Chapter 100: Wuwei Falls, Shuofeng in Peril |
"Your Majesty, the wulei on the south bank of the river have all been burned by the false Yu forces. All the militia and conscripted laborers have also been brought into Shuofeng."
Walking into the military tent, Chen Xing reported to Ji Yuan, his expression somewhat uneasy.
"As expected." Ji Yuan was not surprised. He walked to the sand table and observed while saying, "The clan bandits on the opposite shore all cut off written communications at almost the same time. I guessed it would be like this."
"It seems to have been done by that jieyuan called Song Shi'an. He killed Wang Shen, occupied the fortress, and the rest didn't dare resist. Later, he even pulled off something like 'swearing an oath by pointing to the Chishui River,' luring everyone into Shuofeng." Speaking to this point, Chen Xing reasonably deduced, "Seizing power, burning the city—all of this must have been Song Shi'an's handiwork."
"Could it be that the civil examination system really can select talented people?" Ji Yuan looked at him and asked teasingly.
"Your Majesty, I don't think it's a question of talent. This person is simply lawless."
"But he basically did everything right."
Ji Yuan cleared away the wulei one by one.
Chen Xing hurriedly helped, removing these fortresses from the sand table.
There were four counties on the opposite shore. One was burned, two were too far south, too distant from Shuofeng to attack by circling around, and they had no strategic significance either.
So the situation now became:
Within a radius of several hundred li, there was only this one isolated city.
And endless, boundless wilderness.
"Zhen has already ordered the Prime Minister to deploy another thirty thousand troops, and prepared one hundred thousand Qi civilians. Once Wuwei is taken and we pass Tongmen Pass, they will garrison in each county and township, turning this place completely into territory of my Great Qi."
"Your Majesty, are we still going to attack Shuofeng?" Chen Xing asked.
"Of course."
Staring at that isolated city, Ji Yuan said without concern: "If the false Yu's reinforcements come quickly, Zhen will first annihilate the reinforcements, then take Shuofeng at leisure. If they prefer to watch passively without moving, Zhen will quickly destroy Shuofeng."
In short: achieve complete victory in one decisive battle.
Turning his gaze back to the city at his feet, Ji Yuan speculated: "As for this Wuwei, it should be running out of grain soon too."
.........
Having held out for four and a half months—although Ji Yuan had spent more than two months waiting for Zhao Xiang in the first part, and defeating Zhao Xiang, the actual siege had only been two months—regardless of whether they were being attacked or not, each day brought massive consumption. Wuwei's grain reserves were ultimately nearing the bottom.
Standing at the granary entrance, his battle robe completely filthy and blood still on his face, Han Yuan's expression was full of worry.
At this time, the grain officer said: "General, even restricting it to the minimum, this grain will only last twenty days."
Half a month earlier than expected to run out of ammunition and food.
There was no helping it—defensive siege warfare was like this.
The soldiers defending the city couldn't possibly go hungry. Anyone else could eat less, but those on the city walls must be supplied adequately.
Otherwise, if their combat effectiveness declined and a breach was opened, they would lose even faster.
Just then, a staff officer came over and quietly reported: "General, Ji Yuan's people have come again to urge surrender. They say they promise you, General..."
"Kill him!"
Han Yuan immediately opened his mouth in fury, but after speaking, he changed his mind: "No, let him go back. Tell Ji Yuan that I, of the Han clan of Qin Prefecture, have been honorable lords for generations—how could I do such a thing as selling out my country for glory?"
"Yes." The staff officer nodded respectfully, and before leaving, he also looked at the granary and said, "General, this grain probably won't last until reinforcements arrive."
Actually, Han Yuan was lying.
He knew clearly that after that waste Zhao Xiang lost, there would never be any more reinforcements.
But he couldn't say this.
"From today onward, grain will only be supplied to the soldiers," Han Yuan ordered.
Wuwei now had around twenty-four thousand remaining civilians, about five times the remaining five thousand troops.
But one soldier's daily grain ration was three times that of an average civilian.
If all the grain were distributed to the soldiers and the civilians completely ignored, they could even hold out for nearly fifty more days...
"General." Upon hearing this, the staff officer's face darkened, and he lowered his voice to say, "If we do this, then we'll have to gather all the civilians together and either kill them... or forcibly confine them in the military camp..."
Let them starve to death on their own.
Otherwise, these starving refugees would probably cause internal chaos.
"When they're hungry and have no strength, they won't be able to move," Han Yuan said heavily. "Let them find a way to survive on their own. Perhaps they can catch rats in the city, perhaps some people secretly hoarded grain, or people... ah."
"General, we really must kill them."
The staff officer reminded him very seriously.
"They're all people of Great Yu. Let's not," Han Yuan shook his head bitterly while forcing himself to make up his mind: "Go, give the order to stop distributing grain to the civilians."
.........
"Honorable lords for generations won't surrender to Zhen. Among the false Yu's meritorious nobility, there are still real men after all."
In the military camp's main tent, sitting in the seat of honor, Ji Yuan laughed.
And the dozen or so generals and advisors standing below also laughed along after the emperor laughed.
"Wei Ye truly has no one left to use. All along this campaign, we haven't met a worthy opponent, hahaha!"
"I see the morale of the soldiers on the city walls gradually weakening. The grain and fodder in the army must have hit bottom."
"Since he won't surrender, we'll march into the city and cook this honorable lord's young master!"
"Your Majesty, let's attack with full force today!"
This proud, mocking statement from Han Yuan ignited all these wolves and tigers.
Ji Yuan also slowly rose, saying calmly: "Everyone, deploy in full force. Attack all four city gates simultaneously with full strength."
"By your command!"
Just like that, all the generals received their orders together, turned around, and walked out of the tent one by one with overwhelming momentum.
"Let's go have a look."
Ji Yuan called to Chen Xing beside him, and the two of them were the last to leave the tent.
Mounting their horses, they followed the army out of camp together.
Except during the night, Wuwei was constantly besieged in rotating shifts by the hundred-thousand-strong army.
The horses of Ji Yuan and Chen Xing, protected by cavalry escorts, naturally opened a path through the army.
The two drew closer and closer, until when three hundred steps remained, Chen Xing raised his hand and blocked the way forward: "Your Majesty, we cannot go further. Beware of stray bolts from the siege crossbows."
"Siege crossbows are too slow. Wuwei won't have time to use them."
Although he said this, Ji Yuan didn't continue forward either.
He just stayed where he was astride his horse, raised his head, and gazed at the city walls being fiercely attacked.
Watching, watching, his brows suddenly furrowed as he said: "Something's wrong."
Hearing this, Chen Xing immediately looked at Ji Yuan, his heart tensing nervously with these words: "Your Majesty, what has happened?"
"The arrows have slowed."
Staring at the arrows raining down like water, his expression was very serious.
Chen Xing also looked over but didn't notice the difference.
Because they were still densely falling, continuously.
It was said that in Wuwei, there might be over 1.2 million arrows alone.
And there were also many arrows shot into the city from outside.
Even with significant losses, there shouldn't be a shortage of arrows.
But the emperor's words wouldn't be wrong.
"It's not a shortage of arrows—it's that the arrows being released have slowed."
Continuing to stare at the city walls, Ji Yuan's gaze didn't move for a moment.
Chen Xing was still puzzled.
"The support from auxiliary soldiers and conscripted laborers can't keep up anymore."
Ji Yuan vaguely guessed the reason.
"Your Majesty means?!" Chen Xing said in shock.
"Ah, that's right."
Ji Yuan continued observing the frequency of the arrows and confirmed: "The granary has hit bottom, so they've cut off grain to the civilians."
"If it's reached this point, then the grain and fodder in the city probably won't last even a month."
"Chen-daren, do you smell the blood in the wind?" Ji Yuan said expressionlessly.
"Your Majesty, the wind is full of blood. There's that of the false Yu army, and there's ours. Mainly, it's ours." After Chen Xing finished speaking, he asked curiously: "Cutting off grain to the civilians—will Han Yuan massacre the civilians?"
"Honorable lords for generations can't do such things."
"..." Chen Xing revealed a joyful expression. "Han Yuan being so indecisive is Heaven helping my Great Qi!"
The corners of his mouth slowly curved into an arc as Ji Yuan raised his hand and gently pressed down: "Catapults."
.........
In the city, the vast majority of civilians were already so hungry they couldn't walk. They just lay on the ground like dying, sickly dogs.
When the grain was cut off, those military officers said they were tightening grain supplies and would only eat one meal a day.
But after waiting bitterly for a whole day, there was no centralized grain distribution, not even thin watery rice porridge.
Only then did everyone realize they had all been abandoned by the general.
And each person no longer had the strength to struggle or protest.
There would never be any more grain distributed.
Rats were indeed a food source, but rats were also part of this city. They hid in the darkness, waiting for people to die before running out to gnaw on the corpses.
Just then, overhead, a black shadow suddenly passed by, then fell heavily to the ground with a thunderous crash.
It landed on someone, instantly crushing them into a pile of blood.
But no one cared. They had no strength left to dodge catapult stones.
However, suddenly, one person rubbed his eyes and saw clearly—it wasn't a boulder.
It was a large yellow hemp sack.
He crawled over, untied the rope binding the sack, and after opening it, he froze in shock.
Inside was a large stone.
Apart from that, it was completely filled with bing cakes.
He reached his hand inside and pulled out a bing cake.
The people around looked at him.
With difficulty, they crawled up, like soulless zombies, staggering and slow, running toward that direction.
Surrounding the sack, they fought over the bing cakes.
The next moment, dozens of large sacks flew in from outside the city.
Inside all of them were large stones and bing cakes.
Behind on this street, countless "zombies" surged like a tide, but because of extreme hunger, there was a comical sluggishness...
"Inside, there's paper." After one person took a bing cake and ate several large bites, he looked at the words on the paper and read: "The Great Qi imperial army is attacking the north gate with full force. After the city falls, there will be plenty of bing cakes."
The people changed.
Over ten thousand civilians surged toward the north gate.
Facing the blades and weapons of the Yu army, they blocked the city gate, charged into the barbican, and the rest climbed up the city walls.
Outside the city, Qi army scaling ladders also continuously transported soldiers up the walls.
Wuwei fell.
In the very center of the Commandery Governor's hall.
Han Yuan wiped his emperor-gifted sword over and over again.
The blade gleamed brightly.
Raising the sword hilt to his neck, he pulled down with force...
In the summer of the forty-ninth year of Jiarui, Ji Yuan broke through Wuwei, spared the people, and massacred the entire army.
< ========== ToC ========== Next >
If you're enjoying what you're reading, please take a moment of your time to leave a rating or a review on NovelUpdates .