“That’s the only way.” As Yunyi agreed, Zhangsun Shi took out a snow-azure padded silk garment trimmed with phoenix feathers from the cabinet, saying: “This is the clothing I mentioned before. My craftsmanship isn’t good, please don’t mind, Princess.”
Yunyi touched the fine, neat stitching and smiled: “If you call this poor craftsmanship, then there aren’t many skilled people left in the world. I really like this garment, thank you.”
Her approval made Zhangsun Shi very happy, saying: “When I have time another day, I’ll make you a few more. Or if the Princess has any preferred styles, you can tell me.”
Yunyi smiled: “Then I won’t be polite in accepting.” As she spoke, she noticed several unfinished small garments placed nearby, her eyes trembling slightly: “Are you with child?”
Zhangsun Shi was startled, then seeing where her gaze was directed, she laughed: “No, these are for Chengzong. I promised to make them before but never finished them.”
“Chengzong?” Seeing Yunyi’s puzzled expression, she explained: “Chengzong is Big Brother and Sister Ji’s child. He’s only two years old this year. The child is good in every way, except he’s frail and sickly with a poor appetite. We’ve invited many physicians to treat him, but nothing works. I hope his constitution will improve as he grows older.” She continued: “Speaking of which, the Princess and Sister Ji are acquainted.”
“Indeed, we worked together for a while when we were both at the Governor’s residence. Later she went to Hedong with the eldest young master, and we never met again. When we met this time, she was already the eldest young master’s fourth wife.”
Zhangsun Shi smiled: “Sister Ji is very beloved by Big Brother. In that household, apart from the main wife, Sister Ji ranks highest.”
Yunyi smiled without speaking. She had experienced Jirong’s methods firsthand—such a person, wherever she went, would surely be like a fish in water.
At this moment, someone lifted the curtain and entered. It was a beautiful woman with a touch of heroic spirit, wearing a goose-yellow gown, her eyes bright and crystal-clear as if they could see through people’s hearts. Yunyi recognized her—it was Li Yuan’s third daughter, Li Xiuning, the one who had single-handedly recruited seventy thousand soldiers.
Li Xiuning hadn’t expected Yunyi to be there either. After nodding in greeting, she placed the chess board and chess box in her hands on the table: “Second sister-in-law, since we have nothing else to do right now, accompany me for a game of chess.”
Zhangsun Shi said with difficulty: “You know my chess skills are only average at best, nowhere near yours. I’m bound to lose again in the end. Besides, I haven’t finished the clothes I promised Sister Ji.” She looked toward Yunyi: “Why don’t the Princess accompany Xiuning for a game?”
Li Xiuning’s clear eyes turned, with a half-smile: “Would the Princess be willing to honor us?”
Seeing both of them inviting her, Yunyi didn’t decline. She nodded and accepted the chess box Li Xiuning handed her, playing against her. As for Zhangsun Shi, she continued sewing clothes while watching them play chess. The tent was quiet and peaceful.
In stark contrast to the tranquility inside the tent were the earth-shaking battle cries outside. Wave after wave of soldiers charged toward the tall, solid walls of Chang’an City. The fire in their hearts had been suppressed for too long—countless soldiers shared the same thought: we will not return without capturing Chang’an!
“Hold the line! All of you hold the line! Absolutely cannot let them climb the city wall!” Yin Shishi shouted frantically on the city tower. Seeing soldiers carrying up a cauldron of boiling oil, he hurriedly said: “Pour the oil! Quickly pour it down!”
The soldiers followed his orders, pouring the scalding oil down. Those soldiers climbing the siege ladders, splashed by the hot oil, screamed and fell from the ladders. Before this, several waves had already fallen, piling up a layer of bloody, mangled corpses beneath the city wall.
Seeing the siege momentum blocked, Yin Shishi breathed a sigh of relief, then immediately said to the soldiers on the city wall: “Quickly bring more hot oil! We must block them!”
A soldier said with difficulty: “Reporting to the General, this was the last cauldron of hot oil—it’s all been poured out!” Each time they poured hot oil, it effectively hindered the attacking soldiers, but oil wasn’t endless. Each time they poured out large vats of it, and after several rounds, they had used up all their stored oil.
“Damn it!” Yin Shishi cursed in frustration, but cursing couldn’t solve the problem. During this delay, those soldiers climbed up again like persistent maggots. “Since there’s no oil, use stones to smash them, use arrows to shoot them. In any case, you must hold the line for me, or all of you will lose your heads.”
The soldiers all had complaints about his words. If he hadn’t dug up people’s ancestral graves and burned their ancestral temples, would Li Yuan be attacking now? And before, Prince Dai had clearly heeded Princess Jinyang’s advice and given up this battle, but he had to interfere and insist on fighting.
Complain as they might, Yin Shishi was still the commanding general, and they couldn’t disobey. Following his orders, they threw stones and shot arrows to block the siege below.
But there were simply too many soldiers below. As soon as one batch was beaten back, another came up. Before long, the stones faced the same fate as the hot oil before—they were all thrown away. There were still arrows, but relying on this alone to completely suppress the siege was extremely difficult.
“Kill! Kill them!” Yin Shishi shouted with a flushed face, but firstly there were no stones to throw, and secondly the soldiers had been defending for most of the day in this highly tense situation and were all exhausted. Some soldiers had their fingers cut and bleeding from constantly pulling arrows and drawing bows.
“Siege ladders competed in height, tower ships vied in elevation, a hundred paths came together, a thousand li advanced simultaneously, the bamboo and wood surrounding the capital were all used up here.”
This was an extremely brutal slaughter. Soldiers constantly fell, and soldiers constantly charged up. The corpses on the ground were no longer the single layer from the beginning, but a thick pile.
Finally, as the winter sun was setting, a military commander named Lei Yongji was the first to break through the defenders’ defenses and climb onto the walls of Chang’an City, opening what seemed like an insignificant gap but was enough to cause the defending army to collapse.
After him, countless soldiers surged up, charged down to open the city gates, and let the main army enter. At this moment, the Sui army understood that the situation was hopeless—Chang’an was destined to belong to Li Yuan. So they quickly gave up resistance and surrendered.
Before the siege, although Li Yuan was burning with anger, he still commanded the three armies that after attacking Chang’an City, they must not destroy the Sui Dynasty’s ancestral temples, must not violate Prince Dai Yang You and other imperial family members, and must not harm the people and prisoners. Violators would have their three generations exterminated.
Under such strict military orders, the soldiers were orderly and disciplined, not harming the surrendering Sui soldiers in the slightest, and completely avoiding any offense to the people.
As soon as Li Yuanji entered the city, he immediately climbed the city wall to search for Yin Shishi, but after searching the entire city tower, he found no trace of him. Li Yuanji angrily grabbed a surrendering soldier: “Speak! Where is Yin Shishi?”
The surrendering soldier trembled and said: “This humble one… this humble one doesn’t know. Before you attacked in, General Yin left. No one knows where he went!”