Chapter 399 - 394 Shouting
Zhao Hanzhang was also there, enthusiastically leading a group of people watching a jar of moldy steamed buns. It was winter, and making steamed buns mold was quite a challenge.
Upon seeing Fu Tinghan, she immediately waved happily, "Come quickly, it’s developed penicillin."
Fu Tinghan stepped forward to look and said to Zhao Hanzhang, "It’s too far from Chen County to Shangcai. I need to make some things, and sending messages back and forth takes time, so I want to build a glass workshop here."
Zhao Hanzhang immediately nodded in agreement, "I’ll have someone build it right away. We’ll select craftsmen from Shangcai, and they can start as soon as they arrive."
Zhao Hanzhang said, "Produce the regular measuring cups and include them in the standard measurements. Since we’re making medicine, it will inevitably be used for research in the future."
Fu Tinghan nodded, took a pair of clean chopsticks, picked up a moldy steamed bun, looked at it, and said, "It’s ready. Give me the tent and I’ll handle this."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Hanzhang immediately asked, "Aren’t you still injured? Won’t it be too exhausting?"
"No," Fu Tinghan said, "I’ll be careful to rest."
Zhao Hanzhang then rolled up her sleeves and said, "I’ll help you."
Fu Tinghan naturally wouldn’t refuse, and both knew how to handle the penicillin, but such things couldn’t always be handled just by them in the future. So Zhao Hanzhang also summoned the military doctor and his apprentices.
Military Doctor Cheng came over and saw Zhao Hanzhang and Fu Tinghan sitting cross-legged on a mat, gently scraping off the blue mold with wooden chips. He couldn’t help but gape.
"... General, young master, are you serious? Do you really intend to make medicine out of this?"
Zhao Hanzhang quickly waved him over, "Come quickly. This medicine is very important. Once produced, at least half of our soldiers can survive in the future."
Military Doctor Cheng and his apprentices looked at the moldy steamed buns in the pair’s hands. Can it really be done with just these moldy steamed buns?
Fu Tinghan said, "Go wash your hands, I’ll teach you how to handle things later."
He said, "I know the principle, but I only made it twice many years ago. The tools are different now, and it might not succeed at once, but research shouldn’t fear failure. We can try several times."
Zhao Hanzhang nodded.
They had done this once when they participated in a biology competition in the city during their third year in junior high school, practicing privately a few times.
So...
Zhao Hanzhang couldn’t help but look at Fu Tinghan; did he complete it privately after only doing it once?
That was indeed remarkable; she succeeded only after doing it three times herself.
Zhao Hanzhang, being the eldest, led the military doctors, who, despite having doubts, sat beside them with their apprentices to learn how to handle the penicillin.
After scraping out the penicillin, there were still several steps to go through. When Fu Tinghan finally successfully made penicillin, the items he requested from the glass workshop and iron shop were delivered simultaneously.
Measuring cups, various glassware convenient for making penicillin, and ten syringes were among them. The syringe barrels were crafted by a blacksmith, which took a lot of effort.
There were only ten syringes, but plenty of needles, which could be changed as needed.
However, due to limited resources, Fu Tinghan had to temporarily overlook the issue of contagion, intending to reuse the sterilized needles.
At this point, his injury had already scabbed over and was slowly falling off; he no longer needed the penicillin.
Previously, the drugs had been trialed on five soldiers with old wounds, and as they were also taking other medications simultaneously, the experimental data was somewhat unreliable.
Fu Tinghan had no choice but to seek Zhao Hanzhang, asking her to find a way.
Upon hearing this, Zhao Hanzhang responded without a second thought, "That’s easy, just let me suppress some bandits."
Fu Tinghan was taken aback, "Are there bandits in Chen County?"
"There are too many, almost everywhere," Zhao Hanzhang replied, "Isn’t highway robbery and murder quite normal in chaotic times?"
"That’s why few merchants travel. In some places where bandits are rampant, the trade routes are even cut off, and even the largest merchant firms are unwilling to use those routes." Zhao Hanzhang said, "I’ve always wanted to eradicate the bandits in Yu State to open up the trade routes, so the economy can be revived."
If her capabilities weren’t limited now, she would even want to clear the main roads outside Yu State.
After the war ended, Zhao Hanzhang returned to Chen County with the others, even though she still preferred living in Xiping. However, at this time, the northern part of Yu State had just gone through a war, and ninety percent of the people were gone. Moving the state governance to Xiping felt like abandoning the north.
So she didn’t move it.
After Fu Tinghan’s wound stabilized, Zhao Hanzhang held a major assembly mainly to assess achievements and rewards.
She personally intervened twice to finally persuade her beloved Uncle Ming to take up the position of Prefectural Governor of Ru Nan County.
She also changed the County Magistrate of Yu Yang County, keeping Zhao Kuan by her side.
Talent was something she greatly lacked at the moment, because the war with the Xiongnu had deprived Yu State of many talents, with County Magistrates either dying or fleeing from the occupied counties.
Even Prefectural Governors had died or fled.
Like Governor Zhang, for instance, had died.
So these places all needed new Prefectural Governors and County Magistrates, not to mention the many officials beneath them.
Thus, Zhao Hanzhang issued a Recruitment Order, with the examination location set in Chen County this time.
Her talents needed safe official roads to come over; it wouldn’t do to make them risk their lives just to apply. That would be too harsh.
Zhao Hanzhang didn’t intend to make it difficult for her future talents, so she decided to make it difficult for the bandits in various places.
Some of these bandits hid in the mountains and forests, but most gathered in villages, directly occupying them as bandit dens.
And naturally, any remaining villagers in those villages automatically joined the bandit ranks.
Initially, they formed to resist the Xiongnu who were marauding everywhere, or to oppose the grain requisition tasks assigned by the government. Later, as they ran out of food and drink, they began robbing travelers.
But how many people would travel these roads in such times?
Knowing there was a war in this area, not even birds were flying over, so they started raiding nearby villages, gathering more and more people, eventually being able to raid nearby small Wu Castles.
But they mainly robbed items and rarely killed, and since they resorted to banditry purely for survival, Zhao Hanzhang adopted a more lenient approach towards them.
The army arrived at the village gate and saw the barriers across the road. Zhao Hanzhang gestured with her chin, indicating for Zhao Kuan to go forward and shout out.
Zhao Kuan silently rode forward. He was still puzzled, not knowing why he had given up being a well-placed County Magistrate to become an assistant to Zhao Hanzhang.
Why would he become an assistant?
He was supposed to govern people, so why was he coming to govern an army?
Zhao Kuan went forward and began calling out loudly to the inside, "The Yu State Governor is here for inspection and inquiry. Aren’t you going to come out to greet...?"
Zhao Hanzhang heard this and quickly stopped him, "You’re not being very approachable as a County Magistrate."
She turned and called Zhao Erlang, "Erlang, you go up."
Zhao Erlang cheerfully ran forward, put his hands on his hips, and shouted inside, "Listen up, everyone inside. You are surrounded now. The Inspector Mansion has sent a hundred thousand troops to surround you. If you’re wise, come out and surrender quickly!"
Zhao Hanzhang nodded in satisfaction.
Zhao Kuan: ... Where did a hundred thousand troops come from? They clearly only brought two thousand, with five hundred cavalries and fifteen hundred infantry. How did it become a hundred thousand?