He was rendered speechless.
After a long while, he finally found his voice. “So Xiping doesn’t want to send troops?”
“Not at all. The Provincial Governor is the pillar of our Yuzhou Province. When he stands, Yuzhou stands. When Yuzhou stands, only then can Xiping stand, and only then can my Zhao clan exist in Xiping,” Zhao Hanzhang said righteously. “Even for Xiping’s sake, for Yuzhou’s sake, my Zhao clan will face ten thousand deaths without regret.”
“Therefore, please ask the Provincial Governor to permit me to recruit troops. Once I’ve gathered soldiers and horses, we’ll immediately depart for Quyang. Even if it costs our lives, we’ll rescue the Provincial Governor and resolve Quyang’s crisis.”
The messenger wasn’t stupid—he understood immediately.
Before leaving, the Provincial Governor had indeed signed a recruitment order for him as a precaution, but…
The messenger looked at Zhao Hanzhang and asked hesitantly, “Does this matter not require consultation with County Magistrate Zhao? Can Miss Zhao make this decision?”
Zhao Hanzhang straightened her back and looked down at him with a faint smile. “I can.”
The messenger paused, then finally retrieved another roll of silk cloth from his boot. He stood and respectfully presented it to Zhao Hanzhang. “This is the recruitment order signed by His Excellency. Xiping County may use this order to recruit three thousand troops to proceed there.”
Zhao Hanzhang accepted it with a solemn expression, though inwardly she scoffed. In Xiping County town right now, they didn’t even have three thousand able-bodied men in total. Was the Provincial Governor trying to drain Xiping County dry?
But she didn’t mind. After all, they hadn’t specified that troops could only be recruited within the city, only within Xiping County. And who said this recruitment order couldn’t be used repeatedly?
Better to get it in hand first.
Zhao Hanzhang said to Zhao Ju, “Please take the two messengers to rest. Have the kitchen prepare food and drink for them. Oh, and this messenger is still unconscious—quickly check if the physician has arrived yet. We must take good care of the messengers.”
Zhao Ju acknowledged the order.
Only then did Zhao Hanzhang pull Fu Tinghan away.
Fu Tinghan asked her, “Do you plan to recruit troops in the city?”
“Mm, I’ll recruit some people, but mainly I’ll recruit outside,” she said. “We have too few people. Building up the county town consumes considerable manpower. I can take this opportunity to gather a group of people.”
Fu Tinghan raised the most practical issue: “Money…”
“I’ll provide the money.”
Zhao Hanzhang wasn’t stingy at all, nor did she feel that Xiping County was taking advantage of her. After all, Xiping County was hers, and so were its people!
She just coveted the court’s recruitment order—she didn’t expect the court to pay military salaries to these troops after recruiting them.
Even someone like Prince Donghai had his subordinates be self-sufficient, going out to capture and sell people to offset military salaries. How much less could a small place like Xiping County expect?
Expecting salaries from the court was harder than expecting pie to fall from the sky.
The unconscious messenger was revived, but his body remained quite weak. The next day, he finally saw Zhao Erlang clearly in the sunlight, and his expression improved slightly.
The other messenger wanted to see Zhao Hanzhang, but she wasn’t in the city—she’d run off to the fortified village to find Zhao Ming.
So it was Fu Tinghan, taking time away from creating the tax and tenant rent exchange tables, who came to see them.
He had just one sentence: “Zhao Sanniang has gone to recruit troops.”
“When can we depart for Quyang?”
“As soon as the troops are recruited, we’ll go.”
The messenger was anxious. “How long will that take?”
Fu Tinghan looked at them curiously. “Don’t you even allow time for training? That’s no different from leading people to their deaths. Now she’s not even requiring training time—she’s already greatly reducing the timeline.”
The implication was: what more do you want?
The messenger fell silent. After watching Fu Tinghan for a while, he asked, “Might this gentleman be Grand Secretary Fu’s eldest grandson, Master Fu?”
Fu Tinghan nodded. “That’s me.”
“So Xiping County is actually under Master Fu’s control?”
Fu Tinghan said, “No, it’s under Zhao Hanzhang’s control.”
He turned and left. “If you have matters to discuss, wait for her to return.”
The messenger remained completely unconvinced, becoming even more certain that the one actually controlling Xiping County was Fu Tinghan, and that Zhao Sanniang was mostly being pushed forward by him as a shield.
Zhao Hanzhang had run back to the fortified village to find Zhao Ming.
As soon as Zhao Ming saw her, he wanted to turn around and return to his room.
Zhao Hanzhang had already called out happily, enthusiastically greeting him, “Uncle, what a coincidence! Were you about to go out?”
Zhao Ming turned back to look at her. “So early in the morning—what’s worth making you run back here?”
Zhao Hanzhang jumped down from her horse and approached, pulling out the recruitment order to show him. “Uncle, look at this.”
Zhao Ming unrolled it and glanced at it before sighing. “I didn’t expect you’d actually manage to obtain it. Three thousand people—hmph, Xiping County could indeed recruit three thousand able-bodied men, but if you take away these three thousand, how many will be left in the county?”
“Untrained people dragged to the battlefield are just being sent to their deaths. Leading three thousand people there—how many can you bring back?” Zhao Ming continued, “You take away these three thousand—not only will your prestige in Xiping decline, but Xiping’s future path will also be very difficult to walk.”
After all, this era required people for everything.
Zhao Hanzhang said, “I plan to recruit troops in Pingyu and Shangcai.”
Zhao Ming’s voice became shrill. “Where?!”
“Pingyu and Shangcai.”
Zhao Ming’s gaze fell on her. “Are you trying to single-handedly provoke conflicts among three counties?”
“I’m not recruiting people who are settled and farming. I’m recruiting refugees along the way.” Zhao Hanzhang said, “Of course, mainly I’ll wait quietly in Xiping County for them to come to us.”
“Quyang has been fighting for so long—Pingyu has also suffered greatly from it. Combined with refugees from Yingchuan, many refugees who’ve left their hometowns will pass through Pingyu and Shangcai before dispersing to various places. Recruiting people on the official roads—we’ll succeed every time.”
Just look at her estate in Shangcai. Through careful selection, they’d recruited nearly a thousand people in just three months.
If they didn’t select carefully and simply set out money and grain, who knows how many people they could recruit?
Unfortunately, most people still headed toward Shangcai. Very few would walk all the way to Xiping. She felt they should change people’s thinking in this regard.
So she planned to set up recruitment points on all three sides.
“I plan to go to Shangcai myself. I’ll send Zhao Ju to Pingyu, and I’ll have to trouble you to oversee things here in the county town. There’s also Tinghan, but he doesn’t like dealing with people, and those two messengers are quite cunning. I’m afraid Tinghan, being too upright, might be deceived by them. So I can only rely on you, Uncle.”
“Hmph, if he’s upright, then am I not upright?”
“Uncle is of course also upright,” Zhao Hanzhang’s flattery came effortlessly. “But Uncle has rich experience and broad knowledge. Those petty schemes can’t possibly escape Uncle’s discerning eye. Compared to you, Tinghan still falls far short.”
Zhao Ming just looked at Zhao Hanzhang, unable to help sighing, “Your grandfather was upright and open, your father was also gentle and honest, and your mother was an honest person too. I’m very curious—how did they produce someone as glib-tongued as you?”
Zhao Hanzhang’s expression turned serious. “Uncle, I merely spoke the truth. How can you say I’m glib-tongued?”
Zhao Ming’s lips twitched upward as he waved his hand. “Fine, fine, I understand. Go on then. I’ll head to the county town shortly.”
He continued, “Relieving Quyang’s siege is the proper course of action, but you must also take care of yourself and preserve your strength. Don’t be reckless.”
Zhao Hanzhang agreed, expressing that she would definitely play it safe and absolutely not act impulsively.
—