Fu Tinghan looked at Ren Hui and asked, "Is there any other difficulty?"

Ren Hui thought for a moment. The difficulties of Princess Hongnong currently seemed to be just interpersonal relationships and money. As for family conflicts like quarreling with the Prince Consort, haven’t they always existed?

As a son, the gentleman found it hard to distinguish right from wrong, so forget it. Ren Hui smiled and shook his head, indicating no more issues.

Fu Tinghan instructed Fu An to see Ren Hui out.

When Fu An returned, Fu Tinghan was listing his monthly income with a pen.

Although his salary was not small, a significant portion depended on the agricultural field’s yield, and now that the fields were just planted, how could there be any yield?

He was about to get married, and the industries of the Fu Family weren’t making much money at the moment. Given Princess Hongnong’s character, she wouldn’t stand to see the family fall into poverty, so the money was certainly not enough for her expenses.

He divided each income into certain proportions, calculated, and felt it should be enough. He handed the paper to Fu An, "In the future, whenever the workshops give you the yield, take it out according to this proportion and send it back to the Princess."

After Fu An reviewed it carefully, he agreed and whispered, "Should the remainder still be sent to the Third Lady?"

Fu Tinghan nodded, then felt he should keep some just in case, and said, "Take a string of coins from the yield given by the Seventh Ancestor for expenses and save any excess."

Fu An thought carefully and cheerfully said, "The gentleman spends little. Even with one string of coins a month, at the least, eight hundred coins can be saved. Gathering little by little, it will be substantial by year-end."

Fu Tinghan agreed.

Because he really had no extra expenses; for meals, he either ate at the yamen, at Zhao Mansion, or if he was outside, Fu An would take money from Ting He for settlement;

For clothing, Mrs. Wang and Ting He had already managed everything;

Social interactions were also arranged by Ting He all at once;

If he occasionally bought things outside, they were recorded on the Zhao Family’s account and settled by the public funds of the Zhao Family.

Princess Hongnong wasn’t aware that, from long ago, her son’s accounts were mixed with Zhao Hanzhang’s, with income and expenses together, making it impossible to distinguish.

So, the next morning, when she received Fu Tinghan’s money box, Princess Hongnong was very pleased, thinking that raising this son wasn’t in vain, even better than the Prince Consort. Indeed, a son is better than a husband.

She closed the box and looked at Ren Hui, "Has the Zhao Family replied?"

"Yes, the Zhao Family invited Your Highness and the Prince Consort for lunch today at noon."

Princess Hongnong was satisfied, "Go tell the Prince Consort to get ready to leave. Where is Dalang?"

Ren Hui replied, "The gentleman went out early, saying that there was work at the Ministry of Industry."

Princess Hongnong frowned, "Why is the Ministry of Personnel so busy? Since I returned, there hasn’t been a moment’s rest. Forget it, send someone to tell him that at noon today, he must go to Zhao Mansion, no matter what, as it’s about his wedding, and no one can substitute him."

"Yes."

Fu Tinghan was indeed busy, and Zhao Hanzhang was as well. They invited Li Xiang and Li Ban to see the salt they had dried.

Li Xiang rubbed the fine salt in his hand, tasted it, and found it was less bitter than the market’s brine salt, but still slightly inferior to their refined salt. So he asked, "What’s the price of this salt?"

Zhao Hanzhang replied, "One stone of salt for a thousand coins."

Li Xiang’s eyes flickered and looked at Li Ban.

Li Ban was delighted and immediately bowed, "Please, General, grant salt to Shu!"

Li Xiang, still thinking about buying, was surprised at how the kind-hearted Crown Prince came up with this idea and quickly turned to bow to Zhao Hanzhang, "Please, General, grant salt to Shu."

Zhao Hanzhang laughed heartily and held them up, "I know it’s hard for Shu to get salt now. Bringing you here naturally meant I wanted to solve Shu’s difficulties."

Zhao Hanzhang generously gifted them two hundred stones of salt and then took them out of the city to see the water mill.

The New Year was approaching, and the water mill was bustling with people lining up to mill rice and flour.

The water mill was cheap, fast, clean in milling rice, and produced fine flour, though it required traveling a long way, which was a trivial concern for the hardy populace.

Villagers nearby also came in groups to mill flour and rice.

Upon seeing Fu Tinghan, they warmly greeted him, and when they noticed Zhao Hanzhang beside him on horseback, their eyes lit up. They dropped their baskets, quickly ran over, and knelt booming on the ground, exclaiming, "Blessings to the Lady on the New Year, may you be safe and joyful!"

Zhao Hanzhang paused, turned to ask Zeng Yue, "Is today the New Year?"

After receiving an affirmative answer, she dismounted and helped the person up, waving graciously to the people kneeling, "May everyone enjoy this New Year; now get up quickly!"

Seeing his straw shoes and frostbitten, swollen toes, Zhao Hanzhang felt a pang in her heart. She touched his shoulder, feeling the thin clothes, and asked caringly, "No money to buy cloth for clothes and shoes?"

His face was frostbitten red, yet full of vitality, with a bright smile, "Lady, none this year, but next year there will be."

He pointed to his basket, "This year, I can mill a basket of beans and a basket of wheat to last until March next year."

Zhao Hanzhang praised him, "Not bad, it seems this year you served the court a lot. Did you manage to plant your own fields?"

"I did. The wheat seeds distributed by the yamen were all planted."

Zhao Hanzhang’s smile deepened and asked, "How many acres did you plant? Is the land good?"

She asked in detail and then said, "Central Plains is short of cloth now; next year, you must plant more mulberry and hemp. Do you have suitable drylands?"

He became distressed and said, "The lands given by the yamen are all good, using them to plant hemp is a waste. Now, beans can be milled into powder, and the officers say it can be used to feed horses, so I plan to plant more beans and sell them for cloth."

He smiled sheepishly, "Lady, I didn’t marry a wife this year, no one at home to weave, so planting mulberry and hemp is useless."

"How can it be useless?" Zhao Hanzhang chuckled, "When you harvest mulberry and hemp, sell them to the girl you fancy. With frequent visits, she might grow fond of you?"

"If you only plant wheat, rice, and beans, you won’t have a chance to talk to the ladies next year. How will you get a wife then?"

The young man suddenly realized that the Great General made sense and became conflicted, "Then, how much should I plant?"

Zhao Hanzhang laughed and said, "You have field ridges, right? If you can’t bear to use a whole plot of dry land, plant them on the ridge, the ridge near your home. Leave three inches to plant mulberry and hemp, and you can sit under them for shade in summer."

The young man thought and realized it was indeed feasible, and nodded repeatedly, "I’ll return and ask who has seeds."

The seeds of mulberry might be scarce, but hemp seeds shouldn’t be. Zhao Hanzhang turned to Zhao Yunxin and instructed, "Record this matter, and later ensure each county provides mulberry and hemp seeds."

Zhao Yunxin agreed.