The weather in Southern Chu is unpredictable. One day the sky is clear at sunset, but before dawn, dark clouds roll in and a heavy rain begins.
A magpie with a black back and white belly landed on a tree branch overlooking the Guijiang Estuary Dam. It first preened its wet back feathers with its beak, then fluffed up all its feathers and shook them before looking down at the tree branch.
The dam below was brightly lit, with hundreds of torches standing on the embankment, their flames flickering violently in the rain. About seven or eight hundred soldiers were braving the rain, wielding shovels and picks to dig into the dam.
A man who looked like a military general stood to the side, holding an umbrella, and said, "Everyone, hurry up and dig. It's almost dawn. We must dig it open before noon."
A soldier piled a shovelful of dirt onto a mound beside him and said, "General Xie, why must we help Qiu Jie? Wouldn't it be better to just escape by boat?"
The military officer asked, "Gentlemen, how have I treated you?"
The soldiers all said, "General Xie is certainly very kind to us. Wherever General Xie goes, we will go."
The military officer said, "You think I've been good enough to you, so you have to help me too, right?"
“Yes, but what does this have to do with breaching the dam?” A soldier wiped the rain off his face. “We’re willing to follow the general, but we don’t need to risk our lives for that Qiu Jie.”
"Now that things have come to this, I'll be frank with you all," the general said. "If Southern Chu is defeated, Wei Jingzhuo will surely ascend the throne upon returning to the Great Jin. I was ordered by His Majesty to plant explosives in the Shence Chariot. He will definitely hunt me down after he ascends the throne. And you all remember how you and I surrounded the Western Rong Crown Prince and his wife in Suiyang, as well as Wei Jingzhuo's wife, Su Wan. You haven't forgotten that, have you? You were all involved, and you all committed a grave crime."
The soldier who asked the question said, "It seems that helping Qiu Jie is the only way out?"
The military officer said, "She is, after all, a goddess of Southern Chu."
One soldier said, "The general promised us wealth and honor, so we followed him all the way here. Now that I think about it, it wasn't so bad that we stayed in that bandit stronghold. We weren't under any control in the Northwest Camp, and we were carefree."
The soldier next to him said, "So this is all you aspire to? Then why are you following the general?"
The military officer said, "As the saying goes, fortune favors the bold. At that time, Wei Jingzhuo himself was barely able to protect himself, so what could he possibly give us?"
Another soldier said, "The general is right. It's a pity that the general's plan failed, otherwise the general would be the governor of Youzhou now."
The military general said, "I had two options at the time. If the Divine Strategy Chariot had killed Wei Jingzhuo, His Majesty would have appointed me to a high-ranking official position. You would all naturally have received rewards as well. If Ge Fanghai had succeeded, as a meritorious official of Southern Chu, I would have also received the position of governor of a prefecture..."
Someone in the crowd interjected, "The general had everything arranged, but he didn't expect Chu Yi to interfere."
The military officer snorted and said, "He thinks Su Wan is a goddess, and he finds her irresistible. Instead of helping us, he's getting in the way of my important business. It was Wei Jingzhuo who helped me by injuring him."
A soldier said, "General, you're mistaken. Chu Yi wasn't injured by Wei Jingzhuo; it was Qiu Jie who did it."
The military officer asked in a surprised tone, "How did you know?"
The soldier replied, "When Chu Yi returned to camp, I happened to get up to use the outhouse and saw Chu Yi's figure flash by. Think about it, how could Chu Yi, who was so badly injured, jump so easily?"
"Why didn't you say so sooner?"
"I was half asleep at the time, and Chu Yi just passed by in a flash, so I forgot about it. If you hadn't brought it up, General, I wouldn't have remembered it at all."
The military officer said, "How could Qiu Jie possibly hurt Chu Yi?"
The soldiers said one after another, "General Xie, she even poisoned His Majesty, killing Chu Yi is no easy task for her."
The officer seemed startled, turned to look at the tent with lights on in the distance, and gestured for silence, saying, "Don't be too loud, lest she hear you."
“General, I have an idea,” a soldier said. “Why don’t we arrest Qiu Jie and take her back to the capital? She was the one who assassinated Emperor Kangping. Perhaps we can all be rewarded.”
Before the military officer could answer, the people around him began to curse.
"You're a complete idiot. You've forgotten everything we've done. Do you really expect Wei Jingzhuo to reward you?"
"That's right, unless Wei Jingzhuo is dead."
The soldier who offered the suggestion said, "Then where else can we go?"
The general said, "The Great Jin will definitely not accept us. As for the Western Rong, we once besieged the Western Rong prince and his wife, so we can't go there either. Qiu Jie still has the identity of a goddess. If she uses this trick to wipe out the Great Jin army, she will be the one who saves Southern Chu, and we can all benefit from it. We can't turn against her unless absolutely necessary."
The soldiers all looked enlightened and said, "General, you're right. If Qiu Jie defeats the Jin army, she might even become the Empress of Southern Chu. Then you'll be the Grand General of Southern Chu, and we'll all rise to prominence."
One of the soldiers said, "But didn't Southern Chu receive a letter from Great Jin demanding that Qiu Jie be handed over?"
The military officer said, "You really don't get it. Southern Chu is handing over Qiu Jie because they can't defeat the Jin army. If they use the Gui River to wipe out the Jin army, Southern Chu will become much stronger. You all continue as usual, just follow my lead and dig quickly."
The soldiers stopped talking and started digging with their heads down.
The general turned back and walked towards the tent on the other side of the dike.
The magpie shook its feathers again, spread its wings and flew away from the branch, following the general in the air.
The general came to the tent and said, "Goddess, the progress is normal. Everyone is working hard, and we will definitely be able to dig the dam before noon."
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