Fu Zhi smiled bitterly. “My men and Ma Jia’en’s forces have been in constant conflict, clashing seven or eight times a day is normal. But they’re all hand-to-hand combat. At first, Chunyu Ding would come to check, but later he became too lazy. Today’s commotion was quite large, but he probably still doesn’t know you killed Ma Jia’en.”

Zhao Hanzhang felt this reasoning was too far-fetched. “My eight thousand troops came thundering over with such a huge commotion—could his scouts really not detect it?”

Fu Zhi was amused by her, and some of the heaviness in his heart lifted. He explained, “Ma Jia’en is tyrannical. This area is his defense line. Chunyu Ding can’t easily cross over to spy on the situation here. Besides, he knows I won’t have reinforcements and don’t have the courage to break through…”

Fu Zhi sighed slightly at this point and said dejectedly, “I wasn’t decisive enough. In any case, he knows that as long as he guards the pass at that end and doesn’t let me retreat to take another route to Yuzhou, he naturally won’t pay much attention to what happens here.”

In that case, Zhao Hanzhang decided to take her time dealing with the situation properly.

Everyone had been on a forced march for two days and was quite exhausted.

So she borrowed grain and provisions from Ma Jia’s army, had people start cooking fires, and gave the horses a good feeding. The soldiers had a full meal.

The cooking smoke rose into the air. Twenty li away, Chunyu’s forces could see it clearly. Deputy General Zhao Ran felt something was wrong and hurried to report to Chunyu Ding. “General, the number of cooking fires over there doesn’t seem right. It appears to have increased by several thousand men.”

The weather had already begun to turn cold. Chunyu Ding didn’t want to leave his tent and lazily raised his head. “The Xiongnu have withdrawn, and the Prince has surrounded Gou Xi. He’ll soon eliminate this threat to his heart. They’re probably celebrating.”

Zhao Ran said, “But it’s impossible to have several thousand more men just for celebrating. I just looked carefully, and the extra cooking smoke amounts to about six thousand men.”

At this point, the cooking smoke hadn’t completely dispersed, which meant this was an incomplete count. He felt the number of additional men was even higher.

Chunyu Ding said unconcernedly, “Then perhaps the Prince of Donghai sent more reinforcements.”

Zhao Ran felt that wasn’t it. “Fu Zhi has no talent for command and his twenty thousand men lack combat experience. We’ve been able to pin him down for five days—why would more reinforcements be sent?”

“So you’re saying Yuzhou and Luoyang sent reinforcements to Fu Zhi?” Chunyu Ding asked. “Can Yuzhou spare reinforcements now? Does Luoyang have any reinforcements to give Fu Zhi?”

Zhao Ran fell silent.

Although the Xiongnu had withdrawn, Yuzhou should still be too preoccupied with its own affairs. As for Luoyang, when even the attendants around the Emperor might be the Prince of Donghai’s people, how could there possibly be reinforcements for Fu Zhi?

Chunyu Ding waved his hand dismissively. “We should be having our evening meal too. Start the cooking fires. Stop worrying about their cooking.”

But Zhao Ran still felt uneasy in his heart. He bowed and said, “Please give me some troops, General. I want to go investigate. If nothing’s wrong, naturally that’s good. But if something has happened, we can react in time.”

Chunyu Ding found him too troublesome and frowned, but still agreed, waving his hand. “Go then.”

Zhao Ran acknowledged the order, went out to gather a detachment of troops, and headed forward to scout.

Because Fu Zhi’s army was in the middle, they needed to circle around from the side to scout ahead.

This was a mountain path that could only accommodate one column of men—it wasn’t really a secret. All three armies knew about it. For instance, Fu Zhi had also sent scouts to keep close watch on both armies. As long as things didn’t get too excessive, everyone turned a blind eye and pretended not to see.

After all, they weren’t mortal enemies—in fact, they could be considered family.

As long as Fu Zhi didn’t try to sneak away with his men down this small path.

Fu Zhi actually did want to, but unfortunately the path was too small and simply couldn’t accommodate so many people.

By the time Zhao Ran led his men to Ma Jia’s army position, Zhao Hanzhang and her forces had already eaten their fill. The sky was almost dark.

The soldiers, well-fed and watered, had also sprawled out to rest for an hour. She stood up briskly and said to Fu Zhi, “Grandfather Fu, you can leave now.”

Fu Zhi was startled. “Now?”

Zhao Hanzhang nodded. “Now.”

Fu Zhi paused briefly, didn’t ask many questions, and stood up to have people notify the army to pack up and set out.

He looked at Fu Tinghan standing silently to the side, then at Zhao Hanzhang, and couldn’t help sighing. “I never imagined you could accomplish this, Sanniang…”

Zhao Hanzhang looked up and smiled at him.

Fu Zhi fell silent. At this moment, his heart was somewhat confused.

When arranging the betrothal between his grandson and Zhao Hanzhang, he had made assumptions about their future. He only hoped they could survive, helping each other to live a bit better in this chaotic world.

He had never imagined Zhao Hanzhang would become the Governor of Yuzhou, and from what he could see, her military power exceeded his expectations.

At this moment, Fu Zhi opened his mouth, then swallowed all his words and simply nodded to the two of them before turning to leave.

“Grandfather,” Fu Tinghan called out. When he turned back, Fu Tinghan said, “I chose a courtesy name for myself—Tinghan.”

Fu Zhi paused before saying, “You wrote to tell me. I already know.”

Fu Zhi turned and walked away. This time he didn’t stop or look back. Zhao Hanzhang and Fu Tinghan stood together watching him walk into the distance, feeling his back had become somewhat stooped.

The two exchanged a glance. Zhao Hanzhang said, “You lead people and leave first. I’ll bring up the rear.”

Fu Tinghan nodded, only cautioning, “Be careful.”

Fu Zhi led his twenty thousand troops and departed first, then Fu Tinghan led part of their forces along with the newly captured soldiers from Ma Jia’s army. When Chunyu Ding received Zhao Ran’s message and hurried over with his troops, what he saw was the Zhao family army standing quietly in the dark night.

Dots of firelight—one torch for every ten men. Zhao Hanzhang had only left behind a thousand cavalry. Over a hundred torches lit up the dim night, but because they were scattered, one couldn’t tell how many men were beyond the firelight.

Chunyu Ding, who had rushed over with his army, instinctively reined in his horse upon seeing this, then squinted toward the front, not quite daring to approach.

Zhao Ran boldly called out, “Who goes there?”

At the time, he had been on the mountain and seen from afar that something was amiss below. He only knew an unfamiliar force had arrived and should be supporting Fu Zhi, because he saw them standing together.

Yet Ma Jia’s army showed no reaction at all and was even surrounded by this newly arrived force and Fu Zhi’s army.

Zhao Ran had immediately felt things were bad and turned back to find Chunyu Ding to report.

Chunyu Ding very much wanted not to believe Zhao Ran, but he also knew Zhao Ran wouldn’t lie to him, so he mustered troops and rushed over.

Passing through Fu Zhi’s camp, he discovered it was empty. His heart went cold. When he caught up and saw this force, because he couldn’t gauge their strength, he didn’t dare advance for the moment.

Zhao Hanzhang sat on her horse with Zhao Erlang beside her. The two sat quietly on horseback watching Chunyu Ding’s approach. Hearing Zhao Ran’s question, Zhao Hanzhang chuckled softly, nudged her horse forward a couple of steps, and had Ting He move the torch closer so they could see her face.

As the firelight approached, her mount stirred. Zhao Hanzhang reached out to stroke its neck, calming it before raising her head. By the dim firelight, she looked toward Chunyu Ding. “General Chunyu, I am Zhao Hanzhang, Governor of Yuzhou. In the middle of the night like this, where are you heading?”