The Eldest Daughter Is Beautiful and Saucy
Chapter 1196: Grace and kindness
Chapter 1196: Kindness and Power
“It’s not that our Great Zhou army has never been besieged before. My father, King Bai Qishan, was trapped in Fengcheng by 30,000 troops. He held on despite having few soldiers and no food!” Bai Qingyan stood up and looked at the Great Zhou generals surrounding her. “What’s more, we don’t just have 5,000 soldiers, we also have more than 30,000 civilians in Gyantse!”
Du Sanbao walked up to Bai Qingyan and said, “Although these Xiliang people have abandoned their Xiliang identities and joined the Great Zhou, they are not native Da Zhou people after all. Can they really fight alongside us?”
“These Xiliang people chose to become citizens of the Great Zhou precisely because they knew how hard it would be if they continued to be citizens of Xiliang. Whether it’s the houses or the food they have today… they all came with difficulty. After experiencing life and death, and famine, they will be even more grateful for the days when they have a home and food as citizens of the Great Zhou!”
Bai Qingyan looked at the generals and said, “Think about it from another angle. If you were the people of Xiliang, and the Xiliang army was looting the people’s food as military rations, but Dazhou could give you its own food… to keep you alive! At this moment, Xiliang is in the outer city, and the Emperor of Dazhou is in the city. Do you choose to fight with the Emperor of Dazhou to defend Jiangzi City and be exempted from the money owed to the government for dividing the land and houses, or do you want the Emperor of Dazhou to die here and let Xiliang attack the city… and then wait for the Dazhou army to attack and massacre the city to avenge the Emperor of Dazhou?”
Bai Qingyan’s meaning was very clear. He wanted to treat these Xiliang people who had just become citizens of the Great Zhou with both kindness and severity, and let them understand… if they did not follow the Great Zhou to resist the Xiliang army this time, they would have no way to survive.
“But these people have not received any training…” Wang Jin looked worried.
“It doesn’t matter if you haven’t received any training. Help transport things to the top of the city wall and bandage the wounded. These can all reduce the burden on our Great Zhou army!” Bai Qingyan saw Liu Pinggao walking quickly towards the barracks and said, “First, check the Xiliang spies who have entered the city and the ambush soldiers among the refugees, and then persuade the people to work together!”
“I understand!” Du Sanbao responded.
After Liu Pinggao entered the barracks and saluted Bai Qingyan, Bai Qingyan said, “General Liu, please make the arrangements…”
“Yes!” Liu Pinggao accepted the order and began to give orders, “Generals, when you return, pass the order that all the soldiers of the Great Zhou should wrap their left arms with fine cotton cloth to prevent the enemy troops from Xiliang from entering the city with the refugees.”
Liu Pinggao looked at Du Sanbao and said, “Two thousand soldiers will be responsible for the defense of the southeastern and northern walls. They will be dispatched by Du Sanbao. Today’s defense password is… fearless!”
“Yes! I will obey your command!” Du Sanbao said with a fist salute.
“Two thousand soldiers are already defending the two northwest city walls, under the command of Wang Jin. The password for the city defense is… fearless!”
“Wang Jin, I obey the order!” Wang Jin clasped his fists and accepted the order.
“Five hundred soldiers are responsible for patrolling the city, and Huang Ancheng is in charge. The patrol password is… no thieves.”
“Huang Ancheng obeys the order!”
“Five hundred soldiers have been divided into groups and are checking every household for spies who have entered the city. They are under the command of Li Jiang, and his men have already gone. The patrol team has given the command that there are no thieves!” Liu Ping said in a loud voice, “Please tell the soldiers to remember their generals and the commands of each team. This is a special period… If you encounter a Great Zhou soldier wearing the Great Zhou military uniform with unknown intentions, be sure to check whether their arms are wrapped in fine cotton cloth, ask clearly where the soldiers are from and which general is in charge, and be sure to check the commands clearly!”
“yes!”
The generals responded in unison and immediately took action separately.
“Your Majesty…” Liu Pinggao saw that the soldiers had left the barracks, and turned to look at Bai Qingyan, “Your Majesty is not safe under the city gate. You should return to the official residence first. If a fight breaks out, it will not be safe here either.”
Bai Qingyan sat down on the chair, resting his elbow on the armrest and said, “I’ll wait here. I estimate that in a while… I will be able to find out the spies from Xiliang who sneaked into the city in advance, or even secret soldiers. I will have to use these Xiliang soldiers to exchange for the guards of our Bai family army.”
At this moment, Bai Qingyan was 80% sure that the Bai family army she sent out of the city had been captured.
Perhaps, in a while, General Cui will bring the Bai family guards to show off their power in person, which will undermine the confidence of their Great Zhou army and make all the soldiers of the Great Zhou feel that the message cannot be delivered and they will surely be defeated if they defend here.
General Cui is very good at winning people’s hearts.
When a large army is besieging a city, only when the morale of the troops is strong can the city walls and gates be strong and become an iron wall. So in the days to come… this old General Cui will try every means to shake the morale of the Great Zhou army.
When Liu Pinggao heard this, he knew that before Bai Qingyan came to the city gate, he had probably sent people out of the South Gate, which had never been besieged, to report the news, and also to test whether there were ambushes at the South Gate. Now it seems that there were ambushes at the South Gate. At that time, General Cui did not let the army surround the South Gate, just to leave a gap for their Majesty to escape from the South Gate, so as to capture their Great Zhou Emperor alive.
As a general, Liu Pinggao had naturally heard of the name of General Cui. Previously, General Cui’s entire family was killed by the Emperor of Xiliang because of his false surrender, and he has faded out of everyone’s sight since then.
No one expected that he would lead the troops personally this time and appear mysteriously around Gyantse City.
After all, this is Xiliang’s base, and their Great Zhou army is not familiar with it yet. General Cui, as an old general who has been marching and fighting for many years, naturally knows where their sentinels will be and knows how to cleverly avoid them, or even… kill their Great Zhou’s sentinels.
It is inevitable that when fighting on the territory of another country, one will not be as familiar with the geographical environment as one’s own soldiers and generals.
Liu Pinggao was determined to stay by Bai Qingyan’s side and protect the emperor of their Great Zhou at all costs.
·
The army surrounded the city of Gyantse.
In the city of Gyantse, torches flickered in every street and alley. The Great Zhou army was searching every house, checking the registered household numbers to see if the number of people in the house was the same as that registered when they first entered the city.
You wouldn’t have known about it until you checked. Not only did you find out that there was indeed a problem, but the patrol soldiers fought with a small group of enemy troops near the official residence where Bai Qingyan was staying, and captured alive more than a dozen Xiliang soldiers who had sneaked into the city with the refugees.
The people first knew that the Western Liang army was besieging the city, and then they heard that the Great Zhou army was checking every household. If any family member was found absent, the whole family would be thrown into jail. The people of Western Liang who had received money from others… and asked them to pretend to be their own family members and go with them in the hope that they could get more land and a big house suddenly became uneasy.
They also understood at this time that they were being used. Those Xiliang soldiers had sneaked in early just to open the city gates for the Xiliang army outside when they besieged the city.
As soon as the soldiers of the Great Zhou Dynasty came to their homes, all the families who brought in the Xiliang soldiers knelt down and confessed honestly without waiting for any detailed questioning.
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