Zhao Ming was never one for gentle sweet talk—his tongue had always been sharp. Combined with his advisor Ji Yuan, the two of them were verbally gifted and directly provoked Inspector Zhang until his face turned deathly pale, nearly fainting from anger.
However, he ultimately didn’t faint. So Zhao Ming continued to antagonize him, saying bluntly, “Inspector Zhang, before Inspector He’s death, he left word that General Zhao would be Yuzhou’s next Inspector. He even wrote a memorial and sent it to Luoyang. So although General Zhao isn’t at Chen County, she’s actually already Yuzhou’s Inspector. She’s also the acknowledged Deputy General of Yuzhou, second only to Inspector He. Deploying troops for a counterattack is her military order. Do you dare to defy orders?”
Ji Yuan said leisurely, “How could this be acceptable? The immediate priority is to resolve Yuzhou’s crisis. You and I have no idea how our Miss managed to lure away these Xiongnu troops. Missing this opportunity may well be Yuzhou’s last chance to escape its predicament.”
Zhao Ming sneered. “Inspector Zhang doesn’t care. After all, he only has his family here. He just needs to send them away. But can Yuzhou’s common people all flee? For example, our Zhao clan—we have thousands upon thousands of clan members. We can’t all drag our families away.”
Xun Xiu and the others pondered for a moment. The vast majority sided with Zhao Ming, bowing seriously in response, “We’ll go muster the troops now.”
Inspector Zhang was finally so angry his eyes flashed with gold stars. He angrily shook his sleeves and declared, “Hmph, you make the Zhao clan sound so noble, as if you’re not just pursuing private interests.”
At this point, Inspector Zhang’s teeth itched with hatred.
In terms of qualifications, he was someone who could compete with Inspector He for the Inspector position. Back then when he and Inspector He competed, he lost. He had originally thought that if Inspector He died, it should be his turn.
But last year Inspector He tricked him once. This year he refused to fall for it no matter what. Moreover, with Yuzhou’s current situation, coming to Chen County might mean death.
The court wasn’t deploying troops, and whether Yuzhou could be preserved was still unknown. So he had deliberately not come. If Chen County truly couldn’t hold, he was in Ruyin Commandery and could flee faster.
Who knew Zhao Hanzhang would come to Chen County and be directly promoted to Commandery Administrator and Deputy General, even becoming the first female official in the realm.
He had just scoffed at this, thinking it was Inspector He drawing another pie in the sky. But unexpectedly, Yuzhou’s situation actually improved. He didn’t know how she fought, but she had actually tied down many Xiongnu troops.
He had wanted to sit and watch the tigers fight, hoping to profit as the fisherman. But he had faintly heard that Inspector He had long since died, and Chen County’s military orders all came from Zhao Hanzhang’s hand—they were just keeping the death secret to stabilize the troops’ morale.
Only then did Inspector Zhang become restless and hurry over with his army to “support” Chen County.
After entering the city, he learned that Inspector He had truly died, and before death had clearly stated that Zhao Hanzhang should succeed as Inspector, even writing a memorial to report to the court.
However, he felt the court would definitely refuse. After all, Zhao Hanzhang was a woman.
But what use was the court’s refusal now?
Could the court still control local matters?
Inspector Zhang felt he had miscalculated. After returning to his temporary residence, he paced anxiously in circles. Especially after hearing that all the generals were mustering troops in response, he couldn’t help but want to find Xun Xiu to persuade him otherwise.
Lu Xiyuan quickly stopped him. “My lord, Ji Yuan was right. The immediate priority is Yuzhou’s crisis. After Yuzhou’s crisis is resolved, we can compete for this Inspector position.”
Inspector Zhang was angry. “After Yuzhou’s crisis is resolved, how can I still compete with Zhao Hanzhang for the Inspector position?”
“But if Yuzhou’s crisis isn’t resolved, it’s useless for you to compete for it, my lord. Without reinforcements, Yuzhou cannot withstand the Xiongnu. By then, forget Chen County—even Ruyin Commandery will be hard to preserve on its own.”
Inspector Zhang fell silent, still unwilling.
Lu Xiyuan persuaded earnestly, “My lord, Zhao Hanzhang is merely a woman. The court certainly won’t grant her the position. This way, she’ll lack legitimate authority. Even if she wins this time and accumulates prestige, people like Xun Xiu definitely won’t submit. By then, with the Xiongnu threat gone from Yuzhou, we can compete with her. There’s no need to rush.”
But he had just been mocked and attacked together by Zhao Ming and Ji Yuan. His heart was unconvinced.
Lu Xiyuan seemed to know his thoughts and lowered his voice. “My lord, Runan Commandery is deploying many troops this time. No matter how brave they are, facing the Xiongnu they surely can’t maintain a one-to-one ratio. Afterward, if you wish to conquer Runan, you can just find any excuse.”
This was hinting that Inspector Zhang could deploy troops to forcibly occupy Runan afterward.
Local regions attacking each other had become the norm in the Great Jin. You occupy my territory, I’ll occupy his—the court couldn’t control it at all. Ruyin annexing Runan wasn’t anything unusual. After all, the two commanderies bordered each other and were very close.
Coincidentally, Ji Yuan was thinking the same thing.
After sending everyone away, he sat behind his desk in contemplation. Finally, he picked up his brush and roughly sketched the shapes of Runan and Ruyin Commanderies on white paper, then drew a line where they intersected. He felt that since their Miss was already Inspector, changing Ruyin’s Commandery Administrator to match Runan Commandery would be perfectly normal.
Persuaded, Inspector Zhang mustered his troops the next day and responded. Fine, adults don’t hold grudges against petty people. They’d drive away the Xiongnu first.
Currently in Chen County, the Zhao Family Army had the most troops, because Wang Nie and Xie Shi had brought twenty thousand men.
These two were also talented individuals. Zhao Hanzhang had asked them to recruit soldiers, thinking five or six thousand would be excellent. Who knew they could recruit twenty thousand without provisions?
They were even more shameless than Zhao Hanzhang. Taking Fan Ying along, they first made empty promises to recruit a group of refugees into the army, then without even giving them clothes, directly led the ragged refugees to various large and small strongholds to beg for grain.
Perhaps it was because of the Wang and Xie families’ fine reputations, or perhaps because of the pitiful appearance of the refugees they brought—in any case, the large and small strongholds all gave them some grain.
Wang Nie and Xie Shi recruited soldiers while begging for grain, actually bringing Zhao Hanzhang twenty thousand troops.
However, Zhao Hanzhang never saw them. Zhao Ming, who did see them, was so angry he nearly fell backward. Disregarding that Wang Nie and Xie Shi were famous scholars, he directly asked them, “Don’t you look at military supplies when recruiting soldiers? Twenty thousand men—how am I supposed to feed them? Without armor or weapons, how will they fight?”
Wang Nie said, “Refugee armies have no weapons either, yet don’t they campaign everywhere?”
“How many refugee armies have you seen that could fight the Xiongnu? In recent years, how many refugee armies has Gou Xi destroyed? Are you saying the Xiongnu’s main force can’t match Gou Xi?”
Xie Shi said nothing. Wang Nie replied, “They can still fight once. Twenty thousand men—even armed with stones and sticks, they can kill people.”
Zhao Ming’s face turned iron-blue. He said flatly, “That’s just sending lives away for nothing.”
He refused, and Ji Yuan also refused, telling Wang Nie and Xie Shi, “Our Miss wouldn’t agree either. Unless absolutely necessary, we cannot employ such a cruel strategy.”