Chapter 424

Qin Feng was sitting on the floor in shock. If both sides suffered, Qin Feng could remain in power. If Jiangdong won, at worst he could go to Jiangdong as a rich man. However, he was finished if Jiangdong lost.

Qin Feng was allied to Jiangdong while Liu Mang was their mortal enemy. If he were to fall into enemy hands, his wealth would not be his only problem.

“Milord. What should we do?” The scholar Song Ming asked.

“What should we do now? You ask me, I ask who?1” Qin Feng himself was out of his wits. “Song Ming. Do you think we can surrender to keep our lives? Let us give up on Tuzhong and Lin Huai.”

“Milord. Once you surrender to Liu Mang, you would lose all your wealth. Are you willing to do that?” Song Ming replied as he shook his head. If the enemy wanted them to surrender, they would have already dispatched a messenger instead of attacking without warning.

“What should we do? We are doomed!” Qin Feng had hoped to be rescued by the reinforcements but now the reinforcements were defeated.

“Milord. I suggest we keep on defending. Although the reinforcements were defeated, they were only the vanguards.” Song Ming said as he tried to calm down his Lord.

“Yes. This is just the vanguards. We still have more reinforcements coming.”

“Milord! The Liu Mang’s Army is back!” One officer shouted out. The whole of Tuzhong was in panic.

“They are back! There is no need to panic!” Qin Feng managed to calm himself enough to reprimand the officer despite being under pressure. “Men. Take me to the walls!”

Qin Feng had not been to the walls for a few days but this time he had no choice but to brace himself due to this desperate situation. He went up the walls with a few hundred guards following him. From atop the walls, he could see the Xiliang Cavalry approaching from a distance. The Xiliang Cavalry were extremely imposing. They had five squadrons, each with a thousand men.

“Five thousand men?” Qin Feng was shocked. Qin Feng was not a complete idiot that can’t count. Otherwise, he would not have reached his current position. He could tell that the Xiliang Cavalry still have about five thousand men. At the very least, they definitely have more than four thousand and five hundred men. On the other hand, the elite vanguards of Jiangdong’s reinforcements had already been defeated. Was the Xiliang Cavalry truly so formidable?

While Qin Feng was lamenting the prowess of the Xiliang Cavalry, one general brought Qin Feng’s attention to the Black Flag Army following the Xiliang Cavalry. These Black Flag Army were the ones operating the catapult. The Black Flag Army were transporting carts over slowly while beside them were the banners of the defeated Jiangdong Army. These banners were proof that news of the reinforcements being defeated was true.

“Could it be provisions?” Another person suggested.

“Provisions? No. It cannot be provisions.” How could it be provisions? Based on the sacks carrying the object, the object was circular. It was too circular to be provisions.

“Then could it be those boulders?” One person suggested in fear. He had already become afraid of the rocks and boulders thrown by the catapult. With this many rocks the whole city would be finished. All the soldiers’ expression immediately turned bad.

“Don’t be stupid. Have you seen boulders this small?” Qin Feng scolded angrily.

Everyone agreed after hearing Qin Feng’s words and calmed down. The rocks were too small. They could only be a hundred catties at most while the actual thing would be at least three hundred catties. However, this would only last for a short while. They immediately became terrified again after the contents was presented to them. They were all chopped off heads.

“Demons! They are demons!” Someone muttered out.

“Demon! Devils! We will never win against them!”

“Qin Feng! Catch this!” The catapults below had also finished being set up and threw something towards the walls.

One soldier on the walls closed his eyes and waited for his death. He knew that a person that was hit by those rocks would be crushed to death. However, after some time, the soldier realized that he had survived. Just as he was wondering what was going on, he saw a head. The head was still dripping in blood and the eyes was still open. This gave the impression that these men died with grievances.

This frightened that soldier that have not yet seen blood before.

This scene happened on the walls around the city. Zhang Liao had obtained over four thousand heads from the Chu Army. He placed two thousand heads outside the city while delivering the rest via catapult.

It was not just the soldiers who suffered. Some of the scholars were so frightened that they fainted. Some unlucky ones even had the head break apart from the impact, splashing meat all over them. It was a terrifying sight.

Qin Feng finally believed that the Jiangdong Army was finished. The vanguards had definitely been defeated. Otherwise, Zhang Liao would not have managed so obtain so many heads.

He now saw Zhang Liao as a ruthless and cold blooded demon. Even Bai Qi had never thrown heads at people with a catapult

Qin Feng was so frightened that he was about to collapse. However, he managed to resist his fear and shouted, “Stay calm! You can see that this Zhang Liao is a butcher! Think of the consequences of letting this Butcher Zhang into the city! Think of your family!” There was no better time for Qin Feng to say that Zhang Liao intended to massacre everyone in Tuzhong. At this moment, everyone would have believed him.

“Defend the city!” The defenders shouted. Their morale had went back up.

Zhang Liao was observing his opponents from afar with the telescope. He then guessed what was going on through observation of his opponent’s facial expression.

“Morale is going up!” Qin Feng thought to himself happily. Although everyone was afraid, they all pledged to fight and prevent Zhang Liao from massacring everyone.

Qin Feng prepared to ensure that if Zhang Liao wanted Tuzhong, he would have to suffer huge losses to get it. Unfortunately, his efforts were futile. Zhang Liao simply had all the heads catapulted over before he took his men and left.

Zhang Liao never had the intention to attack the city. If he had wanted to capture Tuzhong, he would have already captured it much earlier. Other than the provisions, there were no other benefits in capturing Tuzhong. Besides that, pushing Qin Feng too much may also make Qin Feng desperate. Qin Feng had spread the news that Zhang Liao wanted to massacre everyone in the city and the soldiers have already resolved themselves to die.

Another reason Zhang Liao left was because Jiangdong’s main army was about to arrive. If he were to capture Tuzhong, he would have no choice but to fight the enemy. Even he would not dare to fight against fifty thousand men with only ten thousand men.

As for the heads thrown into the city, Zhang Liao’s intentions was for the enemy to fear him. After all, Qin Feng had already gave him the reputation as a butcher. In that case, he decided to make the enemy fear him even more.

“Milord. Did Zhang Liao withdraw?” Song Ming asked the moment he saw Zhang Liao slowly leave.

“Withdraw?” Qin Feng repeated as he rubbed his eyes in disbelief. “This might be a scheme! Everyone! Take precautions!” Qin Feng said as he believed that Zhang Liao wanted to catch them unprepared

When Zhang Liao’s Army disappeared from their view, Qin Feng reminded everyone to be cautious again, saying that Zhang Liao would be back soon. The soldiers all followed the command wholeheartedly. They were also afraid of that Butcher Zhang.

Hours go by while Qin Feng made sure every side of the city was on alert. After five hours, the soldiers were extremely fatigued.

“Milord. Let the soldiers rest.” Even superhumans would collapse being on alert for five hours. Song Ming who was a scholar obviously could not endure this. Before this, he had the same opinion as Qin Feng. He believed the enemy would come the moment they dropped their guard. However, the enemy did not appear even after hours had past.

“So talkative! They are definitely going to attack at night!” The sky was turning dark. With great difficulty, Qin Feng was finally commanding the soldiers for the first time. How could he let a scholar refute him?

“No. Milord, please listen to me…”

“Who is the Lord here? Me or you?”

“Milord. That is not the question. All I am saying is…”

“Shut up! Say one more word and I will have you arrested!”

Hearing this, Song Ming had no choice but to keep quiet.

Another two hours past. Qin Feng ate the provisions like the other soldiers. The soldiers had no time to rest at all. Once they have finished eating, they went back to their post. On the other hand, Qin Feng went to sleep.

“Song Ming. Wake me up when the enemy arrives!”

“…” Song Ming wanted to cry. Qin Feng was not the only one who wants to sleep. Several hours continued to go by as Qin Feng slept peacefully.

The next day, Song Ming woke Qin Feng up. Normally, Qin Feng was a difficult person to wake up. On top of that, he would get angry and may even kill others once he woke up. However, this time Qin Feng woke up very quickly and even laughed. “Haha! I knew it! Zhang Liao would come soon! Men, bring me my armor!” Qin Feng have already become addicted to being a general.

“Song Ming. Why are you still standing there? Go and make the preparations!”

“Milord. The army that arrive at our gate is the Jiangdong Army. It is commanded by the Second Lord, Sun Quan.”

“The Jiangdong Army?

“That’s right. The Jiangdong Army has arrived. They are camping outside as it is already night. They merely send a messenger.”

“Zhang Liao is not coming?”

“Milord. Zhang Liao had even dismantled all the siege weapons.”

“The siege weapons had already been dismantled? Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

“I wanted to! You didn’t let me!” Song Ming complained. It was Qin Feng who threatened him to shut up when he wanted to say it. How could Qin Feng blame him for not saying anything after that?

“Oh. Is that so? Hahaha.” Qin Feng felt awkward as he finally remembered what happened. However, he was still the Lord so he put that awkwardness behind him. So what if he had prevented Song Ming from speaking earlier? He was the one in charge.

“Since it is already night, I am going back home to rest. Wake me up early tomorrow. I want to receive guests!” Qin Feng said to Song Ming. He felt relieved as the Jiangdong Army had arrived and decided to sleep in his own home. As the gates would not open at night so he could only wait for the following day.

“Understood.” Song Ming nodded. He still needed to go and greet the messenger.

Meanwhile, Sun Quan was fuming. Only seven hundred soldiers out of five thousand returned alive. It wouldn’t be a problem if they were just common soldiers but these were the Chu Army. They were elites. They were Sun Quan’s main troops. With only seven hundred men left, how could they continue to call themselves an army? The two men who caused this to happen, Lu Meng and Ling Cao, were kneeling down in front of him.

“We betrayed the Second Lord’s trust in us! Please punish us!” Lu Meng and Ling Cao cupped their fist as they spoke to Sun Quan.

“Second Lord?” Sun Quan became even angrier when he heard the way he was addressed.

“Not good.” Lu Su who was standing beside Sun Quan initially intended to absolve Lu Meng and Ling Cao. This is because Lu Meng was not entirely at fault. Nobody could have expected that Zhang Liao wanted to use smoke instead of fire. Lu Meng already did very well considering the fact that he was dealing with the veteran Zhang Liao while still in his youth. He thought of making Sun Quan treat this as a defeat to placate the troops and the two generals.

“Milord. Defeat is common in war. Lu Meng and Ling Cao have tried their best, please do not blame them!”

Unfortunately, it didn’t work. Sun Quan has had enough of being called Second Lord. The people in Jiangdong all called him Second Lord as a form of respect. However, to him it was a humiliation. Everyone knows him as Sun Jian’s second son or Sun Ce’s little brother. However, nobody knows about Sun Quan. He was already angry from losing his Chu Army but Lu Meng and Ling Cao simply added oil to the fire.

“Lu Zijing! I don’t need you to teach me this!” Sun Quan ignored Lu Su’s advice in his anger and roared. “Lu Meng! I let you command the Chu Army and ordered you to wait for the main army at Tuzhong! Instead, you decided to camp inside the forest several kilometers away from Tuzhong. Do you not know of military tactics? Do you not know of martial law? You have disobeyed military orders! Men! Drag him out and execute him!”

“Second Lord!” Ling Cao anxiously called out to Sun Quan, wanting to give an explanation. However, Sun Quan would not listen. Two of Sun Quan’s guards entered the barracks and dragged Lu Meng out to behead him.