Chapter 154 - I’ll Take Charge

Chapter 154: Chapter 148 I’ll Take ChargeEstablishing Yushan Hall is not difficult. After the Xiping battle, quite a few houses were vacated. Finding a few spacious ones and slightly renovating them would suffice for Yushan Hall.

Fu Tinghan had previously done the statistical work, so identifying who were orphans was clear at a glance. Zhao Hanzhang even had thoughts on who would take care of the children, having the older ones care for the younger ones, achieving a low labor cost.

The county government only needs to assign two more people to manage it.

The challenge lies with the school.

The lack of teachers isn’t too difficult an issue. Zhao Hanzhang, Fu Tinghan, and other literate officials at the county government can all temporarily teach. It’s not exceedingly difficult.

After all, it’s more about basic nurturing; as long as they can recognize characters and count, it’s fine.

The difficulty lies in the lack of books and paper, ink, and brushes.

Upon returning to the county government, Zhao Hanzhang hadn’t had the chance to announce her grand decision when Geng Rong and Song Zhi bowed and reported: "My lady, the county government is out of paper."

Zhao Hanzhang casually responded: "If there’s none, buy some then. Is there no money? Or should we organize another donation?"

Song Zhi replied: "... It’s not a matter of money. The bookstore in the county was burned down, so even if we have money, we can’t buy paper."

Geng Rong added: "Moreover, paper is expensive. Previously, Mr. Fu used it in large quantities, and in the past few days, the county government’s paper usage has reached two-thirds of last year’s."

Fu Tinghan was surprised, "You usually use so little paper? How do you record and transmit documents such as household registrations?"

How would Song Zhi know?

Geng Rong, whose father was once a chief clerk, knew a bit and said: "Household registrations are usually revised every three years. Other matters can be communicated verbally by clerks and government officials going to villages."

This method of conveying information is too slow and consumes a lot of manpower.

Zhao Hanzhang asked, "Is paper more expensive than labor?"

Song Zhi thought her question was akin to Emperor Hui’s "Why not eat meat porridge," and said: "Naturally, the price of paper cannot be compared to labor."

Zhao Hanzhang turned to Fu Tinghan, "Then do we need to make paper ourselves?"

Fu Tinghan tried hard to recall how to make paper. This wasn’t a formula he had learned, but with the information explosion era, he had some understanding of it.

Zhao Hanzhang giggled at him, feeling self-assured, "I know how to make it."

It wasn’t out of curiosity that she researched it, but during her days as a music teacher, exchange students sometimes visited, and to promote their traditional culture, she was once asked to take students to visit a paper-making artisan.

Although she couldn’t see, she could listen, and her sense of touch was quite sensitive. At that time, she had felt the various changes in the paper-making process.

Song Zhi and Geng Rong stared blankly at Zhao Hanzhang, "My lady, you know how to make paper?"

Zhao Hanzhang nodded modestly, "I know some basics, but it’s not something that can be produced overnight. Since there’s no paper, we’ll just buy it. If Xiping doesn’t have it, Shangcai might."

She added, "And Xinxi, send people to these nearby places to buy." Thinking of their paper consumption during this period, she said, "Buy more."

Other things she couldn’t produce for Professor Fu, but when it came to using paper, she wouldn’t compromise.

What she found most frustrating when doing math problems was the lack of scratch paper.

Zhao Hanzhang went back to the study to start writing a plan, listing what they needed to do, and discovered there was so much to be done.

Zhao Hanzhang held the pen and pondered deeply, while Fu Tinghan glanced at it and turned to leave.

Zhao Hanzhang came to her senses and quickly called him, "Tinghan, do you think we need a capable County Magistrate and Chief Clerk?"

Although she designated a County Magistrate and Chief Clerk, she suddenly realized neither was working at the county government.

It’s understandable for Ji Yuan; he was currently dealing with purchasing horses, and Shangcai needed his attention too, so he couldn’t leave temporarily. But Zhao Ming...

Zhao Hanzhang’s desire to employ talent burned brightly, "Do you think if I visit Uncle Ming thrice at his cottage, would he..."

"No," Fu Tinghan said, "Be careful, after three visits, you might be locked outside Wu Castle, unable to enter."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Hanzhang suppressed her thoughts, "Never mind, the territory is still small now. We’ll consider it when it gets bigger."

Zhao Hanzhang thought about it and said, "Let Chen Si Niang try at Yushan Hall. She is a woman, which might ease the children’s defense; for the school... I’ll have to think more about whom to entrust it to."

Fu Tinghan said, "Leave it to me."

"Hmm?" Zhao Hanzhang turned her head to look at him.

Fu Tinghan said, "Education is most important. If you intend to use them in the future, you need to cultivate their loyalty and consistency in understanding matters from now, otherwise, if they learn bad ways, they might stand against you in the future."

Both Fu Tinghan and Zhao Hanzhang knew that she could currently be the leader of Xiping County because Xiping had just suffered a disaster, and Zhao Hanzhang had saved Xiping; secondly, she had troops in hand; and thirdly, because no one had yet emerged to contend for Xiping with her.

But what about when Xiping County gets back on track or becomes even larger in the future?

Then her shortcomings would be magnified, such as being of female origin, and lacking official status.

So, they’re not using just anyone. They are actively selecting and cultivating their own people to prevent future situations.

But those they’ve selected can’t compare to those they’ve nurtured from childhood.

Their thoughts and understanding are almost like a blank slate, allowing them to freely outline.

Thinking of this, Fu Tinghan became even more determined, "Let me take charge of the school. You can delegate more of the county government’s matters to Geng Rong and Song Zhi."

Zhao Hanzhang got the message and gathered the county government people the next day to announce the promotion of Song Zhi as deputy County Magistrate, temporarily taking the County Magistrate’s position, and Geng Rong as deputy Chief Clerk, temporarily taking the Chief Clerk’s position. From now on, they would follow Fu Tinghan’s directions on county matters, unless her opinion diverges from Fu Tinghan’s, in which case they would follow hers.

The crowd: "...

They quietly turned to look at Fu Tinghan.

Only to see Fu Tinghan first cupping his hands to acknowledge: "Yes."

The crowd could only follow suit, but had further recognition of Zhao Hanzhang’s authority.

After delegating tasks one by one, Zhao Hanzhang would inspect various areas daily to verify that everything was proceeding orderly, then visit each household in Xiping County to buy some grain from them.

At this time, grain was still fairly easy to purchase.

Compared to gold, silver, and jewels, grain was much cheaper; thus, the chaotic armies of the time mostly went after gold and silver. As for grain, they only took some, so most households’ granaries were preserved.

After the summer harvest, none of the families lacked grain, only money, as during the turmoil, seemingly large households were all looted.

Most of that gold and silver ended up with Zhao Hanzhang as spoils of war.

After compensating the deceased and wounded warriors, she used some to reward others, with the rest staying in her pocket.

These gold and silver coins, after a round, returned to the hands of the old gentlemen, with the cost being bags and bags of grain.

Zhao Ju led the men to haul out bags and bags of grain from various homes and transport them back to the granary. The people in the county town, seeing so much grain, were invigorated and worked even more energetically.