Next, Zhao Hanzhang and Shi Lei staged a drama where he fled, she pursued, and he couldn’t escape even with wings. She chased him from the outskirts of Chengshi County in Puyang State all the way to the outskirts of Wu’an County in Guangping Jun.
During this process, they clashed multiple times, with Zhao Hanzhang narrowly winning each time.
Even though Shi Lei was confident he wouldn’t lose to Zhao Hanzhang, and he was continuously joining up with Shi army reinforcements, the successive defeats still made him irritable and caused him to doubt heaven’s mandate.
If even he felt this way, his soldiers felt it even more strongly.
It was understandable that Zhao Hanzhang was welcomed in Yuzhou and Yanzhou, but unexpectedly, even in Sizhou—a place both Liu Yuan and Shi Lei had ruled for several years—the local people also welcomed her.
Often, as soon as Shi Lei’s army left, people would seek out Zhao Hanzhang’s troops, voluntarily reporting the army’s direction to her, and even some with exceptional arithmetic skills would defect to Zhao Hanzhang, estimating their numbers and provisions.
This made it so that even though Shi Lei had created false trails several times, he still couldn’t shake off Zhao Hanzhang.
In this situation, there was only one solution—avoid populated cities and return to Anping State entirely through the wilderness.
But he lacked provisions. He needed to replenish grain while fleeing.
How to replenish?
Naturally, slow collection was impossible, so plundering was the best method.
This was almost a vicious cycle. He plundered the local people’s property, so the people turned to Zhao Hanzhang. From gentry and wealthy families down to slaves and commoners, all became Zhao Hanzhang’s informants.
But he couldn’t give up—otherwise his soldiers would immediately abandon him. While plundering grain, he also needed to continuously kill prisoners to intimidate his subordinates, terrorizing them into not leaving the army unauthorized.
This was like a slow-acting poison.
Shi Lei saw it, and Zhao Hanzhang grasped it even faster. So even though the battle line stretched long and Zhao Hanzhang’s logistics couldn’t keep up and they too began lacking grain, she still restrained her subordinates, forbidding them from plundering the people.
She gathered all the squad leaders together and said, “The people are water, and we are boats. Sizhou is also Jin territory. After this battle, we will certainly recover and rule again. If we harm the people now, the consequences will be endless. Water can carry boats and also capsize them. Look at Shi Lei’s current predicament to understand how important popular support is.”
The squad leaders naturally understood, but, “Commissioner, matters have priorities. We can’t have soldiers fighting for us on empty stomachs.”
Zhao Hanzhang said seriously, “I will find a way. Your task is to restrain your soldiers well. They must not offend the people. This is a death order. Anyone who violates it, regardless of status, will be dealt with by military law.”
Everyone shuddered and lowered their heads in agreement.
Zhao Hanzhang’s solution was to take her seal and borrow grain everywhere.
Borrowing from local county offices, borrowing from local gentry and wealthy families.
Initially, many were unwilling. Though she only brought one maid and one personal guard, under Zhao Hanzhang’s imposing gaze, they still felt threatened.
The Jin state’s current foremost power broker was borrowing grain—who truly dared not lend her even a grain of rice?
Everyone grudgingly gave grain and received an IOU stamped with Zhao Hanzhang’s private seal.
Though she said this IOU could be taken to the Zhao Family Army or the government offices in Xiping, Chen County, and Luoyang to collect the debt, few people truly dared to go.
But there were always those who took things seriously.
A scholar from Gong County who had been borrowed from actually took the IOU to find the Zhao Family Army camp.
Zhao Ming received the IOU, gritted his teeth, and had someone take money from the already impoverished military treasury to repay him.
After the scholar received the money, he took his guards home. This repayment truly became known throughout the realm—news traveled faster than people and goods.
Moreover, Zhao Ming and Ji Yuan deliberately promoted it somewhat.
Thus, the news flew north faster than Zhao Hanzhang, who occasionally fought battles and rested, even surpassing Shi Lei to arrive ahead of him at places he would pass through.
So the people of Sizhou, Bingzhou, and other enemy-occupied territories yearned even more to return, and even Xiongnu and Jie people held some anticipation when hearing Zhao Hanzhang would attack.
Though the emperor ruling them now was Xiongnu, only Xiongnu nobles benefited. Ordinary Xiongnu people had higher status than Han and Jie people, but the taxes, military service, and other burdens they bore were still very heavy. Their lives weren’t better than under Jin rule—rather, influenced by the overall environment, they suffered even more.
Especially this year with the drought.
The drought in northern Sizhou and Bingzhou was far more severe than in Yanzhou and Yuzhou. Now in the eighth month, the rice paddies and spring-planted wheat and beans were ready for sequential harvest.
But the fields’ soil had dried and cracked, with only sparse stalks of crops growing on them, all drooping as if about to die any moment.
Places near water still had some harvest, but fields far from waterways were basically yielding nothing, with even people and livestock beginning to compete for water.
In this situation, they increasingly missed their former days under Jin. Hearing that Zhao Hanzhang loved the people, that under her rule, regardless of ethnicity, only status mattered—commoners were commoners, slaves were slaves, and slaves could even accumulate military merit to become commoners, never changing commoners to slaves based on ethnicity.
Truthfully, among the lower-class people, few really paid attention to which emperor sat on high. If he was of their own ethnicity, naturally that was good. If not, as long as life wasn’t particularly difficult, they wouldn’t strongly object.
When Shi’s army passed through, people in towns and cities—whether Han, Jie, Xiongnu, or other barbarians—all hid in panic. When doors were broken down and food plundered, most didn’t dare resist.
Those who resisted were all killed by Shi’s soldiers with one stroke.
After they left, people began following the direction Shi’s army came from. Sure enough, before long they discovered another army.
After confirming the high-flying banner read “Zhao,” they came forward to inform.
As soon as Zhao Hanzhang entered a city, the county magistrate and local gentry would come to see her, first explaining their difficulties—this year’s drought, poor harvest, Shi’s army had just plundered once, so they couldn’t provide much grain.
Then they offered provisions.
Zhao Hanzhang had Fu Tinghan verify the grain while she took out her brush to write them IOUs.
Receiving Zhao Hanzhang’s stamped IOUs, the county magistrates and gentry all beamed with joy.
After learning these IOUs weren’t empty promises, anyone who wasn’t truly too poor to eat wanted to exchange grain for one. Even if Zhao Hanzhang couldn’t repay the money and grain later, having this IOU meant they could gain other promises, right?
Some far-sighted risk-takers, even when nearly too poor to eat themselves, still managed to scrape together grain for Zhao Hanzhang, exchanging it for an IOU.
Zhao Hanzhang gathered provisions faster than Shi Lei, then divided the army into two parts. One part handled transporting grain, while the other each carried three days’ rations and hurried to pursue Shi Lei.
The reason for such urgency was that she had already made arrangements days ago, deploying Zu Ti to circle around Guangping Jun, deciding to attack Shi Lei from north and south at Wu’an County.
To this end, Zhao Hanzhang had Zhao Ju, Xie Shi, Ji Ping, Wei You and others divide their forces, forming a fan shape to close in on Shi Lei, forcing him to choose only the route toward Wu’an County.