Three Kingdoms: I rely on system loopholes to survive

The river wind, carrying a damp fishy smell, blew over the top of the city wall. Zhong Ping stared at the slightly twitching mouth of the man on the bow, and suddenly chuckled. He turned around and asked the county magistrate: "Do you remember when I sent the letter asking for help from Guangxin?"

The county magistrate was startled, thought carefully for a moment, and answered uncertainly: "It was the day before yesterday at 7:30 pm?"

"That's right." Zhong Ping tapped the city wall with his fingertips. "It takes two days to travel from Pingnan to Mengling by Lishui. If it was really Guangxin reinforcements, why would the grain ships come upstream from the lower reaches of Yushui?"

The man on the boat suddenly changed his expression when he heard this. Shi You suddenly drew out the short knife from his waist, but Zhong Ping suddenly raised his voice: "But——"

The sound was so long that the defenders on the city wall subconsciously held their breath.

"But maybe Lord Xuande has other plans." Zhong Ping changed the subject and bowed to the fleet, "Please unload the food and fodder to the moat. Once we have verified your identities, we will open the gates to let the food into the city."

Shi You paused with the tip of his knife and exchanged glances with the personal soldier of the Shi family who was disguised as a lieutenant. They had calculated that the city was short of food, so they deliberately put corn on the top of the sacks, and the bottom was mud and sand soaked in kerosene. If the defenders really opened the gate to divert water, the sandbags would become hardened when they came into contact with water and could block the gate of the waterway.

"General, please understand!" Shi You pretended to wipe away tears, "We were attacked by the Li people just now, and most of our brothers on the ship died. We are unable to transport this hundred stones of grain and grass!"

Zhong Ping glanced at the dark clouds rolling toward the southwest sky, then looked at the waterline of the ship, with a thoughtful look on his face. He turned to the county magistrate and whispered, "Let the women and children dismantle the bamboo walls of the inner city, and take 100 bamboos and soak them in the moat."

"Sir, what is this?"

"The bamboo is hollow and has excellent buoyancy." Zhong Ping's eyes were fixed on the air, where a system panel that only he could see was floating. "In an hour, the southeast wind will rise."

The county magistrate immediately realized that the grain ships outside the city were a fraud, and said solemnly, "Yes."

Shi You saw that there was no movement on the top of the city wall for a long time, and was about to shout again, but he heard Zhong Ping smiling and asking on the top of the city wall: "General, please don't blame me. Mengling is the throat of the place. We must be careful. I wonder if the general has the seal of the envoy?"

"Of course there is, but how do we get it into the city?"

Upon hearing that Zhong Ping asked for the seal, the captain beside Shi You's brows jumped: the defenders in the city are so cautious, I'm afraid that the forged seal cannot fool him.

Shi Xie had long harbored the ambition to monopolize Jiaozhou. When he asked Liu Bei to send troops to help him quell the rebellion, he had the intention of testing Liu Bei's strength. He secretly spied on the general arrangement of Liu Bei's troops, the style of their flags, and their documents and seals.

Shi You looked calm on the surface, but in his heart he was cursing the difficult defender. If it were anyone else, after holding out for two days in an isolated city and finally seeing reinforcements, they would have happily opened the city gates to welcome them in... But this man was an exception. How could the soldiers defending the city resist making a fuss?
"Please wait for a moment, General. There will be a bamboo raft leaving the city in a moment. General, just place the seal and two bags of food on it."

Zhong Ping answered in a clear voice.

"Then it's just as you said, sir."

Shi You turned around and went back to the cabin, leaving only two captains guarding the bow.

Soon, a small gate in the west city was seen opened, and a team of defenders tied bamboos into a raft and pushed it into the water. It seemed that there were quite a lot of them.

The two captains could not help but frown and feel puzzled. How could so many bamboo rafts be needed just to store the seal and two bags of food?
The two of them looked at each other and were about to report to Shi You when a southeast wind suddenly rose on the river. Zhong Ping waved his flag and the bamboo raft drifted downwind towards the fleet. Each bamboo was tied with a hemp rope soaked in pine resin. Rockets were fired from the top of the city, and the hemp rope caught fire. The bamboos crackled when they were heated. Some of the bamboos were stuffed with sulfur, saltpeter and charcoal, and the sound of the explosion was like thunder, which scared the soldiers on the boat and made them run away.

Thunder and fire are frightening in themselves. At this moment, the bamboo joints burst and sparks flew everywhere. Although they had no killing power, these people were already in a panic. Even a little spark on their faces made them jump off the boat like frightened birds to escape.

The drums on the city walls were beating loudly. Li Meng led the Bai Li soldiers to paddle behind the bamboo rafts. The soldiers all wore rattan armor inside out and used reeds as breathing tubes to swim under the enemy ships. The sound of iron spikes drilling the ships was mixed with the sound of firecrackers and was difficult to distinguish. When Dai Shiyou noticed that water was coming in from the bottom of the ships, the three warships were already half submerged.

"Retreat! Retreat quickly!" Shi You swung his sword to cut the cable, but saw Zhong Ping lighting the last three rockets on the top of the city wall, shooting directly at the reed marsh in the southeast. The lurking defenders received the order and piled the rotten grass and leaves they had collected for days at the windward side and set them on fire. Thick smoke rose from the wet grass and trees, and the wind shrouded the entire river in a choking fog.

This was originally prepared for the Shi family army's next siege, but now let Shi You have a taste of it first.

"What is this?!"

The soldiers at the bow were coughing and choking. Li Meng took the opportunity to lead the Bai Li soldiers onto the boat and started hacking at anyone they saw. Shi You tasted the bitter fruit at this moment. Both sides were dressed the same way. It was difficult to distinguish between friend and foe in the smoke and the sound of firecrackers. There were sword fights everywhere. No matter how he shouted, it was of no use.

"Defeated again!" Shi Yi saw it clearly in the forest, and pounded the ground in anger. He was also to blame for Shi You's defeat. Ru didn't care about faking defeat to lure the enemy. All his soldiers went out and finally rescued Shi You from the river. As for those warships? They could only be left in the Yu River and captured by Zhong Ping.

The two of them could only be thankful that there was not much food in the boat, and at most they could only let the people in the city survive for another two or three days. The two defeated armies returned to the camp. Shi Xie looked at Shi You and Shi Yi who were kneeling in front of the tent, and narrowed his eyes: "You said that the southeast wind fanned the flames and caused this defeat... When did Liu Bei have someone who is good at observing the celestial phenomena?"

Shi You swallowed his saliva and said, "My lord, we two know that we are not as skilled as the enemy, but we will never suffer such a great defeat! There must be a spy in the army who leaked the news, so the defenders were prepared every time."

"That's right." Shi Yi nodded repeatedly. He also felt that he shouldn't have been defeated so badly. "Brother, the commander I saw today in the city is just a young boy. Even if he had studied since his mother's womb, he couldn't use these strategies! Besides, if there really is such a genius in the world, how could he be unknown?"

Shi Xie's eyes flickered, and although he couldn't show it on his face, he did believe it a little.

"My lord, this man's ability to observe celestial phenomena is no less than that of Mr. Wen Xiu. Could it be that they are from the same lineage?"

Shi You spoke tentatively. He knew the relationship between Shi Xie and Xu Jing, and he did not dare to speak rashly and directly point out that Xu Jing was a spy.

Seeing that Shi Xie did not say anything to stop him, Shi You boldly said, "My lord, do you know who is in the portrait of Mr. Wenxiu? I recognize it clearly. It is the young general guarding the city! It shows that Xu Wenxiu has been in contact with Liu Bei without my knowledge!"

"Don't talk nonsense!"

Shi Xie reprimanded him in a neither light nor heavy tone, then closed his eyes, not knowing what he was thinking.

A sudden downpour came outside the tent. He listened to the sound of rain for a while before opening his eyes. He snorted coldly, "Order all camps to dig deep trenches and build embankments along the upper reaches of the Yu River to store floodwaters. I want to see whether this rain will help him or me!"

On the Yu River, Li Meng and a group of defenders braved the heavy rain and dismantled the usable wooden boards, cloth bags, reeds and corn on the ships and transported them into the city. There was not much food on the ships to begin with, and most of it was washed away by the river. In the end, only twenty bags were left.

Li Meng looked at the stored grain in the government treasury, then at the millets that had been soaked in water, and was hesitant to speak. Zhong Ping also had a headache. Guangxin had not received any reinforcements for a long time, and he was afraid that Shi Xie had cut off the waterway and was restraining them.

Even if he still had a plan to defend the city, he could not defeat the problem of having no food in the city.

"Is there copper in the city?"

Zhong Ping can only resort to risky tactics.

The county magistrate was already used to Zhong Ping's nonsensical requests. He was sure that what Zhong Ping wanted must be of great use, so he immediately replied, "There are descendants of the Yi people living in this neighborhood, and every family worships a mountain ghost. It seems that they are all bronze statues."

Zhong Ping thought for a moment and asked, "Can we collect all the bronze statues and melt them into molten copper?"

"This... Sir, don't worry, I will give the order right away."

The county magistrate gritted his teeth. The situation in the city had come to this point, and he didn't care whether it would cause dissatisfaction among the barbarians.

Zhong Ping heard that the county magistrate might want to forcibly take the bronze statue, which was quite troublesome. If possible, he did not want any unrest to occur in the city. After all, he had used too many tactics of sowing discord and was afraid that someone would use it on him.

Just when he was in a dilemma, the witch who was traveling with Fan A solved his dilemma. He said a bunch of idioms, and Fan A nodded and translated: "The witch said that in addition to sulfur, his tribe also has a lot of copper, cinnabar, and wolfsbane... Oh? And some kudzu? This is really rare. Boheng, can you use it? If not, you must leave some for me to take back."

Zhong Ping breathed a sigh of relief. He had never been so grateful to have Fan A by his side. "How much sulfur is left?"

After studying medicine for so long, he now knows that wolfsbane refers to calla lily and kudzu is Aconitum, but compared to using poison, Zhongping still prefers the art of explosion.

Fan A shook his head and gave up the idea: "The remaining little bit is not enough to start the fire."

"Then let's send someone to get copper and cinnabar." Taneping sighed, trying to recall the knowledge he had learned in his previous life, "I don't know if it will work..."

There was only the last weather forecast left in the system column. Zhong Ping was not sure whether to use it now. Now even the arrows and kerosene in the city had been exhausted. If Shi Xie led his troops to attack the city again, he might only be able to defend the city with gold juice.

(End of this chapter)