Before Zhao Hanzhang could finish her sentence, Wang Shi quickly shook her head. “No, no, I can’t do it.”

Zhao Hanzhang didn’t press further. Although Wang Shi was more confident than before, she was still mostly timid around Zhao clan members. The rumors from years ago had greatly affected her.

She could now face Zhao clan members with pride, but she still wouldn’t actively get close to them.

The clan members now surrounding her were all those who took the initiative, while Wang Shi passively accepted.

However, she didn’t accept everyone. If their temperaments matched, she would interact with them as relatives. If not, she would find excuses to decline. Plus, with Qinggu by her side, no one could make her suffer grievances.

With Zhao Hanzhang as her backing, she now had the right to be willful.

Zhao Hanzhang had no desire to make things difficult for her. She had suffered so many years of unavoidable grievances in interpersonal relationships. Now that she was unwilling, Zhao Hanzhang wouldn’t force her.

So when Wang Shi was unwilling, Zhao Hanzhang no longer insisted.

Zhao Hanzhang’s gaze swept over those two round tables. She had always tried to minimize her involvement in Zhao clan internal affairs. When she needed the clan’s help, she would directly discuss it with Zhao Song and Zhao Ming, having them act as bridges.

She subconsciously excluded herself from being a power holder in the Zhao clan. If Mother hadn’t reminded her, she might not have noticed that her rights and responsibilities toward the Zhao clan had become imbalanced.

Wealthy clan relatives led by Zhao Hu had contributed much and received benefits from her. But ordinary clan members had also helped her to the best of their abilities.

She knew that ordinary common people’s proportion in the nation determined their powerful force. How had she forgotten that ordinary clan members also made up the vast majority of the clan?

The Zhao clan had over two thousand members in total. Those as wealthy as Zhao Hu numbered only a handful.

In major clan decisions, other clan members also had rights and responsibilities.

Zhao Hanzhang turned and left. She didn’t discuss these clan members’ settlement arrangements in person but quietly summoned Chengbo. “Go inquire how many clan members in the capital are like Zhao Wan. What skills do they have? What are their temperaments like?”

She paused before continuing, “Also inquire whether anyone is using the Zhao clan name to do evil outside. In the past, I only kept an eye on big players like Seventh Grand-Uncle and forgot that there are also many dark corners below. You and Qinggu—one manages internal affairs, one external. Since you’re responsible for outside matters, help Mother and me pay more attention.”

Chengbo immediately bowed and agreed. Taking advantage of the crowd today, he went to inquire right away.

There were quite a few clan members like Zhao Wan who had come to the capital relying on Zhao Hu, Zhao Song, Zhao Qing, Zhao Dong, and others. Most of them worked as stewards, accountants, or in other positions in their clan relatives’ shops.

Unlike modern thinking that discourages hiring relatives in companies, in this era, people relied more on relatives, especially clan members.

For management positions like stewards and accountants that required vision and ability, it was difficult to select suitable people from among servants. Most such positions were filled by family members and clan relatives.

Take Zhao Dong, for example. His family circumstances were decent. After coming to the capital with Zhao Song and Zhao Hu, he eagerly followed Zhao Hu’s lead and bought several shops. His son Zhao Kuan was an official with no time to manage the shops. His daughter was also an official and equally busy.

He himself couldn’t be in multiple places at once, and he didn’t have enough capable subordinates around him. So what could he do?

He hired his clan relative Zhao Cheng.

Zhao Cheng was just the steward of one shop. Apart from not having servant status, his treatment was the same as other stewards.

They signed an employment contract that specified the rights and responsibilities each party had to fulfill.

In large families, there was a complete set of regulations and a set of tacitly agreed-upon rules for employing clan relatives.

Overall, employing clan relatives carried lower risk than hiring commoners from outside. Of course, in terms of risk versus benefit, servants with indenture contracts were most cost-effective.

However, among servants, those with vision and ability were rare. They always felt there weren’t enough.

This was why some people always wanted to turn free people into servants.

For aristocratic families and powerful clans, land and servants were the most untouchable assets. A major reason for Wang Mang’s failure as the most transmigrator-like predecessor was that he touched these two things.

Zhao Hanzhang had also touched them, but unlike Wang Mang, her methods were moderate. She only limited their ability to acquire more, rather than stripping from their existing assets.

Wang Mang reformed in peacetime, while she was reestablishing order amid war. Honestly, though she faced difficulties, it was also easier for her.

From the Yellow Turban Uprising to now, one hundred and twenty-plus years had passed. Although there were brief periods of stability in between, the realm had never been unified.

This was the worst of times, and the best of times.

This era saw constant warfare, natural disasters, and man-made calamities. Yet precisely because of this, people’s minds were open and their thoughts were active. Famous scholars might be unrestrained and unconventional, but they were also open-minded and tolerant.

Relations between ethnic groups gradually shifted from sharp opposition toward tolerance. Social prejudice against women had also improved somewhat.

In harsh environments, common people no longer minded women establishing independent households and being heads of households.

Because in this era, as long as one could survive—no matter by what means—that was victory.

The scholar-official class was also reflecting. They didn’t blindly emphasize only their own interests. Most people wanted the nation to be stable and unified, for the common people to live and work in peace, rather than fighting over individual households’ land and servants.

Because of the warfare, they had lost most of the capital they once controlled. At this time, having survived and returned to the northern lands, no one complained that the court had reclaimed abandoned land and servants who had been forsaken. Everyone was silently starting over.

They were confident that as long as the realm was stable and the court gave them fair opportunities to display their talents, they could definitely bring glory to their families again.

Therefore, Zhao Hanzhang’s recruitment examinations remained strong even after the court stabilized, with most people supporting them.

Because of the warfare, most of those who had previously held power were dead. Now most who remained were collateral branches of aristocratic families—just names without substance.

Zhao Hanzhang clearly wasn’t someone who loved reputation, so they couldn’t tempt her with that. In terms of popular reputation, no one in all of Dajin could match Zhao Hanzhang now.

In terms of reputation among scholars, the Zhao clan had Zhao Cheng and Zhao Ming, so no one could use reputation to make her compromise.

The most powerful aristocratic family in Dajin now was the Zhao clan. Those still able to maintain clan strength and reputation were the Wang, Lu, and Cui families.

If they truly followed the previous official selection system, the court would inevitably be dominated by these three families, and these already-declined aristocratic families and collateral branches would have even less chance of advancement.

So recruitment examinations were good—they all supported them.

Many of the court’s policies seemed unrelated, but those who would take recruitment examinations all understood the connections between the major policies.

Recruitment examinations were linked to the current education system. Now Zhao clan schools were blooming everywhere. Actually, they preferred to call them government schools, because school expenses now came directly from county offices, and student enrollment situations were directly linked to county magistrates’ performance evaluations.

And the education system was related to the current land system, taxation, and so forth. Everything was interconnected.