Chapter 74 - Soldiers Coming to the City
Fox Xiao Xian and Xuan Mo were not in a position to show up at Xi City, so they could only give the Xi City guards and Mrs. Xie some pointers and help in the dark.
Mrs. Xie, who was at war, was in a heavy mood. During the day, she worked with the entire city to prepare wartime supplies, boiled medicine for the wounded to bandage their wounds, and was so busy that she almost didn't eat a grain of rice, which she couldn't care about and didn't have the heart to do so. At this moment, with the bright moon in the sky, she came alone to the small temple of the Goddess of Mercy to pray for the city's soldiers and people, kneeling and praying devoutly, hoping that the war would end soon, the people can be free from suffering, the country can return to peace and tranquility.
Suddenly, a gust of fresh wind blew away some incense ash, squinting her eyes. She used her wide sleeves to brush away the dust, and after wiping her tears with a handkerchief, she saw an anonymous letter placed on the Bodhisattva's offering table. She opens it and reads it, but it turns out to be a few brilliant plans to fend off the Nandu army, and also lists the plans for the defense of the enemy, primarily pointing out that dykes have been quietly placed on the nearby significant rivers, and that Hei Cheng needs to take advantage of the late-night hours to send troops to guard the area.
After Mrs. Xie saw this anonymous letter, she was puzzled about which person from outside the world was helping her. She would never have thought that this person was Linghu Xian, who had worked as a servant girl in the mansion back then, and she would never have imagined that Linghu Xian had become immortal now. Mrs. Xie hurriedly kowtowed to the Bodhisattva and thanked him for his kindness. No matter who this high person was, maybe it was the Bodhisattva manifesting his spirit, or perhaps it was the millions of people in Xi City who didn't deserve to die. In short, they were saved.
After Xuan Mo and Fox XiaoXian adequately set up the several embankments, Fox XiaoXian said to Xuan Mo, "Teacher, I still want to go and stroll around the Nandu army's campsite. Do you want to come along?"
Xuan Mo smiled and said, "What devilish idea do you have again?"
Fox Xiao Xian smiled mischievously and said, "Oops, just for fun~."
Fox Xiao Xian returned to her original fox form, pretended to be injured, limped past the enemy camp, and was accidentally captured and brought back by the enemy, who coveted her fur. Just as the cooks were sharpening their knives and preparing to cut into her, Fox Xiao Xian blew a breath lightly to mesmerize several people. Fox Xiao Xian quickly untied the ropes binding her body. Meanwhile, Xuan Mo turns into a wolf dog and sneaks into the barracks, finding the little fox who has just been untied. They were not in a hurry to transform back into their bodies, so they casually skipped around the military camp a few times and roughly understood the orientation of the critical few camp tents.
So Fox XiaoXian casually picked up a few pieces of burning firewood and threw them at the tents without realizing it. Immediately afterward, Xuan Mo began to howl loudly, and the surrounding wolves heard the wolf king's cry and howled along with him, filling the surroundings with a weird and terrifying atmosphere. The fire in the camp tent also made people shake their heads, and they were busy fetching water to put out the fire, and the scene was very chaotic. Fox XiaoXian ran everywhere in the camp with a hidden figure. The wind picked up with her, fueling the fire even more. She also put on a ghostly voice while wailing and crying, crying while saying mournfully, "So miserable ah ~ we died so miserably ah ~ Dongfang Chang! You give us back our lives!"
Just tossing and turning that night made Dongfang Chang's army disorganized and scared. Many people in Dongfang Chang's 600,000-strong army secretly discuss what this war is all about. All of them are people from Zhongming. Is this not a rebellion? The Dingling foreigners are threatening the whole country by coming south; at this time, instead of helping Zongcheng City to defend against the foreign enemies, they are trying to take over Xi City and Zongcheng City, which is an unfaithful and unfilial action that is hard to be understood and accepted by the people. If it wasn't for the fact that as a soldier, one must follow orders and obey commands as one's vocation, there would be no need to fight this war.
Dongfang Chang was even more furious at this time, and the demon lord parasitized him and told him that he must catch Fox Xiao Xian and Xuan Mo, or else he would have to tear his cousin Zhao Qian Er's soul into pieces. Dongfang Chang ordered his men to search everywhere for foxes and black wolves, preferring to kill ten thousand by mistake rather than miss one. Foxes are cunning, wolves are fierce, and packs are super strong. People dare not mess with such beasts, but Dongfang Chang still gives a death order that they must be hunted down and killed. So, the soldiers under his command had no choice but to run to the nearby mountains and forests to search and capture.
"The time has come. Prepare to open the gate!" The Xi City garrison general, who had guarded the river's upper reaches early, gave the order, and smoke rose from the wolves. Several nearby dykes in the upper reaches of the river opened their gates, and flash floods rushed towards the riverbanks like a million horses. The Nandu soldiers patrolling for foxes in the lower reaches were all swept into the torrential flood.
However, in one day and one night, the two defeats of the Nandu barracks fire and the flash floods made Dongfang Chang lose 30,000 to 40,000 people and a large number of weapons and provisions at once. He couldn't quickly make up for such a shortfall even if he was rich and wealthy. The battle was already a failure, and now the army is even more disorganized and weak. Continuing the siege of Xi City is also a waste of time without any progress. There are only two ways in front of Dongfang Chang: either to retreat and live his prosperous life in the south of the capital or to bypass the hard core of Xi Cheng and go west to meet with Zhangsun Zhi's army and attack Zong Cheng from the west.
It didn't take too long to make a decision. Dongfang Chang led his army to bypass Xi Cheng and marched to the west. After more than a month of deadly defense, Xi City finally won without a fight, and the whole city cheered!
While the whole city cheered for the hard-won victory, the people of Zongcheng were facing an even tougher test.
Ouyang Zhong and Wei Kongji felt that manpower and materials were very scarce no matter how they deployed the fortifications at the four city gates. Under these conditions, faced with several enemy pincers, they were attacked from the back. Delegating limited manpower and resources was now the biggest problem. To confuse the enemy on the surface, the guards on the city walls were mixed with many women and old people to make the enemy look as if the military force of Zongcheng was powerful from afar.
From time to time, Dingling's vanguard troops would come to the front of the line to harass them. Ouyang Zhong and the others would sometimes go out of the city gates to meet them, but they would often just hold back, hold back, and hold back again. The most important thing now was to preserve their strength, not to actively give the enemy their heads.
In the city, Xiao Fei Fei had become much better behaved after being reprimanded once by her mother-in-law, Mrs. Xie. She wasn't foolish but was scared by the overlapping accidents. Although she hated her father and brother for being so heartless towards her and her mother, she was so scared that she trembled in fear when she really had to fight against her former relatives.
The young State Lord Xiao Qing had followed Xiao Feifei, her older sister, ever since she returned to Zong Cheng City. They didn't know each other that they weren't cousins but rather half-siblings, yet with one being timid and the other being young, these two people could comfort each other and take care of each other.
Xiao Qing looked at his sister, who was trembling with fear and spirit from time to time. So he pulled his sister and comforted her in a milky voice: "Sister Sheriff, don't be afraid. I'm already an adult. I'll protect you! There are also the widow's courtiers and guards who will protect you. You are not alone."
Xiao Feifei felt very ashamed. She touched Xiao Qing's head in embarrassment, and the tears that were about to drip could be held back from flowing out. At this moment, she was too weak and cowardly as a county princess. She wanted to live, and even more so, she tried to return to her old life of abundance, comfort, and luxury. But everything was different, and she could only try to change. Perhaps her mother-in-law was right; she had to be strong, become her husband Ouyang Zhong's right-hand man, and become a valuable person before she could take her fate into her own hands.
She remembered the poisonous aquatic demon fruits from before, even though the entire city had ordered that no one be allowed to consume them without authorization, and almost all of them had been destroyed. But there was still one place that had not been cleaned up: the small pond within the garden of her County Lord's Mansion. Xiao Feifei thought, if the toxins in these poisonous fruits were extracted and quenched on weapons such as arrows or daggers, wouldn't it be able to be of some help when going into battle to kill the enemy?
Thinking of this, she bid farewell to Xiao Qing and ran back to the County Lord's Mansion alone. At this time, Ouyang Zhong, Shan Xiaohu, Fox Xiaxia, and all the others were busy arranging troops, stepping up patrols, and arranging manpower. They were all so busy that no one had the time and energy to accompany Xiao Feifei, but it was at this time that Xiao Feifei was put under a spell.
When Xiao Feifei found the poisonous fruit, she used her extraordinary ability to quickly ripen and corrupt the fruit to form a new seed. She wanted to try to see if she could quench the toxin. She didn't notice a crow standing on a tree branch, watching her every move. Then, finding the right moment, she suddenly attacked Xiao Feifei, and after swooping Xiao Feifei to the ground, she shoved the poisonous seed into her mouth, and instantly Xiao Feifei was poisoned once again and fainted.
In her sleep, Xiao Feifei was summoned by the Demon Lord, and in the dead darkness, the Demon Lord compelled Xiao Feifei to become a new puppet. By the time Xiao Feifei awoke, her eyes were a ghostly black and purple, and her body emitted a lavender light. She looked back at the crow and smiled evilly, saying, "Go and send a message to Tuoba Xian that I will offer a great gift to the Dingling tribe tonight." Then, a human bone dagger lit up in her hand, and she greedily licked the blood on it as if she were a demon crawling out of hell.
What ensued was that Yue Pi's advanced army under Zhangsun Tai's command was already in the city. He did not choose the western city gate but the southern city gate. The physically weak Zhangsun Tai was sitting in the carriage. Although he was dressed in the bejeweled look of a monarch's nobility, the long march had left him exhausted, and even if he fought hard, the fatigue on his face could be seen.
He didn't want to let his father down, so he had to be the first to fight this battle. He ordered his men in the carriage to start shouting at the vertical city. The general meaning was that if you opened the gates, you would not be killed, and you would kneel down to welcome the new king into the city, and such nonsense. There was no deterrent effect at all.
Shan Xiaohu ordered his men to quickly inform General Wei and the others at the south city gate. A few of them are now Ouyang Zhong, stationed at the north city gate; Fox Xiaxia, stationed at the east city gate; and General Wei is sitting in the center and is also in charge of the north city gate, and he also has to rotate his guards every day. Today, the south city gate belongs to Shan Xiaohu stationed. He is usually very amiable to their people, but when facing the enemy, the tiger strength of our tiger master and the fierce and domineering lynx style are apparent.
Shan Xiaohu looked at the city gate under this sickly, very disdainful; he casually took a spear and weighed the weight, not bad, less than a hundred pounds. He threw it with force, and the spear's sharp edges cut through the air, sending out a sharp metallic sound. "Whoosh - bang -" The spear poked at the side of Zhangsun Tai's carriage, and the spear's pole swayed rapidly due to inertia and violently swung to the ground. The pole of the spear was swaying rapidly due to inertia, violently hitting the carriage, and the whole carriage shook with it. This movement scared Zhangsun Tai so much that he coughed frantically. He quickly recalled his shouting men, retreated five miles, and camped at the city gate to rest.
As if the Dingling tribe had received the news, they launched their attack preparations simultaneously. Tuoba Xian rode a high horse, making it even more evident that the ten-year-old was petite and not fully developed. Although his body is small, it can be seen that he often practices martial arts and actual combat; a small person wearing slightly wide war armor looks stubborn, fierce, and gloomy and entirely does not belong to the age of the juvenile sense.
Tuoba Xian, holding a curved bow towards the vertical city on the north gate of the military flag, shot an ruthless and domineering arrow; even the flag's flagpole shot off, the flag with the wind swaying down. General Wei understood that this was a demonstration to the Zhongming generals! How could he let the yellow-mouth child in front of him, watching the flag gradually swing to fall under the city gate? He jumped up in the air to catch the flag, and a roundhouse leg kicked the city wall; the relay again jumped steadily back to the city tower; he swung down the flag, the flag face of the wind, the wind does not change. The great general's action inspired the generals around him and applauded!
Tuoba Xian grunted unconvincingly, then shouted childishly: "General Wei, still able to be so old and strong, Little King admires! However, this flowery-fisted kung fu is nothing more than showing off and selling art for color. In the end, we will see who is a hero and a bear on the battlefield. You ZhongMing soldiers are all turtles. No matter how often we Dingling warriors go up to the front and call for battle, you never dare to come out and have a real competition. I don't have the patience to play house with you anymore. Today, my father is coming to personally supervise the army, so hurry up and drink a bowl of head-breaking wine and prepare to offer up your heads!"
"Report! Reporting to the Great General, the Yue Pi Vanguard Army led by Zhang Sun Tai at the South City Gate is already stationed five miles outside the gate."
"Well, did it come so coincidentally? Said not to come then not to come, this all of a sudden even all came ..." General Wei frowned and thought momentarily, then asked, "Have all the other city gate guards been notified?"
"General, they have all been notified separately, and now General Ouyang has gone to the south city gate to assist Senator Shan in dealing with the enemy. Army Doctor Hu is still standing guard at the East City Gate. What should we do now?"
"Tell Ouyang Zhong and Shan Xiaohu not to take the enemy lightly. Then tell all the Wei family troops at the west city gate to get in the spirit, no matter what, guard their gates, and don't let the enemy take advantage of them." After all, General Wei was a battlefield veteran who had been through hundreds of battles. Although he was still more or less a bit worried about a few other young upstarts, at this point, one could only entrust enough power and trust to one another to hand over one's back to the other.
Ouyang Zhong rode his horse quickly towards the south city gate. On the way, he saw Xiao Feifei walking towards the south gate alone, a bit lost in thought. He was a bit strange, but at this time, there were more important things to do, so he had to ask: "Madam, what are you doing here? Hurry back; it's too dangerous outside."
Xiao Feifei saw Ouyang Zhong and immediately rushed towards him, shouting, "Husband! Husband! Don't you go!"
"My Lady, don't worry; the one we are dealing with this time is not the Dingling division, but ... your brother Zhang Sun Tai. You quickly go home! There might be flying arrows and debris next. Protect yourself!" After saying that, he hurriedly rode his horse and disappeared to the end of the road.
"It's ... Zhangsun Tai? My older brother? No! He's not my brother, he's not worthy! I will let him die!" Xiao Fei Fei's body immediately emitted a very heavy demonic aura, and with the mana lent to her by the Demon Monarch, she ran quickly, ignoring the people around her, to the gate building of the South City Gate.
Shan Xiaohu and Ouyang Zhong, standing there discussing strategies, were startled by this sudden "guest." Ouyang Zhong was just about to frown at Xiao Feifei's attempt to drive her down from the city gate when he suddenly became alert, and Shan Xiaohu beside him could also see that something was wrong. The two of them gave each other a wink. They both knew that this battle in Zong Cheng City was torturous. Not only did they have to face two or three different forces of enemies, but there was also an even more powerful demonic opponent. His demonic aura had already invaded the city, and anyone around them could become a parasite of that demonic ruler.
Shan Xiaohu whispered, "It seems your wife has been trapped."
Ouyang Zhong replied, "Let's observe for a while and act as we see fit. Maybe she's not the biggest trouble right now. Let's take care of Zhangsun Tai first."
Xiao Feifei suddenly became composed as if nothing had happened. Very gently and knowingly, he saluted Ouyang Zhong and said, "Husband, my concubine would like to go out of the city gates to catch up with my brother. I would then persuade him to fall back on his words and meet the Dingling tribe with us. I still ask for General Ouyang's favor!"
"What's wrong with you again? What happened?" Ouyang Zhong tentatively approached Xiao Feifei, the Heavenly Clan's precious sword in his hand held tightly.
"Why does Husband ask that? Concubine is fine! It's just that it's very intolerable to see that what was once a milk of one's flesh and blood has to fight each other with swords to this day. Therefore, I want to make a small contribution to my husband and the generals and people of the entire Zhuanzhong City. If the peace talks can be successful, it will also save the soldiers from the pain of the battlefield. Husband, please let my concubine go! If you don't feel at ease, then accompany me. We're all family, so we can discuss family matters."
Without any hesitation, Ouyang Zhong replied, "Alright, I'll accompany you to see Great Uncle." Then, after glancing back at Shan Xiaohu, he pulled Xiao Feifei's hand down to the city tower.