“But… didn’t Your Majesty say to prepare meals early? Isn’t this because we’re going to assault the camp, so…”

Bai Qingyan shook her head. She had never intended to attack the city today: “Preparing meals early to create cooking smoke is merely to arouse Old General Cui’s vigilance, making the Western Liang soldiers who had just fallen asleep get up again, to prevent the Western Liang army from eating well or resting properly.”

But she hadn’t expected Old General Cui to be so formidable. With the Great Zhou’s army having few people in Jiangzi City, if they set obvious ambushes, they couldn’t leave the city to assault the camp, but it would also allow a large portion of Western Liang soldiers to rest well.

However, being able to exhaust even a small portion of Western Liang soldiers was still beneficial.

“Your Majesty, what do we do next?” Liu Pinggao asked.

“Send people to watch from the city gates. If those Western Liang soldiers lying in ambush withdraw, open the city gates and let cavalry go out for a show, forcing those Western Liang troops to return. Once we see them coming back, quickly retreat into the city… do not engage in battle!” Bai Qingyan said.

Only then did Liu Pinggao realize that Bai Qingyan was wearing down the Western Liang soldiers, not letting them rest properly. He acknowledged the order and departed.

“By the way, I’ve sent Du Sanbao to handle other matters. Find another general to take charge of defending the southeast city walls,” Bai Qingyan looked up at Liu Pinggao.

“Understood, this subordinate comprehends!” Liu Pinggao acknowledged and withdrew.

Seeing Liu Pinggao leave, Chun Zhi entered carrying a bowl of bird’s nest soup, placed it on Bai Qingyan’s desk, and said: “Eldest Miss, after you finish the bird’s nest soup, please go sleep for a while! Even if you don’t think of yourself, you should consider the child in your belly. With Physician Hong not here… if you don’t rest well and feel unwell somewhere, this servant wouldn’t know what to do!”

“Mm, don’t worry, I know what I’m doing!” Bai Qingyan shook the bamboo scroll in her hand, then suddenly seemed to remember something and turned to look at Chun Zhi. “You go rest. You’ve been watching over me for a long time without closing your eyes, haven’t you!”

Chun Zhi scratched her head embarrassedly: “This servant is useless. While watching over Eldest Miss, I leaned against a pillar and fell asleep. Eunuch Wei worked hard watching over Eldest Miss. Just now, only after this servant repeatedly promised Eunuch Wei that I definitely wouldn’t leave Eldest Miss’s side did Eunuch Wei go to rest!”

Bai Qingyan picked up the bird’s nest soup, stirred it with a spoon, and said to Chun Zhi with a smile: “You’re already very capable, beyond my expectations.”

“Chun Zhi will work even harder in the future!” Chun Zhi smiled at Bai Qingyan. “As long as Eldest Miss doesn’t mind that Chun Zhi is slow-witted!”

Bai Qingyan tasted a spoonful of bird’s nest soup and lowered her eyes, carefully considering how to wear down a portion of the Western Liang army before February 12th if Du Sanbao failed, while not going too far… lest she force Old General Cui to abandon the grain supplies and attack the city, since there was also grain within the city.

She needed to prepare two backup plans.

The current siege seemed to put Great Zhou in a passive position, but Western Liang couldn’t afford to lose… Old General Cui had too many concerns and desires, creating a situation where Western Liang was actually more passive than Great Zhou.

At this moment, Du Sanbao was leading people into Jiangzi City’s secret passage.

The secret passage exit had been sealed shut. Originally, Liu Pinggao had done this to prevent Western Liang troops from entering the city, so naturally, the passage exit would also be guarded by Western Liang soldiers, making it impossible for Great Zhou’s soldiers to get out.

Du Sanbao feared disturbing the Western Liang soldiers guarding the secret passage exit, so dozens of men quietly and slowly dug a tunnel from the right side of the secret passage. Following Bai Qingyan’s instructions, they used the structure of this secret passage to dig a tunnel leading outside Western Liang’s encirclement, so they could send people to Bailong City with messages…

They also needed to send a message to General Ye, the defending general of Yecheng Pass, asking these two city commanders to cooperate with Bai Qingyan in fighting a battle to annihilate Western Liang’s main forces.

Du Sanbao didn’t dare make too much noise, so the tunnel digging progressed very slowly. Each day, he returned covered in dirt and utterly exhausted, but the next morning, he would set out again full of energy with his men.

Meanwhile, the Western Liang soldiers that Old General Cui had sent early to infiltrate the city disguised as refugees had been captured one by one, but Bai Qingyan didn’t have them sent back, nor did she make a public announcement—she simply ordered them imprisoned in jail.

Liu Pinggao also took people to persuade the civilians to join them in defending Jiangzi City.

These civilians were exactly as Bai Qingyan had described—they had experienced starvation… even witnessed people exchanging their children for food. They thought the Great Zhou could give them grain and houses to keep them alive, so they were very willing to become the Great Zhou’s citizens.

Although they had indeed been Western Liang people for the first half of their lives, if Western Liang’s army truly took Jiangzi City, they would return to their previous life without grain, where Western Liang’s army would forcibly seize their food supplies. Would they have any way to survive then?

Now that the Great Zhou’s emperor was right there in Jiangzi City, the Great Zhou’s army would come to the rescue. If they joined the Great Zhou’s emperor in defending the city and earned merit, they could even have their debts to the government office forgiven—the money and grain they owed. This was a good thing, so why wouldn’t they be willing?

But Liu Pinggao also told them that if they were unwilling to live and die together with the Great Zhou and wanted to leave Jiangzi City to escape the warfare, Liu Pinggao could also let them leave the city. Since they were all Western Liang civilians, Old General Cui probably wouldn’t make things too difficult for them. However, anyone who left would never again have the possibility of becoming a Great Zhou citizen!

Soon, all the civilians in the entire city were mobilized.

Some civilians were willing to actively help soldiers transport materials for resisting enemy troops up to the city walls before Western Liang’s army began attacking the city, while other civilians, after careful consideration, decided to leave the city to avoid the warfare.

Liu Pinggao personally rode out of the city on horseback to speak about the Western Liang civilians wanting to leave the city, but Old General Cui worried that Great Zhou’s army would use their own methods against them, having soldiers mix among the civilians to go out and deliver messages.

Taking in those civilians and confining them would require daily rations for the civilians, but Western Liang’s army didn’t even have enough provisions for themselves—where would they get grain to feed civilians?

Instead, with Western Liang civilians in the city, the Great Zhou had to provide grain for them to survive!

Therefore, Western Liang’s army wouldn’t allow civilians to leave the city…

After Liu Pinggao returned, he played a cunning trick. With an indignant expression, he told the Western Liang civilians, “Western Liang’s general said they won’t allow you to leave the city! Once you entered Great Zhou’s city, you became Great Zhou’s citizens and had no more connection with Western Liang! When they attack and enter the city in the future, they definitely won’t show mercy to you, Western Liang traitors! If we dare let you leave the city… they’ll immediately shoot you dead!”

Those civilians carrying bundles and preparing to leave the city were panic-stricken and didn’t know what to do. Someone shouted: “General, are you lying to us because you don’t want us to leave the city?!”

“Yes! Are you deceiving us!”

Liu Pinggao looked pained: “Since you don’t believe me, there’s nothing I can do. How about this… those who want to leave can exit the city right now, but… after leaving the city, you can never again enter our Great Zhou’s city walls. So… those willing to leave the city, please line up on the right side!”

“Wang Jin!” Liu Pinggao turned to look at Wang Jin. “Take these civilians up to the city tower and have them look carefully—see whether it’s us Great Zhou, who won’t let people go, or whether Western Liang simply won’t let them leave!”