Zhao Hanzhang led the main army and the Qihuo Army to Gucheng.

After just half a day’s journey, they entered Gucheng territory.

The scenery in Gucheng was not much different from outside. It was the height of spring, and the fields were covered with wild grass over a finger’s length tall. From a distance, it actually looked like the wheat seedlings returning to green in previous years.

But approaching closer, one could see it was patches upon patches of wild grass.

Zhao Hanzhang reined in her horse and stood by the edge of the field looking into the distance. Chen Wu and a few others dismounted and also looked ahead, though their gazes were unfocused, completely unsure what they were looking at.

Soldiers passing behind them couldn’t help but turn their heads to glance over as well. It’s just a wasteland, what’s so interesting about it?

While looking, they slowed down a step. The person behind pushed them, “Stop looking, hurry up. You’re not a general, what can you see? Look at the Zhao Family Army, all neat and orderly.”

Their general couldn’t see much either. After staring ahead with Zhao Hanzhang for a good while, he said, “This grass really grows well.”

Zhao Hanzhang nodded, “Indeed, it grows very well. What does the general see?”

Chen Wu hesitated before saying, “This grass is so good, cattle and horses should love eating it. We can raise cattle and horses?”

Zhao Hanzhang: “…General Chen has a good idea. Then raise more cattle, we can use them for plowing.”

She said, “This grass grows so well, showing this land is very fertile. From here all the way to Gucheng’s city gate, all the abandoned farmland is yours to cultivate.”

Chen Wu asked hesitantly, “What if refugees who escaped return later to farm?”

“I’ll allocate them land elsewhere,” Zhao Hanzhang said. “These abandoned lands will be directly reclaimed as state property. Now they all belong to me… His Majesty, they’re official fields. When I say you can farm them, you can rest assured and farm them.”

Chen Wu breathed a sigh of relief and asked, “What about seeds…”

“I’ll have someone deliver them as soon as possible.” Zhao Hanzhang mounted her horse and pulled the reins. “Let’s go, we’ll go see Gucheng.”

Gucheng’s city gate stood wide open. The streets were empty and desolate. Wild grass and trees sprouted from corners and walls, making it look like a ghost city.

Actually, it was close to that. When Wang Mi and Liu Cong moved south, apart from some elderly, weak, sick, and disabled people, everyone who could escape had fled.

The people in the county office had all run away too. The ground was covered with a layer of fallen leaves and dust. When people walked quickly, dust flew up, choking them.

Zhao Hanzhang touched the dust on the main hall table and clapped her hands. “Clean out this county office. Later I’ll appoint a new county magistrate for Gucheng.”

She looked around this street, finally pushing open a large residence to the left of the county office, and said directly to Chen Wu, “This residence is good. I’m giving it to General Chen. The general’s headquarters will be established here. From now on, General Chen can work here.”

Chen Wu: …

He swept his gaze around and saw that although this residence was overgrown with wild grass and seemed uninhabited for a long time, the layout was still quite good. With a little tidying up, people could live there.

After wanting to speak but stopping several times, he nodded, “Thank you, General Zhao.”

Zhao Hanzhang said very generously, “For the houses in the south and west parts of the city, apart from those still occupied, you may choose freely. Each household can only choose one residence. Soldiers can only be stationed in the barracks. The four city gates and barracks are yours. After three days, make nameplates with your own names and hang them outside the doors. I’ll have someone record them. The plaques must also record the household head and their name.”

Chen Wu acknowledged.

Zhao Hanzhang then left. To show her support for them, she first paid their provisions and fodder expenses for the next month.

This time she gave not grain, but money.

Soldiers carried in sack after sack of copper coins. Feng Long opened one, took out a string of copper coins, untied it, took one to examine carefully, and said to Chen Wu, “They’re official-made.”

Chen Wu exhaled in relief. “Send someone to buy grain.”

“Yes.”

All the nearby people had fled. To buy grain they would need to travel quite far, to Hedong Commandery or Jingzhao Commandery.

Feng Long acknowledged, but didn’t leave. He hesitated, “General, I remember that news said the Emperor only approved the appointment of the Luoyang County magistrate, who’s from the Zhao family. The other counties of Henan Commandery have no officials. These places aren’t under Zhao Hanzhang’s jurisdiction, right?”

Chen Wu sat down heavily on the steps. After being silent for a long while, he said, “There’s no one here, no officials. Whoever occupies it, it’s theirs. If she says she’s appointing someone, let her appoint. In places with people and officials, people still seize them. What’s so strange about this?”

“That’s not strange, but she’s using the Emperor’s banner. If this news spreads and the Emperor sends someone over, which side do we listen to?”

Chen Wu said, “Unless she, Zhao Hanzhang, betrays the country and sides with the enemy, otherwise whoever pays us is who we listen to.”

If the Emperor was willing to pay to support them, he could listen to the Emperor too. But would he pay?

Li Tou immediately nodded, “Right, whoever pays us is who we listen to.”

Chen Chuan couldn’t help saying, “If this spreads, won’t people curse us again for following whoever feeds us?”

Chen Wu waved his hand unconcernedly, “Let them curse. As long as we can stay alive.”

Feng Long and the others thought about it and agreed. Only then did they load the money onto their ox carts and select troops to go buy grain.

The Qihuo Army had a specialized grain-buying team. The Qihuo Army soldiers sitting casually on the streets, tired and hungry, saw the grain-buying team driving out several carts with sacks on the front two carts, and knew they were going out to buy grain.

So the originally half-dead Qihuo Army soldiers became enthusiastic, happily greeting the grain-buying team, “Be careful on the road!”

“Go and return quickly!”

When Chen Wu came out and told them to go to the south and west parts of the city to choose houses, they also went with considerable interest.

If it were before, they wouldn’t bother with this effort. Nowadays empty houses were everywhere and not hard to find. What was hard to find was grain and money.

They still followed their previous habits, with several families living in one residence. This way they could look after each other daily, and once there was war, they could respond quickly.

They didn’t treat Gucheng as a long-term residence, even though Zhao Hanzhang was going to distribute seeds for them to farm. They didn’t think they would stay here very long.

Since leaving their homeland, they had never stayed in any one place for a full year.

So when they chose houses, they did so casually. Pushing open the door, confirming there were no signs of habitation inside, some took one room per person, others even one room per family to live in.

Therefore, when Zhao Hanzhang sent people to record the wooden plaques, what they saw was several wooden plaques hanging outside each door.

The logistics officer in the army immediately ran to report this situation to Zhao Hanzhang.

Zhao Hanzhang smiled and said, “Record it truthfully. This is also good, it can accommodate more people. As long as they don’t quarrel later.”

Because of this remark, when the logistics officers went to record the wooden plaques again, they asked repeatedly, “Are you sure about this allocation? You won’t change it?”

The Qihuo Army soldiers found them annoying and impatiently said, “We’re sure, we’re sure.”

A half-grown youth, dirty all over, leaned against the door shaking his leg. “In another half year I’ll go join the military and won’t even be living here. Why ask so much? Can this house really keep me for a year?”

The logistics officer glanced at his leg and said, “As long as you don’t regret it later. Once the register is made, it can’t be changed.”

The half-grown youth unconcernedly rolled his eyes. “There are so many empty houses. If I really want to live alone, I can just find another one.”

“That won’t do. Those houses now all belong to our Governor. Outsiders cannot randomly occupy them.”

Half-grown youth: “Who would live in them? In this city, only the western end has a few households. Besides us, who else would live in these houses?”

Very soon, they found out.

Fu Tinghan brought people escorting grain seeds and a group of people over.

—