Zawu listened to his subordinate's report and only gave a cold snort.
The adjutant hesitated before speaking, “General, why didn’t we continue the attack last night? Although there are formidable men on the city walls, we could have breached the gates quickly if we had gone all out.”
The city guards last night were indeed somewhat different, but that was all. If they had pressed their advantage, they could have killed even more city guards and depleted their weapons.
"Break through?" Zha Wu snorted coldly, dissatisfied. "We're here to attack the city, not to die. What's the rush? As long as these people in the city have nowhere to escape and those river bandits are still here, we don't need to worry about Weizhou City."
These people will starve to death sooner or later because of the lack of food, and the arrows will also run out.
Once we run out of food and weapons, these people won't need our help anymore.
These advance troops from Xiliang were painstakingly trained; we can't let them all perish here.
"And those Tuyuhun people are waiting for us to deal with; we can't waste all our forces on sieges."
These advance troops represent the culmination of Xiliang's efforts over the years, and they cannot be allowed to perish here.
Those garrison soldiers aren't worth wasting too much of their manpower on.
The lieutenant hesitated for a long time before saying, "General, I mean, what if someone comes to Weizhou's aid? We'll be in danger then."
Although Weizhou City appears to be sealed off, the people inside must have routes out of the city that they are unaware of.
If these people manage to get reinforcements from elsewhere, all their time spent outside the city will have been wasted.
For example, those people who appeared on the city wall last night.
Those people were definitely not the garrison soldiers of Weizhou City.
Zawu chuckled and leaned back in his tiger-skin chair, mocking, "Right now, even if Weizhou City wanted to ask for help, it wouldn't know who to ask."
The nearby cities were struggling to defend themselves due to the harassment of river bandits, so they had no extra troops to support Weizhou.
As for other places, needless to say.
The closest country is Tuyuhun, which can be reached by water in about half a month. However, Tuyuhun and the Great Jin are locked in a fierce battle at the border, making it impossible for them to send troops to support them, unless the Great Jin wants to continue losing cities.
The other place was the capital, which was far away from here. It would take a person almost two months to travel there, let alone tens of thousands of troops.
Moreover, the situation in the capital has only just stabilized; would Xie Jingxuan dare to send troops to provide support? Right now, he's probably busy eliminating the remnants of the Marquis of Anding and the Prince of Chu's faction.
This is enough time for us to take Weizhou City.
The deputy general hesitated for a while before finally saying, "General, I feel that something is wrong in Weizhou City."
Last night, those soldiers should have suffered heavy casualties, but I noticed that the number of wounded soldiers defending Weizhou City yesterday was even less than that of our Xiliang army.
Didn't the King of Chu say that Weizhou City was full of miscellaneous soldiers and generals, and that no one could hold it up?
But judging from yesterday's battle with them, the defending soldiers didn't seem to be without command; on the contrary, they were very organized, forcing us to retreat in the end.
They naturally believed the King of Chu's words. Although the King of Chu failed in the palace coup this time, he had helped Xiliang expand its territory several times, and his strategies were beyond question.
Since the other party said that Weizhou is a breakthrough point, then this place must be one.
But the attack by the city guards last night was not as simple as they had thought.
It must be related to the people he saw on the city wall last night; those people weren't wearing the armor of the city guards.
However, due to the distance and the darkness, the torches were not bright enough for him to make out who it was.
Zawu glanced at him for a moment before saying, "Are you saying that someone in Weizhou City is helping Prince Jin?"
The deputy general simply nodded. "When the siege started last night, the defending soldiers were disorganized, but for some reason they suddenly became very orderly."
The archers and soldiers coordinated very well, either because they were under someone's command or because they practiced regularly.
But the King of Chu said that these city guards were a bunch of good-for-nothings who only knew how to eat, and they hadn't trained together in the drill ground for a long time.
As for the Prince of Jin, he certainly didn't have that kind of scheme.
Back then, he had so many advisors, yet he insisted on leaving the capital. Wasn't it because he genuinely had no interest in the throne, or because he lacked common sense and was indecisive?
"Does the General think Prince Jin can do what he did yesterday?"
He didn't believe that Prince Jin could have changed so much in just a few days, commanding the battle like he did last night; there must be something wrong with that.
Zawu frowned. "But Weizhou City has been under lockdown for over half a month, and there are still river bandits on the waterways. How could anyone possibly enter Weizhou City at this time? What's the situation with the river bandits?"
The lieutenant shook his head. "I'm not quite sure what their plans are. I only heard that they clashed with the city's garrison last night, and the garrison suffered heavy losses."
Upon hearing this, Zawu immediately burst into laughter, "Hahaha, good, it seems those river bandits are quite useful after all. King Chu has made a good move."
No wonder the Khan values him so highly; this man is indeed quite capable.
"If he could recognize this place as a prime location early on and subdue those river bandits to serve him, what could the Emperor of the Great Jin possibly do against him?"
The lieutenant remained silent.
Zawu continued, "Tomorrow morning, we will continue the siege. Since someone is secretly helping Prince Jin, I want to see who it is."
"You can go now, it's getting late. There's a tough battle tomorrow morning, so get some rest tonight."
The lieutenant simply responded and was about to leave.
Zawu suddenly remembered something, "I heard that someone has been gathering girls from nearby villages these past few days?"
The lieutenant quickly replied, "Don't worry, General. There are only a few. They're just bored soldiers looking for amusement. It won't interfere with tomorrow's business."
Zawu just smiled and said, "I'll send one to my tent in a bit."
These days, staying here outside the city is just too boring.
Unfortunately, he lost to the city guards of Weizhou today, making him feel utterly humiliated.
Since that's the case, he might as well vent his anger on those women from the Great Jin Dynasty, and use that to give those people in Weizhou City a hard time tomorrow.
They're nothing but a bunch of cowards who can't even protect a woman.
The lieutenant nodded repeatedly, "I will have someone send it over immediately."
After saying that, he left.
A short while later, a woman was brought in.
Zawu simply threw the person onto the bed.
By this time, it was already late at night, and apart from a few tents still lit with candles, most of the tents were dark.
The soldiers who had been playing around in twos and threes all returned to their tents, some even going to the tent in the farthest corner with their arms around each other's shoulders.
Soon, several lewd laughs came from inside the tent, accompanied by some foul language and the cries of a woman.
However, because the tent was some distance from where the soldiers were resting, no one paid any attention to the situation there.
Occasionally, patrol teams would pass by with torches, but they all seemed unfazed and didn't stop in front of the tents at all.
The sounds inside the tent grew even louder, a mixture of men's lewd laughter and women's weeping.
Unnoticed by anyone, Jiang Yimian led a group of people and quietly appeared in the woods not far from the military camp.
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