The next day was the first day of the first lunar month. The city was filled with the sound of gongs and drums and the excitement of endless rejoicing. Even the defenders on the city walls changed into new uniforms and flags, appearing more spirited and inviolable.
Some wicked person in the county town suggested a dirty idea to the two temporary chiefs, Xu Rong and Zhang Qi, one civil and one military. He asked them to steam four or five hundred meat buns in the city and throw them down from the top of the city wall, hoping to see the chaos of the defenders outside the city fighting for the buns.
Xu Rong was a man without any ideas, so he did not comment on this suggestion; however, Zhang Qi had indeed suffered at the hands of the Lingnan Army before, and now that he had finally gained the upper hand, of course he wanted to vent his anger, but thinking that there was more than enough food and grass in the city, he agreed.
Shanyin County was fully prepared for a long siege. Not only were there dry rations such as rice and flour, but also pickled pork, beef, fish, etc. There were more than ten deep wells in the city, and there was no shortage of firewood, grass, and charcoal. After Zhang Qi gave the order, it only took a short while for dozens of steamed buns made of fresh meat to be prepared in the county and transported to the top of the city wall.
Zhang Qi had already dressed in full gear and was waiting on the city wall. When he saw the buns being served, he grabbed one and put it in his mouth. The delicious soup immediately filled his mouth, leaving a lingering fragrance on his lips and teeth.
Zhang Qi ate one, then another, and was reluctant to throw these delicious meat buns away for nothing. He calmed himself down and finally made up his mind. He asked his soldiers to throw the buns in the steamer into the city while they were still hot.
The soldiers of the Lingnan Army who were besieging the city smelled the steamed buns and had already gathered around them. Thousands of them saw steaming buns being thrown down from the city walls and they all rushed to grab them. A few strong and lucky ones grabbed a few buns and were about to put them in their mouths when they heard someone shouting, "Don't eat them. Be careful, they are poisonous!"
Now is the time when the two armies are fighting, and there is no guarantee that the defenders on the city will not poison the buns - this sentence obviously reminded the few people who grabbed the buns first, making them wonder whether to swallow the buns in their hands or throw them away.
Seeing the hesitation of the Lingnan soldiers under the city, Zhang Qi laughed a few times: "You have fought in battles after all, but you are so cowardly. This is what I give you for the New Year. If you have the courage, eat it. If you don't, throw it away. You don't want to be poisoned to death, but you don't want to starve to death. How can it be so easy in the world?"
The soldiers of the Lingnan Army under the city were immediately provoked by his words. One of the braver soldiers gritted his teeth and said, "Eat it, what's the big deal? It's a blessing to die well-fed before death!"
After that, he broke open a bun in his hand, not eating the outer skin, but picking out the peach pit-sized pickled meat in the core, and chewed it carefully before swallowing it. His mouth was busy thinking: "This bun is delicious, delicious!"
He finished the rest of the meat bun, but still felt it was not satisfying enough, so he snatched the bun that a companion next to him was holding but was afraid to eat, and swallowed it directly into his stomach without chewing it slowly. An expression of happiness and satisfaction immediately filled his face.
The rest of the Lingnan soldiers who were still watching saw that the buns thrown down from the city were indeed not poisoned. Their eyes immediately lit up, and they no longer cared about any military discipline and rushed forward to grab the buns to eat - for a moment, the scene became extremely chaotic.
When the soldiers in other places in the siege camp heard the news, they also rushed over, fearing that they would not be able to gain any advantage, and immediately rushed into the relatively well-organized military camp.
Zheng Yu, who was sitting in the central army tent discussing matters with veteran general Sun Hao, heard an inexplicable commotion outside. Thinking it was an enemy attack, he walked out of the tent and sent people to get information.
When the cause of the commotion reached Zheng Yu's ears, the second prince of the Lingnan King, who was of noble status, flew into a rage and shouted, "We are besieging the city, not begging for food. If you make such an unseemly scene, won't you be laughed at for nothing?"
After saying that, he stretched out his hand and called a messenger, "Pass my order down. All soldiers must take their positions to prevent the enemy from attacking. No one is allowed to watch or make a commotion, and no one is allowed to snatch food. Those who disobey my order will be punished by military law!"
As he spoke, Zheng Yu called the soldier who had gone to gather information, and asked him to lead the way so that he could check the situation.
Zheng Yuyuan thought that after he had issued a strict order, the soldiers who were snatching the buns would at least be more restrained. However, when he ran to the scene, he saw a chaotic scene - as far as he could see, there were at least five or six hundred soldiers fighting fiercely for a few buns, and some of them were lying on the ground groaning with blood all over their heads.
Zheng Yu became even angrier upon seeing this scene, and ordered his personal guards to immediately drag away the soldiers who were still fighting for food, tie them up one by one, and then strip them of their pants in front of everyone, and start beating them with military sticks.
Zhang Qi, who was watching the excitement on the top of the city wall, was gloating over the misfortune and shouted loudly to the people below the city: "Brothers of the Lingnan Army, I kindly invited you to eat buns, but your second prince is inviting you to eat sticks. Forget it, why not surrender to our army? There are plenty of buns in the city! You can eat as much as you want!"
Zheng Yu was furious when he heard this from the city wall. He shouted to the top of the city wall: "Zhang Qi, you are my defeated general. Have you forgotten how embarrassed you were when you escaped? Why are you so arrogant now that you are a coward?"
Zhang Qi blushed when he heard Zheng Yu expose his shortcomings, and then he retorted: "The Second Prince is right. I am a defeated general, and I am destined to be a coward. Look, we can't even celebrate the New Year, and we have to drown our sorrows in alcohol while surrounded by the Second Prince."
As he said this, he ordered his soldiers to carry several jars of fine wine to the tower. Qiu Yizhi's military orders were strict, and anyone who drank and caused trouble during a battle would be executed. Therefore, Zhang Qi did not dare to drink to his heart's content, and only ordered the soldiers to open the seals of the wine jars, allowing the aroma of the fine wine to slowly drift along the city wall to the enemy troops below.
Zheng Yu was intoxicated by the aroma of the wine. Seeing that the generals around him were also intoxicated, he quickly ordered, "Zhang Qi, this coward, has become such a bastard after following Qiu Yizi. Come on, shoot him to death with arrows!"
The Lingnan officers finally reacted and quickly organized their archers to fire a volley of shots at the city.
The city wall of Shanyin County was specially raised and reinforced by Qiu Yizi. Many fortifications and bunkers were built on the wall to defend against arrows. The Lingnan army was shooting into the sky, so although these arrow rains were fierce, they were "much ado about nothing". After firing for a while, they did not kill or injure many defenders in the city.
Zhang Qi dodged for a while, and when he saw the rain of arrows gradually thinning out, he stood up again, grabbed a handful of arrows, and said to Zheng Yu below the city: "Second Prince, you are really polite. These arrows are of good quality, and they didn't kill any of our soldiers. I'm afraid they are a New Year's gift for us. Thank you very much."
Zheng Yu was furious when he heard this. He was about to discuss with Sun Hao how to take revenge on Zhang Qi on the city wall, but he heard a soldier hurriedly running up beside him, kneeling on one knee and saying, "Second Prince, there is something unusual happening in the mountains behind our army!"
Zheng Yu was shocked and asked hurriedly, "What's going on? Tell me clearly!"
The soldier replied: "Second Prince, you will know if you turn around and take a look..."
Zheng Yu was startled again, and quickly twisted his fat body to look at the mountains behind him. He saw a wisp of smoke rising from the mountains, as if someone was cooking a picnic.
Zheng Yu knew that after such a war, the farmers and hunters in the mountains and fields had either fled or gone to the city, so who would make a fire in the wild? And it was rare for the soldiers in his army to have a full meal, so who would go out to cook? Thinking of this, the group of people who made the fire must be no one else except Qiu Yi's troops.
Thinking of this, Zheng Yu's already fat body almost exploded with anger - I'm starving here, and you, Qiu Yizi, actually have such leisure time!
He really wanted to send troops right away, following the direction of the rising smoke, to catch Qiu Yizhi, the thorn in his side. But he also knew that he was not familiar with the terrain, and it was difficult to find the person who made the fire just by looking in a general direction? And Qiu Yizhi was always cunning, so there was no guarantee that this was not a trick to lure the enemy.
After careful consideration, Zheng Yu's anger that had just built up suddenly subsided. He sighed, and said to the soldiers who were still executing the executioners, "Okay, stop beating them. It's useless to kill these people any more. Just tell them to strictly abide by military discipline in the future." After that, he turned and left.
However, another guard caught up with him and asked, "What should we do if food is thrown down from the city again? Please give us some advice, Second Prince."
This reasonable question made Zheng Yu feel worried and helpless again. He said bitterly: "Such a trivial matter is something I, the second prince of the King of Lingnan, should worry about? Why should I keep you useless people?" As he spoke, Zheng Yu looked up at the smoke that went straight to the sky and the earth. He cursed something and lowered his head to walk towards his central military tent.
The person who was carelessly making fire and cooking in the mountains was indeed Qiu Yizi.
Since he led his army out of the city, he had been living in the mountains around Shanyin County for a month, and life was not easy. Although the winter in the south was not too cold, with little rain or snow, the weather was helpful, but having a hot meal became a big problem - every time he lit a fire, he had to be very careful, for fear that Zheng Yu would catch him or scare away the convoy that came to deliver food and grass.
However, today is the New Year's Eve, and Qiu Yizi had completely frightened, subdued, and intimidated Zheng Yu in the past few days. He thought that even if Zheng Yu knew his whereabouts, he might not dare to lead his troops to attack. Therefore, he boldly asked his soldiers to light a bonfire, and went to the wild to hunt many wild animals. He had a good meal and spent the first day of the new year in peace.
After a few days of rest, Qiu Yizhi began to lead his troops to plunder the Lingnan Army's transport team. The more they did such tasks, the more handy they became. Among the teams that came from all over the country to transport food and grass, not even one out of ten could reach Shanyin City.
The food and fodder supply in Zheng Yu's camp became increasingly tight, to the point where they often ran out of food and went hungry.
Zheng Yu discussed with Sun Hao that they couldn't just starve to death under the city of Shanyin. The only option now was to go all out and either use all their strength to capture the county of Shanyin, or simply admit defeat and gather the troops back to the Jinling camp.
At this point today, Zheng Yu's original arrogance had long since disappeared. He knew that no matter how hard he tried to attack the city, it would be in vain. He stood up, patted Sun Hao on the shoulder, and said, "General Sun has been through thick and thin with my father, and we have always been brothers. It is only natural for me to call the old general 'uncle'. It's a pity that I didn't listen to my uncle's teachings, so I ended up like this!"