The next time, could they lure them as easily as they did now after releasing a bait?

Submitting a petition to the court as county magistrates, urging them to pressure Qiao Yan and severely punish the Black Mountain Bandits, might be a feasible approach.

But…

Firstly, Qiao Yan was still young, and with Qiao Xuan, the honorable grandfather, behind her, her slightly idealistic actions, if brought to the court’s attention, might be interpreted as bullying a young girl.

So, perhaps following a legal process first would be better.

During the reign of Emperor Guangwu, there was a method proposed to deal with bandits, known as “Five Men Sharing One Guilt.”

This law was later used to contrast with Emperor Wu of Han’s anti-bandit strategy.

Under this law, if five thieves caught another thief and brought them to the authorities, they would be pardoned.

This law was then passed down through generations.

So, Qiao Yan’s current idea was roughly like this: if you think I’m being too lenient by just wanting them to work as laborers and open up this trade route, then that’s not a big problem, we can follow this procedure.

I’ll select the group of criminals with the most severe charges, and by the method of “five choosing one,” deal with them.

This way, the remaining individuals are considered cleared of their banditry.

By supplying them with food and counseling them towards good deeds during the road construction process, they will surely reform.

This doesn’t count as being too lenient on criminals.

“…” For some reason, even though it was within the law, there was a feeling of unease.

If this were the Warring States period, the idea of opening up various areas around Taiyuan or widening the Jingxing might involve some national disputes.

But now it’s the Han Dynasty, and the capital is Luoyang!

It’s fine if various areas around Taiyuan remain easily defensible with mountains, but it can’t be stated openly.

Qiao Yan’s desire to connect various areas is perfectly reasonable.

But just…

The thought of these former bandits who roamed the Taihang Mountains possibly causing trouble in their own territory at any moment made them feel uneasy.

Under Qiao Yan’s righteous and somewhat idealistic view of humanity, they couldn’t write to criticize her for being too naive.

After much thought, they finally came up with a good idea.

Since it’s just about “rehabilitation through labor,” widening the mountain roads is considered labor too.

Isn’t helping Leping with its construction also labor?

So, why not, out of appreciation and commendation for Qiao Yan’s act of capturing the bandit leader, offer a food subsidy?

But since they now have manpower and food to sustain them, there’s no rush to open up trade routes.

After all, the current routes are still usable.

It’s better to focus on developing Leping’s local construction first.

Qiao Yan’s previous tax relief for Leping, following her visit, would certainly spread to the ears of the court, so this move would also be seen as a gesture of support for her policies.

In the context of reducing taxes per acre, the cultivation of fields in Le Ping would surely see some development.

However—

Don’t just focus on the existing fertile fields; it’s worth looking at those mountainous areas within her jurisdiction as well!

After all, all she needed to do was to find a way to keep people from leaving Le Ping and educate them within her own territory however she pleased.

Roughly speaking, that’s what the letters accompanying the fifty thousand sack of grain from each of the three parties said.

Although the actions of these three parties sending grain would likely be known to each other, considering it, there was no element of deception in Qiao Yan’s letter.

After all, making friends with neighbors naturally requires considering multiple aspects.

And there was no one saying she couldn’t divide the Black Mountain bandits she captured into three parts and send them to different places to dig mountain paths.

Moreover, being officials as they were, they naturally should know what it means not to change orders overnight.

Since this batch of grain had already reached Qiao Yan’s hands, there was absolutely no possibility of her spitting it out again.

However, for Le Ping County itself, Qiao Yan’s explanation for this batch of grain was a reward for clearing out the bandits.

Since Qiao Yan’s arrival in late June, it was now nearing mid-August.

Although Qiao Yan had a deeply ingrained impression of the Mid-Autumn Festival starting from the early Tang Dynasty, there was no such festival nowadays.

But because of the proximity of this time, it didn’t prevent her from finding a good reason to distribute some of the grain as a reward to the county residents,

Citing August 15th, when the moon was full, as a good omen.

This portion of the grain wasn’t much, more like a gift, but it truly conveyed a signal of “gains above, gains below.”

Since Qiao Yan’s arrival in Le Ping, although the county lord was the “master” of the territory rather than an official,

It didn’t prevent the relatively simple-minded county residents from sending goods they had recently picked from the mountains or things like coarse hemp cloth to the county office as gifts for Qiao Yan.

Naturally, these couldn’t compare to what she provided, but they were already enough to show her some signs of the local people’s allegiance to her.

In the face of successive natural disasters and man-made calamities, gathering support from the people was actually easier than before.

Internal benevolence could shelter a region, feed people, satisfy… no, as long as there was a possibility of meeting the basic survival needs, it was enough to make these people from the end of the Han Dynasty lean towards their side.

Qiao Yan looked at the basket of shepherd’s purse in her hand and thought to herself, not forgetting to thank Xi Zhicai again at this moment, “Sir, you are indeed talented.”

If it weren’t for Xi Zhicai’s judgment and the opportunities he provided her with…

Describing the ingenious method of Emperor Guangwu to eliminate bandits, it’s difficult to ensure that the three prefects would not find opportunities to exploit it, and it might not develop in the expected direction.

He said that his method was indeed a clever strategy.

Xi Zhicai wasn’t usually concerned with formalities, and now he leisurely flipped through what exactly the people of Le Ping County had sent.

He didn’t feel the need to take credit for it;

After all, the fact that these county people sent wild vegetables and mountain goods as thanks wasn’t solely because Qiao Yan had extra grain in hand.

His role in this was at most somewhat motivational, but ultimately, everything Qiao Yan had done since arriving in Le Ping had been impeccable.

His behavior was more like that of a Yongchuan person curious to see if there was anything different in the gifts from the Jinzhong area.

However, he had previously traveled to Yunzhong Mountain and stayed in Jin Yang City for a few days, so it was unlikely he would find anything particularly novel.

He then turned and asked, “In the opinion of Marquis Qiao, with manpower and food now available, what do you plan to grow in the mountains?”

“It seems that the gentleman has another clever strategy to teach me?” Qiao Yan asked in return.

“This matter of civilian cultivation should be adapted to local conditions. There’s no need for any clever strategies,” Xi Zhicai laughed, “But… huh!”

Xi Zhicai suddenly jumped up.

While replying to Qiao Yan, his hand casually rested on the pile of mountain goods.

He was feeling around for a stick to use as a prop when, unexpectedly, instead of a wooden stick, he grabbed a yam!

As he pulled his hand back to look, he unsurprisingly saw it was red.

Yams weren’t particularly rare, even in Yongchuan, where some were wild.

But here in the Taihang Mountains, due to differences in varieties, they grew into such long shapes, the same as the kind that Duke Huan of Wei presented to the Zhou emperor in ancient times.

And this type of yam, which should still be called a yam, was a bit of a problem for Xi Zhicai.

He had noticed his allergy to this when he was in Yongchuan before.

While others might only feel a slight itchiness from touching this yam, he would break out in red rashes and swelling.

“Get some vinegar,” Qiao Yan quickly ordered, and a county official with swift feet brought some vinegar down.

Xi Zhicai took it, and as Qiao Yan suggested, he applied it to his hands with some skepticism.

Indeed, he felt much better.

“I apologize, Marquis Qiao. This yam is really…” It was really something Xi Zhicai’s nemesis.

But before he could finish his sentence, Qiao Yan interrupted him, “This thing is truly a lifesaver!”

As soon as he turned around, Xi Zhicai saw Qiao Yan pulling the yam out of the pile of mountain goods.

In her gaze at the yam, there was an unmistakable satisfaction.

Perhaps more than satisfaction, it was closer to astonishment.

She then asked, “What do you think, sir, if I were to cultivate yams among the hills and mountains?”

At this time, yams had not yet transitioned from wild to cultivated, and the method of segment planting hadn’t expanded to this seemingly ugly-looking thing.

However, “Shennong Bencao Jing” already recorded its beneficial effects on qi, spleen, and muscle growth.

Zhang Zhongjing later wrote in the “Jin Gui Yao Lue,”

“For deficiency and fatigue, various inadequacies, and hundreds of illnesses caused by wind, yam pills are the main remedy.” During the rampant epidemics of the late Han Dynasty, this was undoubtedly a subtly enhancing medicine for resistance.

As a significant original habitat for yams, the Taihang Mountains undoubtedly had the natural geographical conditions suitable for cultivating this crop.

But this wasn’t the fundamental reason for Qiao Yan’s decision.

If she hadn’t seen this before and couldn’t think of it at first, it would have been understandable.

But when she saw it, she suddenly realized that, apart from extreme cases, both yams and sweet potatoes had an average yield of about three thousand catties per mu!

Although considering water and fertilizer efficiency and the risk of overeating, this crop was indeed not suitable for extensive cultivation as a staple food, but in the current situation, it could be planted for a year or two.

It was a rational use of mountainous terrain.

Moreover, the cultivation of yams also involved manpower at various stages.

Now that Qiao Yan had captured these bandits, wouldn’t it be perfect to use this process to temper their character?

If not for this, she wouldn’t dare to recruit them rashly.

Decision made: plant yams!