Chapter 205: Disrobe!

Happy New Year. Little Dragon wishes everyone good health, peace, and safety.

---

The quiet after the night assault did not last very long.

The following morning, the Jin army outside the fortified manor began making formal preparations to attack.

However, after the night assault had already broken everyone in the scene unfolding during daylight did not place much pressure on the Yan troops inside.

Outside the fortress, the Jin army methodically prepared its advance.

Atop the walls, the Yan soldiers chatted while eating hot rations brought up from below.

The fortified manor already possessed stored grain.

More importantly when Zheng Fan left Green Willow Fortress, he had essentially taken every piece of baggage and supply that could possibly be carried.

So there was absolutely no shortage of food inside the fortress.

White-flour buns.

The filling consisted of shredded radish mixed with a little minced meat.

Freshly steamed, piping hot, one held in the hand together with a large bowl of hot water served as both dish and staple.

As Xue San munched on one, he muttered toward the Blind Man, "If it has filling, it's a baozi."

"It's still a mantou.

"Only one filled entirely with meat counts as baozi."

The Blind Man ate slowly and argued back.

Different regions naturally possessed different customs and names.

But the fact that the Blind Man and Xue San still had the leisure to debate something like this proved how confident they were about the Jin assault about to begin.

Reality was indeed much the same.

When the Jin war drums began pounding the siege formally opened.

Zheng Fan remained in his golden position.

Behind him the coffin holding Shatuo Queshi served as his backrest.

Liang Cheng was not beside him this time.

He had gone to another section of wall.

A'Ming and Siniang, however, remained on Zheng Fan's flanks at all times.

That was the minimum configuration.

Zheng Fan rubbed his fingers along the hard bow in his hands.

Tilting his head slightly, he observed the situation below through the gap between two battlements.

Truthfully the Jin army faced roughly the same problem as the Yan army.

Too much cavalry.

Too little infantry.

Of course, this did not mean Jin possessed an even higher cavalry ratio than Yan.

Rather, within the Three Jin lands, the Situ Clan had always focused heavily on mounted forces.

That made sense.

They spent years fighting wild men inside the Heavenbreak Mountain Range and across the northeastern snowfields.

Surely they could not expect their soldiers to run across the snow on two legs.

The Wenren and Helian Clans had actually possessed decent infantry establishments.

But most of those troops had been destroyed in that single catastrophic battle.

Yu Huacheng's force, meanwhile had originally expanded by gathering routed troops in the Jin Emperor's name.

In this era, if you possessed no horse even fleeing back home as a routed soldier could become difficult.

All manner of reasons combined to create an extremely classic scene before Zheng Fan:

Cavalry attacking a fortress.

Zheng Fan was naturally cautious.

But judging others by himself he could not help feeling pain on behalf of the Jin commander opposite him.

Making cavalrymen dismount and climb walls as infantry any commander with a functioning brain would feel his heart ache until he could barely breathe.

And perhaps because they worried about their reputation or perhaps because warlords of the Three Jin lands still remembered that these were all local people the Jin did not reproduce Li Fusheng's spectacle beneath Upper Capital, forcing civilians forward to fill the defenses with their lives.

When the Jin formations began advancing a rather awkward scene appeared.

This army was so poorly supplied with shields that it bordered on ridiculous.

Many Jin soldiers in the front ranks carried door planks torn from nearby villages.

Others held pieces of wood dismantled from tables and chairs.

Their defensive value was not necessarily terrible.

But organizing an effective shield formation with this assortment was almost impossible.

And this was daylight.

Daylight was extremely fair.

You could see me clearly.

I could also see you clearly.

Most of Zheng Fan's soldiers were barbarian troops.

Archery was practically how they earned their meals.

The moment the Jin formations entered range the Yan soldiers atop the walls began killing with arrows.

Against such accurate shooting—

Jin soldiers fell one after another.

The Jin archers and crossbowmen behind them advanced and began exchanging fire with the Yan atop the walls.

Zheng Fan loosed seven arrows in succession.

Then he rested.

Silently, he circulated and steadied the blood and qi inside his body.

Below the walls—

Jin troops began raising scaling ladders and climbing.

The slaughter between both sides intensified.

But the defenders possessed an overwhelming terrain advantage.

At first, the Jin still maintained organized formations and division of labor.

Once the battle grew white-hot that structure completely collapsed.

Everything became a heedless crush.

Paradoxically that reduced the pressure they could place on the walls.

Siniang's silk threads slipped down past the battlements.

The two scaling ladders in front of her before Jin soldiers could even climb very high suddenly came apart from the middle.

A'Ming, meanwhile looked like a machine without emotion.

Load the crossbow.

Rise.

Shoot downward.

Crouch.

Reload.

Rise.

Shoot again.

His rate of fire was so high that quite a few Jin archers below began focusing on him.

Before long several arrows were hanging from his body.

Sometimes Zheng Fan simply reached over and pulled one directly out of A'Ming then fired it back down himself.

The highest possible form of recycling.

The sort of elite breakthrough assault used during last night's attack did not appear again.

Both sides continued grinding against one another until afternoon.

At last, leaving corpses scattered beneath the walls the Jin sounded the gong and withdrew.

The fighting had certainly been intense.

But the fortress had never truly felt "on the verge of collapse."

Once the Jin withdrew, the people inside began preparing food.

Soldiers seized the opportunity to rest.

In truth, heated oil, rolling logs, and other defensive implements were still prepared below.

But Liang Cheng had never ordered them used.

The battle simply had not reached that point yet.

After the Jin retreated—

Liang Cheng came over to check Zheng Fan's situation.

"The Jin are already retreating?" Zheng Fan asked in disbelief.

He had expected the daytime battle to become brutal.

Instead he felt a strange disappointment.

Like:

I haven't even exerted myself yet and you've already fallen down.

This was completely different from the battlefield slaughter he had imagined.

There was little passion.

Nothing particularly blood-stirring.

Everyone instead resembled individual components atop the wall mechanically performing their assigned function.

"Reporting to Master.

"Our armored soldiers are all elites.

"Even the several hundred cavalry brought by the Jin Emperor are veterans chosen from military ranks.

"Under circumstances like these, the enemy trying to force their way into the fortress with nothing except scaling ladders is basically impossible."

In other words, unless the Jin were willing to proceed slowly and spend more time constructing proper siege equipment creating a genuine threat to the Yan defenders would be difficult.

"Why did it somehow feel more tense last night?" Zheng Fan asked curiously.

"Master.

"Last night was also the first time our people had defended a fortress."

"Oh.

"Right."

Zheng Fan nodded.

"Master can go below and rest first.

"The Jin lost a considerable number of scaling ladders.

"It will be difficult for them to launch another assault today."

"Fine."

Zheng Fan trusted Liang Cheng's judgment and experience.

He did not pretend otherwise.

He stood and descended from the wall.

Siniang still needed to help stitch wounds for some of the soldiers, so she did not follow him.

The Blind Man remained busy with morale and mobilization work.

Once the Jin stopped attacking, Xue San slipped out of the fortress again and concealed himself in the surrounding countryside.

Fan Li was busy hauling sandbags and sacks of earth to reinforce the defenses.

That left only A'Ming accompanying Zheng Fan below.

Quite a few glowing fellows had died on the wall the previous night.

So A'Ming's waterskin was plump again.

Every few steps he took another drink.

His expression could only be described as extraordinarily comfortable and content.

The fortified manor was not very large.

Zheng Fan's room stood directly beside the Jin Emperor's.

They were the two best rooms in the entire place.

As he approached—

Zheng Fan suddenly heard sounds coming from next door.

Rising.

Falling.

Ah.

Oh.

Eh.

Yi.

"Has he really given up on life this completely?"

Zheng Fan could not help sighing.

Before yesterday, the Jin Emperor had still carried considerable imperial dignity.

At one point—

Zheng Fan had even seen a faint shadow of Goujian in him.

And now?

The soldiers outside had only just finished a bloody battle on the walls.

Yet the Jin Emperor had already begun launching his own campaign indoors.

The army outside turning against him meant that even his old nest in the Capital Region had changed hands.

In other words, the Jin Emperor had been stripped of his qualification to sit at the gambling table.

True even before this, he had never really possessed enough chips to sit down and wager properly.

But at least he could stand beside the table waiting for lucky money.

If someone lost too badly and stepped away perhaps he might even have been allowed to sit down and play two hands.

Now he no longer even possessed the qualification to watch.

"Master.

"This subordinate actually feels the Jin Emperor's despair is less political than romantic."

"He's already this miserable.

"Stop mocking him."

"Master is correct."

"With the Capital Region gone, though—

"I wonder whether that Empress Dowager is safe."

"............" A'Ming.

That sudden turn nearly made A'Ming choke on the blood he had just swallowed.

At that moment, a woman with torn clothing emerged from the room.

She curtsied toward Zheng Fan and A'Ming.

"My lords.

"His Majesty invites you inside."

Zheng Fan and A'Ming exchanged a glance.

Then they entered.

The Jin Emperor had only just finished his great battle.

The woman still inside was only now draping clothing over herself.

After entering, Zheng Fan cupped his fists.

"Greetings, Your Majesty."

Truthfully when the two met yesterday, Zheng Fan had behaved extremely casually.

Now he suddenly appeared much more proper and respectful.

But hidden inside that propriety was an obvious distance.

The Jin Emperor's face was flushed.

He held a teapot and drank directly from it.

After putting it down, he asked Zheng Fan, "General Zheng, have the rebels outside been repelled?"

"Reporting to Your Majesty.

"They have been repelled."

"General Zheng truly is a divine commander of this age!"

Zheng Fan's eyes shifted slightly.

He privately thought that people labeled "divine commander" rarely seemed to end well.

"With General Zheng beside Us—

"Our heart can finally settle."

The flush across the Jin Emperor's face became even more obvious.

His emotional state also became increasingly excited.

That made Zheng Fan feel something was wrong.

His gaze swept across the table.

Then he saw a smear of silvery-white powder.

Holy shit.

He took powder too!

"General Zheng!

"We must thank you properly!

"We must reward you heavily!"

"Your Majesty overpraises me.

"This general merely fulfilled his duty.

"I dare not covet rewards."

You're even poorer than I am now.

What the hell are you planning to reward me with?

The Jin Emperor rose.

He walked directly before Zheng Fan.

Then shouted, "Disrobe!"

"............" Zheng Fan.

What?

Zheng Fan froze.

The Jin Emperor frowned.

Then roared again, "You no longer obey Our words?

"We said—

"DISROBE!"

Are you fucking sick?

Everyone says Jin men are fond of male lovers.

But you're an Emperor.

Do you really need to use your own body to recruit people?

More importantly—

Governor Zheng's orientation had always been perfectly normal.

He possessed not the slightest interest in the passion of the cut sleeve.

"DISROBE!"

The Jin Emperor roared furiously.

Zheng Fan was already preparing to draw his saber and knock this obviously deranged Emperor unconscious.

But before Zheng Fan could even pull his blade the two women inside the room the old manor lord's two granddaughters began sobbing as they removed the clothes from their bodies.

The Jin Emperor burst into delighted laughter.

Then he said, "General Zheng—you are an expert.

"Tell Us.

"How is Our command of troops?"

(End of Chapter)