Jin Se

Chapter 52

Gu Huaiyang had truly fallen into dire straits.

On the sixth day, the two sides clashed for the first time. The imperial armies surrounded them from all sides; their violent encounter lasted three days.

On the tenth day, the Redscarf Army retreated back into Dongyue.

On the fifteenth day, the imperial army, which had lost half its ranks to casualties, received one hundred thousand reinforcements. Their forces marched towards the city walls. Gu Huaiyang and his lot put up a valiant resistance.

On the twenty-first day, rations and matériel ran dangerously low. This time, Gu Huaiyang knew that they were at the end of their tether.

The court had exhausted the country's full force in order to sunder Dongyue and Haining so that they could besiege them one by one. Dongyue's "easy to defend, hard to attack" terrain became their prison. When Gu Huaiyang listened to Lu Yunzhou's battle report, his face full of stubble, he did so in grim silence.

When he was done, Lu Huaiyang succinctly said, "Eldest brother, the men and horses have nothing left to eat, you have to find a way."

"How much do we have left?" Gu Huaiyang asked.

"Three days, three days at most."

Gu Huaiyang mulled it over silently as his hand, covered in dried, cracked scars tapped the table. He frowned, then said, "Alright."

Lu Yunzhou wasn't a man of many words and wasn't an easy man to get close to. The only ones he spoke more than a few words to, aside from his only daughter, were his sworn brothers. At that moment, standing there, he seemed to be hesitating as to whether to speak. Gu Huaiyang looked up at him, asking, "What?"

Lu Yunzhou's brows slackened for a moment. He mumbled, "Nothing. I was thinking of Lu-er. Wondering how little sixth's injury is coming along too."

Gu Huaiyang said, "The letters I've gotten from Si-niang recently said little sixth's injury's getting better. She's looking after Lu-er too, she'll be safe and sound."

Lu Yunzhou nodded.

Gu Huaiyang glanced at him again and couldn't help saying, "Has someone been telling you rumors again? We're brothers, you and I, is there anything you can't just ask me?"

Lu Yunzhou dithered for a moment, then said, "Lieutenant-general Guo Hui told me to say something to you, eldest brother. If after three days, provisions and reinforcements aren't able to come in, are we going to... levy grains from the civilians."

For a few minutes, Gu Huaiyang didn't reply. He scoffed coldly, "Levy grains? It sounds to me like Guo Hui means 'pillaging grains.'"

Lu Yunzhou silently lowered his gaze.

"Pfffft - hahahahaha," Gu Huaiyang guffawed. He put his hand over his face, leaving only his pale lips exposed. A long while later, he said quietly, "That Guo bastard. Back in the day, when he was so sick he was nearly on his deathbed, it was thanks to his fellow refugees, struggling to drag him along, rationing the food they got from begging, that he's alive to this day.

His younger brother was only eight when he died, so skinny he was like a little monkey. His hand was so small as he tugged his brother's clothes and said 'I'm hungry, I want to eat a flat cake,' but even up to death, we hadn't been able to give that child a single bite of flat cake."