On the third day, Zhao Hanzhang still announced Shi Le's killing of prisoners, and there was a cry in Luoyang City.
They were prepared when Zhao Hanzhang returned empty-handed, but when the exact news came, everyone still couldn't help but feel sad.
It was not until mid-afternoon that Xun Xiu returned with his army. Among them were more than a dozen bullock carts, and behind them were a group of Hunula carts. On the carts were corpses wrapped in straw mats.
Zhao Hanzhang was waiting at the city gate in advance. Also waiting with her were Wang Huifeng and others who had received the news in advance.
As soon as the army approached, they couldn't help but stepped forward together, staring at the straw mat on the car with tearful eyes.
Xun Xiu jumped off his horse, walked quickly to Zhao Hanzhang and knelt down on one knee, "Your Majesty, I have been ordered to bring back the bodies of all the officials."
Zhao Hanzhang nodded, pointed to the shed erected in advance at the gate of the city and said: "Let's put it here temporarily and let every family in the city recognize the person."
"Wei." Xun Xiu stood up and asked people to move the bodies on the bullock carts and carts into the shed and place them there.
When the first bullock cart was driven in front of Zhao Hanzhang, Xun Xiu lowered his head and said: "This is Taiwei Wang and the King of Xiangyang."
Wang Siniang immediately rushed forward and opened the straw mat. Inside was the pale face of Wang Xiangyang. Then she went to lift the other side of the straw mat and it was her father!
Wang Siniang knelt on the ground, supported the bullock cart and cried bitterly.
Wang Huifeng couldn't help but her eyes turned red. She stepped forward with tears in her eyes and looked down at her father, who had always been a romantic man.
Wang Yan is very good-looking. He has been praised for his beauty since he was a boy. He has always paid attention to his own image, but it seems to be the same after death.
His brows were furrowed, his face was a bit painful, his face was pale and green, and there were some corpse spots, indicating that he had been dead for a long time, and he still had a strong smell of corpse.
She closed her eyes, stepped forward and covered the straw mat to prevent outsiders from seeing what he looked like now.
My father has always loved beauty, and even if he died, he would not want others to see him in such a miserable state.
Wang Huifeng took a deep breath, turned around, bowed to Zhao Hanzhang, and said calmly: "Hanzhang, I will take him back first."
"Okay." Zhao Hanzhang asked people to move King Xiangyang down and handed the ox cart to Wang Huifeng.
Sister Wang Huifeng personally led the ox cart home. When they returned to Rufengju in the east of the city, everyone in the city knew that Zhao Hanzhang had the clan, officials and scholar-bureaucrats dig up and bring back the family where Shi Le was killed.
So many people ran out of their homes and ran towards the city gate crying.
When they arrived at the city gate, they saw that the soldiers were still carrying corpses from the carts, so they rushed forward and opened the straw mats one by one to check. Youre quickly found the relatives they were looking for and stopped by.
Many relatives and friends were found, and there was a sudden cry at the city gate.
Zhao Hanzhang stood in front of the city gate and watched. Some civilians passing by also stopped and watched for a while, with expressions of indifference and emotion on their faces.
They have experienced this kind of scene from time to time in the past two years, too many times to cause much trouble.
For ordinary people, this scene has become routine.
But for the scholar-bureaucrats in Luoyang, this was the first time such a devastating disaster occurred. This time, Shi Le almost killed half of the clan, officials and Luoyang nobles.
Two young men, one large and one young, pushed a cart over with two corpses on it. They walked to Zhao Hanzhang and knelt down. They all kowtowed, "Thank you, General Zhao, for bringing my father and brother back. We brothers."
The two of them will stay in Luoyang. Although they are young and can't do much, we will do our best to protect Luoyang."
Zhao Hanzhang pursed his lips, stepped forward to help the person up, and said in a deep voice: "I failed to live up to your trust and failed to rescue them."
The young man shook his head and said with red eyes: "Shi Le is fierce, General Zhao is already very powerful if he can save us from him."
Others found their relatives and borrowed carts or oxcarts from the army to take them home. When they saw Zhao Hanzhang standing not far away, several people bowed to her from a distance and then turned and left.
Zhao Hanzhang nodded slightly and returned the greeting, silently looking at the mourning shed that was full of cries.
Fu Tinghan withdrew his gaze and turned his head to look at Zhao Hanzhang, who had been watching the funeral shed. He reached out to hold her hand and used force to bring her back to her senses, "Are you feeling uncomfortable?"
Zhao Hanzhang did not respond, and after a while he said in a low voice: "When I saw them for the first time, I didn't have much feeling in my heart. I just had some complicated emotions towards Wang Yan and King Xiangyang."
After all, she knew these two people and had some interactions with them, but Zhao Hanzhang didn't know any of the others.
“In my mind, their deaths are no different from a passage in a history book,” Zhao Hanzhang said. “I wonder if it’s because I’ve received a lot of similar news before, so it’s hard for me to empathize with their deaths.”
"Until this moment, I felt the pity. Each of them has a family behind them. Each family has parents, wives, children, brothers and sisters."
Fu Tinghan turned to look at her.
Zhao Hanzhang frowned, "I underestimated their feelings for their relatives and overestimated their own moral character. Also, the world is different..."
She said: "I underestimated the importance attached to posthumous affairs in this era, and the emphasis on posthumous affairs of relatives and friends is because they value filial piety, kindness, righteousness, and benevolence."
"It's not too late to know now," Fu Tinghan said: "The vast majority of people are forced to compromise with the secular world due to the current situation. In the past, the secular world was formulated by the Jin Dynasty, Wang Yan and other noble families, but now, it is decided by you!
"
Zhao Hanzhang's eyes were bright, "You are right!"
Zhao Hanzhang did not stay here for long. After the people in the city identified the body, she would bury the rest.
Although she was poor, she still had to prepare a coffin. After all, everyone in Luoyang City was watching, and those people had names before they died.
Those who could be retained by Shi Le were not simple people. Those who had no reputation or official position were basically redeemed by Zhao Hanzhang.
Fortunately, when she ransomed people, she brought out a lot of family papers, and some people ran away early, but the people who stayed were all close relatives, so they took the relatives and friends they knew and buried them together.
Most of those left unclaimed are members of the Sima family.
Not many, sixty-eight corpses in total.
The body of King Xiangyang was also taken away. It was Wang Huifeng who came to take it away the next day. She was followed by several ladies and young men. She said: "The King of Xiangyang has great righteousness. We don't want his body to be exposed in the wilderness, so we raised funds."
I bought a coffin for him and let him be buried with my father, so that he can be worshiped together with him in the future."
Zhao Hanzhang naturally had no objection and handed over King Xiangyang to them.
The remaining Sima clan was left unattended, and Zhao Hanzhang could only handle it by himself.
"Go and ask the coffin shop if there is any discount if I order more?"
"...Shijun, I asked, not only is there no discount, the price is even higher."
Zhao Hanzhang was unconvinced when he heard this and asked: "Why?"