That night, the long and mournful sound of barbarian reed pipes rang out west of Anle County, along with the low singing of Xiongnu people, singing the most common ballads of the grasslands.
The soldiers lying on the city wall looking down at the city below seemed to see themselves in this familiar song walking farther and farther on the grassland, with their mothers calling from behind for them to drive the cattle and sheep back for a meal—tonight there would be delicious mutton and vegetable dumplings to eat…
Or they saw themselves lying on a horse’s back, swaying as it moved, drifting into sleep. When they opened their eyes, their cattle and sheep were all surrounding them…
Young soldiers shed tears, quietly sobbing: “I want to go home…”
The older soldiers didn’t speak, only patting their shoulders with reddened eyes.
This battle had been fought so exhaustingly. The soldiers’ homesickness reached its peak in this music and song. The entire army was weary of war!
Even Liu Yan couldn’t help but recall the times when he and the late Emperor had understood each other as sovereign and minister. Thinking about it, Chen Yuanda and His Majesty were truly kindred spirits. What a pity…
Liu Yan’s thoughts drifted far away with the music. After reviewing the past, he couldn’t help but doubt the road ahead. Could they really break through Zhao Hanzhang’s encirclement and carve out a territory in Youzhou?
Perhaps the Prince of Beihai was correct—it would be better to surrender and quietly wait for the future.
The late Emperor could rise after lying dormant for a hundred years; naturally their descendants could do the same, as long as they waited for the right opportunity…
Liu Yan felt that Liu Cong was too hasty and too arbitrary.
As this thought flashed through his mind, Liu Yan was startled. Without realizing it, he had also been influenced by the music. If even he was like this, what about the other soldiers?
Liu Yan became anxious and turned to go find Liu Jie to think of a solution. But after walking two steps, his legs grew heavy and slow. What solution could there be? Sound was difficult to block out. Even covering their ears with their hands, they could still faintly hear it, and it would make the soldiers listen even more attentively…
His Majesty couldn’t tolerate a second voice now. Reporting this would only increase his troubles, and who knew how many more would die.
As Liu Yan walked, he stopped and leaned against the city wall without moving.
That night, Liu Kun fully displayed his musical talent. The troupe he brought also rendered great merit. Before dawn even broke, the Zhao family army besieging the city received over twenty Xiongnu soldiers who came out to surrender.
The corner of Zhao Hanzhang’s mouth lifted. She had people treat them well and hand them over to Liu Yi to manage.
Liu Yi was originally soft-hearted and docile by nature. He didn’t mind that they had surrendered later. As long as people came, he happily accepted them all.
The Xiongnu soldiers in Anle City had listened to music for most of the night and cried for half the night, spending the entire night thinking of home, their parents, brothers, sisters, wives, and children. Hardly anyone could close their eyes to sleep.
Just at this moment, the well-rested Zhao family army attacked the city. They twice climbed onto the city gate and were beaten back. The last time, Zhao Hanzhang personally came to the front lines to inspire the troops, bringing Liu Yi and the Xiongnu soldiers with her.
Amid their calls and battle cries, the suicide squad of one hundred men—over seventy of them leapt onto the city wall. Without encountering much resistance, they secured the siege ladders, opening a path for their comrades behind them. Then they killed their way down the wall.
Below the city gate, without the arrow formations and stones and other defensive weapons from above, the Zhao family army’s siege ladder team also arrived and began ramming directly.
With coordination from inside and outside, the city gate was quickly opened, and the Zhao family army surged into the city.
Liu Yan knew the situation was lost. He could only push Liu Jie: “Your Highness, flee quickly, flee!”
Liu Jie pushed Liu Yan aside and struck down a soldier who had turned to flee, shouting loudly: “Fight your way out! Those who flee from battle shall be executed without mercy—”
The Xiongnu soldiers who had turned to flee could only turn back and attack outward.
Liu Jie also wanted to personally lead his personal guard to attack out, but Liu Yan, who had been pushed to the ground, grabbed his leg and shouted: “Your Highness, Anyang City cannot be held. You must hurry back to inform His Majesty—break through the encirclement quickly, or when Zhao Hanzhang passes Anyang City, Hunu County will become an isolated city!”
Although Hunu County also had mountains and rivers as natural defenses, it was far inferior to Jinyang. Most crucially, they had eighty thousand troops garrisoned in the county, plus Xiongnu civilians—nearly one hundred fifty thousand people. A single Hunu County couldn’t be self-sufficient, which meant that Zhao Hanzhang could besiege them to death.
Liu Yan said: “Tell His Majesty to leave quickly, before Zhao Hanzhang completes the encirclement!”
Liu Jie angrily waved his blade and could only give up. “I leave this place to Minister Liu.”
With that, he turned and led his personal guard to gather the remaining soldiers and flee.
However, some soldiers didn’t want to leave anymore. So they quietly slowed their pace and fell behind. When the Zhao family army caught up, they decisively threw down their weapons and surrendered.
The Zhao family army indeed didn’t kill prisoners. They just placed them separately in a prisoner-of-war camp. They heard they would be registered and recorded, then handed over to their Prince of Beihai.
Being handed to the Prince of Beihai was good—he was still one of their own.
The surrendered Xiongnu soldiers all breathed a sigh of relief. They were very cooperative with the soldiers who came up holding brushes and notebooks to ask their names, ages, skills, and even asked about what their parents and siblings were good at. They answered every question truthfully.
Liu Kun watched as notebook after notebook was filled up and then collected into boxes and sealed. He couldn’t help but narrow his eyes: “Why record in such detail? How much paper must this consume?”
Zhao Hanzhang was looking through a roster of special talents the soldiers had recorded—this was a different register from the ones sealed in the boxes.
Hearing Liu Kun’s question, she only lifted her eyelids to glance at those piles of books, saying: “Compared to the value of talent and information, the value of paper is negligible.”
Many of the talented people under Zhao Hanzhang’s command had been selected from prisoners and refugees. Relying entirely on children trained in schools would require waiting many more years.
How did she obtain these talented people? Besides self-recommendation and recommendations from others, it was mostly through this kind of information collection.
After Zhao Hanzhang looked through the small notebook, she handed it to Fu Tinghan: “Talk with them. Bring everyone we can bring.”
Liu Kun was very interested in her small notebook and quickly moved closer: “Let me see.”
Fu Tinghan looked at Zhao Hanzhang. Zhao Hanzhang raised her chin, and he gave the small notebook to Liu Kun. In the past, this sort of thing would have been given to Fan Ying.
With Fan Ying out on inspection, he could only handle this core business himself. Now it seemed she wasn’t averse to using Liu Kun.
Liu Kun casually flipped through it. At first, he didn’t pay attention, but when he turned to the second page, he immediately reacted. His body involuntarily tensed, and his hand gripping the notebook tightened.
He quickly raised his head to glance at Zhao Hanzhang.
Zhao Hanzhang smiled at him slightly.
Liu Kun’s heart jumped, and his motion of flipping through the notebook involuntarily slowed. He turned page by page. The notebook wasn’t very thick—it recorded about two hundred thirty people, with their names, native places, ages, and current physical conditions.
The “special skills” column in the notebook didn’t stand out at first glance, but once you flipped through, no one could look away.
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