Jiang Jin had mentioned building the city wall to them before, but they never expected she would do it while the Quzhao army was laying siege to the city.
Jiang Jin nodded without hesitation, "Gefeng is too small. I have good seeds, but no land to plant them. Relying solely on the grain I have on hand, we can hold out for a year at most. What happens after a year?"
"Furthermore," her expression was completely serious, "what we seek is development and expansion. Without food, how can we develop and grow?"
Sustainable development was the absolute truth. The North Gate was about six or seven li away from Mount Gesi, which was just over three kilometers.
She wasn't planning to build it too large. By extending the current width of Gefeng's northern wall, which was about 1.2 kilometers, they would gain around 4 square kilometers of space, roughly 6,000 mu of land!
Of course, she didn't intend to use the entire new city area for farming. She planned to move animal husbandry and the horse pastures to the outer city.
She now had over a thousand horses, dozens of wild boars, thousands of wild hares, as well as cattle, donkeys, chickens, and more. The smell was indeed not very pleasant.
Therefore, according to her plan, about three to four thousand mu would be used for farming, and the remaining space would be used to raise livestock.
However, even if she only planted three to four thousand mu, with the high yield of her seeds, she could feed tens of thousands of people.
When the time came, she could recruit more troops and buy more horses. Otherwise, with her current force of just over 2,000 soldiers, she couldn't do anything besides defend the city.
The next day, after Qu Bai woke up, he received a report from a soldier: "General, the North Gate of Gefeng is open. They... they are digging the ground."
Qu Bai thought he had misheard. "What did you say?"
The soldier was equally baffled. "They are digging the ground. They are all commoners, and the North Gate is wide open."
Qu Bai furrowed his brows so tightly they could crush a fly. He mounted his horse and galloped toward the North Gate.
Thousands of soldiers immediately followed behind him.
Before long, he could see the North Gate from a distance. He halted his horse, not daring to get too close.
Just as the soldier had reported, outside the North Gate, hundreds of people were swinging hoes and digging the ground!
The northern city gates were wide open, and the city walls were lined with soldiers glaring at them like tigers watching their prey.
Qu Feng, who was trailing on Qu Bai's left, was puzzled. "What on earth are they doing?"
Qu Bai's face was solemn. He said nothing.
On his right, the senior general Qu Fei sneered, "They're probably just putting up another bluff to feign strength. Since they've opened the North Gate and dared to send out so many civilians, this is the perfect opportunity to attack."
He looked at Qu Bai and requested to fight: "General, let your subordinate lead the charge. I can take Gefeng today."
Qu Bai looked at the Gefeng civilians digging the ground with a strange expression. He had fought battles for so many years and had never encountered anything like this.
Sweat dripped from Sun An's forehead, but his hands didn't stop moving. Thud, thud, thud, he kept digging.
He was originally part of the house-building crew, but they needed people to dig outside the city, and the wages were higher than building houses.
He hadn't wanted to come, but his elderly father, Sun Yi, had forced him to. His father's exact words at the time were:
"Son, our Lord saved our entire family and our whole village. If I weren't so old, I would have signed up myself."
"We must repay the kindness we've received. Since the Lord needs people to go out of the city and dig, she must have her reasons. We don't have anything else to offer but our brute strength."
"Although it might be a bit dangerous, if no one is willing to go, when the day comes that Gefeng falls, will we even have our lives left?"
"Besides, I trust the Lord. If she says there's no danger, then there's no danger. Our lives are so good now; we need to cherish this."
Not only did Sun Yi make his own son take the lead, but he also persuaded many people from Lihua Village to answer the Lord's call and head out of the city to dig the foundations for the wall.
Seeing his actions, Zhu Wen of Xingnan Village pondered for a moment before he too started lobbying his fellow villagers. He even took the lead in signing up.
Under such excellent examples, coupled with the temptation of high wages, over 400 people were willing to leave the city to dig on the very first day.
Chen Xi and Guo Li stood at the base of the city wall with a few craftsmen, measuring the ground and directing the civilians on how to dig.
Chen Xi had always been in charge of the various tasks for the construction crew, mainly handling logistics, personnel deployment, and so on.
The barbican at the South Gate had been completed before the snowy days of the previous year, and the house-building crew had halted their work, freeing up manpower.
The two of them, along with Kang Sheng from the house-building crew, followed the blueprints provided by Jiang Jin. Throughout the long winter, they led two or three thousand people in digging tunnels and building underground granaries.
Just as that project wrapped up, the construction of the new city was about to begin here.
Kang Sheng was still managing the house-building tasks. After all, the military barracks were not yet finished, and work on the county magistrate's office hadn't even started. As soon as the weather warmed up, he took his men back to building houses.
Watching the Gefeng civilians digging away vigorously, Qu Bai fell deep into thought.
After a long time, he asked a frail-looking scholar standing second to his left, "Qu Cong, what do you make of this?"
Qu Cong's expression was grave. Looking at the civilians digging in the distance, he said, "They might be trying to build a city."
Qu Feng frowned. "Build a city? What on earth?"
Qu Bai, however, understood. "Are you saying that Gefeng wants to enclose the entire area from the North Gate to Mount Gesi and build a city?"
Qu Cong nodded, "Yes."
"How is that possible? Building a city right under our noses?" Qu Feng exclaimed.
Qu Fei also expressed his confusion. "What's the point of building this city? If the perimeter of the wall increases, won't it be even harder for their tiny number of men to defend it?"
Qu Cong shook his head. "Mount Gesi is rich in resources. If they connect to the mountains, they can find food and firewood, which will allow them to hold out much longer."
"Otherwise, once they are besieged by us, they won't even have firewood in the city. Let alone waiting for winter, even if they have grain, they won't be able to cook it."
He sighed as he continued, "Moreover, once they have direct access to Mount Gesi, they can enter the mountains and escape through them. We won't be able to trap them anymore."
Qu Bai showed no emotion on his face, but in his heart, he felt that Gefeng's purpose for building a city at this time was probably not just that. There had to be other reasons.
After all, building a city wall was a massive undertaking. It wasn't something that could be finished in a few days or even a few months. Before they could finish it, the civilians inside the city would starve to death.
He had come fully prepared for this siege and had naturally gathered clear intelligence on Gefeng's situation. There were no grain reserves inside at all.
According to information obtained from various counties and prefectures in Fengzhou, around the time the Jinyang Army occupied Gefeng last year, no large shipments of grain had entered the city.
So where did Gefeng get the confidence to build a city right now?
Qu Bai simply couldn't make sense of it. He didn't understand Gefeng's true objective.
Qu Cong felt the same way. He fell into deep thought, pondering the real purpose behind Gefeng's city building.
Qu Feng requested to fight once more, "General, please let me lead the attack."
Qu Bai swept his gaze over the seemingly calm North Gate of Gefeng, his voice deep. "Wait a little longer."
This wait lasted for three days. The civilians of Gefeng came out of the city to dig foundations at the crack of dawn every day. They were incredibly disciplined, and their numbers kept growing, from a few hundred at the start to over a thousand.
The Quzhao army watched helplessly for three days, watching them dig the foundation trenches several zhang far.
He finally made up his mind. "We attack through the North Gate. Qu Feng, you will be the vanguard."
Overjoyed, Qu Feng accepted the order: "Understood!"
He had been suffocating with frustration these past few days. The city gates were wide open, yet they had just stood there watching.
Jiang Jin stood on the city tower, watching Qu Feng lead a few hundred elite cavalrymen charging toward Gefeng's North Gate, with thousands of infantrymen following closely behind.
The commoners digging the earth below the city walls were startled, and just then, the drums on the city tower began to beat.
The soldiers standing at the foot of the wall immediately shouted, Retreat into the city!
Without a second word, the commoners hoisted their hoes and sprinted toward the gates.
They had actually drilled for this exact escape, so their retreat was swift and completely devoid of panic.
The commoners had just crossed the moat, and the drawbridge had yet to be raised, when Qu Feng closed the distance to less than two hundred paces from the wall. At a warhorse's gallop, two hundred paces was merely a matter of seconds, leaving his infantry trailing far behind.
The whole point of deploying the cavalry this time was for this exact speed.
If Ge Feng tried to save the commoners, there would be no time to raise the drawbridge, and perhaps not even enough time to shut the city gates.
But if Ge Feng abandoned them, Qu Feng's forces could brutally slaughter the commoners right before the eyes of Ge Feng's soldiers. Either way, it was a guaranteed win.
Watching the city gates draw closer and closer, a smug, triumphant smile spread across his face.
