Chapter 149 - Proclaiming Emperor in the North (Additional Update)

Chapter 149: Chapter 143: Proclaiming Emperor in the North (Additional Update)"First, arrange for them to stay in the prison, and in a couple of days, have them repair the city gate. There are many things that need doing in the city."

Fu Tinghan looked at them sympathetically, but for Zhao Hanzhang and his own safety, he still nodded, "Okay."

Then, with a wave of his hand, someone came up and took the three of them away to the prison.

Only then did Zhao Erlang find his chance to speak, and he shouted repeatedly, "Brother-in-law, Brother-in-law."

Upon seeing Zhao Erlang, Fu Tinghan couldn’t help but smile, reaching out to stroke his head, he asked Zhao Hanzhang, "How come you brought him along?"

"Uncle Cheng couldn’t keep him under control, Mr. Ji will be very busy soon, my mother only forces him to study, and he gets frustrated and rides off aimlessly, so I simply brought him along," Zhao Hanzhang said, "Tomorrow, let him lead his squad to do some work."

As long as he’s not studying, Zhao Erlang thinks even smashing bricks and carrying stones would be fun, so he grinned at Fu Tinghan.

Fu Tinghan waved at him gently, "Alright, tomorrow I’ll have Ji Ping take him, let’s go, eat first, are you hungry?"

Before Fu Tinghan finished, Zhao Erlang quickly responded, "Hungry, hungry."

Zhao Hanzhang asked, "You haven’t eaten either?"

Fu Tinghan: "No."

He had been so busy he forgot.

The three of them went to eat.

Fu Tinghan sat cross-legged opposite Zhao Hanzhang; even after being here for half a year, he still wasn’t used to sitting cross-legged. He said, "Now we have simple stools and chairs, let’s promote them."

Zhao Hanzhang nodded with a smile, "Sure, you can have the craftsmen make a set according to your habits, replace the furniture at home; we can also replace the ones in the county government building. When more people come in the future, we won’t need to do anything special, someone will learn."

"I’ve already compiled the population statistics in the past two days. I’ve done a rough plan for artisans, freemen, and slaves. Review it when you have time."

Zhao Hanzhang was surprised, "That’s a huge workload, how did you manage it?"

"The clerks and officials from the county government who are still alive, I called them back; they are literate, so basically, I spoke, and they followed the orders," Fu Tinghan said, "I just counted the data, they handled the lists and filings."

Zhao Hanzhang let out a sigh of relief, "That’s good, I was worried that you didn’t know how to rest and would strain yourself."

Fu Tinghan smiled at her, "I won’t."

While eating, Zhao Erlang looked up at them, always feeling something was off.

Zhao Hanzhang met his gaze, signaling him to continue eating, "What are you looking at? You don’t know not to talk while eating?"

Fu Tinghan nearly choked, he turned his head to hold back his laughter, and after a while, he turned back with his eyes full of amusement, "Then we..."

"We’ll talk while we eat," Zhao Hanzhang picked up a piece of meat for him and said to Zhao Erlang, "We adults are discussing things, you know?"

Zhao Erlang nodded confusedly.

Only then did Zhao Hanzhang share her plan.

Fu Tinghan thought they should make a long-term plan, so after eating, and sending Zhao Erlang away, the two of them locked themselves in the study for a private conversation, "What’s your ideal safe zone size?"

Zhao Hanzhang: "My minimum goal is Ru Nan County, and the maximum is to take the entire Yu State."

She said, "Otherwise, it will be very hard to survive in the ensuing chaos."

"What about the timeframe?" Fu Tinghan asked, "Taking the whole Yu State is a huge goal, have you thought of an excuse to achieve it? Currently, we can still operate covertly in Xiping, but once we expand to Yu State, there will be no place to hide."

Zhao Hanzhang said, "My plan is to take Ru Nan County within five years. If by then, we still can’t leave this world, chances are we won’t leave at all, and we’ll use the remaining time to take Yu State."

"The current history has already changed somewhat, but human nature hasn’t, so I think history will more or less remain the same. Five years later, many people will proclaim themselves Emperor across various regions; taking one Yu State won’t draw much attention." Zhao Hanzhang was not overly worried about this, "We can adjust the plan based on actual situations. Compared to Liu Yuan Shile and others, we indeed are insignificant."

Fu Tinghan casually asked, "When will Liu Yuan proclaim himself Emperor?"

"Next year, I think."

Liu Yuan expressed otherwise; after retreating from Luoyang, he began preparing for his ascension, and his strategists also believed he could proclaim himself Emperor.

After all, he was the one who attacked Luoyang.

Wang Mi even came up with an auspicious omen for him, and led a large group to submit to him.

Liu Yuan was overjoyed, so he chose an auspicious day to announce to the world that he had ascended as Emperor, taking the era name "Yongfeng" and moving the capital to Pingyang.

News spread, startling the world.

Of course, the ministers and citizens of Great Jin did not recognize him. Liu Yuan outwardly showed indifference, but then he formed a great army, commanded them to once again march south to attack Luoyang, and make way toward the Central Plains, Yu State.

Zhao Hanzhang was busy for several days, then traveled for a day, hence she indulgently slept in, still asleep late into the morning the next day.

When Zhao Ming received news and rushed to the county government, he only saw Fu Tinghan overseeing things in the government office, with papers full of strokes he had never seen before, while Zhao Hanzhang was still lazing in bed.

Zhao Ming took a deep breath and walked up, "Ting Han, have someone call over Third Lady."

Fu Tinghan was still calculating his things, he dazedly raised his head at the sound, and after a while, the words reached his mind, he paused and then said, "She’s too tired, let her rest a bit more. If Uncle has something important, you might as well tell me."

Zhao Ming looked down at the densely packed symbols on the paper, couldn’t help but let the topic drift a little, "What’s this?"

"The Dell Conjecture."

Zhao Ming listened but did not understand, "What is the Dell Conjecture?"

"For any elliptic curve over the rational number field, the zero order of its L-function at one equals the rank of the Abelian group formed by the rational points on this curve." Fu Tinghan paused and then said, "It’s one of two conjectures I’ve been trying to prove."

Zhao Ming silently looked at him, understanding even less, he had no choice but to bring the topic back, "Don’t let her sleep, wake her up, I have important things to discuss with her."

Zhao Ming paused and then said, "Liu Yuan has proclaimed himself Emperor in the north."

He glanced again at the desk filled with things he genuinely couldn’t recognize a single word of, and asked, "Are you two so idle? Didn’t you say Xiping County is rebuilding everything?"

Fu Tinghan said matter-of-factly, "The tasks have been assigned, as long as there’s no mistake, we only need to occasionally check. If something goes wrong, they will report it."

The data compilation he needed to do was completed, and he knew the remaining tasks he could handle but others could handle better, so Fu Tinghan thought he shouldn’t take over their work.

Still, he got up to call Zhao Hanzhang; Liu Yuan actually proclaimed himself Emperor, they had just said last night that he would do so the next year.

It seems, compared to known history, the world’s progress has actually accelerated.

Fu Tinghan wasn’t sure if this was good or bad, he could only act according to his own intentions.

Fu Tinghan knocked on the door, and Ting He, who was doing needlework in the side room, immediately came out, "Young Master."

Fu Tinghan put down his hand and said, "Uncle Ming is here, please wake Hanzhang up."

Upon hearing this, Ting He immediately pushed the door open and went in, urgently going to rouse Zhao Hanzhang, "Third Lady, Third Lady, something major has happened, Mr. Ming is here."

Getting caught sleeping in by an elder, it’s quite disrespectful and damaging to one’s reputation.