Chapter 1084: Attacking the City

Mu Yangling did not stay in Henan Prefecture for long. After handing over the follow-up matters to General Shang, she brought her men to Zhengzhou.

At this moment, Qi Haoran had already conquered three county cities in a row and fought with the Zhengzhou garrison. Qi Haoran did not use any strategy to mislead the enemy’s troops. He let it be known he had brought along 24,000 men, which was the truth.

After confirming that there were indeed only 20,000-odd of them, the garrison general sneered and personally led his men out of the city to face the enemy.

Qi Haoran personally led the army to fight head-on. He also sent two assistant commanders to bring 5,000 people each to ambush them and let Fei Bai and Rong Le follow.

As Fei Bai had been following Qi Haoran to battles everywhere, his martial arts skills were not weak. He had seen as much blood as those assistant commanders. All he lacked was military merit, so Qi Haoran had confidence in his abilities. He only instructed Rong Le to follow Fei Bai closely.

He then said to Fei Bai, “Rong Le is Brother Rong’s eldest son. Keep an eye on him. Just don’t let him die.”

Fei Bai agreed and returned to the team with Rong Le.

Seeing that Fei Bai’s expression was calm and treated him affably, Rong Le lowered his voice and asked, “General Shang and General Qin inflated the number of troops they had. Why aren’t we using the same tactic? Even if Zhengzhou sent reinforcements, there are still 40,000 people in the city, nearly twice as many men as us.”

Smiling, Fei Bai said, “As you said, it’s twice as difficult to attack a city as it is to defend a city. It takes almost three times the number of people to take down a city. Considering how few men we have, if we climb the scaling ladder, I’m afraid we won’t even have enough men to withstand their arrows. Therefore, why don’t we lure them out and slowly wear them down?”

Fei Bai said confidently, “His Highness is best at surprise attacks and head-on battles. Didn’t you see that he only took five days to take down the previous county?”

That was true. They attacked the city as if God was helping them. Excluding the time they took to travel, they could take down a city almost every day, an extremely impressive feat. Rong Le often heard from his father how difficult it was to fight a war, but based on his experience in the past few days, fighting a war did not seem to be as difficult as he had imagined.

Fei Bai had been Qi Haoran’s manservant for so many years, so Rong Le’s expression naturally could not be hidden from him. He sighed faintly in his heart. He knew that since he had never experienced it before, Rong Le would probably not heed his words. Knowing the wars ahead would only become more and more difficult, he decided to let him experience it himself.

War had always been filled with hardships. Be it for soldiers or generals, many things that they had once thought they would never be able to adapt to, became acceptable in a war.

Little Bear swallowed the dry food with water and turned to look at his mother. Seeing that she was putting the dry biscuits in the water to soak them, he moved over and said, “Mother, I’ll catch two rabbits for you to eat.”

Mu Yangling glanced at him and said, “Do you know why I have to eat the same dry food as the soldiers?”

“I know. You have to go through thick and thin with them to unite the hearts of the army. But Mother, you can count on me for that. You’re my mother, so it’s only right for you to enjoy life.”

Smiling, Mu Yangling said, “You’re quite eloquent now huh. Did you learn it from those veterans?”

“No, that’s what I genuinely think.”

“Thank you for your filial piety.” Mu Yangling said, “We’re eating and living with the soldiers not only to boost the morale of the army, but also to train ourselves. Also, since we’re going to circle to the north of Zhengzhou to ambush the Jin soldiers who escaped from Zhengzhou, it’s naturally best to hide our tracks at this time. Starting a fire might expose our whereabouts. Even though it’s been cold for the past two nights, we could only rely on each other to keep warm and haven’t dared to start a fire.”

“Mother, when do you think Father will take down Zhengzhou? We don’t have much dry food on us.”

With a smile, Mu Yangling said, “Don’t worry. Zhengzhou is the first big city your father is facing. Since morale is still high, it won’t take long. At this moment, the news of Henan Prefecture being taken down should have already spread to Zhengzhou City. It should keep the enemy flustered for a while.”

At this moment, Qi Haoran, who had just won a battle in the day, was staying up all night to celebrate with his men. When the Jin soldiers received the news, they attacked overnight. When the cavalrymen rushed into the tent, they realized that there were only about a hundred people beating drums and shouting in the camp. Also, there were many wine jars on the ground. Greeted with such a scene, their expressions changed. Knowing that they had been tricked, they turned their horses around and were about to leave when torches rose around them. Qi Haoran said coldly, “Shoot the people but not the horses. Leave all of them behind!”

The Jin soldiers planned a camp raid, so they sent only 500 cavalry, presumably intending to both raid the camp and burn the supplies. However, they did not anticipate that these 500 cavalry would fall into an ambush and be surrounded by 20,000 troops, effectively getting trapped like dumplings.

Qi Haoran got Fei Bai to change into Jin clothing and bring the 400 cavalrymen to Zhengzhou City. Qi Haoran said, “Come out after just one round of killing. Don’t continue fighting beyond that. Also, most of the people in Zhengzhou City are Han Chinese. Remember to shout a few times to provoke them.”

Qi Haoran sneered. “Ordinary people naturally don’t have the guts to go against the Jin soldiers, but there are also many wealthy families in Zhengzhou City. There are even declining aristocratics families among them. Since there were traitors who opened the city gate for the Jin soldiers back then, I’m sure there will be people who are willing to defect to our side this time, too.”

Fei Bai became excited. He knew that Prince Rong was giving him an easy opportunity to accumulate military merits because the Jin soldiers would definitely not expect that the cavalrymen who came out to attack would be surrounded and that those who returned were fakes. After all, most of them were riding Jin soldiers’ warhorses and wearing Jin soldiers’ uniform. It was also impossible to tell at night when visibility was low.

Fei Bai led his men and galloped towards Zhengzhou. Just as he was thinking about how to shout for them to open the door at the city gate tower, the people on the tower saw them return and immediately asked someone to open the small city gate.

That’s right, they were out on a long-range raid. How could they have the time to chat outside? Naturally, it was best to let them enter the city as soon as possible to avoid letting them be caught by the pursuers behind them.

Fei Bai rushed into the city tower with his men. As soon as he entered, he drew his sword and started killing, giving the enemy no chance to close the city gate.

Fei Bai rushed into a street with his men. After shouting a few words, he rushed out with his team. By the time the Great Jin cavalry rushed out, he had already led his men out of the city.

Looking at the chaotic and wailing soldiers, the garrison general felt a chill run down his spine. Every step seemed to have been meticulously planned.

A messenger ran over and knelt on the ground, covered in blood. “General, the Henan Prefecture has fallen!”

The garrison general’s expression changed. An assistant commander flew over with a messenger pigeon and said in a low voice, “General, we just received a letter from Kaifeng Prefecture. Kaifeng Prefecture was taken down at noon today. The defeated soldiers are coming our way…”

The garrison general tightened his grip on the letter and ordered, “Send a message to the Imperial Court immediately and request reinforcements!”

However, Great Jin’s Imperial Court was in chaos and did not expect Great Qi to take action so quickly at the end of February. Furthermore, they had attacked via three routes simultaneously.

The memorials asking for troops and rations almost buried the Emperor. By the time Zhengzhou’s request for reinforcements arrived in front of the Emperor’s case, Zhengzhou had fallen. Zhengzhou’s garrison commander lived and died with Zhengzhou. His deputy general led 8,000 defeated troops north, but they were ambushed halfway and died. Out of the defeated troops, 4,500 died and 3,500 were captured.