Zhao Shi was bound and escorted into the nearest county town. As he entered the city, he raised his head and saw two large characters on the city gate: “Quzhou.”
Zhao Shi withdrew his gaze and tried hard to match the location on the map Fu Tinghan had given him. The delegation should have bypassed Quzhou, and he wondered where they were now.
These people were clearly of military origin. He wondered if they would believe him if he said he was a deserter who had escaped from Zhao’s army.
Probably not. Third Sister was famous for treating commoners and soldiers well—how could deserters emerge from under her command?
Gou Xi and Gou Chun were harsh in governing their subordinates, so it was possible for someone to escape from them. That’s right, they were Gou family army who had fled from Yanzhou.
With this thought, as soon as he saw someone, he immediately declared his identity: “I am Zhou Shi from the Gou family army in Yanzhou. We escaped and came to seek refuge with the general.”
His comrades, who were similarly bound hand and foot, were stunned and all stared at him in shock.
Zhao Shi showed no change in expression as he turned his head to look at them and introduced: “These are all my subordinates who were willing to escape with me.”
Zuo Min, who had chased them until his horse nearly died from exhaustion, looked at them with unfriendly eyes and said to the person in the seat of honor: “General, this person cannot be trusted. If he really came to seek refuge with us, why did he run? Moreover, those routed soldiers said that there was a convoy traveling with them at the time, and the carts seemed to be transporting much treasure. We searched all around but couldn’t find the convoy.”
The general didn’t respond to Zuo Min’s clamoring but sized up Zhao Shi from head to toe. After a moment, he looked toward the weapons the soldiers had confiscated.
The soldiers immediately presented Zhao Shi’s long spear.
The general lightly flicked the spearhead. The bright, gleaming spearhead emitted a clear sound, and he couldn’t help but smile. He looked at Zhao Shi again. “You’re from Zhao’s army, aren’t you?”
Zhao Shi denied it with a serious expression: “We Gou family army have an irreconcilable enmity with Zhao’s army. General, please don’t insult me!”
The general said: “As far as I know, there are indeed many deserters and refugees from Yanzhou, but they wouldn’t come to Jizhou. Most go to Yuzhou. The one who has a conflict with Zhao Hanzhang is General Gou, but what does that have to do with you ordinary soldiers?”
“Moreover, only Zhao’s army has this kind of spearhead.” The general stroked the spearhead and sighed: “I’ve long heard that Zhao’s army has special smelting technology that can transform iron into something harder and sharper, called steel. I didn’t quite believe it before, but now I see I was ignorant.”
Zhao Shi’s expression changed slightly, but he still insisted: “I am from the Yanzhou army.”
Only then did the general put away the spear and had people untie them, saying: “I am Zu Ti, and I was just looking to seek refuge with your commanding officer. I wonder if the young general would be willing to make an introduction?”
Zhao Shi was stunned. He stared at him with wide eyes, and after a long while said somewhat doubtfully: “Could this be the�匈奴-occupied territory? How could Military Advisor Zu be here?”
Zu Ti had once been recruited by Prince Donghai as Military Advisor, though he had declined using the excuse of observing mourning.
Zhao Shi had heard Zu Ti’s name more than once from Third Sister, because Master Ji had praised Liu Kun, and Third Sister had said that Zu Ti’s virtue and talent surpassed Liu Kun’s.
He knew that Third Sister had always wanted to recruit Zu Ti as a general, but she couldn’t find him, and she couldn’t represent the court in recruiting people all over the realm, so she could only regret it privately.
Zhao Shi swallowed and looked at Zu Ti with bright eyes. “Are you really Military Advisor Zu?”
Zu Ti smiled and nodded. “That’s correct. I’ve already taken Quzhou County. I know that Commander Zhao has strong military forces and has already recovered most of Sizhou. If so, why not take Guangping Commandery as well? Then Shangdang and Pingyang would be isolated, and we could cut off their communications. If the court wishes to launch a northern expedition to recover lost territory in the future, it would be much easier.”
Zhao Shi asked: “How much military force would that require?”
They currently had all their forces pressed at the border to guard against Shi Le and Liu Cong, and they still had to be careful of Gou Xi raiding their home base in the rear. They simply couldn’t spare much military strength.
Zu Ti said: “Don’t worry about military forces. I can recruit them now. I just don’t have enough weapons and provisions.”
Zhao Shi understood—he wanted to seek refuge with Third Sister, but wanted her to provide provisions and weapons for him to fight in Jizhou.
If this had been anyone else, they would definitely have refused Zu Ti on the spot. This move was too risky.
But Zhao Shi was a young man, at precisely the age when one doesn’t know the heights of heaven or the depths of earth. Third Sister had said that nothing in this world was impossible. As long as they dared to think it and dared to do it, then there was hope of success.
He immediately said: “I’ll write a letter to the commanding officer for you.”
Zu Ti laughed heartily and asked loudly: “Young general, you’re no longer saying you’re from the Yanzhou army?”
Zhao Shi spat and said: “I’m not one of those generals from Yanzhou who only know how to bully their own people.”
Zu Ti’s smile faded slightly, and he sighed: “They’re not all like that. The soldiers who followed General Gou back in the day all had great aspirations.”
What a pity.
Zu Ti asked: “May I know the young general’s name?”
Only then did Zhao Shi say: “I am Zhao Shi from Xiping.”
Zu Ti knew he and Zhao Hanzhang came from the same clan, but why would Zhao’s army run to Jizhou?
“How many of you are there?” Zu Ti said: “I’ll have soldiers go meet them. Did you come to Jizhou on official business?”
Zhao Shi smiled awkwardly and didn’t mention Zhao Xin and the others, only saying vaguely: “General needn’t concern yourself with them. Right now taking Guangping Commandery is what matters. I’ll write a letter back to Luoyang immediately. Please have two people from your side accompany my guards back to Luoyang, General Zu.”
The mission to Zhongshan Commandery was still a secret. Even if Zu Ti had good character, Zhao Shi couldn’t speak of it now.
Seeing that he wouldn’t say, Zu Ti didn’t ask further and invited him to go rest.
As soon as he left, Zuo Min said indignantly: “General, he clearly doesn’t trust us. Why should we still cooperate with them?”
Zu Ti said: “They’re clearly on a mission. Never mind that we’re still outsiders now—even among our own people, secret missions can’t be spoken of openly. Treat them politely. We’ll be working together in the future, and it’s not good to make relations too strained.”
Zuo Min pursed his lips and asked: “Must we seek refuge with Zhao’s army? Actually, with the general’s current prestige, we could take all of Guangping Commandery in one go.”
Zuo Min was a mountain bandit that Zu Ti had recruited on the road—actually a small fort chieftain.
Because Shi Le was too cruel and attacked fortified settlements everywhere, he had no choice but to lead the villagers in building a fortified settlement. He also took in some people and defended without going out, so the local county office labeled the settlement as bandits.
And because he had taken in many people and didn’t have enough rations, he would occasionally lead people out to rob things, truly becoming a bandit.
As Zu Ti traveled westward, somehow Gou Xi heard that he wanted to seek refuge with Zhao Hanzhang and sent people to search for him along the way.
To avoid Gou Xi’s people, he detoured everywhere, and in his detouring ended up in this area, where he happened to be ambushed by Zuo Min. He counterattacked and captured Zuo Min.
Zuo Min was also sensible and immediately recognized Zu Ti as his boss, letting him command the entire fortified settlement.
Zu Ti felt it would be awkward to seek out Zhao Hanzhang empty-handed, and with Gou Xi blocking the way, he simply led the people from the settlement to attack all the nearby bandit dens.
Originally he wanted to gather two or three thousand people and then bring them all to seek refuge with Zhao Hanzhang, but as he fought, he ended up taking Quzhou County.
It was also because Quzhou County’s magistrate insisted on provoking him, sending troops to suppress him, so he could only attack Quzhou County.
Zuo Min’s hometown was here, and he didn’t really want to leave. He wasn’t interested in Zhao Hanzhang either. He thought, if Zu Ti was willing to hold this territory, then it would be quite nice for him to be second-in-command here.
Unfortunately, Zu Ti’s ideal wasn’t to be a regional warlord bandit. What he wanted was national unification, so he wanted to follow someone he believed could lead him to unify the realm.
Zu Ti insisted on contacting Zhao Hanzhang. Zhao Shi wrote a letter, and he also wrote a letter. The two letters were given together to a squad leader, who led people to deliver them back to Luoyang.
Zhao Shi remained here to wait.
As for Zhao Xin and his group, Zhao Shi didn’t say anything. Calculating the time, they should have already run far away by now, right?
—