After Transmigration: Building a Kingdom in Turbulent Times-Chapter 882 - 868: Swept Along (Full Revision)

Therefore, regardless of whether it’s the Shi Army or Zhao Family Army they encounter, they are all to be gathered.

However... "Try not to cause panic, these refugees, extending as far as the eye can see, must number in the tens of thousands, and we only have two thousand..."

Not even that number, since after fighting for so long, many had died; there were around a thousand pursuers altogether here, Shi Le had brought about one thousand men, so it’s possible that combined, there aren’t even two thousand still alive.

If two thousand are swept up by tens of thousands of people, causing panic, then even immortals wouldn’t be able to help.

Zhao Hanzhang and the others temporarily followed the crowd forward, even pushing aside people to move faster, looking around while walking, trying to find Fu Tinghan.

Shi Le was quietly following them, but the refugees were restless. Someone squeezed past him, separating him from Zhao Hanzhang. He panicked, not because he was unwilling to be apart from Zhao Hanzhang, but because he felt blood was seeping from his ribs again; he felt he needed to stop and apply medicine carefully.

It seems only Zhao Hanzhang has medicine.

In his panic, Zhao Hanzhang quickly reached out after the refugee squeezed past, pulling Shi Le back towards her. Shi Le and Shi Hongtu, who were about to be scattered, ended up crowded together with her again. People trying to squeeze through the gap behind took one look at Zhao Hanzhang’s face and cowered, squeezing to the other side instead.

It was completely dark, yet the crowd showed no sign of stopping; torches were even lit in the group, intending to travel overnight.

Zhao Hanzhang was a bit dazed, looked around, and eventually chose an elderly man with a child and a bundle, "Old man, may I ask, why is everyone still moving forward even though it’s dark?"

The old man turned and glanced at her, the nearest torch ten meters away, so he could only vaguely see Zhao Hanzhang’s face, unable to see more, unaware that her face was covered in blood at that moment.

The old man said, "We have to hurry; there are refugees coming down from Jizhou behind us, and they are said to be very fierce, robbing anyone they see. The locusts beat us forward, and we must be quick, otherwise we’ll starve."

They now have to compete for food not only with people but also with locusts, so they must move quickly.

"But it’s impossible to discern directions at night."

"Don’t worry, Mr. Gongsun is leading the way ahead; he knows the road and can distinguish directions even at night."

Just as they spoke, chaos erupted ahead, and someone shouted loudly towards their direction, "There’s fighting at Wu’an County ahead; we won’t go to Wu’an County, everyone pick up the pace!"

The crowd responded, the sound echoing across the sky, and while continuing onward, they stepped off the narrow official road into the fields, attempting to cross them.

This area opened up, and people spread out some, Zhao Hanzhang finally relaxed a bit, grabbing Shi Le and striding forward.

Shi Hongtu and the soldier quickly followed, Zhao Hanzhang then focused on asking the soldier, "What is your name?"

The soldier was delighted that the Governor actually spoke to him, "I’m Yu Fang, a soldier from the second squad, third section."

Zhao Hanzhang asked, "How long have you been in the army?"

The soldier replied, "One year and two months; it was Mr. Fu in Luoyang who recruited me, I used to be a refugee."

That’s why he experiencedly said, "This place is vast, and it’s dark; they won’t travel far and will stop soon."

Indeed, after moving forward for another stretch, people gradually stopped.

Some still moved forward while those stopping moved their carts and luggage farther away, directly sitting down.

As soon as they sat down, three to five locusts leapt up, and the disaster-stricken people fiercely slapped and scattered the locusts flying up, then fumbling around for wood to start fires.

Zhao Hanzhang pulled Shi Le away, stopping when they passed a torch. She felt around her body, found nothing, then began feeling Shi Le.

She found a money pouch, took out a copper coin, looked at it, and handed it to the person, "Buy your torch."

The person glanced at the copper coin, hesitated, then said, "That requires two coins."

Zhao Hanzhang glanced at the coins; they were Xiongnu Khanate copper coins, she weighed them, feeling their weight was similar to her new coins, and besides, there was no need for two coins to bind a torch?

Zhao Hanzhang felt a bit annoyed, believing the person had raised the price.

Just as she was about to find the next torch, she heard the person say, "If it’s Zhao’s money, it can be just one coin."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Hanzhang was delighted and immediately searched the money pouch, indeed finding Zhao’s money, thus exchanging one new coin for a torch.

Zhao Hanzhang said to Shi Le, "Saved money, lucky you had Zhao’s money."

Shi Le said, "That’s what I seized when entering Yun City."

Zhao Hanzhang’s smile faded, she turned and said, "Let’s go, carefully search, see if there are remnants."

Soldiers and refugees are different, most Zhao Family Army soldiers have armor, even if it’s in tatters, at least everyone has one piece;

The Shi Army is different, at least a third of them have no armor, with another third having tattered armor like some Zhao Family Army soldiers, and only the remaining third appear as elite troops.

Zhao Hanzhang and Shi Le don’t know how many have fled, and now within this long convoy there are still remnants left, they can only search patch by patch.

And indeed, when people stop flowing, their speed picks up again, they’re still able to find quite a few, though they are all Shi Army.

Shi Le found his men amidst the crowd, happily advancing, soldiers finding their commander were also excited, their smiles rising, but a glance saw Zhao Hanzhang.

Their smiles instantly froze.

Zhao Hanzhang looked towards Shi Le.

Shi Le sincerely told the soldiers, "This is Governor Zhao."

Soldier: ...He surely knows this is Governor Zhao, they had just fought not long ago.

Shi Le continued, "Liu Cong is without virtue, murdered the new emperor, the Han Kingdom no longer merits our allegiance, so this general resolves to abandon darkness for light and serve Governor Zhao."

The soldier suddenly understood, immediately kneeling before Zhao Hanzhang, "I, the humble one, pledge allegiance to Governor Zhao."

Nearby refugees heard the voice and looked over, but couldn’t understand due to the heavy accent of the soldier; seeing him kneel and noting Zhao Hanzhang and Shi Le clad in armor with refined attire, assumed they were the soldier’s superiors, so just glanced and turned away.

Zhao Hanzhang had the person rise, having gained a subordinate, then continued forward.

As Zhao Hanzhang was searching for remnants, Zeng Yue finally took a break from running, noting the fewer surrounding locusts, hurriedly turned back to count remaining troops.

Upon counting, he realized he had only brought out over two hundred men.

The soldiers said, "The rest seem to be with the magistrate, but we deviated off course; the magistrate may have already returned to Wu’an County, let’s go back to Wu’an County and see?"