The two moons were round and still shone there. Zhang Xing ate a bowl of noodles at the same table as Xu Shiying in Xiong Bonan's home, and Xu Shiying's elder sister, Xu Chi, packed him two sweet flatbreads, one large and one small. The smaller one even had a layer of red paper stuck to it.
Zhang Xing thanked her and carried the two flatbreads back to his quarters. He stopped gazing at the stars to divine the rise and fall of the realm, simply set the flatbreads on his desk, poured himself a pot of water steeped with dried sour plums, and began to write.
There was too much to do after the autumn harvest. Some tasks he could leave to others, some he could only do himself, and some no one, from top to bottom, could escape.
Taking the period after the autumn harvest as his starting point:
First came the autumn tax. This was the material foundation for all political and military activities the following year, as well as the first large-scale, complete autumn harvest for the political entity comprising the Exorcising the Dragon Gang's ten commanderies and one prefecture. Moreover, they had encountered a drought, with sharply differing conditions from place to place.
Chief Zhang thought for a while and could only write down two phrases: autumn tax fairness and diligence and frugality... After all, everything that could be done had been done. All that remained was to keep strengthening oversight and leading by example.
Then came the routine post-harvest forced foundation establishment and literacy instruction for adolescents of the appropriate age. This time, the pressure on each locality would be much lighter, since only boys and girls who had just reached the appropriate age would take part. Moreover, an inexplicable but unmistakable phenomenon had