Zhao Ming picked up his cup and took a sip of wine, quietly watching them leave with a hint of curiosity in his eyes.

So lacking in money, yet not collecting taxes—where did she plan to get money from?

When leaving, Zhao Hanzhang saw Zhao Hu’s carriage—a double-horse carriage hung with gauze curtains. The gauze had already gotten dirty along the way. Servants were removing the tasseled jade ornaments hanging from it, then dismantling the gauze to replace it with new material.

She couldn’t help but stop and ask, “What will be done with the removed gauze?”

The servants, seeing her, immediately stood up straight with bowed backs, not daring to look at her, and respectfully replied, “It will be washed clean for replacement use.”

Zhao Hanzhang nodded. At least it wasn’t so extravagant as to use it once and throw it away. But… it was still very extravagant. Couldn’t the carriage covering cloth use durable and cheap blue cloth that didn’t show dirt easily?

Zhao Hanzhang sighed. The rich truly died of wealth while the poor died of poverty.

Zhao Hanzhang turned and left. Standing at her side and slightly behind, Zhao Kuan took in her expression completely. He held back, held back again, but still couldn’t hold back, saying in a low voice, “This white gauze isn’t durable in washing—at most it can only be replaced once. Seventh Great-Uncle uses three cartloads of white gauze in a year. He not only likes to use it on carriages in summer and autumn, but also likes to use it to surround pavilions.”

Zhao Hanzhang looked left and right, then quietly asked him, “Tell me, how much money does Seventh Great-Uncle have?”

Zhao Kuan pondered for a moment before saying, “These past two years, because you’ve been fighting wars everywhere, the clan has needed to provide military funds from time to time, so his expenses have been large. But borrowing your power and influence, he’s also made quite a bit of money. I think that although it doesn’t match Great-Uncle’s estate, it’s not far off.”

Great-Uncle referred to Zhao Changyu.

Zhao Hanzhang thought about the estate Zhao Changyu had left behind and felt deeply bitter.

She handed her horse to the guards behind her and walked on her own. Zhao Kuan could only follow.

She walked forward until she reached a general store, where she stopped. “Do you have salt?”

The store’s shopkeeper recognized Zhao Hanzhang. She was a national celebrity—which of the city’s common people didn’t recognize Zhao Hanzhang? So many times she had ridden into the city from outside, returning in triumph.

He quickly came out from behind the counter, bowing repeatedly to Zhao Hanzhang, then trotted over to carry out a salt jar.

It was a very large salt jar. He and his son together carried it out and carefully placed it on the ground for Zhao Hanzhang to see. “Commander, are you buying salt? I don’t know how much you want?”

Zhao Hanzhang asked with a smile, “How is salt sold now?”

The shopkeeper said, “Eight wen per ge.”

A ge was a special square wooden bowl, large at the top and small at the bottom, a particularly small square bowl. He used it to scoop one ge of salt, then looked toward Zhao Hanzhang.

Zhao Hanzhang also silently looked at him. The shopkeeper instantly realized—she hadn’t brought a container.

The shopkeeper immediately carefully set down the wooden bowl, rummaged around a bit, and pulled out a small earthenware jar that looked passable to give to Zhao Hanzhang, saying with a warm smile, “This jar is a gift for the Commander.”

Zhao Hanzhang thanked him. After watching him pour the salt in, she didn’t accept it but instead asked, “This is too little. I want to buy more, but two ge is too much. What should I do?”

The shopkeeper paused, then said, “This salt won’t spoil. The Commander can buy more and store it.”

Zhao Hanzhang shook her head. “I only want to buy half a ge more.”

This wasn’t difficult. He turned to pull out a small spoon and said, “How about four more spoonfuls?”

Zhao Hanzhang blinked, looking at the spoon he produced, and asked, “How much is one spoonful?”

The shopkeeper smiled. “One wen.”

“How many spoonfuls in one ge?”

The shopkeeper said, “Ten spoonfuls.”

Zhao Hanzhang nodded thoughtfully and agreed, but inwardly she sighed—what a profiteer.

Zhao Hanzhang took twelve wen from her purse and gave it to him, asking, “If I were to buy one dan of salt, how much would it cost?”

The shopkeeper thought for a moment before saying, “Right now, buying it would cost about eight thousand wen per dan. In a while it might get cheaper.”

Zhao Hanzhang asked with a smile, “Why is that?”

The shopkeeper smiled until his eyes nearly disappeared. “The Commander is greatly virtuous, having recovered the lost northern territories and defeated the Xiongnu. There are fewer bandits on the roads too. Salt transport will be safer, more people will mine salt, and naturally the price of salt will drop.”

Zhao Hanzhang nodded, picked up the small jar of salt, and was about to leave when a half-grown boy came in with a small jar. He didn’t notice Zhao Hanzhang and walked straight to the shopkeeper, saying, “I want one spoonful of salt.”

The shopkeeper took the money from his hand and said, “Your family has five people. You only eat one spoonful of salt every half month—be careful not to get goiter.”

“Then make it cheaper. If it’s cheaper, my family will buy one more spoonful per month.”

Zhao Hanzhang’s steps paused slightly as she listened to the conversation inside before walking away. Zhao Kuan followed her in complete confusion.

Zhao Hanzhang asked, “Did you see it?”

Zhao Kuan shook his head, bewildered. See what?

Zhao Hanzhang said, “This is all money.”

Zhao Kuan started, then was shocked. “Does the Commander intend to monopolize salt and iron?”

Zhao Hanzhang gave him an appreciative look. “The national treasury is short of money now. We need large amounts of money to buy grain from the wealthy gentry and the rich merchants and scholarly families in the south. Salt and iron have enormous profits and bring in money quickly.”

Zhao Kuan’s heart pounded as he objected in a low voice, “Iron is one thing, but salt… if salt is monopolized, prices will skyrocket. Won’t this just transfer the pressure to the common people?”

Zhao Hanzhang shook her head. “Private salt is rampant now, but look at the price. One dan of salt costs eight thousand wen.”

Zhao Kuan was not an official who understood nothing. He had been to the grassroots level and said, “Three years ago, salt cost only twelve hundred wen per dan. When Yuzhou was stable, the price even reached nine hundred wen per dan. The current surge is partly due to war and partly due to the great drought and locust plague in the north, with people displaced and scattered.”

“As that shopkeeper said, now that the major affairs of the realm are settled and the Commander is benevolent, salt prices will gradually decrease.” Zhao Kuan did not think government involvement at this time would make things better.

But Zhao Hanzhang said, “I need money, and I can also guarantee that under my control, salt prices will decrease.”

Zhao Kuan said helplessly, “This matter will likely need to be discussed by the court officials.”

Zhao Hanzhang’s mouth curved up slightly. “Is that so?”

Zhao Kuan felt his heart tremble with trepidation as he lowered his head and said nothing more.

Zhao Hanzhang softened her voice and said to him, “I was planning to have Sun Linghui proceed gradually in Guangzhou, but the national treasury is empty, so there’s no time for us to take it slowly. Let’s get Qingzhou moving together.”

“Mm?” Only now did Zhao Kuan understand. “You mean the salt will come from Qingzhou and Guangzhou?”

Zhao Hanzhang said, “In the future, after the salt policy reform, the salt will come from your two provinces. But for now, I need to reclaim all the salt fields in every province.”

Actually, the current national policy was also salt monopoly. This was inherited from Cao Wei, and Cao Wei in turn inherited it from the Han dynasty, with some modifications—for government supervision of salt buying and selling.

When the Jin state was first established, it could still maintain this situation. But later, when the realm fell into great chaos and order collapsed, this policy had long existed in name only. Now most of the salt on the market was private salt, or official salt that had been converted to private salt and was being sold in various shops.

There were even people selling private salt in government offices, splitting the money with local officials.

The situation in Yuzhou was better. When she became Governor of Yuzhou, she had rectified things, so now on the market, official salt outnumbered private salt. But outside Yuzhou, the shadow of official salt was basically invisible.

Although there was no shadow of official salt, from Zhao Kuan’s perspective, while price fluctuations were large, this was most beneficial to the common people, because before this, monopolized official salt was not only expensive but also scarce in quantity.

The court used this to amass wealth, filling the national and various private treasuries, with the common people ultimately suffering.