Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 302, The Army's Food Supply Runs Out

Xiao Rang, Dai Qing, Yan Zongnan, Le He, and Qian Yanyan were all very shocked.

This is only the first day of their official siege!

Hundreds of thousands of troops marched a long way to the city and painstakingly filled the moat. After only one day of attacking, their food supplies were gone.
Wouldn't they become a laughing stock then?

Everyone looked at Gao Jing, waiting for him to give an explanation.

Gao Jing silently took out a stack of silver notes from his pocket.

"If you want, I can try to buy the grain back."

The generals exchanged glances and simultaneously accepted the silver notes from Gao Jing's hands.

Xiao Rang, with a serious expression, tucked the silver notes into his pocket and said:

"Since the army's food supplies have run out, we, as generals, should stand with our soldiers and overcome this difficult time together."

Dai Qing nodded in agreement and asked:
"Lord Gao, how much grain is left in the warehouse?"

Gao Jing replied, "There are still three days' worth of rations for the army."

Upon hearing this, the group breathed a sigh of relief.

enough.

Three days' worth of food, if eaten sparingly, should last for ten days without much problem!
Ten days later, those who should surrender surrendered, and those who should retreat retreated. They had done their best for His Majesty.

Seeing this, Gao Jing reminded him:
"The three-day ration is after saving resources; under normal supply conditions, it will only last for one day!"

???

That means we only have enough food for one day!

Everyone's expression immediately changed.

Given the current morale, the army will inevitably mutini once they run out of food!

What should we do?

Yan Zongnan and Yue He paced anxiously in the room, their faces full of worry.

However, as they paced around, the two unknowingly circled behind Gao Jing, blocking his way out.

Xiao Rang and Dai Qing also silently gathered around.

At this moment, they had already decided to surrender to the bandits of Huaiyin.

They originally wanted to delay for a while longer, since there is a big difference between surrendering after one day of fighting and surrendering after ten days or half a month of fighting.

The former is practically a joke.

The latter, while not necessarily highly regarded, at least demonstrated some ability and was not subjected to excessive criticism.

But now that supplies are exhausted, it's all meaningless.

When they had supplies, they couldn't defeat the Huaiyin army, with a casualty ratio as high as 21:1. Now that they've run out of supplies, what's the point of fighting?

The group, as if by unspoken agreement, surrounded Gao Jing, having already decided on the most extreme option. Only Qian Yanyan, the youngest of the five, was still somewhat at a loss.

"Lord Gao, does Lord Tian know about this matter?"

Xiao asked in a low voice.

Gao Jing shook his head and whispered, "We can't tell him. Knowing Lord Tian's personality, if we tell him, he'll definitely drag everyone down with the Huaiyin army!"

Upon hearing this, a strange glint flashed in Xiao Rang's eyes.

He originally thought that although Gao Jing was greedy, he was still loyal to Emperor Longqing, otherwise he would not have come to Henan with an imperial edict.

However, now that Gao Jing has said these words...

"Does Lord Gao's words mean that he has already planned his escape route?"

Xiao Rang tentatively asked.

Gao Jing looked around and whispered something to the others.

"To be honest, I have an old acquaintance in the Huaiyin Army named Ma Jing, who is the nephew of Ma Qing, the current commander of the Huaiyin Army who is guarding Handan. With his introduction, our future can be guaranteed!"

"Oh dear, Lord Gao!"

Xiao Rang slapped his thigh, grabbed Gao Jing's arm affectionately, and said, "Quick, quick, please have some tea!"

There's a huge difference between having someone to introduce you to a faction and not having one. Those who do are more likely to gain trust and directly join the faction of the person who introduced them, receiving its protection and integrating into the new faction more quickly and settling down.

The latter are not only prone to suspicion, but also to isolation, injustice, and even being used as cannon fodder.

In short, a suitable introducer is very important and extremely valuable.

Xiao Rang and the others' attitudes changed instantly after learning that Gao Jing had such a relationship.

They began to frequently curry favor with Gao Jing, expressing their hope that he could give them a helping hand. Gao Jing did not reject Xiao Rang and the others' overtures, but merely reminded them:

"Although I have this connection, the Huaiyin army doesn't care about personal relationships; everything is based on merit. That's why I chose to leave before. Now that we're going back, we'd better show some merit to be valued!"

Xiao Rang asked, "What does Lord Gao mean?"

Gao Jing said calmly, "There are six generals in the army."

Upon hearing this, the group exchanged glances.

He nodded slightly.

Soon, it was time for the next day.

Everything proceeded as usual. In the morning, everyone was given a bowl of rice porridge that wasn't too thin, and then the siege began.

During this time, Xiao Rang and his confidants deliberately arranged for their trusted men to climb the city wall, pretend to be captured by the Huaiyin army, and then enter Handan with the letter.

The information was sent back shortly afterward.

After it was confirmed that Gao Jing's words were true, Xiao Rang and the others were finally relieved.

At this time, Tie Gen was still desperately attacking the city under the supervision of the supervisory team, completely unaware that the general above him was preparing to defect to the enemy.

Tie Gen was holding a knife and wearing several layers of thick clothing.

He picked up the knife from his fallen teammate, and the clothes were a gift from his deceased teammate.

Although it was the height of summer and the weather was extremely hot, heat was nothing compared to death.

Wearing more layers of clothing can increase your defense by a tiny bit, however insignificant. But any increase is good.

Tie Gen climbed the ladder step by step when suddenly a large rock was thrown down, hitting the teammate at the top and causing him to bleed from the head.

The stones followed closely behind, and the teammates above screamed as they were crushed to the ground.

Upon seeing this, Tie Gen quickly jumped to the side.

He was very lucky; he jumped from a lower part of the ladder and landed right in a pile of corpses, thus avoiding serious injury.

Tie Ben remembered, but then he thought about it and realized his mother was still waiting for him at home, so he lay down again, wiped the blood on his face, and crawled into the pile of corpses.

Suddenly, a voice came.

"Don't move! Kid, you're pressing down on your grandpa!"

Tie Gen was startled and looked in the direction of the sound, only to see the voice coming from an old soldier covered in blood to his lower right.

"Stop moving! Be careful not to get spotted by the supervisory team! You'll get me in trouble!"

Upon hearing this, Tie Gen quickly calmed down.

If the supervisory team discovers that he is faking his death on the battlefield, he will definitely be executed.

In this way, time passed little by little.

By the afternoon, Tiegen figured it was time to call it a day.

He began to prepare to find an opportunity to go out.

It's definitely not an option to just crawl up from the corpse; that would attract attention and expose the deception.

Tie Gen observed his surroundings and soon an opportunity arose.

A soldier's body fell from above and landed right next to the iron root.

Tie Gen quickly climbed over, then pretended that he was the one who had fallen but hadn't died, and prepared to get up from the pile of corpses.

With so many corpses, and their clothes all being roughly the same, it was impossible for the supervisory team to remember the appearance of every single one.

As long as he gets up at roughly the same position and time as the other person, he can get away with it.

Of course, such behavior would definitely be discovered in a regular army, but in the Holy Guard, the army's management is extremely lax, which gives such behavior a great deal of room to survive.

(End of this chapter)