Liu Pinggao shook his head: “His Majesty is already working very hard, being pregnant yet still worrying about military affairs. For matters within our control, let’s not disturb His Majesty’s rest. You go to the city gate first to pass the orders, and I’ll come after I get dressed!”
“Yes!”
Outside Jiangzi City.
Du Sanbao glanced toward the Xiliang military camp and shouted at the top of his lungs: “Retreat! Retreat! Fall back!”
The furious Xiliang general ordered men to mount horses and pursue rapidly, but right now, the Xiliang army wasn’t prepared for a siege at all. If they pursued the base of Jiangzi City’s walls, wouldn’t they just be delivering heads to the Great Zhou army?
General Cui quickly had orders issued forbidding pursuit.
But ultimately, when the firecrackers Du Sanbao had thrown into the military camp exploded, they woke up all the Xiliang soldiers who weren’t resting well to begin with. The Xiliang army had no way to rest peacefully.
After catching horses and putting out fires, the Xiliang generals all crowded angrily into General Cui’s military tent, clamoring that they should attack the city right now.
General Cui saw that morale had been ignited and also felt they couldn’t wait any longer—they had to teach Great Zhou a lesson. Just as he stood up, he saw a scout return, kneeling on one knee and reporting: “Report to the General, Bailong City is hastily preparing grain supplies tonight, expected to deliver grain tomorrow!”
“Heaven assists Xiliang!” General Cui said with great confidence and shouted, “Muster the troops, attack the city!”
Outside the pitch-black Jiangzi City, the Xiliang military camps suddenly all lit up.
Liu Pinggao watched Du Sanbao and the others enter the city and shouted: “Quickly close the city gates!”
Seeing the distant Xiliang army still in relentless pursuit, Liu Pinggao’s heart was in his throat. When he saw Du Sanbao safely lead his men into the city and the gates closed, Liu Pinggao, who had been gripping his sword hilt tightly, breathed a sigh of relief and only then realized his palms were covered in sweat.
He hurried down the city wall and, seeing Du Sanbao leap down from his horse, loudly berated him: “Du Sanbao! Who gave you the courage to leave the city and raid the camp? Don’t you know His Majesty forbade leaving the city to raid the camp!”
Du Sanbao dismounted and laughed: “I saw that General Liu also wanted to attack the city, so I dared to make a move. The effect was pretty good, wasn’t it! All those Xiliang soldiers got woken up by the firecrackers!”
“I’m afraid you’ve been too clever for your good! What if Xiliang attacks the city early… you’ll have ruined His Majesty’s grand plan!” Liu Pinggao scolded sternly.
Liu Pinggao had only just figured out why Bai Qingyan didn’t allow raiding the camp today!
The guards Bai Qingyan sent to deliver messages had only left the city a short while ago. Bailong City aside, Yecheng Pass was quite far—the message couldn’t be delivered… If they rashly attacked the city and Xiliang attacked early, while the soldiers from Yecheng Pass couldn’t arrive in time, what then?
Du Sanbao was stunned—he hadn’t thought this through: “It should… probably not happen! What kind of city attack can they do in pitch darkness?”
Just as Du Sanbao finished speaking, war drums thundered from the Xiliang military camp, shaking the wilderness.
“They’re attacking the city!” Liu Pinggao’s eyes widened.
Du Sanbao hadn’t expected that just one camp raid would provoke Xiliang to attack the city early. He was immediately frightened and pale.
“General Liu, what… what should we do? I only wanted to prevent Xiliang from resting well!” Du Sanbao showed a panicked expression. “Have I affected His Majesty’s grand plan?”
When Bai Qingyan received the news, she was slightly surprised, but nothing on the battlefield was absolute anyway. Fortunately, Bai Qingyan had prepared early, the civilians in the city had been trained adequately, and the messengers had already left the city.
Bai Qingyan casually tied up her long hair, put on silver armor, took her Sun-Shooting Bow, and led her guards toward the city tower at full gallop.
Liu Pinggao was commanding defensive arrangements on the city wall when he heard someone below addressing “Your Majesty.” He quickly came down from the city tower. Du Sanbao, who had caused trouble, also hurriedly followed Liu Pinggao downstairs.
Seeing Bai Qingyan dismount, Liu Pinggao knelt on one knee and was the first to plead guilty: “Your Majesty, this general did not heed Your Majesty’s words and rashly sent people out to raid the camp, never expecting it would provoke the Xiliang army to attack the city early! Please punish this general!”
Du Sanbao hadn’t expected Liu Pinggao to take full responsibility and felt even more guilty and uneasy: “Your Majesty, that’s not right, it was I who didn’t obey…”
“Now is not the time to compete for blame!” Bai Qingyan casually tossed her horse whip to a guard behind her, stepped over Liu Pinggao and Du Sanbao, and walked toward the city tower.
Liu Pinggao and Du Sanbao quickly got up and followed behind Bai Qingyan, climbing onto the city wall.
Bai Qingyan glanced into the distance—the Xiliang army was assembling. She turned and said, “Go! Beat the gongs… wake up all the civilians and tell them Xiliang is about to attack the city!”
“Yes!” Du Sanbao received the order and ran down from the city tower.
Instantly, gong sounds filled the skies over Jiangzi City.
Soldiers beat gongs and shouted for civilians to get up: “Xiliang is attacking the city! Xiliang is attacking the city! Get up and defend the walls! If we can’t hold the walls, the Xiliang army will massacre the city when they enter Jiangzi City!”
When the civilians heard that Xiliang was going to attack the city and massacre it afterward, remembering the Xiliang people shot dead by Xiliang generals outside the city walls, they responded actively. They immediately got up, dressed, grabbed their tools, and ran toward the city tower, shouting for neighbors to come out and resist the enemy—Xiliang was attacking the city.
Previously, Bai Qingyan had Liu Pinggao lead people to roughly train the civilians, assigning them all tasks of treating the wounded and transporting weapons. All soldiers who climbed the city tower must make every arrow count, cherish their arrows, and hit Xiliang soldiers.
The past few days of training hadn’t been wasted. When the drums and horns sounded on the city wall, civilians ran toward the four city gates according to their assigned positions from daily training. Soldiers drew their bows fully, waiting for Xiliang to enter shooting range. Civilians moved arrows up the city walls, and strong civilians stood by the bed crossbows, turning the windlasses, ready to strike.
Bai Qingyan stood on the city tower, looking at the Xiliang army approaching Jiangzi City. Though she couldn’t find General Cui among the great army, she had already spotted several Xiliang generals. She gripped her Sun-Shooting Bow, drew an arrow from her waist quiver, and aimed into the distance…
All four walls of Jiangzi City were on full alert.
General Cui wasn’t truly planning to attack the city, so he didn’t concentrate forces to attack only the South Gate, but launched simultaneous attacks on all four gates.
Though this looked impressive in scale, it might not achieve siege results. But if the defending forces inside the city were insufficient, this four-sided blooming attack would make defending very difficult for the enemy.
But what General Cui didn’t know was that, thanks to the Xiliang general not allowing civilians to leave the city and killing civilians, these civilians who had originally still harbored feelings for Xiliang were now putting all their energy into helping the Great Zhou defend the city. After all… they had now become Great Zhou civilians—who wouldn’t fear massacre when the Xiliang army entered the city?
The civilians joining the war were indeed beyond General Cui’s expectations. General Cui had thought that the civilians in the city, having been Xiliang people for half their lives, would surely side with Xiliang.