Joyful Motherhood in a Rural Family-Chapter 885 - Difficult Problem
Chapter 885 -885 Difficult Problem
Seeing that everyone had mostly finished eating, Liu Sisi then glanced at them.
She said, “Each individual has their limitations, but greater wisdom is gained when people come together. Just like it’s said that the collective wisdom of the group can surpass even that of the wisest individual. At present, everyone has seen the situation, so if you have any ideas, let’s hear them. Try to keep your comments concise, who will start?”
When Liu Sisi spoke up, everyone lifted their heads to look at her.
In everyone’s heart, they fundamentally believed that a woman should stay home, embroider flowers, cook meals, look after the parents-in-law and children, and wait for their man to return. Even though Liu Sisi was of princess royalty, they still considered her a burden on the surface, never considering that she would pose such a question.
It was Zhang Peng who reacted first, “Everyone, please speak up. I’ll say a few words. We all know the time, bandits have besieged the city gate, and it would be impossible to attack into their encirclement close to the gate without getting everyone injured. I think we should find another way.”
Qi Yuanzheng was particularly impressed with Liu Sisi, especially the scene where she initially produced an Imperial Decree to leave the city, which had remained in his mind. He quickly followed up after hearing Zhang Peng.
“Commander Zhang is right. I’ve also looked closely before, those people down there may seem in disorder, but they are actually quite organized. What I mean is, it’s probably impossible to bluff our way passed them pretending to be one of them, and as for having an opportunity at night, that’s even harder to say.”
With the two having led the discussion, the rest began to express their own views.
“I think, could we possibly target their tents? Aren’t those tents set up by the open space beside the hillside? If we directly set those tents aflame, the enemy’s camp would surely descend into chaos.”
“That would likely be difficult. There’s a distance of thirty paces in the open space. To ignite the tents, I’m afraid our forces wouldn’t even get close before being nearly wiped out by the enemy.”
“Why don’t we approach from downstream up the moat? The water in the moat must not be frozen, otherwise, these people would have probably attacked already. If we approach the drawbridge area by water, wouldn’t we then directly bypass their line of sight?”
“That cannot be done at all costs! Not to mention the countless hidden stakes at the bottom of the moat, what about the wild animals in the water, who can deal with those? Even if there were no wild animals, who can dive under the water for so long? And if we’re discovered, we’d likely be taken care of by forces on both sides as enemies.”
“…”
Soon, everyone proposed a variety of ideas, and Liu Sisi listened quietly, carefully analyzing the conversation.
She had seen before that outside the city gate of Yingchang Prefecture, there was an open field approximately fifty paces wide, followed by farmland that at the moment was occupied by countless disordered tents, with a slope beyond that. In such snowy weather, the slope was simply too slippery to stand on, then sparse bushes and weed clumps followed, and further back was the small grove where they were located.
Such a wide-open area, wanting to rush into the center without alerting the enemy and approach the drawbridge, was simply impossible.
Moreover, even if they got close to the drawbridge, whether the city’s inhabitants would lower it to let them in was another matter…
The more she thought about it, the more muddled her mind became, but thinking of Di Yelei, who was leading eight hundred elite cavalry to face thirty thousand horsemen, she forced herself to calm down.
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“The matter you just mentioned, igniting the tents is not difficult, but what shall we do after setting the tents on fire?”
Liu Sisi spoke this way because of the confidence given to her by the recently developed strong crossbows. These crossbows could fire ten iron crossbow arrows at once, each eight inches long, with a range of thirty paces, easily hitting targets with pinpoint accuracy. Just as well, she could replace iron crossbow arrows with Fire Arrows to directly set the tents ablaze.
Actually, these powerful crossbows had been around for quite some time, but they were few in number and had not yet been distributed to everyone.
Hearing that she had a plan, the eyes of all two hundred of her elite cavalry’s trusted soldiers lit up!
“Right, we can burn their grain and grass. As long as their supplies are burned, I don’t believe they won’t fall into chaos.”
“Burning the grain and grass is too risky, and it still doesn’t address the fundamental problem. What if the people in the city are afraid of death and refuse to lower the drawbridge?”
“There is indeed a possibility. How about we send a flying pigeon letter to the people inside the city to let them know we’ve arrived.”
“I’m afraid the pigeon may not even make it into the city before it is shot down by the enemy’s horsemen…”
Neither left nor right seemed viable, and amidst the fervent discussions of everyone, the expressions on Liu Sisi and Zhang Peng’s faces were not looking good.
“If you ask me, it would be great if we could convince the other side’s people to defect.”
Qi Yuanzheng suddenly spoke up.
Convince the other side’s people to defect? A light shone in Liu Sisi’s eyes!
“Centurion Qi, do you have a plan?”
Qi Yuanzheng hesitated slightly, “Didn’t a lot of people come and go previously? I saw a few familiar faces among them.”
The ‘familiar faces’ she referred to were naturally those she had known when initially serving as a City Defense Official as well as her former subordinates.
“Even if there are familiar faces, how do you know whether they’d be willing to be convinced to defect? If even one person refuses, wouldn’t that be like sending sheep into a tiger’s mouth? The more…” Liu Sisi became more and more anxious as she thought about it: “This must not be done! We should think this through more carefully.”
“I think Qi Yuanzheng’s plan is feasible.”
However, Zhang Peng countered Liu Sisi’s words from beside her: “These soldiers fighting, most likely a good number of them did not actively come here to enlist. If we could convince one or two to defect and get familiar with the specific situation inside, that would be ideal. The best method is to turn familiar faces.”
“Rather than convincing them to defect, it might be better to capture a couple of stragglers; getting a ‘spy’ would be beneficial.”
Liu Sisi still disagreed, shaking her head repeatedly: “Capturing a ‘spy’ to interrogate thoroughly might lead us to some unexpected findings. What do you all think?”
Nobody naturally opposed the idea of capturing a spy.
Two trusted soldiers stood up from beside the group and gave Liu Sisi a fist greeting: “Princess, leave this task to the two of us. We guarantee to complete the mission.”
“Fine! You two go, but be as careful as possible not to alarm the enemy and arouse their suspicion.”
“Yes! The two of us understand.”
After saluting Liu Sisi with another fist greeting, the two silently departed from another side of the dense forest and soon vanished, as if they had merged into the vast expanse of flying snow.
Zhang Peng glanced at Liu Sisi, whose face was pale and void of any color, a flicker of concern in his eyes: “The snow is getting heavier. This won’t do; we need to find a way to keep warm.”
After all, her constitution was no match for that of the robust men there, her body trembling uncontrollably.
