Yingbao and the others finished their noodles and looked around, but didn't see what they needed.
Afterwards, they came to the stonemason's shop, and Yingbao unexpectedly saw a huge stone statue standing in front of the shop.
This stone statue is of a woman with her hair tied up in a high bun, wide sleeves and a silk ribbon. There are patches of peony flowers under her feet, and she looks as if she is about to fly.
"Master, old man, are you selling this stone statue?" Yingbao asked.
The stonemason waved his rough hands and said, "The statue has been ordered by someone else. I won't sell it."
Yingbao was curious: "Who made the decision? Was it someone from Zaoshu Village?"
The stonemason nodded and asked, "How did you know it was decided by Zaoshu Village?"
"To be honest, I'm from the Wuchang Taoist Temple in Zaoshu Village." Yingbao said.
"Oh?" The stonemason took a look at Yingbao and said, "No wonder. It turns out that the young lady is from the Taoist temple. I heard that the incense of Wuchang Taoist Temple is very prosperous. There are already more than ten Taoists in the temple, almost catching up with Wuji Temple."
Sakura:...
Is Wuchang Taoist Temple already so prosperous
I don’t know where the Taoists in the temple come from. Could they be villagers from Zaoshu Village
Seeing that the stonemason continued to carve, Yingbao didn't want to disturb him any further, so she went to Zhang's house with her brother Huzi.
After entering Zhang's house, Yingbao asked her brother and Huzi to rest first while she went to talk to Mrs. Zhang.
I was just a ten-year-old kid and not even a local, so no one paid any attention to me when I wanted to do something.
Mrs. Zhang is different. As long as she shows up, no one from the city's noble families dares to say anything.
"Let the people in the city take turns guarding the river?" Mrs. Zhang fell into deep thought after hearing Yingbao's plan.
Yingbao: "Yes, if the bandits sneak in at night, wouldn't it be dangerous if there is no one guarding the river?"
Mrs. Zhang hesitated for a while, and finally nodded: "Okay, I will send people to notify each household, and those who refuse to go on duty will be fined five taels of silver."
Seeing that Mrs. Zhang was willing to come forward, Yingbao breathed a sigh of relief, said goodbye and went back to her room to rest.
In the middle of the night, the bandits suddenly began to attack the city.
They carried huge tree stumps and crashed into the city gate again and again.
Zhang Min and his eldest brother led the soldiers to throw stones and bricks towards the city, and some even poured burning tung oil down.
There were also thieves sneaking in from the other side of the river.
As soon as dozens of bandits landed on the shore, they were surrounded by hundreds of people, who were holding carrying poles, sticks, hoes, chisels, etc., and attacked the bandits with all their might.
In this battle, the bandits suffered heavy casualties, and finally jumped into the river to escape, leaving behind thirty or forty corpses.
When Yingbao woke up the next day, she heard Zhang Xuehua telling her what happened last night.
"Last night, the barbarians attacked the city. Thanks to your advice, those sneak attacks failed."
The girl took Yingbao's hand and asked her to sit down in front of the mirror. She smiled and said, "Let me help you comb your hair. Mother wants you to come over and talk to her."
Yingbao sat obediently and let Zhang Xuehua comb and braid her hair.
Looking at the graceful girl in the mirror, Yingbao suddenly asked, "Sister Zhang, if the city cannot be defended, will you and your mother leave with me?"
Zhang Xuehua was startled, and the hand holding the comb trembled. "Why can't you keep it?"
"Because there are more and more bandits outside, they will gather many teams to attack Jingzhou." Only by taking Jingzhou can the bandits go all the way south.
If Jingzhou has no external aid and can only defend itself, the bandits will never withdraw their troops. Even if it takes one, two, or even half a year, they will not stop attacking the city.
But can Jingzhou really last that long
The smile on Zhang Xuehua's face gradually disappeared.
Her father was the prefect, and she and her mother, including her elder brother, sister-in-law, and two half sisters, would not leave Jingzhou before the common people.
If the city really falls, where should my family go
Ying Bao looked at Zhang Xuehua in the mirror and said, "I promised Second Senior Brother that if anything unexpected happened, I would take you away."
"No, no... I can't leave." Zhang Xuehua forced herself to remain calm and slowly braided Yingbao's hair.
Yingbao touched her braids, turned to Zhang Xuehua and said, "Sister Zhang, don't be afraid, I'm just talking."
She just wanted them to be mentally prepared.
Jingzhou has been surrounded and no one can get in or out. Those words of comfort are meaningless.
If there is a way to survive, who would be willing to die
But when Mrs. Zhang heard Yingbao's analysis of the situation, she was as shocked as her daughter.
She thought that as long as she held on to the city, the imperial court would soon send troops to rescue her.
But what if they don’t come
Madam Zhang looked at Ying Bao and said solemnly, "Ying Bao, now that we have a glimmer of hope, we must defend the city. As for other things, don't mention them again. We can't let the soldiers defending the city lose their morale, and the people can't be in chaos."
"Well, I only analyzed it for you and didn't tell anyone else." Ying Bao knew that she couldn't talk nonsense to outsiders at this time.
Three days passed quickly.
The war is becoming increasingly tense.
The bandits came to attack the city every day, but returned empty-handed.
In the end, they stopped knocking on the city gate and instead went to the woods to cut a lot of wood and piled it in front of the city gate, trying to burn it down.
At the same time, they also made rafts out of trees, hoping to enter the city by water.
Magistrate Zhang and his two sons could not sleep at night, and each led a team to intercept the bandits.
Gradually, the people in the city also became frightened, and many people wanted to escape by water.
But at this time the waterway had been blocked by bandits, and many rafts were blocking the outer river.
A few households ignored the advice and secretly went out on small boats, but were caught by the bandits.
The bandits used these civilians as shields and paddled over on a raft, but were shot to death by the soldiers guarding the road.
Zhang Min led a team of dozens of people to guard a waterway, and there was also a guard team of more than one hundred people from the city. They took turns guarding the river day and night.
During one incident, the bandits held a reed in their mouths and tried to swim into the city.
Just when they thought they were going to succeed, they were stopped by a fishing net.
When they used the dagger to cut the fishing net, they alarmed the guards standing there.
The result is predictable, dozens of bandits were all wiped out.
But this time it also completely angered the bandit leader Wanyan Hasi.
A few days later, Wanyan Hasi ordered a general attack, launching a fierce attack from two waterways and the city gates.
In the city, the noble families and the common people were also summoned by Mrs. Zhang to prepare to fight the enemy.
She followed Yingbao's advice and ordered people to build a long corridor on both sides of the inner city gate, and a circle of gateless courtyard at the back.
The entire shape of the tunnel is like a long-mouthed gourd, with a deep trap dug in the belly of the gourd, and rows of wooden thorns placed in the trap.
The trap was covered with a layer of bamboo strips, with some twigs and loose soil sprinkled on top.
Once the barbarians break through the city gate, they will inevitably follow the corridor into the gourd and finally fall into the trap.
At that time, we will arrange some soldiers to shoot arrows or throw stones on the walls on both sides to ensure that as many as they come in will die.
In order to build this corridor, they carried all the stones from the stonemasons' homes and demolished the stone walls of many houses. As expected, there is strength in numbers, and the project was successfully completed in just a few days.
Today, Yingbao, Huzi and Jiang Wu followed Madam Zhang and Zhang Xuehua, standing on the wall of the corridor behind the city gate, quietly listening to the shouts and fierce collisions outside the city.