Persuasion to Surrender
In fact, He Simu had wrongly accused Duan Xu this time. He truly thought it would be difficult for him to fall asleep, but he slept very well, so well that even he himself found it strange.
As Duan Xu opened his eyes to the bright morning sunlight stinging his eyes, he hesitated for a moment, beginning to seriously ponder how he managed to fall asleep.
Upon reflection, perhaps it was because, for him, the dead were much more familiar and reassuring than the living.
When he woke up in the morning, the pale and enchanting Ghost King was no longer by his side. Duan Xu reached out his arm to where she had lain; the spot was now slightly warm due to his body heat. Later, her body wasn’t as cold as it initially was, suggesting that even a lifeless body could retain warmth.
Duan Xu remembered the first time he saw her, in the city of Liangzhou, with the sun breaking through the clouds, rising from the buildings behind her.
She stood in the midst of the long street, amidst the corpses, covered in blood, her face also covered in blood, a crimson hue, holding the severed head of a dead person in her hands.
Crows, black crows, cawed all around.
They surrounded her, densely flocking to the bodies in the streets, landing on her shoulders, while her expression remained indifferent.
It was the first time he had seen death so vividly portrayed on a living person. So much so, that every time he saw a flock of crows afterwards, he would think of this girl.
As sunlight streamed over her, illuminating her face clearly, the girl smiled.
She smiled, radiantly and enchantingly, tossing aside the severed head in her hands, and running towards him, saying, “General, the Huqi people slaughtered the city before retreating, I was terrified to death. Are you here to save us?”
At that moment, he knew this girl was no ordinary person, and her acting skills were not exceptional. But he also didn’t expect her to be someone like the Ghost King.
Duan Xu smiled faintly and sat up on the bed.
Recently, Chenying was very worried about his little sister, because it seemed like she loved sleeping too much. The day after the Laba Festival, she even slept from noon until early the next morning. A normal person wouldn’t sleep that long!
He Simu returned to the borrowed body and as soon as she opened her eyes, she saw Chenying leaning over her bed, looking like a wilted eggplant, with his head drooping.
He Simu wondered why he wasn’t happy despite eating so well these past few days?
“Little sister, you have to tell me the truth.” Seeing her wake up, Chenying, with his round chubby face, said seriously, “Are you sick?”
After a pause, Chenying added, “The kind of serious illness, the kind that can’t be cured.”
“…”
He Simu rubbed her forehead and got up, agreeing with him, “Yes, that’s right.”
Chenying hesitated for a moment, his eyes on the verge of welling up with tears, but he was stopped by He Simu. She reached out and pinched Chenying’s nose, saying, “I’m suffering from lovesickness. There’s no cure for lovesickness, it’s really distressing.”
Chenying’s round eyes rolled around, excitedly muffled by the pinching of his nose, “Is it Brother Duan Xu?”
Look, he immediately got excited, this kid really has an unusually strong love for gossip.
“Guess?” He Simu flashed a brilliant smile.
She met Duan Xu while resting, and turned the rest into a Lantern Festival of riddles. This kid stubbornly refused to make a deal with her, playing Tai Chi well, but she didn’t believe he could successfully defend the city.
When she got up to wash, Chenying ran out like a whirlwind, only to return after a while, sweating profusely, his eyes gleaming, “Little sister, I heard them say that General Brother is going to hold a martial arts competition!”
He Simu raised an eyebrow while drying her hands, “Oh?”
At such a critical moment, with internal and external troubles, Duan Xu still had the leisure to organize a martial arts competition?
Chenying had gone to inquire about news of his sister’s love interest for her. He ran around the streets, collecting information that said, in a short while, it would be the Spring Festival. Duan Xu, considering the soldiers’ difficult defence of Shuozhou City, decided to hold a simple military competition to celebrate.
He Simu listened to Chenying’s excited report while thinking that Duan Xu’s martial arts competition couldn’t possibly be just a martial arts competition.
What bad idea was he up to now? Perhaps he was planning the drama he mentioned.
He Simu straightened her clothes, smiling as she held Chenying’s hand and stepped out the door, “Let’s go, have breakfast.”
What tricks Duan Xu could pull off, whether he could really manage without her help, she would wait and see.
Having narrowly escaped the grain ambush, Duan Xu quickly resumed his cat-and-mouse game with the Danzhi army outside the city. Oil, boiling water, rolling stones, were all used to greet the attacking army. The defensive leather curtains hanging outside the battlements received many arrows from the enemy every day, which were then turned into weapons reserves for the Daliang army. He even specially arranged “jar listeners” to listen for any movement at the wellhead, in case the Danzhi army dug a tunnel.
Although there were spies in the army and his plans were somewhat hindered, fortunately, he was originally a seasoned military leader, accustomed to acting first and explaining later. Even his subordinates often couldn’t understand his plans. For example, the “jar listeners” were the ones who had previously burned the enemy intending to dig a tunnel. Only then did they know that their general had arranged such a person.
Perhaps even the spies couldn’t guess what Duan Xu was up to.
The Danzhi army originally thought that with their small force, it would be easy to defeat the Tabai army. Now, they were hitting walls everywhere and were feeling frustrated, so they changed their attitude and came to persuade them to surrender.
Duan Xu courteously entertained the envoy who came to persuade him to surrender. The envoy was a Han Chinese, obviously enjoying his time in Danzhi. He appealed to Duan Xu with emotions and reason, first praising Duan Xu’s talent, then meticulously analysing the strength gap between the two sides, and elucidating the various benefits of surrender.
Finally, the envoy from Danzhi said, “General Duan, the city of Shuozhou has been resisting Danzhi’s attacks for over a month. You have already given your instructions to Daliang. If this continues, the arrows and ammunition will run out in a few days, and the provisions will only support for another month. This city is bound to fall sooner or later. Do you know when Danzhi destroyed the Great Sheng Dynasty, General Wu Nan resisted in Yuzhou for three months after the food supply was cut off, cooking and eating leather armour, even resorting to consuming the people in the city, starting from the elderly, children, women, until everyone. When the city fell, there were only a few hundred people left, General Wu Nan took his own life. Isn’t this sacrificing the Great Sheng Dynasty for nothing? There is a saying that the rise and fall have their own destiny. General, you must not do such foolish things.”
Duan Xu looked at the envoy with a smile until he made the envoy uncomfortable before speaking, “I am quite curious, though. You said the people in the city were eating each other. Why didn’t the civilians rebel or flee, but rather obediently waited to be eaten? Can the esteemed envoy explain this to me?”
The envoy’s face turned unpleasant, so Duan Xu continued, “Because the Huqi people always massacre the city upon resistance. The civilians know that when the city falls, they will surely die, so they choose to resist the enemy outside the city with their lives. You said what General Wu Nan did was foolish, but it was precisely because of the resistance in Yuzhou that the Huqi people restrained their habit of massacring cities, allowing tens of millions of Han Chinese to survive.”
“How long have you served Danzhi, do you really understand the Huqi people? Esteemed envoy, the Huqi people will never respect those who kneel before them. You have to make them sweat, bleed, bite off their flesh, make them suffer unbearable pain, you have to stand to survive. Do you believe that if I were to cut off your head right now and throw it into Danzhi’s camp outside the city, they would only feel insulted and angry, no one would mourn for your death. Because you are nothing but a dog. And they will never spare me, because when I used tactics to break through the city of Shuozhou, I blasphemed their sky god, they definitely want to tear me apart.”
He stood up, his uninjured right hand resting on the table, close to the pale-faced envoy, smiling sincerely.
“Esteemed envoy, I understand the Huqi people much better than you do. But neither you nor Awoqi understand me. As long as I am alive in this city, the people here will never resort to cannibalism, and you will not be able to pass through here to reach Daliang.”
Seeing the negotiations breaking down, the envoy began to worry about his safety, trying to maintain composure, he said, “In that case, I will take my leave.”
He had just reached the door when he was stopped by Meng Wan. Meng Wan looked at Duan Xu with questioning eyes, and the envoy shouted, “Enemies should not kill envoys! You… you cannot…”
“Before you mentioned General Wu Nan, I had this intention, but now I think it’s more appropriate to follow the customs of the Huqi people.” Duan Xu nodded casually at Meng Wan and said, “Throw him off the city wall.”
Meng Wan nodded with her sword in hand, “Yes.”
Four or five soldiers came up, led by Meng Wan, and took the still screaming envoy away. Duan Xu shook his head, smiling, and asked, “He won’t become an evil spirit, will he?”
Slowly, a pale girl in red appeared beside him. The girl lazily said, “He won’t become a vengeful ghost, will he?”
Beside him, a pale girl in a red dress slowly appeared, lazily saying, “Someone so cowardly will surely reincarnate immediately, why would they become a vengeful ghost?”
After a pause, He Simu looked at Duan Xu, who was wearing silver armor beside her, and asked curiously, “How did you know I was here?”
“I didn’t know, just asked casually, didn’t expect you to be here.”
He Simu squinted slightly, before she could speak Duan Xu immediately smiled and bowed, ” Your Highness, spare me, spare me.”
His round, bright eyes were filled with a smile, devoid of the fierceness he had shown when threatening the envoy just now.
In an instant, the atmosphere changed.
The envoy’s body was thrown outside the city to Danzhi’s camp on the second day. He Simu was leisurely enjoying her tasteless breakfast when she saw Lin Junlin, the innkeeper, hurriedly coming out of the hall, not even bothering to tidy his hair before rushing out. She watched his retreating figure and asked the steward, “What’s wrong with Mr. Lin?”
Having stayed at the Lin residence for so many days, this was the first time she showed concern for Lin Jun’s affairs.
The steward’s face showed concern as he replied, “It is said… the Huqi people have captured Master Lin, the head of the main house, and brought him to the city gates.”
The Lin family was a prominent family in Shuozhou, and Lin Jun was the only son of the second branch of the family. After the death of the patriarch of the second branch, he inherited the family business and settled in the prefectural city. The members of the Lin family’s main branch lived in several cities in the northern part of Shuozhou.
In other words, they lived in the areas under the rule of the Huqi people.
Chenying grabbed He Simu’s dress, worriedly asking, “What should we do? Will something happen to Brother Lin Jun?”
Lately, he had really taken a liking to calling everyone “brother”.
He Simu glanced down at Chenying, pulled him to a secluded corner, and asked, “Do you want to go and see?”
Chenying nodded.
So not long after, He Simu and Xue Chenying, wearing a veil, stood on the walls of Shuozhou Prefecture. They walked openly between the soldiers to the edge of the battlement and looked out.
The others on the wall couldn’t see He Simu and Xue Chenying. Lin Jun’s eyes were red, and he kept trying to go to the edge of the battlement but was held back by Han Lingqiu. Han Lingqiu kept advising, “Boss Lin, it’s dangerous! Don’t go forward!”
Outside the city, in front of the Danzhi camp, stood a row of people. Judging by their attire, they were from wealthy families. At the forefront was an elderly man with white hair, but he looked vigorous. He wore a black fox fur coat, his hands tied behind his back. He calmly looked up at the generals and soldiers standing on the city wall, as well as his nephew.
Behind him stood people of all ages, men and women, some crying, but he seemed not to hear. A Huqi soldier kicked him in the back, saying, “Master Lin, speak nicely to the people on the wall. Your wife, children, and elderly are still behind you.”
The old man staggered from the kick but didn’t kneel.
After a moment of silence, he called out loudly, “Jun’er.”
Lin Jun, with red eyes, trembled as he replied, “Uncle.”
Leave a Reply