Zhao Hanzhang reminded him: “Building relay stations will inevitably require assistance from the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue.”
Coincidentally, Fu Tinghan was the Minister President, the chief official among the Six Ministries.
Yuan Li immediately lowered his head. “The Secretariat already oversees the Six Ministries. If we also place the Relay Commissioner’s Office under the Six Ministries, with all the busy affairs, can you handle it all, sir?”
He couldn’t handle it. Fu Tinghan wasn’t trying to seize power—if he could manage fewer mundane matters, he would naturally be happy. He was simply curious because the Relay Commissioner’s Office sounded like it should be managed by the Ministry of Works.
Zhao Hanzhang understood his confusion and smiled at him: “The Relay Commissioner’s Office is a newly established department. It was once under the Ministry of War, and was once independent. In this dynasty, it belongs to the Secretariat. But now that we have radio, when electrical power develops further and manufacturing techniques become more mature, every relay station can be fully equipped with radios. So I want to entrust this department to the Investigation Department.”
The Investigation Department—an intelligence agency. Currently, the country was surrounded by powerful foreign enemies, and only the important regions had achieved unification. Many territories conquered during the Han Dynasty were still under separatist control, so she needed it.
This was for external matters. Internally, powerful clans and wealthy families dominated the country. While there were talented people in this world who loved peace and were committed to the country’s peaceful unification, there were naturally also ambitious people who wanted to seize power through division for their own private gain. So another function of the Investigation Department was to gather intelligence, discover dangers, and eliminate dangers.
The Relay Commissioner’s Office would handle correspondence throughout the realm and host officials, dignitaries, and merchants passing through the relay stations—an excellent channel for collecting information.
Moreover, with the Relay Commissioner’s Office in place, it could diminish the Investigation Department’s presence in the court and among the people, and reduce conflicts arising from investigation work.
Given Yuan Li’s personality, not many people in the court would like him—even among the common people, few would like him.
He was a sharp blade. Zhao Hanzhang would hold the scabbard well to prevent him from harming the innocent, but she also needed to protect the blade itself, preventing external forces from damaging it.
However, Yuan Li didn’t yet know that the Relay Commissioner’s Office would be his protective sheath. After securing control of the Relay Commissioner’s Office, he frowned, not knowing what to do first.
He knew how to train spies, how to train soldiers for the battlefield, and how to interrogate and investigate cases, but he didn’t know how to handle construction.
After the Relay Commissioner’s Office was established, what should be the first step?
Get money?
Then buy materials to build relay stations?
Fu Tinghan was unaware of his struggles. Since Hanzhang said he should help Yuan Li, he lowered his eyes to think for a moment before saying: “The national official road planning map is with Uncle Cheng. Send someone to retrieve it later. You can borrow it temporarily.”
Yuan Li: “What use do I have for this map?”
Fu Tinghan: “Relay stations need to be built beside official roads. After the Relay Commissioner’s Office is established and you’ve selected your personnel, the first task should be to determine the locations of the relay stations, right? This requires the map.”
Zhao Hanzhang said with a headache: “This map hasn’t been approved. The court officials have different opinions. However, the general outline is fine. Now that the south has been reunified, we should also plan the road network for the south.”
Zhao Hanzhang looked at Fu Tinghan. Her mouth opened as if to speak, but she swallowed her words. Forget it—he was too busy. She couldn’t just keep using him alone. Who else was there?
Fu Tinghan: “The planning is basically based on the current official roads. When drawing the map, the south was already taken into consideration, with only some minor adjustments to details. The national treasury is currently empty with everything in ruins awaiting revival. We don’t need to build the three newly planned major official roads—we only need to repair the existing official roads to make them passable.”
Zhao Hanzhang nodded. “That’s what I was thinking too. Next year we need to let the people rest. Every region should reduce corvée labor. So I’m thinking that aside from the sections of official roads near each county that the county offices will handle themselves, we’ll assign the other official roads to the military or merchants to repair.”
Fu Tinghan nodded, indicating he understood.
“We can also encourage local gentry and wealthy clans to contribute generously. Building bridges and paving roads has always been a good deed that accumulates merit and brings blessings to descendants,” Zhao Hanzhang said. “My goal is to completely repair all the deteriorated official roads within five years, then begin constructing the newly planned official roads.”
Yuan Li saw them focusing exclusively on official roads without mentioning relay stations, and couldn’t help but interject: “Lady, what about the relay stations? Building relay stations will also cost quite a bit of money. How will the Ministry of Revenue allocate funds? All at once, or in installments?”
Fu Tinghan frowned slightly. “The Ministry of Revenue doesn’t have much money and needs to reserve some for spring plowing. I suggest you figure it out yourself first.”
Yuan Li was displeased. “Minister President, how can you ask someone to build houses without giving them money to buy materials and hire craftsmen?”
Fu Tinghan: “The money in the national treasury isn’t mine alone to decide. Compared to agriculture, water conservation, and official road construction, relay stations are indeed of lower priority. Even if I agreed, if Hanzhang, Minister Ji, and Minister Ming don’t agree, you still can’t get the money.”
“If you want to accelerate relay station construction and get the Relay Commissioner’s Office up and running, you’ll have to find other methods yourself. Not just the Relay Commissioner’s Office—this applies to the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Works, and various important tasks in the commanderies and counties.”
Zhao Hanzhang smiled. “The children have many requests, and each child’s requests are different. Parents can’t satisfy them all—they can only prioritize support for the most urgent needs. For the rest, the children must display their own talents.”
Yuan Li’s eyes darted around as he was about to speak, but Zhao Hanzhang spoke first: “It must not be illegal.”
Yuan Li had to swallow his words. He especially wanted to take people to “beg” from the powerful clans and wealthy families along the routes.
Last time in the south, when he took people to visit various wealthy families to promote the new policies, he had quite enjoyed watching those people hate him so much their teeth itched, yet not daring to show it and remaining fearfully cautious.
He hadn’t expected to face a shortage of funds—a very large shortage at that—before even officially taking office. Yuan Li reached up to touch the scar on his face, thinking that although Zhao Shen was often odd, his fortune-telling was somewhat accurate. He bowed and said: “Please, Lady, recommend a physician to treat the scar on my face.”
Zhao Hanzhang looked at his face.
The executioner had been quite vicious, apparently not intending to let him live. The knife had been drawn from the corner of his eye downward. The scar was still red, with flesh exposed, clearly not fully healed.
Zhao Hanzhang felt compassion and immediately said: “Come to the palace tomorrow. I’ll have some imperial physicians examine you.”
Yuan Li respectfully agreed.
Zhao Hanzhang sent someone to get the official road planning map from Zhao Cheng.
This planning map had been created by Fu Tinghan and students from the Imperial Academy after completing the planning.
The map that Xiahou Ren had given years ago had already been copied one-to-one into three new versions. Zhao Cheng had also led students in researching materials to add many things. Besides roads, rivers, mountains, commandery and county names, some villages were also recorded.
Zhao Hanzhang simply placed all her existing book collection in the Imperial Academy, opened up palace books and various geographical materials to them, and ordered all commanderies and counties to submit local gazettes.
Fu Tinghan led the students in researching materials, marking on the map all the discovered iron mines, copper mines, and various other mineral resources, even hot springs—everything they could find was annotated.
However, in recent years he’d been busy with military logistics or research and development. In the later stages, the map was completely handed over to Zhao Cheng, with him only occasionally checking in.
Watching them add more and more to the map, with the entire realm gradually emerging before their eyes, he began planning official roads. Based on existing official roads, he planned three new major roads that could accelerate commercial speed, promote economic development in the commanderies and counties along the routes, and, if enemy situations arose again, allow Luoyang’s grand army to provide rapid reinforcement through these three official roads.
If Luoyang faced difficulties, the three planned military regions could also quickly reinforce Luoyang.