Novel The Great Game - The Young Master (Ch.308) [finished]

“Now you're looking for the secret. But you won't find it because of course, you're not really looking. You don't really want to work it out. You want to be fooled.”
--Cutter, ‘The Prestige’ (2006)

Chapter 178 – Lies and more

For the next few days, the citizens and soldiers of Beihai observed a cold war between the Royal Inspector Huang Ming and the War Goddess Zhao Sunli.


Those who were close enough knew that Huang Ming had tried to make amends with the martial woman, only to be rebuffed at every turn. Eventually Sunli showed her temper, and Huang Ming was upset enough to lash out in return. Each refused to give in to the other, meaning that they never settled their issue even to the day of Sunli’s departure. Their awful row was witnessed by outsiders, causing embarrassment to all who seen it and becoming the source of hushed gossip.


Meanwhile, the citizens had greeted the news of the transfer with some trepidation: stripping away the veterans was akin to leaving the city and the surrounding district naked. While not all of the veterans decided to leave, those who remained were too few in number.


Some of the city’s leading personages laid their worries bare to General Yin. The general assured them that all was well, and that replacements were already well on their way. Besides, it was winter, nobody would risk an attack due to frostbite and snowstorms and other icy hazards…


By the end of his explanation, the rich and powerful of Beihai were so convinced that they were openly thanking and praising General Yin for rewarding the veterans with a cushy, parade ground jobs at the capital. A few influential families even decided there and then to uproot their entire families and wealth to follow General Yin back to the capital city, such was their eagerness to be close to such a heroic personage.


Thus on his departure day, General Yin’s contingent grew much larger. He had entered Beihai with Zhao Sunli and a handful of his trusted guards; now he was set to leave with several thousand men and a long baggage train of civilians following them with all of their earthly possessions in tow.


Needless to say, the sight of seeing the veterans and the rich folk leaving the city for warmer climes cast a pall on those who remained. Suddenly it seemed all the vibrancy and good cheer that Huang Ming had injected into Beihai was being sucked away.


The dour look on Huang Ming’s face as he gave General Yin and Zhao Sunli the send-off was plain for all to see. As Sunli busied herself readying the entire column to march, General Yin went to assuage Huang Ming.


“I still don’t think this is a good idea,” Huang Ming told him sullenly.


“You are such a worry-wart,” General Yin said, a smile taking the sting out of his comment.


“If indeed there is a Jin attack, I will only be able to hold the city for thirty days at most,” Huang Ming complained.


“Thirty days is more than enough for reinforcements to arrive,” General Yin pointed out. “Do not worry, I have reports that the first group of your replacements soldiers are already on their way to Beihai.”


“So you say,” Huang Ming replied grudgingly.


General Yin’s smile vanished. “I do not joke around with military matters,” he said stiffly.


Huang Ming saw that he had offended the general, and he was suitably chastened. He sighed as he looked at the distant figure of Zhao Sunli.


“Sorry,” Huang Ming said contritely, “I have let personal matters affect me.”


General Yin gave the young scholar a shake of his head. “I heard you two had an almighty quarrel,” he said.


“That is putting it mildly,” Huang Ming admitted.


“Mmm. I have seen the split stone in the garden, is it true that it was her handiwork?”


Huang Ming laughed hollowly. “I took a joke too far…” he said.


“Some women do not take kindly to jokes,” General Yin said sagely. “You should apologize, before she leaves.”


Huang Ming’s face hardened. “Though I admit it was my fault, I was merely trying to be more familiar with her. We are engaged, but we have yet to be intimate. For her to react so strongly and to hold a grudge over a minor thing meant she do not see me as her fiancé at all.”


He sniffed. “Maybe I should rescind the engagement, seeing that we are like oil and water.”


General Yin’s grip on his horse’s reins tightened. “You should not say such words lightly,” he said quietly.


“You are right of course. Our engagement was decided by our dear parents,” Huang Ming exhaled. “It would not do to go against their wishes, and it is not as if I am a selfish princeling who would break an engagement with a good-with-nothing-girl.”


He chuckled as his eyes continued to gaze at Sunli. “She is definitely not a good-for-nothing-girl.”


General Yin did not understand the reference, but nodded in agreement.


“Perhaps her anger will cool after some time has passed. Matters of the heart cannot be rushed after all,” he said consolingly.


“Will you do me a favour? I was thick-headed and behaved like a fool. Can you… advise her accordingly?” Huang Ming asked sheepishly.


“Think nothing of it. It is but a small matter,” General Yin said immediately.


Huang Ming bowed slightly, his face red with shame. “Thank you. I am sure you will do everything you can to repair our engagement.”


“Of course,” the general replied with a smile.


After escorting General Yin for a few miles, Huang Ming bade him farewell. He gave one last look at Sunli, yet the War Goddess remained aloof and ignored his pleading eyes. Crestfallen, he watched on as General Yin rode side-by-side with Zhao Sunli at the head of the long column.


One could see that Huang Ming was severely depressed. Some of his minders thought to soothe him. Yet the moment the column was out of sight, Huang Ming burst into laughter. It was not the sort of laughter a defeated man would utter; it was a cynical one, perhaps even sinister.


The former leader of the White Wolves, one of the veterans who elected to remain in Beihai as Huang Ming’s bodyguard; wondered if his lord had gone crazy from girl-troubles.


“What is the young lord laughing at?” the grizzled veteran asked him directly.


“About the games people play,” Huang Ming said, immensely pleased with himself.


“Sir?”


Huang Ming ignored the puzzled look on the older man.


“Let us return. There are many things for us to do,” Huang Ming said.


And so it was. Huang Ming stepped up defences of Beihai, shrinking the areas of responsibility to compensate his much reduced forces. He had stockpiles of material and items made in barely concealed secret, as if he was already preparing for an inevitable siege. To top it all off, he had an enormous flagpole erected over his pagoda-like residential office. A gigantic banner was commissioned, with the simple name ‘Huang’ woven boldly on it. It was so large that it was visible from beyond the city walls.


Many in Beihai were of course alarmed by such preparations, and some were frightened by the gloomy, warlike atmosphere. It was as if Huang Ming was going to make Beihai his inevitable last stand.


Then one day a missive arrived from the neighbouring district: the first batch of replacement soldiers for Beihai had arrived at the border. But the district commander of the replacements was spiteful and wanted a face-saving gesture: he refused to march all the way to Beihai. Instead he wrote for Huang Ming to send an officer to take charge of the final leg of the march.


Thus Huang Ming called for General Li Jing. The srih-chewing man hawked and spat loudly when he was told of the problem.


“What nonsense! If Beihai was indeed attacked while he is dilly-dallying because of this, would he take responsibility later?” Li Jing grumbled.


“Nobody likes giving away their soldiers that they have trained and commanded to another,” Huang Ming said amicably. “Besides, you must be delighted to get out of the city and stretch your legs, aren’t you?”


General Li Jing laughed. “You are right. With so few men, our patrols are few and far and between. If I stay still for too long, I’ll get sick!”


“Well, now you have an excuse. Go on, but don’t tarry. Receive the transfer of men and bring them back here immediately,” Huang Ming said.


“You have nothing to worry about! I will be back with the replacements within three days!” General Li Jing promised as he thumped his chest.


Thus General Li Jing set out with a small group of men to accomplish his task. But the three days became five, five days became a week; yet there was no sign of General Li Jing, nor the replacement soldiers…

The curtains of war,
Parting to reveal what’s in store.​

 

I thought I had posted this before Xmas, but receiving guests and relatives made it all hectic. Apologies for the lateness, and Merry Christmas!

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“You wouldn't want to be responsible for killing the spirit of Christmas now would you, Santa?”
--Bernard the Head Elf, ‘The Santa Clause’ (1994)

Chapter 179 – A winter interlude

The prolonged absence of General Li Jing did not go unnoticed by the citizens of Beihai. Rumours and gossip abound, fear and panic began to spread like a disease. Though the city had stood proudly as a bulwark against the Jins, the transfer of General Yin Yanzhao and the veterans as well as the disappearance of his erstwhile replacement Li Jing shook the hearts and minds of the common folk.


Those who had elected to remain began to lament their decision not to follow the rich and wealthy to the capital. An overwhelmingly gloomy air cast its dreadful pall over the city.


Yet… Huang Ming was unaffected. He cheerily proceeded with his daily routine as usual, even greeting and trading jokes with all who came across him. For some reason he had recently taken to wearing clothing predominantly in red and white; and was was extremely generous to the young and needy. It brought some cheer to the city, and soon his acts inspired others to do the same.


Even Qiong Ying was bewildered by his antics. One day she awoke to find several pairs of socks being nailed at the wall over the room’s incense burner, which also doubled as a heating brazier. There were nothing special about the socks, they were the sort of knee-high slips used by any soldier in conjunction with their army boots.


She thought it was all very bizarre, until she touched the socks. To her delight they were toasty. In the cold mornings of wintertime, the sensation of warm clothing was much appreciated. A different sort of warmth rose from her heart at his thoughtful gesture. As she slipped the male socks over her feet as part of her Quan Lu disguise, she made a mental note to replicate the same for her other clothes; it simply made the morning chill more bearable.


But later that day as she was about to thank him, Huang Ming looked at her accusingly. He had returned with an armful of gaily wrapped boxes and parcels. Incongruously, he was also carrying a miniature potted tree which was trimmed and shaped curiously like a triangle.


“What happened to the socks here?” he asked as he set them down near the brazier.


Qiong Ying pointed to her own feet.


“You are not supposed to wear them,” Huang Ming chuckled.


Qiong Ying blinked. “What else are you going to do with them?”


“To put gifts in, of course,” Huang Ming said as a matter-of-factly. He gestured at the parcels and boxes.


“What nonsense are you on about? They are socks,” she groused.


“But they are mine to do as I wish. Now you owe me a pair of socks,” Huang Ming returned.


The good feeling that Qiong Ying had from wearing the clothes she thought Huang Ming had prepared for her vanished. Perhaps it was due to stress, perhaps it was also the sense of impending danger from Jin; but it all culminated into this moment.


“Fine, fine! You can have them back!” she growled, her emerald eyes glaring at him.


She angrily kicked off her boots and furiously peeled off a sock while still standing up.


“I want a new ones, what am I supposed to do with a pair of stinky socks?” Huang Ming grinned.


“Stinky? Stinky!?” Qiong Ying said, outraged. She flung one sock at him, the other was still around her dainty foot. She hopped around comically as she struggled with taking off the remaining sock.


Tragically, she was off-balanced and soon fell over with her arms flailing. She would have suffered an ignominious injury had Huang Ming not swept her up in his arms.


“Careful, you still owe me some socks,” Huang Ming grinned.


Still cradled in his arms, she tore off the last sock and tried to slap it onto his face. He easily evaded the clumsy effort, infuriating her with the all-knowing smirk on his face.


“You shouldn’t throw stuff at me. Once is excusable, twice is the limit,” he said.


“Hmph. So what if I did it three times?” she snorted, folding her arms while still in his carry. Then she saw the twinkle in his eyes, and remembered the horror he had put her through before. She started to scramble in an attempt to escape, but his hold on her was like vice.


“This,” he said, and proceeded to tickle her.


Several minutes of uncontrollable giggling left her completely out-of-breath. The flush in her face, her tossed hair and the flash in her green eyes as she glared at him caused Huang Ming to laugh.


“Well I’m glad that someone is enjoying himself,” she said sarcastically. “The rest of the city is living from day to day waiting for the hammer to fall, but you seem to be carefree.”


“Why worry about the inevitable?” Huang Ming asked rhetorically. “Besides, I have everything planned out.”


“Really?” Qiong Ying asked suspiciously. “You have only been doing strange things lately.”


“It’s just the festive season. We’re in the north, surely there must be a tradition or two,” Huang Ming said.


“What festive season? It’s winter, people are going to spend time indoors away from the cold,” Qiong Ying said.


“Don’t be such a spoilsport. If you’re too naughty then there won’t be any presents for you,” Huang Ming replied while wagging a finger.


Qiong Ying perked up. “Presents?”


“Come, help me set this up,” Huang Ming said and pointed at the potted plant.


“I don’t understand you at all. This isn’t a dwarf plant suitable for indoors,” Qiong Ying complained, giving the offending plant a baleful look. It was a coniferous sapling that would eventually grow to an enormous tree after many years, yet here it was in their room.


“This is all part of a new tradition. It will be the season of giving,” Huang Ming said solemnly.


Qiong Ying rolled her eyes. “How do you expect it to catch on?”


Huang Ming spread his arms wide. “You said the people are depressed. I’m just giving them an opportunity to cheer up. People will dress up, hang lanterns and decorate small trees like this and put wrapped presents underneath.”


“Presents for who?” Qiong Ying asked. “You’ll only get complaints if the folks hear that you’re asking for presents.”


“It will all be anonymous! That’s the surprise of it all, giving gifts and doing good deeds for each other without advertising themselves!” Huang Ming expounded.


Qiong Ying admitted it was an interesting idea. “But then, wouldn’t this tree be a little too small?” she asked.


Huang Ming pulled her close. “This one is just for the two of us,” he said. “I have already commissioned the biggest tree to be planted in the middle of the city for all.”


Qiong Ying nodded in understanding. Then she looked over at the parcels and boxes that Huang Ming had brought.


“Is my present there?” she asked coyly.


“They are all for you, but I’ll show you the best one later,” Huang Ming said with a smile.


Several days later, an enormous fir tree arrived at the city square. It required a team of horses and experienced woodsmen to transport it. There was even a group of soldiers escorting it into the city.


The sight of such huge tree and the effort required to pull it attracted a huge commotion. Despite the lightly falling snow and winter chill, the people of Beihai turned out to see the strange sight of a gigantic tree being dragged and then planted in the city square.


“What is this about?” a curious spectator asked.


“Sir Huang said there will be festival entered around this tree. Anyone can hang personalized decorations on the tree, and that folk are to donate small presents to be placed below it. It will all for each other,” the soldiers said.


“What a grand idea,” the citizens praised. The novelty of it all took hold on their imagination, and soon a joyous mood infected the city. Lanterns were hung, and on Huang Ming’s suggestion and illustrations, lines of decorations were connected from house to house; all gravitating to the giant tree in the city square.


At night the lights were lit up. Instead of the usual quiet wintry desolation, the citizens of Beihai saw the streets glowing with the light from the innumerable lanterns. The enterprising ones set up stands to sell warm food and alcoholic drinks, and the atmosphere became very jovial as people turned out in droves despite the cold. Presents were exchanged, toasts were made, laughter and joy filled the air…


Qiong Ying leaned back in Huang Ming’s embrace as they stared down at the night-scape from an open window. They were wrapped in a thick blanket, their breathes visible due to the cold.


“What do you think of my ‘present’?” Huang Ming asked, his chin resting on the top of her head, his arms around her.


“Very beautiful,” Qiong Ying said.


“...But?” Huang Ming asked, sensing the hesitation in her voice.


“Nothing,” she said, only to exclaim in pain later when Huang Ming ground his chin on her head.


“Ow! Stop that!” she yelled.


“Tell me,” Huang Ming said.


Qiong Ying sighed. “This is all very nice, but it doesn’t solve the problem of your lack of soldiers. We know Jin is attacking, and none of this will prevent it.”


“Prevent it? Why would I prevent it?” Huang Ming laughed sinisterly.


Qiong Ying twisted her neck to look up at him in astonishment. “You want them to come?”


“Of course. What do you think all these lights are for? It’s a beacon to guide them on their way here,” Huang Ming said.


“But we are completely outnumbered! How do you plan to fight them?” Qiong Ying asked worriedly.


“I told you, it is the season of giving. I have been waiting for them all this time, and I have presents for them.” Huang Ming answered


“I’m not sure I like this festival,” Qiong Ying muttered.


Several days later, the waiting came to an end.

A festival of lights,
An interlude before the plight.​

 

Thanks for the chapter.
Merry Christmas!

 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Special thanks to Evelyn Halim for her second generous donation! Thank you very much!

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“Why would anyone charge a castle? Do they expect it to be intimidated into running away? Castles don't run away, this is a fact I know about castles and now you know it too.”
--Lindybeige, Youtuber

Chapter 180 – The siege of Beihai (1)

It began like any morning.


The first to catch sight of the Jin invaders were the sentry guards atop the walls of Beihai. There were now even fewer in numbers than when Huang Ming had first arrived, but they still stood vigilantly at their posts.


Though they were mentally prepared for an emergency, the sight of thousands of horsemen swarming the horizon shook the men. Then the sound of pounding hooves thundered in the air. Faint at first, but it grew louder as the Jins approached.


Though Beihai had seen much conflict over its long history, in reality it had only been the site of actual battle for a handful of times. When historians and storytellers talk about the different heroic ‘Battle of Beihai’ through the ages, they were actually referring (or dramatizing) to the various battles that were fought in the vicinity of Beihai. The defenders of Beihai in the past had always met the Jins in the field.


To put it simply, Beihai had not seen an actual siege for many, many years.


But thanks to the training regime and drills introduced by Huang Ming and the mix of veterans who remained in the city, the young soldiers quickly scrambled into action. The gongs were beaten, their alarm quickly rousing the entire city out of the morning chill.


Huang Ming himself was already awake, and he rushed to the city wall to observe for himself. By the time he had climbed to the top, the soldiers on duty had the city gates closed and barred.


The sight of seeing an advancing army from atop a vantage point was awe-inspiring. It was like the numerous war movie from his original Earth, all that was missing was an epic orchestral soundtrack to accompany the imposing army.


Even if the said imposing army was marching towards him.


Still, it was nothing he haven’t seen before. His eyes carefully scanned the encroaching invaders, his silent survey a calming influence among the nervous soldiers. They whispered about his nerves of steel; if someone as esteemed as Huang Ming was untroubled about the crisis, surely he had a plan to resolve it.


Huang Ming roughly estimated that the Jins were at least twenty thousand in number; the majority of whom were mounted. It seemed very small for the task of capturing a city, but the Jins were taking full advantage of Beihai’s lack of soldiers.


The fierce Jin warriors were dressed in furs and marten hats, yelling and whipping their powerful steeds into a frenzy. One could almost feel the earth shaking beneath their hooves. Eventually their screams merged into one, a ringing battlecry of ‘Ala-la-la-la-la-la!’ roaring in the air; curdling the blood of those who heard it.


Huang Ming was not worried about the horsemen at all. After all, what could they do to the walls of Beihai except to inefficiently pelt the defenders with arrows from their shortbows at an awkward angle?


He was far more concerned with the infantry lagging behind the dust kicked up by the cavalry. Marching less glamorously on foot were the common soldiers wielding swords and thick round shields. Further behind were the baggage train: donkeys and oxen pulling fully laden wagons.


It was these wagons that was the focus of Huang Ming’s attention. Some of the cargo were inevitably the food and fodder needed to sustain the army, but some of the animals of burden were dragging strange looking wheeled carts.


The soldiers of Beihai would not recognize the foreign implements, but the sight of them made Huang Ming’s countenance grim.


‘Cannons…’


The carts were carrying hollow metal tubes, and Huang Ming instantly recognized their use. They were crudely vase-shaped, somewhat stubby and short.


Firearms in this world had yet to be developed. While fireworks were common in festivals, upscaling the power of the decorative pyrotechnics into deadly explosives was still just beyond the reach of current technology. Huang Ming knew that refined gunpowder had yet to be discovered, and he was still experimenting about the chemical properties in this world to truly develop it himself.


But it seemed that his enemy Avatar, the Princess of Jin; had used her ten-year headstart to her advantage.


Fortunately the cannons were still primitive. Unfortunately, it meant the Jins were also bringing along other ‘traditional’ siege weapons: battering rams, catapults and trebuchets. As the defenders of Beihai watch on helplessly, the Jin infantry unloaded their cargo and began the ponderous task of assembling the siege engines.


“Ring the great bell, give the people the signal,” Huang Ming ordered quietly.


The great bell that was part of the alarm network was struck, its sonorous sound rang throughout the city and temporarily drowned out the commotion from the Jin industry outside.


The Jin soldiers and engineers paused to wonder at the ringing sound. Was that a signal for something? But their overseers then cracked their whips, and their tedious work began anew.


What the Jins didn’t know that similarly within the city, a bustle of activity commenced. Everyone who had participated in Huang Ming’s recent festival of light jumped into action, forming small groups of enthusiastic militia.


Those who were absent during the present exchange due to ill-will and sheer miserly behaviour were dragged out of their homes by their neighbours and local officials who were armed with spears and pitchforks.


“What is going on?”


“We are to do what?”


“We didn’t know! How are we supposed to do it?”


The laggards complained. Those in the know grinned at each other, enjoying the opportunity to lord it over them and marvelling at Huang Ming’s foresight.


Huang Ming had ordered for the festival little notes to accompany the gift exchange. Those who had participated found hidden instructions in it to be taken at certain signals. They were to secretly teach those that they trusted and spread the word.


It was the same sort of technique employed by the ancient Han Chinese on Earth to secretly mobilize against their Mongol overlords. Instead of concealing the messages in mooncakes, Huang Ming used presents.


As most who had stayed away from the festival were the likes of overbearing bullies and scalping merchants; the ordinary folk relished the chance to push them around with the help of the soldiers organizing the militia.


“Stop, stop! Surely there is a way for us to make it up!” the wicked people cried.


“Of course!” a woman laughed. She was an ordinary person, elected by her neighbours to be one of the militia leaders by virtue of her generosity and outspokenness… as well as the growling dogs that she had with her. The tyrannical landlords had unreasonably raised the rent on the local community; and now she and her fellow tenants enjoyed turning the tables on them.


“Seize their homes, take everything of use!” she ordered.


Similar scenes occurred elsewhere in the city.


It goes without saying that the ordinary folk who had been sneered at and oppressed by the unscrupulous were extremely thorough in their duties. To the distress of the affected, vast quantities of wealth and food were confiscated and sent to the government godowns for distribution. It was a task done with much joy and zeal by the common people.


The woes of the bad characters did not end there: their opulent homes were torn down. The stones and rubble were transported to the city walls, the wood taken to the furnaces and the brass pillars sent to the artisans to be melted down and reworked.


Even their slaves were taken away. The male servants were drafted into the militia, the maids and serving girls sent to work in the factories; with promises of freedom and monetary compensation afterwards giving them something to cheer about.


The Princess of Jin may have brought cannons in this world, but in Beihai, Huang Ming had introduced the concept of total war. Each and every single citizen was to do their part.


Thus, within and without the city of Beihai, both sides geared for a siege…

The city surrounded,
The alarms sounded.
Echoes of war resounded,
No one will be left unwounded.​

 

Thanks for the chapter.

Do you have a link to that youtube quote? I can't find it.

 

Lindybeige is a Youtube with mostly military history bent... and dancing. In other words, most of his stuff is talking. The quote is around the 1:30 mark of this particular video. One of his earlier videos, this was a critique on the realism (or the lack thereof) of the movie 'Ironclad'.

 

Thanks for chapter mate!
I am really curious of General Yin's allegiance and have some other suspicions.

 

Happy New Year all.

Chapter will be a day late due to unexpected New Year revelry (yes).

 

First chapter of 2018. It's a new year, and I'm already swamped. Maybe 2018 be a great year for the rest of you.

Thank you to my readers! Your support is much appreciated!
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“A Fortress circumvented ceases to be an obstacle. A Fortress destroyed ceases to be a threat. Know the difference.”
--Warhammer 40,000, “The Tacitca Imperialis”

Chapter 181 – The siege of Beihai (2)

Despite the dramatic appearance of the Jin army, the actual siege itself took days to begin proper. The huge cavalry charge from the horizon and the accompanying blood-thirsty yells were more for show than any real practical purpose.


There were some in Beihai who were intimidated by the Jins, but most were grimly determined to fight. The militia which to outsiders seemed to sprout overnight were quickly organized and mobilized. They had no illusions of their effectiveness, but the alternative was to passively await slaughter.


That was not to say that Huang Ming allowed the city to lapse into complacency. In fact, he ordered strict war-time measures, from curfews and food rationing to having the security forces conduct checks and patrols.


It kept everyone busy and on their toes and avoid the feeling of helplessness as the Jin siege towers were completed. The biting winter chill added to their frustrations.


There were some who chafed at his orders, thinking that the young scholar was unnecessarily austere. After all, General Yin would rescue them soon, wouldn’t he? Why should they need to limit their meals as though relief would never come?


It was not until the first boulder from a catapult slamming into the city wall did the realities of a siege truly hit home figuratively and literally speaking.


Beihai itself did not have the weapons to retaliate. Having grown accustomed to meeting invaders in the open field, the successive governors and generals neglected to maintain such heavy siege weapons. General Yin himself made the ‘difficult decision’ to continue the trend and instead spent the money on recruiting actual soldiers.


Soldiers which he then took away from Beihai…


Very quickly the mantra of ‘thirsty days’ spread through the city. That was the number Huang Ming had quoted to General Yin. The relatively short timeframe seemed very realistic to the citizens and it helped to convince them to bear with the inconvenience of being surrounded by a horde of barbarians.


Indeed, there was little the outnumbered soldiers in Beihai could do. But due to their scarceness, it meant the heavy boulders launched by the Jins struck the walls but caused insignificant casualties.


Yet it provoked little to no response from Beihai.


The lack of reaction from Beihai was puzzling to the Jins. They were causing some structural damage with the siege weapons, but the lack of retaliation meant the rest of the Jin army had little or nothing to do. There was no need for the infantry to shield the engineers, no need for the cavalry to wander around the gates to prevent the defenders from rushing out.


As it was, the only sound of war was the creaking tendons and ropes being pulled back, the whistling sound of a projectile flying through the air and the cracking boom of a hit. Other than the occasional cheer from the siege engineers, there were no swords clashing, no screams from men dying, no shouting for one’s mother… none of the traditional sounds of battle.


It was akin to someone throwing rocks at an empty house.


In the Jin camps, a council was held. The leaders huddled around a fire, their breaths puffing visibly as testament to the falling temperatures.


“What the hell are they doing? Why aren’t they fighting back? Don’t they know that they are being attacked?” the Jin commander asked as he gestured angrily at the near empty battlements and parapets of Beihai.


“Maybe they can’t fight back,” one of his subordinates guessed. “The Masked Man did report that Beihai is significantly weakened.”


“To this degree? I find it hard to believe,” the Jin commander snorted.


Usually in a siege, the heavy artillery was used to break down the walls and clear off the defenders on it. Later, the rams and ladders were brought in to exploit the breaches in the defences. The soldiers would then storm the city, secure the gatehouses and throw them open for the rest of the army to enter to rape and pillage.


But in this particular case, it was as if Beihai had arbitrarily conceded the first round, and it made the several days of tedious unpacking and assembling the heavy machines of war all seem wasteful.


“Perhaps we should circumvent the city and strike the heartlands of Wu instead?” someone suggested.


“Do you wish to disobey our Prince of Jin?” the Jin commander asked coldly.


He glared at the huge banner flying high from somewhere within Beihai. The word ‘Huang’ fluttered in the winter wind arrogantly, as if unimpressed with the efforts of the Jin besiegers.


“The Prince of Jin gave us 30 days to take the city, but from what I see it is overly generous. If the Wu cowards inside Beihai are not willing to come out and fight, then we’ll go in and kill them,” the Jin commander said disdainfully.


He then ordered for a general attack on the city. The Jin soldiers cheered; finally there was action for them instead of sitting huddled around campfires in the cold.


It was a strange opening battle for the Jins. Here they were, marching towards Beihai yet there was not even a single arrow shot from the Wu soldiers on the walls. The Wu soldiers merely scurry around like rats as the Jins advanced towards the weakest points of the battered wall.


Seeing no resistance, the Jin soldiers rushed forward with their huge ladders. This was a frontal assault, and they made sure all knew it by beating the war drums and filling the air with their battlecries of ‘Ala-la-la-la-la-la!’.


It seemed that the entire city was silently awaiting its doom.


A hundred paces away from the walls proper, those lusty battlecries turned into screams of anguish and surprise. The Jin rush was halted in confusion, but those in the rear were unaware and kept pushing those in front.


“What is going on?” the Jin commander growled.


A runner from the front breathlessly reported: “There were hidden pits in front of the city walls, filled with spikes!”


Just then, a cheer rose from within Beihai. The great bell was rung, and then as if by magic, the soldiers of Wu reappeared on top of the walls. The entire wall was lined with mass of archers, far more numerous than the Jins had seen previously. The archers drew their bows and let loose hails of arrows, showering the stricken Jins below with deadly consequences. The Jin soldiers were thrown into chaos: were they to continue to press forward, leaping over the dead and dying bodies of their comrades? Or were they to pull back?


“Cowardly treachery!” the Jin commander swore. He then ordered the drums to signal for his soldiers to pull back.


“We’re retreating?” someone asked.


“They laid low to lure us in, they obviously have more traps waiting for us. There is no reason for us to play their game. Have the men pull back, we will secretly fill the pits in at night,” the commander replied.


The soldiers were aggrieved at the ‘cowardly’ tactics employed by the defenders of Beihai, and they reluctantly retreated. It was the height of frustration: to finally be given the order to attack and yet were told to pull back at the brink of actual assault.


Inside the city of Beihai, the defenders jeered at the retreating backs of the Jins.


Huang Ming looked on pensively.


“Sir, should we prepare the traps again?” one of the soldiers asked as his colleagues listened with trepidation. The prospect of going out of the city to clear the pits of the dead bodies were daunting to say the least.


Huang Ming shook his head. “No, this tactic won’t work again. They will be filling up the pits at night.”


“Then… should we try to stop them?”


“No, we won’t be able to stop them,” Huang Ming said.


The soldier looked at the corpses in the pits below them. “Really?” he asked sceptically.


“They have many more men than us. All they need to do is order each man to carry bags of earth to the pits, and they will be done in a few nights.” Huang Ming enlightened.


The Wu soldier said nothing, but looked meaningfully at the bow in his own hands.


Huang Ming chuckled. “Are you confident of hitting them with each shot… at night? You might cause them some inconvenience, but they will accomplish their goals. Save the arrows, there will be plenty of time to use them effectively later.”


The Wu soldiers nodded in understanding. Over the past few weeks before the Jin attack, Huang Ming had ordered them to dig deep pits, much to their irritation. Why were they digging these great holes for no reason?


Now they saw how their efforts had reaped deadly results. They looked down at the wall, staring at the corpses of the Jins that lay in those very pits that they have dug.


There were other baffling preparations that was ordered by Huang Ming well in advance, but now the Wu soldiers realized that their young leader had prodigious foresight.


“Look, it’s snowing!” someone whispered.


It seemed even the heavens were paying tribute to the dead.


The Wu soldiers gazed at their young strategist with awe and wonder. The way he stood solemnly at the parapet, his hand outstretched to catch the snow in a picturesque manner…


Then they were confounded again by his next order:


“Since the Jins will be busy with digging earth to fill up the pits, I want every man here to prepare two buckets of water each. Bring them up to the wall tonight, those who fail will be severely punished.”


That left the soldiers scratching their heads in puzzlement.


“Water? Why not oil to burn the Jins?” they ventured to ask, referring to the standard tactic of pouring incendiaries at a besieging force.


“Save the oil and flammables, we will be needing them in this cold weather,” Huang Ming explained.


The soldiers obeyed, but some could not help but look at his back as he wandered off.


Just what was in the head of their young leader?

Delaying tactics,
For the enemy, it was tragic.​

 

“It's a trick. Get an axe.”
--Ash Williams, ‘Army of Darkness’ (1992)

Chapter 182 – Call of the dead

As predicted by Huang Ming, the Jins filled the pits during the following nights. The Jin soldiers were simply ordered to run at the pits with bags of dirt and to throw them into the pits. In the falling snow, digging up the soil and then running to and fro for the enterprise was a feat of sheer determination.


A few of the Wu defenders on the walls of Beihai could not resist firing a few arrows at the dark mass of shadows in the night, but like what Huang Ming had said, it only caused a few casualties. The Jins did not stop, they merely picked up the fallen bags of dirt and pressed on. Some even stripped off their upper clothing and treat it as some sort of deadly sporting challenge, sweating with both exertion and anxiety despite the winter nights.


After two nights, the Wu defenders saw that their pits had been completely covered over. It was a little disheartening to see the weeks of digging be negated in merely two nights, and Huang Ming only asked them to gently pour buckets of water over the face of the wall and to the ground below. It was as if they were washing the wall face… but why? There were no blood shed on the wall yet…


Due to Jin’s preoccupation with the earthworks, they did not notice the wet endeavour. But by the dawn of the third day, the Jins awoke to find a glistening face of ice on the walls of Beihai. The dipping temperatures had froze the water poured by the defenders at night.


Of course, the Jins had no idea what had happened. It was as if an armour of ice had been magically draped over the walls of Beihai.


While Jin had been rapidly developing under the guidance of the Princess of Jin, their nomadic and shamanistic traditions still remained in their core. The sudden appearance of a glistening, icy façade on the walls of Beihai shook the more superstitious of the common rank and file. The sunlight gleamed off the ice and reflected a glare directly back at the Jin army. From the invader’s perspective, it seemed that there was an unearthly halo over Beihai.


The Jin commanders were obviously irritated by the hesitation in their troops. A proposed direct attack that day and the next had to be called off as some of the men refused to obey. Harsh military punishment had to be exacted to whip them back into line, and their morale fell.


Even the Wu defenders in Beihai were surprised by the icy wall. A simple act of freezing water over the nights had delayed enemy action for two full days. The men and citizens now look at Huang Ming reverently: in addition to being a strategist, he was now almost a prophetic figure.


Yet they did not know that despite his calm outward demeanour, Huang Ming returned home each day worn and weary. Miss Xilei saw how the young man would sigh every now and then. He was growing irritable at every passing day, and it seemed his responsibilities were physically causing a bent back and slumped shoulders.


It brought some cheer to the Jin agent. The fake maid and her fellow spies Songdan and Wu Zhi had been trapped in Beihai ever since the siege, unable to enact their plans to kidnap Huang Ming. Despite being advised by the Masked Man, the speed of the Jin army’s advance surprised them all. Not a day passed without Songdan cursing about the Masked Man’s vague warnings. Xilei herself became suspicious especially since the Masked Man did not turn up again since that night.


Xilei had mixed feelings about the siege. On the one hand, she was trapped in a war situation. On the other, it meant she was stuck in Beihai and was able to remain close to the enigmatic Quan Lu…


The voluptuous maid shook her pretty head, willing the devilishly handsome face away from her mind. Instead, she brew a pot of tea and approached Huang Ming.


“You must take care of yourself, sire,” she murmured, acting the part of a concerned maid as she poured him a cup.


Huang Ming chuckled hollowly, but drank the tea with relish.


He looked at her face as she refilled the cup. Noticing his attention, she blushed demurely.


“I have done you wrong,” Huang Ming said suddenly.


“Sire?” she asked, startled.


“I should have sent you away with General Yin. Now you are trapped here, facing an uncertain future.”


She smiled. “Had I remained in the wilderness, I would have suffered a terrible fate by the Jins anyway. My life was saved by you, and I am indebted to you,” she said.


Huang Ming sighed. “Just as well. Had you remained there, the Jins would have thought that you were someone sent to do so officially, and would desecrate those graves. Such a thing would be a terrible blow to Beihai. Luckily without you keeping vigil there, the Jins would assume the graves were of no importance, and would ignore it.”


Later that night, Xilei slipped away to meet her compatriots and passed Huang Ming’s worries to them.


The elderly hunchback Wu Zhi rubbed his chin in thought.


“This could prove useful. Now that we are trapped here, we should do what we can to aid our army to take the city quickly,” he said slowly.


Songdan was less than enthusiastic, moreso since the information came from Xilei who was at odds with him.


“Really? What if such an act enrage the Beihai people instead?” he asked.


Xilei was irritated by the scarred man’s pessimism, but conceded that it was a possibility.


Wu Zhi nodded at him. “You may be right, but then it would also provoke them to go out and fight. The citizens might be furious enough to demand immediate retaliation, forcing Huang Ming out of his defensive tactics.”


“I guess it would be preferable than watch our army bleed clumsily in this siege,” Songdan grumbled.


“This Huang Ming is much more resourceful than we thought. Who could have thought that a thin sheet of ice is enough to deter the army from attacking?” Wu Zhi sighed.


“A paltry trick, fit only to fool the ignorant,” Songdan sneered.


“But it worked,” Xilei reminded him, just to be contrary.


“Whose side are you on?” Songdan shot back.


“Enough,” Wu Zhi said wearily. “It is a simple sleight of mind, but the important thing is that it worked.”


“It goes to show just how hastily conceived this attack was. Whoever convinced our Prince to attack in winter needs to be strung up and hung as a traitor,” Songdan said vehemently.


“There is no point debating what had already happened. I will write the message and seal it with my emblem, but as to delivering it to our army outside…” Wu Zhi trailed off.


“It will have to be tied to an arrow. All I need is a Wu soldier’s uniform,” Songdan said.


“That’s not all you need. Their soldiers know each other well, and will question someone with a face like yours. I’ll go with you to distract them, they will be eating out of my palm,” Xilei said smugly.


Wu Zhi then wrote the letter and sealed it with a wax imprint of his emblem. Songdan disguised himself accordingly, and made as if he was escorting Xilei to the city wall.


“Miss Xilei, what are you doing here? It can be dangerous!” the Wu soldiers on the wall exclaimed.


“How can I remain at home when brave men like you are risking your lives? At the very least, I can provide some hot food for you,” Xilei said, gesturing to the small basket with her.


“You are such an angel!” the Wu soldiers gushed, swarming around her as she doled out some plain dumplings.


Songdan suppressed his urge to vomit, and instead slipped away to a shadowy part of the wall. After checking that nobody was watching, he quickly fired an arrow which was painted red and tied with a small bell in addition to Wu Zhi’s letter. The sound would alert the Jin soldiers, and the colour would stand out in the morning snow.


The next morning saw the resumption of Jin activity. The Jin commander was completely enraged after reading Wu Zhi’s missive: to think that their entire army had ground to a halt because of plain water!


To demonstrate to the superstition men that the ice was merely ice, the Jin commander launched the first catapult himself. The Jin soldiers waited with bated breath as the heavy projectile flew through the air. It struck Beihai with a crash, smashing the thin ice and breaking a chunk of the wall with it.


“See for yourself! It’s just plain ice! Ice!” the Jin commander roared, the veins in his neck bulging.


The Jin soldiers raised their voices.


“The Wu people are deceitful and underhanded! They refuse to fight honourably! Think of how they are making fun of you! They must be laughing at all of us!”


The Jin commander raised his fist in a dramatic gesture.


“They won’t be laughing any more! Look!” he said, and pointed to a ghastly procession behind him. Exhumed corpses and skeletal remains were being strung up on huge crosses; some were so decrepit that their coffins were also tied up to the crucifixes.


The ghastly displays were then hoisted up for all to see.


“See this! These are the remains of the Yin clan, the bogeymen who had defied the Jins for so long! See how they cannot even provide a decent burial for the men who fight and died for them, see how little they think of them!”


The Jin commander then pointed at the huge ‘Huang’ banner.


“I want that banner destroyed! Take it down!”

A brazen provocation,
Causing much violence.​

 

This chapter is greatly affected by a blown fuse in my air-conditioning, sorry if it feels unpolished -_-

---------------

“I feel like ima break this damn thing!”
--J, ‘Men in Black (1997)

Chapter 183 – The gifting

The city shuddered at each hit from the Jin siege engines. Great stones struck its walls at regular intervals, each blow breaking off chunks and carving pits.


Yet, Huang Ming was quietly drinking tea in his office. Every now and then he would look through the window, timing the intervals between each impact.


“Are you not worried at all?” Qiong Ying asked. Her own cup of tea remained untouched.


“I observed that they did not carry a lot of ammunition, and there is no ready source in the area. They will stop soon enough,” Huang Ming said calmly.


The Jins were still using the ‘traditional’ siege engines and lobbing great blocks of stone. The small cannons that Huang Ming had identified remained unused, presumably due to their shorter range... or that the Jin commander was unfamiliar with the proper usage. He could see that the Jins were lackadaisical about the cannons, placing them casually among their baggage train which had suspicious looking barrels...


Qiong Ying rolled her emerald green eyes. “That is exactly the point. This cannot go on forever. What are you going to do when there is a gaping hole in the wall in another day or two?”


The corner of Huang Ming’s lip tugged upwards. “By my reckoning, there should be a hole in a few hours. They have been zeroing in on a few spots repeatedly.”


Qiong Ying was incredulous. “And yet, you’re here? Drinking tea with me? I am honoured,” she commented sarcastically.


“You should be. You might not get to do it here again.”


It was a simple off-handed statement from Huang Ming, but it caused Qiong Ying to tremble.


“What do you mean?” she asked. Then her eyes widened. “Don’t tell me…” she said slowly.


Huang Ming rose from his seat and gestured vaguely towards one side of the room. “Get that ready,” he said.


Qiong Ying turned to look at the direction where he had waved, and her eyes landed at the armoury cabinet. She turned to look back at Huang Ming.


“You must be joking,” she said flatly.


“No, I’m Huang Ming,” he replied lightly.


She raised a hand to slap him, but stopped herself. Huang Ming did not even blink.


“I suppose you have a plan to prevent a breach?” Qiong Ying asked.


“Mm, not really. I’m just going to plug the hole. It’s going to be an old-fashioned blood-and-guts counter attack.”


Qiong Ying glared at him. “I never took you for one of those who would die stupidly for glory,” she said venomously.


“I’m not.”


Qiong Ying threw her arms wide in exasperation. “Then tell me, how did we end up being surrounded here? Now you’re preparing to die with a sword in your hand!”


“Hey hey, who said anything about dying?” Huang Ming said. “I plan to live a long and prosperous life, thank you very much.”


He strode over to open the armoury cabinet, revealing the thick armour of a high-ranking military official.


“Then why do you want to put on armour?” Qiong Ying demanded.


Huang Ming placed his fists on his hips. “Whoever said I’m going to wear it? I’m asking you to pack it up. We’re moving out of this place.”


Qiong Ying narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “You said it’s going to be ‘an old-fashioned blood-and-guts counter attack’. Don’t try to deny it,” she said.


“I am not going to ride out and fight,” Huang Ming insisted with a straight face.


***


As Huang Ming had said, there were soon a breach in Beihai’s wall. A loud cheer rose from the Jins, and the order was given for a general advance. As before, the mounted troops were held in reserve. If the Beihai defenders decided to open the gates to counter attack, the cavalry would sweep in and overrun them.


The Wu archers atop the wall rained arrows on the approaching Jin soldiers, but there were too few of them. Soon the Jins were swarming through the breach, shrugging off the negligible casualties.


It was not a large opening and it was littered with rubble, and the Jins were pushing each other forward as they climbed laboriously over the broken stones and bricks.


In hindsight the Jins would be better served with a longer barrage to widen it, or wait for more breaches for simultaneous attacks. But the Jins were impatient. They were given thirty days to take Beihai, and Huang Ming’s stalling tactics had already consumed a week of their time.


Besides, once the Jins get through, they will overwhelm the defenders and open the gates themselves…


Or so they thought. Much to the puzzlement of the first Jin soldiers that had climbed through the breach, they were immediately greeted with a forest of spear-like fortifications. These were no ordinary spears, they were lashed together like teethed fencing. They were like gigantic stakes, with their business ends pointed at the incoming Jins.


In fact, these were the coniferous trees that Huang Ming brought into the city as part of the winter festival. Once the first tree was brought in, the rest of Beihai were encouraged to imitate Huang Ming’s gifting tree. Thousands of smaller trees were brought into Beihai as part of the festival.


Once the invasion was sighted, Huang Ming had these trees taken and fashioned into mobile fencing. He knew that holding the walls of Beihai indefinitely was impossible: the Jins were bound to breakthrough. But once they do, they would encounter the forest of spear-like trees. Placed atop carts, they could easily be transported to wherever needed.


Even the smaller trees that could be placed indoors were used: they were used like ‘deer antlers’. The entire setup was done according to Huang Ming’s specifications.


In their rush through the breach, the first lines of the Jins died horribly to these sharp implements. It was similar to a tragic cavalry charge where the horses and their riders impaled themselves against a static hedgehog defence. It was a defence manned with far more Wu soldiers than the Jins had seen previously.


Standing behind the wooden fortification, Huang Ming curled his lips grimly.


“Let them have it,” he said, and the order was repeated by a herald.


Instead of pelting futilely at a large mass from atop the wall, the Wu defenders now had a narrow zone to focus their fire. Surrounded by three sides and their way back blocked by their own compatriots, the Jins were showered with arrows.


The Jin commander outside kept urging his men to charge through the breach, unaware of the slaughter within. By the time confused reports filtered back to him and the attack called off, it was already late in the day. Piles of corpses littered around the breach.


The Jin commander was absolutely furious at yet again another deceitful Wu trick. Siege ladders were prepared for the assault the next day, the Jins were going to throw more men at the city at simultaneous points.


But just as the Jins settled down for the meal time, the gates were suddenly thrown open. Huang Ming led some Wu soldiers and charged out, taking the Jins off-guard who had grown accustomed to quiet evenings due to Wu’s inaction.


They rode through and fro, causing great confusion as they set off fires. Huang Ming led his raiders towards the baggage train… towards the small cannons the Jins had brought.


“Stay back!” he warned his men, and lobbed a torch at the small barrels around the cannons.


As he had expected, the barrels exploded. What he didn’t expect were the low yield: they were much weaker than he had thought. It appears the gunpowder within were still roughly made.


Still, the pyrotechnics were enough to shock the Jin’s attempts to intercept Huang Ming’s force.


Their mission accomplished, the raiders retreated back to Beihai in triumph. All the Jins could do were to gnash their teeth as laughters of ‘Ho ho ho!’ from the raiders rang in the night…

Underhanded tricks and dishonesty,
In war there is no need for modesty.​

 

Delayed due to a stay for medical checkup.

 

Late, late, late.

A big thank you to my new Patrons:
-Marcus Saffron
-David Trinh

-----------------

“All is fair in love and war.”
--John Lyly

Chapter 184 – The surrender (1)

Huang Ming triumphantly led his raider back into the city completely unmolested. The Jins were still in confusion and putting out the fires and rounding up their startled horses.


The city cheered at the return of the little band that dared to conduct a raid against a much larger force, but Huang Ming received a different sort of welcome.


Qiong Ying in her Quan Lu disguise was waiting for him with an evil eye on her face, her arms folded and her feet tapping impatiently. Her handsome visage combined with displeasure gave her the features of a devilishly irritated person, a coldly wrathful apparition of fire and ice.


Huang Ming smirked, but he spied something and quickly signalled with his eyes. Despite her growing anger, Qiong Ying caught the gesture.


“Well done, young lord!” Quan Lu exclaimed while clapping sarcastically.


“Thank you, Sir Quan. Sorry to have inconvenienced you in this mess, but you were the one who insisted on visiting Beihai,” Huang Ming said, twisting truth into the fiction.


The corner of Quan Lu’s face twitched, adding realism to the drama.


“I came because of commitments to your family,” he said stiffly. “Even to the last moment, you reassured me that nothing will go wrong.”


Huang Ming laughed and spread his arms wide. “Well, my friend, as you can see, everything went well!”


Quan Lu narrowed his eyes, they glinted maliciously. “And for how long can you keep this up? How many times will you ride out and fight? You claimed to be able to hold the city for thirty days, but already our walls have suffered a breach. How do you plan to save the people of the city?”


Huang Ming’s arms dropped down, and he returned an icy look of his own. “I did not know that you are that concerned with the city’s fate, my friend. You have been secluded for all this while, I had thought you no longer have any worldly concerns. But if you are that worried, feel free to contribute to the city defences,” Huang Ming said mockingly.


Quan Lu stared hatefully at Huang Ming and withdrew in humiliation; one could see the irrevocable rift between them.


The little exchanged was witnessed by Miss Xilei. The expression on Quan Lu’s face tugged at her heartstrings, and she decided to approach the man who had taken liberties with her.


“Sir Quan, are you alright?” she called out softly.


Quan Lu chuckled bitterly. “I have shamed myself,” he said, causing a twinge in Xilei’s heart. He reached out to brush Xilei’s hair. “Poor little maid, now you too are stuck in this forsaken place because of him,” he whispered.


Xilei bit her quivering lips, her eyes watery. She was loyal to the Princess of Jin and obeyed the princess’s orders to spy on Huang Ming, but she did not expect to find such an enchanting man here.


Being a temptress herself, Xilei was wary of being emotionally invested. But Quan Lu’s fine-looking features and outrageous flirting stuck in Xilei’s mind, and seeing his distressed face now raised unfamiliar feelings within her.


“It is no fault of Sir Huang that the Jins has attacked Beihai,” Xilei said softly.


“Is that what you think? Did you know that he had deliberately antagonized and humiliated the Jins at the capital? He all but gave the Jins the excuse they needed to come here,” Quan Lu said. “The citizens of Beihai cheer for him, but how many of them know that the fault lies entirely with him?”


Xilei affected a look of shock.


“But, but he is a hero of our country of Wu,” she stammered convincingly.


“A hero? It’s just a fancy story made to make himself look good. He is only doing this out of sheer pride, not duty,” Quan Lu sneered. “If you consider the facts carefully, the only people who benefited from his strategies were his family. He allowed the campaign in Wei to fail, and yet added Tigertrap Fortress to their sphere of influence.”


He leaned closely at Xilei, causing her heart to skip a beat at the proximity.


“Make no mistake about it, he is a selfish creature, and he is gambling with the lives of everyone in Beihai,” Quan Lu said. “He offended General Yin Yanzhao, and that caused the veterans to be taken away. He gave General Li Jing a menial task, and now he had deserted out of disgust. I do not blame them, I should have left long ago.”


He shook his head in regret. “If not for fulfilling a promise to his mother to accompany him, I would not have come here at all,” he added. Then he smiled faintly, his green eyes glimmering at her.


“But I suppose I wouldn’t have met you otherwise, so there is a silver lining in all this,” Quan Lu murmured.


It was as if a hurricane swept through Xilei. She made up her mind there and then.


“Sir Quan, there are some people I would like you to meet…”


***


“So, how did it go?” Huang Ming asked.


“Perfectly. She introduced me to her merry little band, and we’re plotting all sorts of nefarious plans to take you down,” Qiong Ying said lightly.


“Really?”


Qiong Ying’s face turned solemn. “They have been hard at work ever since the siege, you should not underestimate them.”


“Did they try to rile up the disaffected wealthy and powerful people in the city?” Huang Ming asked cynically.


Qiong Ying was both astonished and annoyed. “How did you know?” she demanded.


“I antagonized them when I had their riches seized, I would be disappointed if those spies haven’t tried to approach them.”


“You did it on purpose? How far are you planning ahead?” Qiong Ying asked.


Huang Ming shrugged. “There will always be dissatisfied people inside a city under siege, I only done so to make it easy for them to identify each other. Do you know what do they have planned?”


“Nothing concrete as yet. Seems your successful raid had given them some pause,” she replied.


“Well, that’s disappointing,” Huang Ming sighed. “Come, I’ll give you some ideas to feed them.”


“Before that, we have some other things to discuss,” Qiong Ying interrupted.


“Hmm? What about?”


“You lied to me. You told me you won’t be riding out to fight the Jins,” Qiong Ying said, her eyes narrowing.


“But I didn’t lie,” Huang Ming protested.


Qiong Ying was unamused by his blatant lying. “You personally lead the raid!”


“Ah. But I wasn’t fighting the Jins in the raid. The raid was so successful that you can’t call it fighting.”


“Then what do you call it?” Qiong Ying asked waspishly.


“That wasn’t fighting, that was a beating,” Huang Ming said with a grin.

Deliberate bait,
Accumulating hate.​

 

“We have captured the kitchens, but still fighting for the living room and the bedroom.”
--World War II German soldier, Stalingrad

Chapter 185 – The surrender (2)

Over the course of the next few days, the Jins continued their pounding of the city walls with their siege weapons. Having tasted the folly of being funnelled into a single killing zone, the Jin commander ordered for multiple breaches to be made. It was a slow and tedious process as they only had a few catapults remaining after Huang Ming’s daring night raid.


It maddened the Jin commander, especially since the walls themselves were barely manned by the Wu soldiers. The Jins had thought of building huge siege ladders to scale the undefended walls, but could not find the materials in the steppe plains to do so. The northern forests were sparse to begin with, but Huang Ming’s winter festival had depleted what few mature trees there were.


Thus the strange sight of seeing a large Jin army sitting around in the cold, impatiently waiting for their catapults to crack another part of the wall.


There were attempts to use battering rams to break down the city gates, only for them to be thwarted by copious amounts of oil and flammables poured by the defenders. The Jins were stunned by the sheer amount of combustibles used, but later reports made them realize that Huang Ming could afford it, having made substantial preparations in advance.


Who was it that said Beihai was there for the taking? Who wrote the reports saying Huang Ming had no soldiers? Who told the Crown Prince of Jin that 30,000 men were enough, that Beihai would never expect an attack in winter? Huang Ming was far more decisive and resourceful than the stories suggest. There were those who had dismissed his exploits during the campaign in Wei as propaganda, that his elevation was Wu’s attempt to dig a silver lining out of that particular disaster. After all, he was under the command of his father the Great General Huang Zheng; surely those accomplishments rightly belonged to his illustrious father instead…


Yet here he was, confounding the Jins who outnumber the defenders of Beihai. Unless of course, one took into account how Huang Ming had mobilized the citizens of Beihai themselves, his ruthless confiscation of materiel from the wealthy people of Beihai now paying dividends.


Obviously, the ones who had their ill-gotten wealth seized were not pleased. Even their homes were torn down as raw material, forcing them to share temporary homes with those of the lower classes. No matter how rich they were, how influential their relatives were elsewhere, those who enjoyed respect and prestige suddenly found themselves slumming it with the common folk. To make matters worse, the common folk were now part of the militia and were lording over them in this time of difficulty.


Thus it was inevitable for them to clandestinely gather to voice their grouses. At first, such meetings were merely an outlet for complaints. But as the days passed, more insidious talk began to flow.


When the second wall opening finally happened, the entire city braced itself. But the attacks did not come. The men and women responsible for transporting and wielding the mobile spear-fences spent a restless few nights waiting on edge.


But the Jins continue to bombard the walls, this time at another point. It was clear that the Jin commander was not taking chances and was now more cautious, for he only attacked after there were three gaping holes in Beihai’s walls. The defenders of Beihai were stretched to their limits for the next several days as the Jins attacked the breaches in turn, alternating between them and sometimes on all of them at once. They could not break through the forest of spears, but it was getting more and more difficult to drive the Jins back each time.


Huang Ming’s recent success slowly faded as a sense of crisis slowly took hold. ‘Thirty days’ was the call, but to the citizens of Beihai, the sight of blood and corpses in their streets made it seem so distant. They could not repair the wall: the mounted Jin archers lurking outside prevented any such endeavour with their hail of arrows.


With this new development, the rest of the Jin army advanced their deployment. The siege weapons were inched forward, the catapults were now lobbing their projectiles directly into the city proper, hoping to sow panic and confusion in Beihai. The gigantic banner that Huang Ming had commissioned now served as a convenient target for the Jin siege engineers to aim at.


Unfortunately, their catapult attacks did not have the sort of morale-damaging effect the Jins had hoped for. Instead, the citizens of Beihai were quietly laughing as each subsequent catapult launch landed near the flagpole; for one night Huang Ming had it relocated from his pagoda-like office to the gigantic festival tree in the middle of the city square. It meant the Jins were harmlessly and wastefully lobbing their ammunition at a relatively empty spot of the city.


Still, it gave some impetus to the discontent within Beihai.


“You’re in trouble now,” Qiong Ying said to Huang Ming.


“When have I not?” Huang Ming mumbled as he looked out the window.


“You’d better be prepared. The conspirators plan something horrible for you tomorrow,” Qiong Ying said.


“Oh, finally. What do are they going to do? Kill me in my sleep? Poison the wells? Open the city gates?” Huang Ming listed as he continued to look at the horizon. From his vantage point he could see the Jin encampment outside of the city, but he was looking at another direction.


“They plan to kidnap you,” Qiong Ying said quietly. “The spies have planted the idea in the malcontents to bundle you up like a prize.”


The tone in her voice caused Huang Ming to turn around. “Ah, to use me as a bargaining chip to appease the Jins?” he asked.


Qiong Ying shook her head, and Huang Ming could see that she was truly shaken.


“What’s wrong?”


“The spies… they are working directly for my sister,” Qiong Ying whispered.


Huang Ming resisted the urge to ask if her cover was blown, because it was a silly question. If it was indeed blown, Qiong Ying would have already been killed per the Princess of Jin’s desire to obliterate her entire clan.


“They tricked the affected merchants and rich folk to kidnap you, to use you to save themselves from the Jins. But Xilei told me that they want to take you directly to the Princess of Jin. You have become a person of interest to her,” Qiong Ying said.


Then Huang Ming understood. Though Qiong Ying was an extremely beautiful and intelligent woman, she had been pursued and terrorized by Qiong Hua the Princess of Jin. Now her sister had set her eyes on her man for nefarious reasons, how was Qiong Ying not affected?


“Don’t worry. You have taken my chastity, you’re not going to get rid of me that easily,” Huang Ming told her with a straight face.


Qiong Ying gawked at him.


“Or do you not want me any more?” Huang Ming asked.


Qiong Ying laughed. It dispelled her gloomy mood.


“Why did Xilei tell you that anyway?” he asked.


“My charm may have been too effective,” Qiong Ying groaned. “She’s head over heels over ‘Quan Lu’, she wants ‘him’ to follow her back to Jin.”


Huang Ming eyed her suspiciously. “I should keep a closer eye on you and Xilei.”


“There is a siege going on, in case you forget. You have more important things to do,” Qiong Ying pointed out.


“But watching two women getting it on is more interesting,” Huang Ming said with a wicked grin.


Qiong Ying smacked him.


“Be serious. How are you going to deal with them?” she asked.


“I have always wondered if Xilei was working for General Yin, or for the Jins. Now that we know for sure, there is little need to maintain the charade any longer. I will let them gather all those malcontents together, then bundle them up.”

Ending soon,
Finishing the tune.​

 

Thanks for the chapter.

 

Thank you! Reading this novel of yours is such an enjoyment.

 

delayed due to teething problems, going to visit the dentist tomorrow

 

After consultation with the dentist, he has referred me to a specialist for wisdom teeth extraction. fun times...

 

That's how it is. I don't think regular dentist do wisdom teeth. I had to go to a specialist too.

 

The dentist does offer wisdom teeth removal, but of course mine has to be a special case as it might involve minor surgery due to its position.