Chapter 108: Lugu, she was determined to tear through this thick haze with her bare hands. ...
"Still not willing to recruit?"
"Only one young man gave in. The rest... were like a gourd with a sawed mouth. Not a single word could be pried out. Many captives bit off their tongues, preferring death to avoid speaking."
King Qiu Di nonchalantly turned a green ice cup on the leather table. If cold water was poured into it, fine cracks like ice would appear inside the cup. This cup was exactly what was looted from Yingying. Qiu Di could not find such an exquisite item. On the contrary, the people in the Central Plains were only indulging in music and banquets, and studying these flashy things. If it came to a battle with swords, they were as soft as tofu and could not withstand a single blow.
He took a sip of the tea, which was also from Daying. It was slightly bitter at first, but had a subtle sweetness aftertaste. King Qiu Di raised his hawk-like eyes and asked, "What did he do?"
"The move... the move is..."
King Qiu Di was impatient and waved his hand. "Why are you hesitating? Take him into the tent and I will interrogate him personally!"
Not long after, the servants brought a young man who was still childish into the tent. His hands and feet were bound with heavy, rusty iron chains. His undershirt had long been soaked with blood, turning a dark ochre color. It was obvious that his skin was almost intact under the torn undershirt.
Since the first successful surprise attack on the Ying camp, the tribes and small countries led by Qiu Di became more and more unscrupulous. After that, they carried out looting at least three times in succession, either looting some food, clothing, armor, weapons and horses, and even captured some Ying people as slaves.
There has been no invasion except in the last two days.
"What is the name of a warrior?" King Qiu Di asked with a smile.
"Zhang, single character 'Sa'..." The young man knelt on the ground, slowly raised his head, then quickly lowered it again, saying in a hoarse voice, "What kind of warrior are you still calling yourself? Now you're just a prisoner."
"Ha, that's wrong. Under my command, you can still regain your reputation as a warrior. Don't you people of the Central Plains love to play the game of appointing generals and conferring titles? If you submit wholeheartedly to my command, I will still give you what you deserve." His narrow, eagle-like eyes fixed on Zhang Sa's face, and he spoke in a deep voice, "Three days ago, your camp was no longer as decadent as before. You were singing and dancing, enjoying yourself. Your morale was completely refreshed. What's the reason?"
This suspicion was also the reason why Qiu Di no longer invaded Yingying.
Zhang Sa sneered indifferently. He pursed his cracked lips and said, "How else could it be? Of course, reinforcements arrived soon, and food and fodder were secretly transported to the camp long ago."
For the past three days, the Ying troops who were singing and dancing across the river all had rosy faces and were all more sleek and beautiful than the other.
King Qiudi crossed his legs and sneered, "My scouts haven't seen any signs of reinforcements or food supplies. How could this be? Did the warriors actually come from Yingying to bluff and deceive me?"
"King Qiu Di, since you doubt a warrior like me, why bother asking so many questions?" Zhang Sa raised his bloodied forearm, revealing the deep scars on his wrist where the bone was visible. "There's not a single scratch on my body. I'm half-human, half-ghost, and I've been tortured. If that's the case, Your Majesty, you could rip out my tongue and tell me to stop making up stories and bluffing to deceive Your Majesty. I wouldn't be surprised."
After saying this, Zhang Sa really lowered his head and fell to the ground, looking like he was about to die, and he didn't say another word.
The king sat at the head of the table, tapping on the tiger-skin table. He asked calmly, "Well, warrior, you've figured it out. Where did the reinforcements come from? Where were the so-called food and fodder delivered? How did they escape the eyes of the five-way coalition led by Qiu Di?"
"Why did you suddenly confess?" King Qiu Di took advantage of the opportunity and asked in a deep voice.
"Suddenly?" Zhang Sa raised his head and laughed miserably, spitting out blood foam. He spat, "You've been torturing prisoners for days, isn't it to make us want to live but cannot die, to force us to speak! Force us to confess! What? Now that I can't bear it anymore, you don't trust me? To humiliate me? Besides! I joined the army to avenge my brother's death on the battlefield! Who knew... who knew that my brother didn't die at the hands of the enemy..."
Zhang Sa's chest heaved, his eyes and nose reddened, and he choked up a little. Young as he was, he looked like he couldn't hide anything. "You all know that our great generals in Daying were defeated, and now we're sending a woman to lead the army! That woman stays in the camp all day, afraid to fight. Is she trying to teach us to sit and wait for death? To be slaughtered? My eldest brother... was just trying to boost morale for the soldiers, and she was beheaded in front of them all! What kind of general is she?! How can she lead an army?"
"I just learned about this recently..." Zhan Sa couldn't suppress his grief and anger, and tears flowed down his face.
A hint of scorn curled up King Qiu Di's lips. Persuading the soldiers to cheer up? Boosting morale? It sounded light and pliant, but perhaps it was simply inciting resentment against the female general. He had fought General Yun Wei before. Though a woman, she was quite skilled in deploying troops. She wielded her spear with the dexterity of a silver dragon, a man of both courage and strategy.
Of course, this was a useless speculation for him, and he did not intend to point it out. Isn't the discord between the generals and soldiers in Yingying exactly what he wanted?
In a flash, King Qiu Di's expression shifted to one of empathy and grief. He said, "What can a woman achieve? She's only meant to be kept in the boudoir, learning to please men. Yun Wei, with all her fancy moves, dares to go to the battlefield and tell men what to do? It's clear to me that Lord Ying doesn't value your lives or the fate of our country."
He feigned sympathy and sighed, "...Great Ying truly has no one left to use. This is Heaven's will to destroy Ying. How could a small border nation like us desire to become your enemy?"
Perhaps it was because the young man sitting here was surprised to find someone who shared his hatred for the enemy. King Qiu Di didn't need to gently nudge him with the rest of the conversation. Zhang Sa continued, "Hasn't the tribes and small states outside the Great Wall always been led by Dara? King Qiu Di, do you know why Dara didn't raise its troops during this attack on Ying?"
King Qiudi sensed something unusual in this statement, but he remained expressionless. "Didn't the warrior say so? Since Dara is the leader of the various small nations, he naturally has to sit at the royal court and issue decrees. Just like you in the Central Plains, the soldiers are out on the march, while the king remains at the court."
"Is King Dara really trying to evade His Majesty in this way?" Zhang Sa cursed fiercely, blood still seeping from between his teeth. "I thought such despicable villains were only found in the Central Plains, but I didn't expect..."
King Qiu Di's brow furrowed into a frown, "Why do you say that, warrior?"
"The so-called reinforcements are from Dara." Zhang Sa sighed, "Food and fodder also come from Dara..."
The two were silent for a moment. King Qiudi looked pale. This was because Dara had indeed collected a lot of food from various small countries a while ago, but was not participating in this encirclement and suppression. Since Dara was not sending troops, what was the point of asking for food and fodder...
"Where did it come from?"
"East Horn Deer Valley."
The tent was quiet again until someone outside reported. King Qiu Di glanced at Zhang Sa below him and then raised his voice to invite him in.
The visitor was a lieutenant under his command. Seeing the captives present, he did not report for a moment. After receiving a signal from King Qiudi, the lieutenant bowed and replied, "Your Majesty, we have a clue about the scouts who disappeared a few days ago. The secret sign they left behind was broken in a clear canal in the east. I sent people to search along the canal and found them..."
The deputy general hesitated for a while before finally making up his mind and said, "There is a valley called Lu in the east corner. There are patrols of the Ying army stationed outside the valley. Inside the valley, they seem to be digging trenches and building corridors..."
The implication is that the missing scout might have run into the patrolling Ying army and never returned.
"Did you really see it clearly?" King Qiu Di disagreed. "Although this valley belongs to Daying, I know a thing or two about it. The valley is narrow. What's the point of digging trenches and building tunnels here?"
The deputy general stepped forward and took out a few grains of white rice from his bosom. "I picked them up outside the Deer Valley."
The implication was self-evident. King Qiu Di's gaze fell on Zhang Sa like lightning. The young man understood and said, "Once upon a time, my neighbor and I were fishing in the Qingqu Canal and accidentally entered the Deer Valley. This valley looks narrow, but it's actually not. The terrain is like a porcelain bottle with a thin mouth and a thick body, narrow on the outside and wide on the inside. It's the perfect place to play tricks."
King Qiudi asked coldly, "What the warrior is saying is that not only is Dara helping Ying Kingdom transport grain through Lugu, but the Ying army is even planning to secretly dispatch reinforcements from Lugu?"
"Your Majesty still refuses to believe it?" Zhang Sa pursed his bloody lips, his gaze fixed on the emerald ice cup King Qiudi was toying with. He said with a half-smile, "Even this cup was originally a small gift from Yingguo to Dara, but now it has become King Qiudi's spoils of war."
King Qiudi panted heavily, but remained silent. He simply ordered Zhang Sa to be taken away, but he was not tortured. Instead, he was treated with courtesy. Seeing the captive being withdrawn, the deputy generals on the side suddenly changed their expressions. "If what the young man said is true... Dara is so insidious! No wonder he was so kind to collect grain a while ago, but refused to join us, several small nations, in attacking Ying! On the surface, he seems to be so kind and righteous, claiming that he won't compete with us for this piece of the coveted piece of Ying, but behind his back..."
"There's no solid evidence yet, so be careful what you say." King Qiu Di paused for a moment before asking, "Where is the grain convoy from Yingdu that was transported to Xiayang now?"
The deputy general said: "It will arrive in about four days."
King Qiudi suddenly stood up and ordered, "In the next two days, you will dispatch a team of elite soldiers to ambush in Lugu and Qingqu, waiting to rob the grain."
…
Wang Dian stood under the supply cart, watching the soldiers carry bags of rice onto the shafts. He couldn't help but murmur, "Are we really going to waste so much food? Isn't that a bargain for Qiu Di?"
Before Zhu Hao could even begin to speak, Mei Lianjun, standing beside him, chimed in, "Small bait will naturally catch small fish and shrimp. If you don't use heavy bait, how can you lure a big fish to bite?"
Wang Dian thought about it and decided to stop wasting time. He turned around and continued to supervise the soldiers loading goods and food. Zhu Hao and Mei Lianjun returned to the shogunate first.
In the evening, someone came to report that the Qiudi had indeed set up a grain-robbery team near the Qingqu Canal. Mei Lianjun raised an eyebrow and asked, "How do you know that Dara had collected grain from the Qiudi and other small tribes?"
Without this section, Qiu Di's years of caution might not have allowed him to succeed.
Qiudi was a powerful tribe second only to Dara among the small countries in Zhou territory. On the surface, they submitted to Dara and assisted in managing the other tribes, but in fact they had long wanted to replace Dara. Throughout history, so-called allies could not withstand suspicion.
Zhu Hao smiled but said nothing. She came from a hundred years later, so she naturally knew that the reason why Dara kept his troops inactive but collected grain from various small countries was actually to conserve his strength for the attack on Huaicheng. However... she was reluctant to reveal the reason for her "foresight".
Just as he was thinking about how to respond to Ah Yin, Mei Lianjun changed the subject and said, "Dinner hasn't been served yet, has it?"
Zhu Hao looked up, a little surprised.
Well, since A Yin no longer insists on breaking the window paper, why should she break it?
Zhu Hao smiled sweetly, walked forward and took Mei Lianjun's arm, "A Yin, would you please come with me?"
"How dare I say it's not good?"
…
Within two days, Qiu Di sent three groups of people to rob grain. Except for the third time when the Ying army sent additional guards but failed, the first two times they looted no less than ten grain carts.
According to urgent reports from scouts, food aid from Yingdu will arrive in Xiayang the day after tomorrow. If Dara really secretly helps Yingdu... and Qiudi and other tribes insist on seizing Xiayang, they must act before the food and grass are stored in the warehouse.
Otherwise, the only option at that time will be to withdraw troops.
Withdraw troops? Qiu Di had never been so cowardly before!
Zhang Sa sat down at the head of the table, already dressed in clean Hu clothing. His wounds were gradually scabbing over. King Qiu Di glanced at him and asked abruptly, "Why did Dara collude with the Ying Kingdom?"
"How could he be colluding with Ying?" Zhang Sa laughed, setting down his ivory chopsticks. "Your Majesty, with his eyes and ears, doesn't he know Ying is about to surrender to Qing? Qing's imperial power is waning, treacherous ministers are in power, and they can't withstand Qing's powerful generals and soldiers... Dara is worried that Ying will be absorbed into Qing's territory. Daqing will see, huh? Ying Palace's treasured treasures have been plundered by you, the small nations and tribes outside the borders. If Qing doesn't attack you, who will it attack?"
Zhang Sa sighed resentfully, "Since I've surrendered, I'm one of you. Your Majesty, if that's the case, I'll be frank. Regardless of whether the other small nations withdraw their troops or not, I urge Your Majesty to swiftly withdraw from Xiayang. Why did the Qing army retreat when you were besieging Xiayang? They were waiting to use your strength to wear down the forces of all parties. Once they've annexed Ying, they'll take advantage of the fact that you and other small nations on the border haven't recovered and annihilate them in one fell swoop. Then, wouldn't Dara be able to stay out of the situation and reap the benefits?"
King Qiu Di did not answer, but simply turned the Thousand Green Ice Cup in his palm. In the cold light, he saw a beautiful woman from the Central Plains lying in his arms, dressed rather coolly. King Qiu Di turned his gaze to the deputy general and asked, "Did Dara write to you?"
"King Dara has been seriously ill recently. Regarding the reinforcements sent to Xiayang..."
It means that they are unwilling to attack Ying Kingdom together.
King Qiu Di's face was covered with a cold haze. Was he seriously ill? And his excuse was so casual? He really didn't take him seriously!
The knuckles of his fingers gripping the ice cup turned white, and the beauty in his arms couldn't help crying out in pain. King Qiu Di put down the ice cup and pulled the beauty onto his knees. He lifted up her flushed face, revealing her slightly frowned eyebrows, small nose, and moon-shaped lips. Her skin and bones were delicate, and she gasped when pinched. The woman who grazed sheep and horses with Qiu Di every day, exposed to the wind and sun, was more affectionate than others. In the Central Plains... Even the utensils used for drinking tea and tasting wine were so delicate and exquisite.
King Qiu Di tore off the beauty's gauze dress, glanced at Zhang Sa, and asked pointedly, "Are all women in your Central Plains so lovable?"
Zhang Sa was stunned, his face flushed red as he thought of something. He stammered, "It's more than just beauties... Jade cups and jewels are everywhere. The palace is piled high with gold and silver. The royal court is no longer a felt tent, but a jade tower and golden palace, like a palace in heaven."
His eyes wandered and he accidentally caught a glimpse of the beautiful spring scenery above him. He was so anxious that he lowered his head and started to pick the meat.
After a long while, the noise in the tent gradually subsided, and a deep voice from the seat gave the order: "Gather all the troops, and take Lugu first tomorrow."
…
The sky was as black as ink, and dark clouds were rolling in, as if the heavens were furious and about to overturn. The water in the clear channel was no longer confined to the ravine, and the turbid waves surged ashore. It seemed as if a demon dragon was lurking at the bottom of the channel, ready to disturb the peace of heaven and earth.
Deep in the Deer Valley, trenches crisscrossed. On the open space facing away from the cliff, several sturdy but unbreakable canopies of varying sizes were erected with iron shields. Ancient pine trees stood on the cliffs on both sides, with thick trunks and twisted roots deeply embedded in the rock and soil. However, the soil was loose today, and gravel rolled down the cliffs from time to time.
A sharp stone grazed Zhu Hao's earlobe as it fell, and warmth seeped through the gaps between her fingers that were covering her ear. Wang Dian, who had to follow closely no matter what, saw this and exclaimed, "Madam! Just go back to the camp and get bandaged... Besides, General Yun Wei has repeatedly instructed that General Wen should be in charge of the defense of this place. Right now, a hundred thousand soldiers led by Qiu Di are heading towards Lu Valley... Shall we go back first?"
"If, if anything happens to Madam, Young Master..." He will definitely skin him alive.
Zhu Hao casually tore off a piece of his shirt hem and hastily wrapped it around his ears, showing no sign of retreat. "The Lugu strategy was proposed by me, and the deployment and march were planned by A Yin. The soldiers all knew this plan was dangerous, but they were still willing to follow me and A Yin. Now A Yin is in charge of the camp, waiting for the opportunity to act, and the soldiers are also doing their duties. If this is the case, how can I stay out of it?"
Wang Dian squatted on the ground with his head in his hands, groaning inwardly. For a moment, he didn't know who was more stubborn between Shaojun and her. Is this what people call... a husband and wife look like?
Looking around, the valley was well-defended... There was not a single grain of food or rice to be seen, and there were fewer than a thousand soldiers. All that was seen were chariots reinforced with fine iron standing neatly in formation at the bottom of the valley. What was puzzling was that dead branches were tied to the back of each chariot, like a herd of beasts lurking in the valley, dragging their tails.
Soon, scouts reported that the enemy was less than five miles away.
As if in response to the military report, the gravel in the valley fell faster and faster. Zhu Hao asked, "What time is it?"
"It's almost noon."
The soldiers' loud shouts came from the front. It was General Wen gathering his troops.
Looking at the green waves surging in the valley with the wind, looking at the gravel rolling down from the rock wall, even the ground beneath his feet began to tremble faintly, Zhu Hao's face finally turned pale, and sweat kept coming out of his palms.
Isn't she afraid?
Of course I'm afraid.
But if we win this battle, our losses will be a drop in the bucket compared to the enemy's.
The main force, under A Yin's command, was defending the main camp, so they were sure to be safe. And she... didn't belong to this dynasty in the first place. If she were defeated or died, would she just... just go back? No... where would she go back to? After a hundred years, she would have died of old age. Would that mean... completely vanishing from the world?
Zhu Hao lay on her back on the ground. There was no light from the sky under the clouds, but she smiled.
She insisted on tearing through this thick haze with her bare hands.
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