Chapter 540: Feeling Terribly Uncomfortable
Chapter 535 of "The Great Ming in the Box" starts the action: On the morning after the large concert, the entire Puzhou seemed a bit quiet.The night... Find out what happens!
On the morning after the large concert, the entire Puzhou seemed a bit quiet.The night before, many merchants and peddlers got very excited from listening to the concert and couldn’t sleep for half the night, so even when daylight came today, they couldn’t get out of bed and were still dreaming at that moment.
However, a fast-riding horse broke this peace.
“‘Report, urgent military situation, urgent military situation!’”
The rider dashed into Xing Honglang’s “official residence,” fell off the saddle with a thud, and loudly reported: “‘General Xing, a major disaster. Flamboyant King (Li Zicheng), Eighth Great King (Zhang Xianzhong), Old Nan Feng (Ma Shouying), Zijin Liang (Wang Ziyong), Fan Mountain Hawk (Gao Jie), and others are plundering Puxian. They attacked the city for three days and nights but failed to capture it. That night, the bandits ordered three hundred elite troops to attack Daining City, and at the third watch, the city fell.’”
“‘But Deputy Cao Wenzhao of Gushan has already led his army back to Shaanxi for bandit suppression and isn’t within Shanxi. And Shanxi’s provincial governor’s main army is far away from there.’” The messenger said: “‘The provincial governor ordered all nearby generals to rush to reinforce immediately.’”
As soon as this news arrived, Xing Honglang’s drowsiness flew away in an instant.
After dismissing the messenger, she quickly turned to the Deity Statue embroidered on her chest and said: “‘Deity, a major disaster… bandits have attacked Puxian and captured Daining City… these two cities are very close to Pingyang Prefecture, Wang Xiaohua is in danger.’”
The Deity showed no reaction!
The standard lifestyle of modern young people was to stay up late playing at night and not wake up early in the morning, so at this moment, the Deity was still in bed, drooling in his dream.
Xing Honglang thought: the Deity isn’t responding to me, it seemed he didn’t want to handle this matter and intended for us to figure it out ourselves, yes, I mustn’t rely on the Deity for everything just because he’s been making many appearances lately.
She quickly ran back to the bedroom and shook her husband awake hard: “‘Gao Chuwu, Gao Chuwu!’”
Gao Chuwu sat bolt upright: “‘Honglang, Honglang!’”
He spread his arms, “bang,” and they hugged each other tightly, Xing Honglang held him close while quickly whispering the news into his ear.
Gao Chuwu’s drowsiness vanished instantly too, and they both rushed out of the official residence to the barracks.
Zao Ying, Old Nan Feng, Zheng Daniu, and their group were still sound asleep at that time, but after the couple’s commotion, the entire barracks was awakened.
Xing Honglang quickly relayed the news: “‘Everyone hurry up and depart, quickly, to rescue Wang Xiaohua.’”
Zao Ying and Zheng Daniu immediately started gathering soldiers.
But they saw Old Nan Feng was not the least bit anxious and cheerfully said: “‘What are you panicking about? You didn’t even listen carefully to the military report before rushing off.’”
Everyone was puzzled: “‘What’s the explanation?’”
Old Nan Feng said: “‘Recalling carefully: they attacked the city for three days and nights, but failed to capture it…’”
Everyone said in surprise: “‘Is there anything wrong with this statement?’”
“‘There is!’” Old Nan Feng said: “‘The bandits didn’t just arrive recently; they attacked Puxian for three days and nights, so Pingyang Prefecture, not far from Puxian, must have received the news three days prior. Since Wang Xiaohua got the message three days earlier, the Deity must have known this three days ago too. So why didn’t the Deity notify us to go rescue?’”
Everyone suddenly grasped it: “‘Right! The Deity didn’t even mention this matter.’”
The Deity was a real-time, nationwide, delay-free communication core hub.
If this were truly urgent, the Deity would certainly have called for everyone to help three days ago, but over the past three days, the Deity didn’t say anything—he even let Old Nan Feng organize the concert—which showed this matter wasn’t as serious as imagined.
Old Nan Feng said: “‘Wang Xiaohua isn’t in life-threatening danger; he can easily defend Pingyang Prefecture, so that’s why the bandits went to attack Puxian and Daining City, and the Deity didn’t call for us to get involved.’”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Old Nan Feng continued: “‘But now the court’s notice has come, the provincial governor ordered nearby armies to immediately send reinforcements, so we should take some action. Not only to put on a show for the court, most importantly, we can use this chance to leave Puzhou and make a trip north to various counties.’”
At this point, he chuckled: “‘We’ll make a trip to the flowery world…’”
Xing Honglang gave a sidelong glance: “‘Hey!’”
Old Nan Feng hurriedly corrected his tone: “‘We’ll make this trip to observe the situations in the northern counties. If there are any counties we can use, we’ll claim them. If there are bandits we can eliminate, we’ll finish them off and catch some able-bodied men. Road construction workers are always in short supply, hahaha.’”
Xing Honglang said: “‘That’s more like it!’”
“‘Everyone quickly prepare, we’ll set off with the whole army in half an hour.’”
In Pingyang Prefecture.
The four main gates of the prefectural city were tightly shut, and the city walls were lined with militia soldiers.
Pingyang Chief Dou Wenda looked terrified, continuously peering outside the city. He glanced once, glanced again, after glancing a hundred times, he turned to the white cat beside him and asked: “‘Captain Wang, are the bandits not coming?’”
The white cat chuckled: “‘Don’t be scared, the bandits aren’t coming! They wouldn’t dare come. With me guarding here, even if they had a hundred guts, they still wouldn’t dare.’”
Dou Wenda wore a flustered expression: “‘Although Captain Wang is fierce and courageous, he only has four hundred troops. I… I…’”
“‘Four hundred are enough.’” The white cat patted the firearm on his back: “‘With this thing, four hundred men can stand against forty thousand of them.’”
Dou Wenda said: “‘But the bandits came two hundred thousand strong.’”
The white cat laughed heartily: “‘These two hundred thousand men aren’t unified; they’re a tangled mess, so their combat strength amounts to twenty thousand at most.’”
He was smiling, but inside he felt a little helpless.
Relying on Pingyang Prefecture’s city walls, he could keep the prefectural city safe with four hundred men plus the local militia, but he had no control over areas outside the city walls.
After all, in an open wilderness battle with no walls for defense, four hundred soldiers truly couldn’t defeat two hundred thousand.
The white cat clenched his fist and cursed under his breath: “‘Daining City was overrun by the bandits, causing heavy casualties among the civilians, yet we’re just stuck here defending this empty city… it’s truly… ah…’”
Wang Er, with a bushy beard, peeked from behind him and whispered: “‘There’s nothing we can do about it. This place is too far from Gaojia Village; the Deity seldom watches over it. Even if we sent reinforcements from Gaojia Village, they couldn’t arrive in three days, so we couldn’t save Daining City… ah! Don’t worry, the court is surely already gathering armies; it won’t be long before various large forces encircle us.’”
The white cat nodded: “‘Brother, I just feel… a bit guilty…’”
Wang Er sighed deeply: “‘I understand! We were once part of Wang Jiayin’s army too. Now, seeing the remaining forces of Wang Jiayin causing chaos everywhere, it feels like those civilians died because of us, ah.’”
Both felt very uneasy, terribly uncomfortable in their hearts.
Wang Er said: “‘Just wait a bit longer! The Deity here must know about this situation; Gaojia Village’s reinforcements will definitely arrive faster than the court’s, and then we’ll make these bandits pay the price.’”
The white cat answered: “‘Mhmm!’”
Just as they said this, Dou Wenda suddenly shouted loudly beside them: “‘They’re coming… the bandits are coming… Captain Wang, the bandits are coming!’”