While the Qin family gradually adapted to their new life, the situation in the capital had reached an extremely tense state.

The Huben Army firmly guarded several gates of the outer city, with patrol soldiers arranged around the perimeter. People in the capital simply couldn’t escape even with wings, completely severing all contact with the outside world.

Not to mention that Nanyan’s Liu Yingshi controlled the waterways, making grain transport impossible—even now, without Liu Yingshi, even if the Great Emperor was willing to reveal the whereabouts of that huge sum of money, it would be harder than ascending to heaven for Yuchi Yan to sell grain for supplies.

The limited food in the city became extremely precious. Yuchi Yan took the lead in eating thin gruel and issued an edict prioritizing grain supplies for the army. But that grain had to pass through so many hands along the way, and after layer upon layer of skimming, what the army actually received wasn’t much.

After nearly a month and a half, Yuchi Yan and the Empress had lost more than ten pounds from hunger, while many officials’ families could still eat white rice.

The frontline soldiers’ meals got worse day by day. Now, during the autumn tiger heat, the soldiers were only given two meals a day, with each meal consisting of just one dark, stone-like coarse grain bran cake the size of a woman’s fist.

“Damn it, is this something for humans to eat!” A defending soldier bit into the dry cake and nearly broke half a tooth. After chewing for a long time, he stretched his neck and swallowed the food with a “gulp.”

“Be content. We still have cakes to eat. The civilians in the city have long started digging for wild vegetables and stripping tree bark everywhere. I heard many have already starved to death, and there’s even cannibalism.” The speaker took a small bite of the cake, as if carefully savoring the grain’s taste, then drank a sip of cold water and swallowed carefully.

“Hey, did you hear? Yesterday Minister Liu’s mansion was also broken into. The people rushed in and didn’t even look at valuable items—they only grabbed food. But Minister Liu’s family really didn’t have much to eat either.”

Several people nearby chattered: “These officials live more comfortably than the Emperor. The Emperor has been drinking thin gruel for over a month, but the officials’ families still have steamed buns.”

“We don’t eat well, but at least we won’t starve to death. The common people are suffering. The Great Zhou people have surrounded the capital like an iron barrel—they want to trap us all to death in the city.”

“Really don’t know how to continue this war. The Great Zhou people are too cruel.”

The initially 350,000 defending Yan army lost 30,000 under Prince Ning, and after being handed to Duke Anguo, had now been reduced to only 300,000. Yet the Huben Army had suffered less than a thousand casualties.

Most shamefully, the Huben Army was attacking the city while they were defending it.

Such a disparity in combat power, combined with hunger and the panic caused by severed supply lines, made these soldiers unable to even eat properly, always feeling that the King of Hell and the Black and White Impermanence were already standing beside them, grinning wickedly.

Several people looked down at the city below and saw the Zhou army camps surrounding the city also lighting fires to cook, faintly smelling the aroma of stewed meat.

Though the Zhou dynasty’s supply lines were long, at least they weren’t besieged. When grain wasn’t enough, they could still hunt, fish, dig wild vegetables, or directly grow some vegetables. Compared to the trapped capital, the Huben Army lived much more comfortably.

Smelling that faint aroma of meat from below the city tower, the soldiers’ mouths watered, making the bland, hard cakes even more difficult to swallow.

Just then, footsteps came from the stairs.

Someone then greeted: “Duke, Grand Tutor Qin.”

Everyone quickly straightened up.

They saw Duke Anguo in golden armor holding a plumed helmet striding forward. Beside him, half a step behind, was Qin Huaiyuan in light azure Confucian robes, his face much thinner than before. Behind Qin Huaiyuan followed an extremely handsome young servant and a middle-aged attendant.

Everyone quickly saluted.

Duke Anguo waved his hand and stood at the city gate looking down.

Before his eyes stretched an endless array of military camps. The Huben Army’s fierce flags fluttered in the wind, with golden tigers baring their fangs on them, as if they might pounce from the banners at any moment to devour people.

Duke Anguo felt his legs go weak just seeing this scene.

Truly fighting against Pang Xiao had shown him the Huben Army’s one-against-ten individual combat ability, and he had also witnessed Pang Xiao’s genius-level talent in military formations.

Duke Anguo had originally thought that his military advisor was at least a famous strategist. With the “Wise Pan An’s” abilities, having once designed the assassination of Pang Zhongzheng, surely he could now outmaneuver Pang Zhongzheng’s son?

But in reality, this war between the two was truly like chess masters meeting worthy opponents.

The Huben Army had fewer people but could fight ten to one, yet they stood in the disadvantageous position of attacking the city.

The Great Yan dynasty had more people but weak combat power with no strategy, yet they stood in the advantageous position of defending the city.

Based on the contest between Qin Huaiyuan and Pang Xiao, the 320,000 troops handed to Duke Anguo shouldn’t have been reduced to only 300,000.

But after Duke Anguo avoided battle for a period, he fell for Pang Xiao’s enemy-luring strategy, was drawn out of the city, and got trapped in a mountain valley to the west for a day and night. If not for Qin Huaiyuan’s timely rescue, not only the 20,000 troops he led out, but Duke Anguo himself wouldn’t have returned.

Duke Anguo now felt terrified recalling that day’s events.

From then on, he refused to open the city gates for battle no matter what. No matter how the enemy shouted and cursed in formation, he pretended not to hear.

Thinking of this, Duke Anguo shuddered all over. Pointing at the Great Zhou military camp not far below the city gate where meat aroma drifted, he said with a heavy expression: “How can we fight this?”

Qin Huaiyuan stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his gaze deep.

He understood in his heart that no matter how they fought, Great Yan was at the end of its rope.

If grain supplies were sufficient, even with only 30,000 defending the city, he was confident he could withstand the Huben Army’s 100,000 troops, directly wearing down the Huben Army until their grain ran out and they had to retreat.

But there was no grain in the city.

Soldiers risked their lives fighting on battlefields for a full meal.

Now that they couldn’t even provide full meals, could they rely on empty promises to keep the soldiers from going hungry? Could they expect soldiers to feel full just by thinking about serving the court and drinking water?

People in the city died of starvation every day. Under hunger, even civilians could become rioters.

Which wealthy household in the capital hadn’t been harassed by rioters?

Some had their families destroyed, others had fled in panic.

But just robbing these was still far from enough to feed the people.

When there were no wild vegetables left, there was still tree bark. When all the bark was stripped, there were still grass roots. But the capital was only so big—what would happen when even the grass roots were eaten up?

Then only cannibalism would remain…

Even common people became like this when desperate. What about these soldiers?

Probably, before the soldiers resorted to cannibalism, they would rebel first!

Qin Huaiyuan lowered his head. Thinking of the chaos in the city, thinking of the Emperor who was so hungry he could barely walk straight, thinking of his family eating wild vegetables to fill their stomachs, that sense of powerlessness swept over his entire body again.

The Great Zhou hardly needed to exert much effort. If they just besieged them for another half month, the capital would fall without attack—cannibalism alone could destroy the nation.

Qin Huaiyuan closed his eyes. Immediately feeling chest tightness and dizziness, his body swayed and he collapsed.

“Marquis!” Cao Yuqing noticed Qin Huaiyuan swaying and quickly supported him. Together with Qi Tai, they slowly laid Qin Huaiyuan flat on the ground.

Duke Anguo was also greatly startled, frantically saying: “Could Grand Tutor Qin be dizzy from hunger? Quick, bring water and some food.”

The soldiers who had just been complaining about the hard-to-swallow cakes now felt heavy-hearted.

Even Grand Tutor Qin had fainted from hunger—it seemed they were truly running out of food.

Qin Huaiyuan was helped down from the city tower by Cao Yuqing and Qi Tai.

Below the city tower, in the nearby Great Zhou military camp, Pang Xiao put away his “thousand-li scope,” carefully hung it on his waist with a silver chain, and frowned with worry.

Huzi asked curiously: “My lord, what did you see?”

“We’ve besieged the capital for forty-three days.”

“Yes.” Huzi sat cross-legged on the ground beside Pang Xiao. “It seems the capital is almost at the end of its rope. In this hot weather, with common people trapped hungry in a city, it would be strange if they didn’t go mad.”

Pang Xiao’s frown deepened.

“So she must also be going hungry.” Pang Xiao said, slowly lowering his head and grasping his hair with both hands.

Only then did Huzi realize what Pang Xiao was thinking about.

But thinking about it, it was indeed the case.

With so many people in the capital and no supplies, probably all edible food had been consumed by now, and many would starve to death.

Under such circumstances, could Qin Yining, a delicate young lady who was still recovering from injuries and needed rest, survive…

Huzi only dared think this in his heart—he absolutely wouldn’t dare say it aloud in front of the Prince.

He could only change the subject: “My lord, should we continue cooking the meat soup? Why don’t we let the brothers drink some first?”

Actually, the Huben Army’s daily deliberate cooking of meat soup below the city, letting the Yan dynasty people on the city tower smell it, was also one of Pang Xiao’s methods to shake Great Yan’s morale.

This served two purposes: first, to keep the enemy guessing about the Huben Army’s true supply situation, and second, to shake the Yan dynasty’s morale.

Making hungry people watch enemy troops eat meat daily—the mental torture, humiliation, and psychological pressure were incalculable.

However, the Huben Army’s supplies had indeed encountered gaps. They just had the advantage of freedom over the Yan dynasty people. At worst, they could go further away to find solutions, unlike the capital’s people who were trapped in the city to starve.

Pang Xiao kept his head down, silent for a long time, before saying: “Cook it. This battle must end quickly. If we continue the siege, this prince fears…”

Pang Xiao didn’t continue, but his sharp eyes showed determination.

After pacing for a while, Pang Xiao called Huzi close and instructed in a low voice: “Find a way to send a message into the city to Marquis Anping, saying this prince wants to meet him secretly. You arrange the specific details.”

Huzi was stunned upon hearing this, then nodded gravely and quickly withdrew.

Pang Xiao stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at the tightly closed gates of the capital in the distance, but his heart had long been so anxious it wanted to grow wings and fly to Qin Yining’s side.

His beloved woman must be suffering now, but the most painful thing was that he was the culprit causing her suffering. Yet given his position, this battle had to continue.

This was the helplessness of being born in turbulent times.

At this moment, the person Pang Xiao was so worried about was squatting by the stove with Ninth Sister, cooking a large pot of dark brown wild vegetable soup.