The loud explosion jolted He Xiong awake from his sleep. He sat on the bed, his heart pounding like a drum.
He glanced at the woman shivering by the bedside. "Was that thunder just now?"
The woman lowered her head, ignoring his words.
As if he had thought of something, He Xiong got up and dressed. Just as he finished putting on his shoes, he heard the guard knocking on the door.
"General, something terrible has happened!"
He Xiong picked up the sword on the table, opened the door, and asked, "What's the rush?"
"Reporting to the General, has the south gate been breached?"
"What?"
"Longtan and Cangwu County gathered 30,000 troops and used the explosives that Vice General Yu had mentioned to blow open the south gate."
After hearing this, He Xiong hurriedly left the backyard of the Yu residence.
After making sure everyone outside had left, Yu Qiutao slowly got up from the bed, swayed as she walked to the door, and said to the maid guarding outside the courtyard, "Prepare water, I want to take a bath!"
After washing and dressing herself, Yu Qiutao sat in a chair and had her maid do her hair and makeup. Out of the corner of her eye, she glimpsed the messy bed in the inner room through the screen. She frowned in disgust, her expression shifting between light and dark.
She snatched the comb from the maid's hand. "Take the bedding to a secluded place and burn it!"
The maid bowed her head and replied, then carried the filthy bedding out.
After quickly fixing her hair, Yu Qiutao was about to go out when she saw the old woman and her maid carrying new bedding to make her bed again.
She stopped the two of them, saying, "Tidi up the west wing, spread the bedding over there, and I'll live in that room from now on."
The old woman was stunned for a moment, then realized what was happening and gave the maid next to her a wink.
"Yes, this servant will go right away."
She sat there in the dark courtyard, watching the maids and servants come and go, cleaning the west wing. People came and went outside, their footsteps hurried and chaotic, but it had nothing to do with her.
The night before last, the Hu people entered the city. At first, she was worried that the young lady wouldn't have time to take her and her two children away and might be captured by the Hu people. But when she learned that the Hu deputy commander was actually the second young master of the Yu family, her worries were relieved.
Yu Qiutao once thought that Deputy General Yu was a kind-hearted person because he had never mistreated the mother and her two children after the deaths of the master and his wife.
However, all of this is just an appearance.
Just one day later, Vice General Yu hosted a banquet at Yu's residence for the Hu general He Xiong, and then presented her to the Hu man as a plaything.
Suddenly, faint sobbing sounds came from the east wing.
Yu Qiutao got up in the dark and walked over there. She pushed open the door and saw a little girl standing barefoot in front of the door crying.
"Mother, where did you go? Juan'er is scared!"
Yu Qiutao picked her up and patted her back to comfort her, "Juan'er, don't be afraid, Mother is here."
She reached for the tinderbox at the table, lit the oil lamp, and saw her daughter's face covered in tears. She quickly reached out to wipe them away for her.
Juan'er, with her sharp eyes, noticed the bruises on her wrists beneath her sleeves.
"Mother, who hit you?"
Yu Qiutao withdrew her hand, pulled down her sleeve, kissed her daughter's little face, her eyes filled with hatred.
"Juan'er, remember this: those who bully us in this family are all bad people!"
"Whoever bullies my mother, I'll kill him!"
A childish voice came from the bed. Zheng Ge'er had woken up at some point, his little hands clenched into fists, looking indignant.
Yu Qiutao carried Juan'er to the bed and hugged the two children. "Remember, no matter where you are, anyone who is kind to you except your mother has ulterior motives. Especially the Yu family and the people from Longtan, they are all bad people who want to harm us."
"Don't worry, Mother! My brother and I will protect you when we grow up."
The two children stole a glance at each other, and in each of their eyes they saw the seeds of hatred taking root and sprouting.
He Xiong, accompanied by his attentive guards, left the backyard and happened to run into Yu Shida, who was coming out of another courtyard.
"What exactly happened? The guard said that the explosives were even more powerful than the ones you made?"
"I didn't know," Yu Shida replied respectfully.
At first, he only said that he had figured out this thing by chance, without mentioning that he learned it from Longtan.
He Xiong knew this was not the time to argue. "Quickly notify all the soldiers to assemble. The enemy has already breached the south gate, yet they are still living in a drunken stupor."
After leaving the Yu residence, the other deputy generals rushed over with less than 30% of the soldiers.
Upon seeing so few people, He Xiong was immediately enraged and shouted, "Where did everyone else go?"
A lieutenant bowed and said helplessly, "Reporting to the general, the other soldiers have been drinking and cannot be woken up."
"Can't wake him up?"
Enraged, He Xiong tugged at his already messy hair. Without stopping, he drew his broadsword from his waist and charged toward the south gate.
"Send someone to wake them up by any means necessary. The rest of you, come with me to the south gate to defend against the enemy."
Yu Shida, as the deputy general, took the lead and followed.
Halfway there, they saw flames shooting into the sky from another direction in the city, accompanied by several loud explosions, and the smell of burning food quickly filled the air.
"Oh no! Someone's burning our grain warehouse!"
He Xiong slapped his forehead. How could he have forgotten such an important thing?
They had painstakingly accumulated so much food; if it were destroyed, it would greatly reduce the soldiers' fighting strength and morale.
At this moment, Yu Shida stepped forward and said, "General, I am willing to go to the granary."
"Go quickly! Do your best to minimize the losses, and it would be best to capture those thieves and torture them severely. Even that won't be enough to quell the hatred in my heart."
So the team split into two: He Xiong went to the south gate to fight, while Yu Shida went to rescue the granary.
Not long after the two groups of men left, a hail of arrows rained down from the city wall.
"Arrow attack! Protective shields for cover!"
They thought they were just ordinary arrows, but when they landed, they exploded one by one, tearing the flesh of the Hu soldiers on the street, causing them to fall and their horses to tumble, and the houses in the city were soon engulfed in flames.
Seeing many soldiers around him being killed or wounded by the bombs, He Xiong was immediately enraged.
"Quick! Archers, get ready! Target the city wall! Turn them into sieves!"
During the brief pause in the rocket fire, He Xiong seized the opportunity to launch a counterattack.
After a barrage of arrows from both sides, Yun Yi looked at the catapults on the city wall and sneered, deciding to give them a taste of their own medicine.
“Take the stones they brought up and return them to them.”
Just as He Xiong was about to move towards the south gate again, large chunks of stone fell from the sky, and they hurriedly ran into houses on the side of the street to take shelter.
Before Yu Shida even reached the granary, he heard a huge commotion coming from the west gate.
The soldier who managed to escape happened to meet him and reported, "Reporting to the deputy general, Cangwu County has broken through the west gate with an army of 20,000."
"The West Gate has also been breached?" Yu Shida asked in disbelief.
Where did the Cangwu County get their explosives? Could it be that they've allied with Longtan?
Yu Shida's mind worked quickly, and he soon figured out the key point.
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