Zhao Hanzhang lowered her eyes in thought and asked, “Where is Magistrate Liu now?”
“At the Inspector’s residence.”
Zhao Hanzhang stood up and headed to the Inspector’s residence.
Liu Kun was having afternoon tea while listening to music and drinking wine. With eyes half-closed, enjoying himself, his subordinate approached quietly to report that Zhao Hanzhang had arrived.
Liu Kun opened his eyes and saw Zhao Hanzhang standing not far away, watching his musical ensemble. He immediately laughed heartily and stood up, boasting to her, “I spent several years finding these talented people. Each has their specialty—some excel at the qin and xiao, others at the erhu and suona, and still others at the hujia and various drums. But when it comes to mastery of the qin, Xu Run is still first.”
Liu Kun asked, “How is Xu Run’s illness?”
Zhao Hanzhang never expected Liu Kun to be so extravagant at such a time. Hearing that his first concern was still Xu Run, her expression cooled slightly. “Somewhat better, though the fever hasn’t completely broken. The military physician is watching over him.”
Liu Kun breathed a great sigh of relief. “That’s good then. If anything happened to him, my conscience would be uneasy.”
Liu Kun invited her to sit and enjoy wine and music together. Zhao Hanzhang sat down and asked, “Yueshi is so carefree—does this mean all the refugees inside and outside Jinyang have been properly settled?”
“Jinyang is a large city that accommodates people from all directions. Countless people enter and exit daily, most of them refugees fleeing here,” Liu Kun said. “So there’s no end to settling refugees. There are established procedures for this, and the Jinyang Magistrate will handle it properly.”
Zhao Hanzhang asked, “After Xu Run, who will be the Jinyang Magistrate?”
Only then did Liu Kun remember that Zhao Hanzhang had taken his Jinyang Magistrate away. Jinyang now had no county magistrate.
Seeing him stumble, Zhao Hanzhang took the opportunity to say, “When it comes to settling refugees, my Yuzhou officials are also very experienced. I dare say that on the path of refugee resettlement, if they claim second place, no one would dare claim first. We still need to stay in Jinyang for a while. Why don’t I recommend someone to you? You can have her temporarily govern Jinyang.”
“Who does Hanzhang speak of?”
“Fan Ying,” Zhao Hanzhang said. “She’s meticulous and bold, and has extensive experience managing refugees while following me.”
Liu Kun pondered in silence.
Zhao Hanzhang smiled. “When we resettle refugees, besides distributing farmland, the most important thing is settling them through workshops. Cities and towns need bricks and stones for construction, so wherever we go, we build large numbers of brick and stone workshops. I’ve seen that the area around Jinyang also has suitable clay for firing bricks.”
She added, “Besides that, there are also workshops for glassware, textile production, and similar enterprises. As long as we can find suitable materials, we’ll establish them.”
Liu Kun’s eyelids twitched as he asked, “Will you select all the workers from among the refugees?”
Zhao Hanzhang nodded.
Liu Kun asked, “Have them sell themselves into servitude?”
Zhao Hanzhang replied, “If it were selling themselves, it wouldn’t have the effect of pacifying the people. They simply work in the workshops and receive wages sufficient to survive. They remain free citizens.”
Only then did Liu Kun relax. “I’ve heard of Chief Administrator Fan too. She’s Hanzhang’s right hand. Isn’t it too much of a slight to have her serve as Jinyang Magistrate?”
Zhao Hanzhang smiled unconcernedly. “It’s only a temporary assignment. Once Yueshi finds a suitable person to take over and the refugees can be properly settled, she’ll naturally return to my side.”
She added, “You needn’t worry that she’ll complain about a low position, because I want to recommend a County Commandant to you as well.”
Liu Kun asked, “Who?”
Zhao Hanzhang smiled. “Shi Lei.”
Liu Kun froze, carefully studying Zhao Hanzhang’s expression. After confirming she was serious, he grew slightly excited. “Is Hanzhang truly willing?”
Zhao Hanzhang said, “Yueshi may not yet know, but recently human traffickers have been rampant. Young girls in the city frequently go missing.” The smile vanished from her eyes, leaving only coldness. “In my life, what I hate most, aside from tyrannical rulers and corrupt officials, are human traffickers.”
“Shi Lei is a great general with an aura of righteousness. He will surely be able to suppress these villains.”
Though Zhao Hanzhang had caught him trying to win over Shi Lei last time, he still hadn’t given up on the idea. After all, Shi Lei was too fierce and cruel. If he could recruit him, why would he fear Wang Jun?
Even the current situation where the Xianbei’s tail had grown too big to control could improve.
Having Zhao Hanzhang place Shi Lei in the Jinyang county office—wasn’t this a gift to him?
From now on, he could speak with Shi Lei openly and legitimately, pulling him over anytime, anywhere…
Thinking this, Liu Kun looked at Zhao Hanzhang with some guilt and suspicion.
She knew he had designs on Shi Lei. Why would she still place Shi Lei right before his eyes?
Zhao Hanzhang dared to do so because she knew that no matter how Liu Kun tried to poach him, Shi Lei would never go to his side.
Knowing he couldn’t succeed in poaching him, would Zhao Hanzhang mind them having contact?
And so the matter was settled. After discussing business, Zhao Hanzhang found Liu Kun’s extravagant afternoon tea uninteresting and left.
Fan Ying and Shi Lei received their orders and moved into the Jinyang county office that very day.
Fan Ying was primarily responsible for settling the refugees entering the city.
With the siege of Jinyang lifted, besides the large number of refugees who had previously flooded into the city, nearly a thousand refugees entered daily over the past few days. These refugees were separately housed in several vacant plots throughout the city. Apart from initially being able to receive free relief porridge from the yamen, afterward they had to compete for charity from the city’s wealthy households or find work to exchange for food.
But there were only so many jobs in the city. Even the city’s residents had idle time. With this sudden influx of so many refugees, how could there be enough work?
Large numbers of people sat idle, and social conflicts sharply escalated. Fighting, brawling, robbery, and murder all occurred regularly.
Liu Kun used his unique charisma to attract large numbers of refugees, but he lacked corresponding measures to keep them.
According to what people said, when Liu Kun first arrived at the devastated Jinyang, he personally led the people to clear wasteland and personally oversaw the construction of city walls, sharing both hardship and comfort with the people. That was how he managed to rebuild Jinyang in just one year.
Unfortunately, shortly after Jinyang recovered its vitality, he reverted to his former dissolute habits. Though still relatively diligent in governance, he couldn’t do without his pleasures.
When Fan Ying entered the Jinyang county office, she discovered that Liu Kun’s refugee settlement policies were actually quite similar to theirs—distributing land, arranging for refugees and local residents to help each other, assisting with house construction and settlement, work-for-relief programs…
However, these policies had been stagnant for about a year. From the records, the refugees who had flooded in over this past year received almost no arrangements—at least, only a small portion of refugees who brought family assets were properly settled.
But Fan Ying sent people to investigate. It was said that even for those “properly settled,” they had to pay considerable wealth, and their hearts weren’t satisfied.
Thinking of the previous Jinyang Magistrate being Xu Run, Fan Ying couldn’t help rubbing her forehead. She didn’t use Yuzhou’s methods but instead implemented Liu Kun’s refugee policies—only she carried them out thoroughly. Then she added the opening of workshops and repairs to water conservation projects, having refugees work for relief.
Land reclamation, farming, repairing city walls and roads, opening workshops, water conservation repairs—suddenly everyone in Jinyang became busy. People went to the county office daily, and it seemed everyone could find suitable work there. At minimum, they could obtain a day’s rations.
One day’s rations were basically enough for two people to eat.
Jinyang instantly came alive.
—