Fu Tinghan couldn’t help but laugh aloud. “You’d better take things slow. You still need to beg Zhao Ming for recognition.”

“How do you know he agreed?”

“Seeing how happy you are walking over, I guessed.”

“You guessed pretty accurately,” Zhao Hanzhang said. “I originally wanted you to be my County Magistrate, but your identity isn’t suitable for stepping into the spotlight yet, so we both need to keep a low profile for now.”

Fu Tinghan gestured with the ledger in his hand. “So this…”

“Keep it for now. We’ll talk about it after this period passes.” Zhao Hanzhang was very patient and didn’t want to make people unhappy right now.

The urgent matter was still to rescue people and pacify the hearts of the people.

The effect of Zhao Hanzhang personally coming forward to reassure everyone was quite good. The city’s common people saw that the rebel army had been driven away, and Zhao Hanzhang had brought so many people to stay at the county yamen. Hearing that even Zhao Ming from the Zhao Family fortress had come to assist her, their confidence immediately soared, and they no longer thought about fleeing outside.

Zhao Hanzhang kept her word. After roughly tallying the number of survivors in the city, she began opening the granaries to distribute grain. Everyone could receive three days’ worth of rations at once.

Song Zhi and Chen Siniang, who had come to report, hadn’t had time to introduce themselves before Fu Tinghan directly had Qiuwu lead them to the relief point. “Those who registered and were documented yesterday all received number plates. Today they’ll come with their number plates to collect relief grain. Your task is to check off the names of those who come to collect relief grain. Those fourteen years and older count as adults; adults get two and a half catties of rations for three days, while those under fourteen get two catties.”

This was the ledger Fu Tinghan had compiled when tallying the survivors’ list yesterday. For this purpose, he had taken quite a bit of paper from the county yamen to cut into number plates.

When distributing them, he had already instructed that if there was relief later, everything would depend on the number plates. If lost, they should come report it.

So he figured they would be very careful with their number plates.

Also because of this, the county yamen was especially short of literate people now, since whether tallying survivors or distributing relief grain, everything required checking numbers.

No wonder Zhao Hanzhang wanted to pull every literate person she saw to her side.

Song Zhi took a ledger and went to the relief station. There were four queues there. Besides the two of them, there were also two clerks, one of whom was even wearing mourning clothes. Song Zhi looked carefully, finding him somewhat familiar, and after a long while finally recognized him. “Gengrong?”

The expressionless young man looked up, paused upon seeing Song Zhi, then raised his hand in salute. “Sixth Young Master Song.”

Song Zhi looked at the white hemp tied around him, somewhat hesitant. “In your family…”

“My father died defending the city alongside County Magistrate Fan.”

Song Zhi sighed. “My condolences.”

Gengrong glanced at Chen Siniang beside him, who was also wearing mourning clothes. “You as well.”

The four stood silently in front of the relief platform. Each of them was also assigned two soldiers—one beside them responsible for weighing the grain, and one up front responsible for maintaining order and having people queue according to their number plate ranges.

“Those with number plates from one to five hundred line up here, five hundred to one thousand line up in this queue, one thousand to one thousand five hundred line up over there…”

The vast majority of people were illiterate, but when they received their number plates yesterday, someone had told them, and many remembered. But there were also those who couldn’t remember, so they went to find soldiers to identify the numbers.

The soldiers had no idea, so they could only lead them to the front to find Song Zhi and the others to read the numbers.

Song Zhi glanced at it and said, “Number five hundred eighty-nine, line up in my queue.”

So the soldier grabbed the person and led them back to queue.

The relief station was orderly and well-organized. Zhao Ming stood to the side watching them cross-reference the number plates to find people’s names in the ledger. Generally, whole families were placed together, so one person could bring the number plates of other family members to collect rations together, and the ledger also recorded that they were one household.

At first, Zhao Ming only felt that doing it this way was very orderly. Although it wasted some writing materials, it required fewer people than direct relief distribution.

But when he saw people who hadn’t registered come to register because they couldn’t receive relief grain otherwise, he slowly understood.

Zhao Ming silently turned back to find Zhao Hanzhang. She was meeting with the family heads from various households in the county. Today they had submitted their lists of casualties and deaths—the most deaths were among their household guards and hired laborers.

Seeing Zhao Ming, the various family heads were all startled and hurriedly bowed in greeting.

Zhao Ming smiled and returned the courtesy, walked to Zhao Hanzhang’s side, and lowered his voice. “Come here, I have something to tell you.”

Zhao Hanzhang looked up and smiled at the various family heads with a nod, then stepped aside with Zhao Ming to speak quietly. “You’re having people register to find hidden households?”

“Of course not,” Zhao Hanzhang firmly denied. “The biggest hidden household in Xiping County is our Zhao Family, isn’t it? Why would I do such a thing?”

Zhao Ming: “…I thought you didn’t know. Without registration, they can’t get relief grain. Do you know how many hidden households this will uncover?”

Zhao Hanzhang said, “Uncle, our fortress has rules. Those who come seeking shelter and rent our fields as tenant farmers—we give the lowest rent in all of Xiping. For those not on the county yamen’s registers, the annual taxes they pay to the fortress are less than what they’d give to the county yamen. But it’s different outside. Those common people secretly hidden away don’t pay much protection money at first, but as they farm, they’ll discover their fields are gone.”

“I’m short of people now, but honestly, in these chaotic times, I could just send someone to the Yingchuan or Luoyang area and bring back quite a few people. I’m not so desperate as to compete with them over hidden households at this moment.”

Zhao Ming’s heart stirred. “You’re competing for land?”

Zhao Hanzhang gave him an approving look and lowered her voice. “What do people rely on to live? Isn’t it land? If I have land, I’ll naturally have people. With people, I can naturally protect the entire Zhao Family fortress and Xiping.”

Zhao Ming: “If the various families knew of your sinister intentions…”

“It’s already too late,” Zhao Hanzhang said softly. “After today, there will be many people who can’t make it and will come to register. Even if they’re dissatisfied, it won’t help. Don’t I still have you behind me?”

Zhao Ming: …Such sinister intentions. He was starting to regret coming here a little.

Zhao Hanzhang reassured him. “Don’t worry. As long as our Zhao Family treats those tenant farmers and hidden households well, they won’t be foolish enough to run to the county side for relief grain.”

The Zhao Family wasn’t poor. Anyone who died in battle, whether soldiers, hired laborers, tenant farmers, or hidden households, all received compensation, and their families would be looked after. They wouldn’t care about these few catties of rice from the county.

Zhao Ming asked, “How many days can your grain provide relief?”

Zhao Hanzhang told him not to worry. “I’ve already thought it through. Each number plate can receive six days’ worth of rations for free. After six days, I’ll implement work-for-relief.”

Six days would be enough for her to fully understand Xiping County’s situation and also make proper arrangements.

Zhao Ming looked at her. “You’re that confident?”

Zhao Hanzhang urged, “Uncle, please write to Luoyang—first to inform them of Xiping’s situation, and second to finalize the County Magistrate and Chief Clerk positions.”

Zhao Ming looked at her deeply, nodded slightly, then turned his head to look at the various family heads standing not far away. He asked in a low voice, “Should I return to the fortress first?”

Zhao Hanzhang nodded. “Leave the county to me. Uncle, please return to the fortress first—you’re also needed there.”

—