Lin Zhao had such an ambition, and Qin Zheng naturally supported her: “This idea is good.”
Lin Zhao, not being discouraged, became even more enthusiastic.
She didn’t forget to criticize Lin Yao a bit: “Actually, I mentioned this to my brother a long time ago, but he said I was fooling around. He said it would be chaos to let a group of women follow the men down the mountain to plunder, as it’s very dangerous.”
Lin Zhao still felt indignant when she remembered it now: “Why can men do things that women can’t?”
Qin Zheng sat with her on the high platform of the martial arts field, looking at the clear sky, and said, “There are women in this world who only want to be good wives and mothers and live a peaceful life, but there are also women who refuse to conform to conventions and want to fulfill their ambitions.
However, the former are more common, and the latter are rare. People only see the former.
Nowadays, with wars raging, training a women’s army, even if they don’t go to battle, can still be of great help in defensive battles.”
Lin Zhao nodded vigorously.
She had thought of this before, but Lin Yao thought she was just fooling around, and others didn’t take it seriously either.
Whenever there was an enemy attack in the stronghold, the women would hide in the caves.
If they could also train them, they would turn the weakest part of the stronghold into a strong defense.
The enemy thought they were vulnerable, but little did they know that these women could also pick up knives and fight.
Lin Zhao stood up with her hands on her hips and said, “I wonder when the imperial army will retreat from Qingzhou.”
She turned to Qin Zheng, “Sister Zheng, has your husband written to you recently?”
Qin Zheng shook her head gently, “No.”
After the first day when she received a message from him about taking Qingzhou, there had been no news.
She knew that after Chu Chengji and the others took Qingzhou, they had the advantage, but they were besieged by the imperial army’s 8,000 elite soldiers.
If they couldn’t quickly change the current situation and the imperial side recovered and sent reinforcements, Chu Chengji and the others would be in trouble.
As much as she worried, in the current situation, all she could do was to defend the stronghold.
In the days that followed, Qin Zheng, besides practicing martial arts with Lin Zhao every day, gradually strengthened the defense of the rear mountain.
The officials and soldiers on the opposite side watched helplessly as they turned the makeshift barricades into a wall over ten feet high, seemingly saying, “Even if you find a way to cross the mountain cliff, you still can’t attack us.”
Not only did they build a wall on the cliff above the rear mountain, but they also extended the wall along the entire mountain wall, setting up watchtowers every ten yards, turning a small broken stronghold into a formidable fortress.
The officials and soldiers on the opposite side were filled with fear, unable to determine how many people were left in the stronghold.
Moreover, they were besieged here and couldn’t come down the mountain at all, yet they were able to build so many walls and defensive structures.
The officials and soldiers increasingly felt that this small stronghold had long been planned, with ample supplies inside.
They dragged them along while building defensive walls. How could it look like they were about to run out of ammunition and food?
Instead, it was they themselves who were truly running out of food.
The officials and soldiers, seeing that their food supply had been cut off, sent people to the foot of the mountain to get food, but they learned that the officials and soldiers at the foot of the mountain were also out of food.
They sent someone to report to the imperial army besieging Qingzhou, only to learn that the besieging army had already requisitioned grain from the surrounding villages, showing that they were also out of food.
The officials and soldiers had no choice but to order their men to go to the villages around Liangyan Mountain to requisition food.
However, Liangyan Mountain was remote, and it was a den of mountain bandits.
There were few villages nearby, and even if there were, there were not many people living there.
Unable to get supplies, the starving officials and soldiers nearby stripped the nearby old farmers’ vegetable fields bare.
The surrounding villagers were full of complaints.
Seeing the low morale, even though they still hadn’t found a way over the mountain cliff, the leader of the officials and soldiers thought of doing something to boost morale.
They decided to bring in catapults and bombard the high wall built on the rear mountain.
Fortunately, the range of the catapults was limited, and the guards on the rear mountain retreated into the dense forest, so they weren’t hit by the rolling stones thrown by the officials and soldiers.
Lin Zhao couldn’t bear this insult.
That very day, she moved several catapults from the stronghold to the rear mountain. The officials and soldiers’ camp was stationed in the forest, and because of the range, they couldn’t hit the officials and soldiers.
Qin Zheng didn’t allow Lin Zhao to use explosives.
She only threw non-lethal rolling stones to suppress the officials and soldiers’ morale.
When they started throwing rolling stones, the officials and soldiers naturally didn’t stand stupidly on the opposite mountain cliff to be hit.
They had long retreated to the forest in the rear.
What was most abundant on Liangyan Mountain was stones.
Lin Zhao spent an entire afternoon smashing rocks from the rear mountain towards the opposite side, smashing a large chunk of the opposite mountain cliff.
This finally let out the pent-up frustration.
The guards on the rear mountain reported that in the past two days, the officials and soldiers on the opposite mountain cliff had started scraping tree bark to cook.
The officials and soldiers under the dam were fishing in the Yuan River and digging up wild vegetables and scraping tree bark.
Qin Zheng immediately guessed that the officials and soldiers guarding Liangyan Mountain were running out of food.
Normally, when they were about to run out of food, they would ask for food from the main army.
In this situation, it could only mean that the main army also didn’t have enough food.
Before, she had studied the general map of this dynasty with Chu Chengji and had also done some homework on the states and counties near Qingzhou.
With the shortage of government food supplies, the only nearby region with the strength to provide them with food was Meng County.
Now that the officials and soldiers were starting to dig up wild vegetables and gnaw on tree bark, it was clear that they couldn’t requisition food from Meng County.
The only reason Qin Zheng could think of was that Chu Chengji had done something.
She said to Lin Zhao, “This siege will soon end.”
Lin Zhao had been smashing rocks at the officials and soldiers all afternoon, feeling relieved now.
When she heard Qin Zheng say this, she immediately asked, “Has there been a letter from Qingzhou City?”
Qin Zheng shook her head and said nothing.
Lin Zhao scratched her head, not quite understanding why Qin Zheng suddenly made such a conclusion.
Qin Zheng explained, “The officials and soldiers guarding Liangyan Mountain are out of food, and those guarding Qingzhou City are probably in the same situation.”
Lin Zhao suddenly realized, feeling so happy that she had several sheep slaughtered in the stronghold for everyone to eat.
The evening breeze carried the smell of roasted lamb to the opposite mountain cliff.
Originally, the protective wall on the rear mountain had been smashed by the officials and soldiers during the day, so now the officials and soldiers on the opposite side could not only smell the aroma of roasted lamb but also see a whole lamb roasting on the fire, with golden skin and sizzling oil.
The officials and soldiers, who had been chewing on tree bark and grass roots for several days, looked at it with straight eyes and swallowed saliva, feeling as if there was a big hole in their stomachs.
That night, many of the officials and soldiers besieging the opposite mountain cliff fled as deserters.
The leader of the officials and soldiers was furious and had several deserters beheaded before barely stabilizing the situation.
The imperial army besieging Qingzhou City was indeed not faring much better than the officials and soldiers guarding Liangyan Mountain.
Shen Yanzhi knew that their food and supplies wouldn’t last long.
They had to seize Qingzhou City when it had just changed hands, when the people were in chaos and the defense was unstable.
He initially adopted a strategy of fierce attacks.
However, the ragtag group in Qingzhou City, bearing the banner of the Chu faction, had resisted his fierce attacks for several days in a row, ignoring his provocations.
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His 8,000 elite soldiers outnumbered the ragtag group in the city by twice as much.
As long as they could fight head-on, victory was certain.
However, the other side seemed to be well aware of the strengths and weaknesses of both sides, so they simply defended and refused to fight.
Chu Chengji and the others were able to easily take Qingzhou City because the city had not been at war for a long time, was unprepared, and now they were defending it rigorously.
With sufficient military supplies in the city and Chu Chengji personally commanding, Shen Yanzhi’s attack for several days not only did not make any progress but also caused many of his own soldiers to fall under the rain of arrows.
Shen Yanzhi, seeing the warning signs of running out of food, ordered the imperial envoy, Xue Yan, whom he had under control, to urgently write a report to Li Xin asking for troops and supplies, while also sending people to Meng County to borrow food to relieve the urgent situation.
However, the people sent to Meng County had been gone for several days and had not returned, so Shen Yanzhi could only prepare for the worst.
After several days of fierce attacks without progress, the army showed obvious signs of fatigue these days.
However, the bandits in Qingzhou City would sneak out from one of the city gates at night and launch sudden attacks, hitting and then fleeing before he could organize a defense.
This forced him to order the entire army to be on high alert, vowing to catch the raiding bandits.
But seeing that his side was on high alert day and night, and there was no movement from the enemy, it made his 8,000 men empty and guard for several nights, exhausted.
Shen Yanzhi was furious, having been a military commander for many years, he had never seen such a disgusting siege.
It was simply shameless to the extreme!
They truly were a group of low-life mountain bandits!
The food supply under his command would only last for one day.
Shen Yanzhi ordered the army to rest well tonight, cook all the rice tomorrow, and after the army was full, destroy the pots and pans, leaving no way out.
This final fierce attack was bound to take Qingzhou City.
As the night deepened, the torches on the towers of Qingzhou City were bright, and the city gates emitted a dull “creaking” sound in the night.
As the gates opened wide, the defending troops inside the city rushed out like a tide, silent and rapid in the night.
Chu Chengji, dressed in armor, sat high on horseback.
His originally thin figure in scholar’s robes now appeared majestic and awe-inspiring in this military outfit.
Song Heqing personally saw him off at the city gate, bowing and saluting to him, “Your Highness commands the army like a god. These past few days have worn out the troops and horses in the hands of Xue Yan to the point of exhaustion.
They must be planning a strong attack tomorrow night after rest. Your Highness, lead the army in a night raid tonight, and victory is certain. I congratulate Your Highness in advance for your triumph!”
During these days, Shen Yanzhi had never shown his face.
They had always thought that Xue Yan, sent by the court to Qingzhou to replace Shen Yanzhi, was in command of the 8,000 elite soldiers.
The initial strategy of the court army’s fierce attack was indeed correct.
It was just unfortunate that they encountered Chu Chengji personally defending the city.
If it had been another defending general, it might not have been able to remain calm and withstand the successive fierce attacks, let alone forcing the court army to become disorganized.
All campaigns that focus on “attack” emphasize a single, vigorous effort.
Shen Yanzhi was eager to win and had been attacking fiercely for several days, but the momentum had long since waned.
Chu Chengji had repeatedly sent Lin Yao to lead troops to harass at night, tickling them like an itch, making them want to fight a hard battle, but not getting the chance.
This made them feel as if they were punching into cotton, frustrated but helpless.
Politics plays with people’s hearts, and military tactics are no different.
Tonight was the most exhausted time for the court army and the perfect opportunity for them to counterattack.
Chu Chengji looked at Song Heqing and Wang Biao and said, “Song, General Wang, please guard Qingzhou City.”
Song Heqing immediately bowed, “As long as I am alive, I will never let Qingzhou City fall into the hands of others!”
Wang Biao was suddenly mentioned by Chu Chengji.
Although he had recovered from his military adviser’s identity as the Crown Prince’s these days, he still couldn’t help but shudder at this moment.
Subconsciously, he stood up straighter. He was a rough man and didn’t know how to say those fancy words.
Hearing Song Heqing’s loyalty, he immediately saluted Chu Chengji, “I’m the same!”
Lin Yao felt like he couldn’t bear to watch and silently turned his horse around.
Chu Chengji only gave a few instructions before leading the army to camp in the direction of the court’s garrison.
After the reputation of this battle spread, this army of the Chu faction would truly stand firm in Qingzhou, and it would also show the world that the former Chu was not dead!
63rd day of the fallen country
It was midnight, and the court army was still asleep.