Liu Qin’s face turned deathly pale, and his body began to tremble. He hurriedly looked at Liu Yi, his eyes filled with pleading.

Liu Yi indeed showed his sense of loyalty and directly said, “The rebellion was my idea. If you want to kill someone, kill me and spare him.”

Zhao Hanzhang returned to her seat and sat down. Looking down at them from her elevated position, she smiled faintly and said, “Liu Yi, you and I have not just met today. You understand me, but I understand you even better. Without someone instigating you, you would at most think about escaping, but you would never think of a military mutiny and rebellion.”

“However,” she continued, “whether you wanted to escape or rebel, both are offenses in my eyes, so rest assured, you will all be punished.”

Liu Yi promised he would never commit such acts again. He was willing to sincerely surrender to Zhao Hanzhang, only asking that she spare Liu Qin’s life.

Not to mention Liu Qin himself, Xuan Yuxiu and the other Han officials were all deeply moved. Seeing Liu Yi willing to humble himself for his subordinate, they could not help but have tears welling up in their eyes.

Zhao Hanzhang’s gaze swept across their moved faces, and she said expressionlessly, “You’re willing to truly pledge allegiance, and I’m naturally pleased. If this were in the past, I would certainly give you this favor, but not today.”

Liu Yi was stunned. “Why?”

Zhao Hanzhang tapped on the letter on the table and said, “Your General Shi Lei has killed our Dajin’s Grand General, so Liu Qin must die.”

Zhao Hanzhang leaned forward, staring into Liu Qin’s eyes and said, “Being able to accompany our Grand General in death, General Liu should feel honored.”

Liu Qin: …

Zhao Hanzhang said expressionlessly, “If you truly surrender, I will naturally treat you sincerely. If you pretend to submit to me, I am kindhearted and when there are no major losses, I’m happy to turn a blind eye and treat you gently. But if you rebel against me and try to kill me, that’s a different matter.”

Zhao Hanzhang raised her hand and waved. Her personal guards immediately came forward and dragged Liu Qin away.

Liu Qin’s face turned pale, and he hurriedly shouted, “Zhao Hanzhang, I am of the imperial clan! If you dare kill me, when our Xiongnu army returns, they will never spare you!”

Zhao Hanzhang sneered. Fan Ying stood out and scolded the gradually retreating Liu Qin, “What kind of random nonsense dares to claim imperial lineage before our governor? Our imperial clan has the compound surname Sima. You people merely usurped the Liu surname—do you really think you’re descendants of the Han imperial house?”

Only after she finished scolding did Zhao Hanzhang clear her throat lightly. After attracting everyone’s attention, she stood up and said, “Everyone, let’s go to the city gate to witness the execution.”

Liu Yi’s face paled. “Witness the execution?”

“Yes,” Zhao Hanzhang walked up to him, reached out to help him up, looked into his eyes and said word by word, “That scoundrel Shi Lei hung our Grand General’s corpse in front of his army. Since you’re both rebels, I must return the favor.”

Having said that, she pulled Liu Yi along and went out to the city gate together.

Liu Qin was pressed onto the city tower by the personal guards. After being fitted with a noose, he was pushed off the city gate. Liu Yi and the other Han officials who were being escorted beneath the gate exclaimed in shock, then saw their familiar Liu Qin hanging above them, his eyes bulging wide as he stared at them, his feet kicking constantly, his hands frantically clawing at the rope around his neck, trying to untie it.

Zhao Hanzhang only glanced once before looking away to observe the onlookers.

The watching Han officials were all trembling, but the watching commoners looked on with great interest, not frightened at all.

After looking around, Zhao Hanzhang sneered. How strange—among these officials, except for Liu Yi who was still an innocent flower, everyone else had blood on their hands.

Among those they had killed, countless were innocent. Even Xuan Yuxiu had a dark history of indulging his household slaves in seizing land, forcing good people into slavery, and killing innocents to grab their land. These people showed no change in expression when killing others themselves or ordering others to kill, but now when someone of their own status was being killed, they suddenly became compassionate.

Liu Yi’s knees went weak, and he collapsed at Zhao Hanzhang’s feet.

Watching his once closest elder being hanged right before his eyes, Liu Yi could not accept it for a moment.

Zhao Hanzhang did not force him to continue watching. The Xiongnu Liu clan already had enough perverts; she had no intention of cultivating another one. Besides, this was not really for him to see, but for Xuan Yuxiu and the other Xiongnu Han officials to witness.

So Zhao Hanzhang waved her hand, and someone immediately came forward to help Liu Yi away.

The others were not so fortunate. They had to kneel before the city gate and look up for a full two hours before they could leave.

Only after returning to his residence with a pale face did Xuan Yuxiu, one of the main conspirators, piece together the reason for Zhao Hanzhang’s fury from various messages.

News came from the Central Plains that Gou Xi had rebelled and been killed, and Shi Lei had hung his corpse in front of his army. He had taken Xiayi County in one stroke, simultaneously capturing twelve fortresses. It was heard that his army had already pressed close to Chen County.

At first hearing, the situation seemed favorable to them, but in reality, for the captured Xuan Yuxiu and others, this was bad news.

Pingyang City had been captured for ten days, and Zhao Hanzhang showed no sign of leaving. Instead, she sent her army to continue advancing north and east. In just these ten days, they had taken twelve county towns and fifty-seven fortresses.

Her attitude was not as mild as when she had previously taken other prefectures in Sizhou, but rather she governed with iron-fisted methods. Some fortresses were clearly inhabited by Han people with considerable power, people whom even their emperor had to treat courteously when he was alive, yet she still attacked them, ordering the fortresses to obey her commands. Anyone who violated her orders, she killed without exception.

Clearly, Zhao Hanzhang had no intention of abandoning Pingyang Prefecture to return and provide support, and Shi Lei also had no intention of abandoning the portions of Yanzhou and Yuzhou already in hand to return and provide support. Therefore, the interests had nothing to do with these captured people.

They even had to bear the harm and pressure that Zhao Hanzhang received from outside.

Their heads ached terribly. It seemed that no matter what happened, they were the ones getting hurt.

Xuan Yuxiu had just sat down and had not yet had time to burn all the information he had received when a team of Zhao Family Army soldiers burst in. He hurriedly threw what he was holding into a brazier.

A Zhao Family Army soldier kicked the brazier over with one foot, then led others to stamp out the fire, and in the process stepped on Xuan Yuxiu as well.

The leading colonel bent down, flipped through the half-burned paper with an expressionless face, and said, “Take him away and send him to the prisoner camp.”

“Yes!”

Taken away with Xuan Yuxiu were all those who had participated in this rebellion.

Zhao Hanzhang said she would punish them, and she meant it. They were assigned to hard labor in the military camp, and if that was not enough, they would be taken outside to dig irrigation channels.

This year there was drought. Who knew what the climate would be like next year and the year after? She had people dig more wells and channels. Even if one day she lost Pingyang City, the people here could still use these things.

Even little darling Liu Yi was thrown into the military kitchen to chop firewood and cook.

After two days of this, Xuan Yuxiu and the others were driven so hard they could barely catch their breath. These people had lived in comfort and ease. They could endure hardship in battle, but no matter how hard that was, they had never done such grueling work as digging wells and building irrigation channels. Though it had only been two days, they felt as if two years had passed.

At this time, the petty official supervising them finally relented, indicating they could redeem themselves through meritorious service. As for what kind of merit to achieve, they should figure it out themselves.

Xuan Yuxiu gritted his teeth and refused to yield, but one day, while he was digging mud in the cramped and dark well bottom, due to hunger and excessive fatigue, he failed to catch his breath, his vision darkened, and he collapsed in the well.

After being placed in a bamboo basket and shakily pulled up to the surface, looking at the sky so bright it was blinding, Xuan Yuxiu suddenly saw the light. Thus he became willing to confess his contact channels with the Han court.

—