Chapter 247 Preparations for War
Shen Yuexi looked at the situation in the south and went down the city wall to find Xiao Zhuo.
She was very confident in Xiao Zhuo. Although he only had 3,000 soldiers, his soldiers were different from those of the Second Prince. One of Xiao Zhuo's soldiers could defeat ten of the enemy.
Xiao Zhuo was writing a letter to Emperor Yongde. When he saw her coming, he put down his pen and stood up to greet her.
Shen Yuexi asked him how to defend against the Second Prince's attack.
"This city is built very solidly. If we just need to defend the city, there will be no problem at all. I'm thinking about other things," Xiao Zhuo touched her head.
"What exactly does my husband mean?" Shen Yuexi blinked.
"I urgently need troops to go to the capital to rescue my father," Xiao Zhuo sat back down, picked up his pen and continued writing, "Isn't it already there?"
Shen Yuexi exclaimed, "My husband wants to... take over the opposing army?"
Xiao Zhuo said, "That's right. Then we will take this army to the capital to help our father."
Shen Yuexi stood there in a daze.
He only had a few thousand men, yet he was actually thinking of incorporating the 40,000-man army on the other side. Perhaps only Xiao Zhuo had such courage and audacity. However, the other side wasn't a herd of 40,000 sheep, so how could they possibly listen to him?
"Well... the Second Prince won't agree to that, right? He went to the capital to attack Emperor Yongde."
"Yuexi, you're such a joke. How could I possibly discuss this with him? Of course, I have to find a way to capture this army."
"There are 40,000 people on the opposite side." Shen Yuexi said while looking at Xiao Zhuo's forehead to see if there was any redness or fever.
She had absolute confidence in Xiao Zhuo's ability. If Xiao Zhuo said that 3,000 men could defend the city, then they could definitely do it. But now Xiao Zhuo was talking about using 3,000 men to capture 40,000 men on the other side. This was too exaggerated.
"I'm serious," Xiao Zhuo laughed when he saw her eyes shift upwards, "I'm not talking nonsense. It's just that the three thousand people we have right now aren't enough..."
Shen Yuexi nodded vigorously: "Husband, I understand. Just wait, I will go and find the army for you."
After saying that, she turned and ran out of the house.
Xiao Zhuo smiled and shook his head, then lowered his head to continue writing the letter.
Emperor Yongde was not his biological father, but he had raised him for twenty years. To repay this kindness, he would return to the capital to save Emperor Yongde. Then he would leave the capital and return to Xiaogang Village with Shen Yuexi.
He saved Emperor Yongde to repay the kindness of raising him, but he could never forgive Emperor Yongde for killing Empress Pei.
After Xiao Zhuo finished writing the letter, he ordered someone to send it out. He took out a small bag from his arms, opened the bag, and poured the jade fragments inside onto the table.
The white jade fragments sparkled in the candlelight. Xiao Zhuo picked up one of them and gently stroked it in his hand.
"Mother..."
His impression of his mother was of a gentle and serene person, yet also of a noble and dignified character. Her manners were generous and proper, inspiring respect in everyone who met her. She was worthy of being the daughter of a nation. His behavior and conduct were almost entirely influenced by his mother's words and deeds. Recalling the past, he could no longer believe that his mother was the kind of woman who lacked self-respect.
In his extreme anger, he smashed the jade pendant into pieces, but afterwards he picked up the pieces one by one, wrapped them up and kept them on his body.
This was something he deeply regretted. After all, the jade pendant was the only relic his mother left him. Moreover, he had no idea what had happened to his mother back then, so he assumed she was at fault. This was truly rash.
He was lost in thought when Shen Yuexi ran into the room breathlessly, shouting, "Husband, I..."
Halfway through her shout, Shen Yuexi's eyes fell on the jade pendant fragments on the table and she changed her words: "My husband is missing our mother?"
She thought Xiao Zhuo had just broken the jade pendant and didn't care about it anymore, but it turned out that he had been carrying the jade pendant fragments with him all the time and didn't even throw away the lanyard that held the jade pendant.
"The thing I regret most is breaking it," Xiao Zhuo said, "Yuexi, do you have any way to restore it to its original state?"
"Restore..." Shen Yuexi's mind turned over and over again.
Big Bear is a universal manufacturing machine, not a repair machine. Given jade raw material, it can instantly create a jade pendant, but jade pendants come in countless different forms, so who knows what Big Bear will create.
"Husband, let's put the jade pendant aside for now. Let's deal with the enemy first." Shen Yuexi grabbed Xiao Zhuo's hand and ran out. "Come quickly, I'm looking for troops for you."
Xiao Zhuo followed her out of the house.
The city was filled with smoke and the smell of incense lingered. Shen Yuexi coughed as she pulled Xiao Zhuo towards an open space: "I finally found so many people."
Xiao Zhuo smiled and asked, "How many people are there?"
"You'll know when you see it." Shen Yuexi fanned her nose with her hand.
When they arrived at the square, they saw a large group of middle-aged men standing in neat rows, more than 500 in each row, arranged in four rows. Feng Zhang and several soldiers were patrolling the area.
When everyone saw Shen Yuexi and Xiao Zhuo coming, they all shouted, "Greetings, Lord."
The shouting was not very uniform, and it sounded similar to the calls of street vendors, which was still quite decent.
Xiao Zhuo looked at Shen Yuexi in surprise: "In such a short time, you've gathered more than 2,000 people?"
"Haha, it just took some time." Shen Yuexi proudly pushed Xiao Zhuo to the front of the team, "Husband, you come and talk to them."
When Xiao Zhuo said the army was not enough, she suddenly had an idea: there were tens of thousands of people in the city. Every household had young men, and if they were gathered together, wouldn't that make an army?
Yuri Masa took the lead in gathering everyone, and these people were all selected by her from the common people in the city.
She gave an impassioned speech to the hundreds of people who had arrived earlier.
If the city falls, everyone is doomed. Now we must work together to defend the city.
After drinking a few sips of water, the next group of people came and she repeated her previous speech...
In order to show off, she said lightly that it was just a little saliva, but in fact her lips were almost worn out and she drank a whole bag of water.
Xiao Zhuo walked slowly in front of the troops, his hands behind his back. Shen Yuexi followed him, hands behind his back, in a similar manner. But after walking for a while, she realized she seemed to lack momentum. When Xiao Zhuo walked, he was truly a famous general commanding the battlefield. When she walked, she was more like a beautiful girl enjoying the scenery by the lake...
She turned back and stood with Feng Zhang. She wasn't leaving. She wasn't cut out for this.
Feng Zhang whispered, "Madam, even though we've gathered two thousand men, they've never fought a battle before. Can...can they do it?"
"I know, but my husband wants soldiers." Shen Yuexi also answered in a low voice.
She actually understood what Feng Zhang said. These impromptu soldiers were probably not very useful. But Xiao Zhuo was so capable, so he could probably assign them suitable positions, right?
Xiao Zhuo took a quick look around and returned to the center of the group. He said, "Forty thousand enemy troops are to the south, and they will attack us tomorrow morning. If we want to survive, we must fight with all our might. Does anyone among you know how to use a knife?"
Dozens of hands were raised in the team, and everyone spoke at once.
"My Lord, I have killed pigs before."
"My Lord, I have slaughtered chickens before."
"Very good, as long as you have experience with a knife," Xiao Zhuo nodded in appreciation, "How many of you can use a bow and arrow? Raise your hands so I can see."
Shen Yuexi found this to be a good thing about Xiao Zhuo. If people had said they could butcher pigs and chickens, she would have laughed out loud. But Xiao Zhuo remained serious.
"Alright, put your hands down," Xiao Zhuo said to everyone, "I plan to show the enemy how powerful we are first. Go get your weapons and armor, and follow me out of the city to fight."
As soon as he finished speaking, more than a hundred people in the crowd collapsed to the ground, and half of them began to tremble.
Shen Yuexi couldn't bear to watch this anymore, so she ran up to Xiao Zhuo and whispered, "Husband, are you really going to take them out of the city to fight?"
"It's fake. I wanted to see how brave they are," Xiao Zhuo turned his head and whispered, "I just said it, and these people were scared like this. If I really take them out of the city, I guess you won't be able to see your husband again."
"Then...then these people can't be used?" Shen Yuexi asked disappointedly.
“It’s not completely unusable.”
After Xiao Zhuo finished speaking, he turned to Feng Zhang and said, "Feng Zhang, pick out those who haven't collapsed or trembled. Let the rest go home."
Feng Zhang picked out about a thousand people.
Shen Yuexi thought that at least half of the two thousand people stayed, which was not bad.
Xiao Zhuo stood in front of everyone and said with a smile: "You remaining people are all warriors. Since our numbers are much smaller, we can no longer use the previous strategy..."
Halfway through his conversation, Xiao Zhuo glanced at the crowd and changed the subject:
"I didn't observe carefully enough. Feng Zhang, pick out those who haven't wet their pants, and let the rest go home."
Five hundred people left.
"I know you've never fought a war before, so there's no need for you to actually engage in combat this time," Xiao Zhuo said to the five hundred men. "You don't even need to bring armor or weapons. You just need to not be afraid of the enemy. You can go home and eat first, and then gather here when the lights are on."
No one understood what Xiao Zhuo meant and they all dispersed.
Shen Yuexi didn't know what Xiao Zhuo was up to, and just as she was about to ask, Xiao Zhuo took her hand and said, "Yuexi, let's go have dinner."
After all this trouble, it was already dark.
Shen Yuexi was curious and kept asking during the meal: "Husband, just tell me, what are those five hundred people used for?"
"To help build momentum for my husband."
"To create momentum?" Shen Yuexi didn't understand.
Xiao Zhuo picked up his chopsticks and started to eat. "If you heard someone shouting at night, how many people do you think there were?"
"Needless to say, of course it's one." Shen Yuexi replied.
"What if a lot of people are shouting in all directions?"
"It's so dark around here, how can I tell? I'm dizzy just listening..." Shen Yuexi stopped eating from her bowl, "I understand, my husband wants to confuse the enemy so that they don't know how many people are coming."
"Not bad." Xiao Zhuo smiled and put a piece of meat in her bowl. "Eat more and stay alert. You won't be able to sleep tonight."
After dinner, Xiao Zhuo went to the city to prepare, while Shen Yuexi changed into clothes suitable for combat.
When everything was ready, she opened the window and looked out at the night sky.
The clouds tonight are thick, blocking out the moonlight. Perfect weather for a surprise attack.
Xiao Zhuo wasn't the type to passively take a beating. When outnumbered, he would always take the initiative and attack, regardless of the enemy's expectations. The more the enemy thought he couldn't do something, the more he would do it, always managing to achieve a surprise victory.
As soon as I returned to the house, Yang Cong rushed in: "Madam, come to the north of the city quickly, the cavalry is coming."
"Cavalry, what cavalry?" Shen Yuexi was still asking when Yang Cong had already pulled her hand and ran out of the door.
The north gate of the city was already open, and the Xiliang cavalry were filing in from outside the city gate. The people in the city crowded to both sides of the street to watch, making it impossible to get through.
Shen Yuexi was overjoyed.
I still remember that the last time Xiao Zhuo was fighting against the Xirong army, it was Mei Pu who led the Xiliang cavalry to help. I didn't expect that tonight, during the life-and-death battle with the Second Prince, the Xiliang cavalry would come again.
She ran to the city gate and saw, illuminated by the firelight, a slender female general on horseback galloping towards the city gate. She was wearing a white helmet and armor, and the mask on her face reflected the luster of metal. She raised her hand to greet her.
"Sister Mei!" Shen Yuexi shouted in surprise.
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