Zhao Ming immediately asked: “What about Qiu Wu?”

Everyone was silent.

Zhao Ming immediately sent people to find Qiu Wu and investigate Tao Bao’s situation, while simultaneously dispatching vanguard forces to rush toward Meng County town.

Qiu Wu had already led his remnant forces close to Meng County town.

That night, Zhao Ming had sent out many scouts. Because they investigated carefully, they discovered the Stone Army when they were still twenty li away.

Qiu Wu immediately led eight thousand men to quietly leave camp. What happened in the main camp after that, he didn’t know.

Halfway along the route, they hid in the dense forests on both sides, let the night-attacking Stone Army pass, and continued forward. Upon reaching the designated ambush point, he left two thousand men under Pingzhong’s command.

He then led the remaining men to launch a night attack on the Stone Army’s main camp.

They had marched out tonight for the night attack, and men were missing from camp. Moreover, there seemed to be some misunderstanding—as they approached the Stone Army, they were actually mistaken for Stone Army forces returning from the raid, and successfully got close to the main camp.

Qiu Wu went on a killing spree, broke through the enemy camp, and left. Halfway back, he happened to encounter Tao Bao, who was fighting enthusiastically.

Tao Bao had severely wounded Xun Xiu but hadn’t dealt a crushing blow to Zhao’s army. Zhao’s army seemed prepared, and his losses weren’t small either. So although Zhao’s army struck camp and retreated, he didn’t pursue.

He felt that with their main general injured, they couldn’t launch another attack on Meng County in the short term. He could focus on helping Zhi Xiong repel Zhao Hanzhang.

But he had only gotten halfway back when he encountered an ambush.

Being completely unprepared and having just gone through a fierce battle, Tao Bao’s group couldn’t escape for a while.

But the Jie barbarians’ ferocity was real. Even though they couldn’t win immediately, Pingzhong didn’t gain much advantage either. Both sides basically traded lives for lives, fighting to a draw.

The situation reversed when Qiu Wu arrived. The two armies fought until the morning hour. Zhao’s army nearly annihilated the Stone Army. When tallying the spoils of war, they even found Tao Bao in the pile of corpses.

Qiu Wu was overjoyed. He cut off Tao Bao’s head and excitedly went back to report. But all they saw was a devastated empty camp, with even scattered provisions and supplies lying around.

The smiles fell from the soldiers’ faces. They looked at the camp in shock and confusion, then turned to look at Qiu Wu.

Qiu Wu’s heart also panicked, but his expression remained steady. With a calm face he said: “Tao Bao is dead. The remaining Stone Army is nothing to fear. Unless Zhi Xiong comes out from the city, we needn’t worry about the main army. Collect the supplies. We’re heading to the county town.”

He said: “The Governor is still waiting for us on the other side.”

At the mention of the Governor, everyone’s spirits lifted and their drifting hearts slowly settled.

After a night of fierce battle, Qiu Wu only had about five thousand usable men left, plus over a thousand wounded soldiers. With this number of men and no siege equipment, a frontal assault on Meng County town was impossible.

Recalling that the Lord had said when the enemy was strong and we were weak, we could maneuver in combat—hit and run, with the goal of preserving ourselves while wearing down the enemy.

Qiu Wu lowered his eyes in thought. The main army had Commandery Governor Zhao with them. He believed he could definitely bring the main army back.

If even Commandery Governor Zhao couldn’t bring back the main army, they could only wait for the Lord to return. What he could do was clean up the enemies on this side of Meng County, recover lost territory, and then go to Meng County’s south gate to draw away some troops.

Qiu Wu advanced north, clearing out many villages. He only encountered the Stone Army twice, both times small groups, and he won both battles. He actually recruited quite a few new soldiers.

They were all common people who had been hiding, plus bandits who ran down from the mountains when they saw the Zhao Family Army banners.

They couldn’t really be called bandits. After Meng County was occupied by the Stone Army, the routed Xun Family Army and some common people went up the mountains to become outlaws. All told, they’d only been bandits for less than half a month.

Qiu Wu accepted all comers, organizing them into new recruit battalions. By the time they reached Meng County’s south gate, his army appeared to have nearly ten thousand men at a glance.

Temporarily lacking siege equipment, they stayed far from the city walls and hurled insults.

Many heads popped up from the tower above Meng County’s south gate to look. Seeing the large army arrayed not far away, they couldn’t help but panic: “Zhao’s army is attacking the south gate.”

At this time, their north gate had already fallen. Zhao Hanzhang had taken half a street and they had engaged in street fighting. In this aspect, the Stone Army’s combat experience was far inferior to Zhao’s army. Zhi Xiong was becoming increasingly irritable.

Though irritable, Zhi Xiong also knew that right now the most important thing was to hold the south gate and not let Zhao’s army attack through from the south. Otherwise, he would truly become a turtle in a jar.

So while dispatching troops to defend the south gate to the death, he forbade them from opening the city gates to engage the enemy, lest an accident occur.

After arranging the south gate, Zhi Xiong devoted himself entirely to dealing with Zhao Hanzhang.

They fought fiercely in the city. Zhao Hanzhang was somewhat constrained—after all, Meng County was her Meng County. But Zhi Xiong had already sensed he couldn’t hold Meng County.

So he set fire to houses, pushed civilians to the front to block swords and arrows without any psychological burden, and especially enjoyed watching Zhao Hanzhang’s hands being tied due to her concerns.

Zhi Xiong was delighted. After another small victory, he happily returned to the General’s Mansion and asked about the south gate situation.

After listening, he frowned slightly: “You’re saying that for the past two days, Zhao’s army outside the south gate has only hurled insults without attacking the city?”

“Yes, not once have they attacked.”

Zhi Xiong became thoughtful and asked: “Still no news from General Tao Bao?”

“None. Since General Tao Bao led men out for the night attack that night, there’s been no news.”

Zhi Xiong’s eyes flashed as he clenched his fists. “No news is actually the best news. The Qiu Wu who came with Zhao’s army was once a personal guard at Zhao Hanzhang’s side, but the main general on this route is Xun Xiu.”

“Xun Xiu—one of my defeated opponents. This time I haven’t seen a single familiar face. Either they’re afraid of us and don’t dare show their heads, or their main army simply isn’t here and Qiu Wu has nothing to attack the city with even if he wants to.”

Thinking this through, Zhi Xiong became even more confident. After pacing in a circle, he said: “Tomorrow send people out to probe them. Find out their true situation. If their main army truly isn’t there, kill this Zhao army and throw the heads at Zhao Hanzhang. This time, I’ll make sure she has no return!”

His subordinates acknowledged. The next day they volunteered to go out to battle.

Fighting street battles with Zhao Hanzhang in the city was too frustrating—they couldn’t even get their horses running. It was better to go out and fight.

Zhi Xiong couldn’t go watch the battle himself—he still had to go to the front lines to keep an eye on Zhao Hanzhang. So he just let them go, instructing: “Be careful and cautious. Don’t fall into their traps.”

His subordinates acknowledged.

They didn’t know that last night, the Xun Family Army gradually approaching the south gate had encountered Qiu Wu’s scouts.

Qiu Wu went overnight to pay his respects to Zhao Ming, so today’s Zhao army was no longer yesterday’s Zhao army.

In the city, Zhao Hanzhang’s patience had also reached its limit.

When the telescope showed Zhi Xiong’s head appearing, watching him mount his horse and head north, she lowered the telescope and turned to ask Zhao Ze: “How are the preparations?”

Zhao Ze said: “Following your instructions, we’ve contacted the common people in enemy-occupied areas. They’re also willing to help, though there are few young people—mostly elderly, weak, women, and children.”

The young men had either been captured as cannon fodder or killed.

Zhao Hanzhang nodded: “Don’t underestimate the elderly, weak, women, and children. What they can do is no less than what we can do.”

—