Zhao Hanzhang looked at him quietly.

Zhao Hu felt a moment of guilt, but he quickly became righteous, pointing at Fu Tinghan whose clothes were half wet, “Look what you’ve made your husband-to-be endure! You don’t lack servants, so how could you let your husband-to-be go down into the river to do such work?”

Zhao Hanzhang only glanced at Fu Tinghan once, then said, “That’s not a reason for you to poach my people, Seventh Great Uncle. Wouldn’t it pain me to make him go up mountains and into waters? But I have no money! I even have to work in the fields myself.”

What kind of scoundrel rhetoric was this?

Zhao Hu really wanted to argue with her, when he suddenly caught another key point and looked at her with suspicion and uncertainty, asking, “You have no money?”

Zhao Hanzhang narrowed her eyes, sensing something amiss, and asked, “Should I have money?”

Zhao Hu’s face turned red with anger, “Zinian said you were minting new coins, so you have money!”

Zhao Hu’s first thought was that he had been deceived!

Upon hearing this, Zhao Hanzhang immediately entered her role and calmly said “Oh” before continuing, “That’s the public treasury’s money, not my own money. I said I personally have no money.”

Zhao Hu looked at her with half-belief and half-doubt, “Really?”

Fu Tinghan finished washing his feet and dragged his wooden clogs, saying, “Let’s go inside to talk.”

Otherwise, in the heat of the moment, someone could easily fall into the ditch—too dangerous.

Zhao Hanzhang moved aside to let them enter.

Zhao Hu was lowering his head in thought. Would it still be in time for him to turn around and go back to Runan now?

Thinking of the money he had brought on this trip, Zhao Hu’s heart trembled. To make matters worse, Luoyang was being rebuilt after war, and the city didn’t even have any decent local specialties.

On the return journey, there wouldn’t even be goods to bring back, which meant this entire trip might be a waste of effort and travel expenses. Just thinking about it pained him.

As he thought about it, Zhao Hu’s gaze involuntarily fell on this water-powered mill. The more he looked, the more his heart stirred. So he abandoned Zhao Hanzhang who wanted to speak with him and enthusiastically struck up conversation with Fu Tinghan, “Tinghan, did you also build this water mill?”

Fu Tinghan exchanged a subtle glance with Zhao Hanzhang and said, “The craftsmen and I built it together.”

“That’s still you who built it. Those craftsmen just followed your instructions.” Zhao Hu stared at him with shining eyes, “Weren’t all those workshops in Xiping your ideas? Others may not know, but how could I not know?”

The more Zhao Hu looked at Fu Tinghan, the more he liked him. What a pity he wasn’t a craftsman but Zhao Hanzhang’s fiancé—otherwise, if he could hire him, no, even cooperation would be good!

Thinking of the business of Zhao Hanzhang’s Treasure Workshop, Zhao Hu felt envious and jealous. Many of her businesses were one-of-a-kind; others couldn’t compete even if they wanted to.

Oh, they also didn’t have the guts to compete.

Zhao Hu looked at Fu Tinghan with a loving expression and asked, “I just saw the stone mill in the room—it can move without anyone pushing it. Is it because of that water wheel?”

Although Zhao Hu didn’t know the principle, his mind wasn’t dull. He had just followed that pole outward for a glance and seemed to have seen a small water wheel right behind that room.

If such a workshop could be built in Xiping, Runan, or even anywhere in Yuzhou where he owned land, how much money could it earn in a day!

Pushing mills was one of the punishments, which showed how arduous pushing mills was. Husking rice and grinding wheat, now with the addition of grinding beans—once hulled and ground into powder, the taste improved not by just a little or two points, but by many points.

The spread of good food was still quite fast, but Zhao Hu could be certain that the vast majority of people in this world still ate wheat rice, bean rice, or even rice cooked with the hulls still on.

Was it because they didn’t know these things tasted better when hulled?

No, it was because eating them this way was both more filling and convenient.

Husking rice was manageable—larger villages in the south all had husking houses. They only needed a few wooden poles and a hollowed-out stone, or even no stone at all—just dig a hole in the ground, tamp down the earth, line it with oilcloth or burlap and it could be used.

Some households even had their own pestles and mortars, like medicine mortars, for pounding grain themselves. Occasionally when they had real leisure time, they would laboriously pound grain to husk out enough rice for two or three meals.

But the north was mainly wheat-based, and not every household had a stone mill—even a whole village might not have one.

In the Zhao clan’s fortified village, Zhao Changyu had built two mill houses for the clan, one in the south and one in the north. Each mill house had five mills, and people could use them when needed.

But even that wasn’t enough. Some wealthy households would have their own stone mills, but for the convenience of clan members and neighbors, the stone mills were mostly placed on open ground not far from the entrance, and when the main family wasn’t using them, nearby neighbors could borrow them.

As a side note, after the Zhao fortified village gradually expanded, Zhao Hanzhang had also donated stone mills, following right after her grandfather by opening a mill house on each the east and west sides, also free for people in the fort to use.

But it still wasn’t enough. After all, the permanent resident population in the fort had now reached eighty thousand, with a trend toward further expansion.

So Zhao Hu had opened a mill house in the fort. His was a large mill house, but it didn’t provide stone mills—instead, it directly provided grinding services.

He had bought several donkeys and also sent some slaves who were physically strong but lazy to the mill house to specifically lead the donkeys in grinding wheat flour, bean flour, and the like for people.

It was just a small profit.

But if water alone could grind things and also husk rice, wouldn’t that not only save the money for buying and raising donkeys but also save several workers?

Water never tired and flowed day and night, so his mill house could operate day and night! He could arrange shifts, having two workers take turns, one during the day and one at night—wouldn’t that mean he could make money while lying down?

Zhao Hu looked at Fu Tinghan warmly and asked in a very friendly manner, “Do you happen to have any skilled craftsmen under you? Could you send me one?”

“Don’t worry, I definitely won’t open a mill house in Luoyang. I’ll go open one in Xiping.” And Shangcai, Xinxi, Ancheng…

Wherever he had land, houses, and water, he would open one.

Zhao Hanzhang cleared her throat lightly, reminding Zhao Hu, “Seventh Great Uncle, this water mill is mine, and the craftsmen are also mine.”

Zhao Hu: …

He turned around with a frown to look at her, asking, “What about Master Fu? Does Tinghan still only have Fu’an by his side?”

This was too much bullying—how could everything be hers?

Zhao Hanzhang said, “He is now my Minister of Works.”

“Ministry of Works? I’ve never heard of it.” Zhao Hu’s frown deepened. He looked around and then said in a low voice, “You can now appoint people as ministers? If he’s a minister, then what is your great uncle?”

Zhao Hanzhang: “…My great uncle is the Grand Minister! Seventh Great Uncle, if you have nothing to do, read more books instead of always thinking about poaching people.”

Zhao Hu was about to speak when Zhao Hanzhang suddenly cut off his words and asked, “When I came over just now, I saw several carts stopped by the river. Are those your carts?”

Zhao Hu composed his expression and said “Hmm” indifferently. His head turned left and right, changing the topic, “There’s nothing much to see here. Why don’t we return to Luoyang? Does Zicheng know I’ve come to Luoyang? He should come out to meet me…”

“Those ox carts are carrying money, aren’t they?” Zhao Hanzhang stared at his face and said, “I smelled the scent of money.”

Zhao Hu: …

Zhao Hu really hated Zhao Hanzhang.

—