As soon as she entered the door, Zhao Hanzhang let out a breath and instructed Zhao Tong, “Bring the current map of the estate, and summon all the stewards. I have matters to arrange.”

Zhao Tong bowed his head in acknowledgment. “Yes.”

Zhao Tong sent someone to notify the stewards while he personally went to fetch the estate map. This map was very important and was kept jointly by him and Hu Zhi.

This was because the map not only showed the locations of the estate’s various industries and workshops, but also marked the troop deployment points. It could be considered a defensive map of the estate.

Zhao Hanzhang hung up the map and asked Zhao Tong while examining it, “Who is currently managing the school?”

Zhao Tong bowed and said, “This subordinate.”

Zhao Hanzhang nodded and said, “Establish another class, also selecting forty boys to train as personal guards. In the future, both Tinghan and Erlang will be able to use them.”

She continued, “Especially in horsemanship, archery, and martial arts—give these areas focused training.”

Zhao Tong immediately understood and promptly acknowledged, “Yes, this subordinate will select people tomorrow.”

The teachers were already available, and even the students could be ready-made, selected from the existing students.

Zhao Hanzhang nodded. Seeing Fu Tinghan look over, she smiled at him and said, “Having only Fu’an by your side is still too few, and on the battlefield, he won’t be able to look after you properly.”

Fu’an felt somewhat unconvinced and pursed his lips, but thinking of the last time his lord was injured, he said nothing.

Fu Tinghan nodded, not refusing her goodwill.

Zhao Hanzhang’s gaze swept over the map, finally pointing to one spot and asking Fu Tinghan, “How about building the medicine workshop here?”

Fu Tinghan squinted as he examined it for a moment, then nodded. “Not bad.”

He used his finger to draw a circle on the map, directly enclosing that entire area. “Oral penicillin is only one part; injections are still the main focus, so we also need to train medical personnel who can administer injections.”

He continued, “Why not perfect the military medical system? Right now, we have too few military physicians. If ordinary doctors are unwilling to go to the military, why shouldn’t we train our own batch?”

Zhao Hanzhang said, “Traditional Chinese medicine…”

“I know it requires a very long time, but training for external wound treatment can be accelerated,” Fu Tinghan said. “We can train with specific focus.”

“Systematic health protection can also greatly reduce casualties,” Fu Tinghan continued. “We can start from the military and extend to civilians—first train military medical personnel while simultaneously training physicians. The latter is difficult to fully train, but we can rely on the school and military medical training system.”

This would require significant expenditure.

Zhao Hanzhang deliberated, weighed the pros and cons, and still decided to proceed. She nodded, “Alright, then let’s designate this entire area. The military physicians can be trained right next to the medicine workshop.”

She turned to look at Fu Tinghan. “The military medical system and military medical handbook…”

Fu Tinghan said, “I’ll draft them.”

Zhao Hanzhang breathed a sigh of relief. She’d been quite busy recently and feared she couldn’t spare the time, but still said, “I’ll work on it together with you.”

Though she said “together,” the main work would still fall to Fu Tinghan—she was too busy.

After meeting with the estate stewards and determining the medicine workshop’s location, Zhao Hanzhang had Zhao Tong construct the workshop while simultaneously selecting people who could enter the military medical system.

“They should be dexterous and clever, both boys and girls are acceptable,” Zhao Hanzhang thought for a moment and felt the requirements should be broadened. “Under thirty years old is fine, good physical strength, nimble hands and feet, those with medical and pharmaceutical background given priority.”

Fu Tinghan added from the side, “Those skilled in sewing and butchers also get priority.”

Zhao Hanzhang said, “…Right!”

She glanced at Fu Tinghan and couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Zhao Hanzhang said to the bewildered Zhao Tong, “Military medicine is all about sewing and stitching, cutting and carving.”

Zhao Tong’s whole body trembled, and he couldn’t help shuddering.

He acknowledged the order.

However, they still lacked specialized talent. Zhao Hanzhang pondered briefly and directly ordered, “Spread the word: within the estate, any craftsmen who come to offer their services shall receive the same treatment as scholars.”

The treatment of scholars on this estate was very high. Anyone who could read and write, upon entering the estate, could be assigned a house and fields and receive high monthly wages, with food, clothing, housing, and transportation all free.

Unlike other refugees, who though also settled, had to use work hours to offset all their expenses.

Now Zhao Hanzhang was directly raising craftsmen’s treatment to the same level as scholars.

Zhao Hanzhang thought briefly and felt that seeking craftsmen only within the estate was still too limited, so she called for Fan Ying. “Notify all commanderies and kingdoms—starting next year, craftsmen shall be equal to the scholar class. All craftsmen coming to Yuzhou shall be treated with courtesy. Each commandery and kingdom must hold monthly examinations to select craftsmen. Craftsman registration shall be equivalent to commoner status…”

Fan Ying recorded everything, went down to write the official documents, then brought them to find people to copy them. She also had subordinates, though currently not enough, because some documents needed ten copies—one for each commandery and kingdom.

Once written, she brought them for Zhao Hanzhang to seal.

Zhao Hanzhang generally affixed two seals to official documents: one was the Inspector seal, the other her private seal. Sometimes when she found it too troublesome, she would only use her private seal.

All the commanderies and kingdoms had long known that her private seal was equivalent to her orders and held authority even above the Inspector seal.

This was because sometimes when she delegated state affairs to Ji Yuan or Zhao Kuan and others, she would leave the Inspector seal with them.

Zhao Hanzhang flipped through them briefly, then directly stamped them with her private seal one after another.

By this time, night had completely fallen. The next day, nine copies of the documents were dispatched, with one copy that Zhao Hanzhang casually brought along, planning to personally deliver it to Zhao Ming.

Zhao Hanzhang’s movements were mysterious, and Zhao Ming initially didn’t know she had returned. It wasn’t until she returned to Xiping again that he coincidentally heard someone say, “That’s what I’m saying—the day before yesterday on the road, I saw a group of riders pass by. I glanced at them and thought it looked like Sanniang.”

“Where did you see this?”

“In those few acres of my family’s fields in the northern suburbs. I went to check my rabbit traps and saw them.”

Zhao Ming, sitting in the pavilion drinking wine, heard this and narrowed his eyes slightly. His subordinates had already spoken up to refute on his behalf, “You must have seen wrong. Just heard from the servants that Sanniang returned—if you saw her the day before yesterday, where has she been these past two days?”

“How would I know where she went? Anyway, at the time I saw from afar, it looked like Sanniang.”

“If it only looked like her, then it wasn’t necessarily her.”

“How can it not be? Within a hundred li radius, which young lady has her bearing, riding on horseback no less impressive than a man? I couldn’t have been mistaken.”

“Maybe you mistook the Sun family’s young lady for Sanniang? Or perhaps Yun Xin from our eastern branch cousin’s family?”

The other party, seeing his repeated questioning, became unhappy. “Yun Xin is several years younger than Sanniang, and smaller in stature. Could I be mistaken? That Sun family cousin is impressive, but compared to our Sanniang, she’s still far behind. Standing might be one thing, but can the posture on horseback be the same?”

“If you don’t believe me, ask Ming-di,” he said, then turned directly toward the pavilion and shouted, “Zinian, didn’t Sanniang return to Xiping the day before yesterday?”

Zhao Ming lightly glanced at him and said, “Fan cousin, you’ve been catching rabbits in the fields again. A few days ago someone complained to me that several pits had been dug in the wheat fields with fire ash in them—was that your doing?”

Zhao Fan immediately fell silent.

Zhao Ying, who had been drinking wine with Zhao Fan, also silently lowered his head to drink, not daring to make a sound.