The Empress’s Gigolo

The next day, Wu City began to bustle with noise and excitement.

First of all, the reinforcements from the Protectorate of the South had finally arrived.

These 5,000 soldiers had practically wiped out half of the north region. Before they arrived in Tianjing Basin, they divided themselves into five battalions and attacked simultaneously.

Thanks to the arrangements made by Ren Baqian, many cities directly opened their gates and surrendered, reducing the number of casualties and the amount of time spent. The reinforcements didn’t stay in these cities for long, leaving only a dozen of their soldiers behind to occupy these cities.

After all, the strength of these Man Wheel experts was already considered powerful in ordinary cities.

Even Great Xia’s elite soldiers required a 10:1 ratio to contend against the aboriginals, let alone the original guards of these city garrisons who were wielding bone knives. If something were to happen, as long as there weren’t any Earth Wheel level or higher experts, only a minority of these native city guards would be able to escape.

As for those experts above the Earth Wheel level, when Ren Baqian returned from the Golden Ring Residence, he had dispatched the winged cavalry to wipe them out. Even if the aboriginals did miss any of these experts, now that they had gone into hiding, they wouldn’t easily appear in public any more

There were only a few cities that had been resolutely resisting. The separated battalions subsequently reformed and attacked together. After these cities were sacked, they killed every single official. The air in these cities was filled with the stench of blood.

As for the chaos that occurred in a rebellious city after the aboriginals left, they didn’t pay any attention to it. Stabilizing such a city was a problem that others needed to consider. Killing all the people who resisted was what aboriginal soldiers should do.

Under such circumstances, the reinforcements took 40 days before they arrived in Wu City when they originally would only need 15 days to arrive. They also wiped out the scattered rebels that were in the north.

In addition, the person leading these troops was someone familiar. He was none other than Hong Cheng.

He was Hong Wu’s son and Hong Xian’s father.

Previously, when Dayao was fighting a war against Great Xia in the north, at the time when their forces were encircled, it was Hong Cheng who led the reinforcements from the Protectorate of the South to the north. Ren Baqian had met him once at that time. Now, this would be considered his second time meeting him.

Wu City was only a small city. After the 5,000 reinforcements arrived, they practically filled up the entire city.

At the same time, a problem that arose was the shortage of food in Wu City. Previously, the 1,000 soldiers and 800 winged cavalry warriors practically consumed all the rations in Wu City. They even snatched the rations of the city garrison.

Now that the reinforcements had arrived, there was almost no more food left in Wu City.

“Your Majesty, there isn’t enough food left in the city. At most, it can only last us for another three days,” Xi Wanya informed the empress. “From my point of view, the commoners can keep up to five days’ worth of rations for themselves at most. They must give up the rest of their food. This method should be able to replenish one month’s worth of army rations.”

“By solely relying on Wu City, we would be forcing the commoners to the edge of death. Even if they tightened their stomachs, five day’s worth of rations would only be able to last them slightly over ten days. Looking at the crops outside the city, it’ll take at least another month before harvest.” Ren Baqian shook his head.

“Does Sir Ren have any other methods?”

“Wu City definitely has to sacrifice some of its grains, but our supply can’t be coming just from Wu City. In the north, every city has to contribute 2,000 dan of grain, which also means 100 carts’ worth. They will solely be responsible for the necessary manpower and losses. This way, 60 cities will be able to contribute 60 days’ worth of rations. 60 days is sufficient to deal with the rebel troops in the south. Even if it isn’t sufficient, it doesn’t matter,” Ren Baqian said. As long as they took down the Three River region, there would be a huge amount of food for them there.

In this world, one “dan” was equivalent to about 50 kilograms. 2,000 dan was about 100,000 kilograms, which was slightly more than enough to feed the 6,000 soldiers and 800 winged cavalry warriors.

There was a lot of grain in Tianjing Basin, but very few livestock animals. An ordinary soldier would need to consume about six kilograms every day of such ordinary grain, while the winged cavalry would need around 12 kilograms.

These days, the smoke from kitchen chimneys never ceased.

One couldn’t deny that the formidable strength of the aboriginals was supported by a huge food intake.

Previously, when they waged war against Great Xia, they had a pretty abundant supply of meat due to the north having more livestock, and it hadn’t been a noticeable problem. After all, ordinary meat could provide five times the energy of grain rations. Now that they had arrived in Tianjing Basin, this problem had been fully revealed.

Ren Baqian really wanted to say that the aboriginals were good-for-nothings.

“From the nearest cities like Si Feng and Chen Di, it will only take two days to travel to Wu City, but from further cities such as Ming City and Xin Yu, it will take three days at most. The total amount of rations from these four cities can support our army for another eight days. With these supplies, the grain from cities even further away would be able to reach us by then, so we don’t even need to worry about this issue at all.” The empress nodded after Ren Baqian finished his explanation.

“Act according to what Principal Ren said. In addition, transfer over a batch of livestock from Gu City. Before a battle, our soldiers have to eat enough or else they will not have any strength,” the empress said faintly.

“Yes!” Xi Wanya answered.

“In addition, we have been staying here for too long and should start to head south. Those rebel troops are currently gathered in the Three River region. I believe that they want to rely on two strategic locations, the Wang Estuary and Mount Dulong, and are hoping that they can confront our army at these two places.

Furthermore, the six cities between the Three River region and Wu City, consisting of Lingdong, Jiangbei, Liugou, Jinsha, Pingjiang, and Han’an, have already been given up by the rebels. Just the day before, the troops defending these six cities retreated. I’m sure that the abandoned commoners of these six cities are in the midst of suffering, are anticipating our army’s arrival, and are hoping that Your Majesty will rescue them.

Now that the time is almost ripe, I feel that we should seize these six cities first and make them face the rebel troops in the Three River region. This will also increase the pressure on them,” Ren Baqian said after he heard news from the experts that came with him to Wu City that the rebel soldiers had withdrawn from these six cities.

He couldn’t help but to say that these practitioners from around the world were pretty useful. Ren Baqian was even considering forming a mounted scout unit and utilizing them this way.

Regardless of whether it was within Tianjing Basin or confronting other nations, they would definitely come in handy.

Xi Wanya scratched his head and was full of anticipation.

Principal Ren, how can you tell that?

Why is it that all I can see is that they are afraid of death?

Xi Wanya pointed at the spear tip and the metal chain at the top of Ren Baqian’s head and said subconsciously, “Sir Ren, they have emerged again!”

“It’s nothing. They are kids and find everything to be a novelty. It’s normal that they can’t stay still. They will be better after some time.” Ren Baqian didn’t mind at all.

A Heaven-grade weapon would only gain consciousness after its owner died. This new consciousness was like a baby, finding everything it saw as a fresh experience while also behaving energetically. This was very normal, just as kittens and puppies would go around sniffing everywhere as well.

All they needed was time. Didn’t the metal chain appear less frequently now?

Xi Wanya stared firmly at the metal chain that wrapped around the spear tip on Ren Baqian’s head. It looked like a whip…

After a discussion, Xi Wanya sent people to inform every city to get their rations ready. Meanwhile, Ren Baqian informed Zuo Cheng to set off with 2,000 soldiers first in order to suppress the officers and defenders who had lost everything and were creating a disturbance. At the same time, they had to pacify them.

After all, the Lingshan Sect’s name was still pretty useful in this region.