I don’t know when the provisions will arrive. The stores in Songshan County would last for ten days at most, and that was only if the garrison tightened their belts, and the warriors of the Strength Gu tribe made do with coarse buns…
While Mosang and Miao Youfang discussed at length how to achieve first place in the imperial examinations after the war, Xu Erlang’s mind was occupied with the issue of provisions.
The warriors of the Strength Gu tribe and the Flying Beast army from the Heart Gu tribe had depleted Songshan County’s supplies to the brink of collapse.
Never mind the flying beasts, their size alone explained their enormous appetites. But the tribesmen of the Strength Gu had astonished the county garrison.
The garrison ate with bowls in their hands, but the Strength Gu warriors had buckets.
During wartime, the garrison ate three meals a day, and two normally.
The warriors of the Strength Gu tribe ate four meals a day, and during wartime, five.
Xu Erlang had prepared himself mentally for this. After all, just Lina and Lingyin alone could eat until his mother’s scalp tingled, and the Xu family was now very wealthy.
Let alone four hundred warriors of the Strength Gu tribe.
But Xu Erlang had still underestimated their appetites. Using Lina and Lingyin’s usual intake as a reference had not been accurate.
After all, his silly sister and her foolish master usually just fooled about, expending little energy.
How could they be compared to warriors who lived by the blade?
As long as we receive a fresh supply of provisions, I can hold Songshan County indefinitely, Xu Erlang thought to himself.
The Great Feng’s artillery and repeating crossbows provided suppressive fire, the Heart Gu tribe’s Flying Beast army launched attacks from above, the Corpse Gu tribe’s corpse controllers handled fearless death warriors, while the Shadow Gu tribe took on assassinations.
The Strength Gu tribe dealt with enemy soldiers who managed to climb onto the walls.
With his own command, the defence of Songshan County was impregnable.
Now the rebel forces outside the city, nine thousand elite soldiers and twenty thousand irregulars, had switched tactics from assault to siege, trying to turn Songshan County into another Wan Commandery.
It was worth mentioning that the irregular troops consisted of militia formed by common folk, displaced refugees and conscripted able-bodied men, led by men from the jianghu who had been recruited by the Yunzhou rebels.
“Didn’t you say last time, Erlang, that things would improve in Qingzhou after the Spring Sacrifice?”
With his mind half on Go and half on the conversation, Miao Youfang thought himself a genius.
“It’s not just Qingzhou, but the whole Central Plains will improve. The cold snap is the main problem, then the grain shortage, which brought about this chaos. Once spring arrives, the cold will no longer threaten the people,” Xu Cijiu said as he cradled his book, placed the half-eaten bun on the table to ration it, and continued,
“Secondly, farming is innate for the common people. Only by sowing in spring can there be harvest in autumn. Many of the refugees will choose to take up the hoe again. If, at that time, the court redistributes fallow land, a great many refugees will be settled.
“Yet, without doubt, when that time comes, countless landed gentry will take the chance to seize land, starving the commoners. It will depend on whether Emperor Yongxing is bold enough.”
He paused here, his delicate and beautiful eyebrows knitted. The new Emperor had many virtues, but boldness was not among them, he was better at preservation than achievement.
For great undertakings, he could not be relied upon.
If only Emperor Yongxing would quietly “sacrifice” some of the gentry class and powerful landlords, those grabbing land in spring would be greatly reduced.
“But if, after the Spring Sacrifice, we still can’t hold the town?”
Miao Youfang habitually argued, “Will you all die here in Songshan County, or will you run away?”
Mosang straightened his back:
“Warriors of the Strength Gu tribe don’t run. If I die in the Central Plains, please send my bones back to the Southern Marches, to my dad.”
Miao Youfang looked to Xu Erlang, who hesitated before replying,
“Do one’s best and leave the rest to fate. If it truly comes to a situation where I have to die, as a scholar, I shall naturally give my life for righteousness. What about you, Brother Miao?”
“How could I die? I’m going to be a great hero in the future. Hm, if that day does come, carve ‘Great Hero’ on my gravestone. And give my apologies to Silver Gong Xu on my behalf.”
Miao Youfang thought for a moment and added, “Oh, and burn a few paper effigies of serving girls for me every year. Even in the afterlife, this great hero will sleep with women.”
Xu Cijiu shook his head, eyes not leaving his military treatise, and reached for his bun, but grasped nothing.
Eh? He looked over. The table was empty. Looking up, he saw Mosang chewing, gulping down the bun, then pretending as if nothing had happened and focusing seriously on his chess with Miao Youfang.
Thou son of a swine… Xu Erlang cursed inwardly, betraying no emotion on his face:
“Brother Mosang, whenever I see you, I always remember your sister.”
The dark-skinned Mosang turned around in confusion and asked,
“Why do you say that?”
He knew Xu Erlang was Silver Gong Xu’s brother, and that Lina had stayed at the Xu residence for half a year.
Xu Erlang said earnestly,
“You and Lina are both souls of purest guilelessness. You truly embody the proverb ‘bread is the staff of life’. If everyone in Jiuzhou was like you siblings, there would be peace under heaven and far less war.”
Mosang had not expected such praise from a double laureate like Xu Erlang and was delighted, laughing boisterously,
“Sir Xu flatters me. I’m just a dull fellow. It’s Lina who is clever, my father has always praised her wit since childhood.”
Perhaps your father misunderstands what ‘wit since childhood’ means… Xu Erlang nodded and resumed reading quietly.
Miao Youfang, meanwhile, felt that there was an underlying meaning to Xu Erlang’s words, but had no proof.
Mentioning Lina, Mosang became quite animated,
“These days I’ve been busy fighting, but you fellows have been around here for a while, do you know my sister’s title in the Central Plains’ jianghu?”
Rice Bucket, surely… Xu Erlang thought, inwardly.
Miao Youfang, not familiar with Lina, didn’t join the banter. Otherwise, given someone of his paltry ability to survive, calling someone the ‘ugliest sister-in-law’, he would have launched into a rap about Lina around Mosang already.
“What nickname?”
Taking advantage of Mosang turning toward Xu Erlang, Miao Youfang used his Transforming Force skill to secretly switch a chess piece.
Mosang puffed out his chest and, as if reciting a Buddhist mantra, declared:
“Lady Flying Swallow!”
“What?!”
Xu Erlang looked up in astonishment.
Miao Youfang stared blankly at Mosang.
Mosang, very satisfied with their dumbfounded expressions, lifted his chin proudly,
“Lina has been in the jianghu here for half a year and is deeply loved by people of the Central Plains. They call her Lady Flying Swallow.”
Xu Cijiu, ever the scholar, showed no change of expression, and said calmly,
“Who told you that?”
“Lina herself,” Mosang replied.
Miao Youfang was about to debunk this but saw Xu Erlang signalling him, so asked via sound transmission,
“What’s up?”
Xu Cijiu had not yet learned sound transmission, so just shook his head slightly.
Got it, Erlang’s plan is to let Mosang make a spectacle of himself so the joke would be bigger later… Miao Youfang thought his time with Xu Qi’an hadn’t been in vain.
He suddenly thought of the Holy Son.
Tell him after the battle, otherwise it would affect his morale… Xu Erlang thought.
Just then, the roar of a black-scaled flying beast echoed, followed by fierce winds. The three inside the gatehouse knew the Flying Beast army were landing on the walls.
A moment later, hurried footsteps approached, and a Heart Gu shaman in rattan armour rushed in, speaking rapidly to Mosang in the Southern Marches tongue.
Miao Youfang and Xu Erlang looked at Mosang, who sprang to his feet and, in increasingly fluent imperial speech, reported,
“The rebel forces ten li away have joined with reinforcements. They are heading this way.”
…
Guo County.
After a half-month-long field battle with the Yunzhou rebels, during which they lost sixty percent of their soldiers, the Qingzhou army stationed at Dongling City finally could not hold out and withdrew from Dongling, setting up camp in nearby Guo County to recover.
Their enemies were Ji Xuan’s two elite armies, the “Black Armour” and “Green Python” troops, plus three thousand irregulars.
The Black Armour Army comprised six hundred heavy cavalry and two thousand three hundred light cavalry.
The Green Python consisted of four thousand elite infantry, equipped with eighty cannons, thirty ballistae, and two thousand muskets and crossbows.
With such well-equipped and valiant troops, the Qingzhou army naturally could not compete.
Even though Sun Xuanji had brought plenty of firearms and equipment before rushing to Qingzhou, the reality proved that the military strength of the Qingzhou garrisons was far inferior to the elite troops of Yunzhou.
The Qingzhou army was not the trump card of the Great Feng military, yet they faced some of the rebels’ best troops.
In terms of middle-rank officers, this garrison at Dongling was still no match for Ji Xuan’s elite.
The only thing that could turn the situation around was Sun Xuanji, an Arcanist of the third rank.
Truthfully, an Arcanist’s personal combat strength was far inferior to that of a warrior of the same rank, but in terms of destructive power, among those at the third rank, Arcanists claimed second, and no one dared claim first.
Protector Yuan, thick white fur covering him, walked along the city wall and said to anyone he met,
“The Wanyao Kingdom has been restored.”
The Dongling soldiers were already familiar with this allied member of the Yao race. They both loved and hated him. They loved his powerful strength at the fourth rank and saw him as a reliable comrade.
What they hated was that this comrade might “stab” you at any time.
That morning, news of the Southern Yao’s restoration returned to Qingzhou. Protector Yuan was ecstatic and stood atop the city wall, howling at the sky in joy.
Then he told this news to anyone he encountered.
“Congratulations, congratulations, the Wanyao Kingdom is a staunch ally of our Great Feng!”
A centurion, looking at the approaching Protector Yuan, showed an eager smile.
But Protector Yuan frowned at him and said,
“Your heart tells me: ‘Will this damned monkey ever stop?’”
”…” The centurion’s face immediately turned bright red. He did not know whether to explain or pretend not to have heard, awkwardly wanting to slip away from his post.
Fortunately, Protector Yuan did not make things difficult for him and tactfully went off to announce the good news to other defenders he knew.
“Sigh!”
The centurion gazed at the back of Protector Yuan and sighed.
He did not know whether Guo County could hold or for how long. They hadn’t even had the time to collect and bury the bodies of their brothers fallen in the field.
Just then, a loud boom resounded from the sky, and a red flare exploded high above.
It was the alarm of an enemy attack, and the one who had given the signal was none other than Sun Xuanji, who floated on an artillery platform above Guo County, guarding against the enemy with his Qi-watching technique.
…
Wan Commandery.
To count it all up, Wan Commandery had already been besieged for a month.
During that time, the rebels had stormed the city dozens of times, and the Qingzhou Administration had repeatedly dispatched troops to reinforce them, but Yunzhou’s army consumed every last man.
It was not until the Flying Beast Army of the Heart Gu tribe arrived that this downward spiral was finally reversed.
But for the defenders stationed at Wan Commandery, exhaustion had seeped into their bones, even the most battle-hungry among them longed to end this struggle sooner rather than later.
As for Zhang Shen, the great strategist who had been in reclusion for over twenty years, to be forced into such a predicament in his first battle was a humiliation beyond bearing.
Despite being isolated and without aid, he had managed to hold Wan Commandery thus far and lived up to his reputation.
Zhang Shen climbed up the city wall and looked all around. The walls were filled with craters, scorched marks, and cracks from the cannonfire. In some places, the wall had been completely breached, the parapets destroyed, just like the teeth in a smashed mouth.
More than half of the defenders had been killed or wounded. Even the conscripted militia had lost more than half.
The clouds of war hung heavily over this small city.
At the edge of the azure sky, a giant beast flapped its membranous wings, flying toward Wan Commandery.
Gliding in, the beast landed gently on the city wall. Upon its back, a Heart Gu master called out to Zhang Shen,
“Thirty li to the south, a large enemy force is approaching.”
Having spent a few days learning the Southern Marches tongue since the arrival of the Flying Beast Army, Zhang Shen nodded gravely and replied in fluent Southern Marches-accented speech,
“This official is aware.”
He shifted slightly and gazed south, slowly saying,
“I can see thirty li away.”
As he finished speaking, his vision changed dramatically. The surroundings faded, his sight stretched further and further, up to thirty miles distant.
In his field of vision, a vast line of enemy troops stretched as far as the eye could see, banners billowing.
A flag fluttered, unfurling to reveal the character “Qi”.
Zhang Shen gave a “heh”, withdrew his gaze, and muttered quietly,
“Soldiers against soldiers, generals against generals. This old tortoise finally showed up.”
…
Dongling City.
Xu Pingfeng, clothing white as snow, carried a jug of wine, soared up in a single step, and arrived above the sea of clouds.
Golden light followed closely and transformed into Agaruka Bodhisattva, standing by Xu Pingfeng’s side.
Across from them, the Jianzheng, white-haired and bearded in his white robe, had long been waiting.
“Teacher Jianzheng.”
Xu Pingfeng floated and drifted between them, sat cross-legged atop the sea of clouds, and with a wave of his wide sleeve, set a chess board and two boxes of chess pieces before him.
“I remember when I studied the arts with you, every three days the two of us would play a game of Go. I never once won.”
Xu Pingfeng’s tone was calm and carried a trace of nostalgia as he said,
“Since I left the capital, we’ve not met for twenty years, and for those twenty years, we have not played a single game. Teacher Jianzheng, could you play one more game with your disciple?”
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