Suiping County wasn’t far from Xiping County, so much news from Xiping could reach Suiping, especially those villages not far from Xiping.
They all knew that last year, rampaging soldiers had attacked the county seat of neighboring Xiping, killing many people, and then they got a new lady county magistrate.
It was said that lady magistrate was very kind-hearted. Not only did she provide them with relief grain, but after winter set in, she also offered work-for-relief, letting them earn money by repairing roads and water works. The grain prices in their county had all been brought down by her.
They heard that someone from a neighboring village had married over from Xiping and secretly brought people over to work, earning quite a bit of money and buying plenty of grain. Their spring this year had been much better than theirs.
They received the news late and had no connections, so they could only watch with envy. But later they also formed groups and went to Xiping County seat.
They went to buy grain.
They heard that grain prices in Xiping were much lower than outside.
When they went, indeed the prices were much lower.
Everyone’s lives were difficult. Although they envied the people of Xiping County, last year they too had suffered losses and many had died, so this envy was somewhat qualified.
But after paying the summer taxes, this envy gradually escalated to jealousy. They were all people of Runan Commandery—why did they have to pay taxes in full while neighboring Xiping only needed to pay half?
Originally they had much resentment toward Magistrate Gao, thinking that the magistrate of neighboring Xiping was even a lady, yet she had the courage to only pay half the taxes, while he, a grown man, only knew how to force them to pay taxes in full.
But soon, news came from neighboring Quyang County, which bordered them even more extensively. They heard their commandery administrator had increased their taxes somewhat, and then Magistrate Sun also forced them to pay higher taxes.
Then the hearts of Suiping County’s people calmed down and they began lying flat, resigned. Forget it, forget it—at least their magistrate wouldn’t raise taxes further. Actually, if they really couldn’t pay the taxes, Magistrate Gao wouldn’t actually throw them in jail.
This mentality of being better than some though worse than others made them lie flat, but lying flat couldn’t fill stomachs. When people should be hungry, they would still be hungry. So some left their homeland to wander far away.
They didn’t know if they could survive outside, but they had to try—staying meant certain death.
Some reluctantly cut green crops, using beans and rice that hadn’t yet ripened to barely fill their stomachs.
More people just waited—waited for August to come, waited for the rice and beans to ripen.
They thought their days would just pass like this, enduring until the autumn harvest would be fine. Who knew that after the ward chief went to the county seat, he came back and told them, “Bring the able-bodied men from the village and come with me to the county yamen to collect relief grain.”
The villagers were all stunned, asking one after another, “The county yamen can actually provide relief grain?”
The ward chief looked profound. “Quyang rebelled…”
“We know. We heard the fighting was fierce, and even the county magistrate was killed.”
The ward chief: “…The magistrate wasn’t killed. The commandery administrator was killed.”
“Killed is killed—what’s it to do with us?”
“So we got a new commandery administrator,” the ward chief said. “The new commandery administrator is the lady magistrate of Xiping County. She’s kind-hearted. Seeing that we people of Suiping live hard lives, she took out much money to buy grain. We’re going now to collect relief grain.”
The villagers were stunned. After a long while, they finally reacted and immediately praised, “The lady magistrate is a good person!”
“What magistrate—she’s the commandery administrator now!”
They immediately corrected themselves, “The lady commandery administrator is truly a good person!”
The ward chief said, “Our commandery administrator is surnamed Zhao.”
The villagers took note, planning to properly pay respects to this Commandery Administrator Zhao once they got to the county seat.
This was one ward. In another ward, when the ward chief hurried back from the county yamen, he happened to encounter several households dragging their families out to seek survival. He quickly stopped them. “Where are you all going?”
“Out to seek survival.”
“But you’ve all planted fields at home…”
“So my parents aren’t leaving. They’re old and can’t walk far. I cut them a bundle of green crops to eat slowly. They can last a few days—hold out until August when the beans or rice ripen and they’ll be fine.” He said, “We’re young and can still walk. Going out to seek survival—if the whole family stays together, we can’t all survive.”
With that, he made to leave.
The ward chief hurriedly stopped them. “Wait! The county yamen has relief grain now. Stay.”
They looked skeptical. “Ward Chief, don’t lie just to keep us here. We really can’t survive anymore. You’re keeping us—will you feed us?”
The ward chief said irritably, “I won’t feed you, but someone will. Our Runan Commandery has a new commandery administrator—the lady magistrate from neighboring Xiping County. She’s sent relief grain to our county.”
Hearing this, the villagers turned and walked back.
The ward chief stared wide-eyed. “What are you doing?”
“Going home!” The leading man shouted to the sky, “We can survive!”
Someone nearby explained, “We were originally planning to go to Xiping County. We heard the lady magistrate there is especially kind-hearted and takes in even refugees.”
So they had been very envious of the people of Xiping County. But now, the lady magistrate was also their commandery administrator! They were all subjects of the lady commandery administrator!
Thinking this, tears welled in the villagers’ eyes, their hearts filled with sourness and relief.
The able-bodied men from each ward and village headed toward the county seat under their ward chiefs’ leadership. On the road, wards and wards converged, villages and villages met, and everyone gathered to exchange various uncertain information.
“…I heard Quyang County was especially tragic—a whole county seat of people died. The lady magistrate led reinforcements there, and seeing such a terrible scene, couldn’t help but shed tears. In fury for the people’s sake, she killed Magistrate Sun and directly petitioned the emperor to become commandery administrator. The emperor agreed.”
“Did she kill Magistrate Sun? I heard the lady magistrate killed the commandery administrator?”
“The commandery administrator was killed by Quyang’s own people, wasn’t he?”
“Ah well, never mind who was killed—in any case, our commandery administrator has changed now.”
“Had I known rebelling could change the commandery administrator, we should have rebelled too.”
“Don’t! What if we got an even worse one? Old Blind Man from our village said this still depends on timing. A step too early won’t work, a step too late won’t work either, and specifically Quyang’s people had to rebel for it to work.”
“Why?”
“No why—that’s how Heaven arranged it.”
Knowing that Zhao Hanzhang had become commandery administrator and would distribute relief grain, the villagers heading to the county seat felt much more at ease. Unknowingly, they radiated vigorous life force.
The perceptive ward chief, noticing the villagers’ transformation, couldn’t help but sigh to the village elder walking alongside him, “After so many years, everyone finally has some spirit of life.”
The village elder’s eyes brimmed with tears. “This is a good thing.”
The ward chief also nodded. “A good thing indeed.”
The people of Suiping County all very easily accepted having a lady as commandery administrator. They even cheered with joy. Upon entering the county seat, they headed straight for the county yamen.
Ji Yuan had already sent someone to deliver a batch of money, along with the paper, books, and various glassware she had requested.
Zhao Hanzhang had included her own goods—only two books, the *Three Character Classic* and the *Thousand Character Classic*, but she had printed a thousand copies of each.
Her pricing wasn’t high—at least compared to other books it was much cheaper. But books in this era, no matter how cheap, couldn’t be that cheap.
With just these two books, she could exchange for quite a lot of grain.