“In the past… our Great Zhou army was not without experience in being besieged. My father, Prince Zhenguo Bai Qishan, was once trapped in City Feng by thirty thousand troops, and even under conditions of few soldiers and no provisions, he still held his ground!” Bai Qingyan straightened her body and looked at the Great Zhou generals surrounding her. “Moreover, we don’t just have five thousand soldiers—we also have over thirty thousand common people in this Jiangzi City!”
Du Sanbao walked to Bai Qingyan’s front: “These Xiliang people, although they have already abandoned their Xiliang identity and joined the Great Zhou, are ultimately not native-born Great Zhou people. Can they truly fight alongside us?”
“These Xiliang people chose to become Great Zhou citizens precisely because they knew how bitter it would be to continue as Xiliang people. The houses they obtained today, the grain they received… all came with great difficulty. Having experienced life and death, having experienced famine, they will cherish even more the days of having homes and grain as Great Zhou citizens!”
Bai Qingyan looked at each general: “Think of it from another angle—if you were Xiliang people, and the Xiliang army requisitioned the people’s grain as military provisions, while Great Zhou could give you their grain… to let you survive! At this moment, with Xiliang besieging the city from outside and the Great Zhou Emperor inside the city, would you choose to fight alongside the Great Zhou Emperor to defend Jiangzi City and afterwards have your debts for the allocated fields and houses forgiven, or would you prefer the Great Zhou Emperor to die here, allowing Xiliang to break into the city… and then wait for the Great Zhou army to attack and massacre the city in revenge for the Great Zhou Emperor?”
Bai Qingyan’s meaning was very clear—toward these former Xiliang people who had just become Great Zhou citizens, they should combine grace and authority, making them understand that if they didn’t resist the Xiliang army together with Great Zhou this time, they would have no path to survival either.
“But these common people have received no training…” Wang Jin’s expression was worried.
“It doesn’t matter that they haven’t received training. Helping to transport supplies up the city walls, helping to bandage the wounded—these things can all reduce the burden on our Great Zhou army!” Bai Qingyan saw Liu Pinggao already striding quickly toward the camp barracks and said, “First, investigate the Xiliang spies who have already entered the city and the ambush soldiers mixed among the refugees, then persuade the people to divide the work and cooperate!”
“This subordinate understands!” Du Sanbao responded.
After Liu Pinggao stepped into the camp barracks and paid respects to Bai Qingyan, Bai Qingyan said, “General Liu, please make the arrangements…”
“Yes!” Liu Pinggao accepted the command and began issuing orders. “After all you generals return, pass down the order: all Great Zhou soldiers are to wrap thin cotton cloth around their left arms to prevent Xiliang enemy troops from entering the city disguised as refugees.”
Liu Pinggao looked toward Du Sanbao: “Two thousand soldiers are responsible for defending the eastern and southern city walls, to be commanded by Du Sanbao. Today’s defense password is… Fearless!”
“Yes! This subordinate accepts the command!” Du Sanbao clasped his fists.
“Two thousand soldiers are already defending the western and northern city walls, to be commanded by Wang Jin. Defense password… Fearless!”
“Wang Jin accepts the command!” Wang Jin clasped his fists and accepted the order.
“Five hundred soldiers are responsible for patrolling within the city, led by Huang Ancheng. Patrol password… Without Fear.”
“Huang Ancheng accepts the command!”
“Five hundred soldiers have been divided into groups and are currently going house to house investigating spies who entered the city, commanded by Li Jiang. Li Jiang has already gone. The investigation team password is Without Thieves!” Liu Pinggao declared loudly. “Please, all of you, relay to the soldiers to remember their generals and remember each team’s password. This is a special period… when encountering Great Zhou soldiers of unclear intent wearing Great Zhou military uniforms, be sure to see whether their arms are wrapped with thin cotton cloth, ask clearly which unit they belong to and which general they serve under, and be sure to verify the password correctly!”
“Yes!”
The generals responded in unison and immediately dispersed to take action.
“Your Majesty…” Liu Pinggao saw that all the generals had left the camp barracks and turned to look at Bai Qingyan. “Your Majesty is not safe beneath the city gate. You should return to the official residence first. If fighting breaks out, this place won’t be safe either.”
Bai Qingyan sat down in the chair, resting her elbow on the armrest: “I’ll wait right here. I estimate that in a moment… We’ll be able to catch the Xiliang spies who infiltrated the city in advance, and even hidden soldiers. I’ll still need to use these Xiliang soldiers to exchange for our Bai Family Army guards.”
By this point, Bai Qingyan was eighty percent certain that the Bai Family Army she had sent out of the city had been captured.
Perhaps in a while, that Old General Cui would personally come to the door with the Bai Family guards to show off his power and strike at their Great Zhou army’s confidence, making all the Great Zhou soldiers feel that with no way to send out messages, defending this place to the death would surely end in defeat.
Old General Cui was extremely skilled at psychological warfare.
When an army besieges a city, only when military morale is solid can the city walls and gates be secure, becoming like bronze walls and iron ramparts. So in the coming days… this Old General Cui would try every means to strike at and shake Great Zhou’s military morale.
Hearing these words, Liu Pinggao knew that before coming to the city gate, Bai Qingyan had probably already sent people out through the unbesieged south gate… to report the situation. This was also to test whether there were ambush soldiers at the south gate. Now it seemed that there were indeed ambush soldiers at the south gate. At that time, Old General Cui hadn’t ordered the main army to surround the south gate precisely to leave an opening for their emperor to escape through the south gate, thereby capturing the Great Zhou Emperor alive.
Liu Pinggao, as a military general, had naturally heard of Old General Cui’s great reputation. It was just that this Old General Cui had once had his entire family killed by the Xiliang Emperor because of a matter involving false surrender, and since then had faded from everyone’s sight.
Who would have thought that this time he would personally lead troops, appearing around Jiangzi City like a ghost?
After all, this was Xiliang territory. Their Great Zhou army was not yet familiar with it. Old General Cui, as a veteran general with many years of military campaigns, naturally knew where they would place sentries and how to cleverly avoid them, or even… kill their Great Zhou sentries.
Fighting on foreign soil, not being as familiar with the geographical environment as the native soldiers and generals, was inevitable.
Liu Pinggao resolved to stay by Bai Qingyan’s side, no matter what, to protect their Great Zhou Emperor.
Outside Jiangzi City, the great army besieged the city.
Inside Jiangzi City, torches flickered in every street and alley as Great Zhou soldiers went house to house searching for people, checking household registrations to see if the current number of people in each home matched what was registered when they first entered the city.
This investigation revealed problems—not only that, but near the official residence where Bai Qingyan was staying, patrol soldiers engaged in combat with small enemy forces and captured alive over a dozen Xiliang soldiers who had infiltrated with the refugees.
The common people first learned that the Xiliang army was besieging the city, then heard that Great Zhou soldiers were conducting house-to-house searches, and that if they found family members absent, they would imprison the entire family. Those Xiliang people who had previously accepted others’ silver… to have them pretend to be their family members and enter together, hoping to receive more land allocation and a larger house, suddenly became panic-stricken.
They now understood that they had been used. Those Xiliang soldiers had infiltrated early precisely so that when the Xiliang army besieged the city, they could open the city gates for the Xiliang army outside.
Indeed, as soon as Great Zhou soldiers investigated their homes, even before the Great Zhou army could conduct detailed questioning, all the families who had brought Xiliang soldiers in knelt and confessed honestly.