Fu Tinghan replied, “Hanzhang says she wants to personally make a dish for everyone.”
He looked up with a smile. “Everyone will be very happy and moved to eat a dish she made herself, don’t you think?”
Zhao Kuan: …
He didn’t know. He was just a bit afraid.
After hesitating, he still asked, “Has Hanzhang… studied culinary arts?”
“No,” Zhao Hanzhang directly answered from over there. While using her knife to trim more meat from a sheep spine bone, she turned to glance at Zhao Kuan. “Cousin Kuan, just ask me directly. Why ask him when he doesn’t know either?”
Fu Tinghan smiled at Zhao Hanzhang, then said to Zhao Kuan, “Don’t worry. Even if she hasn’t formally studied, her cooking won’t be too bad.”
In middle school, when her parents were very busy, she and he both lived with their grandfathers in the compound.
Grandfather Zhao occasionally came to their compound to play chess, and he often boasted to everyone about her, saying she could cook. Many times when he came home, the meal was already prepared and especially delicious.
Though there might be some grandfather filter involved, it definitely wouldn’t be bad—otherwise how could Grandfather Zhao have praised her?
Seeing Fu Tinghan so certain, Zhao Kuan assumed he had eaten her cooking before and felt relieved. He looked around and felt he couldn’t just stand there doing nothing, so he also grabbed a small stool to sit on and joined Fu Tinghan in picking vegetables.
At least he wouldn’t go chop meat and bones.
Nor was it his turn—Zhao Erlang quite enjoyed chopping meat. He felt killing only two sheep was too few and encouraged Zhao Hanzhang from the side, “Elder Sister, tonight’s banquet has so many people, this bit of meat isn’t nearly enough. Let’s kill another one.”
Zhao Hanzhang glanced at him, then said slowly, “I don’t mind. These eight sheep were bought with the cloth Mother gave you and Tinghan to make clothes. I was thinking of letting you take two back to Xin’an the day after tomorrow. Since you want to eat them now, shall I have someone bring one out to slaughter?”
Zhao Erlang was overjoyed, only hearing what he wanted to hear. “Elder Sister, you’re really giving me two sheep?”
Zhao Hanzhang hummed in agreement. The child was still growing and couldn’t be too deprived of meat. But having him constantly run back and forth wasn’t good either. When she went to the army to train troops, she’d heard plenty of complaints from the soldiers below. Because Zhao Erlang kept traveling between Xin’an and Luoyang, bandits along the road had all hidden in the countryside, making them even harder to find.
If they simply reformed and went straight, honestly registering with the local village heads and changing from bandits and refugees into registered citizens with household registration, that would be fine. But they hid themselves while still occasionally emerging to plunder nearby civilians.
Local people suffering from bandit troubles was normally something the local government offices should handle, but because Luoyang was recovering from devastation, Zhao Kuan had too many matters to attend to and couldn’t manage these things. Besides, his hundred or so bailiffs—what could they really do?
So after seeing this chaos, Zhao Hanzhang had divided Luoyang in two, with half assigned to the Xiliang Army and half to her Zhao Family Army, each responsible for clearing bandits and scattered soldiers from their territory. They could offer amnesty where possible, persuade where possible, and use force when gentle means failed.
Every three months there would be an assessment based on the number of bandits captured, theft cases, robberies, and other bandit-related incidents in their territory. The side with the best results would receive rewards.
The rewards weren’t much—either two sheep, a pig, or some medicinal materials—all things very beneficial to the military.
Because Zhao Erlang loved coming home to freeload meat, the soldiers found it much harder to catch bandits. Moreover, whenever he encountered bandits, he basically eliminated them on the spot, but those he killed he would take back to Xin’an as military slaves or common soldiers, and those achievements counted as his, not toward the Zhao Family Army or Xiliang Army in Luoyang.
So the soldiers had many complaints.
But Zhao Hanzhang couldn’t very well teach her own brother to turn a blind eye when encountering bandits, or to look up at the sky and pretend not to see when someone was being robbed, could she?
So she could only instruct her subordinates that if they couldn’t handle their own affairs, they shouldn’t blame others for cleaning up after them.
The bandit problem wouldn’t be resolved in a day, and who knew how many people would be harmed in that day.
Rather than staring at the achievements Zhao Erlang took away, they should look at the common people who were saved.
Her words made sense, but some soldiers still resented Zhao Erlang. Zhao Hanzhang said to Zhao Erlang, “There are still quite a few bandits in Xin’an territory, right? After the Dragon Boat Festival, I’ve decided to have the Zhao Family Army patrol the countryside in groups, dividing into twenty teams of five squads each to thoroughly clear out the bandit troubles within Luoyang’s borders, expanding outward from Luoyang as the center.”
She continued, “Your Zhao Family Army should also clear out the bandits in Xin’an territory. Take these two sheep back with you—don’t eat them all yourself. Share with your assistant generals, commandants, company commanders, squad leaders, team leaders, and such. Spend more time with them and listen to their opinions.”
Zhao Erlang nodded but was more concerned about the bandit suppression. “Elder Sister, what if bandits flee from Xin’an to Heyin? Can I go to Heyin to catch them?”
Hearing this, Zhao Hanzhang raised her eyebrows. “What’s your relationship like with the Heyin County Magistrate?”
Zhao Erlang curled his lip. “Not good at all. Last month we had over half a month without rain, and the millet was suffering from drought. Song Jin led people to carry water for irrigation and asked me to bring soldiers to help dig irrigation channels to bring water for watering. But the Heyin County Magistrate brought people to stop us, saying we were stealing their water.”
Zhao Erlang continued, “They were very fierce—people from Heyin County nearly split Song Jin’s head open. Fortunately I arrived in time.”
Speaking of this, Zhao Erlang was quite proud and sought praise from Zhao Hanzhang. “I kicked that Heyin County Magistrate down with one strike and told him if he had the guts, come settle accounts with me for taking the water.”
Then they ran away with their tails between their legs.
Zhao Hanzhang: …No wonder she received an angry official letter from Yuncheng yesterday, saying she was lax in managing her subordinates and allowed them to offend court officials.
She had been planning to ask after the Dragon Boat Festival who had done such a good deed behind her back—turns out it was him!
Zhao Hanzhang looked up at him meaningfully and asked, “Did you cross the boundary to take water?”
“No,” Zhao Erlang said. “Song Jin specifically instructed not to take water from the side belonging to Heyin’s fields, so I dug an irrigation channel to let water flow to our side, then dug a large pond. Once the pond filled with water, Song Jin drew water from that pond.”
Zhao Erlang counter-accused the Heyin County Magistrate, “He was the one who ran into our Xin’an County territory, hmph.”
Zhao Hanzhang understood. She pondered for a moment and asked, “It was all Song Jin’s idea?”
Though he’d been warned not to tell Elder Sister about these things, with Elder Sister right in front of him, Zhao Erlang completely forgot Song Jin’s instructions and nodded directly. “Yes.”
Zhao Hanzhang savored this. “Worthy of being someone Uncle Ming recommended—impressive.”
Song Jin was the new County Magistrate of Xin’an, recommended by Zhao Ming. He had passed last year’s recruitment examination and initially served as a chief clerk before becoming a minor secretary under Zhao Ming. This year, when Zhao Hanzhang needed people to manage Xin’an and Gucheng, Zhao Ming recommended several candidates.
Zhao Hanzhang only used Song Jin. The Gucheng County Magistrate position went to Tan Jize, recommended by Ji Yuan—the same Tan Jize who had once wanted to use a honey trap on Zhao Hanzhang but never got the chance to implement it.