Fu Tinghan cut away all the obstructive armor, exposing the shoulder. The military physician lowered his head, only raising it to examine the arrow wound after Fu Tinghan urged him.

Zhao Hanzhang’s armor had blocked some of the impact, so the arrowhead wasn’t deep. However, both Fu Tinghan and the military physician were still very afraid, because for arrow wound victims, unless vital areas were struck, the truly terrifying aspect was never the damage caused by the arrow itself, but rather the infection problems that arrow wounds brought.

The military physician took out a knife and nervously glanced at Zhao Hanzhang. “General, I’ll remove the arrowhead for you now.”

Zhao Hanzhang nodded.

Seeing he was about to proceed directly, Fu Tinghan couldn’t help but frown. “Don’t you need anesthesia?”

“Ah?” the military physician said. “Does the General want to use mafeisan? I’ll have someone prepare it right away.”

“Enough, you’ve already stripped off my clothes before thinking of mafeisan. How long would I have to wait for you to prepare it?” Zhao Hanzhang said. “Come on, dig it out quickly. I still have matters to attend to after this.”

Fu Tinghan glanced at her and silently took a cloth-wrapped wooden block from Ting He’s hands and placed it in her mouth, then sat behind her to support her.

Zhao Hanzhang obediently bit down on the cloth and gestured for the military physician to come forward.

Only then did the military physician approach with his knife. He used the blade to separate the flesh around the arrowhead, then with ruthless precision, speed, and steadiness, pulled out the arrowhead…

As soon as the arrow was removed, blood spurted out. The medical assistant quickly pressed a medicinal pack against the wound. Zhao Hanzhang’s forehead broke out in sweat. She only let out a muffled groan before leaning into Fu Tinghan’s embrace with a lifeless expression, unwilling to say a word.

After removing the arrowhead, the military physician examined it carefully. Only after confirming it wasn’t damaged did he begin preparing the next medication.

Once the bleeding had stopped somewhat, the military physician opened the medicine pack and began cleaning her wound.

The main concern was that the arrow might have been contaminated with harmful substances, so some flesh and blood needed to be cleaned away before applying medicine.

This made the wound somewhat larger. Seeing that he had finished cleaning and was about to apply medicine, Fu Tinghan stopped him, saying wearily, “Didn’t I have you practice suturing techniques? First use thread to suture, then apply medicine.”

“Ah, but this wound isn’t very large… Yes, I’ll get the needle and thread right away.” Under Fu Tinghan’s gaze, the military physician immediately retrieved needle and thread.

They rarely sutured arrow wounds, only using the technique when someone had been slashed with a large gaping wound that wouldn’t stop bleeding.

After all, this newly learned medical skill was not very familiar to them, and each use required considerable time.

After suturing Zhao Hanzhang’s wound, the military physician took wound medicine and was about to sprinkle it on when Fu Tinghan took it from him, saying, “I’ll do it.”

The military physician gladly stepped aside, hurriedly writing a prescription for someone to prepare the decoction. He stood to the side with his head lowered, not daring to look at the intimate pair—no, trio.

Ting He assisted Fu Tinghan as the two of them worked together to bandage Zhao Hanzhang’s wound.

Zhao Hanzhang slowly raised her hand to remove the cloth strip from her mouth, her face pale as she said, “The medical skills of the physicians in my army leave much to be desired.”

The military physician: …

Zhao Hanzhang said to Ting He, “Go send a message to Fan Ying, have her recruit physicians and medical apprentices from among the refugees. Take them all, every single one. Don’t be stingy with money—secure these people for me.”

She continued, “We still don’t have enough military physicians. We can’t always rely on recruiting from outside. We need to train our own people. Such a large wound and you’re not even accustomed to suturing it—how big does a gash have to be before you’ll suture it?”

She said, “If you’ve learned new medical techniques, you need to use them. Otherwise, what’s the point? Recruit more people, whether men or women, as long as they’re careful and strong. Recruit them all. Treating external injuries should be the first thing to learn.”

Zhao Hanzhang looked at the military physician who didn’t even dare raise his head and couldn’t help but sigh, leaning back to look at Fu Tinghan.

Fu Tinghan: “…Don’t worry about these matters anymore. Rest well. I’ll handle it.”

“I remember there’s a physician named Zhang Sheng… All right, I’ll stop talking,” Zhao Hanzhang obediently closed her mouth under Fu Tinghan’s gaze and leaned against him, saying, “I’ll leave this matter to you. By the way, where is Mister Ji?”

Seeing she really couldn’t stay idle, Fu Tinghan had someone bring up the medicine and made her drink it before pressing her onto the bed. “You must rest for at least half a day and can’t deal with any more matters. I’ll handle everything else.”

Fu Tinghan turned to instruct Ting He, “Watch her here. Don’t let her get out of bed and move around.”

Ting He immediately agreed, “Yes.”

Fu Tinghan left with the military physician.

Zhao Hanzhang obediently lay on the bed, but couldn’t fall asleep.

Her shoulder still ached. She felt the burning pain of the wound medicine applied to her injury, but her heart wasn’t particularly troubled. She was replaying today’s battle in her mind.

She hadn’t expected Liu Cong to be even more shameless than her, a modern person, actually ignoring the rules of single combat and turning to flee. It seemed she still wasn’t shameless enough—this wouldn’t do.

If she had thrown her spear at that moment, would she have been able to wound Liu Cong?

Zhao Hanzhang mentally traced through the events, her eyes growing brighter and brighter. The more she thought about it, the more convinced she became that if she had thrown her spear, she definitely could have killed him.

Her spearhead was made of steel!

But was her strength sufficient?

Zhao Hanzhang clenched her right hand under the covers, testing her body’s strength before shaking her head slightly. “No good. I still need to train my strength.”

“Ah, what did Nulang say?” Ting He turned around to ask.

“Nothing,” Zhao Hanzhang said. “I’m hungry. Go get me something to eat.”

Ting He hesitated before saying, “Nulang, you have a wound. You can’t eat foods that promote inflammation.”

“I’ll eat pork.”

Ting He said, “Nulang, I’m not looking down on pork, but we’re currently on the march. We don’t have any pork.”

“What about Mi Ce? Hasn’t he arrived yet? He’s bringing the military provisions, right? I remember he brought pigs with the army.”

Ting He, seeing she really wanted to eat, got up and went out to ask. After a long while, she returned saying, “General Mi’s main force says they still need two more days to arrive.”

“They’re too slow,” Zhao Hanzhang said. “Send someone to urge them, tell him he must arrive before sunset tomorrow.”

She asked again, “What about Xun Xiu? I had him lead troops on a circuitous route. Where has he circled to? I’ve been here for a day and still no sign of him.”

Ting He went out to ask again. Before long, she returned with a somber face, saying expressionlessly, “General Gou will arrive tomorrow. Nulang, please don’t ask me any more questions. The young master just scolded me, saying I didn’t watch you properly. You clearly said you would rest, but then you used wanting to eat meat as an excuse to handle military affairs again.”

Zhao Hanzhang said, “I have one last question. How are things with Erlang in the city? They haven’t started fighting, have they?”

Ting He wanted to pretend she hadn’t heard, but still couldn’t resist running out to help her ask. Before long, she returned saying, “The second young master is trading insults with the Xiongnu across from him, shouting very loudly. They haven’t started fighting.”

“You absolutely must not ask anymore. Even if you do, I won’t tell you.”

Zhao Hanzhang made a zipping motion across her mouth, indicating she would stay quiet.

True to her word about staying quiet, Zhao Hanzhang closed her eyes to rest, but her mind refused to rest.

The current situation wasn’t necessarily unfavorable to them. After all, they were outside while Wang Mi and Liu Cong were inside. However, it was very unfavorable for the people in the palace. It would be too difficult to rescue them.

Actually, Zhao Hanzhang had another concern she hadn’t mentioned—she was very afraid that Liu Cong and Liu Yao would become furious and set fire to Luoyang.

Historically, they had done exactly that, burning the magnificent Luoyang city and palace to ruins.

If they couldn’t successfully attack the palace for a long time, they might choose to set fires.

In history, they had done this even when they successfully entered the palace. How much more likely now when things weren’t going smoothly?