“That was two months ago. The accounts calculated then are no longer valid. But if I may be frank, there isn’t much money left in your public accounts.”

And although the gold, silver, jewels, and rare books and paintings that Fu Tinghan brought back had entered Zhao Hanzhang’s storehouse, they couldn’t be used yet.

Zhao Hanzhang ground her teeth and went with Fu Tinghan to look at what he had brought back. She grabbed over a dozen pearl strands in her hand and sighed, “If this were a time of prosperity, these would be worth quite a lot of money.”

But now was a time of chaos. These precious pearls weren’t worth much in the northern territories, but in the still relatively stable Two Rivers region and Jiangnan, these items could fetch considerable sums.

Zhao Hanzhang set down the pearls. “Send them to Jiangnan and exchange them all for grain and cloth.”

These were the two things she needed most now.

Fu Tinghan asked, “Won’t you keep some things for yourself? I think some of the jewelry is quite beautiful.”

Zhao Hanzhang painfully averted her gaze and shook her head. “I don’t like these extravagant things.”

Fu Tinghan just smiled at her. How could she not like them?

No girl disliked these sparkling and beautiful pieces of jewelry, but her current position was special—she couldn’t afford to be extravagant.

She owned very few hair ornaments. Most of the time she only wore a jade crown and jade hairpin, and sometimes not even the hairpin—just tying her hair up with a ribbon.

Gao Hui had brought back very little gold and silver, and even gold and silver jewelry was scarce. People generally weren’t willing to part with such things, keeping them stored away. Only when other assets were nearly depleted, or if the other party specifically demanded payment in gold or silver, would anyone use them.

Precisely because there was so little, Zhao Hanzhang didn’t dare use it to buy things from Gao Hui. Once the items circled back to his hands, anyone without a hole in their brain would know Fu Tinghan had given them to her.

Because she was truly short of money, Zhao Hanzhang had to search out all the gold and silver ornaments, placing them together with those few pieces of gold and silver. “Melt them down.”

Fu Tinghan said, “The craftsmanship of these gold and silver ornaments is also valuable. If we resold them, we’d get more gold and silver than just these pieces.”

“But the cycle is too long,” Zhao Hanzhang said. “In Luoyang now, how many people have the means to buy such ornaments? Sending them elsewhere also takes time, and we can’t afford to wait.”

She waved her hand decisively. “Melt them down.”

Only then did Fu Tinghan nod. “Then I’ll go to the ironworks tomorrow.”

The ironworks at the workshop could melt gold and silver and had molds to cast them into bars—something Fu Tinghan had the craftsmen prepare after Gao Hui’s last return.

Early the next morning, Zhao Hanzhang sent Ting He to the market to buy sheep. Because she had no money, Ting He had to take out a bolt of cloth that had been set aside to make clothes for Zhao Erlang and Fu Tinghan.

The cloth was of good quality. After haggling back and forth, Ting He fiercely traded one bolt of cloth for eight sheep, selected the two fattest to be slaughtered, and had the rest raised in the back courtyard.

Watching Ting He leave, the vendor’s assistant patted his chest with lingering trepidation. “Miss Ting He is so fierce. Isn’t she from the Regional Inspector’s府? How can she be so…” stingy.

A guard who had been standing silently to the side said nothing. If it weren’t for Lord Gao saying that for safety in the northern territories, they couldn’t openly contact the young lady, these sheep should have been delivered to her府 for free.

Sigh, he just couldn’t understand why their own goods had to go through the buying and selling process, paying so much tax to the county office for nothing.

As he was thinking, a bailiff walked over carrying a gong, checked the animal furs on their table, and asked, “Have you paid your stall fee?”

The sales assistant immediately nodded and bowed. “Paid, paid. Look, here’s the receipt.”

The bailiff examined it and returned it to him, but didn’t leave. “Your master has quite some nerve. So much fur must all be from the northern territories, right? Is it very chaotic there now?”

The assistant was one of Gao Hui’s trusted confidants and had accompanied the caravan, so he was clear about the merchant business. He immediately nodded. “Very chaotic. When we entered Shangdang, the Xiongnu and Jie barbarians inside were fierce, often fighting and stealing in the streets. Fortunately, our guards were capable and our lord had some means, so we weren’t robbed. But we still spent quite a bit on bribes. Then on the way back we encountered bandits. Ai, this whole trip—forget making money, we’re lucky if we didn’t lose any.”

The bailiff didn’t believe it at all. If they were losing money, could they be smiling so broadly?

After the bailiff left, Zhao Kuan also noticed this merchant caravan. He called the bailiff back to the county office for a report.

Zhao Kuan once again pulled out Gao Hui’s travel pass to examine it, frowning. “A Shu person?”

“Shu is much more peaceful than our Luoyang. Why wouldn’t he return directly to Shu, but instead sell his goods in our Luoyang?” Zhao Kuan frowned. “Last time too. And what goods did he take when leaving Luoyang last time?”

That would take some searching. Wang Siniang glanced at him and silently went to look through the records, first checking the travel pass approvals to find when he had left, then searching through the tax records for that period.

It only had a brief description: “Cloth.”

Zhao Kuan asked, “Only cloth?”

“Yes, and only two carts,” Wang Siniang showed him. “They were silk fabrics from Shu. Luoyang is currently in mourning, so while meat and hemp cloth still have a market, brocade and silk are hard to sell and prices aren’t very high.”

Wang Siniang also frowned. “Looking at what they brought back this time, those two carts of silk for these sheep, furs, and medicinal materials is roughly equivalent in value. They have to make some profit coming and going, but looking at the records, he entered the city yesterday with so many people, even suffering casualties. For one merchant trip with just two carts of silk, would the profit cover the travel expenses?”

Zhao Kuan tapped the table lightly. “So I say they’re problematic.”

Wang Siniang asked, “What kind of problem?”

Zhao Kuan’s eyes widened. How would he know what kind of problem?

Fan Ying came over with two official documents to convey Zhao Hanzhang’s instructions. Overhearing a few sentences, she interjected, “What other problem could there be? He has other transactions outside the city. Each time he leaves, he surely picks up another batch of goods heading north. When he returns, the city gates don’t inspect cargo, do they?”

To encourage merchants to come to Luoyang, Zhao Hanzhang had eliminated the policy of gate taxation. Only the marketplace collected taxes.

So merchants entering Luoyang wouldn’t be taxed if their goods didn’t sell.

This allowed merchants who had feared entry taxes to flock to Luoyang, no longer afraid of losing a large sum before even selling anything.

At the same time, Gucheng, Xin’an, and other counties also strictly enforced Zhao Hanzhang’s orders. As for other counties, Zhao Hanzhang had issued orders, but some complied and others didn’t.

Precisely because there was no entry tax, the records didn’t list what goods entered the city or how much—which is why Zhao Kuan had sent people to investigate at the horse market.

In an instant, Zhao Kuan thought of many things. “You mean someone in Luoyang is smuggling?”

Fan Ying said indifferently, “Let them smuggle. Right now Luoyang is recovering from devastation—we don’t need to be too strict about such things. Oh, but salt and iron are exceptions.”

Zhao Kuan and Wang Siniang: …