Fan Xing was a squad leader commanding ten soldiers beneath him. When the arrows came flying, he remained clearheaded, standing back-to-back with his squad members to knock down the incoming arrows. Still, people around him kept falling. Not far away came the company commander’s roaring voice: “Raise shields! Counterattack! Counterattack!”
Fan Xing thought to himself: Setting aside the fact that they were a group of infantry—how were they supposed to counterattack cavalry?
As for shields—did they even have such things as shields?
Just as he fell into despair, a volley of arrows flew over their heads toward the enemy. Fan Xing found time to glance back, and in that glance saw the female general in the lead, spear in hand, spurring her horse forward, leaping directly over them to charge straight into the enemy’s arrow rain.
The archers used their arrows to suppress the enemy. Beigong Chun and Zhao Hanzhang together led their forces to kill into the enemy army during this opening.
Fu Tinghan, bold as ever, circled back around with Fu An and once again called out: “The Yuzhou Zhao Family Army comes to aid…”
Before he could finish this time, the soldiers came rushing after him with their crude swords, leaving behind only scraps.
Seeing all his subordinates flee, the company commander simply ran along with them.
Seeing the rear soldiers breaking away from the main force, a lieutenant who had been fleeing in confusion immediately flew into a rage. “Are they deserting in the face of the enemy? Order them back at once! Anyone who flees shall be executed without mercy!”
“General, we have reinforcements!”
“What reinforcements…” The lieutenant paused mid-sentence, his eyes widening. Though he had run quite far, he too could now see the Zhao Family Army and Western Liang banners. “Zhao Hanzhang and Beigong Chun?”
“Yes! It’s the Zhao Family Army and the Western Liang Iron Cavalry, led personally by Zhao Hanzhang and Beigong Chun.”
But the lieutenant’s heart pounded violently. “Zhao Hanzhang has a grudge against our Prince. Would she come to save us?”
“But she has come to save us, General. General Zhao’s people are telling us not to cluster together and to withdraw from the southeast. We should go too.”
The lieutenant couldn’t help but look toward the front where people were also scattered in chaos and fighting. Gritting his teeth, he still took his personal guard’s advice and ran.
Actually, he was quite loyal to Prince Donghai—it was just that he had to survive first before he could be loyal.
Fu Tinghan led away one group, but the rest were trapped in the battlefield. He could no longer enter. The Jin soldiers and accompanying family members and common people weren’t fools either—they wouldn’t cluster on the official road waiting to die. They scattered and ran.
Fu Tinghan led his people back and began picking up stragglers in the wilderness.
Shi Lei and the Xiongnu army’s main target was Prince Donghai and the court officials and troops he led. Therefore, their forces were mainly concentrated here.
The Jin army had no fighting spirit and thus lost any ability to resist. With family members, aristocratic household troops, and others mixed in, no matter how talented Wang Yan was, he couldn’t command them at this moment.
So their defense was extremely difficult. This also meant that Zhao Hanzhang and Beigong Chun, blocking the Xiongnu army from behind, had to face even more enemy forces.
Not until nightfall did both sides temporarily cease fighting.
Zhao Hanzhang’s hands trembled slightly. She dismounted and walked toward Fu Tinghan with a relaxed smile on her face. “You’re not hurt, are you?”
Fu Tinghan shook his head and looked her up and down. “What about you?”
Zhao Hanzhang shook her head. “I’m not injured either.”
Fu Tinghan pointed to a fire. “Sit down. I’ve had people heat water. You can wash your face, and I’ll apply medicine for you in a moment.”
Ting He immediately emerged from the side. “Young Master, let me handle applying the medicine.”
Zhao Hanzhang was startled to see her. “Has Master Ji arrived?”
Fu Tinghan gave an affirmative sound and said, “He went to settle the refugees.”
The Jin soldiers and common people weren’t fools. With Zhao Hanzhang and Beigong Chun holding off the Xiongnu for them, they immediately took to their heels.
At this point, they no longer wanted to follow Prince Donghai on his migration. Naturally, they ran in whichever direction took them farthest from the enemy.
Fu Tinghan had been gathering refugees outside, directing them to regroup and then run in specific directions.
There were also some Jin soldiers—they had weapons and were mostly able-bodied men. If they were allowed to scatter into the countryside, they would become bandits in the future. So Fu Tinghan intentionally had them concentrate and remain nearby, though they didn’t really obey orders and many fled.
When Ji Yuan arrived with the main force, Fu Tinghan simply handed this group over to him to manage.
Zhao Hanzhang dampened a cloth to wipe her face and hands. The bloodstains on her clothes couldn’t be helped. She planted her spear in the ground beside her and pulled out a provision pouch from inside her clothes, extracting a hard, dry biscuit to eat.
The biscuit was dry and made with soybean flour, quite coarse. She bit off a piece and crumbs immediately fell. She caught them in her hand and poured them into her mouth. “These provisions still need improvement. They’re too damn hard to eat.”
Beigong Chun smiled and also took out a biscuit to eat. He thought these provisions were already quite good.
Fu Tinghan glanced at her and said, “Don’t use coarse language.”
Zhao Hanzhang nodded and changed her phrasing. “Write to Chenxian and Xiping. Have the cooks spend time figuring out how to make provisions that are palatable, convenient to carry, and can be preserved for a long time. Anyone who succeeds will be richly rewarded!”
Fan Ying acknowledged the order. Watching the bloodstains on Zhao Hanzhang’s clothing, her heart surged with emotion. “My Lady, tomorrow let me go to the battlefield with you.”
Zhao Hanzhang shook her head in refusal. “You’re a civil official. Assist Master Ji in managing the rear. What about our provisions? The scattered Jin soldiers need to be gathered, and there’s all that abandoned baggage up ahead—when you have time, go through it and pick out anything useful.”
Zhao Hanzhang turned to ask Fu Tinghan, “How many escaped?”
Fu Tinghan replied, “A rough estimate is about one hundred fifty thousand.”
He casually picked up a wooden stick and began drawing by the fire. “I had the flag-bearing cavalry lead them in a detour south, back to Xiangcheng, or to return to the Luoyang area from around Xiangcheng. They’re divided into three routes, one group every quarter-hour, each group between two thousand and four thousand people. I had the flag-bearers bring them to the Luoyang vicinity then return.”
“Along the way are wilderness and abandoned villages. If they want to stay, they can settle locally. If they don’t follow the flag-bearers’ commands and scatter, that’s also fine—they’ll be heading toward Yuzhou anyway.” Fu Tinghan continued, “One hundred fifty thousand people will either remain in the area from Luoyang to Xiangcheng or go to Yuzhou—they’ll all be your people.”
Zhao Hanzhang nodded with satisfaction. “Ordinary common people needn’t be constrained too much, but if they’re Jin soldiers, we must try to conscript them. They have weapons and military experience. If we don’t restrain them, I fear they’ll become bandits later.”
Fu Tinghan nodded in agreement. “Master Ji is handling that matter now.”
Night had fallen, but the refugees fleeing for their lives hadn’t stopped. Fan Xing was leading a squad of soldiers running with difficulty.
At some point, a group of comrades had gathered around him, about a hundred or so.
Having become deserters, they all felt somewhat anxious. “Squad Leader, where are we running to?”
Fan Xing stopped and looked around at the pitch-black surroundings. Only far behind them were scattered points of firelight—that was the battlefield.
In the darkness, someone was shouting: “The Yuzhou Zhao Family Army is recruiting! All Jin soldiers may come join! There’s military provisions to eat!”
Everyone looked expectantly at Fan Xing. “Should we go?”
“If we go back and end up fighting the Xiongnu again, wouldn’t that be suicide?”
Fan Xing also hesitated, but finally gritted his teeth. “Let’s go back. If we keep running like this, we’ll end up as bandits anyway. And we don’t have a scrap of food on us—we’ll starve to death.”
So they ran back again, quickly encountering soldiers holding torches who were out gathering scattered troops, and they were led back to camp.
—