Chapter 234
Chapter 234
Piao Kingdom’s replacement provisions had not arrived.
The next afternoon, Ji Yan’an ordered men to cook atop the city wall, slaughtering pigs and geese especially for the occasion. The aroma drifted into Piao Kingdom’s camp.
Soldiers on the wall ate from bowls or waved goose legs at the men below.
“Hey! What are you eating today? Tell us about it!”
“Hahaha! Their provisions burned. They probably haven’t even eaten their fill.”
“This goose smells wonderful.”
“So do the pork and glass noodles!”
The hungry soldiers of Piao Kingdom glared up, grinding their teeth.
“Despicable men of Great Liang! Let’s see how long you remain arrogant!”
Both sides began trading insults. Jiang Yunsui lay atop the wall, nibbling meat from a goose neck and watching delightedly. No one on her side was losing the argument.
After wiping her hands and mouth, she fetched an apple from Ji Yan’an.
“I’m going to Fat Chef. He made tea eggs for me.”
She bounced away.
At the Cook Battalion, Fat Grandpa was directing people to throw away the goose feathers. The sight immediately brought down jackets from Jiang Yunsui’s Inherited Memories.
“Don’t throw them away!” She ran over and clung to Fat Chef. “Fat Grandpa, keep them. We can make warm clothes.”
“You can make clothes from these smelly things?”
Pinching her nose, Jiang Yunsui rummaged out the softest down.
“We need this.”
Fat Chef could not resist her pleading eyes. “Fine. Save all the feathers! Pick out the smallest down, just as Little Yunsui says.”
The tedious work made everyone reluctant, so Jiang Yunsui clutched her little embroidered pouch, ran over, and handed each person half a tael of silver.
“Thank you for working hard!”
Five hundred copper coins was a considerable reward. Everyone immediately brightened and worked faster.
Jiang Yunsui stroked her chin. Money really could make ghosts turn millstones.
With so many geese slaughtered, she collected two wet sacks of down. Sitting on a stool and eating a tea egg, she consulted her Inherited Memories. She only needed to direct others; asking her to sew after the pouch disaster was out of the question.
“We have to wash it clean too.”
Fat Chef heated water while she asked Shen Qingzhu for odor-removing plants. He recommended several, including one that left cloth faintly fragrant.
She kept everyone running until the down was spotless and odorless, then spread it over clean coarse cloth to dry. By then, it was night.
When Ji Yan’an returned, Jiang Yunsui was absent.
“Where is she?”
Nanshu asked around. “The Little Ancestor is fussing with goose down. She claims she’s making clothes.”
“Probably another game. How could that become clothing?”
Ji Yan’an could not imagine it either. “Let her.”
Their attention remained on the war.
Five days passed. Piao Kingdom’s troops had less and less to eat, while Ji Yan’an had meals cooked on the wall every day. Even without much meat later, the aroma made their eyes glow green.
Piao Kingdom’s general raged. “Still no news from the king? When are the provisions coming?”
“There is no news.”
“And the Li tribe?”
“Nothing.”
Meanwhile, the Li were discussing that very matter.
“Chief, are we truly withholding grain from Piao Kingdom’s army?”
Li Nan smiled. “Feed tens of thousands of them? What would we eat?”
“Are we abandoning the alliance?”
Coldness flashed in her eyes. “Once that fool takes Dali, he’ll turn on us first. Let us watch. If so many troops cannot defeat Dali, this Young Master Ji is not someone our tribe should provoke.”
Piao Kingdom had lost five thousand men at the outset. Though they appeared to be besieging Dali, Piao Kingdom itself kept suffering.
Interesting.
Li Nan was ambitious, not stupid. “Keep watching and report everything.”
Two days later, the besieged city remained unharmed, and Shen Qingzhu completely cured the Human Gu poison.
When the first patient recovered, the poisoned people erupted in cheers.
“The poison is cured!”
“We won’t become monsters!”
“Thank you, Doctor Shen!”
They knelt before Shen Qingzhu with sincere gratitude. He smiled.
Jiang Yunsui saw golden virtuous merit fall upon him. She even received a little herself.
Little Mushroom happily swayed her head.
The cheers reached Piao Kingdom’s troops outside. They did not know the cause, but the contrast left them bitter.
“General! The king was assassinated and lies unconscious! The princes are fighting for the throne. No one can attend to us!”
“What?!”
The general’s vision darkened. The war had barely begun, yet his kingdom was already in turmoil. His grandson was one of those princes. What if the boy was killed while he remained here?
“Withdraw! Return home!”
Territorial expansion no longer mattered. First, he had to place his grandson on the throne.