Zhao Hanzhang lowered her blade and walked to the cart, placing one hand on Shi Lei’s shoulder with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes: “So they’re our own people.”
Shi Lei felt the pressure on his shoulder. He forced a smile: “Yes, our own people.”
He said to the bandits blocking the road: “Shi Jian, quickly come pay respects to General Zhao.”
Shi Jian, originally named Niu Jian, was strong and fierce. He had once been Shi Lei’s bodyguard. Because of his repeated military achievements, Shi Lei bestowed upon him the surname Shi. If not for his excessively stubborn temperament, Shi Lei actually wanted to adopt him as a sworn son, even though he was only two years younger than Shi Lei.
Barbarians and military officers most liked to do one thing: adopt sworn sons. Xun Xiu, Mi Ce, and others all had adopted sons. Ji Yuan had once envied their adopted sons, considering this a good method for winning loyalty, so he also wanted Zhao Hanzhang to adopt sworn sons. But considering that Zhao Hanzhang was not yet married, adopting sons at this time wouldn’t look good for her reputation, so he temporarily shelved the matter.
However, he had mentioned more than once that after Zhao Hanzhang married Fu Tinghan, she could consider adopting sworn sons. People like Qiu Wu and Zeng Yue around her could all be adopted as sons.
Zhao Hanzhang and Fu Tinghan, who were younger than them: …
Forgive them for their shallow knowledge and inability to empathetically accept this culture.
However, they still understood that those considered for adoption as sworn sons not only needed to be relatively capable with distinct characteristics, but also had to have quite high loyalty to their lord.
So, Shi Jian’s loyalty to Shi Lei was very high.
Seeing Zhao Hanzhang’s hand pressing on Shi Lei’s shoulder now, with Shi Lei’s face pale with a tinge of blue, the cart surrounded front and back by Zhao bandit’s people, Shi Jian’s eyes bulged with rage, his fists clenching with cracking sounds.
Shi Lei heard this and his brows twitched, afraid he would suddenly attack Zhao Hanzhang in the next moment.
It wasn’t that he feared Zhao Hanzhang would be injured—he feared Zhao Hanzhang would take the opportunity to strike him, stabbing him in the heart as well. That would truly be beyond salvation.
He quickly composed his expression, and before Shi Jian could explode, said solemnly: “Liu Cong is without virtue, murdering the new monarch. He is no longer worthy of our allegiance. Good birds choose their trees, and naturally we must seek another worthy lord. This time, encountering the locust disaster and suddenly being attacked by refugees, fortunately Governor Zhao saved my life. We conversed very pleasantly, meeting as if old friends, mutually admiring each other, so I decided to abandon darkness for light.”
Seeing Shi Jian’s expression as if he had been coerced, Shi Lei felt a lump in his chest, becoming even more convinced of the correctness of not adopting him as a sworn son.
Actually, he didn’t fear stupid sworn sons—as long as they were obedient enough and trusted him, that was fine.
Though Shi Jian had ability, he always liked to overthink things and didn’t entirely trust him as lord. Yet he wasn’t clever like Zhang Bin either—rather somewhat stupid—so his distrust always made Shi Lei uncomfortable.
As a military man, if you don’t have a strategist’s intelligence and talent, then you must absolutely obey your superiors.
Shi Lei exerted great effort before Shi Jian believed he was sincere in submitting to Zhao Hanzhang—though actually Shi Lei’s heart wasn’t that sincere. At least before this, the policy he’d set for himself was to flee if possible, rebel if possible.
If not for needing to follow Zhao Hanzhang to survive, if not for only she having medicine in her hands…
But after going through this ordeal and persuading Shi Jian, Shi Lei also more or less persuaded himself.
At this time, Shi Lei hadn’t yet formed the idea of becoming king or emperor himself. He still wanted to find a lord to serve, then manage his own generals well and conquer territory where he could settle peacefully and hold power.
Since he needed to find a lord anyway, why couldn’t it be Zhao Hanzhang?
Liu He was already dead, Liu Yi had been captured by Zhao Hanzhang. Among Liu Yuan’s sons, only Liu Cong remained now, and his relationship with Liu Cong wasn’t very good.
Whether in terms of ability, character, or popular support, Zhao Hanzhang surpassed Liu Cong. The more he thought, the firmer Shi Lei’s heart became. Therefore, after going up the mountain, when Shi Jian took advantage of Zhao Hanzhang and others not paying attention, thinking he was being secretive in coming over to secretly take Shi Lei away, Shi Lei refused him.
Shi Lei looked serious: “What escape? I already said, I voluntarily serve Zhao Hanzhang. Don’t act rashly.”
Leave?
If you leave, do you have golden wound medicine? His two wounds are so large—if the injury worsens later and requires Zhao’s miracle medicine, would they have it?
Moreover, would following Shi Jian be the right choice?
He was now severely wounded. How did he know Shi Jian didn’t want to use his name to command Shi’s army, or in future hold this favor over him?
Shi Jian was refused, his expression rather unpleasant. But people on the mountain had already seen Shi Lei, and bandits rushed out, a large portion kneeling down, calling out “General” in a cacophony of voices.
Zhao Hanzhang did a rough count and found those kneeling numbered one hundred fifty or sixty. Only forty or fifty stood there looking confused.
Zhao Hanzhang gave Shi Lei a meaningful look, then glanced at Shi Hongtu and Yu Fang.
Shi Hongtu and Yu Fang understood. One pushed Shi Lei’s cart while the other stood beside it—if the opposing side made any move, they could kill Shi Lei first.
This was a very crude bandit lair. The lair originally had just over fifty bandits. When Zhao Hanzhang and Shi Lei suddenly appeared fighting at the foot of the mountain not far away, the bandits didn’t dare approach, let alone have the courage to watch the excitement from the mountain.
So Shi Jian and his men weren’t actively provoked by them—rather, when the locusts and refugees rushed through together, Shi Jian and his subordinates broke out of the battlefield and got separated from the main force.
With darkness falling then, he could only lead people into the mountains. Along the way he even collected many routed Shi army soldiers and captured quite a few Zhao Family Army soldiers.
At the time, Shi Jian had run out of provisions and thought to capture people and bring them along. If they really couldn’t find food, having slaves on hand meant at least they wouldn’t starve to death.
As he led a string of people drilling into the forest to avoid the locusts and refugees, he happened to discover firelight somewhere on the mountain.
Following the firelight, he found the bandit lair.
So Shi Jian led people to behead the bandit chief and made himself the new chief.
He brought many people, and the bandits were quite sensible. After the chief died, they very obediently recognized Shi Jian as their master.
The bandits were rather poor, but still had some food—not to the point of eating human flesh—so the Zhao Family Army soldiers captured yesterday were still confined.
Zhao Hanzhang had people go bring them over. She wanted to see them with her own eyes.
The bandits looked utterly bewildered, but that didn’t prevent them from acknowledging a new master.
In less than an hour, they had sorted out the relationships between all parties.
Their new chief was a subordinate, a slave, of General Shi on the cart, while General Shi had now pledged service to Lady Zhao sitting in the place of honor.
So as soon as Zhao Hanzhang’s order came down, before Shi Jian could find a reason to refuse, someone had already scurried off eagerly to bring out the people confined in the woodshed.
Not many—only eighteen.
But upon seeing Zhao Hanzhang, they all wept tears and mucus, kneeling and crying. If not for Zhao Hanzhang sitting above looking very serious, they would have wanted to crawl over and hug her legs.
They had almost thought they were going to die, but then the Governor arrived. Indeed, what everyone privately said was correct—the Governor truly was a living Bodhisattva reincarnated to save the suffering.
—