Though it was his rest day, Han Daoxun made a circuit around the city and after eating lunch in the afternoon, hurried off to the government office.

The Hongwen Hall where the Secretariat Supervisor and Junior Supervisor of the Secretariat held office was, in Chu State, equivalent to the National Library and General Publishing Administration in the dream world. It could be said that throughout the Jianghuai region, only Hongwen Hall could access the most complete collection of various documents and records left behind from previous dynasties.

To search for materials related to the water parasite plague, Hongwen Hall was more comprehensive than the Imperial Medical Bureau.

Seeing his father’s attention temporarily diverted to the water parasite plague, Han Qian finally breathed a slight sigh of relief, thinking that with his father’s breadth of mind, he wouldn’t regard effective prevention and treatment of the water parasite disease as a trivial matter.

In the afternoon, Han Qian continued outside the city with Old Man Han, Zhao Kuo and others to select healthy women with multiple children to marry Zhao Kuo, Fan Xicheng and the others as wives.

The refugees relied on fish, crabs, shrimp, and snails from the lake beaches and stream rivers to avoid starvation, but this made the transmission of water parasite plague among the refugees outside the city increasingly severe, to the point that the wealthy households, powerful families, and officials in the city were also unwilling to select slaves or tenant farmers from these refugees.

Over a hundred thousand refugees remained in a daze, stranded outside the city barely clinging to life with no other means of survival whatsoever. When Han Qian and his group went outside the city to select people, countless swarmed over wanting to mark themselves for sale.

Even if it meant being sold into brothels as slaves or prostitutes they had no hesitation, so how could they possibly refuse to marry household troops of the Han residence as wives with their children in tow?

Selecting people wasn’t the problem. Han Qian also took Fan Xicheng to find County Commandant Liu Yuan of Jiangcheng and Village Chief Zhang Qian of Taowu Market to complete matters of documentation and household registration during the three rest days when he didn’t need to report for duty at Marquis Linjiang’s residence.

Besides Fan Dahei and Lin Haizheng who were still young and didn’t need to marry hastily, there were ten household troops in the residence including Fan Xicheng and Zhao Kuo without wives. Among them, two were plagued by injuries and illness and were currently staying at the estate to look after the fields and residences there.

At this time, Han Qian also selected healthy women for these two injured and ill household troops to marry as wives.

However, the adopted sons taken under their care would this time move into Wuli Lane together with the other household troop descendants.

After arrangements were properly made, besides the ten household troops including Fan Xicheng, Zhao Kuo, Fan Dahei, and Lin Haizheng who were previously available in the city, there were suddenly forty more household troop descendants aged thirteen or fourteen.

Among these, twenty-seven were newly adopted sons taken under the care of Zhao Kuo and Fan Xicheng.

The residence by Stone Pond River was specifically designated as a place for household troop descendants to eat, sleep, and learn swords, bows, and military formations.

Fan Xicheng found it quite absurd that in three days he suddenly had an additional wife, two stepdaughters, and three stepsons, but this matter didn’t allow him to refuse—he could only hold his nose and accept it.

When Fan Wucheng was alive, he used to bully Fan Dahei for his honest and straightforward nature.

Though both were Fan Xicheng’s adopted sons, their relationship wasn’t close. But now suddenly gaining five younger brothers and sisters, Fan Dahei was quite happy.

Zhao Kuo’s quarters also gained an additional wife, two stepsons, and one stepdaughter.

The residence by Stone Pond River, besides Han Qian’s daily practice with swords and bows, also served as a martial arts academy for many youths, teaching swords, bows, fists, footwork, and literacy. Old Man Han and Lin Haizheng could normally handle these duties.

The only problem was that suddenly adding so many household members caused expenses in the residence to surge dramatically.

At the estate, even if household troops could eat some meat and fish, the so-called meat and fish was actually extremely scarce—they could only be said to occasionally have a special meal. The status of their family members in the Han household was equivalent to household slaves and servants—coarse tea and plain rice, and being able to have three meals a day without going hungry was already considered good.

For Han Daoxun and Han Qian to additionally support fifty people in contemporary times and not let them starve to death wasn’t too difficult. Moreover, selecting these people from starving refugees and giving them food to eat was already enough to inspire gratitude. But the problem was, if Han Qian truly wanted to cultivate and train these youths as reserve household troops, the expenses would be enormous.

The saying goes that literary pursuits are cheap but martial training is expensive. Youths of thirteen or fourteen were precisely at the age of growing, and in the future they would practice fists, footwork, swords, and bows all day—their consumption and appetite would be so great they could eat an entire sheep daily.

Although Jinling was located in the fertile lands of Jiangnan with abundant products, warfare in the Jianghuai region never ceased. The Sichuan-Chongqing, Jing-Chu, and Fujian-Guangdong regions were actually beyond Chu State’s control, and large numbers of nobles and aristocrats flooding into the relatively peaceful city of Jinling all caused prices in Jinling, especially meat prices, to soar.

However, Han Qian couldn’t make Zhao Kuo, Fan Xicheng and these household troops who were forced to marry bear these costs. This way, just the additional food subsidies alone would cost several thousand coins more each day.

Additionally, during festivals there needed to be extra rewards of clothing and other items.

Relying solely on Han Daoxun’s official salary and the estate’s harvests was already far from sufficient for these expenses.

Fortunately, this time as companion reader to Marquis Linjiang, Han Qian received abundant rewards from the palace. Converting cloth, silk, and cotton into grain could barely sustain things for a while.

Three days later, when Han Daoxun returned from reporting for duty at Hongwen Hall, Han Qian invited his father to the courtyard by Stone Pond River to see the forty youths that Fan Xicheng and Zhao Kuo had assembled in the riverside courtyard.

“A registry has been made for all the youths…”

Fan Xicheng held the registry in his hands, introducing these youths standing in formation in the courtyard to Han Daoxun and Han Qian one by one.

Besides their ancestral origins, whose sons and stepsons they were, and the temperaments of these youths, Fan Xicheng had used three days to generally understand everything and recorded it all clearly in the registry. It was evident that after these years by Han Daoxun’s side being influenced by what he saw and heard, he was no longer the ordinary junior officer from the army of earlier times.

Fan Xicheng had also divided these youths into five squads and planned to select the five most clever and bright youths to serve as squad leaders for focused cultivation.

Han Qian directly took the registry to look through, thinking that following his father Han Daoxun, Fan Xicheng had indeed learned some skills, but he wouldn’t agree with Fan Xicheng’s arrangement. He used a vermillion brush to mark out five other youths’ names and said:

“These five can be selected to serve as squad leaders to supervise others and teach swords, bows, fists, footwork, and literacy.”

“This…” Fan Xicheng’s old face flushed red in an instant as he argued: “This old servant carefully inquired about these youths’ backgrounds and temperaments—I absolutely dare not deceive you in the slightest.”

Zhao Kuo tilted his head to look and saw that the five youths Han Qian selected were all relatively wooden and straightforward in temperament—they could be said to be the least suitable candidates for squad leaders.

Not to mention Fan Xicheng suddenly becoming agitated, feeling he was being questioned by Han Qian without reason—even he didn’t understand why Han Qian specifically chose these five.

“Why these five?” Han Daoxun also asked with confusion.

“I believe in Elder Fan’s eye for judging people. These youths are inexperienced in worldly affairs, and their temperaments won’t escape Elder Fan’s eyes. Precisely because of this, I feel it’s even more appropriate to use the other five as squad leaders…” Han Qian said.

With Han Qian saying this, Fan Xicheng and the others became even more confused.

In methods of selecting people, Fan Xicheng was normally subtly influenced by Han Daoxun. He believed that if the Master arranged these youths, he would also choose the clever and bright ones to lead and receive focused cultivation.

This could entirely be called employing people according to their talents and each displaying their abilities. He couldn’t figure out at all why the Young Master would do the exact opposite.

Zhao Kuo narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing these youths standing in the courtyard. Some were bold and curious, some reacted sluggishly, some cowered in the back. He thought that if it were him, he would also use those bold, intelligent youths who were eager to try. But seeing Han Qian so certain, he seemed to have sufficient reasons.

Han Qian didn’t keep them in suspense and explained to his father Han Daoxun:

“Elder Fan’s method of selecting people isn’t improper either. With good instruction, perhaps in just a year or two these people could be capable. But Elder Fan’s selection method can produce quick results, yet it’s not the best method in your son’s mind. Those bold, intelligent youths eager to try also have considerable confidence in their hearts that they can surpass ordinary people. Using them as squad leaders now, whether teaching them fists, footwork, swords, and bows, or military formations, or family laws and clan rules, I believe they can master these things at a faster speed than others. As for those honest and simple youths, they would feel inferior in their hearts, and normally holding weapons and following orders wouldn’t be too difficult. Arranging things this way might seem fine, but the biggest drawback is that in the future, perhaps only four or five people could truly independently shoulder responsibilities. And these four or five people may not necessarily be deeply grateful to my Han family, because they would think in their hearts that they inherently surpass others, and even if they could independently shoulder responsibilities in the future, they would consider it their due. In this way, how much authority could the Han family have in their minds?”

Han Qian was discussing the arrangement method for these youths, but after hearing this, Fan Xicheng, Lin Haizheng and others felt constrained and uneasy—Han Qian’s words might very well contain criticism of their negligence toward the master’s family.

Han Qian continued explaining to his father Han Daoxun:

“Your son will do the opposite. Besides when learning swords, bows, fists, footwork, reading and literacy—when simple youths are at the front and intelligent youths at the back—when assigning tasks normally, we should also do the opposite. For instance, for seemingly tedious matters like guarding the residence, we should select active people to temper their patience. For running messages, we should use seemingly clumsy youths to improve their alertness. Doing this seems contrary to their temperaments and can’t be called employing people according to their talents. It may even require much longer before these youths can truly handle their respective duties. But ultimately, the honest and simple ones can develop their characters and have opportunities to independently shoulder responsibilities, while the intelligent and bold ones can gain more composure. This makes everyone capable rather than only five people capable. And whether learning swords, bows, fists, footwork, reading and literacy, or being assigned various tasks—reward what’s good, severely punish what’s insufficient. Those who rely on their intelligence and boldly violate rules should be punished even more severely—your son also believes that as long as my Han family maintains clear rewards and punishments, this will make deeper impressions on them, thus enabling Father to truly ensure orders are carried out and prohibitions observed, with authority gradually increasing and no one daring to harbor thoughts of negligence…”