CHAPTER 323: CHAPTER 317: OFFERING AMNESTY 2

Zhao Hanzhang looked up towards the mountain, squinting her eyes and said, "Listen, is there a commotion on the mountain?"

Fu Tinghan, who was drawing a map, lifted his head to glance at the mountain, then closed his eyes to listen carefully. After a while, he shook his head, "I only hear birds and insects chirping."

Fu Tinghan paused, looked around, and then whispered, "I’ve long been curious, your hearing seems..."

"Extraordinary?" Zhao Hanzhang smiled and said, "It’s a bit more sensitive than the average person."

Fu Tinghan nodded and commented, "Although I know little about history, I do know that many accomplished historical figures have some extraordinary abilities."

Zhao Hanzhang: "Like Shi Le being incredibly strong and imposing?"

She couldn’t forget about Shi Le. She looked down at her palm. This year she had been diligently practicing martial arts and wondered if she could now take on Shi Le in a fight.

While she was pondering, a scout quickly ran down from the mountain and reported swiftly, "Reporting to the governor, my lord, a fight has broken out on the mountain!"

Zhao Hanzhang raised an eyebrow, her face animated, "Why did the fight start?"

How would the scout know? He only knew about the fight because he dared to come close to the stronghold; any closer, and he feared he wouldn’t return.

Zhao Hanzhang wasn’t necessarily after the reason. She thought for a moment and said, "Send someone ahead to scout and find out where their sentinels are located."

Fu Tinghan marked the already discovered sentinels on the map, glanced at the drawing, and instructed the scout, "Go to the ten o’clock... northwest, um, one-half of a degree west to north, and search two hundred to three hundred feet up..."

Fu Tinghan explained two locations to the scout, who noted them down and immediately departed.

Previously, they had smoothly found the sentinels on the mountain watching them without being discovered, all thanks to Fu Tinghan’s guidance.

After they left, Zhao Hanzhang moved closer to ask, "Should we convert the standard measurements for clarity?"

Fu Tinghan shook his head, "The measurements of this era are standardized; it’s just the two of us who are different. It’s not necessary to change all the units just for our convenience."

He said, "For what doesn’t exist, we can standardize; for what does, we will adapt to it."

Though it was initially a bit challenging, considering he learned a different set of measurements from childhood, his intelligence made this conversion manageable.

He had no intention of making things difficult for others.

Zhao Hanzhang nodded, "Measurements can indeed be precise; nowadays, the glassmaking techniques are becoming more advanced, and high-transparency measuring cups can be made."

Fu Tinghan nodded, planning to write back to the Glazed Workshop as soon as he returned.

The scouts soon located the two sentinels, recorded their positions without alerting them, and retreated again.

They watched Zhao Hanzhang and Fu Tinghan with sharp eyes, especially Fu Tinghan, and the scouts eagerly asked, "Shall we take action?"

Zhao Hanzhang glanced at them and said, "What action? Didn’t you say they are already fighting? We’ll talk after they’re done."

As for why they were scouting for the sentinels at this time, it was naturally to better grasp the situation on the mountain.

Zhao Hanzhang squinted her eyes looking up the mountain, hoping they would fight a bit longer, yet also worried that if the fight got too intense, the casualties would be too great, which wouldn’t be good.

After all, she wanted to recruit them; after conversion, everyone on the mountain would be hers!

Zhao Hanzhang waited until dusk, when the commotion on the mountain gradually ceased. The scout who had reached the edge of the mountain stronghold quietly returned to report, "They have stopped fighting, and the casualties don’t seem heavy."

Zhao Hanzhang sighed in relief and said to Wu Erlang, "Shout up the mountain that if they’ve finished fighting, they should come down quickly to meet me!"

Wu Erlang immediately went to shout the message ahead.

Fu Tinghan was taken aback, "How do you know that the winning side might favor you?"

Zhao Hanzhang said, "Whether they do or not, once this message is out, they’ll have to favor me."

Sure enough, when Wu Erlang’s words reached the mountain fortress, Wei Dayi, who was wrapping his arm with a cloth to stop the bleeding, laughed coldly while looking at those lying defeated in the hall, "Did you hear? Even though our stronghold is so far from the mountain base and surrounded by so many sentinels, as soon as our fight here ended, they immediately got wind of it. Clearly, they also knew when we started fighting."

"With such abilities and tactics, do you think you can defeat her?"

The injured ones below looked increasingly pale.

Wei Dayi said, "It’s not that I want to praise others and belittle us, but this governor was already renowned during her tenure as County Magistrate in Xiping County. She could fend off Shi Le and Liu Jing of the Xiongnu!"

Those opposing softened their stance considerably, especially since they had just lost.

Seeing them relent, Wei Dayi mused, "It’s impossible to invite her up the mountain, but we can go down to meet her."

"Yes, go down; if she dares to renege and detain our big brother, we’ll revolt immediately!"

"Yes, with the brothers from below, we’ll charge down. There’s no way we can’t overpower them with our numbers."

Wei Dayi felt a headache, "We’re just looting; who has really killed anyone?"

He said, "But those soldiers down there have been on the battlefield and have actually killed, and they have weapons. Do you think we three hundred can defeat them? By the way, how many of them are there?"

"We don’t know; we can’t count and dare not get too close. Still, it doesn’t look like many, maybe about a hundred or so?"

Wei Dayi: ...

Finally, after bandaging himself, Wei Dayi changed into new clothes and took a dozen burly, formidable-looking bandits down the mountain.

Zhao Hanzhang was sitting on a stone munching on a biscuit. It was dry rations, not very tasty, so she took two sips of water with each bite. Seeing Wei Dayi and his men brought before her by the scout, she sighed and gestured for them to join her, "Since you’re here, come and have something to eat."

Wei Dayi, unsure whether to show courtesy, froze, then stepped forward, accepted a biscuit from Zhao Hanzhang, and started munching himself.

Wu Erlang brought a bundle, opened it, and handed out biscuits to the dozen or so bandits.

So the bandits, who thought themselves imposing enough to negotiate with Zhao Hanzhang, sat on the ground eating dinner with the soldiers.

The conversation was straightforward. Zhao Hanzhang asked, "How’s the biscuit?"

Wei Dayi: "Delicious."

Zhao Hanzhang: "I think it’s a bit hard, but it’s military rations, it needs to be dry for storage. Do you have any good dry rations up the mountain?"

"No," Wei Dayi said, "We don’t have much food; we eat when we can and starve when we can’t. We don’t usually carry dry rations, but find food on the way."

Zhao Hanzhang held the biscuit and asked, "Isn’t looting supposed to be profitable?"

Wei Dayi said gloomily, "But it’s hard to loot food, and the loot has a hard time being traded for food. The townspeople know we are the ones fencing ill-gotten goods, so it’s hard to sell and the grain price is high."