Chapter 322: Elite Forces Pour Out of Weizhou City (Two Chapters in One)

Wang Shouye, the garrison commander of Weizhou, stared at Wu Guo'er in disbelief, looking him up and down for a long while, still unable to accept what Wu Guo'er had told him.

"According to you, this Zhang Sikong is truly a descendant of the Zhang Taibao who submitted to the Six Commanderies of Hexi in years past?"

"It should be true. What I saw in their army was that the soldiers and officers, apart from the Tangut of Yuanzhou, all wore their hair bound and their robes fastened on the right, and their daily speech and military commands were all in the Tang tongue.

Though that Zhang Sikong is young, he is quite knowledgeable and well-read in the histories. When speaking of the past emperors of the Great Tang, especially Emperor Taizong the Civil and the Great Sage Empress, he knew them as if counting his own family treasures. If he were not a son of Tang, he certainly would not know such things."

Wu Guo'er thought for a moment as he spoke. It was fortunate that he himself had read a few books; had an illiterate man gone over, he certainly could not have observed so carefully.

Wang Shouye nodded. If it was indeed as Wu Guo'er said, then outside the city must be the Guiyi Army that had been trapped in Hexi in years past. But if that were so, he was all the more puzzled.

"If it is as you say, since this Zhang Sikong is so young, yet can command a great army — Hexi's Lanzhou is nearly eight hundred li from here, and the various the the Shatuo and Tangut tribes along the way are none of them easy to deal with, and moreover the Tangut of Yuanzhou have submitted to serve in the Hexi army.

Judging from this, he must be a lord of some capability! If he were so easily deceived, how could he have brought a great army all the way here?"

Uh...! Wu Guo'er was stunned. He scratched the topknot on his head, pondered for a moment, then suddenly slapped his thigh.

"I've got it. This fellow must be trying to coax us into opening the city gates. He has several thousand armored soldiers, and if they got inside the city, we would be fish on the chopping board.

By then, never mind Troop Commander He's goods and wealth, even our own gold and silver would not be safe."

Wang Shouye listened, fell silent for a moment, first nodded lightly, then slowly shook his head.

"What you say is not without reason. Coming from afar, obeying the court's orders in the capacity of a foreign vassal, if he sought nothing, that would be suspicious.

The lands of Hexi, Lanzhou, and Liangzhou were enslaved by the Tibetans in years past, and now are overrun with mixed barbarians, far from the Central Kingdom — they must be bitter and cold. I think the claim of answering the imperial summons to quell rebellion is false; plundering wealth, gold, silk, and captives is the truth.

But we have several thousand able-bodied men in hand, and inside and outside the city walls are all our own kin. If it comes to a fight, we may not be without the strength to put up a struggle.

I trust this Zhang Sikong has not yet reached the point of offering us surrender with words, only to turn swords upon us. But I fear the goods and wealth that Troop Commander He and the others brought back will all go to him."

Wu Guo'er nodded, feeling that Wang Shouye's analysis was more accurate. "If it is only silver and coin he wants, then the plundered goods of Troop Commander He and the others might as well be given to them."

"Give it to them — easy for you to say. If he does not enter the city, giving him half is no problem. But once he enters the city, what then? I, for one, would not dare stake my own life on others keeping to the rules."

Squad General Sun, standing to the side, snorted. Of course Wang Shouye and Wu Guo'er were willing — the plundered goods of He Chuan and the others had no share for those two. It was pure generosity at other people's expense.

But for Squad General Sun it was different. Of the goods within, at least a thousand strings of cash belonged to the Sun family.

Wang Shouye was somewhat irritated by Squad General Sun's words, and he paced back and forth a couple of steps.

"Then according to you, what should we do? The Hexi soldiers outside have several thousand armored men. They have not attacked the city now because they believe we truly have several thousand battle-ready troops.

If we provoke their anger and they attack desperately, how long can those militia troops hold out? When the time comes and our weakness is exposed and they fight their way in, what talk of goods and wealth then — even our families could not be preserved!"

Squad General Sun had evidently thought about this beforehand. He pulled Wang Shouye to sit down and spoke unhurriedly.

"Since this Zhang Sikong wants to trick us into opening the city, then we might as well pretend to fall for it. Did he not give us a ten-day deadline? We will take this opportunity to send out more fast riders from the city to find Troop Commander He and the others."

"And if after ten days, there is still no word from Troop Commander He and the others?" Wu Guo'er asked.

"There is no need to wait until the tenth day. On the ninth day, if there is no word from Troop Commander He, we send someone out of the city to bargain, making clear that we can give the goods and wealth, but will not open the gates.

Whether by entreaty or tearful pleading, drag it out another three to five days. If there is still no word, then open the gates. In this way, we will have done right by them, and if Troop Commander He and the others return victorious, they cannot blame us!"

Wang Shouye stood up again and continued pacing, thinking back and forth for a while. Although Squad General Sun's original intent was still to protect the goods and wealth, his reasoning was undoubtedly correct.

"Good! We will do as you say. We will hold the city tightly and drag things out for ten days first."

Up on the walls of Weizhou, the plans of the officers inside the city were of course not made known to the common soldiers.

They only knew that Wu's second son, who had been captured, had been released and sent back, and that those outside the city were not Wenmo or Tangut, but sons of Tang of the Guiyi Army from Hexi, and that they had sent an envoy into the city to meet Garrison Commander Wang.

At the same time, the Hexi men outside had also stopped filling in the trenches, even though they were only two trenches short of filling them all, and did not continue.

The atmosphere of war relaxed all at once. Even earlier today, the Hexi men had pulled back the two thousand-odd men guarding the south gate by half a li.

"Aiyo! What's that smell? So fragrant! So fragrant!"

On the west gate of Weizhou, among the dozen or so soldiers on duty there, a tall, thin one suddenly twitched his nose rapidly and stood on tiptoe, looking all around.

The fire chief beside him grinned. "You plague-struck fool, have you lost your wits... eh! What a smell! Who's stewing meat? Stewed beef, no less!"

The fire chief had meant to mock him, but suddenly he too caught the scent of meat.

"Right! Right! It's stewed beef! Aiyo, this is deadly! They must have put in plenty of salt, bay leaves, nutmeg, and pepper for it to smell this good.

Last month I was on duty at Squad General Sun's house, and when his family stewed mutton with spices, it smelled just like this."

Another stouter soldier chimed in. He even stood up, half-closing his eyes, twitching his nose and swaying his head, trying to determine where the fragrance was coming from.

"Could it be that Garrison Commander Wang in the city has taken pity on us and wants to reward us with stewed beef for everyone?"

A young soldier with green fuzz still at the corners of his mouth giggled foolishly a few times. He looked at the fire chief, his eyes full of longing for meat.

The fire chief felt unnerved by that gaze, raised his hand, and gave him a slap on the head.

"Dream your mother's grand spring-and-autumn dream! If you've time to think about that, you'd do better to think about how to get your old man to find you a wife!"

On an ordinary day, seeing this foolish young soldier take a slap from the fire chief, the soldiers would surely have teased him a bit, but at this moment, everyone's stomachs had been stirred by the fragrance of meat, and not one of them was in the mood for teasing.

"Mother-fucking thieves! It's those Hexi men eating stewed meat!"

The men searched anxiously for a while, and finally discovered that it was the Hexi men, a few hundred paces below the wall, who were eating stewed meat.

The soldiers hastily threw down their swords and spears and stuck their heads out over the battlements to look. Sure enough, they saw the Hexi camp outside the city bustling with noise.

From great big iron cauldrons rose billowing steam, and the Hexi soldiers sitting around them were eating with such relish they waved their arms and stamped their feet.

Because it was close to their side, and they were up high on the wall, they could see clearly and smell it all the more vividly.

"Fuck your mother, have the officers of this Hexi army lost their minds? It's barely past noon — what stewed meat is this? Eating the evening meal this early — later tonight, may you starve to death, you field slaves!"

Seeing that the stewed meat truly had nothing to do with him, the fire chief could no longer suppress the restless fire in his heart. Afraid the Hexi men might hear, he pulled his head back from the battlements before cursing furiously.

The soldiers all nodded in agreement, pulled their heads back, and joined the fire chief in cursing, as if that could make them feel a little better.

Amid the cursing and grumbling, the soldiers endured the fire of hunger, holding their swords and spears listlessly, only hoping the Hexi men below would finish eating quickly, so they would not have to suffer the roasting of their hunger.

And so, amid the torment of hunger, the soldiers finally welcomed the moment of their own meal.

At this time, people generally ate two meals a day. The one at the beginning of the si hour (nine o'clock) was called the morning meal, and the one at the end of the shen hour (after four in the afternoon) was called the evening meal. Of course, there were those who ate three or even four meals, but that was basically beyond the reach of ordinary people.

And on Zhang Zhao's side, given the limits of productivity, he had no intention of changing this custom.

But there was one exception: when the army was on the march, although they also ate two meals, in wartime they generally ate three.

The fire chief poked his head out from the crenel to take a look. Sure enough, the Hexi men outside the city were not eating their evening meal.

A sense of intellectual superiority welled up unbidden. The fire chief spat fiercely over the wall, as if trying to spit out the whole afternoon's frustration.

"Who eats their evening meal at the noon hour? You'll all be dizzy with hunger by tonight!"

The fire chief laughed loudly a few times, though the flatbread in his hand, mixed with a great deal of wild greens, was dry and hard to swallow.

At the end of the you hour (around 6:30 in the evening), the fire chief, having eaten his fill and regained some strength, roused himself to begin sentry duty. They would have to stand watch until the sun rose the next day before anyone came to relieve them.

Out of curiosity, and perhaps also wanting to see how the Hexi men would suffer their hunger, the fire chief stuck his head out again for a look.

Faint points of firelight in the distance caught his attention. Staring hard, he saw that the firelight came from cooking stoves that had been set up.

He even saw with his own eyes a long-haired ox being stabbed to death by a butcher's knife. People crowded around on all sides—some catching the blood, some scalding off the hair, some carving up the meat.

"Your mother! You people even eat beef? Aren't you afraid of bursting your bellies?"

The fire chief suddenly felt an urge to jump down, to go become a Hexi man himself, and to eat some of that stewed beef.

The tall, thin man beside him, who had been the first to smell the meat, sucked in his drool and said in a dazed, intoxicated voice as he gazed outside the city.

"If I could have a bowl of stewed beef, plus two jin of soup cakes—ah, that taste! I haven't had it in many years."

"How are we supposed to get through tonight?" The burly man with the keenest nose slumped to the ground and wailed.

He had not been full from the two wild-green flatbreads per man earlier, and now down below they were eating stewed beef. They had to patrol and stand watch until dawn, smelling the meat but unable to eat it, hunger-fire nearly scorching them through. How were they to endure the night?

The morning sun rose. The soldiers who had stood watch all night wrapped themselves in blankets and lay sprawled every which way, sleeping on the freezing city wall.

The fire chief suddenly woke with a start. He scrambled up in alarm, and only when he saw the simple young fool still forcing himself to keep watch did he finally set his heart at ease.

By now their relief had also arrived. A scar-faced fire chief led a dozen or so soldiers over, and the two groups fell to chatting on the wall.

The fire chief and his men naturally would not leave yet. They were still waiting for the morning meal at the si hour. Eating one meal in the army meant saving one meal for their families.

"Li Dalang, was the night peaceful?" The scar-faced fire chief walked over with a smile. So the fire chief who had stood watch last night was surnamed Li.

Fire Chief Li suddenly remembered yesterday's stewed beef. He could not help swallowing, and a little dissatisfaction rose in his heart.

"Nothing happened at all. Peaceful enough! The garrison commander and squad generals are inside holding their women as they sleep, yet they insist we keep careful watch. Those Hexi men have long since withdrawn far away, eating their meat with great relish."

"Fire chief, Hexi men are coming." As the two were chatting idly, the tall, thin man suddenly pointed outside the city and shouted. The two fire chiefs dashed over at a run.

But they soon breathed a sigh of relief. The Hexi men opposite were not coming to attack the city. Instead, using long bamboo poles, they had hung up several bundles and finally set them down beneath the city wall.

The twenty-some soldiers on the wall looked at one another, all baffled. They did not know what the Hexi men had thrown over, nor what they intended.

"Fire chief, let me rope down and take a look. These Hexi men don't seem to mean any harm!"

The tall, thin man volunteered to go down and look. The two fire chiefs exchanged a glance. Each produced a length of rope, then had the soldiers unbuckle their belts and such to make a long cord, and lowered the tall, thin man down.

Before long, the tall, thin man hauled up two baskets. On the baskets was a slip of paper with a few characters.

Unfortunately, none of the soldiers could read the four characters "please eat these cakes." They merely picked it up and exclaimed a few times over how learned the Hexi men were, then impatiently opened the baskets.

Inside the baskets, once a layer of white cotton cloth was lifted away, round steamed buns were revealed one after another.

The so-called "steamer cakes" were in fact mantou. The Tang dynasty differed from other dynasties in that all wheaten foods were called "cakes" by them. Although the term mantou also existed, they were more often called steamer cakes.

Fire Chief Li swallowed hard. He very much wanted to eat, but he thought how could the Hexi men be so kind as to give them snow-white steamer cakes to eat? Surely they weren't poisoned?

At this thought, Fire Chief Li took out a still-warm steamer cake and handed it directly to the simple young fool.

The simple young fool was dull-witted, not slick like the soldiers around him. He thought the fire chief was being kind to him, so he took it at once. A fist-sized steamer cake—the simple young fool downed it in three or four bites.

"How's the taste? Is there any... uh, is it good?" Fire Chief Li forced himself to hold back his saliva, carefully observing the simple young fool's every move and detail. The soldiers likewise all watched him, swallowing constantly.

The simple young fool suddenly frowned. He clutched his stomach hard, his face twisting up at once, grimacing as if in great pain.

So it was poisoned after all!

Fire Chief Li shot to his feet, drenched in cold sweat. If he had given in and eaten one just now, he might well have gone to meet his end.

The people around him were also badly startled, and were about to burst out cursing.

At that very moment, the simple young fool suddenly lunged, and with lightning speed snatched several steamer cakes from the bamboo basket, then ran toward the corner at even greater speed.

"You mother-fucking thief! What nerve!" Fire Chief Li roared, never imagining he would be fooled by a simple boy.

The soldiers around him stood stunned for a moment, then suddenly realized they too had been tricked, and swarmed toward the bamboo basket in a rush.

Fire Chief Li very much wanted to run over and give the simple young fool a beating, but he turned his head and saw that if he went to beat the boy, in the end he would be the one who got no steamer cakes.

At that thought, Fire Chief Li cast aside the dignity of a fire chief and threw himself into the scramble with a howl.

Mmm! This is too delicious! The moment the steamer cake entered his mouth, Fire Chief Li suddenly felt like crying.

The bun was soft, fragrant, and glutinous, and the filling inside was syrup. That honey-like sweetness was something Fire Chief Li had only tasted in early childhood.

Back then, his grandfather had gotten hold of a bit of wild honeycomb, originally intending to sell it to buy medicine, but he had ended up eating more than half of it.

Apart from that sweetness, all he remembered was his mother frantically beating him while he clutched half the honeycomb and refused to let go. That painful sweetness—he had finally tasted it once more.

"Even if I died in battle today, it would be worth it. How can there be such delicious steamer cakes in this world?

This isn't something the sugar frost of Jiangnan Circuit or Lingnan Circuit could make. It must be that Hexi white sugar the traveling merchants talk about!

These Hexi men have good fortune! Their officers care for them, and their morning meal can even include steamer cakes like these!"

The scar-faced fire chief was a man of some experience. After eating three steamer cakes, he leaned against the battlements and sighed, his gaze distant and empty.

But he was a fire chief, and had managed to grab three in the scramble, so of course he could now eat his fill and sigh. But among these soldiers, the unluckiest had only managed to grab half a cake, and was now full of pent-up rage with nowhere to vent it.

Spurred on by the delicious steamer cakes, no one cared about military discipline anymore. The soldiers all went looking for the simple young fool, who had taken several and run far off.

It seemed the simple boy would not escape a beating.

Outside Weizhou city, on the nest cart—a nest cart is a type of observation tower specially used for watching enemy movements, with four wheels below so it can be pushed around, and at the top a plank room covered in oxhide, shaped like a bird's nest.

The plank room had four sides, each with three observation holes, which could be used to spy on the layout inside the city, and also to signal with simple flag codes the direction from which the enemy was coming to attack.

The tallest nest carts could reach ten zhang, that is, over thirty meters high. Zhang Zhao's, of course, did not need to be that tall; five zhang was enough.

Zhang Zhao and Fan Quan raised the nest cart to its highest point and kept recording the buildings and main roads inside the city.

By the time they returned to the ground, Wu Yuan'er, who had gone into the city as an envoy to speak with Garrison Commander Wang and the others, had also come back.

Garrison Commander Wang and the others had thought that by keeping Wu Yuan'er in a closed carriage, Wu Yuan'er would not learn the situation inside the city.

But what they never imagined was that this kind of situation was something Wu Yuan'er had already drilled through hundreds of times.

With the observations Zhang Zhao and the others had made from the combined observation tower as corroboration, Wu Yuan'er very quickly reconstructed the general layout of the roads throughout Weizhou.

Including the most important locations — the Weizhou garrison army headquarters and the Pingliang County yamen, as well as the specific positions of the arsenal and the military camp.

And the elite troops taking part in this raid had also been selected, to be led personally by Zhang Zhao.

Man Xiong, Dunzhu, Wang Tongxin, Li Ruotai, Hu Guang, Fan Quan and Fan Shun, Shan Zhu'er, Lu Sanlang, Xue Shouli, Pei Tongyuan, Zhao Cunyi, Guo Guangcheng, Murong Xinzhang, Li Cunhui, Zhang Liecheng, Cui Huxin, Du Lun Chixin, Zhebu Jiashi, Wen Chongle, Yue Saonu.

Every fierce general the Guiyi Army could name had been called up, except for Yan Jin and Bai Congxin — one needed to control the infantry, the other the cavalry.

The only ones absent were Ma Shacai, who was garrisoning Lanzhou, Song Zhongyi, who had stayed in Ningyuan to live out his retirement, and Liu Zaisheng, who was defending Yuanzhou.

Every man wore two layers of padded armor, with composite helmets of refined iron on their heads; someone as strong as Man Xiong also wore a coat of ring-linked mail.

They carried no long weapons like infantry lances or long spears, relying mainly on bronze maces, iron whips, and long hengdao sabers. For thrown weapons they used mainly hand crossbows and javelins; only about a hundred sharpshooters carried bows.

Zhang Zhao set the attack time at the mao hour. With armament this powerful and so many fierce generals, there was no need for a midnight raid — darkness would only limit their effectiveness.

Their plan was to blast open the west gate just before dawn, then have the main force seize the prefectural headquarters, the military camp, and the arsenal, while a small force held the city gate and let the main army pour into the city.

On the walls of Weizhou, the defending soldiers spent the first day watching the Guiyi Army below eat stewed beef. Nothing happened.

On the second day, they received steamed buns sent over by the Guiyi Army, and spent the rest of the time looking forward to the bu hour, wondering whether something tasty would be sent up again. This made them all the more envious of the Guiyi Army's three meals a day. Nothing happened.

On the third day, the Guiyi Army stood up the Weizhou soldiers on the wall, leaving them thoroughly annoyed. Nothing happened.

On the fourth day, the Guiyi Army sent them dried beef and sesame flatbread, but ate stewed beef and roast lamb chops themselves, making the wall soldiers unbearably envious. Nothing happened.

On the fifth day, a bold lanky soldier and a scar-faced fire leader, unable to resist the temptation of the food, accepted an invitation from the Guiyi soldiers and climbed down the wall on ropes to the Guiyi Army camp, where they ate and drank their fill, even having wine. Nothing happened.

On the sixth day, more than half the patrolling soldiers ran down at the end of the you hour to eat and drink in the Guiyi Army camp, to the point that there were not even enough ropes for climbing down the wall. Nothing happened.

On the seventh day, Captain Sun, who had learned of the situation, brought men onto the wall and gave a severe beating to some of the soldiers who had climbed down.

The soldiers, resentful of day-and-night guard duty, nearly broke into mutiny. It was only after Captain Sun personally cut down two men that the unrest was suppressed.

But the soldiers and junior officers on duty at the west wall were all extremely resentful. Still, nothing happened.

On the eighth day, Zhang Zhao knew the opportunity had come. Not only the soldiers at the west wall, but even Captain Sun, who had come to suppress and kill, no longer believed the Guiyi Army would suddenly launch a raid.

He merely thought the Guiyi Army was trying to buy hearts and minds this way, and both officers and men had basically lost their vigilance.

Cao Shisi had matured considerably by now. His grasp of gunpowder ratios had improved, and he had even begun to research sugar-based gunpowder and granulated powder mixed with egg white. The wooden-tube fire thunder he assembled was also far more powerful.

Shi Chongmin's Metal-Dividing Unit had likewise made better progress in digging tunnels and placing fire thunder.

After several of Zhang Zhao's mathematically gifted adopted-son army youths joined, they even began calculating explosive power, and could use simple geometry to build models and work out where to bury the fire thunder and how much charge to use.

They had also invented various detonation methods. There was the single-stage violent blast, used only to blow open city walls.

There was the two-stage blast, mainly used to kill soldiers who came to plug the breach, and there were small-charge chain thunder used for signaling.

All the men had finished donning their armor, waiting only for the beginning of the mao hour.

—————— Off-topic ——————

It seems Qidian has an event the day after tomorrow: any reader at Apprentice level or above can draw a prize once for every five thousand characters I update. The prize pool is decent too — maybe some reader will get very lucky.

So Tiger has decided not to update tomorrow, and will move tomorrow's update to the day after.

The day after tomorrow I'll add another update, with a guaranteed minimum of five updates totaling over fifteen thousand characters, so everyone can draw three times. As for the two updates I still owe, I'll add them as soon as I can get them written.

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