The official road from Chenxian to Luoyang was bumpy. Due to years without maintenance, and having previously been traversed by great armies, there were even trap pits dug for ambushes along the road.
The advance troops would fill in some large pits, but wouldn’t bother with small ones, so the carriages still jolted terribly, as if they would shake people’s heads off.
Zhao Hanzhang had long abandoned her carriage for a horse. At this moment, she was letting her horse clip-clop along. When the autumn wind blew, her eyelids drooped drowsily.
Zeng Yue and Ting He followed behind her, afraid she would fall asleep and tumble off the horse. That would make her the first regent minister in history to die from falling off a horse while sleeping.
Fortunately, she remained safe. Though her head nodded bit by bit, because the horse was ambling forward, she remained steadily seated.
Her horseback riding was so slow, and the carriages were even slower—barely faster than walking. Zhao Hu finally couldn’t bear it. Irritably, he yanked open the curtain and immediately spotted Zhao Hanzhang riding ahead. He couldn’t help calling out loudly, “Sanniang, Sanniang—”
The voice drifted faintly into her brain. Zhao Hanzhang slowly opened her eyes, leisurely turned to look for the source, and seeing Zhao Hu with more than half his head poking out the window, she reined in her horse and let the carriage catch up.
Before the carriage even approached Zhao Hanzhang, Zhao Hu’s complaints shot out like rapid fire. “This road is too terrible. It wasn’t like this last time. You should really manage the county magistrates of the nearby counties. Just taking their salaries without doing their jobs—if this road isn’t repaired, what merchant caravans will want to go to Luoyang?”
Zhao Hanzhang nodded. “Seventh Grand-Uncle is right. I’ll write a letter shortly to have people organize the populace to repair the roads. Only, this road doesn’t just need manpower—money is needed to buy materials, and my coffers are currently depleted. I’d like to borrow some money from Grand-Uncle.”
Zhao Hu’s head shot back like an arrow, and he dropped the curtain. From inside came a “hmph.” “If you don’t want to repair it, don’t. It’s not me who’ll lose out if Luoyang has few people anyway.”
Zhao Hanzhang rode alongside the carriage, sighing through it at him. “Seventh Grand-Uncle, I’m not borrowing your money for nothing. I’ll give you interest.”
She smiled slightly. “I should say it’s not me borrowing, but the court borrowing from you. I’ll give you two percent interest per year.”
Zhao Hu snorted coldly inside the carriage, lifted the curtain, and said to her, “Do you know how much interest I charge when lending money out?”
Zhao Hanzhang raised an eyebrow, indicating he should speak.
Zhao Hu lifted his chin proudly. “When I lend money out, the minimum is three percent—monthly interest!”
Zhao Hanzhang lowered her eyes to meet his gaze and smiled slightly at him. “Seventh Grand-Uncle, have you forgotten? When I was magistrate of Xiping County, I issued regulations strictly prohibiting usury. Monthly interest exceeding two percent can be considered usury, and the yamen has the right to confiscate the usurer’s illegal gains and impose fines.”
“Commercial tax—the commercial tax owed from lending must be paid differently from other property taxes.” Zhao Hanzhang smiled lightly. “So Seventh Grand-Uncle, it seems you need to pay quite a bit of back commercial tax.”
Zhao Hu’s eyes widened. Shocked, he gaped at her for a long moment before finding his voice. “You, you…”
Zhao Hanzhang’s face turned cold as she said to him, “I can overlook past offenses, letting bygones be bygones. But if you continue lending at usurious rates afterward, I will show no mercy.”
She said, “I’ll have Changning pay special attention to you.”
Zhao Hu was so angry his beard nearly flew up. He hated Changning most of all—even more than Ming Yu.
Because Ming Yu only verbally said he wanted him to hand over property, but Changning had actually seized money from his hands. Sure enough, they were all acting on Zhao Hanzhang’s implicit instructions, deliberately opposing him.
Zhao Hu angrily dropped the curtain, his chest heaving violently.
But Zhao Hu had also grown from Zhao Hanzhang’s further advances and the Zhao clan’s rising status. He was no longer the old patriarch who only saw immediate benefits.
Now his business spanned the Great Jin. No matter how much he resented Zhao Hanzhang, he wouldn’t clamor about breaking off relations with her like before.
Zhao Hu took a deep breath, calming his emotions slightly before yanking open the curtain again. He wanted to have his guards invite Zhao Hanzhang over, but unexpectedly, as soon as he opened the curtain, the person on horseback beside the carriage turned to look over and smiled at him.
Zhao Hu: …
Zhao Hanzhang was actually still here, and smiling at him welcomingly. Didn’t she get angry?
Zhao Hu felt utterly powerless and somewhat chilled.
Those who could endure what ordinary people couldn’t endure either had great magnanimity or great schemes. Zhao Hanzhang perhaps had both, but her great schemes toward him…
Zhao Hu felt powerless and sensed his heart aching. He felt his money vault was about to be injured again.
He clearly knew this, yet couldn’t refuse her.
Zhao Hu gripped the curtain tightly, suppressed his feelings, and asked with forced pleasantness, “How much money do you want to borrow from me?”
Zhao Hanzhang smiled slightly at him. “Ten million cash.”
Zhao Hu wanted to throw down the curtain, but he forcibly restrained himself. “Do you know how much tax revenue the court could collect in a year during the previous years?”
“I know. That tax revenue couldn’t even support His Majesty—less than a million.” When the previous emperor was alive, he truly couldn’t support himself, basically relying on support from various lords and local magnates, because tax revenue couldn’t be collected.
But things were different now. From Yuzhou northward, every province was personally conquered by her. There would be no situation where taxes couldn’t be collected, so she reassured Zhao Hu, “Grand-Uncle, rest assured, I will definitely be able to repay the money.”
“Is that what I mean?” Zhao Hu couldn’t help but erupt in fury. “I’m asking why you need so much money? Didn’t you just finish collecting the commercial tax? Isn’t all that money enough for you?”
Zhao Hanzhang sighed. “The commercial tax is just a drop in the bucket—how could it be enough? Look, repairing roads, waterways, river channels—which doesn’t require money? Winter is coming soon, and I think it will be very cold this year, so I need to prepare for cold disasters. Various regions still have grain shortages, so I must be even more vigilant about the gap period in March and April next year causing catastrophe.”
Zhao Hu didn’t respond.
Zhao Hanzhang urged her horse closer to the carriage, leaning toward him and lowering her voice. “Seventh Grand-Uncle, you needn’t worry about me being unable to repay. I can use salt as collateral.”
Zhao Hu’s eyebrows jumped. He sat up straight, his head also poking out the window, his eyes bright as he looked at her. “Salt?”
Zhao Hanzhang smiled and nodded slightly. “Haven’t you noticed Tinghan hasn’t been around recently? He went to the Qingzhou salt fields.”
Zhao Hu’s breathing quickened, and his eyes moistened. Salt—that was hugely profitable!
Zhao Hanzhang said softly, “Now salt and iron have both been returned to state ownership by me. No one can sell salt bypassing the court. So, I’ll make an agreement with you—if I can’t repay your money before the term expires next year, I’ll use salt permits to offset the debt. How about that?”
Zhao Hu: “Salt permits?”
“That’s the permit allowing you to buy and sell salt.”
Zhao Hu’s eyes gleamed. He raised his eyes to meet Zhao Hanzhang’s gaze. After a moment, he nodded slightly. “Agreed.”
Zhao Hanzhang’s lips curved upward. She straightened in her saddle, kicked her horse’s belly to make it quicken slightly, and said cheerfully, “Grand-Uncle knows many wealthy people. Please spread the word for me that the court lacks funds. Before year’s end, we’ll issue a batch of government bonds that anyone can purchase, with annual interest of two percent.”
Zhao Hu asked, “What if you can’t repay…”
Zhao Hanzhang lowered her voice. “I’d like to ask Grand-Uncle to vouch for me, and ask them to trust me. As long as I’m here, the court will definitely be able to repay their money. Only, I don’t trust them, so salt permits are impossible to give them. Please don’t mention the salt permits to them, Grand-Uncle.”