Fu Tinghan then looked at Ren Hui. “Are there any other difficulties?”
Ren Hui thought about it. Currently, Princess Hongnong’s predicament was just interpersonal relationships and finances. As for family conflicts like quarreling with the prince consort, hadn’t those always existed?
As the son, the young master could hardly judge right or wrong. Forget it, just leave it at this. So Ren Hui smiled and shook her head, indicating there were no more.
Fu Tinghan had Fu’an see Ren Hui out.
When Fu’an returned, Fu Tinghan was picking up his brush to list out his monthly income.
Though his salary wasn’t small, a considerable portion came from the yield of his official fields. But currently, seeds had only just been sown in the official fields—what yield could there be?
He was about to get married too. The Fu family’s properties weren’t currently very profitable. With Princess Hongnong’s temperament, she certainly couldn’t bear to see the family in decline, so this amount of money definitely wouldn’t be enough for her to spend.
He divided each income according to a certain proportion. After calculating, he felt it should be enough, so he handed the paper to Fu’an. “From now on, when the various workshops give you their profits, divide them according to this proportion and send a portion back to the Princess.”
Fu’an looked it over carefully and acknowledged, asking quietly, “Should the remainder still be sent to Third Miss?”
Fu Tinghan nodded, then halfway through nodding felt he should also keep some just in case, so he said, “Take one string of coins from the proceeds given by Seventh Grand-Uncle for expenses. If there’s any surplus, save it.”
Fu’an thought seriously and said happily, “The young master spends little. From one string of coins per month, at minimum we can save eight hundred coins. Little by little adds up—over a year it won’t be a small amount.”
Fu Tinghan agreed.
Because he truly had no extra expenditures. For food, he either ate at the yamen or at the Zhao residence, or if eating out, Fu’an would receive money from Ting He to settle the accounts.
For clothing, it was basically Wang Shi and Ting He who worried about it.
For social obligations, Ting He arranged everything as well.
When he occasionally bought things outside, it was all charged to the Zhao family’s account and settled by the Zhao household.
Princess Hongnong didn’t know that from long ago, her son’s accounts had been mixed with Zhao Hanzhang’s—income together, expenses together, completely inseparable.
So early the next morning when she received Fu Tinghan’s money box, Princess Hongnong was still very happy, feeling this son hadn’t been raised in vain. He was much better than the prince consort. Indeed, men just couldn’t compare to sons.
She closed the box and looked at Ren Hui. “Has the Zhao family replied?”
“Yes, the Zhao family has invited the Princess and Prince Consort to share the midday meal today.”
Princess Hongnong was satisfied. “Go tell the prince consort to get ready to go out. Where is the young master?”
Ren Hui: “The young master went out early this morning, saying the Ministry of Works had business.”
Princess Hongnong frowned. “How is the Ministry of the Secretariat so busy? Since I returned, there hasn’t been a moment’s rest. Forget it, send someone to tell him that at noon today, no matter what, he must go to the Zhao residence. This is to discuss his wedding—anyone can be absent except him.”
“Yes.”
Fu Tinghan was truly busy, and so was Zhao Hanzhang. The two of them invited Li Xiang and Li Ban to see the salt they’d dried.
Li Xiang rubbed the fine salt in his hand, then put it in his mouth to taste. He found the astringent flavor less than the well salt available on the market, but slightly inferior to their fine salt. So he asked, “May I know the price of this salt?”
Zhao Hanzhang said, “One thousand coins per bushel.”
Li Xiang’s eyes flickered as he looked at Li Ban.
Li Ban was very pleasantly surprised and quickly bowed respectfully. “Please grant Shu salt, General!”
Li Xiang, whose thoughts had still been stuck on the purchasing stage, was surprised to see his pure-hearted crown prince able to think of this point. He too immediately turned and bowed to Zhao Hanzhang. “Please grant Shu salt, General.”
Zhao Hanzhang laughed heartily and reached out to help them both up. “I know—Shu currently has difficulty obtaining salt. Since I’ve brought you to see it, naturally I want to resolve Shu’s difficulty.”
Zhao Hanzhang generously gave them two hundred bushels of salt, then took them out of the city to see the water-powered mill.
With the New Year approaching, the water mill was very lively, full of common people lined up waiting to pound rice and grind flour.
The water mill was cheap and fast, pounded rice clean, and ground flour fine. It just required walking a considerable distance, but for the hardworking and resilient common people, this was nothing.
People from nearby villages also came in groups to grind flour and pound rice.
Seeing Fu Tinghan, they first greeted him warmly. When they spotted Zhao Hanzhang riding beside him, their eyes lit up immediately. They quickly dropped their baskets, ran forward a few steps, then knelt down and kowtowed loudly, shouting, “Wishing Miss good health for the Little New Year, peace and joy!”
Zhao Hanzhang was startled and first turned to ask Zeng Yue, “Today is Little New Year?”
After receiving the answer, she immediately dismounted and helped the person up, waving broadly at the crowd that had knelt en masse. “Everyone, have a joyful Little New Year! Quickly rise!”
She looked down at his feet wearing straw sandals, his toes frozen red and swollen, and couldn’t help but feel distressed. Touching his shoulder again, she felt only how thin his clothes were, and said with concern, “Don’t you have money to buy cloth for clothes and shoes?”
His face was flushed red from the cold, but his eyes were full of life and his face wore a brilliant smile. “In reply to Miss, not this year, but next year I will.”
He pointed to the basket he’d brought. “This year I can grind one basket of beans and one basket of wheat. It’ll last until next March.”
Zhao Hanzhang praised highly, “Excellent! It seems this year you performed much labor service for the court. Did you plant your own fields?”
“I did! I planted all the wheat seed distributed by the yamen.”
Zhao Hanzhang’s smile deepened as she asked, “How many acres did you plant? Is the land good?”
Zhao Hanzhang asked in great detail, then said, “The Central Plains currently lacks cloth. Next year you should plant more mulberry and hemp. Do you have suitable dry land?”
He grew troubled. “The land the yamen distributed to me is all good—using it to plant hemp would be wasteful. Right now beans can also be ground into flour, and the soldiers say they’ll use beans to feed horses. I want to plant more beans and sell them for money to buy cloth.”
He smiled awkwardly and bashfully. “Miss, I didn’t take a wife this year. My family has no one to weave cloth, so planting mulberry and hemp would be useless.”
“How would it be useless?” Zhao Hanzhang said with a smile, “When the time comes, take your harvested mulberry and hemp and sell them to the household of the girl you fancy. Going back and forth, becoming familiar, perhaps she’ll take a liking to you, won’t she?”
“If you only know how to plant wheat, rice, and beans, you won’t even have opportunities to talk with young ladies. How will you take a wife?”
The young man had a sudden realization, discovering the general made perfect sense. So he grew conflicted. “Then, then how much should I plant?”
Zhao Hanzhang smiled. “You have field ridges, don’t you? If you can’t bear to use an entire dry field plot for planting, then plant along the field ridges. On the ridge closest to your land, leave three inches to plant mulberry and hemp. In summer you can even sit beneath them for shade.”
The young man thought about it and found it really was so. He nodded repeatedly. “I’ll go back and ask whose family has seeds.”
Mulberry tree seeds might be scarce, but hemp seeds should be plentiful. Zhao Hanzhang turned to Zhao Yunxin. “Note this down. We need to add mulberry and hemp seeds to what the counties distribute.”
Zhao Yunxin acknowledged.