Chinese New Year

Chapter 523 Fragility
Fotucheng woke up from his sleep.

There were continuous drum beats outside and faint sounds of killing coming from the top of the city walls. In some areas, the fighting was very intense, as if the defenders had never been able to push the attacking side off the city walls.

Fotucheng walked back and forth in the room, sighing secretly.

Unfortunately, he arrived in Yecheng too late and failed to gain Shi Le's trust.

If he trusted himself, he would tell him that after the great defeat during the day, it would be impossible to defend such a huge city, at least the outer city could not be defended, and they could only retreat to the palace complex (San Tai) to hold on.

In tonight's battle, it was obvious that the Jin army was testing which section of the city wall had weak defenses.

Once they are allowed to explore, they will immediately send in elite troops to break through and enter the city in one fell swoop.

He came from India and had a lot of experiences along the way. He heard a lot of things and saw a lot of things. He was very familiar with these little tricks of war.

The old monk is not ignorant of military affairs.

What to do, what to do!
Fotucheng came to the table, moved a small rope bed and sat down, opened the Buddhist scriptures, and recited silently, as a blessing for the soldiers of the two armies.

Times are tough, and this is all he can do.

The gate of the Buddhist temple was suddenly pushed open, and a group of people rushed in noisily, with occasional sounds of children crying.

Fotucheng continued to chant without even raising his eyelids.

He specifically instructed that the elderly, the weak, women and children should be taken in to escape the chaos, and that the door should always be kept open.

Generally speaking, those soldiers would not act recklessly in the Buddhist temple, so this is a relatively safe place.

People poured in wave after wave, and even the windowsills were filled with people.

Some were crying, some were shouting, and some were chatting.

"Big Head has left the city and surrendered." someone said.

"Which big head?"

"Who else could have been the one who originally sent the charcoal to General Wang's mansion?"

"Why did he join the army?"

"They were conscripted." The speaker sighed, "Even within this Buddha land, there were young and strong monks conscripted to fight in the battlefield with staffs in hand. I saw it with my own eyes this afternoon."

"Can...can you fight?"

"I was beaten and fell off the city wall. I don't know whether I am dead or alive. It's obvious that my Buddhist teachings are not profound enough."

Fotucheng no longer recites the sutras.

The world is ignorant and has never seen his various methods. If only he could speak to that Chen Gong Shao Xun, once, just once! He could convince him by performing a little trick.

This is a secret technique brought by Tianzhu, Shao Xun will definitely not be able to see through it.

Alas, to be honest, he didn't like playing with these things. But it was too difficult to spread the Dharma in Jin State, so he had to come up with a surprise attack.

The two people outside were still talking.

"If we surrender now, can we avoid death?"

"Of course. There are definitely a hundred or so people who ran away tonight. If the city is not taken by tomorrow, more people will run away at night."

"How to run?"

"Spend some money and lower yourself down from the top of the city wall."

"No one cares?"

"Wang Yang's people turned a blind eye, but Tao Bao's people didn't care at all."

"It has come to this, what's the point of keeping silent?"

Another group of people poured in from outside the gate.

The sound of conversation stopped and the only thing that filled my ears was the sound of crying.

Everyone is very worried as they are trapped in a dilemma.

Fotucheng stood up again and pondered in silence.

Judging from the small things, the morale of the army in Yecheng completely collapsed.

The soldiers have families and friends, and they are not completely ignorant of the outside world.

Since the powerful families in the four counties of Wei, Ji, Dunqiu and Leling all surrendered to Shao, there was no need for this war.

The money was raised by the wealthy families.

Food is collected by the wealthy families.

Military intelligence relies on reports from the powerful families.

When they went out to harass, the resting places were provided by the wealthy families.

Some people even rely on the contributions of powerful families for their troops.

The situation has come to this point and people's minds have changed. It is wishful thinking to expect them to fight for you.

Even in Henan, which was ruled by Shao Xun, he would be in great trouble if the powerful families turned against him and defected to Shi Le.

Maybe coming to Hebei was a mistake. I have to find a way to meet that person.

How can I meet him?
Is he going to make some achievements? Recently, Shi Le and his family have not come to his pagoda, which is a bit troublesome.

******
Although it was late at night, the streets were still bustling with people.

At the hour of Yin, a group of soldiers retreated from the west city wall in a noisy manner. After seeing Shi Le's figure from afar, they suddenly turned around and rushed to the top of the city wall in a noisy manner, fighting with the garrison troops who were climbing up the city wall.

The Tuntian Army was a little confused.

They selected 300 men and attacked the city at night. It was going smoothly at first. The defenders were not very motivated and collapsed after a short stalemate. But as soon as they reached the foot of the city, they turned around and rushed up again, shouting and fighting.

The farming troops were caught off guard and were driven off the city walls.

Shi Le's face turned pale.

The defeated soldiers just now were not servants of some wealthy families, or temporary conscripts, but a formal army. They had joined the army in Changshan Lating, and were considered one of his oldest troops. Each of them was allocated land and houses in various townships in Anyang County.

This made Shi Le extremely angry and he wanted to punish him severely.

But when the words came to his lips, he swallowed them back.

Can you blame them? I don't think so.

Their family members are still in Anyang, and we don’t know whether they are alive or dead. What do you want them to do?
Blame Ji Bao for not defending Anyang and dying in the defeat? It seems even more impossible.

Anyang is located four miles south of the Huan River. Shao Xun's fleet went straight to the north of the city, cutting off the retreat of all the troops south of the Huan River. The local nobles were affected by this and their stance was quite suspicious. In such a dangerous situation, Ji Bao dared to face the challenge and take on this heavy responsibility that would lead to his death.

It was normal for him to be defeated in the war, and he eventually died in internal strife, which was also very tragic.

I can't blame anyone but Shao Ze!

Just as he was sighing, Wang Yang came over with sweat all over his forehead, the leaves of armor on his body clanging.

"How?" Shi Le asked.

"The gate is closed." Wang Yang breathed a sigh of relief. Someone had just opened the city gate secretly, and Wang Yang was scared to death after hearing the news.

After hastily notifying Shi Le, he led his personal soldiers to intercept, only to find that it was a cavalry from the Wuhuan tribe of Shangdang who opened the city gate. They were not surrendering to the enemy, but simply running away, as they were not going to do anything - infantry could escape by lowering a rope from the top of the city wall, but cavalry could only open the city gate.

It was their behavior that attracted the attention of the Jin army, so the nearest farming army set out urgently and rushed up carrying ladders.

Wang Yang fought fiercely with the Jin army at the city gate. After finally killing them, he had lost one third of his personal soldiers. He had no time to feel sad, and heard that the Jin army had climbed the city wall, so he hurried to rescue. Fortunately, it was a false alarm. After the defenders were defeated, they saw the big Hu coming, so they went up to the city again and fought hard, and repelled the Jin army.

There was another sound of footsteps in the distance.

Shi Le and Wang Yang looked up and saw the prefect Tao Bao rushing over with more than a thousand soldiers.

"Your Majesty—" Tao Bao had just bowed when he was interrupted.

Shi Le held the scabbard in his hand and smashed it directly on Tao Bao's face, saying, "The Zhang family's gang ran away."

Tao Bao was startled and did not dodge, allowing Shi Le to vent his anger.

"Zhang Family" obviously refers to the Zhang family of Shangdang Wuhuan.

But there are too many people with the surname Zhang in the Wuhuan tribe of Shangdang. Which family is it? Or which families?
"You stay here tonight and don't slack off." Shi Le glared at Tao Bao coldly and left.

Wang Yang stepped forward, patted Tao Bao on the shoulder, and sighed, "Don't blame Da Hu, he's just furious. He will regret it tomorrow morning and come to apologize to you."

After that, he left.

Tao Bao nodded silently, then reached out and wiped the blood on his forehead.

He turned back to look at the soldiers he had brought.

The soldiers avoided his gaze and pretended not to see it.

Tao Bao gave a miserable smile.

After all, he was a senior general and a senior official. He was beaten and scolded by the big barbarian in public, and even bled. How could he lead the army in the future? Didn't he have any dignity?

Da Hu thought they were the Eighteen Riders...

Among the eighteen riders now, which one is not in a high position, with many wives and concubines, and servants? Which one does not have a bunch of people around them who eat with them?

In the past, he could tolerate being beaten, scolded, slapped, and even tied up by Da Hu, but not now.

Tao Bao took a deep breath and began to inspect the city defenses.

******
Inside the three platforms, a group of people were sitting in the yard, whispering.

Liu looked at them coldly and asked, "What else did Fudu say?"

"Fudu" is a Jie name. The Hu name of General Weiyuan Liu Da is Fudu. Liu is just the surname given to himself by their ancestors.

"Yena, what do you think?" said one of the fifty-year-old men.

Liu narrowed her eyes and looked at the old man, and asked, "Hezhu, have you been out of the city?"

"I haven't been out. My son Hedu left the city and came back." The old man did not hide anything and said casually, "Fudu is doing very well with Shao Xun. The people of Jin treated his wounds, gave him wine and food and beautiful clothes, and said that as long as he made contributions, he would be given an official position."

The walls of Yecheng tonight are like a highway, with people coming in and out, busy all the time, which is quite funny.

"The people of Jin are not of the same kind as us." Liu looked up, her amber eyes flashing with a dangerous light. She said, "What good will you gain by abandoning Fule? If Shao Xun takes Yecheng and attacks Shangdang again in the future, I'm afraid he will kill all of you."

"Maybe, but Shao Xun has never cheated anyone so far, and I heard he has a very good reputation." The old man said, "If we don't surrender now, we will all die, and we won't be able to wait until the day when Shao Xun attacks Shangdang."

Liu looked at this group of relatives with disappointment.

When they were defeated, they either surrendered or left. No one was willing to stay and die with Yecheng.

"Yena, don't look at me like that." The old man said, "The Great Hu can't defend Yecheng anymore. He will leave sooner or later. Why do you expect us to stay here and work for him?"

"Shao Xun is building walls and digging trenches outside the city. He doesn't stop even in the middle of the night. If we don't leave now, it will be too late."

"We are cavalrymen. Are you going to ask us to dismount and defend the city? Is that so ridiculous?"

"It's useless for us to stay here. In the city, cavalry is not as effective as infantry. It's better to go back to Shangdang or simply surrender to Shao Xun. Remember, Ye Na, without us, you are nothing. You are just a woman. If we don't help you, Da Hu will go to sleep with Cheng Xia's sister in a blink of an eye and will never look at you again. He is a very ruthless person."

After saying these words, the old man slowly stood up, took two steps back, and said: "That's all I have to say. Take your hands off your waist. Women shouldn't wear swords."

The others also looked at Liu, with a hint of dissatisfaction on their faces.

We are all family. Should we side with Shi Le and help that doomed man to fail to attack our relatives?

Liu loosened her hand, took a deep breath, raised her head and looked at everyone, and said, "I will stay here and wait for the imperial court's reinforcements."

In the evening, my husband said that if we gather the personal soldiers and servants of the generals and retreat to Santai, we should be able to hold out for a long time and there is still hope of waiting for reinforcements from the court.

"You guard it by yourself. No one will come to help you collect the body." The old man shook his head, said goodbye, and left with everyone.

When the last person disappeared, Liu felt her body go limp, as if all her energy had been drained away.

She knelt on the ground and looked into the distance.

Outside the city, lights were bright, and countless people were wielding shovels, digging trenches, compacting the soil, and building city walls.

It is a cage, a cage meant to trap everyone.

Some people couldn't stand the pressure and escaped shamefully before the cage closed.

Among all the soldiers in the city, few were willing to fight for Da Hu until the last moment.

During the day, three thousand cavalrymen left without saying goodbye and never entered the city. They were the Huns, and it could be said that they were not of the same kind.

Another two thousand Wuhuan escaped an hour ago. It would be a bit self-deception to say that they are not our people at this time, because they are from Shangdang.

At this point, his relatives and the Shangdang Jie tribe no longer wanted to do it. What was even more terrifying was that in addition to escaping, they also seriously considered another possibility: surrendering to Shao Xun.

This was the direct consequence of Liu Da's capture.

As for the infantry, their attitude would not be much different from that of the cavalry, or even worse, because their land, gardens, and families were all in Hebei, and they were more likely to surrender.

There are still many nobles and powerful people in Yecheng.

Their mansions are magnificent, and their slaves are numerous, and if they are slightly armed, they can become a source of unrest.

The reason why he hasn't taken any action now is probably because he is still watching and waiting for the opportunity.

The timing may be fortuitous.

Maybe it was the unfair distribution of a meal.

Maybe someone said a bad word.

Maybe someone was beaten.

Maybe someone lost money gambling.

Or maybe it was just because the moonlight tonight wasn't beautiful enough, which made me feel bad, so I decided to betray Da Hu...

Yes, Yecheng is so fragile and so strange now.

"I've been eating black beans all day and I can't even poop. I might as well go back and eat corn rice at Mr. Chen's place." Suddenly, someone shouted loudly in the silent night.

(End of this chapter)