Chapter 213 Lost in the End
At the hour of Mao, dawn breaks.
The Yanzhou soldiers, who had experienced another siege, held their weapons tightly in their hands and sat on the ground exhausted after watching the Dongyue soldiers retreat.
They couldn't tell whether the brothers around them were dead or alive, and no one had the mind to ask or talk. They needed to gather their strength, and then they would have to clean up the battlefield themselves.
Because there is no reserve army now.
Of the 30,000 soldiers, only less than 20,000 are left.
Nearly 20,000 people sounds like a lot, but it is definitely not enough to defend the entire Weicheng and prevent Dongyue from having any chance of breaking through.
This is not the first battle, and Dongyue is no longer as cautious as he was at the beginning. Through repeated battles, he has gradually figured out their bottom line.
Even if they wanted to hold on, they couldn't eat enough and had no strength to deceive others.
In the past ten days, let alone food, I can't even remember when I had eaten tree bark. I relied entirely on the several wells in the city to boil vegetables and drink.
It is said that they are cooking mixed vegetables, but in fact, they are mostly weeds. There is no trace of vegetables, and the water is so bright that you can see people.
Everyone was so hungry that they didn't even have the strength to walk, but they had to resist Dong Yue's increasingly frequent attacks on the city.
But they have no reason to complain.
Because not only they were not full, but the generals above them, and even Yun Ji, had nothing to eat.
Even when boiling weeds in water, Yun Ji only drank the water without adding any other ingredients, and watched himself lose weight rapidly.
But even so, Yun Ji and others did not hide behind, but rushed to the front in every battle.
To catch a thief, you must first catch the leader. This is an eternal truth.
Therefore, the east gate guarded by Yun Ji has always been the most heavily attacked. If it were not for Yun Ji who killed off wave after wave of enemies, they would not have been able to hold on until today.
But, I'm afraid it will only last until today.
Everyone has almost reached their limit, and the next siege will definitely be unstoppable.
The chains of the Black and White Impermanence seemed to be hung around their necks, waiting for the time to come to hook them away.
At this moment, the situation on the city wall of the East Gate was not much better.
On the contrary, because they were attacked the most fiercely and suffered the most casualties, Yun Ji didn't even have time to wipe the blood off his face. He and Wei Chu carried the wounded and corpses down from the city wall one by one, and the soldiers below placed them in the houses and the burning site.
Now that the weather is getting hotter, and no one has the energy to dig deep pits, all the bodies are piled up in one place and burned.
When enough people piled up and set it on fire, Yun Ji stood on the city wall and chanted the mantra for the deceased soldiers to pray for their souls to be reborn.
In the past, he never performed salvation for anyone.
But now, he only hoped that the blood on his hands, accumulated over the years, would not be dissipated, so that he could send his soldiers to the Western Paradise.
But there was no time to think about it, people had to be moved down one by one.
Even the usually talkative Shen Duo didn't say a word and just moved silently.
After everything was moved, Shen Duo slumped down on the city wall, gasping for breath, trying to use the air to fill his stomach that was pressed against his back.
Wei Chu was not in much better condition. He had become twice as thin as a stick due to hunger. He used to be as thin as a bear, but now he looked like a tall bamboo pole. His armor was gone, his cheeks were sunken, and he even walked unsteadily.
Yun Ji stood on the city wall, looking at the camp of the Dongyue Army in the distance. The armor made noises in the wind, which was particularly clear in the silence.
The atmosphere was terrifyingly depressing.
Chen Duo took a deep breath, pulled himself together, and said, "At least we've held out for another day. Maybe reinforcements will arrive soon."
No one responded to him.
It's the 23rd and there's still no news. Everyone knows that reinforcements won't be coming.
On the twelfth or thirteenth day, some people realized their mistake, wanted to give up, and shouted loudly. Yun Ji then punished them severely for shaking the morale of the army.
But now, punishment is useless, it is just holding on to the last breath.
But now it has been scattered.
"Pass the order down and cook the prepared food." Yun Ji gave the order in an extremely heavy voice.
Upon hearing that they needed to use the reserve food, Wei Chu looked at Yun Ji but said nothing, while Shen Duo widened his eyes in astonishment.
"To prepare food? We need it today... Your Majesty, won't you wait any longer? Maybe... maybe..."
"There is no maybe." Yun Ji shook his head.
He had to admit that he lost in the end.
Even though he had anticipated that the Lin family had set up this plan and must have been fully prepared and would not give him a chance to break through, he still had to try everything.
Now, everything that can be done has been done. If we delay any further, the remaining soldiers will be dead.
When distributing food and fodder, he had left enough rations for one day. Once there was no hope, he would let the soldiers eat their fill, and he and the lone soldiers would draw fire while the other soldiers would scatter and flee.
"I don't want to eat." Wei Chu said.
"I don't want to eat either!" Shen Duo shouted.
The soldiers behind also shouted.
After this last full meal, they were completely defeated.
Even though there is no hope now, they are unwilling to admit defeat, especially since this is the first real battle of the Yanzhou Army. If they lose like this, they will not be able to hold their heads up even if they are alive.
Seeing that the soldier who delivered the order also stood still, Yun Ji turned around and said without allowing any objection: "This is a military order! Nothing is more important than staying alive! Everyone, you must eat!"
Military orders cannot be disobeyed. Everyone kept their words to themselves, their eyes filled with resentment and helplessness.
If you don’t eat, you won’t be able to withstand the next siege.
If you eat it, then... there will be no hope.
It was difficult to make a decision, and in the end, everyone fell silent again.
The prepared food was bubbling in large pots in the city, and the aroma of rice drifted throughout the city, stimulating the taste buds of all the soldiers, and their hunger for food reached its peak.
eat!
Come and eat your fill!
I want to die with a full stomach!
One by one, they received the thickest bowl of porridge they had had in the past twenty days, which was also served with pickled meat and dried radish.
They each found a close friend, sat in different corners, and ate their last meal while looking at each other.
After eating, no one knew whether they would die or live in the next battle. They wished they could engrave each other's faces in their minds so that they wouldn't be unable to remember what their brothers looked like when they recalled them in the future.
By the end of the meal, everyone's eyes were red.
In the East Gate Tower, Yun Ji held the bowl but did not take a single bite.
At this moment, he couldn't help but think of Su Rui's twisted logic.
She said that people are born to talk about others, and they can speak very well about others, but when it comes to themselves, it's nothing.
Just like he was at this moment, telling his soldiers that staying alive was the most important thing and asking them to eat, but when the bowl was in his hand, he couldn't eat at all.
Even in his current situation, he was unwilling to give up, but the feeling of powerlessness was overwhelming him.
After all, his power was too weak, yet he still tried to save the world and save the Great Zhao.
"Your Highness, eat. How can you have the energy to fight if you're not full? Besides, you're all better than me. Although you've practiced for many years, you're now married, with such a beautiful concubine, and you..." Chen Duo pointed at Wei Chu, who was sitting across from him. "You also have a sweetheart who's as beautiful as a fairy, while I'm all alone. What a loss!"
The more he talked, the more Chen Duo felt that he was at a disadvantage.
He had lived for twenty-six years and had never even touched a girl's hand. He finally asked a matchmaker to introduce him to one. After two months of training in the military camp, he returned and the girl was already married.
He died just like that, and until his death... he was still a ghost!
Chen Duo was so sad that he wanted to cry, and he didn't notice that Yun Ji and Wei Chu's expressions changed because of his words.
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