After Zhao Zheng arranged the inspection personnel, he glanced at the queue that had become crowded and noisy because it was being divided into six inspection lines, and immediately called over a county official. “You, take a gong into the city and go shout in the areas where inns and restaurants are concentrated. Say that nearly ten thousand people have arrived in the capital today, all merchants and travelers.”

He said, “Go on horseback.”

The official accepted the order and immediately mounted Zhao Zheng’s horse to return to the city.

Zhao Hu still didn’t know that Zhao Song was arriving today. At this moment, he was eating at Zhenxiu Tower with someone.

He planned to hire a designer to help design the five mansions he wanted to build.

That’s right—although he hadn’t yet acquired the Wang family’s plot of land, he still considered that land as good as his, and had it included in the design.

This designer was named Pei Xian. He was currently a Vice Director in the Ministry of Works and also served as an Imperial Academy professor. He came from the Hedong Pei family. He had quite some insight into architectural construction and landscape layout, though his reputation wasn’t prominent.

He was a Confucian scholar. As for his character… in Zhao Hu’s words, it was very hard to describe.

He was smooth yet not smooth.

Calling him smooth was because he never took pride in his family background and was a modest and strict person, polite to everyone. Saying he wasn’t smooth was because he rarely spoke, and even when matters were brought directly to him, he often didn’t express his own opinions or views.

Although Zhao Hu was Zhao Hanzhang’s great-uncle, very few aristocratic families were actually willing to associate with him. Those who did associate with him were either old rakes like himself or people who wanted something from him.

Pei Xian was neither a rake nor did he want anything from Zhao Hu, yet whenever they met he was very polite. So occasionally Zhao Hu liked to drink with him.

It was just that drinking with him was too dull. If it weren’t for having something to ask of him this time, Zhao Hu wouldn’t have wanted to invite him for drinks at all.

“Did Jingsi arrange the garden at your home yourself?”

Pei Xian acknowledged, “Yes, just some minor changes.”

“The arrangement is excellent. I know Jingsi has his own insights regarding architectural construction and garden layout, so I’d like to ask Jingsi to help me draw some diagrams.”

Hearing this, Pei Xian became hesitant. He knew that recently people had been buying up that section of burned houses. Zhao Hanzhang had mentioned it to him in passing, telling him to be attentive when approving building construction lately. The standards for houses built in that area couldn’t be too low, and he should also pay attention to the prices and sources of various building materials in Luoyang City…

Honestly, this was the first time Pei Xian had done this kind of work. The matters were especially trivial. He felt the work at the Imperial Academy was more enjoyable. He particularly wanted to resign from his position as Vice Director of the Ministry of Works and concentrate on being an Imperial Academy professor.

But his wife wouldn’t allow it.

Now Zhao Hu was asking him to draw diagrams. Pei Xian… didn’t really want to draw them.

But having eaten his food, and with Zhao Hu being so sincere in his feelings and flattering him for so long, in the end Pei Xian couldn’t help but agree.

Zhao Hu was delighted. With a grand wave of his hand, he was about to have someone summon performers to play music to enliven the atmosphere. Suddenly he heard a clanging sound from below. He couldn’t help but turn his head to look down, and saw a county official holding a gong, standing in the street beating it for all he was worth, then shouting loudly, “Today nearly ten thousand merchants and travelers from Yuzhou have entered the city. Anyone interested may go to the city gate to attract business. The County Magistrate has spoken—business must be conducted with integrity. No cheating or fraud allowed!”

He shouted this twice, then carried his gong away to the next street corner where he beat and shouted again.

After listening, Zhao Hu could no longer sit still. He couldn’t be bothered with calling for performers. He said something to Pei Xian, then immediately went out to find the manager and steward. “Quickly have people steam rice and pull noodles. Send someone to the city gate to take a look. Coming from Yuzhou, ten thousand people—they must be traveling with our Zhao Family Army. Otherwise with so many fat sheep, they’d have been slaughtered several times on the road already. You go to the city gate immediately with money and see if there are any families we know. Look at what goods they’ve brought. If there are good-looking silks and fabrics, and porcelain—buy it all if the price is right.”

Zhao Hu said, “Remember, agree on a price and give a deposit first. Don’t settle the full payment right away.”

Luoyang City was very short of goods now. As more and more people came in, commodities—especially somewhat luxurious daily necessities—couldn’t keep up with supply at all.

Right now in Luoyang City, even a bolt of fine linen had to be fought over, not to mention good fabric like silk.

Thinking that the weather was already turning cold, Zhao Hu hurriedly added, “Also furs and felt blankets. Ask about the important things. However much we have, we’ll take. Show them the Zhao family’s spirit—get the goods in hand first before anything else.”

He could guarantee that after getting the goods, he could sell them very quickly. After the capital rapidly returned, he would settle accounts. This back and forth would earn quite a bit of money, then he could use it to buy land and build houses. Once built, he’d sell them at high prices to these people…

The more Zhao Hu thought about it, the happier he became. His eyes seemed to hold radiance as he urged the managers to act quickly.

Zhenxiu Tower was a combination of high-end restaurant and inn. Of course he also had to consider the next tier of customers. Conveniently, two years ago Zhao Hu had been tricked by Zhao Hanzhang into buying quite a few commercial properties. Besides Zhenxiu Tower, he also had another inn and restaurant.

He sent people to find the managers of those two establishments and had them prepare as well, then go to the city gate to attract customers.

The other shop owners and managers weren’t fools either. The county officials had shouted like that—though they wanted to maintain their dignity by waiting for customers in their shops, seeing that the neighboring shops seemed to have people heading toward the city gate, they couldn’t sit still either.

So the shop owners sent people to the city gate to solicit customers while they themselves held down the fort in their shops, having people prepare all the food.

For those without enough vegetables, they had to immediately go to the vegetable market to buy them. As for rice… if there really were ten thousand merchants and travelers flooding in, the rice consumption would be enormous in one go. They really should stock up a bit…

So the purchasing staff also split into two groups—one going to the vegetable market to buy vegetables, the other going to buy rice, flour, and such.

Luoyang had several streets dedicated to selling vegetables, distributed in various directions. This was specially arranged by Zhao Kuan when he served as Luoyang County Magistrate, following Zhao Hanzhang’s intentions.

Right on the street against the wall corners, they drew out square after square. Except for a few meat stalls that were fixed stalls, all other stalls were first-come-first-choice.

Zhao Hanzhang had issued an order that stalls selling vegetables and agricultural products would not be charged stall fees or taxes, so people from inside and outside Luoyang, as long as they had vegetables or chickens at home, could bring them into the city to sell.

The fixed meat stalls only paid very low rent, but the requirements for meat stalls were strict. They needed to guarantee meat quality and regularly report to the county office about information they learned regarding livestock breeding in various villages and households.

These butchers needed to walk the streets and go up mountains and down to villages to purchase meat and poultry. They knew clearly how many chickens, pigs, and sheep each household raised—clearer than even the village chiefs.

Zhao Kuan arranged the number of piglets and chicks to be sent to each village each year based on this information. Of course, these matters now fell under Zhao Erlang’s jurisdiction.

Now that the weather was cold, vegetables from the fields had decreased, but there were still quite a few people carrying vegetables into the city to sell each day. It was just as usual hard to sell. Seeing the sun rising higher, the vegetable farmers were thinking of lowering their vegetable prices to sell when they saw quite a few people entering from the street entrance. They immediately perked up and began calling out loudly, “Cabbage, cabbage, fresh cabbage…”

“Mustard greens, mustard greens, fresh mustard greens…”

The purchasing managers who arrived didn’t even look. They walked along pointing, “Weigh them up, weigh them up. I’ll take them all…”

Before he finished speaking, someone from behind hurried forward and said, “I’ll take these mustard greens. How much per catty?”

The vegetable farmer stared blankly and quoted a price: “Two copper coins per bundle.”