After Transmigration: Building a Kingdom in Turbulent Times

Chapter 1123 - 1105: Good Luck

Zhao Rong: "This is too troublesome as well, and it’s not certain they’ll listen. If you ask me, it’s better to just close off the mountains and marshes and not let them enter."

Zhao Hanzhang looked back at him for a while and suddenly smiled, "Zhao Rong, you’re older than Zhao Zheng, and you’re still studying in the Imperial College. Haven’t you entered officialdom yet?"

Zhao Rong, somewhat smug, said, "The teacher says I’m suited for study and should continue deeply, and take the recruitment examination in the future."

Zhao Zheng did not take the recruitment examination. Instead, because he and other Imperial Academy students helped the county government with work, he was valued by the court and then recruited.

Oh, the person who recommended him was Zhao Kuan.

Zhao Hanzhang smiled at Zhao Rong and said, "We happened to hunt quite a bit of game today. In a little while, you can borrow a fire with me in the village at the foot of the mountain. We’ll roast some things to eat. As for your question, you can think about it first. If you still haven’t figured it out by the time we eat, I’ll tell you the answer."

Zhao Zheng followed closely beside Zhao Hanzhang, turned his head, and said to Zhao Rong, "Cousin Rong, since we are officials, we should put the people first. Their lives are very difficult, and entering the mountains and marshes might be their only way to find a way to survive."

Zhao Rong was dismissive, "Do truly starving people have the strength to dig such a large trap and set such dangerous wooden spikes? Cousin Zheng, you almost died just now."

Zhao Zheng: "These are two different things. Although we encountered danger because the trap was set dangerously, the trap itself wasn’t intended for people but for wild beasts. The person who set it made a mark. It was our lack of knowledge and not paying attention that caused us to step into it carelessly."

"Even if you want to discuss cause and effect, we are not entirely innocent."

Zhao Rong couldn’t help but reach out and touch his forehead, "Are you scared out of your mind?"

Zhao Hanzhang’s gaze fell on Zhao Zheng, who was frowning tightly. "Zhao Kuan told me that even though you are young, you have rather long insights, and your studies are no worse than others. The rarest thing is that you have the heart of a Bodhisattva. I didn’t quite believe it before; how can someone so young have developed a Bodhisattva’s heart? But now I believe it."

Then she said to Zhao Rong, "Enough, you and Cousin Zheng were both frightened. Be careful not to catch a cold when the chilly wind picks up. There’s no need to resolve your differences right now."

Zhao Hanzhang draped her cloak over Zhao Zheng and asked Zhao Erlang to use his cloak to wrap up Zhao Rong. After gathering their prey, the trusted aides even helped reset the trap before they left.

They carried a lot of game, and due to the cold weather, the blood, although there was some, quickly coagulated, so the scent was not intense. However, they still needed to be cautious in the mountains, so they quickened their pace to leave.

The trusted aides carried the deer and the roe deer, and Zhao Erlang and the others gathered in groups of two or three to lift a large prey.

Zhao Hanzhang herself was holding two rabbits, and the horses happily followed behind. Along the way, she thought about how to cook the plump rabbits in her hands, but suddenly stopped in her tracks and looked ahead.

Zeng Yue noticed and placed his hand on the hilt of his sword, signaling everyone to stop. He led a group quietly forward first.

After a while, he brought someone over, a man with a scruffy beard and dark circles under his eyes, covered in a heap of ragged cloth barely hiding his body, with cloth strips wrapped around his feet, wearing straw sandals, and his toes poking out and turning red from the cold.

When Zeng Yue brought him over, terror filled his eyes, but upon seeing Zhao Hanzhang standing in the middle of the crowd, his fear subsided, and he kneeled down in the snow, prostrating himself, "Greetings, Great General. I-I am not an assassin, just an ordinary citizen who entered the mountains to hunt for food."

Zhao Hanzhang had him rise and asked, "What’s your name, and where do you live?"

The man did not stand up but knelt upright and, after a pause, pointed outside the mountain, "Just, just living in Lu Village at the foot of the mountain. I am Lu Si."

Zhao Hanzhang observed his complexion and lips, pulled off the pouch from her waist, and took out two pieces of rice cake to hand to him.

The man’s eyes lit up at the sight of the rice cake, and he knelt in the snow, looking up at Zhao Hanzhang.

Zhao Hanzhang extended the rice cakes further toward him, and he quickly took one, stuffing it into his mouth, while discreetly tucking the other into his bosom.

Zhao Hanzhang pretended not to see it and passed a water bag to him with Zhao Erlang, asking, "Did you enter the mountain empty-handed?"

Zeng Yue reported, "He brought a wooden stick, which I knocked away."

Immediately, a trusted aide turned to fetch the fallen wooden stick and bring it for Zhao Hanzhang to see.

Zhao Hanzhang took the stick, weighed it, and nodded, "It still has some use."

After he drank some water and swallowed the rice cake, Zhao Hanzhang asked, "Did you clearly see anyone?"

The man was surprised, "How did the Great General know I couldn’t see clearly just now?"

"You were about to faint from hunger," Zhao Hanzhang extended her hand to lift him from the snow and pointed toward the creek, asking, "That large trap over there, did you dig it?"

His face, just a bit flushed, immediately turned pale, and he fell to his knees in fear, "Did it injure the Great General’s people?"

"Almost," Zhao Hanzhang said, "The placement of your trap is quite ingenious, but there are too many wooden spikes in the pit. If someone doesn’t recognize the trap’s markings, they could easily fall in and get injured."

The man’s head pressed tightly against the snow, shivering in terror.

Zhao Hanzhang asked, "Did you set this trap alone, or do you have companions?"

The man gritted his teeth and said, "I set it alone, and it’s my fault for almost harming the Great General’s people. Please give me a heavy penalty."

Zhao Hanzhang then laughed and pulled him up, "Then your punishment is to be responsible for the people entering the mountain in this area. Warn them not to put wooden spikes in the trap again to avoid injuring anyone. We need to hunt, but we can’t cut off people’s livelihood, right?"

The man was stunned for a moment but then agreed.

Zhao Hanzhang waved at a trusted aide carrying a roe deer, and the aide trotted over.

Zhao Hanzhang said to the man, "Here, this is the roe deer that was running blindly into your trap, skewered to death by the wooden spikes. Take it back."

The man was delighted for a moment but, upon seeing the wounds on the roe deer, realized that the injuries weren’t from the wooden spikes they had sharpened but were arrow wounds.

His mouth opened, trying to speak several times, but he couldn’t, and could only look at Zhao Hanzhang with tearful eyes.

Zhao Hanzhang saw this and laughed heartily, patting him on the shoulder, "Why are you standing there? Hurry and take it. Do you want us to help you carry it down the mountain?"

The man knelt down, kowtowed twice to Zhao Hanzhang, and then stood up, wiping away his tears, and after that, stepped forward to take the roe deer.

The trusted aide originally wanted to help him carry it down, but seeing him shivering with cold, thought for a moment and decided to place the roe deer on his shoulder.

With the prey carried, the man, excited, didn’t feel the cold wind as much, and after walking a while, his body warmed up, bringing a smile to his face. As he walked, he praised Zhao Hanzhang, "The Great General is truly amazing, being able to hunt so much game shortly after entering the mountain."

Zhao Hanzhang chuckled, "Just lucky."