The physician remained calm, checking his pulse while pressing the medicated pack against the wound. Seeing Zhao Hanzhang’s genuine anxiety, he said, “The General can try calling to him. If he wakes, that’s naturally best. If he doesn’t wake, that’s fine too.”
Zhao Hanzhang: “…Fainting from pain won’t be dangerous?”
“It could be, but his pulse is still good right now. The difference isn’t very significant.”
Though he said this, Zhao Hanzhang still called to Fu Tinghan. Seeing his brow furrow, his eyelids move slightly as if he wanted to wake but couldn’t quite manage it, she knew he could hear her and called even more forcefully.
The physician waited for the bleeding to slow somewhat before removing the pack and beginning to use a knife to clean the wound. This was to prevent any arrowhead fragments or debris from remaining in the wound.
But as soon as the pack was removed, Zhao Hanzhang saw the large bloody hole with mangled flesh inside, clearly showing the severe secondary damage from removing the arrow.
Her brow furrowed tightly. She picked up the arrowhead from the plate and examined it thoughtfully.
The physician glanced at her while treating the wound and explained, “This is a specially made arrow, rarely seen even on the battlefield. It’s generally used against important people like the General. As long as it hits, when the arrow is pulled out there will be a large wound that cannot be avoided.”
“Young Master is fortunate that the opponent used a short bow and the wound isn’t deep, plus he avoided vital areas. If this arrow had been shot with a longbow, the wound would be too deep to extract easily. First we’d have to dig out some flesh before pulling, and it could hook out half a bowl of flesh. The blood would flow like water—if the bleeding can’t be stopped, the person is gone too.”
The physician continued, “Even if the bleeding stops, with such a large wound it’s hard to recover. At the slightest carelessness, the person is gone.”
Zhao Hanzhang gripped the arrow tightly and asked, “Do you know which armies have such arrows?”
The physician thought for a moment before saying, “I’ve followed many armies, and it seems all Jin armies have them except for the barbarians.”
Well then, so this type of arrowhead was an open secret.
Zhao Hanzhang looked down at the physician treating the wound.
His movements were fairly quick. Soon he had cleaned out the mangled flesh from the wound. The wound bled again from the cleaning. He simply wiped it once and was about to press on the hemostatic pack.
Zhao Hanzhang quickly stopped him. “You’re stopping the bleeding like this? How long will it take?”
“Not long, not long. This medicated pack works very well. Press for a while longer, and in a quarter hour the bleeding will start to decrease. In two quarters it should stop. But he can’t move—any movement will cause bleeding again, so this pack needs to stay fixed in place for a day.”
Zhao Hanzhang: “…Won’t this pack stick to the flesh? When you remove it to change the dressing, won’t it bleed again?”
The physician: “By then there will be much less bleeding—hardly worth mentioning.”
He said, “A true man, can he not withstand even this small injury?”
With that, he was about to press down the pack. Zhao Hanzhang always felt that secondary damage was a very cruel thing, so she stopped him. “With such a large opening, suture it first.”
“The General means using mulberry bark thread or catgut to suture?”
Zhao Hanzhang nodded.
“I’ve only heard of it, never tried it on people. The soldiers in the army wouldn’t let me try. Are you willing to let me try on Young Master?”
Zhao Hanzhang: “…Bring the needle and thread. I’ll do the suturing.”
The physician: “You’ve sutured before?”
Zhao Hanzhang: “I learned as a child.”
When she was young, she was interested in everything, especially experimental things. So she had sutured rabbits’ wounds. Later she even went with her father to the military for parent-child activities. Besides shooting and military boxing, learning from the military physician uncles and aunts was also a required project.
Moreover, long illness makes one a physician. She grew up getting knocked around, and while she was average at treating other illnesses, she had extensive experience handling external injuries.
Seeing her insistence, the physician didn’t refuse. The pack was still pressed against Fu Tinghan’s wound as he explained, “We still need to stop the bleeding first.”
Zhao Hanzhang didn’t object this time and waited for the physician to fetch his treasured needle and thread.
This wasn’t Zhao Hanzhang’s first time suturing someone, but many years had passed since then, and her experience was limited—only twice before, making this the third time.
But her heart was steady and her hands didn’t shake. After the pack was removed, she carefully separated the flesh, then took the needle and began suturing…
Her parents had once evaluated this skill of hers, saying she was naturally suited to be a soldier or a doctor.
The couple had even argued over whether she should follow their path and become a soldier or become a doctor. Finally, they reached consensus and decided she should be a military physician.
But Zhao Hanzhang had no interest in being a military physician. She and her grandfather were of one mind—in the future she would be a scientist, the kind that specifically developed weapons.
Unfortunately, she never achieved any of those three aspirations. First she became a music teacher, but didn’t do well at that either, and eventually became a librarian.
She never imagined she would suddenly fulfill both her parents’ wishes in another space-time.
After Zhao Hanzhang finished suturing the wound, she stepped back and left the follow-up to the physician. After standing for just a while, Qiu Wu came to report. Zhao Hanzhang went out.
“The Prince of Donghai was defeated in battle. Gou Xi captured quite a few prisoners and is still fighting, mostly gathering up the Prince of Donghai’s remnant forces. Over here, Gou Chun occupied the camp. Our men went to pursue the Prince of Donghai and haven’t yet sent back news.”
He said, “The scouts checked along the route as you ordered. There are no signs of ambush—the road is safe. However, Gou Chun, after taking the camp, has been fortifying defenses and even secretly had men dig horse traps.”
Zhao Hanzhang’s face darkened. She quietly ordered, “Send someone to pursue Erlang and the others now. Tell them to stop when appropriate, bring the men back, and don’t return by the original route. Circle back via the path we took on our return.”
Qiu Wu acknowledged and turned to leave.
Zhao Hanzhang gave a cold laugh and summoned a personal guard. “Go, deliver my order to Assistant General Chen leading the infantry. Have him immediately engage the Prince of Donghai’s remnant forces by the river, assist General Gou in suppressing the remnants, gather prisoners, and clear the battlefield.”
“Yes!”
To say they would suppress remnants and gather prisoners naturally meant whoever captured them got to keep them. Clearing the battlefield was the same—whoever obtained weapons and horses, they belonged to them.
Zhao Hanzhang hadn’t originally wanted to compete with Gou Xi over these things. After all, Yuzhou was truly struggling this year with limited grain supplies.
She had temporarily only wanted to coax out the common folk scattered in the mountain forests and gather up the scattered remnant soldiers who hadn’t been captured by Gou Xi. She should be able to absorb that number of people.
But she hadn’t expected Gou Chun to pull this move. Since that was the case, she naturally had to make an effort and not let them be too pleased with themselves.
Moreover, Yuzhou’s strength was currently far inferior to Yanzhou. She needed manpower for development.
Everyone would just have to live more bitterly and tighten their belts together.
The battle continued until evening. Gou Xi captured many remnant soldiers, while Zhao Erlang and his group also returned from pursuing the Prince of Donghai, bringing back quite a few prisoners.
They didn’t return along the original route but took the path Zhao Hanzhang’s group had used when returning to Yuzhou from outside Chang’an, quietly circling past the riverside camp.