The villagers hesitated. They had originally planned to pose as refugees to work, laboring through the winter first, taking their wages, and then sneaking back home when spring arrived next year.

But hearing Jiao Dalang speak this way, they became somewhat afraid, worried that Zhao Hanzhang might not release them later and would even punish them.

“Why don’t you wait first? Let me go back and ask our County Magistrate. If she still needs people, I’ll come back to get you?”

“We’ll go with you. If she doesn’t want us, we’ll just come back.” What if he left and never returned?

“Right, right, and we can look after each other on the road.”

Jiao Dalang couldn’t think of any reason to refuse, so he could only agree, though he said, “I’m leaving today, so if you’re coming with me, you’ll need to move quickly.”

Although they were from two different counties, their villages were actually not far apart—just a half-day’s walk.

Jiao Dalang and his group had been digging irrigation channels near their village, not very far from this area.

As soon as he agreed, the villagers huddled together. After a brief discussion, one called over family members while another told relatives, and before long, they had brought quite a crowd through word of mouth.

Seeing so many people gathered—some old enough to be his father, others only eleven or twelve years old—Jiao Dalang’s legs went weak for a moment.

If he brought all these people back, would the County Magistrate be so angry that she’d throw him out of Xiping County too?

But these people had been hungry for a long time, and now they all stared at Jiao Dalang with hollow eyes. He didn’t dare tell them to stay behind, so he could only swallow hard and steel himself to lead them toward Xiping County.

Zhao Hanzhang hadn’t left yet. She had come here for two reasons: first, to inspect the work; second, because this area had limited water resources. Whenever drought occurred, these villages were among the most severely affected areas in Xiping County.

So she had specifically dragged Professor Fu along to find the best locations for digging reservoirs or wells.

The irrigation channel they were currently digging connected to a small river, but according to the village head, the river didn’t have much water and had poor water storage capacity.

Every year when rainfall was abundant, the river water would overflow and flood the adjacent farmland, but during droughts, the river water would dry up quickly.

Zhao Hanzhang walked along the riverbank, stepping on the mud at the river’s edge with her foot, and playfully used a wooden stick to poke at the ice in the water.

Fu Tinghan returned from his circuit and stood silently to the side, watching.

Zhao Hanzhang turned her head and was startled to see him. The wooden stick in her hand slipped out of control and struck the river surface, splashing ice-cold water. She smiled sheepishly and explained, “I haven’t seen frozen water in a long time.”

“Just a thin layer of ice—it shatters with the slightest tap,” Fu Tinghan said. “I’ve looked around. The riverbed of this river is too high, with a very thick layer of silt accumulated. Rather than expending great effort to build a reservoir, it would be better to dredge this river and clear the waterway—that would increase its water storage capacity.”

Zhao Hanzhang nodded. “The excavated river mud can also be used as fertilizer. It’s just that we have too few people. Let me see where I can transfer workers from.”

Currently, building houses, digging irrigation channels in various places, and construction at the iron mine were all major undertakings proceeding simultaneously, consuming the most manpower and resources. If they didn’t have the glass workshop at their disposal, no one would dare to tackle so many projects at once on such a large scale.

At the moment, all available labor in the county was already being utilized.

The two were calculating the workforce from various locations, thinking that if they really couldn’t transfer workers, they would squeeze some from the estates in Shangcai—perhaps they could allocate some people.

Just as they were thinking this, someone came running from the distance, waving and shouting breathlessly, “County Magistrate, County Magistrate…”

When he reached them, gasping for breath, he pointed toward the village behind him and said, “County Magistrate, Jiao Dalang has brought back many people. The village head is furious and wants to drive Jiao Dalang’s entire family out of our village.”

Zhao Hanzhang raised her eyebrows. “Didn’t Jiao Dalang go to fetch his cousins?”

“He did, but he brought back so many people, all from Shangcai, saying they want to come work.”

But they didn’t even have enough work for themselves—why should they give it to people from Shangcai?

Jiao Dalang was really eating from the inside and helping outsiders.

Zhao Hanzhang asked, “How many people did he bring back?”

“I haven’t counted, but I estimate seventy or eighty people.”

Zhao Hanzhang was both surprised and delighted. “That many?”

Fu Tinghan murmured, “Just when we were getting sleepy, someone brings us a pillow.”

Zhao Hanzhang thought so too, and pulled Fu Tinghan along as she left.

When the two rode their horses back, they saw two groups of people blocking the village entrance in confrontation. Someone said something, and the other group shouted loudly, “If you won’t give us a way to live, then no one should live!”

Zhao Hanzhang struggled to suppress her smile, put on a stern face, rode her horse forward, and shouted, “What’s all this noise?”

The village head in the crowd saw Zhao Hanzhang and immediately came forward to pay his respects. “County Magistrate, you be the judge—these Shangcai people insist on stealing work from our Xiajiao Village.”

The slight smile at Zhao Hanzhang’s brow completely vanished. She looked down condescendingly at the village head, staring at him until he lowered his head nervously, then she raised her eyes to look at the crowd quietly watching her.

She saw that these people were sallow and emaciated, their faces full of fear, their eyes filled with anxiety, ranging in age from twelve to forty years old.

Meeting their sorrowful gazes, Zhao Hanzhang’s expression softened slightly as she asked, “Where are you from?”

The crowd pushed at each other—you push me, I push you—until finally they pushed Jiao Dalang’s cousin Qian Jin forward.

He knelt before the horse, trembling as he replied, “In answer to the County Magistrate, we are all from Shangjiao Village in Shangcai County.”

Zhao Hanzhang asked with interest, “That river called Jiao River over there—it comes from your village?”

Qian Jin acknowledged, “It flows down from the mountain not far from our village. That river also passes through our village.”

Zhao Hanzhang then said, “Drinking from the same river, bound by blood—what distinction is there between Shangjiao and Xiajiao, between outside village and inside village?”

She looked sternly at the village head and said in a heavy voice, “Not to mention that you share the bond of one river—even if you didn’t, they are still people of Jin. Xiping even accepts people from beyond Runan Commandery, so can we not accommodate relatives who are just over twenty li away?”

The people from Shangjiao Village, hearing this, all fell to their knees and repeatedly kowtowed to Zhao Hanzhang on horseback. “My lady, please save us. We truly cannot survive anymore.”

Zhao Hanzhang quickly dismounted to help them up. Seeing their weak complexions, her face was also full of sorrow. She turned to the village head and said, “Go have someone light fires and boil water, make some wheat porridge for them. Let our brothers fill their bellies first.”

The village head went reluctantly.

Zhao Hanzhang narrowed her eyes, watching his back disappear, then turned around with a smile again, taking the oldest person from Shangjiao Village by the hand. “Come, let’s find a sheltered spot to sit down and talk.”

With Zhao Hanzhang intervening to keep the Shangjiao Village people, the Xiajiao Village people immediately became accommodating toward them.

Actually, although the two villages belonged to two different counties, they were extremely close to each other, so many families were related.

When the village head told them to block the Shangjiao Village people, they felt somewhat unwilling in their hearts. But because the village head said that if work was given to them, there would be none left for their side, and since it was the village head’s order, they blocked them anyway.

Now that the misunderstanding was cleared up, families with relatives immediately squeezed through to find their kin.

—