The Black Wu forces had no choice but to rethink their siege tactics, for everything seemed to have returned to the beginning.
The Ning Army in Beishan Pass had received reinforcements, making it far harder to storm again. And on the Unnamed Mountain side, tens of thousands of elite Nalan cavalry had arrived — whether they attacked or not, they were a threat.
Li Chi sat on the city wall, finally able to draw breath for a moment.
Through so many days of relentless Black Wu assaults, there had been barely a single moment for anyone to rest.
“Ninth Brother.”
Li Chi, his strength seemingly spent, called Yu Jiuling over: “Tell the volunteer militia brothers, ask them to prepare a large number of sandbags. I just thought of something.”
He caught his breath and continued: “Pack the bags tightly with straw. Place them on the city wall. When the Black Wu forces’ siege ladders come up again, the hooks on the ladders won’t be able to grip the wall. Then just push the bags sideways and the ladders will topple. And if the bags are packed with hay, when the enemy presses hard and clusters beneath the wall, we can set them on fire as well.”
Yu Jiuling quickly acknowledged and ran down from the wall.
Li Chi leaned back. It had been so long since he’d felt like this — his strength so depleted that even raising a hand seemed an enormous effort.
If Gao Xining had been here now, she would surely have been heartbroken beyond bearing.
But Li Chi had not allowed her to be here. Before the reinforcements arrived, Beishan Pass could have fallen at any moment. He did not want Gao Xining to be caught in danger here.
If Li Chi still had any selfishness left in him, the greatest part of it was given to Gao Xining.
Shen Shanhu brought the medical officers up, intending to check whether Li Chi had been wounded. Li Chi shook his head: “I’m fine. No wounds, just exhausted.”
Shen Shanhu, being Shen Shanhu, paid no attention to what Li Chi said and simply had several men carry him down.
A few of them carried Li Chi down from the wall and into the military tent, where — without giving him any say in the matter — they stripped him down.
Ah… utterly undignified.
At least Shen Shanhu hadn’t followed them down, or it would have been worse than merely undignified.
After a thorough examination, once the medical officer confirmed that Li Chi’s body showed only bruising and no open wounds, he finally exhaled with relief.
Li Chi lay there, feeling so exhausted he couldn’t even muster the energy for shame. At this point, what did it matter — he’d just let them do what they needed.
His personal guards apparently reasoned that since their lord was already in such a state, they might as well go a little further — so they filled a large bucket with warm water and carried Li Chi over and lowered him in.
What remained of his dignity made Li Chi firmly refuse their unreasonable suggestion that they scrub him down, declaring in an unequivocal tone that he was perfectly capable.
I can manage!
But after soaking in that warm water for a little while, Li Chi drifted into deep sleep.
He was woken again not long after. Li Chi instinctively jolted upright: “Enemy attack?”
Xiahou Zuo sighed. “The water’s gone cold.”
Li Chi murmured and, that surge of energy gone, slumped back down into the large wooden tub.
He bathed, changed his clothes, and the moment he stepped outside, found that the meal had already been prepared and was being distributed to the soldiers.
A soldier passing by was carrying a large basket — inside were freshly steamed, piping-hot white steamed buns.
Li Chi reached out both hands and managed to grab three in one hand, then signaled that soldier to give him a couple of salted pickled radishes as well.
The soldier looked at the two hands full of buns, then at Li Chi’s empty mouth — and placed the two pickled radishes in a bowl, then held the bowl up to Li Chi’s face.
Ah… utterly undignified.
Li Chi clasped the bowl in his teeth and found a relatively quiet spot to sit down. He tore the pickled radishes into slices and tucked them into the warm buns, pressed the buns flat with his hand, and bit in — a big, satisfying mouthful. His mouth and his heart were both full.
Damn, that was good.
He was still eating when Shen Shanhu came over. In her left hand was a bowl — also holding two pickled radishes, plus two steamed buns. In her right hand she was gripping two more buns.
She glanced at the buns in Li Chi’s hands and was, ever so slightly, competitive about it — because she couldn’t grab three.
Li Chi looked at her bowl, and realized that in addition to pickled radishes, you could also stack two more buns inside.
“How did you manage to come all this way without a single word of advance notice?”
Li Chi asked between bites.
Shen Shanhu answered between bites: “I sent people ahead to report. They never made it through. When they passed through Jing County, they were ambushed by a band of mountain bandits. The men were lost.”
She paused, then took a fierce bite of her bun.
“Two groups of men — both lost in the same place. They were scattered remnants of the Qingzhou bandit Gan Daode’s forces, now operating as mountain bandits in those hills. I only found out because local villagers stopped me as I was passing through. I ground those sons of turtles into pieces.”
As she said this, her tone was calm, yet the fury in her heart had not faded even now.
Those wretched mountain bandits knew exactly how to go after Ning Army soldiers. Whenever they saw Ning soldiers approaching, they’d send a few men to pretend to be robbing travelers — travelers who were also their own people in disguise.
When the Ning soldiers came over, the bandits would pretend to be scared off, and those men pretending to be travelers would shower them with gratitude, then strike when the soldiers were off their guard.
They’d torn apart those urgent military dispatches like they were nothing, not caring in the slightest.
Li Chi fell silent for a moment, then asked: “Those brothers’ remains…”
Shen Shanhu: “They were desecrated. Chopped up and fed to the dogs the bandits kept. So I chopped them up too.”
Li Chi fell silent again.
The two of them ate their buns without another word. Li Chi ate six large buns and two pickled radishes, and still wasn’t full.
Shen Shanhu ate three, and had one left she couldn’t finish. Li Chi took it and polished it off in two or three bites.
Shen Shanhu said: “Yanzhou is under control. I handed all military affairs over to Little Tang — with him there, nothing will go wrong.”
Li Chi asked: “Who is Little Tang?”
Shen Shanhu was stunned, then shook her head repeatedly. “My lord, forget I said anything.”
Li Chi’s eyes narrowed slightly.
Shen Shanhu sighed. “Alright, I’ll tell you — but you are not allowed to poach him from me.”
Li Chi had already figured it out: “Is it Tang Qingyuan?”
Shen Shanhu smiled: “It’s him… a remarkable talent. When I was engaged in the decisive battle against the Bohai forces’ main army, he led his men to support us — didn’t join the main battle, but went around and set fire to the Bohai camp.”
“The Bohai forces valued their grain stores more than their lives. The moment they saw the camp ablaze, they panicked, and I seized the moment and routed them. One battle — two hundred thousand heads taken.”
She spoke of this as calmly as ever.
Li Chi thought — this sister-in-law and old Tang really were… a perfect match made for this world.
At this point, neither Shen Shanhu nor Li Chi yet knew that Tang Qingyuan was Tang Pidi’s younger brother.
If Li Chi had known, he would likely have sighed again… husband, wife, and brother — this Tang family produced nothing but gods of war.
“My lord, if the Bohai forces have retreated from Yanzhou, we may be able to pull out around fifty thousand men to come here.”
Shen Shanhu said: “But I estimate that even if they can come, it won’t happen anytime soon. So for now, we still need to recruit more troops.”
Li Chi nodded.
Shen Shanhu stood up: “Your subordinate needs to sleep for a while — I can barely keep my eyes open.”
Li Chi said: “Go. Rest well.”
He could well imagine how Shen Shanhu and her force had made that journey — how urgent every step of the way had been.
Li Chi had not yet been able to make contact with Borjigit, but if he could, he would feel far more at ease.
The troops recruited by Master Wu from Qingzhou were already on the road. They moved slower than the Nalan cavalry and would need roughly half a month more to arrive.
Xiahou Zuo came over carrying two jugs of wine, sat down beside Li Chi, and held one out to him.
Li Chi squinted and said: “This is a military camp, and the enemy has not yet withdrawn. You are a great general — and you dare to drink wine? And you dare to tempt me to drink with you?”
Xiahou Zuo started to pull his outstretched hand back. Li Chi grabbed the jug: “At the very least we need to find somewhere out of the way. Come with me!”
And so the Prince of Ning and his great general crouched low and found themselves a deserted spot — a shadowed corner beneath the city wall.
The two of them hunkered down, lifted their jugs, and clinked them together.
Ah… utterly undignified.
“Satisfying!”
Xiahou Zuo gulped down a long mouthful and exhaled a long, contented breath.
Li Chi: “Keep your voice down, for heaven’s sake.”
Xiahou Zuo chuckled to himself, then rummaged around inside his robes, eventually producing a salted duck egg. He cut it in half with a dagger and handed half to Li Chi.
Half a salted duck egg each, and one jug of wine each — yet both were thoroughly content.
Since the duck egg was so small, the only way to eat it was to lick it — a lick of the duck egg, a sip of wine.
Li Chi: “Is yours salty?”
Xiahou Zuo: “…”
He gave Li Chi the look one gives a simpleton, and fortunately it was dark enough that Li Chi couldn’t read it clearly — because it wasn’t actually the look of someone seeing a simpleton, but the look one gives a thief.
One egg, cut in half, and he was asking whether Xiahou Zuo’s half was salty.
Xiahou Zuo didn’t dare answer. If he said it wasn’t salty, Li Chi would say he didn’t believe him and demand a taste. If he said it was salty, Li Chi would say he didn’t believe him and demand a taste either…
He knew Li Chi-with-no-sense-of-shame all too well.
“Let’s talk business.”
Xiahou Zuo said: “Unnamed Mountain probably has no need to be garrisoned anymore. The forces have been reinforced, but provisions are short. My guess is that Borjigit came in through Xifeng Kou. Find a way to get a message to him — have him bring the remaining Chile people through Xifeng Kou into the pass and loop back around.”
Li Chi murmured in agreement: “I’ve been thinking about this too.”
Xiahou Zuo: “Have you decided who to send?”
Li Chi said: “We need someone fast.”
Xiahou Zuo looked at him, then burst out laughing.
He said: “Fast, eh… we have people for that. However you define fast, we’ve got someone.”
Li Chi: “You sound rather proud of that.”
Xiahou Zuo said with a dismissive noise: “I’m the slow one, I’m afraid…”
—
Deep in the night.
Li Chi and Xiahou Zuo sat leaning against the wall, watching Yu Jiuling strap ropes to himself, both of them full of encouraging expressions.
Yu Jiuling decided to ask one last time: “Really can’t give me a horse?”
Xiahou Zuo said: “Horseshoes make noise and would alert the Black Wu scouts. Out there in the dark, who knows how many of their scouts are hiding.”
Yu Jiuling sighed. “Before I head out, can I make one request?”
Li Chi asked: “What?”
Yu Jiuling said: “Have Xiahou come with me and carry the horse — run alongside me for a stretch until we’re past the Black Wu scouts, then hand the horse back.”
Xiahou Zuo kicked him in the backside. “I’ll just carry you instead.”
Yu Jiuling: “That would work too.”
Nearby, several men also in the process of strapping on ropes were all laughing. These men were Yu Jiuling’s personal guards.
To be Yu Jiuling’s personal guard, they naturally all had to be fast enough.
In the darkness, they were slowly lowered down from the city wall on ropes. Once they reached the base, they freed themselves and several figures vanished swiftly into the dark.
—