Chapter 280: Liaoxi
“Li Chi! Wake up quickly, open your eyes and look, many people have come below the city.”
Li Chi was too exhausted last night and fell asleep leaning against the city wall below the city gate. He was suddenly shaken awake by someone, abruptly opened his eyes, and leaped up to the city gate in two strides instead of three.
A Liaoxi Army soldier on a weighted patrol lookout was so excited he was incoherent: “Is that the Pei character flag?”
“Is that the Pei Family Army below the city gate?”
“The one waving the Pei character flag, is that General Pei?”
Li Chi’s chest surged with hot blood: “Yes, that’s General Pei!”
“The Pei Family Army hasn’t been defeated! Yesterday must have been luring the enemy into an ambush! General Pei has come to save us!”
“What are you standing around for? Open the city gate immediately and welcome General Pei!”
The city gate of Liaoxi Commandery was thick and sturdy. Even the giant stones hurled by catapults left only shallow marks on it. It was thanks to the tall and sturdy city gate that the Liaoxi Army had barely managed to defend the city.
The city gate had long been sealed; what they called opening the city gate meant opening the side gate that could allow a warhorse or two or three people to pass through together.
Li Chi strode out of the city gate and deeply bowed to General Pei, whose face was blackened by smoke and fire and body covered in bloodstains: “Thank you, General Pei, for your aid. Please, General, enter the city to rest.”
They had already come; no more words were needed.
Pei Qinghe nodded slightly and was about to step forward when Pei Yan stepped ahead first: “I’ll enter the city first, in case there’s an ambush.”
Li Chi didn’t feel humiliated: “It was my oversight. Please, Miss Pei Yan, enter the city first.”
The Pei Family Army’s military reputation was too prominent; important figures in the army also had reputations in Youzhou. For example, the dark-skinned and sturdy Miss Pei Yan before them was renowned for her bravery.
Pei Yan swaggered through the city gate, circled inside and out, confirmed there was no ambush threat, and then shouted loudly: “General, please enter the city!”
The Pei Family Army crowd shouted together: “General, please enter the city!”
The Liaoxi Army soldiers were inexplicably infected and shouted together to invite the general into the city.
Pei Qinghe showed the first smile in several days and stepped into Liaoxi City.
Behind her, the Pei Family Army, Guangning Army, and Fanyang Army, who had gone through a night of fierce battle and fleeing, refused to be looked down upon by the Liaoxi Army. They each raised their proud heads and strode chest-out through the city gate.
Li Chi deliberately waited until everyone had entered the city before being the last to enter the city gate, immediately closing it behind him.
Pei Qinghe didn’t rush to scout; she ordered everyone to rest in place.
The crowd supported each other as they slowly sat down, each taking out their prepared medicine packets. The military doctors also began to get busy.
Li Chi was perceptive and immediately sent someone to fetch hot water.
Pouring hot oil and hot water down during city defense was an extremely simple yet effective tactic. Oil was hard to come by, but boiling hot water was much simpler. These past days, the kitchen had fires burning day and night, so hot water never stopped. In the time it took to drink a cup of tea, Liaoxi Army soldiers carried over more than a dozen buckets of hot water.
Pieces of bloodstained gauze were thrown into the hot water buckets, scalded and washed clean, then used to wipe wounds, serving a simple disinfection purpose.
Ten military doctors were brought out, but with so many wounded soldiers, there clearly weren’t enough. The crowd was already accustomed: those with light wounds helped each other apply medicine packets and bandage. Those with heavy wounds silently endured, trying their best not to cry out in agony.
The Guangning Army had fought alongside the Pei Family Army last year and, at some point, had learned the Pei Family Army’s endurance and resilience. In contrast, the Pingyang Army and Fanyang Army who had come from afar had much poorer endurance and occasionally grimaced and wailed.
Even so, in Li Chi’s eyes, it was already quite shocking.
The Liaoxi Army had expanded rapidly, forcibly conscripting able-bodied men into service, more than tripling its troop strength in just three short years. In terms of total troop strength, it far surpassed the Pei Family Army.
But when it came to actual fighting, the Liaoxi Army, boasting thirty thousand elite soldiers, collapsed like a landslide with soldiers defeated like a mountain crumbling and deserters like clouds. If not for the sturdy city walls and the original foundation of the Liaoxi Army, the city would have fallen long ago.
The wounded soldiers everywhere before them showed no crying or shouting, no one desperate to flee. They silently treated their wounds, occasionally looking up at their General Pei with eyes full of fanatical following and admiration.
No need to mention others; he, Li Chi, had also kindled a hot-blooded ambition to follow General Pei.
“General,” Li Chi took a deep breath: “Yesterday the Xiongnu barbarians attacked the city, Li Xi died in battle. In the middle of the night, some soldiers sneaked away. The soldiers who can still fight number about seven thousand.”
“At dawn, I’m afraid the Xiongnu barbarians will come to attack the city again. Please, General, lead us to defend the city.”
Pei Qinghe’s cold, sharp gaze fell on Li Chi’s face: “Can you command the Liaoxi Army?”
Li Chi gave a bitter smile: “General Li has been bedridden recovering from injuries, and brother Li Xi has already died in battle. Before closing his eyes, he ordered me to take over as commander.”
“To be honest with you, General, although the Liaoxi Army still has seven thousand men, they have all lost their fighting spirit. Like me, they all wholeheartedly hope for the General to come.”
The nearby Liaoxi Army soldiers all clamored: “General, just take us in!”
“Without the General coming to save us, we would have been breached by the Xiongnu barbarians yesterday. Our heads would have long been cut off to build a mound of skulls.”
“The Liaoxi Army’s military banner should have been changed long ago.”
“From now on, we’ll be the Pei Family Army!”
These soldiers were mostly captains and leaders in the Liaoxi Army. The soldiers didn’t understand fancy phrases like “a wise bird chooses the best tree to nest in.” Since they were going to fight, they should follow the most valiant general.
At this moment, no one thought of the difference between men and women. Pei Qinghe had long proven herself with powerful martial prowess and strength; she was the most powerful general in the Northern Lands.
The Pei Family Army was the number one elite soldiers in the Northern Lands!
They didn’t want to be the Liaoxi Army; they also wanted to be the Pei Family Army.
Pei Qinghe looked at the fervent and excited faces and smiled faintly: “You really want to follow me?”
Li Chi was the first to kneel down: “Please, General, take us in.”
The rest of the Liaoxi Army also knelt down together: “Please, General, take us in.”
Pei Qinghe looked down imperiously at the crowd: “Our Pei Family Army’s military regulations are extremely strict. Your Liaoxi Army’s former ways, in my camp, can be summed up in four words: dealt with by military regulations.”
The Pei Family Army’s military regulations were also famous far and wide.
Under the tree north of Pei Family Village, “gourds” hung year-round. This was known to everyone in the Liaoxi Army.
Pei Qinghe’s casual four words made cold sweat break out on the soldiers’ foreheads.
General Pei wasn’t joking around. Once joining the Pei Family Army, they couldn’t be lax and casual, couldn’t bully or loot the common people, had to train hard every day, and might even have to learn to read and write…
Li Chi was again the first to speak up: “I am willing to obey all the Pei Family Army’s military regulations.”
The soldiers hurriedly chimed in: “We all listen to the General.”
Pei Qinghe said indifferently: “First defend Liaoxi City and defeat the Xiongnu barbarians; we can discuss this later. If we lose this battle, you and I will both hardly escape death; nothing more needs to be said.”
“Everyone, get up! Have the kitchen light fires and cook; everyone eat a full meal and be ready for battle at any time.”
Li Chi cupped his hands to accept the order and personally went to the kitchen to arrange. In the past few days they had slaughtered sheep, and yesterday several pigs; he arranged to stew soup and boil meat.
