Wang Yifeng and Wang Xuan went ahead with their personal guards. The troops, provisions, and other supplies she had requested from Zhao Hanzhang remained behind.

Initially, not many officials were willing to follow Wang Yifeng and Wang Xuan’s orders. The two were too young, and most importantly, they both bore the surname Wang.

Hmph! No one surnamed Wang was any good. One Wang Cheng had already thrown Jingzhou into chaos. Replacing him with two other Wangs—did they think Jingzhou’s officials and gentry were all vegetarians?

So officials at all levels went their own ways, colluding with gentry friendly to them, building fortified villages, competing for refugees, in direct opposition to the Governor’s Mansion.

Of course, this was all done covertly. If they were going to rebel, they couldn’t very well tattoo their foreheads saying “I refuse to submit, so I’m rebelling,” could they?

Right in the midst of this excitement, the two thousand Zhao Family Army troops arrived at Jiangling in Nan Commandery with thirty students, provisions, and military equipment. This was Jingzhou’s administrative seat where Wang Cheng had brought his people when he first took office.

When Jingzhou officials refused to cooperate, Wang Yifeng directly used the thirty students she had brought, first having the Zhao Family Army take command of Jingzhou’s military forces, raising the Zhao Family Army banner to recruit surrenders among the rebellious refugees.

The academy students accompanied them. They had done this kind of thing many times—the academy had specifically trained them for it—so they were very skilled.

The Zhao Family Army and Zhao Hanzhang’s methods of gathering refugees were world-renowned. This was also one of the reasons why Jingzhou’s rebellion had come so suddenly and intensely.

They truly couldn’t stand Wang Cheng as governor or the local government offices, so they wanted to leave Jingzhou for Yuzhou.

After all, refugees and displaced people who went to Yuzhou could all be allocated land, receive grain seeds, and the government would reduce some taxes. As long as they didn’t encounter natural disasters, they could survive.

So everyone surged toward Yuzhou.

Wang Cheng didn’t manage affairs, but starting two years ago, he began restricting Jingzhou people from going to Yuzhou. Last year, unable to collect taxes with large numbers of people abandoning their land to wander, they later entered Yuzhou as refugees.

Besides going to Yuzhou, quite a few refugees chose to become bandits. Didn’t Zhao Ju run to Jiangxia Commandery last year under the pretext of suppressing bandits?

After that incident, Wang Cheng had people set up checkpoints at the borders, both to guard against Zhao Ju and to prevent people from flowing into Yuzhou.

But he only blocked people without handling the refugee problem—didn’t gather them, didn’t pacify them. Anyone caught was either made a slave or sent into the army as a soldier.

Under such lazy and negligent governance, the refugees finally rebelled, wanting to break through the checkpoints to reach Yuzhou.

Oh, some had already broken into Yuzhou. Recently, Yuzhou had taken in many refugees entering from Jiangxia Commandery.

But Jingzhou was vast. More refugees were blocked by checkpoints, completely unable to cross. A while ago, Wang Cheng had used iron-fisted methods to kill over eight thousand people. Most of those eight thousand were refugees, with a small portion being locals treated as refugees.

But refugees were also people evolved from common folk. They had abandoned their land, hidden their names, and stopped paying taxes, thus becoming refugees.

But they were still Jingzhou people, with friends and family all being Jingzhou people.

Wang Cheng’s killings had directly frozen the hearts of Jingzhou’s common people.

So when they heard the succeeding governor was Wang Cheng’s niece, still from the Wang family, the rebel forces were very resentful, completely adopting an attitude of “I won’t listen, I won’t listen.”

Until the arriving military force raised the Zhao Family Army banner.

They had worked so hard, fought so desperately, wasn’t it all because they wanted to live under Zhao Hanzhang’s rule?

If they couldn’t get through, had Zhao Hanzhang come to find them instead?

Academy students came forward to persuade them to surrender, stating that the newly appointed Governor Wang Yifeng had formerly been a clerk under Governor Zhao, personally cultivated by her, and was able to become governor this time because of Governor Zhao’s recommendation…

At the same time, news that Wang Yifeng had a huge argument with Wang Cheng immediately upon taking office also spread throughout Jingzhou.

Restless and resentful Jingzhou gradually quieted down. The atmosphere wasn’t so tense anymore. The Zhao Family Army led Jingzhou’s garrison forces in dividing into several routes and actually succeeded in persuading the rebel forces to surrender.

And Wang Yifeng kept her word. She gave the surrendered rebel forces some rations, had them return home to farm their land. Those whose families no longer had land were allocated fields, and she reduced some of their taxes. Because this year they had suffered from both natural and man-made disasters, the summer taxes need not be paid.

Not only could surrendered rebel refugees have their taxes reduced—all of Jingzhou received reductions. Even though it was only a thirty percent tax reduction, for the common people, it was enough.

The rebellious situation in various regions temporarily subsided.

Even Jingzhou officials said nothing. Some felt this wasn’t good—how could one reduce taxes whenever there was rebellion? Wasn’t this buying people’s hearts?

What if in the future they rebelled whenever slightly dissatisfied?

But thinking of Wang Cheng, officials who felt uneasy still suppressed their thoughts. Forget it—Wang Cheng was still in Jiangling. Wang Yifeng was Wang Cheng’s own niece. What if they objected on this side and Wang Yifeng, influenced by Wang Cheng, also stopped attending to government affairs? That would be disastrous.

The Wang family had a tradition in this regard. They were very afraid.

Wang Yifeng directly operated under Zhao Hanzhang’s banner, inserting all thirty students she had brought into the Governor’s Mansion and various commanderies and counties.

Jingzhou was vast, governing twenty-two commanderies. Placing one student per commandery would take twenty-two right there. This rebellion had resulted in deaths, injuries, and escapes of quite a few county magistrates, even commandery governors.

Wang Yifeng reselected people to fill these positions. The thirty students simply weren’t enough.

Moreover, they could only start from small positions—working as clerks in the Governor’s Mansion, as chief clerks in commandery offices, as county magistrates and vice magistrates in county offices—such minor officials and petty functionaries.

This was also Wang Yifeng’s path of advancement.

Zhao Hanzhang had said one must start from the bottom to understand the people’s hardships and needs.

Like Wang Cheng, who became governor out of nowhere—such people truly had only themselves in their hearts, unaware of the people’s suffering.

All students from the academy deeply remembered this point and went to take up their posts in various places after Jingzhou’s rebellion gradually calmed.

The merchants and travelers who had been blocked in Wuchang and Jiangxia could finally leave.

After the spring wheat was harvested and drought-resistant crops like soybeans were planted, the summer solstice was approaching. Zhao Hanzhang began preparing gifts to go to Yuncheng.

Giving gifts to the Emperor—naturally money was what he liked most, since the Emperor wasn’t wealthy.

So Zhao Hanzhang had people bring basket after basket of money, all new coins.

Over the past year, Zhao Hanzhang’s new coins had already penetrated the markets of Shu, Jingzhou, and Jiangnan. Even in Yanzhou, there were quite a few new coins.

Mainly because whenever the court asked Zhao Hanzhang for money and grain, among the money, Zhao Hanzhang inevitably sent new coins.

Even though the new coins were lighter than old coins, to maintain expenses, the court had to turn a blind eye and spend them as if they weighed the same. Combined with operations by Zhao Ming and Ji Yuan, people throughout the realm knew that although Zhao clan new coins were lighter than old coins, their value was the same.

This time, Zhao Hanzhang again sent new coins.

Of course, these new coins couldn’t just be minted and used. Money had to be given value. Zhao Hanzhang, having just harvested new wheat, took it out to exchange for new coins.

Oh, she traded it to the Ministry of Works—private converted to public, with Zhao Hanzhang herself ultimately taking the loss.

Everything was loaded onto carts. Only then did Zhao Hanzhang sigh. “Why do I have to pay out of my own pocket to give gifts to His Majesty?”

Zhao Ming said expressionlessly, “Wasn’t it you who said we must curb this practice—that public funds must not be used to give gifts to权贵 and superiors? If you ask me, you shouldn’t give gifts at all. How nice would it be to go empty-handed?”