldn’t take his eyes off it, let alone Zhao Shi and Yuan Li.
If not for the restraint these three exercised, the soldiers below would have fought over the treasures.
Zhao Shi was an honest and good child. He never considered taking these things for himself, nor did he even think of presenting them to Zu Ti, the commander-in-chief. He excitedly said to Zhao Shen, “With this money, the General will have plenty of resources and won’t cry to us anymore about the treasury being empty.”
Zhao Shen also nodded. “Now there’s money for managing the Yellow River. Tinghan should be able to come back for the New Year.”
Speaking of Fu Tinghan, Zhao Shen’s face filled with sympathy.
Due to lack of funds, and to encourage the civilian workers and soldiers, Fu Tinghan had been staying on the front line. According to the original plan, he was supposed to spend this year’s New Year at the Yellow River with the soldiers and civilian workers.
Because Fu Tinghan remained on the front line, although managing the Yellow River was arduous and the work schedule tight, the common people had no complaints whatsoever.
And also because Fu Tinghan was there, no one had died from managing the Yellow River so far. Many had collapsed from exhaustion or fallen ill from the cold, but because Fu Tinghan was present, medicinal materials were always sufficient. From top to bottom, no one dared to embezzle their medicine. The Imperial Medical Academy even sent two imperial physicians to the upper and lower sections of the river, patrolling along the Yellow River.
Together with civilian doctors recruited and hired, along with military physicians, they established fixed medical stations, ensuring that laborers could find a doctor whenever they fell ill.
For this reason, while the south was at war and the north was undertaking major Yellow River repairs, with civilian labor completely mobilized and most of the Central Plains military forces deployed—only Beigong Chun and Zhao Erlang’s forces remained intact, and even Shi Le’s army had twenty thousand men transferred to work on the Yellow River—the nine provinces north of the Yangtze River showed no signs of chaos. Among the people, there was only a festive atmosphere of anticipation for the New Year.
The common people occasionally even prayed for Zhao Hanzhang, hoping she would remain healthy and live long.
Large numbers of prisoners and treasures were to be sent first to Jiankang, then transported to Luoyang.
But before they departed for the capital, Zhao Hanzhang had already issued handling orders via telegraph. All the treasures were to be sent back to Luoyang. As for the people, except for those listed on the roster, military officers of school captain rank and above each had to pay one hundred thousand coins to redeem themselves. They were ordered to lead their families back to their ancestral homes within a month and register as commoners, with all rights equal to those of commoners.
For military officers below school captain rank, they were handed over to Zhao Shen for disposal. He would select those who could be used and incorporate them into the army. The rest would all be repatriated to their ancestral homes and registered as commoners.
Zhou Zhi and others were seeing a telegraph station for the first time. More than ten people crowded into one room, listening to the beeping sounds, watching two telegraph operators busily recording and translating…
Zhou Zhi stood straight and rigid, but his gaze kept drifting over, and he secretly stood on tiptoe.
Zhou Yi was much more forthright. When he wanted to look, he directly stepped forward, pushing Xie Kun aside and also nudging Wang Dao, staring together at the telegraph operator using a codebook to translate numbers.
Zhao Hanzhang’s orders were very long. The telegraph operator kept receiving signals, recording the numbers. When one page was filled, it was passed to another person, then a new page was moistened with ink and started.
Zhao Hanzhang had organized her orders into sections labeled alpha, beta, gamma, delta—a full three pages.
Not only were there methods for handling these rebel soldiers, but also some requirements for Wang Dao and Zhou Zhi’s governance of the south, ordering them to do good work in appeasing and providing relief to the people. Educational work in the south must also keep pace with the north. All commanderies and counties were ordered to establish official schools, with at least one school per county. Both male and female students could enroll…
She also ordered Zhou Yi, Zhou Fang, Dai Yuan, and Gan Zhuo to accompany the escort of prisoners to the capital, as she wanted to meet them personally.
When the last page was translated, Zhou Yi was startled and asked, “I’m just a minor gentleman. Why does the General want to see me?”
Previously, Zhou Yi had merely served as a gentleman by the Prince of Langye’s side, but the Prince of Langye didn’t just treat him as a gentleman—he often consulted him on political views. If he hadn’t frequently made mistakes due to drinking, he would have been promoted long ago.
Wang Dao reassured Zhou Yi, “Don’t worry, General Zhao is very amiable and kind.”
Zu Ti, standing nearby, also nodded. “Boren, when the time comes, follow me into the palace. I’ll recommend you to the General. With your talents, you shouldn’t merely be a gentleman in Yangzhou.”
Yuan Li glanced at them, sneering inwardly, though his face remained impassive. He said to Wang Dao, “Each province has at least one telegraph station. This one will remain in Yangzhou, and these two men will also stay in Yangzhou.”
Now that the south had been recovered, control over the telegraph stations could be appropriately relaxed. Zhao Hanzhang no longer concealed the existence of telegraph stations.
Now, the fact that Zhao Hanzhang possessed a divine instrument capable of transmitting messages over a thousand miles was no secret. Even among ordinary common people, rumors had spread.
Everyone said that because Zhao Hanzhang was destined by heaven, she was able to obtain such treasures.
Not to mention ordinary common people—even Lu Yuan and others held this view. They gathered together to discuss quietly, “Looking back a hundred years, there has never been a figure like Zhao Hanzhang. Setting aside her abilities, the things in her possession alone are not what ordinary people could obtain. Heaven allowed her to have them—the mandate of heaven must be with her.”
“After Guo Pu went to Luoyang, he worked diligently and conscientiously for her. I heard he now holds three positions concurrently and even went to the Imperial Academy to teach students the Book of Changes. Given how lazy he is, if there weren’t something extraordinary about Zhao Hanzhang, how could he submit to her?”
Guo Pu had a tremendous reputation and was known as a divine calculator, which was why Wang Dun had previously run off to kidnap him to divine fortunes for the Prince of Langye and himself.
Along with his reputation as a divine calculator came his fame for being both lazy and fond of beautiful women.
Because he was lazy, fame and profit couldn’t move him—only beautiful women could make him pause briefly. But his requirements for beautiful women were strict, and his aesthetics differed from ordinary people. To this day, no one had figured out his preferences.
No one had heard of Zhao Hanzhang sending him beauties, nor were there any beauties around her. That Guo Pu could be attracted to stay in Luoyang doing hard labor—if not because Zhao Hanzhang’s destiny was heaven-ordained, what else could it be?
So Lu Yuan proposed, “I think this New Year is a good opportunity. Those northern people have fought campaigns with her, experiencing battles in all directions. Their relationship is naturally extraordinary. We in the south have already fallen behind. If we don’t strive now, in the future we’ll truly be crushed by the north.”
Jiang Feng said, “We’ve always been suppressed by the north and have never turned things around.”
Gu Rong’s face had been rather unpleasant, but hearing this he couldn’t help laughing. His displeasure vanished instantly. He patted his good friend He Xun, who was about to explode, and asked Lu Yuan, “What do you plan to do?”
“Let’s create an auspicious omen,” Lu Yuan said. “I’ve invited you here to discuss what kind of auspicious omen we could create that would immediately make people think of her. When the time comes, we’ll present it. Once she… we’ll have merit, won’t we?”
Gu Rong said, “The current Inspector of Yangzhou is Wang Maohong. To present anything, we must go through him, and he’s a northerner.”