Qu Bai nearly spat out his water. He set down his cup and urgently asked, "Weren't there 3,000 soldiers following behind us?"
The soldier kept his head bowed, completely afraid to meet his eyes. "Near, near Erliu Mountain, they encountered people suspected of trying to rob the grain, so they, they chased them into the mountains."
Veins bulged on Qu Bai's forehead in anger. "Is Di Qiong an idiot? Couldn't he see through such an obvious tactic to lure the tiger from the mountain?"
Di Qiong was exactly the commander of those 3,000 men.
Facing the furious Qu Bai, the soldier kept quiet out of fear, not daring to speak a word.
Qu Bai let out a light breath. After calming his emotions, he asked, "What about the military rations? Where were they robbed? Was everything taken?"
"A few miles ahead of Erliu Mountain. When we, when we got there, we only saw corpses all over the ground. The military rations, they were all gone."
In other words, not a single grain was left for him. Qu Bai gritted his teeth in anger. "What about the soldiers disguised as the grain transport team?"
Cold sweat broke out on the soldier. "They, they were all killed."
As if afraid that Qu Bai would doubt his competence, he hastily added, "I counted them all, counted them several times. The grain escort soldiers and those disguised as the transport team were all there, not a single one missing. All 1,215 men were there."
Qu Bai was speechless.
He stared gloomily at the top of the soldier's head, seriously suspecting that this soldier had been sent by the enemy just to intentionally anger him.
Qu Bai almost vomited blood. Seven or eight hundred Quzhao soldiers, plus the soldiers disguised as cart slaves, making a total of over 1,200 men, were just gone like that!
He had besieged Gefeng for barely over half a month, and without harming a single soldier of the Jinyang Army, his own side had already lost ten thousand men.
No, there were also the 3,000 men who chased the enemy into the mountains. If those men were also lost...
He hurriedly asked, "What about Di Qiong? Have they returned?"
The soldier shook his head. "No, but he left some men on the perimeter. It was they who informed us of General Di's situation."
Qu Bai felt his head buzzing. "Quick, send someone to order them to retreat."
"Understood." The soldier secretly breathed a sigh of relief and quickly withdrew to execute the order. Just a moment ago, he had felt as though the general wanted to kill him.
Not long after, Qu Cong and several generals walked in.
Qu Cong had a solemn expression. "General, the corpses of the grain transport soldiers have all been examined. Their wounds are suspected to have been caused by the repeating crossbows of the Jinyang Army!"
Xia Chanyi was also asking this question at this moment: "My Lord, why did we use the repeating crossbows this time? Won't they just guess that it was the Jinyang Army who did it?"
Jiang Jin looked at the long grain transport line ahead, feeling delighted. "It's time to let them know."
The Quzhao people wanted to play the trick of the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind, without even thinking about who originally came up with these tactics. These were all old tricks left over by the ancestors of the Han people.
There were hidden sentries of the Jinyang Army all along this route. Especially on the official road from Zhou County to Gefeng, every move of the Quzhao army was under the surveillance of the Jinyang Army.
She had lured the tiger from the mountain to draw away the 3,000 men in the rear, and using the Dragon Feather Crossbow, she effortlessly shot and killed over 1,000 men and seized the grain.
The grain seized this time was about 1,500 shi, enough to feed her people and soldiers for quite a while.
Xia Chanyi was puzzled. "Why is that?"
Jiang Jin smiled and asked, "If the Quzhao army knows that we might have another Jinyang Army unit outside, what do you think they will do?"
Xia Chanyi was a smart person to begin with, understanding at the slightest hint. Her eyes lit up. "They will panic, afraid that we will attack them from both the front and the rear and wipe them out!"
Jiang Jin smiled and nodded.
The time to force Qu Bai to retreat had arrived.
Qu Bai was overly cautious; he neither sent troops to attack the city nor sent anyone to Cangcui Forest and Gesi Mountain.
Because of that, she could not eliminate more of his forces through guerrilla warfare. But in a head-on clash, her military strength did not hold the advantage; even a victory would be a pyrrhic one.
This was something she did not wish to see.
Since that was the case, she changed her strategy. If you won't fight, then retreat.
No one would be too happy having so many enemy soldiers stationed outside their city, not to mention that she still needed to build city walls and farm the land in the outer city.
Although there was the threat of the crossbows, who knew if Qu Bai would suddenly go crazy and risk losing his troops just to destroy her crops.
Wasn't the night raid to fill the moat with dirt the best example of this?
So, when she learned that a considerable number of Quzhao troops were heading to Ze'a Commandery for reinforcements, she came up with a plan to make Qu Bai withdraw his troops.
That was to make Qu Bai suspect that there was another Jinyang Army unit outside.
In this way, Qu Bai would inevitably worry that the Jinyang armies inside and outside the city would coordinate from within and without, launching a pincer attack to wipe him out.
He had witnessed the power of the Jinyang Army's crossbows. Under the circumstances where he was unsure of how many troops and crossbows the Jinyang Army had, he would definitely worry about his own safety.
Then, increasing the siege forces would become his only option.
However, the war in Ze'a Commandery was tight right now, and she guessed that Quzhao likely had no more men to spare.
As a result, Qu Bai would face a dilemma.
To advance, he could not win; to continue the siege, he might face annihilation.
To retreat became his best choice.
Of course, Qu Bai might also be stubborn and choose to continue besieging Gefeng.
But with the military rations being repeatedly robbed, the transportation of grain would also become a problem.
And for Jiang Jin, this was a breakthrough point. She could continue to kill the grain transport soldiers and rob the rations.
It wouldn't be difficult for Qu Bai to solve the grain transport problem either; he just needed to draw more troops to escort the transport teams so that she wouldn't dare make a move.
In this way, every grain transport would definitely require a massive mobilization of forces, making it impossible to transport grain every few days.
Then Qu Bai would very likely transport one or two months' worth, or even more, of military rations at a time, which would amount to tens of thousands of shi of grain.
Jiang Jin, however, possessed a spatial dimension. If Qu Bai's camp really had that much grain, then there would be no rush to plant the farmland in her new city; she could just find an opportunity to collect the Quzhao army's rations.
Therefore, no matter what choice Quzhao made, it would be advantageous to her.
Just as Jiang Jin had expected, Qu Bai was greatly shocked upon hearing Qu Cong's words. "What did you say? The ones who robbed the grain were the Jinyang Army?"
Qu Cong looked serious. "Not necessarily. Looking at the wounds, they were shot by the Jinyang Army's repeating crossbows. Even if the people who robbed the grain were not the Jinyang Army, they definitely have ties to them."
A man built like an iron tower suddenly realized, "No wonder they robbed our grain and set an ambush in the mountains. It must be for Gefeng City, intentionally trying to disrupt our footing."
This man was called Qu Tie, one of Qu Bai's fierce generals.
Qu Bai was uncertain and alarmed. He quickly walked to the table and stared at the map, falling deep into thought.
Qu Cong frowned tightly. "If the ones who robbed the grain really are the Jinyang Army, then it's too strange. Why would there be a Jinyang Army unit outside?"
Qu Tie thought for a moment and said, "Could it be that they were out on a mission when we besieged the city? And when they returned, they found the city surrounded and couldn't get back in?"
"Hiss." Qu Tie gasped. "So they have no food to eat outside, and that's why they robbed ours?"
His face was filled with ferocity. "General, why don't we just attack the city directly? Who cares how many of them there are, we'll kill however many come. Are we supposed to be afraid of these Han people?"
Qu Cong shook his head. "It's difficult. Didn't you see Gefeng's crossbows? With such a long range, we would suffer heavy casualties before even reaching the moat."
He didn't know how many of these crossbows Gefeng had, but judging by the density of the arrows at the North Gate that day, there had to be quite a few.
