He smiled slightly at Zhao Hu, “Hanzhang has regulations. The maximum limit of land one household can own in one location—good farmland, dry land, and mountain land each have their 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. I should just buy however much I want and she should sell.”

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

He continued, “She said that if there were no requirements, now you’d buy large amounts of land and give her large amounts of money. After she finishes spending the money and the world is at peace with more common people, she’ll have no land to distribute to the people and will inevitably set her sights on the land in your hands. But she’ll have no money in hand, so she’ll have to find ways to use very little money, or simply not use money at all to snatch the land back from your hands.”

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

Zhao Hu was angry, “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?”

Zhao Ming casually placed a stone on the board, capturing five of his father’s black stones. Under his father’s stunned gaze, he picked up the pieces, “The second half is that she despises such practices, 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 harmoniously.”

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

If one day she really became shameless enough to do that, he couldn’t stop her.

Fortunately, she still valued her reputation. For some reason, Zhao Hu suddenly felt much more at ease.

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

Zhao Ming smiled. After his father struggled to place another stone, he directly blocked his retreat and captured another group 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?

He didn’t believe it anyway.

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

Zhao Hu, who was thinking about buying land, heard this and looked down, then 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 good at chess, yet insists on liking to play.”

After grumbling about Zhao Song, he criticized 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 land?”

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

Zhao Ming wouldn’t handle 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 must 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, “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, then instructed a servant standing outside the pavilion, “Go invite the Chief Administrator.”

He thought the model Zhao Hu mentioned earlier was quite good. They could completely promote it in Chen County—no, in all of Yuzhou. The county yamen or prefect’s office could purchase hemp bundles, provide silkworm eggs, buy silk, and encourage 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 fabrics, or they might not even need to open 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 recommended by the broker.

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 broadly 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 this land could only be hers.

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

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

A vacant residence not very 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 traveled 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 heart ached, he was also somewhat happy.

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

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 the way. If he still didn’t go to Luoyang, Zhao Ming would lose his temper.