Chapter 230
Chapter 230
A five-thousand-man Piao Kingdom vanguard was tricked into entering the city.
An ambush had long been prepared inside, and even the common people joined the defense.
From their homes, they poured boiling water and buckets of sewage, or hurled stones.
The soldiers lying in wait charged out to kill the invaders.
Elephants took to the streets, crushing a man with every step.
Zuozuo and Youyou fought with the savagery of wild beasts.
Jiang Yunsui had wanted to join the excitement, but Ji Yan’an kept her confined at home.
“What’s there to see in something so bloody and dangerous?”
“You’re a child. Why do you want to join every commotion?”
Jiang Yunsui pouted. “I’m not scared!”
She had seen creatures as terrifying as the Human Gu. Why would dead people frighten her?
“Just wait for the news. Come here. I’ll teach you to write.”
Jiang Yunsui walked over reluctantly.
Her handwriting truly had improved considerably, though.
After being lured into the city, the Piao soldiers were slaughtered for an entire day and night.
With all the city’s common people cooperating, every invader was eventually either captured or killed.
Toward the end, the Piao troops threw down their weapons and armor outright.
At midnight, gongs rang to announce that the invaders had been vanquished. All of Dali erupted in celebration.
The Piao king was considerably less pleased when news reached him the next day.
In his fury, he smashed one object after another.
“This is intolerable! That so-called Young Master Ji did it deliberately!”
Losing more than five thousand soldiers in a single stroke caused him terrible pain.
His kingdom was small, with fewer than eight hundred thousand people in all.
The entire country had less than a hundred thousand soldiers, and only around sixty thousand could actually be mobilized. Now nearly five thousand had been lost at once.
How could the Piao king not grieve the loss?
“Your Majesty, please calm your anger!”
The Piao king could not calm down in the slightest.
He would never admit that his own mistake had caused this outcome, so he directed his rage at everyone else.
“Your Majesty, this Young Master Ji is cunning. He deliberately released news that he had been gravely wounded to lower our guard. He probably has few soldiers at his disposal, but he prepared an ambush in the city and gained the common people’s aid. Once our soldiers entered, they had no chance of returning. Therefore, we must not enter the city.”
“Then what are we supposed to do?” the king demanded.
“We can besiege it.”
“Great Liang will not help them. Dali is an isolated city now. Because of the Human Gu, many of its people failed to harvest their fields. Every merchant with money fled with both wealth and grain. So many commoners remain inside, and they consume a great deal of food each day. We need only surround Dali. Without reinforcements, their grain will eventually run out. Then we can take the city without losing a single soldier.”
The Piao king liked the proposal and adopted it.
Dali was surrounded, and unease spread among the people.
Ji Yan’an’s subordinates patrolled the streets and reassured them.
“Young Master, our gathered grain can last two months. Fortunately, we transferred some from Mobei in advance. Dali’s great clans and merchants bought enormous quantities before they left and carried it away. The common people have little food in their hands.”
“Two months is enough,” Ji Yan’an said.
Merchants were often extremely sensitive. During war or natural disasters, they liked to hoard grain and later sell it at exorbitant prices.
Common people were much less alert to changing circumstances. They only knew that grain merchants were buying at twice the usual price, so they eagerly sold all the grain their families had at home.
Ji Yan’an sank into thought. For now, he could only wait and see whether Nanmo succeeded.
If not, they would have to seek outside reinforcements.
By the tenth day of the siege, Jiang Yunsui could clearly sense the tension among the people.
She sat on the orphanage threshold with the two large dogs pressed against her sides.
Their bodies were warm, so she did not feel cold at all.
The orphans seemed to sense that something was wrong too. Recently, they had eaten very little at each meal.
“Little Yunsui, what are you doing sitting here?” someone asked.
“The streets are so quiet,” Jiang Yunsui said.
“I’m going to find Shen Qingzhu.”
She got up and ran off with the two dogs and two roosters.
Shen Qingzhu looked rather disheveled.
Stubble covered his jaw, dark circles shadowed his eyes, and he muttered over a book in his hands.
“I found it. I found it!”
His eyes shone.
“So that’s it. It was this all along.”
Jiang Yunsui tilted her head. “What’s wrong, Shen Qingzhu?”
Shen Qingzhu patted her head.
“Nothing. I found the most important herb for curing the Human Gu. It’s snow-sight grass, an herb unique to this region in winter. It can only be harvested during this season. We must hurry-hurry and gather it, or once winter passes, the grass will be gone.”
But all of Dali was surrounded. They could not leave the city.
Jiang Yunsui’s eyes sparkled. “I know! I know a place where we can get out.”
Shen Qingzhu blinked. “Hm?”
While playing hide-and-seek with the animals, Jiang Yunsui had discovered a secret passage leading out of the city from the residence of a powerful family.
Its far end emerged at a country estate.
“Why didn’t you mention this before?” Shen Qingzhu asked.
He was truly astonished. How did one play hide-and-seek so intensely? How had she even discovered a passage like that?
Jiang Yunsui propped her chin on her hands and huffed. “I only found it the day before yesterday. I wanted to tell Ji Yan’an, but he’s been so busy. I haven’t seen him for two days.”
Delighted, Shen Qingzhu picked her up.
“Come. Let’s inspect the passage first.”
The wealthy and powerful had all fled, leaving many great residences empty.
Some had been used to house people who lost their homes, but a few remained vacant.
The passage Jiang Yunsui found lay in one of these empty estates.
One end was concealed behind a bookcase in a room.
There was a mechanism: a brick near the bottom of the bookcase.
When the brick was pressed, a click sounded and the bookcase could be pushed aside. Without pressing it, the bookcase would not move.
Shen Qingzhu clicked his tongue. “What a clever mechanism. No one who didn’t already know would ever find it.”
The underground passage was spacious. Even an adult as tall as Shen Qingzhu could walk upright inside.
They traveled for a long while before reaching the far end.
It emerged at an inconspicuous estate outside the city.
The estate was not large, and the exit opened into one of its rooms.
No one remained on the grounds, but the furnishings left behind made it clear that this had once been a young woman’s bedchamber.
“Could some young master have dug this tunnel for a secret affair?” Shen Qingzhu murmured.
Jiang Yunsui tilted her head. “What did you say, Shen Qingzhu?”
“Nothing. Children shouldn’t listen to such things.”