Returning to the county office, Zhao Hanzhang couldn’t sleep anymore and simply went to the main hall to handle affairs.

Zhao Erlang followed closely behind her, asking with a conflicted expression, “Sister, did I cause you trouble?”

“No,” Zhao Hanzhang reached out to pat his head and praised, “You did very well. Fortunately you caught Sun Taihe and brought him back, or we would have had trouble.”

Though not much, there would still be some.

If he could reach Chen County safely that would be fine, but if something happened to him on the road, she would have no way to explain it to County Magistrate Sun.

Hearing praise, Zhao Erlang immediately brightened. “I was also very capable today—I caught many people who were sneaking around stealing things and beating people.”

Zhao Hanzhang praised, “Well done!”

Zhao Erlang not only wanted Zhao Hanzhang’s praise but also Fu Tinghan’s, so he looked around and asked, “Where’s brother-in-law?”

“He worked hard all night and is resting now,” Zhao Hanzhang examined Zhao Erlang carefully. “You’ve also been busy all night—go eat something and sleep.”

Zhao Erlang felt quite energetic at the moment and didn’t want to sleep, so he shook his head.

Zhao Hanzhang didn’t try to persuade him further. She had Ting He go to the kitchen to prepare food, then led Zhao Erlang to eat.

It wasn’t mealtime, so the kitchen food had to be quick and thus simple—flatbread and stew.

Zhao Hanzhang was quite hungry and ate together with Zhao Erlang. The two siblings finished a large plate of flatbread.

Zhao Hanzhang saw him eat with complete satisfaction, smiled slightly, and led him to the small room. “Lie down and sleep for a bit.”

Zhao Erlang, who had just been saying he wasn’t tired, sat on the wooden couch and his eyes involuntarily drooped. After two yawns, his head tilted and he fell into deep sleep.

Zhao Hanzhang came forward to help him remove his shoes, laid him flat on the couch, saw him sleeping sweetly, and withdrew.

Zhao Hanzhang was forceful and had brought many troops. The only one who could challenge her, Deputy Commander Ding, hesitantly followed her orders. By the time anyone reacted and wanted to push her forces out of Quyang County, she had already taken control of the entire county office.

From the county magistrate down to the gate guards and errand runners, they all instinctively followed Zhao Hanzhang’s orders. At this point, all of Quyang County was under her control.

And Fu Tinghan had also sorted out the household office, not only uncovering large amounts of taxes improperly added to ordinary people’s burdens but also discovering numerous hidden households.

Hidden households existed in every county. Xiping County had them too—the Zhao clan was among the elite in this regard.

But Zhao Hanzhang didn’t settle this account with the Zhao clan, and the people under her rule had no complaints, because these hidden households hadn’t yet infringed on their interests.

Former County Magistrate Fan of Xiping County hadn’t exaggerated the population in his reports, so the tax quota from above had nothing to do with those hidden households. The taxes the people of Xiping County had to bear were what they should bear.

But Quyang County was different.

County Magistrate Sun hadn’t reported increased population in recent years, but likewise, he hadn’t reported decreased population either.

Over these two years, due to various reasons, especially last year’s siege by the Xiongnu, large numbers of people had left their homes in Quyang County or directly become hidden households.

If he didn’t report this, the taxes he needed to submit annually remained the same.

But two years ago, Quyang County might have had ten people, but now three had fled and three had become hidden—the remaining four had to bear the taxes of ten people.

Add to that Governor He’s tax increase this year, with Shangcai County and Xiping County unable to provide full tax quotas and the shortfall distributed to other counties—their burden became even heavier.

On average, one person had to bear two and a half people’s worth of taxes. Such taxes could crush people to death.

Fu Tinghan wrote down the organized data, his heart continuously sinking. When he handed the compiled data to Zhao Hanzhang, he said, “In a year of favorable weather, when someone toils hard for a year only to discover that to pay their taxes in full they’d need to sell their wife and children—that’s when rebellion starts.”

Zhao Hanzhang flipped through the data, her face dark.

This was a man-made disaster!

Zhao Hanzhang closed it and tossed it to Zhao Hui standing nearby. “Copy down some of this data and send it to the granary.”

Zhao Hui’s eyes widened. He couldn’t help but look at Fu Tinghan, hoping he would persuade her. Doing this could very likely create a complete rupture with Quyang’s wealthy gentry families.

Fu Tinghan stood upright on the side, not only not dissuading her but appearing to approve.

Zhao Hanzhang looked coolly at Zhao Hui. “What, can’t elder brother Hui do it?”

“Fine,” Zhao Hui thought darkly—after all, it wouldn’t be him managing Quyang in the future. If she wanted to make enemies, let her. “I’ll go right away.”

Zhao Hanzhang summoned Ji Yuan, the county magistrate, and other officials, saying, “The people need to be pacified. The household office has tallied the grain collected from each district. Considering the hardship of people’s livelihoods, the county office will open the granaries to provide relief grain to the people. Notify each district to come to the city in order to receive relief grain.”

To prevent further unrest, Zhao Hanzhang decided to stagger the times when people from different districts entered the city. Thinking of that chaotic and dark data, Zhao Hanzhang didn’t trust the district chiefs much either. At this moment, she urgently needed people who could supervise.

A thought struck her, and she asked, “Where are Chen Wan and Xiang Yu?”

Ji Yuan said, “In the prison.”

Zhao Hanzhang’s eyes widened. “Who arrested them?”

Ji Yuan smiled. “They bound themselves.”

After seeing Zhao Hanzhang behead the chief clerk with one stroke and lock Quyang County’s wealthy people in the granary to count grain mixed with sand and stones, Chen Wan and Xiang Yu took ropes and bound themselves, then walked into the prison on their own, had a jailer open a cell, and went in to squat.

Zhao Hanzhang was speechless for a long moment.

She scratched her head, feeling she needed to appear more courteous to the virtuous and respectful to scholars. It definitely wasn’t because she wanted to see the spectacle of people imprisoning themselves.

She said with great interest, “Let’s go—let’s invite these two righteous men.”

On the way, Zhao Hanzhang quietly said to Fu Tinghan, “If someone writes this down, even a hundred years from now it will be a fine tale. I’ll be a figure in the history books too.”

Fu Tinghan replied, “…From when you led troops into Xiping, you’ve already been a figure in the history books, haven’t you?”

“Ah, you don’t understand. These things easily disappear from history books. Instead, interesting anecdotes like this are more easily passed down and spread. They won’t be recorded in official histories, but they’re more easily transmitted and preserved.”

Fu Tinghan, seeing her so interested, decided to help her record her deeds when he got back. She liked leaving her name in history, so he would help her do that.

If he wrote enough, some of it would surely be passed down.

Quyang County’s prison was rather quiet. Previously it had held many people, mostly commoners arrested for inability to pay taxes. Zhao Hanzhang had released them, so now many cells were empty.

As Zhao Hanzhang led people deeper in, they encountered few prisoners.

Hearing the commotion, a jailer came running. He didn’t recognize Zhao Hanzhang but recognized the county magistrate. Seeing Zhao Hanzhang surrounded in the center, he immediately knew who she was and knelt to bow. “This humble one pays respects to County Kun Zhao.”

Zhao Hanzhang nodded and asked, “Where are Chen Wan and the other who imprisoned themselves?”

—