Xiao Li stood to one side of the sand table, his gaze sweeping over that attendant, eyes carrying some scrutiny and probing.

Southern Chen had repeatedly wanted this person to fight—there was definitely something fishy about it.

Jiang Yu sensed Xiao Li’s scrutiny. He lowered his head to avoid meeting Xiao Li’s eyes, trying his best to act like an ordinary foot soldier. Fang Mingda, worried their cover would be blown, hastily smiled ingratiatingly: “Many thanks for Wengzhu’s permission. Let’s begin then.”

Jiang Yu walked toward the sand table with lowered head, not looking at the surrounding Liang officials. He took up the long staff and pointed at the area before Bairen Pass’s gate, deliberately lowering his voice: “My Southern Chen continues the siege according to our previous tactics and increases the main force at the gate to five thousand men.”

Hearing this, some Liang officials, emboldened by their victory in the previous round, inevitably developed somewhat contemptuous thoughts. At the same time, feeling overjoyed that they would very likely win this round as well, they discussed in low voices with nearby colleagues: “Foolish move! The terrain outside Bairen Pass is treacherous. With more people, they can’t deploy properly. All bunching up at the front—they’re undoubtedly becoming live targets for arrows from the gate tower!”

The colleagues around him also stroked their beards and nodded, just about to echo a few words when they heard the other side continue: “Among the main forces attacking the city this round, three thousand will continue the siege, while the remaining two thousand will clear the battlefield outside Bairen Pass and construct siege towers.”

The Liang officials who had just been smugly pleased suddenly changed color.

Their confidence in daring to garrison Pingzhou with ten thousand troops came entirely from Bairen Pass’s naturally advantageous terrain. Bairen Pass was not only extremely treacherous in terrain, but the area outside the city gate was all steep slopes and wild ground, preventing Southern Chen from even deploying war chariots and scaling ladders. Moreover, because of this special gorge topography, Southern Chen’s great army couldn’t spread out their battle formations, which perfectly facilitated their volleys of arrows from the gate tower to massacre them.

But the other side’s current tactics used offense as defense, using the attacks at the gate and encircling from both sides along the Great Wall as cover for building siege towers on the steep slope wilderness.

Once the other side’s siege towers were built, Bairen Pass’s gate tower would also face bombardment from their catapults.

Under the circumstance of being attacked from both near and far, Southern Chen also had absolute numerical superiority. Even if they couldn’t conquer it quickly, using rotation tactics to wear them down continuously could exhaust them completely.

Although the Liang officials had long known that formally engaging Southern Chen wouldn’t be optimistic, after witnessing the other side’s fierce siege methods once again, some dejection arose in their hearts.

They needed to rack their brains just to defend against one ordinary Southern Chen siege—the slightest carelessness would mean complete disaster. But for Southern Chen, they had the capital to start over at any time.

The Liang officials who had been joyfully discussing earlier fell silent, all burning with anxiety. Yet their gazes couldn’t help frequently falling on Xiao Li, as if hoping this young general who was quite favored by Wengzhu and repeatedly promoted by Fan Yuan could once again resolve Pingzhou’s crisis.

Li Yao, seated above, watched the battle situation unfolding on the sand table below and asked Wen Yu in a low voice: “What does Wengzhu think?”

Wen Yu’s expression was calm: “It hasn’t yet reached a life-or-death moment.”

Xiao Li, being stared at by the Liang officials in the hall, braced both hands on the table and observed the sand table for a while before saying: “My Great Liang’s defense remains as before. Additionally, set up catapults on the gate tower to hurl rocks and destroy the siege towers.”

Jiang Yu said: “Southern Chen has prepared four such vanguard siege teams. When one falters, it withdraws to rest and replenish numbers, with another vanguard team continuing to take its place. Though the esteemed Liang’s tactical deployment is meticulous, the arrows, fire oil, and defending soldiers within the city will eventually reach a point of exhaustion.”

Xiao Li coldly raised his eyes: “Before my Great Liang reaches a dead end, your nation might as well worry about yourselves first. Relying on the corpses of lower-ranking soldiers to fill the ravines outside Bairen Pass—even if you conquer Pingzhou, what will you use afterward to continue fighting Pei Song and Wei Qishan?”

Jiang Yu’s expression became slightly unpleasant. Fang Mingda knew that given Jiang Yu’s current identity, it wasn’t convenient to respond to this, so he hastily took over with a smile: “Such a mutually destructive situation is naturally not what our Southern Chen wishes to see either. That’s precisely why we sincerely want to cooperate with the esteemed Liang. It’s the esteemed Liang Wengzhu who makes things difficult for our Southern Chen.”

Xiao Li suddenly realized this fatty’s brain turned unusually fast. He wanted the other party to see clearly the consequences of filling Bairen Pass’s walls with human heads, but the other party had turned the tables on him in just a few sentences.

He decisively cut off the conversation and continued deploying defenses: “My Pingzhou has a total of ten thousand troops guarding the pass. These ten thousand are also divided into two forces, each of five thousand troops—three thousand soldiers defending the city, two thousand soldiers defending both sides of the Great Wall. When one force is on primary defense, the other handles logistics, rotating guard duty.”

Southern Chen used rotation tactics to attack the city—they could likewise use this method to defend it. Only, to maximally restrain the Chen army’s siege, arrows were indispensable. Just as Jiang Yu said, the arrows within the city would soon face depletion.

The other side, as if having long anticipated this point, still simply followed their previous tactics, attacking the city methodically.

Many Liang officials watching the battle kept raising their sleeves to wipe sweat until their sleeves were half-soaked.

Southern Chen’s method of attack rather resembled cutting flesh with a dull knife. Because the disparity in strength between both sides was so great, Pingzhou’s defeat seemed already an inevitable result. This panic would, in actual combat, hang over every soldier’s head.

After Jiang Yu once again casually stated “My Southern Chen switches vanguard battalions to continue the siege,” Xiao Li, estimating the number of all still-usable arrows within the city, completed his defense deployment: “Our side uses ropes to lower several hundred elite troops from both sides of the Great Wall to retrieve arrows from the battlefield within the gate tower’s arrow range.”

The three from Southern Chen’s side seemed to feel that Pingzhou, having reached this point, was already at the end of its rope. They smiled with certain victory.

The Liang officials dejectedly lowered their heads.

Jiang Yu said: “The vanguard battalion soldiers my Southern Chen brings up can quickly surround and kill these Chen troops retrieving arrows.”

Xiao Li only said: “However many arrows the dispatched Great Liang soldiers can bring back counts as such.”

Jiang Yu seemed to feel there was nothing more to discuss with a defeated opponent. Hearing this, he only lowered his head to look at the sand table, lightly curving the corners of his mouth, and said: “After this round of siege, Great Liang should lose.”

Yet Xiao Li said: “Not necessarily.”

Fang Mingda also felt that without arrows to suppress Southern Chen’s attack, with Southern Chen’s savage advance method, the victory or defeat of the battle situation was already very obvious. He smiled warmly all over, but every word he spoke was full of hidden barbs: “What does the young general mean by this statement?”

He pointed at the sand table: “This minor official believes that the battle situation deduced by the young general and our Southern Chen should already show who wins or loses.”

He paused, his gaze flicking toward Wen Yu, his smile remaining warm as before: “The sand table deduction was personally proposed by Wengzhu. Surely you wouldn’t go back on your word and refuse to acknowledge the results of this deduction?”

These words were quite pointed beneath their softness.

Zhao Bai immediately shouted: “Insolence!”

Li Xun also shouted: “Don’t dare be disrespectful to our lord!”

Fang Mingda, seeing the Liang officials present all bore angry expressions with unfriendly gazes, couldn’t help panicking in his heart. He regretted his rash words just now and hastily said awkwardly: “This minor official simply doesn’t understand why this young general says Pingzhou hasn’t yet lost…”

Right now they were within Pingzhou’s territory. They weren’t allowed to bring many guards through the pass. They absolutely couldn’t come into conflict with Great Liang at this time.

Fan Yuan snorted coldly: “Since you don’t understand, why not listen to our Great Liang general explain in detail instead of speaking words about our Wengzhu going back on her word?”

His tiger eyes blazed with fury: “Your Southern Chen truly has a knack for fabricating lies! Claiming with every breath that you sincerely came to apologize and discuss peace—this old man hasn’t seen where your sincerity lies!”

Even though Fang Mingda was shrewd, he was momentarily choked by Fan Yuan’s words, not knowing how to smooth things over.

The atmosphere below the hall was at a stalemate when Liu Zhixian suddenly laughed darkly: “Listen to your Great Liang general explain in detail?”

He pointed at the sand table, his eyes sinisterly sweeping over all the Liang officials in the great hall, sneering coldly: “Aren’t the results of this sand table deduction clear enough? Today’s refusal to acknowledge defeat in battle has truly opened this old man’s eyes! Relying on your numerical superiority, learning from how Zhao Gao of old called a deer a horse, is it?”

He laughed loudly: “Fine Great Liang, fine celestial empire!”

The Liang officials were provoked by his tirade of mockery until their expressions turned ugly. Fan Yuan directly stepped forward: “You bastard, say that again to this old man? Last time this old man didn’t personally go up and knock out all your dog teeth—that truly let you off cheap!”

Chen Wei and Li Xun standing to the side, seeing the situation turning bad, hastily restrained him: “General Fan, General Fan, don’t act impulsively! Wengzhu is still watching!”

Liu Zhixian, having had his hand crushed by Xiao Li that day and been imprisoned for many days, had long been holding in a bellyful of rage. Having already determined that Pingzhou today would absolutely not acknowledge this defeat, he simply cursed out what was in his heart: “Just a pack of homeless dogs barking wildly!”

His gaze swept toward Wen Yu—with greed, with amazement, but more with malice: “This old man said it before—your Hanyang Wengzhu truly considers herself a rare commodity, waiting to be sold to the highest bidder!”

Seated above, Wen Yu’s eyes suddenly turned icy cold. In that instant, Fang Mingda also felt his heart skip a beat.

Fan Yuan and the assembled military generals looked at Liu Zhixian as if they wanted nothing more than to tear him apart alive.

Fan Yuan forcefully shook off the restraint of Chen Wei and Li Xun: “This old man will wring off your head today no matter what!”

Yet Xiao Li was faster than him. No one even saw clearly how he moved forward. When they came to their senses, they saw Liu Zhixian already face-down on the ground, nose bleeding all over, while Xiao Li’s black boot was firmly stepping on his face, his expression coldly fierce.

Cold sweat streamed down Fang Mingda’s back. He also hadn’t anticipated this fool would speak such foolish words on such an occasion. Just as he was about to say something to salvage the situation, he heard an especially icy voice ring out from above: “Enough.”

The voice wasn’t loud, yet it instantly quieted the government hall that had been clamoring.

Wen Yu’s gaze swept toward Xiao Li: “General Xiao, stand down.”

Xiao Li ground forcefully across Liu Zhixian’s face, almost crushing his jawbone, before withdrawing his foot.

Fang Mingda, thinking quickly in his desperation, hastily stepped forward to also put on a show of kicking Liu Zhixian twice, cursing: “Who gave you the audacity to dare speak disrespectfully to Wengzhu? Do you know you’ve been able to live until now only because of Wengzhu’s mercy!”

Liu Zhixian’s entire facial skeleton was in severe pain. That fall just now and the force Xiao Li ground with when withdrawing his foot made his whole head hurt so much he was nearly losing sensation. To the point where when Fang Mingda kicked him twice, he showed no reaction.

Wen Yu coldly watched Fang Mingda’s pretentious scolding and said: “The envoy need not be thus.”

Fang Mingda’s back was already soaked with cold sweat, terrified that Liu Zhixian’s behavior would make their apologetic mission fall through again. He hastily bowed to Wen Yu: “Wengzhu, this foolish general dares to so offend you—truly his crime is unforgivable. Our Southern Chen absolutely cannot tolerate such a person who dares to be disrespectful to our future princess consort. This minor official will immediately order someone to behead him to quell Wengzhu’s anger!”

As he spoke, he shot Jiang Yu a look, signaling him to act.

Jiang Yu’s eyes were coldly indifferent. He also seemed not to have anticipated Liu Zhixian would again cause them such trouble. He stepped forward to act, but heard that clear, cold female voice like cracking ice and shattering jade ring out again from above: “No need to trouble the envoy. This person—my Great Liang will kill him ourselves.”

Jiang Yu halted his steps, his gaze sweeping toward Wen Yu before quickly exchanging glances with Fang Mingda, choosing to temporarily withdraw.

Fang Mingda smiled extremely ingratiatingly: “Everything is at Wengzhu’s command.”

Wen Yu’s gaze coldly glanced at Liu Zhixian: “Do you recall that before this sand table deduction, this palace already said—if you won, this palace would no longer pursue your offensive words that day? But if you lost, this palace could behead you outside this hall?”

Liu Zhixian, having lain on the ground for so long, finally recovered somewhat. Hearing Wen Yu’s question, though still sprawled on the ground like a puddle of mud, he sneered with extreme disdain: “I remember. But isn’t your Great Liang refusing to acknowledge it?”

Hearing his words like a dead pig unafraid of boiling water, Fan Yuan grew so angry he wanted to step forward and kick him again. Fortunately Li Xun held him back.

Fan Yuan said furiously: “You damn bastard, in a moment we’ll make your Southern Chen lose with complete conviction!”

Jiang Yu, seeing both he and Wen Yu seemed extremely certain Pingzhou hadn’t lost this deduction, glanced again at the sand table, becoming thoughtful.

There must be somewhere he had miscalculated…

Wen Yu no longer looked at Liu Zhixian and called to Xiao Li: “General Xiao, tell them why Pingzhou hasn’t lost.”