Zhao Hanzhang straightened her body and stood between the two men, saying, “Now we’re going to play a game. I’ll ask questions, and we’ll see who can answer quickly and accurately. The slow one will have to contribute flesh to the executioner. After all, I promised him, so I should at least get him back two measures of grain, right?”

Shi Bo’s eyes widened in disbelief. “You, you’re breaking your word. You clearly said that as long as I confessed, then…”

“I changed my mind,” Zhao Hanzhang lowered her head and looked at him lightly, the corners of her mouth curling into a smile. “You’ve angered me, so I need to find a way to vent, don’t I?”

“You, you’re a madwoman, you’re insane…”

Zhao Hanzhang ignored him and slowly asked, “He’s called Shi Bo, so what’s your name?”

Shi Bo was still cursing Zhao Hanzhang when the person beside him tremblingly answered, “I, I’m called Gao Tong, from Mount Tai.”

Zhao Hanzhang turned her head to the executioner. “Shi Bo didn’t get to answer first. Cut him.”

Shi Bo hadn’t expected even such questions to count. In his terror, he felt a stabbing pain in his chest as a piece of flesh was cut away by the smiling executioner.

Zhao Hanzhang continued asking, “Why did Wang Han want to prevent me from returning to Yuzhou?”

Both Shi Bo and Gao Tong fell silent, neither answering.

Zhao Hanzhang stared at the two and said, “Unwilling to answer? Then cut a piece from both of you.”

In his panic, Gao Tong cried out, “No, no, we don’t know, we truly don’t know!”

Shi Bo also shouted, “We were only ordered to incite the rebellious civilians to revolt and prevent you from returning to the capital. We truly know nothing else.”

“What reason did you use to incite them?”

Shi Bo rushed to answer, “Wang Heng has always been ambitious but lacks family background and virtue. We encouraged him saying that as long as he found a reason to rebel and gathered a rebel army, the General’s benevolence would surely lead to his amnesty.”

Zhao Hanzhang said coldly, “I employ people regardless of family background. If he had the desire, he could have come to join me directly. Why resort to such crooked methods?”

Gao Tong on the side, fearing she would order him cut, immediately rushed to answer, “But that would mean starting from the bottom. The General employs people—except for great talents with deep reputations—everyone starts as a county clerk. At the fastest, it takes two or three years to be promoted to county magistrate. How much longer would it take to reach the General’s side to receive orders?”

“Whereas with amnesty, one immediately enters the General’s notice and can be granted an official position, certainly no lower than vice-general.”

Hearing this, Zhao Hanzhang laughed lowly, her eyes bloodshot, sneering, “What excellent calculations.”

Zhao Hanzhang suddenly asked, “Where is Wang Han now?”

Both men’s eyes shifted violently, but they answered simultaneously, “In Xuzhou.”

Zhao Hanzhang snorted and told the executioner, “Cut Gao Tong.”

Gao Tong screamed. After being cut three times, he cried out, “I don’t know where he went, but when we left Xuzhou, we heard he was preparing carriages, cloth, medicinal materials and such, seemingly planning to disguise himself as a merchant caravan heading to Yuzhou.”

Only then did Zhao Hanzhang raise her hand to stop the executioner. She walked around to Gao Tong’s other side, lowered her head and stared intently into his eyes, asking, “What kinds of medicinal materials?”

“Many, but mostly wound medicine. Among them was a century-old ginseng, said to be for saving a life.”

Gao Tong cried with tears and snot covering his face, weeping bitterly, “General, please ask whatever you want. We’ll tell you everything we know without holding anything back. Please don’t hurt us anymore.”

Zhao Hanzhang snorted coldly, turned and left. “You all continue the interrogation. Get everything clear for me.”

The personal guards responded. Only after Zhao Hanzhang had disappeared did they dare raise their heads.

The guards shuddered, feeling that today the Magistrate was even more terrifying than General Yuan.

Zhao Hanzhang’s face was gloomy. Zu Ti appeared from somewhere and said to Zhao Hanzhang, “Magistrate, are there results from the interrogation?”

Zhao Hanzhang hummed in acknowledgment and turned her head toward the dim night sky—that direction was toward the city gate. At this time, over twenty thousand rebel soldiers had been disarmed and confined outside the city. Two hundred thirty-nine corpses hung from the city gate, densely covering one wall.

This was the first time she’d done such a thing, and not knowing whether this action’s positive impact on the future would outweigh the negative or vice versa, her heart was panicked.

Though her heart was panicking quite badly, her face showed little expression. She looked cold and gloomy, as if still angry about this incident.

“Shizhi…”

Zu Ti bowed slightly and responded, “Magistrate.”

“People are as fragile as roadside grass—snap them and they break. But people are not grass. When grass breaks, when spring winds blow it can grow again, renewed within a year. So I feel human lives are more like jewels—once shattered, they can hardly be restored. Therefore we must treasure and value them.”

Zu Ti asked, “Jewels also have grades of precious and common. In the Magistrate’s heart, how are these grades divided?”

Zhao Hanzhang withdrew her gaze from the distance, glanced at him and said, “In my heart, all human lives are the same kind of jewel.”

Zu Ti smiled noncommittally. “I thought in the Magistrate’s heart, the lives of students from the academy would be more precious, since I’ve never seen the Magistrate so angry.”

Zhao Hanzhang said, “Zhao Yigui said that in this epidemic prevention battle in Wuyi County, they lost seven hundred eighty-nine people. Cui County had over two thousand casualties, and Fucheng also had over a thousand. Zhao Jiashi and Zhao Yicheng were just two among them.”

Zu Ti fell silent at these words.

Zhao Hanzhang continued, “I’m angry that Zhao Jiashi and Zhao Yicheng died from conspiracy, and angry that they gambled with the lives of common people. I hate even more their disregard for all the people under heaven.”

“The Xiongnu have been pacified. The six northern provinces all suffered drought and locust disasters. The urgent matter is disaster relief and saving people. At this time, there are rebel armies—do they want to plunge the world back into chaos? Such disregard for the lives of common people—I wish I could cut them into a thousand pieces.”

Hearing this, Zu Ti’s expression also became grave. He asked, “Who did this?”

Zhao Hanzhang didn’t say who it was, only instructed him, “Shizhi, I appoint you as Inspector of Jizhou not only to guard against Shi Le and Tuoba Yilu, but also because you have reputation in Jizhou. You can gain the people’s trust more quickly. I hope you can provide disaster relief as soon as possible and let the people rest and recover.”

Zhao Hanzhang said painfully, “The common people… suffer too much…”

Zu Ti opened and closed his mouth, finally asking with difficulty after a long while, “Those rebel captives outside the city—how does the Magistrate plan to deal with them?”

Zhao Hanzhang said, “Tomorrow Minister Fu will sort them by their hometowns according to household registration, have them form groups to return home, divide fields among them for cultivation to get through next year’s crisis.”

Zu Ti couldn’t help stepping forward. “The Magistrate won’t punish them?”

Zhao Hanzhang’s eyes showed pain. “The ringleaders have all been executed. They’re just a group of deceived common people. Let them go home.”

Could she kill them?

Obviously not.

And killing a group of disaster victims who’d just followed along served no purpose.

Then could she punish them?

But what did they have left that was worth punishing?