Zhao Hu angrily slapped his head in reprimand, “Fool, fool! How did I choose such a stupid thing to manage the shop? Such a large store, and you don’t even have a few bolts of fine linen cloth. Even the coarse linen is purchased locally in scattered quantities. Since you know there are people here weaving linen, why don’t you send the shop assistants to the countryside to buy it? Buying in bulk would be so much better! You buy at low prices right in front of customers, then turn around and raise the price to put it on the shelves for sale. Do you think customers are fools? Are they fools?”

With each “fool” Zhao Hu said, he slapped the manager’s head once. The manager was so frightened he knelt on the ground again, repeatedly admitting his mistake, “I know I was wrong, Young Master. Shall I, shall I change this right away?”

Zhao Hu withdrew his somewhat numb hand and looked at him expressionlessly, “Are you asking me?”

The manager shuddered and shook his head repeatedly.

Zhao Hu stared at him darkly, “Also, use that pig brain of yours to think a bit more. Since there’s a shortage of cloth here and few cloth merchants, can’t you open a genuine cloth shop, collect all the hemp from Chen County, hire people to weave it, and then resell it to other cloth shops?”

“Can’t you hire people to plant mulberries and raise silkworms, and have silk fabric woven for me by next year!” Zhao Hu practically shouted this last sentence.

If he hadn’t brought insufficient manpower this time and needed to take people to Luoyang, he would have directly replaced this manager.

Zhao Hu returned to the prefect’s residence in a huff.

Upon returning to the prefect’s residence, he paused, then turned to find Zhao Ming.

Zhao Ming always handled government affairs quickly. He had a strong memory and excellent work ability. He could basically process submitted documents with just a glance without needing to deliberate repeatedly, so he only worked half a day each day.

So at this moment, he was sitting in the garden pavilion… fulfilling his filial duty.

That’s right, fulfilling filial duty—he was accompanying his father in playing chess.

Zhao Hu strode into the pavilion with disdain, “Zinian, this prefect’s residence of yours is too austere. Not to mention my courtyard, but even your main hall doesn’t have a single attractive ornament, not even one painting or calligraphy.”

There used to be some, but after Zhao Ming decided to advocate frugality, he had them all put away.

He said coldly, “I’m poor, not as wealthy as Seventh Uncle.”

Zhao Hu sat down beside Zhao Song, flashing him an ingratiating smile before saying, “It’s Chen County that’s poor, right? No matter how bad off your father is, he wouldn’t short you on allowances.”

He said, “Chen County is poor, so just sell some land.”

Zhao Hu had only just begun when Zhao Ming already knew what he wanted to do. He lifted his eyelids to glance at him, unsurprised, only curious, “What does Seventh Uncle want to buy land in Chen County to plant?”

Zhao Hu said, “I want to buy several plots of dry land, reasonably flat would be fine. Then I’ll plant hemp and mulberry trees, and find people in nearby villages to distribute silkworm eggs to, having them raise silkworms and strip hemp for me.”

He didn’t even need to open workshops. He could cooperate directly with nearby villagers. Things like raising silkworms could be done by children and the elderly, while stripping hemp was mostly done during agricultural slack seasons, requiring only short-term laborers—much more cost-effective than maintaining long-term workers or buying servants.

Even twisting hemp thread and weaving linen could be directly contracted out to farming households. He could cooperate with local village chiefs, give them some money, and save on appointing managers.

However, linen could be simpler, because most women knew how to spin hemp thread and weave linen cloth. But silk and satin were different—silk was very precious, so he’d need to set up a workshop and specifically hire weaving women.

“I also want to buy some good farmland,” Zhao Hu said. “These people will need to eat and drink. I can’t buy from outside, can I? Transporting grain from Xiping is too much trouble, and the transportation costs are considerable, so I need to grow it myself.”

He continued, “Since I’m already growing it, I might as well grow more. Doesn’t Luoyang lack grain? Perfect—the produce from here can be sold to Luoyang, and I’ll open a grain shop there…”

The plan was very well thought out.

Zhao Ming nodded repeatedly and couldn’t help praising, “Seventh Uncle’s thinking is indeed thorough.”

“However, there’s one thing I must remind Seventh Uncle about. Hanzhang has ordered that all gathered refugees, male or female, as long as they’re over fourteen years old, can receive five mu of good farmland and five mu of dry land. You’re buying land—dry land is one thing, you can hire nearby villagers for planting hemp and raising silkworms, but good farmland cultivation requires people from start to finish. Where will these people come from?”

Zhao Hu snorted, “If you ask me, Sanniang’s temperament is too soft. How can she treat refugees so well?”

“But you needn’t worry about this matter. I can hire people.”

Zhao Ming narrowed his eyes, “Seventh Uncle, if you forcibly buy slaves, once investigated and verified, the yamen will confiscate them without compensation and restore their free commoner status.”

For example, Shi Lei, who was once changed from commoner to slave—if he encountered Zhao Hanzhang at this time and it was verified that the purchased slave was once a free commoner who was forcibly abducted and sold, then regardless of who the buyer was, as long as it was within Zhao Hanzhang’s jurisdiction, the slave registration could be directly cancelled and free commoner status restored.

Then they could choose to return home, or choose to be settled locally with land distribution.

Currently, most rescued slaves chose the second option, because with the first option, they didn’t know if they’d be abducted as slaves again on the road home.

Zhao Hu had bought quite a few such slaves before, because they were cheap.

He had cooperative partners—some garrison soldiers or gentry who would form teams to abduct passing refugees on the roads, then sell them as slaves to him, much cheaper than buying people on the main roads.

Unfortunately, this business was now finished.

Zhao Hu snorted, “Don’t worry, I won’t let your yamen take this advantage. I can recruit people myself.”

He glanced at Zhao Ming, somewhat smugly saying, “Not everyone is willing to accept your yamen’s five mu of good farmland and five mu of dry land.”

“There are more fools in this world. There are always people who can’t see that far ahead and aren’t willing to suffer so much at the beginning,” he said. “Working for me, aside from having slave status, which aspect isn’t better than being a slave? I’ll naturally provide them two meals a day and won’t let them starve to death. They’ll have monthly wages too. And your yamen, aside from the first ten days of relief grain, if they want grain and cloth for the remaining days, they have to work for relief—opening wasteland, digging waterworks, and building roads, which is much harder than farming for me.”

But following Zhao Ming meant being free commoners. They only needed to endure for six months. After six months when the first crop came in, their lives would gradually improve.

Moreover, as free commoners, their accumulation would get better and better. As long as there were no wars and few natural disasters, their lives would definitely get better and better, unlike slaves who might remain the same for decades, their end visible at a glance.

But Zhao Ming glanced at Zhao Hu and had to admit he was right. There would always be fools in this world who could only see the tiny bit of ground at their toes, and everyone had their own fate.

Zhao Ming wasn’t the type of parent who had to feed every bite into their child’s mouth, so he was quite open-minded, saying, “Since Seventh Uncle has decided, then go select land.”

He smiled slightly at Zhao Hu, “Hanzhang has regulations. The maximum amount of land one household can own in one place—good farmland, dry land, and mountain land each have requirements. You can buy according to those standards.”

Zhao Hu couldn’t help complaining, “Why does she have so many demands? I have money, she lacks money—she should just sell me however much I want to buy.”

Zhao Ming said, “In her words, this is all for Seventh Uncle’s benefit.”

He continued, “She said that if there were no requirements, you’d buy large amounts of land now and give her large amounts of money. After she spends all the money and the world is at peace with an increased population, she’ll have no land to distribute to the common people and inevitably set her sights on the land in your hands. But she’ll have no money then, so she’ll have to find ways to use very little money, or simply take the land back from you by force.”

Zhao Hu was stunned, nearly dropping his tea bowl. Zhao Song glanced at him lightly, thought for a long while, and finally found a place to make his move, “Why are you panicking? Sanniang didn’t say this to you, she said it to me.”

Zhao Hu was furious, “Fifth Brother, if she dares do this to you, wouldn’t she dare do it to me? She’s truly an ungrateful wretch!”

“Don’t talk nonsense,” Zhao Song glared at him, then looked at Zhao Ming, “What about the second half of what she said?”

Zhao Ming casually placed a stone on the board, capturing five of his father’s black stones. Under his father’s dumbfounded gaze, he picked up the stones, “The second half is that she despises such methods, so to prevent herself from doing such unrighteous things, she’s decided to cut this off at the source. She’d rather struggle now than sell large amounts of land for private gain.”

He said, “This way, in the long run, it’s good for you, good for her, and good for the common people under her governance. Everyone lives in harmony.”

Zhao Hu breathed a sigh of relief. He owned quite a bit of land—a little in every county of Runan Commandery, and now he’d even expanded outside following Zhao Hanzhang.

If one day she really became shameless and did that, he couldn’t stop her.

Fortunately, she still cared about face. For some reason, Zhao Hu suddenly felt much more at ease.

However, after learning about the purchase limits for the three types of land, Zhao Hu immediately stopped worrying, “I won’t buy that much anyway.”

Zhao Ming smiled slightly. After his father struggled to place another stone, he directly blocked his retreat and captured another batch of black stones. Now, Zhao Hu would naturally say this, but when Yuzhou became more stable in the future and he had more money, could he really resist not buying land?

At least he didn’t believe it.

Zhao Song was furious. He threw down the stones in his hand and lost his temper, “I’m not playing anymore. There’s no fun in playing chess with you.”

Zhao Hu, who was thinking about buying land, looked down when he heard this and laughed, “Ha ha ha ha, Fifth Brother, you lost again!”

Zhao Song glared at him and stood up to leave.

Zhao Hu pursed his lips, “Clearly not skilled at chess, yet insists on liking to play.”

After grumbling about Zhao Song, he complained about Zhao Ming, “You too, already getting on in years, yet don’t know to let your father win a bit.”

Zhao Ming didn’t care at all. He slowly separated and picked up the black and white stones, lifting his eyelids, “Are you still buying the land?”

“Of course! Come on, let’s go select land right now.”

Zhao Ming wouldn’t bother with such minor matters. He directly called an attendant and had him take Zhao Hu to the yamen to find a land broker, instructing with one sentence, “Just follow the regulations.”

Zhao Hu immediately stopped in his tracks, rolled his eyes, and said, “Zinian, between us uncle and nephew, talking about money is too vulgar, but I have to ask—won’t you calculate it cheaper for me?”

After a moment of silence, Zhao Ming said, “For Sanniang’s sake, I’ll give you a half-percent discount on the land price.”

Zhao Hu protested, “You have the nerve to offer such a price?”

Zhao Ming’s face became serious as he said sternly, “Seventh Uncle, you just said Chen County is poor. You also know how poor Sanniang is now. Even so, do you still want to take advantage of us?”

When Zhao Ming was in a good mood, Zhao Hu naturally dared to joke around, but when his face darkened, he became somewhat timid.

Zhao Hu didn’t bargain further, only muttering under his breath, “This is too stingy. You’re all becoming like Elder Brother…”

Zhao Hu also left grumbling.

Only Zhao Ming remained alone in the pavilion. He lowered his eyes and collected the chess pieces one by one, putting them away properly, then instructed a servant standing outside the pavilion, “Go invite the Chief Administrator.”

He thought the model Zhao Hu just mentioned was quite good. They could completely promote it in Chen County—no, in all of Yuzhou—with the county yamen or prefect’s office purchasing hemp bundles, providing silkworm eggs, buying silk, and encouraging common people to plant hemp and mulberries and raise silkworms in their spare time.

No need to open large workshops. They could contract production directly to households, with the yamen only handling purchases. Then they’d only need to open one workshop specifically for spinning linen and weaving silk, or they might not even need workshops—the yamen could slightly raise prices and resell to people like Seventh Uncle.

He curved his lips, thinking this idea was really quite good.

This linen and silk wouldn’t even need to be sold outside—Yuzhou and Luoyang alone could consume it all. Wasn’t cloth what both places most lacked right now?

Zhao Hu didn’t know that in the time it took him to turn around, his elder nephew had copied his idea. He personally went to inspect several plots of land the broker recommended.

Oh, this brokerage was affiliated with the county yamen, and a considerable portion of the land belonged to the yamen.

Well, it was all wasteland that Zhao Hanzhang had ordered surveyed after becoming Yuzhou Inspector. Land left uncultivated for over three years, or verified to have been abandoned by owners who had left Chen County for a certain period—she simply waved her hand and it all became hers—oh no, publicly owned land.

Unless the original owners returned later to appeal and could pay a certain amount of tax, otherwise the land could only be hers.

Besides publicly owned land, there was also land, residences, and shops listed here by others for sale.

Zhao Hu looked at everything. It took three days before he decided on the fields and shops to buy, and he also bought himself a residence.

A vacant residence not far from the prefect’s office—a three-courtyard compound with a garden, artificial mountain, and water features. It cost quite a bit.

Well, this money also went to the yamen.

Zhao Ming refused to lower the price no matter what. In his words, “This residence wasn’t originally for sale. Sanniang specifically instructed that in the future, all the residences in this area are to be bestowed upon meritorious officials. If it weren’t for Seventh Uncle, I wouldn’t sell this residence.”

Zhao Hu knew he was telling the truth. Many people in this area wanted to buy, especially merchants from outside. They frequently passed through Chen County. If they could buy a villa here…

Their future neighbors would be the generals and advisors around Zhao Hanzhang.

Unfortunately, Zhao Ming wouldn’t sell.

Zhao Hu was the first person to buy a residence from him. Because of this special treatment, although the price was high and his flesh hurt, he was also somewhat happy.

This also made him look forward to going to Luoyang a bit.

Zhao Hu wasn’t stupid. He knew this privilege was given to him by Zhao Hanzhang. Since that was the case, he also needed to contribute something and improve his relationship with Zhao Hanzhang even more, so he could enjoy more conveniences in the future.

Zhao Hu finally made up his mind to go to Luoyang and set a date.

Zhao Ming, who had been waiting all along, quietly breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn’t in vain that he gave him conveniences all along the way. If he still didn’t go to Luoyang, Zhao Ming would lose his temper.