At this moment he couldn’t spare any thought for whether Zhao Hanzhang and the others had ulterior motives. He reached out and snatched the flatbread from her hand, stuffing it into his mouth.

Zhao Hanzhang saw him eating so ravenously, afraid he might choke, and quickly took down the water flask from her horse to hand to him.

The young man’s eyes didn’t even glance at it, focused entirely on gnawing the flatbread.

He ate several bites before slowing down a bit.

Zhao Hanzhang pushed the water flask forward again, and only then did he accept it and pour several mouthfuls down his throat.

After drinking, he looked down at the flatbread in his hand and pondered for a moment, then tore off a strip along where he had bitten. He stuffed the remaining larger portion into his chest, then put the torn strip in his mouth.

He raised his eyes to stare at Zhao Hanzhang and asked indistinctly, “What else do you nobles want to ask? Go ahead.”

Zhao Hanzhang raised her eyebrows and pointed at his chest, asking, “Are you saving that flatbread for tonight?”

The young man said, “I still have parents, a wife and children at home. This is for them.”

His expression was somewhat sorrowful as he sighed, “My parents are elderly, and my children are still young. They haven’t eaten anything for a long time either.”

Zhao Hanzhang thought for a moment, took two more flatbreads from the bundle and handed them to him. “Take these back for them to eat.”

The young man immediately took them and tucked them in his chest. With tears in his eyes, he nearly kowtowed to Zhao Hanzhang. “Thank you, noble lady. Thank you, noble lady.”

“What is your name?”

The young man said, “This humble one is called Wu Sheng. I’m the second son in my family. You can call me Wu Erlang.”

“Why did you run when you saw us earlier?”

Wu Erlang said awkwardly, “You were riding tall horses charging straight at me. I thought you were some roving bandits coming from somewhere.”

This excuse—never mind that Zhao Hanzhang didn’t believe it—even Magistrate Gao didn’t believe it. Which roving bandits didn’t have a mass of people trailing behind them, rather than a neat twenty-some riders?

They obviously looked like nobles traveling, and proper nobles at that!

Zhao Hanzhang stared suspiciously at Wu Erlang. “Really?”

Wu Erlang nodded earnestly. “Really!”

Zhao Hanzhang smiled without pursuing the matter further and asked, “It’s only mid-July now, still some time before autumn harvest. You’re already short of grain—what will you do later?”

The young man said, “What can we do? We’ll have to gnaw on wild grass first.”

Zhao Hanzhang asked more questions: “How many acres does your family farm? Can you ensure enough food when autumn harvest comes?”

These kinds of questions weren’t any secret, so the young man was happy to answer. Thus Zhao Hanzhang quickly learned how many acres of beans and rice the young man’s family had planted, and how many acres of wheat they had planted before, and what the harvest was.

Actually, Suiping’s situation wasn’t very good.

Last year when the Xiongnu fled in chaos, people in the village were in constant panic—either being robbed or on the road fleeing robbery. So they missed the farming season. They hadn’t planted much wheat and hadn’t been very attentive to it.

As luck would have it, this year’s yield per acre was actually acceptable. But they simply hadn’t planted much, and Regional Inspector He had imposed such heavy taxes.

So after everyone harvested and paid their taxes, basically nothing remained in their homes.

In other words, after working hard all year, once they paid their taxes, their grain bins were still empty.

The young man was somewhat resentful too. He vaguely sensed that Zhao Hanzhang and the others held very high positions, so his words inevitably carried some emotion. “To you nobles it’s just a few words, but to us, it requires pouring out our entire family wealth.”

Zhao Hanzhang nodded in agreement and sighed lightly.

Seeing her actually show an agreeable expression, and the gentleman beside her not expressing opposition either, Wu Erlang couldn’t help but feel curious and finally asked, “Who are the lady and gentleman?”

Zhao Hanzhang smiled and said, “Just ordinary people. However, we just came from Xiping, where there were many people working in the fields. But coming here, we can’t see a single person. We were momentarily curious and couldn’t help wanting to ask a question or two when we saw you, friend.”

Who knew she hadn’t yet opened her mouth when she first scared him badly enough to make him flee.

Wu Erlang also thought of his excessive reaction earlier and smiled awkwardly.

He saw it wasn’t early anymore and stood up directly. “I need to go home. My parents, wife and children are still waiting for me to bring food back.”

Zhao Hanzhang let him go.

After he left, she sighed quietly and turned to Magistrate Gao and the others. “Let’s go. We’re heading to Suiping county town.”

But their pace still slowed. Zhao Hanzhang not only began paying attention to people on the road but also to the condition of crops in the fields on both sides.

In the fields within sight, nearly half were overgrown with weeds, and quite a few were simply wasteland that hadn’t been planted.

Seeing this situation, Zhao Hanzhang sighed deeply. “In such circumstances, even after autumn harvest, the situation won’t improve much.”

Magistrate Gao nodded repeatedly. “This year, because of the summer tax issue, many common people left their homes. So these fields were abandoned. Alas, they’re afraid too. If the autumn tax is like the summer tax, they’ll have virtually no way to survive. By then, I’m afraid not many people will remain in the county.”

As he spoke, he used his small eyes to peek at Zhao Hanzhang.

Zhao Hanzhang glanced at him but didn’t immediately make any promises. Instead she said, “It’s getting late. Let’s find a nearby village to stay the night.”

Magistrate Gao wasn’t discouraged. Zhao Hanzhang hadn’t immediately refused, which meant there was hope.

Heaven knew how much he envied Xiping County, where the tax quota set by superiors could be reduced at her word.

What were commandery governors and commandery commandants for?

Not just to manage the counties under their jurisdiction and have each county pay taxes and levies, they also had a duty to protect the people of each county.

So Magistrate Gao desperately hoped the former commandery commandant would refuse the tax quota assigned by Regional Inspector He. He had petitioned about this matter more than once, but to no avail.

Not only had the commandery commandant not reduced the quota, when Xiping and Shangcai failed to pay their full amounts, he had even increased their taxes.

Now that the commandery commandant had been replaced with Zhao Hanzhang, Magistrate Gao felt he could harbor some hope regarding the autumn tax.

Zhao Hanzhang naturally understood Magistrate Gao’s meaning. If she were only supporting one county, she might consider it. But she now had ten counties under her—if she exempted Suiping, would she exempt the autumn tax for the other counties?

She had originally thought that aside from Quyang and Xiping, the situation in other counties would be much better. But now it seemed she had been overly optimistic.

Devastation everywhere!

Zhao Hanzhang reined in her horse and looked at the low, dilapidated houses ahead. She turned to look at Qiuwu.

Qiuwu then led people into the village. Before long, he brought someone out. “My lady, the village chief’s house is up there. He’s the wealthy household in their village. His house is better and should be suitable for lodging.”

“Yes, yes, yes. Our village chief’s house is the best.” That person enthusiastically led them to the village chief’s house, clutching five coins tightly in his hand.

For these five coins, he not only led them to outside the village chief’s house but also enthusiastically helped them knock on the door.

Though there was no need for him to knock—even leading her horse slowly, Zhao Hanzhang could see through the low wall into the courtyard.

There were quite a few people inside, very lively—no, very noisy. One person was being held down face-first on the ground, and he looked very familiar.