Chapter 232 Zhiluo's Secret
Zhiluo has a secret.
She liked the young general whose eyes were sunny when he smiled.
She hid this secret very deeply, and only when no one was around would ripples appear in her eyes as deep as a lake.
The first time I met the young general was in a small inn in Taibai City, Zhao State.
The noise of people coming and going around made me feel a little dizzy.
She walked towards the table where the two of them were sitting, following the appearance depicted in the portrait.
The young man noticed her, looked up at her, and smiled slightly.
Zhiluo's heart skipped a beat for no apparent reason.
She tried her best to maintain her composure and speak as she had planned, but she accidentally hit two wrong notes while playing the piece.
She played a little hurriedly, but the boy listened carefully and attentively.
Whenever he heard her make a mistake, the boy would raise his eyebrows slightly, but would just give her a gentle smile.
What a good ear.
She thought that she must have such good hearing because she often listened to other Pipa players playing music.
Later, she intervened personally and facilitated the final battle of Big and Small Xingshan, which enabled the State of Nan to successfully borrow 300,000 troops from the State of Zhao.
Everyone was busy celebrating and happily planning their itinerary.
Only the young man found her and handed her a prostitute's name book, saying, "Sold as a slave," and his voice was as gentle as the spring breeze:
"In order to borrow troops to rescue the enemy, he had no choice but to sell the military advisor to a brothel to lure out the Blood Guards. This was truly unfair to the military advisor. I have retrieved this registration book, and the official record of her as a prostitute has been erased. Please forgive me, military advisor."
Zhi Luo selling herself into a brothel as a slave and prostitute was just a setup, and everyone knew it.
But I am afraid that one day, those who knew about it will forget it. If someone with ulterior motives digs it out, it will surely ruin Zhiluo Qing’s reputation.
After all, she knew that for a woman, Luo's path to military service and officialdom was inherently difficult and arduous.
But even Zhiluo herself had forgotten the hidden danger of the prostitute register.
She forgot, but her young general was very meticulous and remembered everything.
The moment he took over the certificate, Zhi Luo looked up at the young general who was already in military uniform and ready to go. His eyes were full of spirit and his aura was as unrestrained as the wind.
Soon, her young general rode out on his ambitious journey.
All she could do was to try her best to give him advice, make all necessary preparations, and ensure his safe and triumphant return.
Sure enough, reports of victory piled up in the army. After dozens of battles, big and small, the young general had many scars on his body, and he became more introverted and brilliant.
But no matter how fierce the battlefield was, her young general was like the snow-capped peaks of the towering snow-capped mountains, always spotless.
She couldn't help but secretly look at him. How could her young general be so charming?
That movement of leaping onto the horse's back with a single flip, without the need for kicks; that look of gently rebuking the fierce horse, pulling the reins with a strong arm; that glance back, the handsome face against the cold armor...
Every move she made made her sink deeper and deeper into trouble, and she became jealous because of love, and she increasingly forgot her original intention...
This jealousy finally reached an unprecedented peak after the trip to Youzhou.
Seeing that Huo Gannian and Yun Chen were more in tune with each other and closer than before, and smiled at each other at every turn, Zhi Luo felt sour and angry in his heart. He wished he could use his eyes to create a crack between the sky and the earth, and completely separate the two for life.
She felt that she could no longer hide her feelings, and her thin face could no longer contain her jealousy.
She was so engrossed in thinking about these things that Luo Dongdong beside her called her twice before she came back to her senses.
"Zhiluo... Military Advisor, the general is talking to you!" Luo Dongdong reminded for the second time.
Zhi Luo suddenly woke up and looked around for a moment, then she remembered that this was the first secret meeting in the commander-in-chief's tent after Huo Gannian and Yun Chen returned from Youzhou. She actually got distracted in such an important occasion.
Yun Chen, Rong Jiang, Rong Yi, Luo Dongdong... everyone looked at her questioningly.
On the high seat, Huo Gannian's face was calm, but his eyes revealed displeasure.
Because it was a confidential meeting about rescuing the people of Guying City, the tent was closed tightly and Zhi Luo felt a little short of breath.
Quickly recalling the content of the meeting before his distraction, Zhiluo apologized:
"I have been lost in thought. Please forgive me, General."
The tent was quiet for a while before they resumed discussing business.
Huo Gannian gestured for everyone to gather around the table and begin making final arrangements.
On the table is the familiar map of Guying City.
What is different from the past is that today's map, in addition to marking the distribution of houses and streets in the city, also marks four "dragons" of astonishing length.
Four "dragons" rose from a dense forest outside Guying City, and poked their heads into the city from the north, northwest, west, and southwest respectively. They were so imposing that it seemed as if they were going to swallow the city in one gulp.
Since the Black Scale Cavalry occupied Guying City, the first thing they ate was the food and cattle and sheep in the city.
However, according to reports from the Lion Army's spies, human bones have recently been discovered in the泔水窟 outside the Black Scale Cavalry Camp.
This means that the food in the city has almost run out.
The lives of 30,000 civilians in Guying City and 20,000 captured Dongyan soldiers were in danger.
It would take several months for the war horses from Youzhou to arrive for the Lion Army to launch an attack on the city, but the current situation could not wait.
Therefore, during the time Huo Gannian and Yun Chen were in Youzhou, Zhi Luo had already commanded 5,000 soldiers to secretly advance a major and top-secret plan -
Tunnel rescue.
The four "dragons" that buried their heads in Guying City were four top-secret tunnels that were capable of rescuing the people in the city and the captured Dongyan soldiers.
Each tunnel is about twenty miles long, so the journey is not far at all. It only takes an hour or so to ride on horseback on flat ground.
But digging a tunnel is different.
The soil is too loose and prone to collapse, too much sand and gravel cannot be dug into shape, and an inappropriate site selection can easily lead to groundwater being dug out and causing flooding.
Every ten feet of digging forward is extremely dangerous and labor-intensive, not to mention the long distance of twenty miles.
In addition, it also involves various issues such as the direction of the tunnel route, branching roads, spacing and support to prevent collapse, ensuring air circulation, lighting and heating in the tunnel, and finally, the terminal opening has to be dug secretly almost under the noses of the Black Scale Cavalry Patrol.
Furthermore, once the rescue operation began, they would have to face numerous problems, including how to divert 50,000 people into the tunnels, how to walk the 20-mile long distance for the elderly, the sick, and the disabled, how to rest and eat along the way, how to prevent riots, and how to prevent the Black Scale Cavalry from pursuing them...
Every problem is difficult and every one of them is a headache.
The difficulty of the rescue is simply unimaginable.
Therefore, when Zhiluo first proposed the idea of "tunnel rescue", almost no one supported it, and only Huo Gannian reluctantly agreed.
Fortunately, Zhi Luo was extremely intelligent and worthy of being a military strategist. He was proficient in various geographical and architectural knowledge and had strong coordination and command capabilities. In just forty days, he dug the tunnel and prepared all the rescue plans.
This is also the reason why Zhiluo dared to be distracted during such an important confidential meeting, because no one knew the rescue plan better than her, and was more familiar with the four deep and narrow tunnels.
After Huo Gannian's careful deductions over and over again, the minor flaws in the plan were corrected one by one.
The next step is the final step: task allocation.
Four tunnels, four lifelines for the people.
Each tunnel requires a general to be responsible for dispatching and being in charge of all rescue matters along the route and in the corresponding urban area.
Because the tunnel is long and narrow, only one person can pass through it, and the general can lead a maximum of one hundred soldiers.
If the Black Scale Cavalry in the city is alarmed during the rescue of civilians, the generals and soldiers will be directly faced with being surrounded and killed by 200,000 enemy troops.
The weight of this responsibility is self-evident, not to mention the degree of danger.
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