Li Hou’s tears began to fall. His grief was genuine, and he wept uncontrollably. “My Li family only had one small fortified settlement. A while ago, they came to my stronghold to requisition grain. I knew I couldn’t fight them, so I was already willing to help them gather provisions. But who would have known that two days later they came again, and in the end they didn’t spare us. They let their troops pillage and plunder. Among my Li clan members and the villagers in the stronghold, not even one in ten survived.”

The middle-aged man and young man beside him also shed tears.

Li Hou grasped the hands of the middle-aged man and young man, saying, “Now, the only close relatives remaining by my side are this nephew and grand-nephew of mine. I beg you, cousin, to show mercy and give them a path to survival.”

Zhao Hanzhang glanced at the two of them and asked Li Hou, “Then the people inside are all…”

After wiping his tears, Li Hou said, “Most are common people plundered from various villages. Some are villagers from my stronghold, and a few are my clan members.”

Li Hou hurriedly had Li Lai go call all the clan members up to pay their respects to Zhao Hanzhang.

Zhao Hanzhang didn’t refuse. After accepting their obeisance, she said, “I must let elder cousin know that we are still in the midst of battle and cannot immediately return to Xiping, so I can only send you into Guancheng.”

Li Hou’s face turned even paler. He said anxiously, “But Guancheng is surrounded by the Xiongnu. Although General Beigong inside is formidable, he has few troops and lacks provisions. I fear he won’t be able to hold out much longer.”

If Guancheng fell, wouldn’t the common people inside the city meet the same fate?

They would either be killed or plundered into the army.

Zhao Hanzhang said, “We came this time specifically to support General Beigong.”

Li Hou was surprised, then his eyes lit up. “Are reinforcements coming?”

Zhao Hanzhang didn’t deny it, only saying, “We attack but don’t defend.”

Li Hou: …

Li Lai said, “I wonder if General Beigong will leave?”

Zhao Hanzhang replied, “That depends on General Beigong’s choice.”

Li Lai lowered his eyes in thought for a moment, then raised his head and said, “We are willing to enter Guancheng.”

However, the young man behind him knelt down and said, “I wish to follow you, my lady, into battle to kill the enemy and drive all the Han State Xiongnu out of Yuzhou.”

Zhao Hanzhang glanced at the young man and asked, “What is your name?”

“In reply to the Commandery Governor, this humble one is called Li Zhao.”

Zhao Hanzhang praised him, “Good name, and your aspiration is also good. But do you know martial arts? Have you killed anyone before?”

The young man raised his slightly pale face and said, “I have killed! When they broke in, I killed!”

It was just that in the end when his strength was exhausted, his father forcefully threw away the sword in his hand and pressed his head down to kneel and surrender to the Xiongnu soldiers who rushed in, temporarily preserving his life.

Only then did Zhao Hanzhang nod approvingly and directly accepted him.

Neither Li Hou nor Li Lai expressed any objection.

In these times, who could know whether staying in Guancheng would lead to an earlier death, or following Zhao Hanzhang onto the battlefield would be quicker?

So let the children do as they pleased. Perhaps by following Zhao Hanzhang, they might actually live longer?

Li Hou’s expression became dazed, his whole body emanating an aura of death and sorrow. His sons and grandsons were all dead. Who would have thought that he, the oldest and most useless, would be the one to survive to the end?

After finishing her questions with Li Zhao, Zhao Hanzhang turned around to see Li Hou’s expression wasn’t quite right. She sighed, slightly tightening her grip on his wrist, directly squeezing hard enough to make him wince and come back to his senses.

Seeing him look over, Zhao Hanzhang smiled at him and forcefully helped him up. “Elder cousin, the camp is still quite chaotic. You’ve been frightened these past few days. You should rest first. I’ll have someone take you to a tent to rest, and we’ll talk more when it’s light tomorrow.”

Li Hou nodded and was helped to the nearest tent to settle down.

The camp had just experienced a battle, with corpses and blood everywhere, and tents burned by fire. There weren’t many intact tents remaining.

Zhao Hanzhang gave half to her own wounded soldiers and half to the plundered common people. The wounded, women, and children were all arranged into tents to get through this night first.

Fu Tinghan had gone earlier to tally casualties. Only now did he come over. Seeing two unfamiliar men beside Zhao Hanzhang, he couldn’t help but look at them more closely.

Zhao Hanzhang introduced them, “This is my nephew Li Lai, and this is my grand-nephew Li Zhao.”

Fu Tinghan looked at Li Lai, who was about the same age as Zhao Ming, then glanced at Li Zhao, who was actually a few years older than them. He fell silent for a moment before nodding and greeting them, “Hello, nephew. Hello, grand-nephew.”

Li Lai and Li Zhao: …

Zhao Hanzhang introduced him to them, “This is Fu Tinghan, my military advisor and also my betrothed husband.”

After all, this was the support their uncle (great-uncle) had found for them. The two reluctantly forced out smiles, with one calling out, “Young Master Fu.”

And the other calling, “Great-uncle-in-law.”

The father and son couldn’t help but exchange glances. Li Lai hadn’t expected his son to be so shameless.

Li Zhao also glanced at his father, not expecting that at his age, his father would still be so tactless.

The father and son silently looked away from each other.

Fu Tinghan fully accepted both forms of address and said to Zhao Hanzhang, “We’ve tallied our casualties, and counted the number of prisoners. Most of them are not Xiongnu.”

Zhao Hanzhang frowned, “Not Xiongnu, then what are they?”

“Jie barbarians and Xianbei. This is a mixed army.”

Zhao Hanzhang was slightly surprised. After nodding to Li Lai and Li Zhao and letting them go rest, she turned and went with Fu Tinghan to deal with these Xiongnu prisoners.

The captured barbarian soldiers numbered quite a few – one thousand two hundred men.

The number was too large. Zhao Hanzhang didn’t plan to keep so many, considering she only had two thousand troops herself. During this period, some had been lost and some added, basically maintaining this number.

“Did many escape?”

“Not many, and we dispatched people to guard the western route. In their panic they all fled east, so they can’t reach the west for now.”

Zhao Hanzhang nodded, expressing satisfaction. After looking around, she said, “Have their squad leaders and section chiefs come see me.”

Since they were irregular troops, there weren’t many remaining squad leaders and section chiefs, but it was enough for Zhao Hanzhang to question them.

However, for questioning and handling official business, Zhao Hanzhang was too lazy to occupy a tent, so she found a spot by a fallen, burning timber to sit down and beckoned for those squad leaders and section chiefs to be brought over.

There were only five people in total – two squad leaders and three section chiefs. The others were all common soldiers. Of course, there might be more hiding among the crowd pretending to be common soldiers.

But Zhao Hanzhang didn’t particularly care about that. After all, the main general had already been killed by her spear thrust, and they were now scattered and demoralized. Even hiding in the crowd wouldn’t be of much use.

Zhao Hanzhang first asked the five for their names and ethnicities, and upon learning that they were either Jie barbarians or Xianbei with not a single Xiongnu among them, she couldn’t help asking, “How many Xiongnu are in your army?”

“Not many, probably only a hundred or so,” said a Jie barbarian named Cheng Da. “Our general was indeed Xiongnu, but he wasn’t valued, so he recruited mostly Jie barbarians and Xianbei.”

Zhao Hanzhang said, “In terms of valor, both Jie barbarians and Xianbei are no less than the Xiongnu. Why should there be distinctions of superiority and inferiority?”

Upon hearing this, Cheng Da raised his head to glance at Zhao Hanzhang, then lowered it again and said, “But in the Han State, the status of Jie barbarians and Xianbei is below that of the Xiongnu, even below that of the Han people.”

Wei You beside him said, “The Han State was established by His Majesty, and His Majesty is Xiongnu, so naturally the Xiongnu are held in highest regard. Just as the Jin State was created by Han people, so Han people are held in highest regard. Isn’t this all normal?”