Everyone: "..." Wait, the corpses are still out there. Is it really appropriate to start working right now?
Whether it was appropriate or not, the crowd followed the Jinyang Army out of the city again and started working away with a bang.
The closest corpse to them was Qu Feng, which was actually dozens of zhang away, so it didn't affect them much.
Qu Bai, his eight fierce generals, and Qu Cong sat in the tent. The scene was completely silent, and the atmosphere was oppressive.
After a long while, Qu Fei said, "The Jinyang Army! Why have we never heard of such a formidable Jinyang Army before?"
No one responded, because they didn't know either.
Based on the weapons the Jinyang Army used today and their combat prowess, such an army should have been very famous, yet they had never heard of it.
Fengzhou was clearly already under Qu Zhao's control, yet the Jinyang Army seemed to appear out of nowhere and inexplicably conquered Gefeng. Everything was simply too bizarre.
Qu Bai calmed his emotions and looked around at everyone. "Do you have any good strategies?"
Qu Cong shook his head. "I think we should stick to the original plan and besiege without attacking. They now have such divine weapons capable of long-distance shooting; we simply can't even get close to the city walls."
Qu Bai pondered. After a long time, he raised his eyes to look at the crowd and said, "We will besiege without attacking for now, and send the news that Gefeng possesses divine weapons to the Grand Chanyu."
"Report." At this moment, a soldier outside the tent came to report.
Shortly after, the soldier walked in. "Reporting, Gefeng just sent a messenger saying they want us to... to go collect the corpses."
The soldier's voice weakened as he lowered his head. "They said... said they wouldn't attack while we collect the bodies, and told us to rest assured."
There was a moment of silence inside the tent.
A moment later, Qu Fei slammed his hand on the desk, veins bulging in anger. "This is going too far!"
However, he did not dare to volunteer to attack Gefeng again. The current Gefeng was truly too eerie; it seemed they could wipe out however many men were sent.
Qu Bai was also so angry that his heart ached. Gefeng was not only killing their men but also destroying their morale. It was too ruthless.
He suppressed the frustration in his chest, knowing that the top priority right now was to properly handle the bodies of the soldiers, so as not to chill the hearts of his remaining men.
"Send men to bring back the soldiers' remains for proper disposal." He thought for a moment and added, "Bring back our warhorses and weapons as well."
The soldier stammered, "The weapons and warhorses have... have already been taken by Gefeng."
They didn't dare approach Gefeng City, but they watched from a distance and clearly saw what happened in front of Gefeng's north gate. They could only watch helplessly.
Qu Bai almost spat out a mouthful of blood. "What moves are they making inside Gefeng City now?"
The soldier dared not raise his head even more. "They... they've started digging the ground again."
Qu Bai: "..."
Thus, a very strange scene appeared outside the north gate of Gefeng.
On one side, people were vigorously digging the ground. On the other side, Qu Zhao soldiers were sneaking around, tiptoeing to transport the corpses, terrified that making too much noise would disturb the Gefeng commoners digging the ground and lead to them being shot dead on the spot.
As night fell, Jiang Jin sat in the assembly hall of the county office.
Seated below were Zhou Sui and the others.
Seeing Jiang Jin's worried expression, Yun Ci couldn't help but ask, "My Lord, didn't we have a great victory today? Is there something else?"
Jiang Jin sighed. "Being besieged is not a long-term solution. We still need to find a way to deplete the effective strength of the Qu Zhao soldiers."
Everyone agreed with this point. They weren't afraid of being besieged, but being watched all day long was naturally not a good thing.
They had to constantly guard against the enemy's surprise attacks, especially night raids.
Visibility was poor at night. Even if they had long-distance lethal weapons, they wouldn't be very effective. After all, how can you hit what you can't see?
Inside the city was fine; with the high walls, it wouldn't be so easy for the enemy to launch a night raid.
But the walls of the new city had not been fully built, and spring plowing waits for no one. Plowing and planting would soon need to be scheduled.
If the Qu Zhao army took advantage of the night to raid the new city, not attacking the walls or setting fires, but directly destroying the crops they planted, she would be sick to her stomach with anger.
"We can launch a night raid of our own, fight our way to the Qu Zhao camp and kill Qu Bai, or burn their provisions," Xie Nanxiao suggested.
Yao Ji shook his head. "It's too difficult to burn provisions guarded by twenty thousand men. It would be better to strike on the road."
Fengzhou could be said to be Qu Zhao territory, and there were many nearby places that could supply them with military rations, such as Zhou County.
However, although Zhou County wasn't very far from Gefeng, it was impossible to deliver food meal by meal.
Based on their current observations, Zhou County delivered military rations here about once every three or four days.
Zhou Sui nodded. "I think it's feasible, but we need to plan it carefully."
Since Qu Zhao transported grain to Gefeng every three or four days, they would definitely clear the transport routes, especially the perilous sections.
However, it wasn't without opportunity. Fengzhou was Qu Zhao territory. On their own turf, no matter how cautious they were, it would only be against ordinary bandits and refugees.
After all, the Qu Zhao people would never imagine that the Jinyang Army could freely enter and exit Gefeng City. This was their chance.
Jiang Jin's eyes flickered, feeling that this was indeed an opportunity. "Have our people scouted the supply convoy's route? Do they take the official road?"
Zhou Sui nodded. "They do take the official road, but they have stationed men in some areas prone to ambushes."
Jiang Jin looked at the map, and after a moment, pointed to a spot. "Maple Tree Slope here, has Qu Zhao stationed men there too?"
The geography of Maple Tree Slope consisted of a mountain on one side and flat, wild grasslands on the other, with a road in the middle.
Although the mountain wasn't high, for this particular stretch of road, it was indeed a good place for an ambush.
Seeing that Jiang Jin really had the intention of setting an ambush, everyone became excited and actively joined the discussion, hoping to get a chance to fight.
It was already April, but the weather was still quite cold.
The trees and weeds at Maple Tree Slope were starting to sprout tender buds, looking lush and green.
On top of a slope, dozens of Qu Zhao soldiers were standing or sitting.
"Pah, pah..." A square-faced soldier spat out the tender leaves in his mouth. "I saw many Han people eating these tender leaves before. I didn't expect them to be so bitter."
A soldier with a somewhat pointed head sneered, "Why are you comparing yourself to the Han people? Those lowly peasants eat anything. I've even seen them eat dirt."
The square-faced soldier took out his waterskin to rinse his mouth, spat twice more, and then said, "That's true. I don't know what's wrong with the weather this year. It's already April, yet it's still so cold."
As they spoke, a cold gust of wind blew by. The pointy-headed soldier shivered. "Tell me about it. It's freezing to death, and we still have to come out and work."
"Sigh, the higher-ups are just being too careful. Who in Fengzhou would dare rob our grain? Why do we even need to guard this place?"
The square-faced soldier shook his head. "You probably don't know this, but I heard Gefeng is a very tough nut to crack."
The pointy-headed soldier chuckled twice. "No matter how tough it is, aren't they still besieged by our twenty-thousand-strong army? Let's see how arrogant they can be on the day they run out of food."
"Why do I feel like I hear something?" The square-faced soldier turned his head to look behind him.
Hearing his words, the other soldiers all turned to look, but they found nothing.
"Did you mishear? You..." The pointy-headed soldier made fun of the square-faced soldier, but his voice abruptly stopped halfway through, seeming extremely sudden.
Everyone was confused and looked at him.
They saw a bloody blade tip piercing out from the chest of the pointy-headed soldier, the blood on it seemingly still steaming with heat.
