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Chapter 504: Besieging Fengyi County (XII)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

On the other side, the people’s hearts within Chengan district are also agitated.

Tsing Yi army expanded their headcount in a short span of time, and though everyone has only one mouth, they can’t provide enough food for everybody. Thus they resorted to plunder and collecting whatever loot they could find. However, these ill-gotten supplies were limited, and many continued to be poverty stricken.

There are people from Tsing Yi, but none could manage such a huge “family business”, and with their short-sighted perspective they will never be able to govern well. To put it plainly, they are just a group of lawless men, they are bandits without moral values and conscience.

Although their fame and power surpassed that of the Red Lotus group at the start, after one winter of trials, their power is depleting. Contrarily, the Red Lotus group are at the height of their strength, their territory is gradually increasing, and they are one step closer to reducing the area the Tsing Yi army occupies.

Yet now within Chengan district there’s a bleak scene, the people stay in their houses and there are few on the streets. Nobody dares to reveal the food they have, the merchants who could escape already have. Those who didn’t escape were robbed of their possessions by Tsing Yi army, their savings from half their lifetime have been robbed and those who were lucky are still alive. As for the unlucky ones, they became corpses on the spot.

Now the people were sharing their grievances openly, they mocked secretly that the Tsing Yi army should change their name to bandit army.

During autumn last year when the Shangjing earthquake happened, it caused the farming output to dwindle significantly. Then there was the Tsing Yi army who caused unrest everywhere which resulted in a loss of profits made by farmers in Chengan district. At the beginning of spring, there are no good quality seeds to sow and their food reserves at home are being robbed by the Tsing Yi army.

Many of the people cannot withstand the hunger and Tsing Yi army’s oppression, they are afraid they will lose their lives and those who can escape already have. The old, sick, and handicapped who cannot escape depend on their careful savings of rations to get by each day. Moreover, some people are afraid that the fumes from cooking rice will attract the attention of the Tsing Yi army. Thus they only dared to let the rice soak in water then consume it.

During winter last year, countless people died from the cold and there are people starving to death daily in Chengan district. The district manor is already occupied by the Tsing Yi army; this has become one of their main camps. But it still retained its majestic and glorious look.

Outside, the peoples’ clothes are not warm, there’s not enough food, some have frozen to death or died from hunger. Yet these Tsing Yi army chieftains are eating delicacies and eating large quantities of meat and drinking wine.

Except they are not in the mood to enjoy such extravagant lives because the rations in Chengan district are depleting. If they continue to lack rations, it isn’t only the people who will starve, they themselves must also bear the hunger pangs.

“Goodness, aren’t the supplies supposed to have been delivered? Even if they crawled here, they should have reached us by now. Why have they not come?”

Half a year had passed; many valiant chiefs were so well-nourished that their body fat had grown. Now, this person is no exception, his fat is evident from his ten fingers, his knuckles were full of circles which looked like fat short sausages. Their original tanned and brown skin is so well-nourished that it became fairer.

“Did something happen along the way?” Those Tsing Yi soldiers who worked within the magistrate’s manor are ranked at least as chieftains or above. Each of their faces reddened, just observing their expressions tells that it is obvious they previously lived their lives in abundance. “After all, the Red Lotus group are extremely evil and cunning...”

The fat general sitting on the commander’s chair kept silent for a while then said, “Let’s do this, send someone to investigate...”

This batch of food supplies was critical to the Tsing Yi army within Chengan district. If they lacked in rations, the army’s morale will plunge and they will become uncontrollable. The thought of this made the obese general frown intensely.

One of the small gang leaders received the order and stepped back, then another sneakily took the opportunity to give a suggestion.

“General, doesn’t everyone comment that Xiangyang district next door has an endless flow of money? If we really run out of rations, we can go to war with them and occupy that land, then we don’t have to worry about starving.” As he spoke, an image of what the scout said floated in his mind.

Based on the scout’s description, Xiangyang district was comparable to the heavens. It is clean, orderly, their houses are brand new and so beautiful that it didn’t look like it’s on earth but rather like it dropped from the heavens. Each of their people dressed like nobles, none are heard of to have starved or frozen to death.

Back then, the gang leader snorted at these words, where on earth does such a haven exist? Yet now, Chengan district is faced with a desperate situation where their provisions are depleting. The promised supplies are late and haven’t arrived which has caused them to worry.

Originally though this suggestion could have won him praise, or at the very least it could have shifted the general’s focus, but who knew it would only earn him a scolding?

“If Xiangyang city was an easy target, I would long have conquered it. Do I need a delayed suggestion from you?”

Burning with fury, the general spoke. The fat on his face jiggled as he talked. Both of his eyes were virtually non-existent because they had sunk into the fat on his face.

There wasn’t much time left when surprisingly a soldier ran over hastily to deliver a message. He knelt on the floor and was out of breath as he said, “It’s... it’s not good...”

“What’s wrong?” The general’s heart tightened.

The soldier who gave the report took a deep breath and spoke with heaviness in his breath, “Our rations have been robbed.”

What!

The gang leaders in the hall were aghast and the general jumped from his seat. He grabbed the collar of the soldier who reported the news and lifted him up, venting his anger and saying, “Say that again, what was robbed? Which idiot dares to touch my military supplies?”

The reporting soldier said with much difficulty, “It’s the men responsible for transporting the supplies... they managed to escape back and reported that someone ambushed them, but they didn’t see who it was...”

The general’s face turned pale green. The fat on his face jiggled as he took in a deep breath.

“This is too much!” He threw the soldier who bore the report out. “Those useless fools who transported military provisions, they cannot even tell us who their enemy was...”

As he was about the order the death of the man responsible for transporting the military rations, and before the scarce food was wasted on more mouths, another voice was heard from outside as the words rose to his throat.

“Reporting...”

The general took a deep breath and asked, “What else is wrong?”

“There are thousands of soldiers surrounding the city from outside!”

What?

His face was so angry that no one could look upon him anymore.

Their military supplies had been robbed and the next moment, their enemies were at their doorstep. This is consecutive rounds of misfortune; luck is not on their side.

“Those devils from the Red Lotus group again?”

The soldier reporting said, “No, the word written on the banner is “Liu”, they have started getting into formation.”

Liu?

Which house is this?

Jiang Pengji made known that she’s unwilling to have any battle formation. They’re already at the doorstep of their enemies, why not just go head on?

“What if they don’t come out?” Jiang Pengji turned her head and asked Wei Ci, “don’t you find this childish?”

Before the battle started, they still needed to have a war of words, cursing each other’s parents as if they were children playing roles.

Wei Ci’s face showed no emotion, then he said, “This concerns scholarly affairs, my lord shouldn’t joke about this.”

She replied in agreement, then stayed still momentarily before she started making things difficult for Wei Ci again. Holding in her laughter she asked, “However, some soldiers can only speak laypeople’s language but not formal speech, and neither do they understand dialects. If both representatives from either side cannot communicate because of language differences, won’t they be unable to negotiate?”

Wei Ci: “...”

Once again, she talked to herself, “Not unless both parties can be on good terms beforehand by sending a person skilled in languages to translate?”

When she finished speaking, Wei Ci looked at her sadly, his eyes were somewhat resentful.