Qiu Liao stroked his beard. “My lord, are you planning to attack Wuqin next?”
Jiang Jin nodded. “Qu Zhao has roughly eighty thousand troops. On the surface, he’s holding three counties, but in reality, Wuqin is the key. If something happens to Wuqin, the other two counties will collapse without a fight.”
Then, remembering something, she asked, “Is the fighting at Daqing still going on?”
Mu Ning nodded. “It is, but neither side is pressing very hard. The battle has been remarkably calm.”
“However, about a thousand Jiao troops have entered Wuqin,” she added.
Nan Wen frowned. “Have Qu Zhao and the Jiao joined forces?”
Under normal circumstances, the Jiao shouldn’t be making any more enemies at a time like this.
Jiang Jin shook her head. “Not necessarily. If they were truly cooperating, Qu Zhao wouldn’t have invited only this many troops. Most likely, Qu Zhao specifically asked them to come.”
Nan Wen was puzzled. “Why would he do that, my lord?”
Jiang Jin smiled. “Simple. He wants the Jiao to see our strength, so they’ll firmly take Qu Zhao’s side.”
In the face of a genuine military threat and tangible benefits, all negotiations were nothing but empty words.
Still, once the Jiao learned the true strength of the Jinyang Army, no one could say whether they would confront them directly or become even more wary.
Besides, the Jiao’s main forces were not stationed here. By the time they wanted to send reinforcements, Wuqin would probably already have fallen.
Inside Shanshan County, Qu Zhao had indeed set up a great many traps. Xia Chanyi and her people spent two whole days dismantling them one by one. To prevent Qu Zhao from poisoning the city’s water supply, they had to conduct all kinds of inspections as well. The whole process was even more troublesome than taking the city itself.
Only after everything had been dealt with did they allow the civil officials and soldiers assigned to defend the city to take over.
Xia Chanyi then hurried back to Jiang Jin with her people, because the assault on Wuqin had begun.
This time, Jiang Jin planned to fight a conventional battle—in other words, to begin with a duel between generals and crush what little morale the enemy had left.
Unfortunately, Qu Zhao refused to cooperate. Jiang Jin shouted challenges for a long while, but Qu Zhao didn’t even bother responding to the Jinyang Army.
With no other choice, Jiang Jin decided to send out the ceiling of the trash-talking world: Zhou Leng and Dong Si. The two poison-spewers joined forces, doubling their power.
They directly reduced the Qu Zhao soldiers standing ramrod-straight on the walls to hunched wrecks. In the end, the soldiers crouched behind the battlements to hide. Before long, muffled sobs could be heard.
Some of the more fragile-minded soldiers cried as they banged their heads against the wall, completely unable to stop themselves.
Jiang Jin was utterly dumbfounded. She had never seen anything so bizarre. They were being cursed and humiliated, yet instead of fighting back, they hid and cried. Not one of them even dared to hurl an insult in return.
In fact, whether on the watchtower or along the walls, the highest-ranking officer seemed to be no more than a centurion. Not a single commander could be seen.
Yu He was even more stunned than she was. Jiao Tai had sent him to Wuqin to assess the strength of the Jinyang Army—the very army Qu Zhao regarded as a force of nature, something to be feared like a flood or a raging beast.
But they had refused to accept a challenge, which was bad enough. Then the Han Chinese had cursed them from their ancestors eight generations back to their descendants eight generations forward, while the soldiers hid behind the battlements and cried. And still, not one of Qu Zhao’s generals or civil officials dared say a word.
This shattered Yu He’s understanding of warfare—and his bottom line.
He turned to the Great Chanyu Qu Zhao and the assembled officials and generals with a strange look in his eyes. “You’re just going to let the Jinyang Army humiliate you like this?”
The Great Chanyu’s face darkened, but he said nothing.
Unable to resist, Yu He sneered, “Where’s the courage you used to have? Did entering Han territory turn you into Han people who can’t even lift a blade?”
The Great Chanyu frowned. He had invited the Jiao troops over so they could observe the Jinyang Army’s strength, not so Yu He could mock and ridicule them.
Meng Su forced a smile. “Why don’t you go out and face the Jinyang Army yourself, General Yu?”
“You may not know this yet, but the Jinyang Army has several young generals whose combat prowess is extraordinary. Our Qu Zhao forces truly have trouble dealing with them. Since the Jiao pride themselves on being the strongest, surely a few young generals will be easy for you to handle.”
Yu He snorted. “Are you trying to provoke me?”
Meng Su shook his head. “Hardly. Didn’t General Jiao send you here to investigate the Jinyang Army’s strength? What better way to find out than to fight them yourself?”
The Great Chanyu lowered his eyes, then tugged the corners of his mouth into a smile. “Indeed. I’ve heard that General Yu’s twin axes are fearsome. Let us see them in action.”
Apart from fearing the Jinyang Army’s strength, the Great Chanyu had another reason: Qu Zhao had no generals left to send.
He still had several commanders under him, including Ruan Jian, but the Jinyang Army’s generals had even defeated their great general, Qu Shilang. How could he possibly send his own men to die?
Now that Yu He had stepped forward, the Great Chanyu could send him to test the Jinyang Army. If Yu He truly had the ability to kill one of their generals, Qu Zhao’s morale would soar.
If the Jinyang Army killed Yu He, however, it would push the Jiao, who were still neutral, onto Qu Zhao’s side—which would benefit Qu Zhao even more.
Yu He naturally saw through Qu Zhao’s intentions, but he didn’t care. He had complete faith in his own strength.
With a laugh, he rose to his feet. “Fine. I’ll go see just how formidable these young generals of the Jinyang Army really are.”
Zhou Leng and Dong Si were taking a break in the middle of the battle. Tea, water, and snacks had all been laid out as they discussed their experiences while eating.
“I can’t do this anymore. The Qu Zhao are turtles—they just refuse to come out,” Dong Si said helplessly, his voice hoarse from shouting.
Honestly, he had never experienced such a frustrating war of insults. They refused to respond at all. This one-man performance left him feeling utterly defeated.
Zhou Leng also felt more pressure than he had since entering the profession. The enemy’s ability to endure without answering back was practically an insult to his professional dignity.
“What if we change our approach?” he mused.
Dong Si hurriedly asked, “How?”
Zhou Leng smiled. “There are Jiao troops inside Wuqin, aren’t there? The Qu Zhao may be cowards, but the Jiao probably aren’t.”
Just as he finished speaking, a commotion rose from the watchtower. The two men looked up and saw a dense formation of shield-bearers climbing onto the walls.
Behind them stood the Great Chanyu Qu Zhao, Meng Su, and the others.
At that very moment, the city gates slowly opened. The drawbridge was lowered, and Yu He rode out at an unhurried pace. He continued until he was roughly thirty paces from the gate, then stopped.
Zhou Leng drew in a sharp breath. “He came out on his own?”
“Who cares?” Dong Si’s eyes lit up. “He’s out. Our lord will deal with him.”
Yu He’s eyes were arrogant as he raised the iron axe in his hand and pointed it toward the Jinyang Army. “You there! Who dares come out and fight me?”
When the Jinyang Army did not immediately react, his attitude grew even more overbearing.
“What? Are you so frightened by the Jiao that you’ve lost your voices? Hahahaha!”
He threw his head back and laughed loudly. “Not one of you dares answer the challenge? The Jinyang Army is nothing special!”
What he didn’t know was that the Jinyang Army was not unresponsive at all. Every one of them was breathing a sigh of relief.
Finally, someone had come out.
Jiang Jin had been trying to decide whom to send. After all, she had too many capable people under her command, and every one of them was practically howling to take the field. Her indecisiveness was becoming a real problem.
But after hearing Yu He’s arrogant provocation, she made her decision at once.
“Yun Chengxuan, you’re up. Remember—split the crap right out of him.”
Yun Chengxuan didn’t mind that his line had been stolen from him. After all, this was his first time carrying out an imperial order to split someone’s crap apart, and he felt all the more confident for it.
“Don’t worry, Auntie. Splitting crap is my specialty.”
