Lu Hu, following behind Zhao Erlang, kept watching the flag bearer beside Zhao Hanzhang. Seeing the flag signal change, he immediately said: “Young General, the Magistrate is ordering us to charge southwest…”
Zhao Erlang yanked the reins, leading his men to charge in another direction. In no time they had broken through the encirclement. Where he had charged through, the refugees’ forces couldn’t connect front to back—their attack immediately weakened. Some people, seeing cavalry arriving, couldn’t care about plundering goods and turned to flee into the mountains.
But would Zhao Erlang let them run? He immediately led his men in a flanking maneuver, herding them back onto the road.
A quarter hour later, the fighting in the field ceased. All refugees had been forced into six circles. Some had already thrown down their wooden sticks and crouched on the ground. Most stood with their backs together, warily watching these cavalry.
Fu Tinghan and his group also arrived. Seeing yet another force with even greater numbers, the refugees’ hearts sank even deeper. Those who had been clutching stones and refusing to let go also dropped their stones, crouching on the ground ready to be killed or captured.
Fu Tinghan hadn’t expected her to act so quickly. He rode to her side, scanned the area, and asked: “Bandits or refugees?”
Zhao Hanzhang: “Both.”
The young man standing on the wagon had bright eyes. He jumped down from the cart and strode quickly toward Zhao Hanzhang…
Zhao Hanzhang revealed a warm yet polite smile and dismounted to stand firm.
Fu Tinghan also dismounted, watching the young man approaching quickly. He was slightly surprised—wasn’t this Zhu Chuan?
Zhu Chuan strode up to them, inserted his sword back in its sheath, then tidied his sleeves and robes before raising his hands in a deep bow. “Many thanks to Magistrate Zhao for saving my life.”
Zhao Hanzhang smiled and nodded slightly. “Master Zhu need not be so courteous. It’s my failure in managing my jurisdiction that caused you alarm, Master Zhu.”
Zhao Hanzhang turned to Fan Ying and said: “After registering all the bandits, conscript them and take them for settlement.”
Fan Ying bowed in acknowledgment and immediately went to make arrangements.
Zhu Chuan watched Fan Ying walking toward the refugees, couldn’t help but turn back to ask Zhao Hanzhang: “How does Magistrate Zhao intend to deal with these bandits?”
Zhao Hanzhang said: “Question them about their origins, send them to farm the fields to atone for their crimes.”
Zhu Chuan had lost quite a few men. Hearing Zhao Hanzhang’s handling, he wasn’t dissatisfied. After all, in these chaotic times, it wasn’t uncommon for people who had been fighting to the death one moment, wishing to annihilate each other’s families, to become close as brothers the next moment, eating at the same table.
His gaze fell on the soldiers behind Zhao Hanzhang, appropriately expressing his confusion: “How does Magistrate Zhao happen to be here? I was planning to visit after reaching Xiping.”
Zhao Hanzhang smiled: “I’m making a trip to Nanyang. Not far ahead is Nanyang Kingdom. Did Master Zhu come from Nanyang?”
Zhu Chuan nodded in acknowledgment, smiled and said: “Today was truly fortuitous. In any case, I must invite Magistrate Zhao for a drink.”
Zhao Hanzhang immediately agreed and had her soldiers make camp on the spot.
Zhu Chuan went to count his casualties and losses. Only then did Zhao Hanzhang step forward to look at those refugees. Fu Tinghan had the military physicians accompanying them come help treat and bandage the wounded.
The refugees opened their large eyes wide, looking at Zhao Hanzhang with both hope and wariness.
Clearly, they had all heard of this new Provincial Governor.
Zhao Hanzhang stood before them with a look of disappointment, as if facing mischievous children of her own family. “The proclamations about disaster relief and taking in refugees were sent down long ago. I even ordered all commanderies, kingdoms, and counties to have officials and clerks beat drums everywhere, precisely because I feared you couldn’t read.”
“This place isn’t far from Xi’e County in Nanyang Kingdom. Why didn’t you enter the city to receive relief, but instead wandered outside committing banditry?”
The refugees, seeing that although Zhao Hanzhang was angry, she wasn’t tyrannical, grew bolder. Their hearts suddenly ached, and they immediately knelt down together, prostrating with their bodies to the ground: “Magistrate, please hear our plea! We didn’t want to be bandits—we also wanted to be good citizens! But the counties of Nanyang Kingdom don’t allow refugees from the north to enter the city. We were driven out from Luyang.”
Prostrate on the ground with heads deeply bowed, Zhao Hanzhang could only hear their voices, not see their expressions.
But she saw their hands spread with ten fingers pressed beside their heads. Her gaze swept over—every hand was red, swollen, and frostbitten, some even split open, seemingly revealing bone inside.
Her gaze slid down from their hands, seeing the skin exposed through holes in their clothing. The cold wind blew, lifting their disheveled hair and the tattered strips of cloth on their bodies…
Zhao Hanzhang didn’t know if they were trembling from cold or from touching on heartache as they spoke, their voices slightly shaking, choking with emotion: “Though we were in the wilderness, we heard of the Magistrate’s benevolent policies, knowing that you would let us settle locally, wait for relief, and receive land distribution. But we were repeatedly driven away and truly dared not linger long in Nanyang Kingdom.”
“Hearing that the Magistrate was in Xiping, and that Runan Commandery is your hometown, that the one in charge there is your uncle, we thought they surely wouldn’t disobey your orders. So we braved the heavy snow to come.” He said: “We originally had only a hundred or so people, but on the road we met many disaster victims who had also fled from the north, so we traveled together.”
Only then did Zhao Hanzhang withdraw her gaze and look down to ask: “How many of you are there?”
“Originally four or five thousand people. But it was too cold—many died. Some people refused to keep walking and just dug into the earth or built grass houses to winter over right there. Now only over two thousand are still following us.”
Zhao Hanzhang’s gaze swept over, seeing there were barely a thousand people here, so she asked: “Where are the rest?”
“In the forest—all elderly, weak, women, and children.” The person who had been prostrate finally dared to lift his head slightly. Tears had washed his dirty face into streak after streak. He only dared glance quickly at Zhao Hanzhang, then prostrated again, head down, saying: “We were truly too cold, too hungry. Seeing this merchant caravan seemed to be transporting quite a lot of grain and cloth, we couldn’t help ourselves…”
He didn’t finish, but Zhao Hanzhang understood. She directly ordered: “Take us to see them.”
Hearing Zhao Hanzhang’s voice was calm, not sounding angry, the man secretly breathed a sigh of relief, got up, and led Zhao Hanzhang into the forest to find the others.
Of course Zhao Hanzhang wouldn’t go in herself—she brought a mounted team in.
Not far into the forest was a mountain hollow. Because it was a hollow, it blocked the wind and was slightly warmer than outside. Zhao Hanzhang walked to the slope edge and looked down to see a dense mass of elderly, young, and women crouching below.
Zhao Hanzhang was slightly stunned.
Fu Tinghan was also stunned.
Zhao Hanzhang’s gaze swept over, then she turned back to the young man and said: “Bring them out.”
With that, she turned and left.
Fu Tinghan turned his head to watch her walk away, pretending not to see her somewhat reddened eyes. He stood at the exit waiting for them to emerge, mentally counting as people passed, simultaneously sizing them up to estimate approximate ages and storing this in his mind.
A little girl walked hastily, trying to keep up with those in front. She broke into a small run for two steps, then tripped on a tree stump and fell with a thud right in front of Fu Tinghan.
Fu Tinghan quickly reached out to help her up. Seeing her bare feet and several ill-fitting garments layered on her body—though not one was intact, all torn and tattered.
He glanced at her red, swollen feet, thought for a moment, then took off his cloak, wrapped her entire body in it with particular attention to wrapping her two small feet, then picked her up. Looking back, he swept over the remaining fifteen people, committed them to memory, then turned and left.
—