Seeing Shen Yang nod in approval of this matter, Han Qian again asked Fan Xicheng: “I had you hire several lime burners—did you find suitable hands?”

To cut off the source of infection, besides staying away from plague water, the most important task was still processing human and animal excrement and other waste.

Particularly with thirty to forty thousand plague-infected starving refugees gathered on the lake shore, the excrement they produced would inevitably contain large quantities of blood fluke larvae, which absolutely had to be exterminated.

The most inexpensive and relatively reliable method Han Qian could think of in this age, after racking his brains, was to use quicklime for disposal.

In this age, five or six hundred years ago, medical texts had already recorded using bluish-white stone in kilns for burning to obtain lime, which had uses in treating sores and closing wounds. It was also the most inexpensive and easily obtainable disinfectant in this age.

The back mountain of the estate produced bluish-white stone, or limestone. Although Han Qian had looked up some information on ancient methods of burning lime, which were all more or less similar, he still felt uncertain in his heart, knowing that knowledge gained from books was superficial. So he instructed Fan Xicheng to hire several craftsmen skilled in lime burning near the estate, feeling this would be more reliable.

“Found five old craftsmen. Given the current situation at the estate, we had to offer triple wages before they were willing to come. These past two days we’ve walked through the mountain area once and preliminarily selected the water bend below the estate to build the kiln, just waiting for you, Young Master, to come and finalize,” Fan Xicheng said.

“Master Shen, shall we go take a look?” Han Qian asked Shen Yang.

Shen Yang was originally proficient in practical learning for governing the world, and today was fortunate enough to read the “Treatise on Plague Water,” knowing that lime had great use.

The plague-infected starving refugees were temporarily still unusable, and the various bureau assistants were basically all people recommended by the Marquis of Xinchang’s household. Even when they arrived, since not even the military office had been established yet, the early period would inevitably be chaotic, and there was too much to do.

Shen Yang saw that Han Qian’s side had already thought of building a kiln to burn lime—this was naturally excellent. When the time came to calculate the cost, the military office could purchase it at a fixed price.

The starving refugees relieving themselves anywhere had already become habit. Even if household troops were driven among the refugees to force them to concentrate toilet use, with thirty to forty thousand starving refugees, the excrement produced daily would be horrifyingly abundant.

The nobility didn’t engage in lowly trades, much less deal with excrement and other filthy waste.

But Han Qian knew this was the most important link and absolutely couldn’t avoid it due to finding it filthy. The matter of building kilns to burn lime should also be done sooner rather than later.

Before the estate could produce lime, they would even need to first purchase some at high prices from elsewhere for emergency use.

Han Qian was just about to accompany Shen Yang out to inspect the lime kiln site selection when Village Head Zhang Qian from Taowu Market and three military captains wearing military officer uniforms with imposing builds came running over seeking an audience with Shen Yang.

Including the large area of lake shore land, Taowu Market north of Chishan Lake extended three to five li from north to south and stretched twelve to thirteen li from east to west. Combined with part of the mountain and marsh land north of Taowu Market, the entire area had been requisitioned this time for use as the Dragon Sparrow Army’s garrison camp.

Within Taowu Market, those like the Qiuhu Mountain Villa whose family heads had meritorious titles and official status could naturally be exempted. The tenant farmers employed to cultivate these estates could also choose whether to stay or go.

All other households besides these had to be driven out, with Jiangcheng County selecting other locations to settle them, while their original fields and residences would all be requisitioned by the military office.

Village Head Zhang Qian had originally been a major household in Taowu Market, owning two thousand mu of good farmland. Although he was exempted and his fields weren’t directly requisitioned, his family’s fields and residence were located below the Qiuhu Mountain Villa, with even more plague-infected starving refugees gathered around them, making his heart pound with fear.

Of course, as merely a minor village head, Zhang Qian had no ability whatsoever to prevent the Dragon Sparrow Army from establishing the garrison camp at Taowu Market. But he did have some connections in Jiangcheng County and could hand over his fields and residence here in exchange for another plot outside Taowu Market.

However, abandoning the fertile fields and residence that three generations of the Zhang family had managed, to exchange for wasteland elsewhere and start from scratch—Zhang Qian was unwilling no matter what. So he first moved his family to the county town, while he stayed behind with two household servants to observe the situation.

When Fan Wucheng was shot and killed by Zhao Wuji, Han Qian had met Zhang Qian, but they had no deeper contact—it could only be considered a nodding acquaintance. He politely invited him into the great hall to meet Shen Yang.

The three military generals who came to see Shen Yang together with Zhang Qian were Chief Military Inspector Guo Liang stationed by the Dragon Sparrow Army and two Dragon Sparrow Army battalion commanders.

After the battle at Runzhou, the Dragon Sparrow Army only had five hundred weak and decrepit old soldiers whose organization hadn’t been disbanded.

In recent years, as the only remaining high-ranking military general of the Dragon Sparrow Army, Chief Military Inspector Guo Liang, though not implicated or held accountable after the battle at Runzhou, had also been forgotten by the court in a corner all along. For Guo Liang, only in his thirties now, who had established military merit in his youth and received the general position of Chief Military Inspector—this was precisely the age for establishing merit and career. These years of decline were truly a torment.

This time when His Majesty Emperor Tianyou enfeoffed the Marquis of Linjiang Yang Yuanpu as Dragon Sparrow General to command the Dragon Sparrow Army, and newly established a garrison camp to recruit starving refugees as military households so that in the future military households could be trained and the Dragon Sparrow Army reorganized, Guo Liang still served as Chief Military Inspector. Together with the Marquis of Xinchang’s eldest son Li Zhigao and second son-in-law Chai Jian and others, he was one of the five generals under the Marquis of Linjiang Yang Yuanpu and Vice Commander Chen De.

However, the Marquis of Xinchang Li Pu’s side temporarily had no intention of using Guo Liang. Not only did they kick Guo Liang over to be responsible for garrison camp construction, they also took his previous troops, picking out over four hundred usable soldiers, leaving him with only over a hundred old, weak, sick, and disabled to bring to Taowu Market.

Guo Liang was full of resentment. Even if he dared not disobey the edict, when he brought his troops to Taowu Market, he only built gate barriers on both flanks of the garrison camp range determined by the Ministry of War, then divided his troops to guard the eastern and western exits of the north shore lake beach. He didn’t care about anything else, much less participate in providing relief to the plague-infected starving refugees.

Shen Yang, as Chief of Staff, although he hadn’t been additionally appointed as garrison camp commandant, no one else had been appointed to the garrison camp commandant position either, so Shen Yang was the highest person in charge of the garrison camp.

Learning that Shen Yang had come, Guo Liang could only bring his two subordinate battalion commanders, who like him had been kicked over and were full of resentment, to hurry over for an audience.

Chief Military Inspector was already a mid-to-high level general position. Kong Xirong’s father Kong Zhou, as Vice Commander of the Right Divine Martial Army, was only one rank higher than Chief Military Inspector.

Han Qian had the intention to befriend Guo Liang, who was being squeezed out by the Marquis of Xinchang Li Pu and others, so he very politely yielded the seat beside Shen Yang to Guo Liang. But Guo Liang didn’t even glance at Han Qian properly. Instead, he sized up the youth Zhao Wuji standing behind Han Qian for a few moments before going to discuss matters with Shen Yang.

Seeing Guo Liang’s arrogant manner, Han Qian inwardly ground his teeth with hatred, thinking this fellow without any discernment deserved to sit on the bench for all these years!

Of course, that Guo Liang could notice the youth Zhao Wuji still made Han Qian quite proud in his heart. Though this youth always stood quietly in corners, he constantly gave the impression of a leopard crouching in shadows, radiating menace.

Fan Wucheng had originally been a military household child who had practiced martial arts unceasingly since childhood. After his father and brother died and he was adopted into Fan Xicheng’s household, his skills had surpassed his teacher, stronger by a notch than Fan Dahei, Lin Haizheng and the others.

In terms of one-on-one combat, three or four of the thin Zhao Wuji wouldn’t be a match for Fan Wucheng. But in that cramped, shabby room, Fan Wucheng, intent on driving people out, was ruthlessly shot and killed by Zhao Wuji with bow and arrows. The entire process was incomprehensible to Lin Haizheng, Fan Dahei and the others.

Logically speaking, the narrower and smaller the space, the harder it was to use bow and arrows to kill enemies.

Under Han Qian’s strong pressure, Fan Dahei and Lin Haizheng dared not treat Zhao Wuji distantly and often sparred together.

In direct confrontation, Zhao Wuji standing before Fan Dahei’s robust body like half an iron tower was still too thin. But with unrestricted conditions, Fan Dahei had to join forces with Lin Haizheng to defend against Zhao Wuji’s dangerous and unexpected attacks.

Zhao Wuji wasn’t the type of invincible battle general who charged into battle formations. He was naturally born to be an assassin hiding in deep shadows.

Very unfortunately, Fan Xicheng and others were all fierce soldiers accustomed to battlefield combat. If Zhao Wuji wanted to improve himself from another direction, they couldn’t provide good guidance.

So Han Qian had Zhao Wuji also follow at his side, learning his unbounded, teach-whatever-comes-to-mind, disorganized and systemless miscellaneous studies. Usually he mainly strengthened training in infiltration, scouting, reconnaissance, wilderness survival and similar areas.

In this age, becoming a qualified assassin or killer required far higher standards than generals who charged into battle on the battlefield.

And for training the household troop children below, besides basic strengthening of fists, feet, blades and archery to build physical foundations, Han Qian similarly placed more emphasis on cultivating their abilities in reconnaissance, scouting, infiltration and similar areas.

Han Qian thought that if one day the historical trajectory couldn’t be changed and he unfortunately became a “rebel” of Great Chu, he wouldn’t be foolish enough at that time to think of using fifty or sixty men to directly confront pursuing troops.

Strengthening the loyalty of these household troop children, training them in infiltration and reconnaissance as well as wilderness survival, and ultimately giving them the ability to protect him in crossing mountains and forests to escape from Great Chu—this was the most urgent thing Han Qian needed to do right now.

Similarly, this was still much more difficult than cultivating generals who charged into battle. Astronomy, geography, dialects, as well as local customs, wilderness survival, emergency treatment, and even underhanded tricks—all required some knowledge.

However, in Fan Xicheng’s and the others’ view, Han Qian was just messing around.

It was just that after the “Treatise on Plague Water” was completed, the trust Han Qian gained from his father Han Daoxun absolutely couldn’t be overturned by the household troops’ full belly of opinions on Fan Xicheng’s side.

Therefore, even though Han Qian was deliberately fooling around, Fan Xicheng and others could only cooperate with the tossing about.

Of course, less than a month had passed, so it was impossible to have immediate results. But it wasn’t without benefits.

Among the forty household troop children, thirteen were truly household-born sons. Han Daoxun had previously been lenient in governing subordinates, so these household-born sons had practiced martial arts since childhood and were also roughly literate—they were robust and confident.

Although during training Han Qian forcibly suppressed these thirteen household-born sons, selecting starving refugee children to lead the various squads and severely punishing with whipping anyone who dared resist, no matter what, the starving refugee children initially lacked confidence while the household-born sons were all full of discontent.

However, the resilience shown by the starving refugee children was much stronger than the household-born sons.

Perhaps having struggled under tremendous survival pressure for years, these youths had done plenty of petty theft and reading situations—they had stronger adaptability in training subjects like scouting, reconnaissance, and infiltration, and gradually lost their initial timidity.

Han Qian having Fan Dahei and Lin Haizheng lead these youths to serve under Shen Yang’s command and participate in relief work was also borrowing this opportunity to strengthen their adaptability and crisis response abilities.