The First Jasmine - Chapter 135

Chapter 135 - The Fall of Xinyang

Xinyang City

Upon the city walls, Leng Qingyu stood with a dark expression as he gazed at the rolling sea of banners in the distance. Xinyang had been surrounded by the enemy army for over ten days; if the siege could not be lifted soon, even if it were not breached by the Western Ling forces, it would quickly collapse from within. To make matters worse, the reinforcements that had just arrived at the border suffered heavy casualties right off the bat, and the Marquis of Nan's Heir, serving as deputy commander, had gone missing on the battlefield—a double blow that dragged the morale of the defending soldiers to rock bottom. If not for the fact that Xinyang's original garrison commander had fallen in battle, leaving the city without anyone else to take charge of the overall situation, it would remain an open question whether Leng Qingyu could still be standing on these ramparts right now.

"General Leng, exactly when are the court's reinforcements going to arrive?!" A haggard-looking general strode over hurriedly, blurting out the question to Leng Qingyu without a shred of politeness. Initially, these soldiers had been profoundly dissatisfied with a young man holding the high position of army commander at such a tender age. The fact that he was beaten into a miserable state by the Western Ling Prince of Zhennan even before he officially assumed command only made everyone look down on him all the more. Yet as luck would have it, he was the son of the Grand Defender General and an appointee directly anointed by the Emperor as a full general. With Xinyang's original commander dead, he was the highest-ranking authority present in the city. While everyone maintained a respectful facade on the surface, no one knew what thoughts were festering in their hearts. As for the senior commanders of Xinyang, they couldn't even be bothered to keep up surface-level pleasantries. A flash of wretched embarrassment and irritation crossed Leng Qingyu's stern face. His entire life had been smooth sailing; relying purely on his own capabilities, he had risen to become the Commander of the Imperial Guard in the capital, standing out as one of the preeminent young talents in the Chu capital. Yet the moment he arrived at the frontier, he met with consecutive setbacks, which inevitably caused his once-unshakeable self-confidence to waver and fill with self-doubt.

Frowning, Leng Qingyu replied, "They will arrive when they are supposed to. The general only needs to wait in peace."

The man's expression darkened as he retorted, "This subordinate can afford to wait, but Xinyang City cannot! General Leng, take a look beneath this city wall, look at the people inside the city—do you truly believe Xinyang City can hold out for another few days?!"

"Silence!" Leng Qingyu shouted in a deep voice, his gaze shooting toward the man before him like a pair of sharp arrows. He said coldly, "Xinyang City will not fall!"

The man was momentarily taken aback by his murderous glare, but recovering his composure, he gave a cold snort and said, "Since General Leng possesses such unwavering confidence, this subordinate will wait and see!" With that, he flung his sleeves, turned on his heel, and strode away. Watching the man depart without the slightest hesitation, Leng Qingyu's expression grew even more sinister, but when he looked back and saw the endless sea of black, oppressive enemy forces in the distance, he could only force the anger back down into his chest.

The drums beneath the city walls suddenly thundered to life, causing Leng Qingyu to snap to attention and look into the distance. The previously stationary banners and crowds of soldiers had begun to surge into motion. Taking a deep breath, Leng Qingyu raised his voice and commanded, "Defend the city!"

On and off the walls, a fierce new round of battle between the two armies erupted once more. The defending side already displayed glaring signs of fatigue and weakness, which only served to thrill the soldiers below into swarming upward with renewed frenzy.

Inside a tall building somewhere within Xinyang City, the sounds of battle shook the air near the city gates, bleeding through the diagonally ajar window. Indoors, a plain-looking man said in a deep voice, "Xinyang City cannot be held any longer. Get ready—we are pulling out."

Another man frowned and asked, "Shouldn't we ask General Yuan to provide some external support to them from the outside? The Princess Consort and the reinforcement army are already halfway here."

The first man shook his head. "It's useless. Haven't you noticed how much more violent the Western Ling attacks have become over the past two days? The Prince of Zhennan is evidently determined to capture Xinyang City at all costs. Leng Qingyu cannot keep the soldiers of Xinyang in check; even if General Yuan has kept up his peripheral harassment for the past few days, it won't buy much time, and it's very likely to drag General Yuan's forces down into the trap with them."

"Very well. Send out an order immediately asking General Yuan to break away from the battlefield and retreat toward Jiangxia. You all leave first; I will stay behind to handle matters in Xinyang City."

"Understood. Take care of yourself."

After sending off his companion, the man turned, descended the stairs, and strode rapidly toward the residence of Xinyang's chief administrative official.

Inside the Western Ling Military Camp

The Prince of Zhennan sat with a calm expression in a comfortable, oversized armchair. Supporting his chin with one hand, he closed his eyes in brief repose while awaiting news from the front. Today would undoubtedly bring the news that Xinyang City had fallen. Though that young pup holding down Xinyang possessed a modicum of talent, he was still far too green and completely powerless to turn the tides under such circumstances. The mere thought that all the countless grains, textiles, gold, and silver within Xinyang City would soon become supplies for his future conquest of Great Chu filled him with indescribable delight.

"How are preparations proceeding on Yuan Pei's end?" Remembering something, the Prince of Zhennan opened his eyes and asked.

Seated below and similarly waiting for news, a general immediately stood up and reported, "Following Your Highness's instructions, our army has secretly cut off the routes leading back to Jiangxia. Although we cannot pinpoint Yuan Pei's exact whereabouts at the moment, the moment Xinyang falls, he is bound to retreat toward Jiangxia. We need not worry about failing to catch him then."

The Prince of Zhennan nodded in satisfaction. "Very well."

Outside the tent, the signal horns blared to order a retreat from battle. The smile on the Prince of Zhennan's face deepened as he stood up and laughed, "Xinyang has fallen!"

Joy beamed across the faces of all the gathered generals. "Congratulations, Your Highness." The Prince of Zhennan shook his head. "No, congratulations to all of us. With Xinyang in our hands, our campaign to conquer Great Chu is truly invincible. This time, the heavens are indeed favoring Western Ling." The generals chorused in unison, "Heaven bless Western Ling!"

A messenger soldier's hurried footsteps sounded outside the tent. "Reporting to Your Highness, Xinyang City has fallen!"

"Very well. What about the young pup who was defending the city?" the Prince of Zhennan inquired.

The messenger hesitated for a moment before replying, "Leng Qingyu, the main commander of Xinyang, was not found."

Hearing this, the Prince of Zhennan frowned involuntarily. Waving his hand, he instructed, "Send out scouts to search again. Report back the moment there is any news."

"Understood!"

An hour later, the soldiers who had participated in the assault returned to camp, filling the grand tent with a festive atmosphere. Only the Prince of Zhennan furrowed his brow. Seeing this, the men below could not help asking, "Your Highness, is something amiss?" The Prince of Zhennan shook his head and murmured, "I don't know. This Prince simply feels something isn't quite right..."

"Reporting to Your Highness, bad news!" A voice shouted for an audience from outside the tent. The Prince of Zhennan's heart sank as he commanded in a cold voice, "Come in. What happened to Xinyang City?" The newcomer reported, "Reporting to Your Highness, the grain and provisions that ought to be in Xinyang City have inexplicably dwindled to less than twenty percent of their expected volume!"

"What?!"

The assembly was struck with shock. "Could the people of Great Chu have known they were bound to lose and transferred the provisions beforehand?"

"Impossible. Not even a mosquito could fly out of Xinyang once it was surrounded, let alone such a massive quantity of grain."

With a gloomy expression, the Prince of Zhennan demanded in a low voice, "Is there anything else?"

The soldier glanced at the Prince's visage and stammered nervously, "There is also the treasury silver of Xinyang City's prefectural office. The cash reserves and silver notes from several major banking houses have all vanished entirely. At present, the liquid funds that can be scraped together in Xinyang amount to less than thirty percent of the original total."

Dead silence fell over the grand tent. The generals cast sidelong glances at the Prince's expression, none daring to utter a single word. Xinyang might not have been Great Chu's wealthiest metropolis, but it was undoubtedly the place where Great Chu stored the largest share of its military provisions and ranked among the top five commercial trade hubs in the nation—even if their trading partners happened to be Western Ling. Everyone had drooled over this city precisely because of its boundless stores of grain, gold, and silver, yet now... nothing was left.

"Fine!" After a long silence, the Prince of Zhennan suddenly let out a cold laugh. "What a brilliant Prince Ding's Estate!"

Everyone froze, and someone asked doubtfully, "Your Highness, you mean the Prince Ding's Estate did this?"

The Prince of Zhennan sneered, "Aside from the Prince Ding's Estate, who else could possibly spirit away all the grain so quickly and seamlessly?"

"But isn't Prince Ding away in Northern Rong?"

"That only means the Prince Ding's Estate has other hidden masters among its ranks."

"Reporting to Your Highness, General Zheng has just issued an order to massacre the city!" A soldier rushed up to the entrance to report.

"Outrageous!" The Prince of Zhennan slammed his hand down on the desk and shouted sternly, "Whose order was that?"

The soldier flinched in fright and stammered, "General Zheng... General Zheng was seizing items from a pawnshop when he got into a conflict with the local civilians, and then... and then General Zheng gave the order to slaughter the city..."

"Transmit my orders immediately: halt the massacre! Anyone who dares violate this order will be executed on the spot. Order Zheng Bian to come see me right now."

"Yes!"

Inside the grand tent, the generals exchanged awkward glances. "Your Highness, those Chu dogs deserved to die anyway. Keeping all those people around is just a waste of food."

"Precisely, Your Highness. Xinyang fell and we gained nothing from it—we might as well slaughter all those Chu citizens to teach them a lesson."

"Fools!" the Prince of Zhennan rebuked coldly. "How many people are there in Great Chu? Can you kill them all? Right now, only Great Chu's military is resisting us; once the common people of Great Chu learn of a city massacre, every single citizen will rise up to fight us together."

Many remained unimpressed. "If Great Chu's military can't handle us, what good are a bunch of ordinary commoners?"

The Prince of Zhennan stated grimly, "In short, without this Prince's command, no one is permitted to slaughter the civilians of Great Chu at will!"

"Reporting to Your Highness, Yuan Pei has broken through with tens of thousands of Mo Family Army troops and headed toward Jiangxia."

Hearing this, the Prince of Zhennan frowned deeply. "What happened?"

"The forces dispatched by the Heir to intercept Yuan Pei were ambushed and wiped out entirely. Furthermore, Yuan Pei seemed intimately familiar with our army's deployment and terrain. Splitting his forces into multiple routes, he punched right through the gaps in our formations. Though he suffered some losses, the core strength of the Mo Family Army sustained no major damage."

"Reporting to Your Highness, news has just arrived from the southern route army: three days ago, the Heir was ambushed and sustained severe injuries."

The Prince of Zhennan jerked to his feet. "How is Tengfeng?"

"The Heir is out of immediate danger, but his injuries are quite grave. I am afraid he will be unable to command troops in the short term."

The Prince of Zhennan lowered his head into deep thought for a long while, slowly forcing down the rising fury within him before waving a hand and saying, "This Prince understands. You may withdraw first."

The previously festive atmosphere in the grand tent had dissolved into gloom under the weight of this cascading series of bad news. After a long pause, the Prince of Zhennan let out a low, mirthless chuckle. "Well then, the Prince Ding's Estate truly has no shortage of exceptional minds. In this round, this Prince has indeed lost."

"Your Highness?"

"Never mind. Send word to Tengfeng: I will dispatch someone else to take over command of the southern route army, and he is to make his way to Xinyang as soon as possible." The Prince of Zhennan waved his hand and said placidly, "Regardless of everything else, Xinyang is ultimately ours now. Tell him to come and take charge of the overall situation. As for those provisions and the gold and silver, this Prince refuses to believe they could sprout wings and fly away—they must still be hidden somewhere within the city!"

"Yes."