Hearing the sounds of servants and soldiers outside paying respects to Bai Qingyan, the covert guard captain hurriedly tried to stand up, but was stopped by the military physician applying medicine to him: “Don’t move!”
The covert guard captain sat back down and said good-naturedly to the military physician: “Your Majesty has come! She’s going to ask me about the Xiliang army. It’s not appropriate for me to be here bare-chested…”
“Almost finished!” The military physician slowly spread the medicinal ointment on thin cotton cloth, then pressed it against the Bai Family covert guard captain’s shoulder, causing him to suck in a sharp breath from the pain.
Before Bai Qingyan entered the room, soldiers patrolling the city and conducting house-to-house searches came to report, saying… the city patrol teams had discovered people wearing Great Zhou military armor who couldn’t give the correct passwords and were captured by Great Zhou soldiers. After killing two as examples during interrogation, they learned that these were indeed sent by Old General Cui Shanzhong to mix in with refugees and infiltrate the city, the same as what the previously captured Xiliang soldiers had said.
“They also don’t know exactly how many people Old General Cui Shanzhong sent, same as what the Xiliang soldiers sent back earlier said—they all claim they thought Old General Cui Shanzhong only sent their one team into the city! Through interrogation… we also discovered that these teams entered the city with different purposes!” the reporting junior officer said.
Bai Qingyan’s eyes were half-lowered: “Are the granaries and armories all arranged properly?”
Liu Pinggao bowed to Bai Qingyan: “Following Your Majesty’s instructions, the pretense of moving the granaries and weapons hasn’t stopped yet. I imagine once the transfer is complete, those rats hiding in the shadows should obediently walk into our trap!”
Bai Qingyan looked up at the pitch-black night. All the preventive measures she could think of, Bai Qingyan had already considered…
“Young Miss!” The Bai Family’s covert guard captain, supporting himself on the door frame, staggered out from inside and knelt on one knee before Bai Qingyan. Looking up at her, he said: “Young Miss, there are indeed ambushing soldiers outside the south gate. This subordinate had just left the city gate and hadn’t run far when the horse’s legs were shot and broken. There were quite a few ambush soldiers—it looked like they were just waiting for Young Miss to leave the city!”
Liu Pinggao’s palm tightened. Indeed, it was just as Bai Qingyan had predicted. The reason Old General Cui initially didn’t have Xiliang soldiers surround the south gate was precisely to leave an opening for Bai Qingyan to exit through the south gate… to capture Bai Qingyan alive!
At this moment, Liu Pinggao was filled with retrospective fear. If he had truly escorted Bai Qingyan out of the city, then Bai Qingyan might already have been captured alive by Xiliang. With their emperor captured, this battle… wouldn’t need to be fought anymore!
“You’ve worked hard!” Bai Qingyan helped him up.
“This subordinate has also roughly figured out that Old General Cui brought over fifty thousand Xiliang troops this time, but their provisions should be insufficient. This subordinate heard those soldiers saying… it seems that because they were besieging the city tonight, the Xiliang soldiers ambushing outside the south gate barely managed to eat one full meal!” Even when the Bai Family covert guard captain was trapped in dire circumstances, he didn’t forget to carefully gather intelligence. “The low-ranking soldiers conducting the interrogation torture only whipped a few times before being replaced, and the force wasn’t very strong either. Judging from the force of the whips hitting the body, it didn’t seem like they were pretending to be underfed—after five or six lashes, they couldn’t maintain stable control of their strength.”
Liu Pinggao listened in amazement. This Bai Family covert guard, while being tortured by others, could still capture such subtle differences to gather intelligence—this was… quite remarkable!
It was said that the Bai Family guards had all retired from the Bai Family Army. No wonder the former Bai Family Army struck fear into people’s hearts and remained undefeated. If the Bai Family Army was full of such iron-blooded men, what army could they not defeat?
Bai Qingyan nodded, standing under the flickering sheepskin lantern with wind blowing against her eyelashes, watching the shadows of the red-lacquered wooden pillars in the corridor being stretched and swayed by the lamplight. After a long while, she looked up and asked Liu Pinggao: “When is the next time the Great Zhou provisions will be delivered?”
Liu Pinggao stepped forward: “The next food delivery should be on the eleventh of the second month… at the latest, the twelfth of the second month. Is Your Majesty worried about Xiliang forces seizing the grain?”
Liu Pinggao’s heart also began pounding. He gripped the sword at his waist and said to Bai Qingyan: “At this time, unless we light signal fires to call for reinforcements, on the eleventh of the second month… or the twelfth, the provisions will be delivered as usual. Wouldn’t this be handing them over to the Xiliang people?”
They couldn’t let Xiliang soldiers eat their Great Zhou provisions and then use that strength to besiege their Great Zhou Emperor.
Bai Qingyan closed her eyes and thought carefully: “The eleventh of the second month… the twelfth…”
Since Xiliang was so short of provisions that even the soldiers fighting couldn’t eat their fill, they would inevitably have to seize grain!
She knew when Great Zhou’s next provisions would be delivered, but Old General Cui didn’t know—this was their advantage.
Old General Cui was now waiting for provisions, and also waiting for Bai Qingyan to be unable to hold out and light signal fires for reinforcements, so they could lead troops to ambush.
Bai Qingyan’s hand hidden beneath her fox fur cloak gently grasped the jade cicada in her pouch, and she began to form a general outline in her mind of how this battle should be fought.
She turned to look at Liu Pinggao: “Have the soldiers patrolling the city summon one hundred and twenty percent of their spirit to ensure we capture all the hidden soldiers Xiliang sent in! The soldiers on the city walls don’t all need to be on alert—rotate patrols and let the soldiers rest well!”
“Does Your Majesty already have a counterstrategy?” Liu Pinggao, seeing Bai Qingyan’s calm expression, knew that she already had a plan in mind.
Bai Qingyan nodded: “Tell the soldiers that although Old General Cui won’t attack the city temporarily, they can rest well and restore their energy, but they must not become too lax in their vigilance.”
“Yes!” Liu Pinggao clasped his fists in response, looking up with bright eyes, waiting for Bai Qingyan to order preparations for tonight’s surprise attack on the Xiliang army.
“At least tonight, our soldiers can sleep soundly and peacefully!” Bai Qingyan said this.
Liu Pinggao was stunned: “Your Majesty, don’t you plan to have the soldiers launch a surprise attack on the Xiliang camp tonight?”
Liu Pinggao had thought that when Bai Qingyan said in front of Old General Cui that she would never sit and wait for death but would take the initiative to attack, mentioning camp raids, it was to make the Xiliang people think she had no intention of doing so, precisely because she said it. Tonight, their emperor would have them launch a surprise attack on Xiliang!
Bai Qingyan’s lips curved upward: “Old General Cui might think the same as you—that because I brought up night raids today, it was to lull them into complacency, and that I would raid their camp tonight! Let their Xiliang army stay on high alert while our Great Zhou soldiers all get a good night’s sleep. Oh… and don’t forget… have each city gate open and close once tonight, no need for fixed times—let the Xiliang people’s nerves stay taut.”
“Yes!” Liu Pinggao responded.
Everyone thought that night raids were most suitable in the dark. Bai Qingyan deliberately chose to do the opposite—have the Great Zhou army make noise at night without actually raiding the camp… keeping the Xiliang soldiers on full alert and unable to sleep well, then send small cavalry units to harass them during the day so they couldn’t rest then either.