Zhao Hanzhang’s fearsome reputation spread throughout all of Yuzhou along with her recruitment decree, and even extended beyond Yuzhou—her name became known across the realm.
Originally, there had been quite a few people like Magistrate Pei He who slacked off and governed negligently, hoping to deceive Zhao Hanzhang. After all, Yuzhou was so vast—to the north was Liang Kingdom, which had suffered severe disasters; to the east was Ruyin Jun, which had lost its governor; and there was also her home base of Runan Jun. Having to sort through three commanderies and kingdoms all at once, how much attention could she possibly spare for the other commanderies and kingdoms?
So when she issued her orders, they received them accordingly, but the internal conditions of each commandery and kingdom remained exactly as they had been before. Some even added various taxes and levies under different pretexts to compensate for losses from the Xiongnu invasion.
They didn’t think Zhao Hanzhang would be able to reach them.
That is, until Pei He inexplicably yet swiftly and decisively resigned from office.
Those familiar with Pei He wrote letters directly to ask him the reason.
But could Pei He possibly tell them?
He hadn’t even told his wife the details of that night, precisely because it was too shameful. Would he tell other colleagues with whom he was only slightly acquainted?
That was naturally impossible.
So when he received their letters, he uniformly tossed them aside and ignored them. When pressed too insistently to bear, he finally wrote back telling them that he was growing old and increasingly felt unable to continue, so he had resigned and retired to seclusion.
This reason quickly circulated among the governors of Yuzhou’s various commanderies, and even Zhao Ming heard about it.
This made Zhao Ming, who had perked up his ears hoping to quietly hear some gossip, snort with laughter. The reason was so plain and unremarkable—clearly false at first hearing. Who would believe it?
No one believed it, so everyone finally became serious and began to take Zhao Hanzhang’s decrees seriously.
Some were frightened, mainly because Zhao Hanzhang showed no mercy whether dealing with governors above or county magistrates below.
The governors were all officials who had toiled for many years before struggling up to the position of commandery governor, so asking them to give it up was something they were reluctant to do. But county magistrates were different.
Having heard about the miserable fate of County Magistrate Gao of Xi’e County, quite a few county magistrates felt apprehensive, mainly because of guilty consciences, and so many resigned and hung up their seals.
While the county magistrates wanted to resign, the governors were reluctant to let them go. So they began taking out Zhao Hanzhang’s decrees to review them, on one hand soothing the county magistrates who wanted to resign, while on the other hand trying to inquire about Zhao Hanzhang’s intentions from Zhao Ming in Runan Jun.
Zhao Ming was quite generous in replying to their letters, directly telling them to look at Zhao Hanzhang’s decrees.
Though it was the New Year period—supposedly a time when official seals were put away and everyone could relax—not a single governor’s office in the inner five commanderies had sealed their offices. Even the county offices below them all remained open for business.
Zhao Hanzhang, who was in Nanyang Kingdom, was no different. After issuing the recruitment decree, Zhao Hanzhang once again transmitted orders in her capacity as Provincial Governor to all commanderies and kingdoms: for all merchants passing through Yuzhou territory carrying goods, all tax items except commercial taxes were completely exempted, encouraging merchants from across the realm to come conduct business in Yuzhou.
Among these, commercial taxes on grain, coarse hemp cloth, and fine hemp cloth were completely waived, while all other commercial taxes were reduced by half according to original collection standards. The time limit was one year, subject to the final order from the Yuzhou Provincial Governor’s Office.
Zhao Hanzhang signed and issued orders one after another. Zhao Erlang sat beside her, holding her official seal. As soon as she finished signing, he would drag the official document over, stamp down the seal with a thud, then blow on it. After blowing it dry, he would fold it up and toss it aside.
Immediately a clerk would come forward to retrieve it, open it to glance and verify the seal was stamped in the correct position, then bow and withdraw, summoning one of the messengers sitting outside waiting in line. “This one is to be sent to Pengcheng Kingdom.”
Immediately two messengers came forward to receive it, tucking the official document into their bundles before departing.
These messengers had all been selected by Qiu Wu from among the personal guards, specifically to deliver Zhao Hanzhang’s letters to the various commanderies and kingdoms, ensuring smooth communication and that her orders could quickly reach all localities.
Zhao Hanzhang knew that transportation was currently inconvenient, but she couldn’t issue all her orders in one burst—she had to stagger them in an orderly manner, so this cost was one she had to bear.
After Zhao Hanzhang finished signing everything, she immediately had Fan Ying draft the next official document. “Order all commanderies and counties to gather displaced people, pacify the common folk, establish Benevolent Care Halls, and provide relief to the orphaned and widowed.”
She continued, “Once the document is drafted, place it on my desk. I will sign and seal it, and it will be sent out two days later.”
Fan Ying acknowledged the order, then said, “Governor, Yin Sheng has been waiting outside for over an hour.”
Upon hearing this, Zhao Hanzhang’s lips curved slightly upward as she presented her best demeanor. “Please show him in.”
Yin Sheng was led inside, and the office looked vastly different from before, leaving him somewhat bewildered.
This was Pei He’s former office. As a commandery governor’s office, spaciousness was the primary requirement.
The rest depended on each governor’s taste and capability.
The commandery assistant’s office was not far away. Previously when he had worked together with Pei He, the two of them had often drunk wine, played chess, and discussed classics in this room.
Pei He was a very refined man, so naturally his office was arranged quite elegantly. But now, aside from the calligraphy and paintings still hanging on the walls, everything else in the room had been changed.
Changed so much that Yin Sheng didn’t even recognize the room anymore.
The originally spacious room now held over a dozen sitting mats. In the very center was Zhao Hanzhang’s seat—oh, that seat hadn’t changed. Pei He had also sat there to conduct business before. It was slightly elevated, and not only was the sitting mat very wide and large, but the low table in front was also very wide and large.
That low table was made of fine rosewood, the seat was a low stool with a low backrest, covered with fox fur on top—especially soft and warm.
Pei He hadn’t taken any of these things with him, so Zhao Hanzhang had simply put them to use.
However, the low table that used to be empty and spacious was now piled high with manuscripts. Zhao Erlang sat to the side of the mat with a pouty expression, also with official documents piled high in front of him. He would open a document, work hard to identify his sister’s name, then slam down the official seal with a thud, blow it dry, and casually set it aside.
He lifted his eyelids to glance at the dumbstruck Yin Sheng, thinking this commandery assistant looked even more foolish than himself, yet Sister still said she wanted to use him.
This room contained not only the Zhao siblings but also over a dozen officials, with Fan Ying at their head. They all sat on the left side—four seats in a row, for a total of three rows.
Each person’s desk was piled with quite a few official documents and papers, and everyone was writing industriously.
Just in the moment Yin Sheng stood dazed, one clerk stood up and handed a stack of documents to Fan Ying.
Fan Ying quickly flipped through them, then turned and came over. Seeing that Yin Sheng was still in a daze, she simply cut in line, bowing and saying, “Governor, this is what the Young Master requested.”
Zhao Hanzhang smiled and nodded at Yin Sheng first. “Commandery Assistant, please have a seat.”
Only then did Yin Sheng come to his senses, bowing and responding with an affirmative before sitting down cross-legged to one side.
Zhao Hanzhang opened the documents to read. She read very quickly, and soon picked out one official document to hand to Fan Ying. “Show this to the Commandery Assistant.”
Fan Ying accepted it and presented it to Yin Sheng with both hands.
Yin Sheng accepted it with a puzzled expression. Opening it, he discovered it was about the construction of Benevolent Care Halls.
After Zhao Hanzhang and Fu Tinghan had preliminarily investigated Luyang County, they ultimately discovered that Benevolent Care Halls would have difficulty competing in the local labor market here, and relying completely on government subsidies would also be a very large fiscal expenditure for the local county office.
So she wanted to change the settlement model.
Fu Tinghan had really been proven right—Nanyang Kingdom would very likely become a model that other commanderies and kingdoms could learn from, while Runan Jun, especially Xiping and Shangcai, possessed natural advantages in arranging employment for Benevolent Care Halls because of their large number of workshops there, and conversely would be difficult to become a model for other commanderies and counties to learn from.
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