Zhao Hanzhang was leading a large army charging toward Beigong Chun. The two sides met on a gentle slope. In the clash, the people around her were all separated by the Xiliang army.

Both Zhao Hanzhang and Beigong Chun used long spears. The two spears exchanged over a dozen moves. Beigong Chun showed no mercy. When charging forward again, he executed a turning thrust, which Zhao Hanzhang blocked with her spear, narrowly avoiding…

But using the force of her block, Beigong Chun slapped the spear shaft with his right hand. The long spear spun free, and he grasped it with his left hand, thrusting it forcefully forward…

The spear head wrapped in cloth and coated with plant ash struck her right in the heart.

The force was considerable. Zhao Hanzhang fell from her horse. Fortunately, she reacted quickly. As she fell, she kicked off, her body flew out, and she hugged her head as she rolled twice on the ground.

Fu Tinghan, watching from halfway up the mountain, took two steps forward. Only after seeing her pat off her clothes and stand up unharmed did he breathe a sigh of relief.

Zhao Erlang beside him was very excited, raising his long spear and whooping, afraid others wouldn’t know as he shouted loudly, “Elder sister lost, elder sister lost, elder sister lost again!”

Fu Tinghan laughed and patted his head, saying, “Be careful your elder sister doesn’t beat you. She at least beat General Beigong once and tied once – she can barely be considered capable of fighting him. What about you?”

Fu Tinghan said, “The troops you led hadn’t even reached General Beigong before they were swept away by the Xiliang army.”

Zhao Erlang didn’t care at all about his own defeat, “I naturally can’t compare to General Beigong.”

Zhao Hanzhang ignored Zhao Erlang and ran over to find Fu Tinghan, “Did you record everything?”

Fu Tinghan nodded, “Even if you don’t lose in single combat, your Zhao Family Army still lost to the Xiliang army.”

Zeng Yue came over in a disheveled state. He had also been beaten quite badly.

Most of the soldiers were carrying long spears without spearheads, shouldering them as they came over in groups, chattering away, “These spears without spearheads are completely awkward to use.”

“If it were a real spear, you’d still be able to get up? You clearly died early but still got up to disrupt the military exercise.”

“How did I disrupt it? I just didn’t notice I was dead. Once I realized, didn’t I lie down? Yet you Zhao Family Army still stepped on my hand – absolutely outrageous!”

“Bah, someone saw you deliberately put your hand under someone’s foot. That foot hadn’t even stepped down yet, and you grabbed it.”

“Enough, enough, stop arguing. People are watching and recording. Whether it’s merit or fault will be discussed later. Stop clustering together and spread out to stand properly.”

Zhao Erlang squatted to the side watching his sister and brother-in-law replay the battle with go stones. He originally didn’t understand go, but now he could vaguely understand some of it.

After all, he had watched the entire battle just now.

Zhao Erlang pointed to one spot and asked, “Is this elder sister and General Beigong?”

Zhao Hanzhang glanced at it and nodded, “Right.”

“What about this one? Is this Zeng Yue and his small squad?”

Zhao Hanzhang looked at Zhao Erlang approvingly, “Not bad.”

Zhao Erlang then pointed to several places and said, “Here, here, and here – just block these points and wouldn’t that surround Zeng Yue and his men to death?”

Zhao Hanzhang asked, “Where would you borrow troops from to surround them?”

Zhao Erlang pointed to one spot and said, “Here.”

Zhao Hanzhang smiled, “Clever, but it’s not worth it to kill Zeng Yue’s small squad. If I’m not mistaken, this formation was mainly aimed at me, right? Slowly splitting my people apart until only I remained. If General Beigong couldn’t capture me, then he would borrow troops from here to attack, flanking me from front and back. I would certainly die.”

Beigong Chun glanced at the go board and nodded, “Correct.”

He looked at Fu Tinghan and said, “This go board isn’t as intuitive as the clay model you made before. Go has too many limitations – there’s no such thing as borrowing pieces.”

Zhao Erlang didn’t understand go’s rules and simply picked up several white stones and piled them elsewhere, surrounding the black stones completely before saying, “Elder sister, wouldn’t you win this way?”

Zhao Hanzhang patted his head, “Win what? This is qi, the foundation for stones to live. You can’t place stones here. And when playing go, it’s one move at a time…”

Seeing Zhao Erlang’s confused expression, Zhao Hanzhang stopped talking and shook her head, “Forget it. When we get back, have Tinghan make you a sand table – that’s more intuitive. Then demonstrate today’s battle on the sand table.”

She also wanted to know if she could beat Beigong Chun if she did it over again.

Actually, Beigong Chun felt military exercises and sand table demonstrations had limited significance because, “The battlefield changes in an instant, affected by various factors – supplies, weather, morale, and the troops’ obedience to their commander, not to mention differences in terrain. Rather than drilling troops through military exercises, it’s better to pull them directly onto the battlefield. Only war is the true way to train soldiers.”

He said, “My Xiliang cavalry were all trained by fighting the Xianbei.”

Zhao Hanzhang disagreed, “They still have uses. At least now I know their coordination is far inferior to the Xiliang army. I can’t just pull people onto the battlefield and wait for a batch to die before training them, can I?”

Zhao Hanzhang felt the current situation was fine. The Xiliang army was a force forged through hundreds of battles. The people they lost were considerable – for every person who died, one was added. The number of Xiliang soldiers who died along the way was not small.

So Zhao Hanzhang was unwilling to send new recruits directly to the battlefield. Ordinary soldiers needed to drill and practice the most basic military formations.

Elite soldiers were selected from ordinary soldiers. They didn’t have to farm or occasionally get pulled into construction projects like ordinary soldiers. They trained every day, ate better than ordinary soldiers, and had better equipment.

Of course, when battles occurred, they were also the first to go to war.

These people – every single one – were raised at great expense and carefully honed by Zhao Hanzhang. She would feel pain losing even one.

And truthfully, after fighting Beigong Chun once, she had also benefited greatly.

The three were still gathered around the go board when Fan Ying rode up the mountain slope, “Miss, documents from various places have all arrived.”

Zhao Hanzhang didn’t even lift her head, “You handle them first. I’ll look later.”

The new county magistrate of Gucheng had arrived, so Fan Ying returned from Gucheng and was back working at Zhao Hanzhang’s side. She quickly glanced at Beigong Chun then moved close to Zhao Hanzhang’s ear and said, “There’s also a letter back from Xiliang.”

Hearing this, Zhao Hanzhang immediately looked up, “Let me see.”

Fan Ying quickly took out the letter and handed it to her.

Zhao Hanzhang scanned through it rapidly, a smile appearing in her eyes. She handed it to Beigong Chun, “Huang An and the others have arrived in Xiliang. Governor Zhang is magnanimous – he agreed to let the Xiliang army families move to Luoyang.”

Beigong Chun quickly reached out to take it. After reading the letter, he breathed a great sigh of relief, unable to suppress the smile on his face, “My lord has always been magnanimous.”

If it were someone else, they might be unwilling to let the families leave in order to control this Xiliang army force in the Central Plains. But Zhang Gui wouldn’t.

On this point, Zhao Hanzhang had to nod in agreement. Even she might not be able to do this.