Establishing a Charity Hall wasn’t difficult. After the Battle of Xiping, many houses had been vacated. Finding several spacious dwellings and making minor modifications could turn them into a Charity Hall.
Fu Tinghan had previously completed the census work, so it was clear at a glance who the orphans were. Zhao Hanzhang had even thought of the personnel to care for the children inside the Hall—having older ones care for younger ones could completely achieve low-cost human resources.
The county office only needed to assign two more people for management.
The difficult part was the school.
They had no teachers. Actually, teachers were relatively simple—Zhao Hanzhang, Fu Tinghan, and other literate officials in the county office could temporarily teach. It wasn’t particularly difficult.
After all, they were raising them roughly. They only needed to know how to read and count.
The difficult part was that they had no books, paper, or writing brushes and ink.
Upon returning to the county office, before Zhao Hanzhang could announce her grand decision, Gengrong and Song Zhi bowed and reported, “My lady, the county office has run out of paper.”
Zhao Hanzhang replied casually, “If there’s none, then buy more. Are we out of money? Should we hold another fundraising drive?”
Song Zhi: “…It’s not a money problem. The bookshop in the county was burned down in a fire. Even with money, we can’t buy paper now.”
Gengrong said, “Moreover, paper is precious. Previously, Master Fu’s usage was enormous. In these past few days, the county office’s paper consumption has already reached two-thirds of the annual amount.”
Fu Tinghan was surprised. “You normally use so little paper? Then how do you record and transmit things like household registers and official documents?”
Song Zhi had no idea.
Gengrong, because his father had once been the deputy magistrate, knew somewhat. He said, “Household registers are generally revised once every three years. For other matters, we can have clerks and runners go to the villages to spread word orally.”
This method of transmitting information was too slow and also consumed enormous manpower.
Zhao Hanzhang asked, “Is paper more expensive than manpower?”
Song Zhi felt her question was comparable to Emperor Hui’s “Why don’t they eat meat?” He said, “Naturally. How can the expense of paper compare to manpower?”
Zhao Hanzhang turned to look at Fu Tinghan. “Then we’ll also need to make paper?”
Fu Tinghan struggled to recall how to make paper. There was no formula for this, and he had never studied it, but in the information explosion era, he had some understanding.
Zhao Hanzhang grinned at him, feeling quite proud. “I know how to make it.”
It wasn’t that she had curiously researched it, but when she was working as a music teacher, because she had exchange students, the school sometimes had her take students to visit papermaking craftsmen to promote traditional culture.
Although she couldn’t see, she could listen, and her sense of touch was very sensitive. At that time, she had touched all the various changes in the paper formation process.
Song Zhi and Gengrong stared at Zhao Hanzhang in a daze. “My lady knows how to make paper?”
Zhao Hanzhang didn’t hide it and nodded modestly. “I know a little. However, this isn’t something that can be made overnight. Since we’re out of paper, let’s buy more. If Xiping doesn’t have any, surely Shangcai does?”
She continued, “And Xinxi—send people to these nearby places to buy.” Thinking of their paper consumption during this period, she added, “Buy plenty.”
She couldn’t produce other things for Professor Fu, but could she really stint on his paper usage?
When doing math problems, what frustrated her most was not having enough scratch paper.
Zhao Hanzhang returned to her study and began making a plan, listing out everything they needed to do. She discovered they actually had so many tasks ahead.
Zhao Hanzhang gripped her brush in contemplation. Fu Tinghan came over to glance at it, then turned to leave.
Zhao Hanzhang came back to herself and quickly called out to him. “Tinghan, don’t you think we need a county magistrate and deputy magistrate who can actually manage affairs?”
Although she had appointed a county magistrate and deputy magistrate, she suddenly realized neither of them were actually working in the county office.
Ji Yuan was understandable—he was currently running around handling the horse purchasing business, and the situation at Shangcai also needed his oversight. He couldn’t get away for now. But Zhao Ming…
Zhao Hanzhang’s desire to employ people burned intensely. “What do you think—if I make three visits to Uncle Ming’s thatched cottage, will he…”
“He won’t,” Fu Tinghan said. “Be careful that after three visits you’ll be shut outside the fortress gates and unable to enter.”
Hearing this, Zhao Hanzhang suppressed the thought in her heart. “Fine, our territory is still small anyway. We’ll discuss it more when it grows larger.”
Zhao Hanzhang thought for a moment, then said, “Let’s have Chen Siniang try managing the Charity Hall. She’s a woman, so the children will have less wariness toward her. As for the school… I need to think more about who to entrust it to.”
Fu Tinghan said, “Entrust it to me.”
“Hm?” Zhao Hanzhang turned to look at him.
Fu Tinghan explained, “Education is most important. Since you want to use them in the future, you need to cultivate their loyalty from now on, as well as their habitual ways of perceiving things. Otherwise, if they learn wrongly, they might stand in opposition to you in the future.”
Both Fu Tinghan and Zhao Hanzhang knew that she could currently govern Xiping County for three reasons: first, because Xiping County had just experienced catastrophe and Zhao Hanzhang was the one who saved it; second, because she had soldiers under her command; third, because no one capable of competing with her for Xiping County had appeared.
But what about when Xiping County got back on track in the future, or even grew larger?
Then her shortcomings would be magnified—for instance, her female identity, or her lack of official status.
So they didn’t employ just anyone. They had been carefully selecting and cultivating their own people all along, precisely to prevent such situations from arising in the future.
But how could people they selected and recruited compare to those they raised from childhood?
These people’s thoughts and perceptions were practically blank slates that they could paint as they wished.
Thinking this way, Fu Tinghan became even more determined. “Leave the school to me. On the county office side, you can delegate more to Gengrong and Song Zhi.”
Zhao Hanzhang now had a clear understanding. The next day she summoned all the county office personnel to announce that she was promoting Song Zhi as deputy to the county magistrate to temporarily assume the county magistrate’s duties, and Gengrong as deputy to the chief clerk to temporarily assume the chief clerk’s duties. From now on, all county matters would follow Fu Tinghan’s directions. When her opinions and Fu Tinghan’s conflicted, then they should follow hers.
Everyone: “…”
They silently turned to look at Fu Tinghan.
They saw Fu Tinghan first cup his hands in acknowledgment. “Yes.”
Everyone could only follow suit in acknowledgment, though this gave them a deeper understanding of Zhao Hanzhang’s authority.
After delegating tasks one by one, Zhao Hanzhang made daily inspection tours, confirming everything was progressing in an orderly manner. Then she would visit various families in Xiping County to sit with them, buying grain from their hands.
At this time, grain was still quite easy to purchase.
Compared to gold, silver, and precious jewels, grain was much cheaper. Therefore, when the rebel forces attacked, they mostly went after gold, silver, and treasures. They only carried off some grain, so most families’ granaries had been preserved.
With the summer harvest finished, none of the families lacked grain now—they just lacked money. After all, any household that looked wealthy had been robbed at the time.
Most of that gold and silver had fallen into Zhao Hanzhang’s hands as spoils of war.
After providing compensation to the killed and wounded retainers and taking some to reward everyone, the rest remained in her pocket.
Now this gold and silver made a circuit and returned to those gentlemen’s hands—only they had paid out bag after bag of grain.
Zhao Ju led people to each household, moving out bag after bag of grain to transport back to the granary. The people in the county seat saw so much grain and all felt invigorated, working with even more spirit.
Zhao Ju supervised people moving all the grain bags into the storehouse. After checking the quantities with the storehouse guards, he signed and sealed the documents, then locked up the storehouse.
Seeing the storehouse full of grain, not only the common people outside, but even the retainers’ spirits were different. “Company commander, our lady is truly formidable—just a few words and she obtained this much grain.”
Zhao Ju: “It was all bought with real gold and silver. You think it was obtained for free?”
“But that money also belonged to those gentlemen. Isn’t this about the same as getting it for free?” The retainer said happily, “With grain in the storehouse, there’s no panic in the heart. Company commander, in another two days our military camp will be finished, right?”
Zhao Ju asked, “Are those prisoners still obedient?”
“More or less. At first a few ran away, but they didn’t get far before being caught and killed. Later, seeing we gave them food and didn’t abuse them, they settled down and stopped running. The progress on building the camp also sped up.”
Zhao Ju nodded. “Have them speed up. Once the military camp is built, they’ll go to the fields for the autumn harvest.”
Many people had died in Xiping County. Although some crops in the fields had been damaged, quite a lot remained.
With insufficient manpower, relying solely on hiring workers with grain wasn’t enough. They decided to put the prisoners to work.
However, most fields were outside the city. Taking over three hundred prisoners outside might result in escapes. Zhao Ju didn’t want to waste lots of manpower on supervision.
So they first had to domesticate the prisoners in the city before taking them out.
Sure enough, once the military camp in the city was built, the prisoners had been tamed fairly well.
Zhao Ju divided the prisoners into three teams: one team remained in the city to repair damaged houses and streets; one team was sent to the Zhao family fortress to help with the autumn harvest; and one team harvested crops from fields in Xiping County that had become ownerless.
Zhao Hanzhang had already arranged the prisoners’ work for the next six months. After the autumn harvest ended, they would be sent to the horse ranch—no, the pasture—to clear land. There were also the government office’s fields that needed to be prepared for planting winter wheat.
Three hundred men could cultivate quite a lot of land each day.
Zhao Hanzhang also knew the most important thing currently was the autumn harvest, so she also picked up a sickle to go experience life in the fields—well, and to improve her favorability with the townspeople.
Fu Tinghan stood in the field wearing a bamboo hat, watching her. After seeing her carefully make one cut with the sickle and then gradually become skilled, actually cutting forward smoothly, her speed couldn’t match those beside her, but was much faster than his.
Fu Tinghan looked down at the sickle in his own hand.
Zhao Hanzhang straightened her back and looked over, quickly asking, “Are the rice leaves cutting your hands? Why don’t you go up on the field ridge and wait for me? When I finish cutting to the other side, I’ll come back.”
Fu Tinghan shook his head. “I was just thinking—one ear of rice has so few grains. What would the yield per acre be?”
Zhao Hanzhang said, “We’d have to dry it and weigh it to know.”
She also raised her head to look at this golden rice. “It looks pretty good. Should be five or six hundred pounds, right?”
Facts proved that estimates not made by farmers were very unreliable. After this acre was threshed and dried, when weighed, it was only two hundred twenty-three pounds.
Zhao Hanzhang looked completely disbelieving, asking Gengrong who came to report, “Did you weigh it wrong? How could it possibly be so little?”
Gengrong: “…My lady, this yield is already considered very good.”
Zhao Hanzhang scratched her head and looked toward Fu Tinghan. “Do you still remember what the yield per acre was in our place?”
Gengrong also looked at Fu Tinghan.
Fu Tinghan glanced at him, then took Zhao Hanzhang’s hand and wrote an approximate number in her palm.
Zhao Hanzhang made clicking sounds with her tongue. “The gap is too large.”
She pondered for a moment. “Besides the seeds, we should also be able to increase yields by improving farming methods, right?”
Fu Tinghan nodded. “And wheat. The Central Plains and northern regions still primarily eat wheat-based foods.”
Gengrong couldn’t help but interject, “My lady, ordinary commoners primarily eat bean rice.”
Zhao Hanzhang and Fu Tinghan looked at each other. “Bean rice?”
As expected of great clan nobility—they didn’t even know about bean rice. Gengrong was just about to explain in detail when Zhao Hanzhang had already touched her stomach. “Talking about it isn’t as good as experiencing it personally. Besides, it’s time for the evening meal. Let’s go—we’re going out to mooch a meal.”
Gengrong fell silent.
Zhao Hanzhang pulled Fu Tinghan out to find dinner.
She directly pulled him to those two alleys near the city gate.
Most people from the slums who had been relocated were settled here. Many of the residences here had been emptied. Zhao Hanzhang recovered the empty houses and redistributed them. Some households only had orphans left—she temporarily registered and recorded them, planning to rent them out once commerce picked up, with the proceeds offsetting some of the costs of raising the children.
The county office now had to support so many orphaned and widowed children daily—the expenditure was quite large. Gengrong knew many people in the city were watching, waiting to see Zhao Hanzhang’s income fall short of expenses.
Even Gengrong felt Zhao Hanzhang couldn’t sustain this much longer. Until now, the work-relief programs in the city hadn’t stopped. According to Master Fu’s intentions, they would continue digging irrigation channels and such—not issuing corvée orders but still using work-relief.
This exceeded Gengrong’s expectations and also made him more worried. He felt that at this rate, Zhao Hanzhang might not even make it through winter.
Originally, who governed Xiping County made little difference to him. Zhao Hanzhang was a woman after all and might not last long—having someone else take over wouldn’t be bad.
But thinking of the people he saw daily, thinking of the work he currently had, undeniably Gengrong felt that current Xiping County was vibrant with life. Although they had just experienced catastrophe, everyone was united—the situation was even better than when his father and Magistrate Fan were in charge.
So after hesitating, he still said, “My lady, excessive benevolence isn’t necessarily good. The county office has limited income. Work-relief can only be temporary. If it’s too lenient, I fear it won’t be sustainable. When policies suddenly reverse, I’m afraid it will provoke much dissatisfaction.”
Zhao Hanzhang had already tried to compress work-relief expenses as much as possible. It could be said that currently, an adult laborer’s daily income could only support two people. In her view, such wages were extremely low. To reduce them further would make both her and Professor Fu unable to pass their internal moral checkpoint.
Moreover, these public infrastructure projects would generate returns in the future. Never mind the distant future—just the irrigation projects alone would greatly benefit the government office’s official fields.
Unfortunately, once winter passed, everyone would be busy with their own fields. Zhao Hanzhang would allocate a certain amount of land to them. Then the official fields would find it difficult to hire workers through work-relief programs or regular hiring. They were still short on people!
Zhao Hanzhang consoled Gengrong. “I know what I’m doing. Rest assured, we won’t run short of money or grain.”
The spoils of war weren’t spent yet. After spending those, she still had money. The initial investment was indeed enormous, but she was mentally prepared.
Large investments meant even larger returns. The urgent priority was winning people’s hearts. If she could win over the entire population of Xiping County, this whole area would become her foundation in the future.
—