Yan Jian was so furious that he laughed. “Go to war? Does your Yan Kingdom even still exist? What could you possibly use to wage war against my Nanwu Kingdom?”
As he spoke, he could not help glancing at Yu Yue’s chest. “With these?”
Yu Yue suppressed the urge to vomit. “Perhaps we can’t go to war with you, but we can withdraw and hand Wenlong County directly over to the Jiao Army. What do you think?”
Yan Jian paused and looked at Yu Yue’s calm face. This woman was unlike any woman he had ever met.
She was exceptionally clever, decisive in her actions, and calm when faced with trouble. An ordinary woman confronted with such a situation would either submit or struggle in resistance.
But she neither cried nor made a scene. Instead, she threatened him with reason and logic.
That was precisely why he wanted to keep this woman by his side.
First, she was very interesting.
Second, she was the daughter of Yu Mo, the magistrate of Wenlong County. If she became his concubine, it would be much easier for him to gather information about Wenlong County. He might even be able to bring the county under his control.
He snorted. “Wenlong County belongs to your Yan Kingdom. Who you leave it to has nothing to do with us.”
Yu Yue tugged at the corner of her mouth. “Then why don’t we try it? It’s true that our country has fallen and our families have been destroyed, but all one thousand of our soldiers are able-bodied men. We can survive wherever we go. We don’t necessarily have to remain in a city with nothing left.”
When Yan Jian was about to speak again, Yu Yue impatiently cut him off. “You’re surely going to say that if we wanted to leave, we would have done so already. Why would we have stayed here and defended the city until now?”
She smiled faintly. “That’s because we haven’t yet been driven to the end of the road. If we’re pushed too far, we may not be responsible for what we do.”
Yan Jian’s expression darkened as he stared hard at Yu Yue.
Being seen through by a woman and having her use the situation to bargain with him filled him with unbearable humiliation.
“So let go of me!” Yu Yue said calmly.
The muscles on Yan Jian’s face twitched twice. Resentment and shame flashed in his eyes, but after a moment, he still lowered her to the ground.
Yu Yue’s threat was one reason. More importantly, if he really tried to use force, Shangguan Mao would undoubtedly fight him to the death. Everyone in Wenlong County had iron in their bones.
The situation in Nanwu Kingdom was not good either. There was no need to provoke Wenlong County, a place that had nothing left to lose and whose people were liable to stake their lives on anything.
Yan Jian was just about to say a few polite words to smooth things over when a commotion arose outside the courtyard.
Yu Yue secretly let out a sigh of relief, though she showed nothing on her face. “My people have come for me. Farewell.”
With that, she hurried out of the courtyard. Sure enough, she saw Ye Wenbao arguing with Yan Jian’s personal guards.
When he saw her emerge, Ye Wenbao visibly relaxed.
“Madam Yu, the general sent me to escort you back.”
Yu Yue nodded. “Let’s go.”
The two of them walked slowly along the narrow path between the fields. Although evening had fallen, the sweltering weather still made them sweat.
“Did they bully you?” Ye Wenbao asked.
Yu Yue shook her head. “No. Don’t worry. Have all the crops been harvested?”
Only then did Ye Wenbao relax completely. “Not yet. The general said everything must be harvested today. If we can’t finish before dark, we’ll continue at night once the moon comes out. We have to finish today.”
They had been away for too long, and Shangguan Mao was worried about the situation in the city. He had therefore decided that they would take the grain and return tomorrow.
Although this place lay on the border between Nanwu Kingdom and the Yan Kingdom, a stone mountain stood between them.
The mountain was difficult to cross. It would take them an entire day to make their way over it and return to Wenlong County.
As he spoke, Ye Wenbao angrily added, “Yan Jian is a despicable villain. He specifically demanded that the general come here just so he could humiliate him. What a vile man.”
Yu Yue fell silent. In truth, she had initially suggested that they leave Wenlong County.
But her father and General Shangguan had both refused. They said this was Yan territory, and more importantly, the border between the Yan Kingdom and Nanwu Kingdom. They had to defend their own land.
As long as they were still there, they could not surrender even an inch!
Unless Yan soldiers came to relieve them, they would defend the place until the very last moment, fighting until the last man.
Back then, they had sent requests for aid to Dingyang. But Dingyang fell, and their kingdom was destroyed.
Later, they sent people to ask the First Prince in Sizhou for help. Yet the First Prince ignored them.
Their forces had dwindled from more than three thousand men to fewer than eight hundred. Even so, they claimed publicly that they still had over a thousand—nearly two thousand—soldiers.
It was precisely because of these men’s sacrifices, and the reputation they had earned for fighting as though they did not fear death, that the Jiao Army no longer attacked them head-on. Instead, they changed tactics and prepared to starve them out.
They had won themselves a brief respite, but at the same time, they truly had been trapped.
Wenlong County had become a completely isolated city.
Most tragically, the county seat had been built halfway up a mountain. Its position was easy to defend and difficult to attack, which was both an advantage and a disadvantage.
The mountain was made of stone. There were barely any trees, much less any crops that could be planted.
No one knew when it had begun, but eventually they ran out of food entirely.
The soldiers began catching mice, cockroaches, earthworms, ants—in short, anything they could catch and eat, whether it was edible or not.
Before long, almost every living creature had been caught. The soldiers then began eating the bark, leaves, and grass from the few remaining trees on the mountain.
Later, even the trees disappeared. They began eating their clothes instead, claiming that the garments were made of hemp and therefore edible.
Finally, they began eating bird droppings and even soil.
Many people could not endure it. Some died, while others fled.
Before long, soldiers from Nanwu Kingdom arrived and said they were willing to provide food, but only in exchange for labor.
It was not because Nanwu Kingdom was kindhearted. Nanwu needed them to hold Wenlong County so that it would not have to face the Jiao Army directly.
Even so, obtaining that food required them not only to perform labor for pitifully low compensation, but also to endure Nanwu soldiers’ verbal humiliation.
Just like this time: the two hundred men had come to work for six days, and including the journey there and back, the entire trip would take eight or nine days. In return, Nanwu Kingdom would give them only fifteen hundred pounds of grain.
Aside from Shangguan Mao, they were all young, able-bodied men. On average, each person would receive less than a pound of grain per day.
Fortunately, Nanwu Kingdom also knew it could not drive them to death. The laborers were provided one meal a day, and they were not forbidden from digging up grass roots and other things nearby to bring back and stave off hunger.
The grain was not much, but if it was only meant to keep them alive, it could sustain all of them for a little over half a month.
As for whether Nanwu Kingdom would have more work for them afterward, no one could say.
When they reached the open ground before the fields, they saw Shangguan Mao resting with his eyes closed. His chest rose and fell heavily, making it clear that he was breathing hard.
Long-term hunger, combined with his age and several days of strenuous labor, had pushed his body almost to its limit.
As if sensing Yu Yue’s worried gaze, he slowly opened his eyes and reassured her, “I’m fine. Don’t worry.”
Yu Yue’s nose stung. She hurriedly lowered her head and softly murmured, “Mm.”
She had once been unable to understand the meaning of their stubborn defense. Was an empty city truly worth such sacrifice?
Now, she was gradually beginning to understand.
This was not an empty city.
This was the territory of their Yan Kingdom—their dignity and honor.
When the golden morning light reached the walls of Wenxia City, the area outside the city was already densely packed with Ji soldiers.
Farther away, an oppressive black mass stretched across the horizon, enough to make anyone’s scalp prickle.
The Jinyang Army was not afraid, but the newly recruited soldiers were understandably intimidated.
Of course, Jiang Jin had no intention of sending the two thousand new recruits into battle. They currently had little combat ability, and their morale had not yet been fully roused.
Jiang Jin’s reason for urgently recruiting soldiers was simple: to have the veterans stand guard and keep watch alongside the new recruits while maintaining order in the city.
That would give the veterans more time to rest and allow them to focus on more important matters. After all, the Jinyang Army had far too few soldiers.
Bian Huai looked toward Jiang Jin, who stood atop the city wall. His expression was calm as he got straight to the point. “May I ask whom your Jinyang Army will send?”
Jiang Jin simply sent her eldest nephew. “You. Go.”
The contest would be decided over seven matches, with victory going to whoever won four.
However, the rules did not require them to change fighters after each match, so she had no qualms about letting Yun Chengxuan take on every opponent by himself.
In full view of the Ji Army’s hundreds of thousands of soldiers, he would crush their morale and raise the prestige of her Jinyang Army!
