Ji Han Liu Zhang

October is the beginning of winter. When night falls, the coldness begins to spread little by little. The coldness is first initiated by the cold wind at night, which whistles through the city of Lueyang.

"Huh, why is it getting colder every year at this time of year?" When the cold wind blew at night, Captain Gan Jiu immediately tightened his winter clothes and blew a breath of warm air onto his cold hands. The night chill was a bit oppressive.

Gan Ning stood on the top of the city wall and looked towards the field in front of Lueyang City. The moonlight was dim tonight and it was dark all around, so he could not see the scene in front of Lueyang City clearly.

After looking away, Gan Ning heard Gan Jiu's complaints about the weather getting colder every year. He smiled faintly and gave an explanation: "We are now in Liangzhou, not Shu. The north has always been bitterly cold. It's not that it's getting colder every year, but our location has changed."

After saying that, Gan Ning glanced at the soldiers around him, and saw that they were all wrapped tightly in winter clothes, so he ordered Gan Jiu: "Give the soldiers an extra winter coat. Liangzhou is not like Shu, and the soldiers need to wear more clothes."

"And don't be stingy with the firewood. Light a few fires for the soldiers on night watch."

Most of the soldiers under Gan Ning's command were warriors he recruited when he was rampant in Ba County, that is, the old Jinfan bandits. These people were basically from Ba, with a few from Shu. Now they suddenly came to the bitter and cold Liangzhou, and naturally they were somewhat not used to Liangzhou's climate.

"Yes." Gan Jiu accepted the order, but he did not do it personally. Instead, he sent a garrison commander to take dozens of people to the government warehouse to transport winter clothes and distribute them to the soldiers.

At the same time, Gan Jiu appointed another village chief to lead people to carry firewood and light a bonfire to warm the bodies of the soldiers on night watch.

"No wonder so many winter clothes were shipped over from Chencang. It seems like it was a foresight!" After conveying Gan Ning's order, Gan Jiu sighed.

The general Wu Yi stationed in Chencang ahead brought a large amount of winter clothes, far exceeding the number of Shu soldiers in Lueyang City. At that time, he thought that Chencang had misremembered their number. But now it seems that it was because Wu Yi had a deep understanding of the weather in Liangzhou.

Soon, winter clothes were delivered to the top of the city wall and distributed to the shivering soldiers, and several bonfires were lit. The soldiers on night watch were divided into two groups. One group stood guard at the top of the city wall to prevent the people from Liangzhou from stealing the city, and the other group started a fire, changing shifts every half an hour.

As the night deepened, the moonlight became fainter and fainter, and the whole area was shrouded in darkness and filled with frosty wind.

In this cold night without even the sound of insects or birds, Gan Ning, who had been sitting quietly by the fire, suddenly stood up. He glanced at Gan Jiu and gave an order, "Let the soldiers go down the city and pick up the arrows in front of the city wall."

Adhering to the good virtue of thrift and considering that a huge amount of arrows would be needed in the future battle to defend the city, Gan Ning decided to send people tonight to recover the arrows that were used to kill the Qiang and Hu people during the day.

Gan Jiu's eyes showed a mischievous light, and he smiled: "Yes, sir."

After receiving the order, Gan Jiu ordered the soldiers to hang down baskets from the battlements of the city wall. Each basket contained a human figure. The 'people' in these baskets were the ones who were about to leave the city to pick up arrows.

The basket slowly descended from the parapet. At first, the surroundings were calm, but when the basket descended to the middle of the Lueyang city wall, an accident happened.

“Cum for me!!!”

From the dim open space in front of Lueyang City, an order was heard, and then countless arrows flew out from the unclear open space and shot towards the "Shu soldiers" halfway above the city wall.

With such a dense rain of arrows, the Shu soldiers hanging in the air above the city wall were bound to be hit by arrows, and this was exactly the case. As the arrows approached, soon, the Shu soldiers descending from the top of the city were hit by many arrows one by one, like hedgehogs covered with spikes.

The 'Shu army' that was hit by arrows was on the verge of death, and several final wails of the dying people flew around at the same time.

However, if you stand on the top of Lueyang City, you can clearly see that the wailing sound is not coming from mid-air above the city wall, but from the top of Lueyang City.

"Shisan, you're such a talent. You created the tune of the screams echoing in front of the city wall." Gan Jiu lowered his voice and praised Qu Chang Gan Shisan. One of the screams and wails just now came from Gan Shisan's mouth.

"Thank you for your compliment, big brother." Gan Shisan said modestly with a smug look on his face. At the same time, he explained why his simulated screams were so accurate, and that even the echo of the wailing of the 'soldiers' in the air above the city wall hitting the city wall was created.

"I learned a few ventriloquist skills to make a living, but later I followed Commander Qu and became a soldier, so I gave up the ventriloquist job. I never thought it would come in handy today."

"Hehe." Having said this, Gan Shisan let out a smug laugh.

"Look, this is called professionalism." Gan Jiu pointed at Gan Shisan, indicating to the soldiers whose simulated screams were not accurate enough, and intended for others to learn from Gan Shisan.

"There is something to be learned from even the chicken-stealing and dog-stealing." Gan Ning heard their conversation and said something. Then he ordered, "It's almost done. Bring up the straw men."

At Gan Ning's command, the soldiers immediately took action. While shouting "enemy attack", they quickly hung up the straw man in the basket hanging in the air above the city wall, and pretended to be suddenly attacked and panicked on the top of the city wall.

When the straw men were hoisted to the top of the city wall, Gan Jiu glanced at the arrows hanging on them. He smiled and said, "General Qu, Ma Teng and Han Sui guessed that we would go to pick up the arrows in front of the city wall, but they didn't expect that we guessed that they would attack the soldiers we sent out to pick up the arrows. We used their tricks against them and gave us so many arrows for nothing."

"Take down the arrows, wait half an hour, and then put the straw men down." Gan Ning smiled. He planned to rely on this group of straw men to continue borrowing arrows from Ma Teng and Han Sui.

"Yes." Gan Jiu clasped his fists and received the order. He called a group of soldiers and helped them pull out the arrows from the straw man. He was ready to wait for half an hour to continue the previous operation.

In front of the wall of Lueyang, he burned his weapons while listening to the wailing of the Shu army, and he couldn't help feeling happy. During the day, many Qiang and Hu men under his command were shot and killed by the Shu army in Lueyang. At this time, he felt a sense of pleasure in revenge when he heard the screams of the Shu army.

"General Yan, a great mission has been accomplished. Shall we go back?" When he saw the Shu soldiers who were shot and killed being dragged back to the top of the city, Shao Ge asked Yan Xing. Although Yan Xing was only a captain, Shao Ge, as a commander, knew how to handle things, so he called Yan Xing "General Yan".

"No." The tall Yan Xing shook his head. He stroked his short beard and instructed the flag officer, "Make the sound of the gong, but the soldiers don't move..."

Then Yan Xing turned to Shao Ge: "The Shu army is greedy for arrows. If they hear the sound of the gong, they might think we have left and send people to pick up the arrows. Then, we can make another contribution."

Shao Ge's eyes lit up when he heard this. He nodded repeatedly and praised, "General Yan is truly a god. The Shu army is just a mere soldier, but their actions and thoughts are all under General Yan's control." (End of this chapter)