Chapter 64: Casting Corpses into the Moat

One error could be a coincidence.

A series of errors, however, was hard to explain away.

Especially since the culprit behind the disaster had slipped away from the camp ahead of time, which only deepened the suspicion.

"General Huang, this 'School Captain Zhou' claimed to be a salt smuggler from Shandong, yet he had no Shandong accent. His very act of defecting to us was suspicious from the start.

It was only because he brought the head of the local magistrate as a token of his sincerity that we were deceived and failed to investigate his identity thoroughly.

Now it seems highly likely that this man was an agent of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

His goal was to infiltrate our ranks and deliberately sabotage us!"

Zong Guangtai analyzed the situation while struggling to suppress his physical discomfort.

However, these words left a sour taste in Huang Renlong's mouth.

If he had found the man suspicious, why not say so earlier?

Who wouldn't be fooled when someone presents a magistrate's head as a token of loyalty?

Besides, they had known each other before; they had even conducted a few salt smuggling deals in secret, making them old acquaintances.

It was Huang himself who had given him the nickname "Zhou the Scraper."

Had he known the man surnamed Zhou was trouble, he would have hacked him to pieces long ago, rather than playing the game of "offering a thousand gold for a horse's bones."

Now, not only had he failed to attract talent, he had essentially bought a pile of corpses.

Huang Renlong quickly realized that regardless of whether School Captain Zhou was a spy or not, he *had* to be one now.

Falling for a court scheme was better than admitting to his own incompetence in personnel management.

"Wang the Pockmarked, put the word out on the streets: I'm offering a ten-thousand-tael bounty for Zhou the Scraper's head!"

Huang Renlong's words left Zong Guangtai speechless.

As a rebel leader commanding tens of thousands of troops, his reliance on underworld habits was still so deeply ingrained.

But these were minor details; with the artillery lost, the rebel army's siege firepower had plummeted.

Engaging in a counter-battery duel with the defenders using only catapults would put the rebels at a severe disadvantage.

When firepower is lacking on the battlefield, one can only fill the gap with human lives.

"General, attacking the city like this will result in too many losses.

Pull back the elite troops and use the captured commoners first to exhaust the defenders' ammunition.

Once the moat is filled, then we launch the main assault."

Zong Guangtai spoke his mind, completely oblivious to how dark Huang Renlong's face turned at the mention of "commoners."

Aside from a few gentry, ninety-nine percent of the rebel army consisted of those he called "commoners."

In the past, as a scion of a noble family, no one would have dared to complain about such language.

But now that the situation had reversed and they were all rebels, no one was inherently nobler than the other.

To keep speaking like that was a provocation.

"We shall follow the gentleman's advice!"

Huang Renlong said, suppressing his dissatisfaction.

Now was not the time to fall out. Although the Zong family had gradually lost their dominant position in the uprising, their influence remained.

It was the Zong family who had spearheaded the gathering of these rebel forces.

Without their support, he—a mere salt smuggler who had lived in the shadows—would be a nobody.

To transform from a caterpillar into a butterfly, he had to make a name for himself.

His influence in Taizhou was insufficient; he had to capture a major city like Yangzhou to establish enough prestige among the rebels.

The more he needed this, the less he could afford to lose the Zong family's support.

This Mr. Zong might not be a top-tier strategist, but he was the most capable one he could access.

He had gathered many scholars along the way, but they only knew how to recite the classics.

Full of sage wisdom, they were all speechless when it came to practical application.

It wasn't that they lacked talent, but the "Art of Dragon-Slaying" (rebellion) was a high-end skill none of them had ever touched.

Noble families possessed secret archives, but in times of peace, who would dare let their descendants study such things?

Zong Guangtai, who only had a half-baked understanding, had been cramming relevant knowledge only after the uprising began.

One look at the siege showed that the rebel army was still in the exploratory phase.

"General, is there any way to rapidly expand the army and improve our combat effectiveness?"

Hearing Huang Renlong's question, Zong Guangtai almost vomited blood.

If there were such a simple way, the Zong family would have used it themselves.

Just raising the current force had cost them their leadership.

But refusing directly would make him seem too incompetent.

After a moment of hesitation, Zong Guangtai said slowly:

"Expanding the army is simple; just send troops out to conscript.

However, the Yangzhou prefecture was well-prepared; the villages along our route are practically ghost towns.

The people have either entered the city or hidden in the mountains.

To conscript now, we must send men much further afield.

As for improving combat effectiveness, it's nothing more than enforcing discipline, strengthening training, and then throwing them into a few real battles.

Elite troops are forged in battle; once we capture more territory, your troops will naturally become elites."

This perfunctory answer clearly failed to satisfy Huang Renlong.

"Thank you for your guidance, sir!"

Despite his polite words, he had already realized in his heart that this Mr. Zong was no "Crouching Dragon" capable of helping him seize the empire.

To achieve the hegemony of a king, he would need to search for more talented strategists.

"Thousand-man Commander, the rebel camp has suffered an explosion, and their artillery has gone silent!"

Upon receiving this good news, Li Mu immediately put down his bowl and chopsticks and headed straight for the gate tower.

The surprise had come too suddenly.

The rebels hadn't posed a threat with their artillery because they hadn't used them correctly.

Rebel soldiers lacked armor, so for the defenders, using shell-firing cannons would have caused maximum casualties.

But a siege was different; one had to use solid shot for precision strikes to damage the city walls.

It seemed they had been provoked, so they stopped using their cannons as siege weapons and started a counter-battery duel instead.

One cannot keep stepping into the same trap.

Once the enemy reacted, the pressure on the defenders would increase.

Yangzhou's walls were sturdy, but they had been built two hundred years ago and only maintained since.

After so many years of peace, local officials hadn't been very diligent about wall maintenance.

They looked fine on the outside, but their true defensive capability remained to be tested.

Looking through his telescope at the carnage in the rebel artillery position, Li Mu was startled.

The scene could no longer be described as "heavy losses"; the enemy's artillery position had been completely wiped out.

This was definitely not something his own artillery could have achieved!

Even if every shell had hit the target, it wouldn't have caused such massive destruction.

"Mr. Lan, send someone to report the victory to the Regional Commander.

Tell him that thanks to the bloody fighting of our soldiers, we have killed over a thousand enemy troops and destroyed their artillery position!"

Li Mu said with a straight face.

There was no need to investigate what had happened in the rebel camp; the result was what mattered.

The Great Yu Dynasty didn't value artillery as much as later generations, so destroying an enemy artillery position wasn't a monumental feat.

But for a city under siege, the size of the merit didn't matter; what mattered was having a victory report to soothe the public's anxiety.

"Sir, perhaps we should polish the report.

In case the Regional Commander asks for details, our men will have a consistent story."

Lan Linjie suggested with some hesitation.

Exaggerating military merit was nothing new.

Especially in a siege like this, the number of enemy kills was entirely up to the frontline commanders.