bookrandom Chapter 2150 Intimidation?
Chapter 2150 Intimidation?
"Order that we have an extra meal tonight. Quartermaster, open the granary, take out the old rice, and give each person an extra bowl of porridge."
"But General, what about the grain reserves..."
"Just do it."
That night, the garrison soldiers were indeed given an extra bowl of murky rice porridge each.
The porridge was thin, with only a handful of grains of rice, but it was still hot food.
The soldiers squatted on the city wall, holding earthenware bowls, and silently swallowed their food.
Gongsun Yi inspected each section of the city wall. At each place, the soldiers stood up, holding bowls to their chests, their eyes filled with complex emotions.
"General," an old soldier suddenly spoke, his voice hoarse, "how long can we hold out?"
All eyes were on them.
Gongsun Yi stopped and looked at the old soldier with a scar on his face, then looked around at the young or weathered faces.
These faces showed exhaustion, hunger, and doubt, but even more so, a resigned perseverance.
"To guard the last grain of rice, the last arrow, and the last person."
Gongsun Yi's voice came clearly in the night: "Or, hold out until the day the Chu army retreats."
Will they back out?
"meeting."
Gongsun Yi said decisively, "Because they have a bigger battle to fight in the south."
"They are waiting, waiting for us to fall into internal strife, waiting for us to surrender. But we will not fall into strife, we will not surrender."
"We'll just keep guarding it, one day, two days, one month, two months... and see who can't hold out any longer."
He paused, then lowered his voice: "I know you're hungry, I know you're tired, I know you're scared."
“I was hungry, tired, and scared, but we are men of the Scorpion Clan, and our wives, children, and elderly parents are waiting for us to come home on the grassland.”
“If we kneel down here, they will become slaves of the Chu people.”
Deathly silence.
Then, the old soldier slowly raised the earthenware bowl in his hand, drank the last mouthful of porridge, and wiped his mouth with his sleeve:
"General, I understand."
He turned and walked back to his post.
Then came the second, the third... The soldiers silently returned to the battlements and gripped their weapons tightly.
Gongsun Yi continued his inspection.
When he reached the North Gate, he saw that Su Tingmei's Youzhou army camp was brightly lit, and it seemed that they were having a meal.
The black banner fluttered in the night wind, and beneath it, the figure of the black-robed strategist could be vaguely seen, pointing out the direction of Blackstone Fortress to the generals.
“Su Tingmei…” Gongsun Yi murmured to himself.
He knew that these three days of letters urging him to surrender were just the beginning.
What follows will be even more ruthless psychological warfare and a more insidious war of attrition.
The Chu army will not launch a direct attack because they cannot afford the losses from such an attack.
They will use the cheapest methods—hunger, disease, and despair—to destroy the city.
What he had to do was to defend the city and the hearts of the people before the food ran out.
At midnight, Gongsun Yi summoned all his generals.
"Starting tomorrow, more letters urging surrender will arrive."
He got straight to the point: "My orders remain unchanged: burn every letter you see, but burning alone is not enough; we must retaliate."
"A counterattack?" The generals were taken aback.
"Yes, a counterattack against psychological warfare."
A cold glint flashed in Gongsun Yi's eyes: "Didn't the Chu army use grain as bait? We also have grain—human flesh."
The generals' expressions changed drastically.
"Of course I didn't actually eat it."
Gongsun Yi sneered: "Pass down the order: say that the Chu army has cut off our supply lines and intends to starve the entire city to death, but we would rather eat the bones of our comrades than surrender."
"These words must be conveyed to every soldier, and even more so to the Chu army outside the city."
"General, this..."
"Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures."
Gongsun Yi interrupted: "We must let the Chu army know that Black Stone Fortress is no ordinary city, and the garrison here is no ordinary garrison either. We are wolves, starving wolves."
"And hungry wolves eat people."
After the order was given, the generals dispersed with solemn expressions.
Gongsun Yi remained alone in the hall, looking at the map of the northern frontier on the wall.
Blackstone Fortress was heavily marked, and all the surrounding strongholds had been marked with small flags of the Chu army.
A lonely city, a truly lonely city.
But a slight smile appeared on his lips.
Chu Xuan, Su Tingmei, do you think you can defeat us with hunger?
wrong.
Hunger only makes wolves fiercer and their teeth sharper.
He walked to the window and looked south.
That place is the heartland of the Great Chu, and also the site of the decisive battle between the Great Chu and the Great Tang.
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty..."
Gongsun Yi murmured to himself, "You absolutely must win, because only if you win will Chu Xuan and Su Tingmei get anxious."
And they make mistakes when they are in a hurry.
As long as they make a mistake, Blackrock Fortress will still have a glimmer of hope.
The night was deep, and the wind in northern Xinjiang was bitterly cold.
But the torches on the walls of Blackrock Fortress were still burning.
A new arrow, carrying a fourth letter urging surrender, pierced the night sky and landed on the city wall.
The guards silently took it down, without even looking at it, and threw it directly into the fire pit.
Flames rose, illuminating the soldiers' numb yet resolute faces.
The stalemate continues.
Inside the central command tent of the Chu army camp.
Chu Xuan slammed the secret report he had just received onto the table, his usually composed face now furrowed in worry.
"Mr. Su, look! Such shocking news has come from Black Stone Fortress: 'We would rather eat the bones of our fallen comrades than surrender to the Chu army!'"
"Has Gongsun Yi gone mad?!"
The candlelight flickered, illuminating Chu Xuan's face, which was slightly distorted by anger.
The intelligence report spread out on the table was written in messy handwriting, clearly a message sent by a spy lurking in the city.
The above details Gongsun Yi's remarks at the military council last night, as well as the "human bone eating" rumor that is quietly circulating among the garrison today.
Su Tingmei sat upright in the shadows of the tent, her black robe almost blending into the darkness.
He slowly waved his feather fan, a faint smile playing on his lips, as if he were hearing not some shocking military intelligence, but an interesting tale from the streets.
"Prince Xuan, please calm down."
Su Tingmei's voice was as calm as still water: "Gongsun Yi's actions are nothing more than a desperate attempt to intimidate his opponent."
"intimidate?"
Chu Xuan sneered: "Sir, do not underestimate these barbarians! Grassland tribes have a long-standing custom of cannibalizing enemy corpses during wartime to intimidate their opponents. If they are truly driven to the brink..."
"They don't dare."
Su Tingmei interrupted him, her feather fan waving lightly in the air: "It is true that eating the corpses of the enemy is an old custom, but eating the bodies of one's comrades? That is to sever oneself from the bonds of heaven and earth and human relations."
"If Gongsun Yi really dares to give such an order, there's no need for us to attack the city; Black Stone Fortress will mutini on its own."
He paused, the candlelight flickering in his eyes like two eerie glows: "Besides, even if they really reach the end of their rope, the first thing served up will definitely not be human flesh."
Chu Xuan was taken aback: "What do you mean, sir?"
"Warhorse".
Su Tingmei lightly tapped the Black Stone Fortress defense map on the table with her feather fan: "The Scorpion Clan started as cavalry and valued warhorses the most."
"The siege has lasted for several days. Their food supplies in the city are running out, but they still have at least several thousand warhorses."
"Horse meat may be coarse, but it is still meat. Gongsun Yi spread rumors of 'eating human bones' to intimidate our army and show his determination to defend to the death."
"Secondly, it is probably also a prelude to slaughtering warhorses for food in the future—at that time, the soldiers will think that they might have to eat human flesh, but now they can eat horse meat instead, and they will be grateful."