Beigong Chun looked back and only then noticed that their own men had also taken heavy injuries, and since they had been fighting since morning, chasing any further would be a tremendous trial on both body and spirit.

Zhao Hanzhang, too, wore a face of exhaustion. “Not only are the men worn out now, but the horses are spent as well. We can’t keep chasing.”

She raised her voice. “Where are Fu Tinghan and Fan Ying? Send for them to come and receive orders.”

Fu Tinghan and Fan Ying, who had stayed to the rear, came up at once.

Zhao Hanzhang said, “I need money. Other valuables will do as well.”

Fu Tinghan said, “I’ve already sent people to gather up the baggage abandoned along the road.”

Zhao Hanzhang said, “If that isn’t enough, requisition more.” Her expression turned cold. “By force if necessary.”

Fu Tinghan hesitated a moment before agreeing, then set off with Fan Ying and a company of soldiers to seize valuables. It was his first time doing such a thing, and his hands trembled slightly.

Zhao Hanzhang dismounted and found a clean spot to sit.

Beigong Chun, puzzled, asked, “Does the general want the valuables to comfort the troops and raise morale?”

“Rewards aren’t fitting right now,” he said. “Recognition for merit ought to wait until the fighting is over.” Handing out large sums as rewards at this point would only stir up restlessness.

“Who said it was for rewarding merit?” Zhao Hanzhang said. “This money is going to Shi Le.”

Beigong Chun: “What?”

Prince Donghai had claimed he was merely leaving the capital, but he had brought along nearly half the court with him — men like Wang Yan, the Grand Commandant, and various clan elites had all followed, not to mention the rest of the officials and noble houses.

It amounted to a tacit abandonment of the emperor, a rebuilding of a new court elsewhere.

So when he left, he had not only stripped clean the state treasury and the inner palace storehouses, but the officials and clan members who went with him had brought their own household baggage as well.

They meant to start anew alongside Prince Donghai.

So apart from fixed property that couldn’t be carried, everything else — down to a single copper coin, up to folding screens and wooden couches — anything of good quality that could be carried, they carried.

This was exactly why the road was now littered with abandoned baggage.

Of course, most of it was too bulky to be of much use.

The most valuable portion had mostly already been seized by Shi Le, since the officials and clan households of Luoyang were, for the most part, now in his hands.

But amid the chaos, there were always people — and treasures — left behind.

Fu Tinghan and Fan Ying each led a company and went straight to confiscating this remaining wealth.

What he hadn’t expected was that those being robbed not only didn’t resist, but some even handed things over on their own.

A woman opened the cosmetics case she carried with her and bowed slightly. “Young Master Fu, this is my own private savings. My thanks to Lady Zhao for bringing troops to save us — without her, we would still be suffering amid the chaos of war.”

She said, “Most of our wealth has already been taken by that bandit Shi Le. What remains isn’t much, only enough to perhaps supply Lady Zhao with a little grain and fodder. Please don’t think it beneath you, Young Master Fu.”

Fu Tinghan glanced at the jewels and pearls in the case, returned her bow, and said, “My thanks. Hanzhang isn’t taking these valuables for supplies. Yuzhou is poor and our logistics are difficult, but we’re not so desperate as to seize wealth by force to feed the army. This is to ransom people back. Does your household have anyone taken by Shi Le?”

He continued, “I can’t promise they’ll certainly be ransomed back, but if you give me their names, as long as they can be found, Shi Le is willing to release people for the right price. We’ll make sure to give them priority.”

The woman’s eyes lit up at once. “My husband is of the third branch of the Xu clan of Fanyang. He and both our sons were taken by Shi Le.”

She lifted her skirts and knelt, bowing deeply to Fu Tinghan. “Governor Zhao and Young Master Fu’s great kindness — I shall never forget it, even in death.”

Fu Tinghan helped her up and wrote down the names of her missing family members.

Knowing the money was meant to ransom people, the woman immediately removed the hairpins from her head, the bracelets from her wrists, and the gemstone necklace from around her neck, and handed them all to Fu Tinghan.

Fu Tinghan didn’t refuse — if she offered, he accepted; if she didn’t offer, he wouldn’t force it from her person. But as for the baggage people carried with them, whether gold, silver, jewels, or silks and fine cloth, he confiscated all of it, leaving not a single item behind.

Because of the wife’s account spreading, the crowd of clan nobility and officials all learned that Zhao Hanzhang meant to use the money to ransom people.

After a moment’s thought, they too began handing over their valuables of their own accord.

It would all be taken anyway — could they really outfight Zhao Hanzhang’s army?

Better to act first; that way there might still be some goodwill left between them. What if Zhao Hanzhang really did manage to ransom their family members back?

Still… “Is Zhao Hanzhang really going to ransom people back? She was just fighting Shi Le to the death.”

One official, who had been fortunate enough to escape, lay sprawled on the ground and said weakly, “Where there’s profit to be had, anything’s possible. Never mind just buying people back — if the stakes were high enough, people would call their own enemy ‘father’ on the spot.”

Someone nearby sneered at this. “You think everyone’s like you, ready to call whoever feeds them ‘mother’? Zhao Hanzhang carries herself with the bearing of her ancestors, with the manner of a true gentleman. Don’t slander her.”

The official: …What had he even said wrong?

“All right, all right, you two, stop arguing — if you draw the Zhao family army over here it won’t end well,” someone hurried to mediate. “Hurry and gather your things, they’ll be over here to collect soon.”

One person quietly grabbed a handful of jewels from his own baggage and tucked them into his sleeve. “What’s there to gather? When they come, just let them take it.”

“Well said.” The one who’d spoken also pulled a gold cake from his own bags and hid it in his robes.

Those who’d witnessed the whole exchange: …

Well, so be it — life had to go on afterward. If they wanted to hide a little away, so be it.

Fu Tinghan certainly knew some people were hiding valuables, but since this was, after all, seizing property from others, he turned a blind eye so as not to stir up public resentment — as long as the amount hidden wasn’t too great, he pretended not to see.

Fan Ying, by contrast, was far more severe. Wherever her sharp gaze fell, she had the soldiers search it out.

Before long, box after box of gold, silver, jewels, silks, and jade ornaments were carried before Zhao Hanzhang.

Only then did Zhao Hanzhang rise. She bent down, stirred through the contents of a box, and frowned. “This is far too little. Search back along this road — Prince Donghai brought out so much, surely Shi Le didn’t take absolutely everything?”

Having received her order, Fan Ying turned and led her people off at once.

Fu Tinghan also had a few more boxes carried over, and asked, “Are you sure you can ransom people from Shi Le?”

Zhao Hanzhang: “How did you know I meant to ransom people?”

Fu Tinghan: “You’re not chasing them down — you can hardly just watch those fifty-some thousand people become Shi Le’s slaves, can you?”

He went on, “Among them are no small number of soldiers and common people. If Shi Le can’t feed them, he’s quite likely to kill them all. If you’re gathering money now, what other purpose could it serve besides ransoming them?”

Zhao Hanzhang said, “Shi Le is fierce, but he isn’t cruel for its own sake. They’ve already surrendered, and their numbers aren’t large — Shi Le should be able to feed them, so I don’t think he’ll kill the common people. But I can’t say the same for the others.”

Though Zhao Hanzhang had studied history thoroughly, she couldn’t recall every single detail. But one event remained etched deeply in her memory: the three hundred thousand soldiers and civilians Prince Donghai had led out, in the end, were entirely wiped out. Some hundred-odd thousand of them died fighting Shi Le;

and more than two hundred thousand others, after surrendering, were burned to death by Wang Zhang — no, roasted alive.

He had deliberately controlled the size of the fire so as to roast them through, then had the flesh divided up and eaten.

At the time, his Xiongnu troops and Shi Le’s Jie tribesmen together had devoured two hundred thousand people between them.

Every time she touched upon that stretch of history, even across a thousand years of distance, she still felt a chill run through her.