CHAPTER 194: CHAPTER 189 FLUFF

The planting of winter wheat is gradually completed. There is relatively little land around the county city, but many people, so it is finished first.

Thus, some of the people began to have free time.

Chang Ning immediately arranged for the employment of many women and girls skilled in needlework to make quilt covers and winter clothes.

The men were sent out to cut firewood and experiment with charcoal burning using Fu Tinghan’s method. Of course, not all the firewood had to be turned into charcoal, most of it was still stored as regular firewood.

Although firewood heating creates more smoke, it is not inferior to charcoal.

With so much work to do, it’s unnecessary to turn all the wood into charcoal; storing some is enough.

However, the most important work is building thatched houses and preparing for next year’s spring cultivation.

In addition, some loyal and flexible people were selected to be sent in various directions around the county city.

Those are the workshops built by Zhao Hanzhang and others.

Among them, the most valued is the paper-making workshop. Zhao Hanzhang and Fu Tinghan went to check the progress after returning to the county city.

The soaked raw materials had softened and could be pulled into threads, but there were still not enough.

After asking about the time, Zhao Hanzhang said, "We still need to wait about twenty more days. Build several more reaction pools, and some new materials should be soaked every day so that when production begins, there will be material available for trial every day."

The person in charge agreed, but he was apprehensive because he had never made paper before. He didn’t know paper was made from such random things like straw, tree bark, and weeds.

Every time he looked down into the reaction pool, he felt dazed, thinking he must be crazy to believe the lady’s words.

However, the lady was full of confidence, so he... could only believe.

After seeing off Zhao Hanzhang, he immediately turned around to instruct the workers, "Dig another reaction pool, and don’t forget to soak today’s materials."

Everyone agreed.

The paper-making workshop was in the south of the city, located at the downstream of the moat. There was a large area of farmland and houses here, mostly excellent fields of some city residents, along with a bit of official land belonging to the county government.

This portion of official land was the County Magistrate’s private land, used for growing vegetables and melons.

Because it wasn’t very safe outside the city at the moment, Zhao Hanzhang temporarily placed the paper-making workshop within the city and used this piece of land to build the workshop.

Don’t be fooled that it’s land for growing vegetables and melons for the County Magistrate; it was actually not small, encompassing several mu.

Buying some more land beside it, reclaimed from the county government when the head of the family ran away, yielded more than a dozen mu of land, plenty to build a paper-making workshop.

Zhao Hanzhang, preoccupied with thoughts about paper-making, let her horse go back slowly. After some time, the horse stopped.

Returning to herself, Zhao Hanzhang lifted her head to look ahead, noticing a crowd blocking the way, which had stopped the horse.

Qiu Wu behind her immediately ordered the guards to go forward and remove people, Zhao Hanzhang stopped him, curious, and craned her neck to look.

She saw two officials caught in the middle of a crowd, everyone holding clothes and fabrics. Despite stretching her neck, she couldn’t clearly see the people inside due to the crowd, but she could hear voices.

She heard a girl indignantly say, "Using reed and willow down to fill winter clothes and quilts, how dare you say it isn’t playing with people’s lives! Miss Zhao certainly wouldn’t do this; it must be you lining your pockets."

"Indeed, indeed, it must be you who are lining your pockets."

Someone else shouted loudly, "We are already this miserable, yet you continue to embezzle; this is practically forcing us to death!"

The two officials surrounded in the middle were ashamed and angry, shouting, "These are the items issued by the authorities; how have we embezzled anything?"

"It’s not bad to have these, and who said these quilts and winter clothes are for you? You were just hired to make clothes and quilts, weren’t you paid for your labor?"

Then she heard that girl shout, "Even if it’s not for us, you can’t embezzle! Aren’t soldiers humans too, aren’t refugees humans too?"

"Indeed, indeed."

Zhao Hanzhang saw that the two officials in the middle were so angry that their noses were almost steaming, and the surrounding crowd, fired up with righteous indignation, seemed about to roll up their sleeves to fight. She quickly said loudly, "Well argued!"

Everyone turned their heads upon hearing the voice, seeing Zhao Hanzhang on horseback. Their eyes immediately lit up, and they respectfully stepped back two steps to salute, "Miss!"

Someone also turned to shout to the noisy crowd in the back, "Miss Zhao is here!"

The crowd parted, revealing the person in the center.

The girl in the center noticed Zhao Hanzhang, her eyes also lit up, looking at Zhao Hanzhang with excitement.

She came forward with the clothes in her hands, gracefully performed a salute, her face slightly red, saying, "Miss!"

Zhao Hanzhang looked her up and down and smiled, "It’s the Fan Family girl."

She leapt off her horse, walked a few steps forward, and righted her, saying, "No need for such formalities."

She then looked at the clothes she held in her hands.

Fan Ying immediately explained, "I heard the county government wanted to make winter clothes and quilts for the stationed soldiers and disaster refugees and lacked manpower, so I brought back several bolts of cloth to make them. But after they were finished, the county government issued yarn for filling quilts and winter clothes, but it turned out to be willow and reed down."

"Upon inquiry, we learned that everyone on our street who took the work received willow and reed down for filling. This willow and reed down isn’t warm. I was angry in my heart, so I brought people here to argue, and these two officials guarded the county government gate not letting us in."

The two officials were also aggrieved, their eyes slightly red, saying, "Miss, the fabric and filling materials of willow and reed down were issued from above; we just followed orders to distribute them for making, and then followed orders to collect them."

"As for not letting them into the county government, it is because Chief Clerk Chang is meeting a distinguished guest inside; what if they barged in and disturbed the guests?"

Zhao Hanzhang didn’t inquire about who the distinguished guest was but instead scrutinized the clothes in her hands. Regardless of whether it was willow or reed down, it was very light. Fan Ying had filled quite a lot, making it appear thick, but it was actually not very heavy.

She turned around, stepped on two steps to the platform, allowing everyone surrounding to see her. She first spoke to Fan Ying, "Miss Fan is right; this willow and reed down aren’t very warming. If the weather is too cold, wearing such clothes might freeze people. Miss Fan’s concerns are valid."

The onlookers, hearing this, became filled with righteous indignation, all thinking someone in the county government had embezzled, while the officials beside seemed almost ready to bleed.

Zhao Hanzhang said, "But I am aware of this matter."

Facing everyone, she apologetically offered a deep bow and said, "Filling with willow and reed down was my decision."

Everyone was stunned, Fan Ying looked at her even more incredulously.

"You should all know by now that the Xiongnu Army is marching south to attack Luoyang and Yu State, and except for Xiping, places are quite chaotic. Earlier, the rebel forces attacking the city were urgent and chaotic, city supplies depleted by half. I entrusted numerous people to purchase yarn, but only acquired a little, insufficient for making quilts and winter clothes."

"Filling with willow and reed down is a last resort," she turned to glance at the two officials, deeply sighed, and said, "This is Hanzhang’s helpless decision, but Hanzhang’s fault alone. It has nothing to do with the officers in the county government. If you want to blame, blame me."