Father can be an enemy to the country

At the top of Dingbian City, the soldiers of the Ming Army took off their scarred helmets and armor, and sat tiredly against the female wall. All of them had blackened faces, and the red jackets on their bodies were dyed purple-black by the blood of both the enemy and ourselves.

When plugging the gap before, the soldiers' physical and mental exertions were too great, and now they didn't even have the strength to speak. Until someone's stomach growls.

"Damn it, I'm starving, why haven't you brought me food?" The soldiers looked at the sky. They usually would have eaten by this time.

While they were muttering, they suddenly smelled an alluring aroma and all looked over. Then I saw the foreman carrying a food bowl to deliver the food.

"What's so delicious?" The quiet city suddenly became lively.

"They are dumplings, stuffed with scallions and pork!" The gang leaders replied with a smile: "Today is New Year's Eve, my uncle specially ordered them to be made."

"Ah. New Year's Day today?" The soldiers were all surprised. After being on the battlefield for a long time, no one could tell the date accurately.

"Yes, uncle didn't say it, and we didn't think about it." The chief cook replied with a smile: "Hurry up and kill the pig, make flour and chop stuffing. Hurry up, hurry up, slow down, it will still delay everyone's meal."

"Don't delay. Don't be afraid of being late for a good meal." The soldiers swept away their depression and gathered around him without washing their hands. They picked up the dumplings and ate them.

“It’s delicious, that’s what it tastes like…”

"Hmm, the stuffing is so delicious. These are the dumplings for the Chinese New Year." The soldiers were full of praise and ate up dozens of baskets full of dumplings.

"That's it. I haven't eaten enough yet." The sergeants licked their lips with unsatisfied thoughts.

"Haha, and more, my uncle said that the dumplings for the Chinese New Year must be eaten!" The cooks laughed and replied, "But these dumplings are delicious now, wait for us to cook them again!"

"Okay!" the soldiers responded happily.

"The more difficult the battlefield, the more obvious it is that a good meal will improve the morale of the officers and soldiers." Seeing this scene, Hu Quan said to Ning Zheng:

"If we didn't have this dumpling meal today and let the soldiers know that tonight is New Year's Eve, this battle would be impossible to fight."

"It's true." Ning Zheng nodded with deep understanding and put himself in his shoes. The sergeants had to celebrate the New Year and had to fight hard with the enemy in southern Xinjiang far away from their hometown.

Without this soothing meal of dumplings, morale would definitely plummet...

"Is this what my uncle learned in Hongdu?" he asked with admiration. I had always thought that Hu Quan was a cold and precise general, but I didn't expect that he had such a delicate side.

"No," Hu Quan shook his head and said, "I learned it from my prince."

"Indeed." Ning Zheng suddenly said: "No one in the Ming Dynasty understands people's hearts better than the prince."

~~

Just as the soldiers were happily waiting for the hot-water dumplings, the alarm bell suddenly sounded from the observation deck at the top of the city!

"Night attack!" The scout's sharp shout pierced the night sky. "Zhengdong discovered the enemy!"

"The enemy has been discovered due to the west!"

"The enemy has been discovered in Zhengnan!"

Following the warning from the scouts, the Ming army soldiers quickly put on their helmets and armor, picked up their weapons and took up positions.

He lay on the parapet and took a look, and sure enough he saw that the swarming Lucchuan army had reached the bottom of the city and wanted to make a sneak attack under the cover of night.

"What a fucking fool, no one will have a rest on New Year's Eve!" Unexpectedly, he succeeded in arousing the anger of the Ming army soldiers.

"I haven't finished eating the dumplings yet!" The Ming army soldiers were furious, throwing rolling stones and pouring boiling water at the city. They were much more ferocious than usual!

Unexpectedly, the Luchuan Army bumped into the south wall, and was hit hard, causing considerable losses. But there were still some Luchuan soldiers who climbed up to the top of the city under the cover of night.

Unexpectedly, what greeted them was a group of Ming troops who seemed to be cannibalistic. Just knock them to the ground like chopping melons and vegetables, and then throw their bodies down the city wall.

The Luchuan Army came to steal the chicken, but they did not expect the Ming Army to react so violently. They were not mentally prepared for a desperate fight, so they were quickly defeated and fled away...

As a result, it did not delay the Ming army soldiers from eating hot water dumplings.

~~

The next day was the New Year's Day of the 18th year of Hongwu's reign. After the New Year, the Ming army swept away their fatigue and cheered up to face a new round of attacks.

After fighting like this for more than ten days, the soil under Dingyuan City turned purple-black. As soon as I stepped on it, the water up to my ankles was no longer muddy, but blood.

Dingyuan City is already riddled with holes. The previous gap alone had been opened more than a dozen times, and the Luchuan soldiers also attacked more than a dozen times, but each time they were repulsed by the Ming army and then refilled the gap.

After returning without success day after day, Luchuan Bing finally couldn't stand it any longer. Since the beginning of the war, they have lost a total of 10,000 troops under this small Dingbian City. And most of them are soldiers...

In other words, more than half of the soldiers have been lost, and the rest are exhausted and suffering from serious war weariness. Many Xi La soldiers even had a deep fear of that small earth city. You can't help but shiver when you get close.

If Dingbian City hadn't blocked their retreat, they would have become deserters long ago.

At a time when they were unable to advance or retreat, a bigger trouble arose - the Lucchuan Army began to run out of food. This is normal, because it has been almost two months since they left Mengmao, and they only brought one month's worth of military rations with them when they went on the expedition.

According to the original plan, they should have taken control of Jingdong Mansion by now, ordered the chieftains from various states and counties to pay tribute to the labor force, and enjoy the hot food in Jingdong City.

But before, they drove the mountain people to die for them, which completely ruined the reputation of the Luchuan Army and caused all the people within a hundred miles to escape. Even there were not many people left in Jingchuan City. Even if you want to use food to the enemy, you can't find anyone.

As a last resort, Daosi Lang had no choice but to order his general Jin Mailang to go to Jingdong City to collect grain. Dao Silang issued a death order, no matter what means he used, he must raise enough emergency rations.

This was half a month ago... Today, General Jin Mailang, whom the Luchuan Army had been waiting for, finally returned.

But they only brought back a bunch of dejected wounded soldiers, but not a grain of food...

"Why is it like this? Where's the food?!" Dao Silang asked Jin Mailang with a gloomy face.

"Back to Marshal, we managed to plunder a large amount of grain. However, on the way back, we were ambushed by Otao. They took the grain back again..." Jin Mailang knelt down and reported back in dejection:

"I led my brothers to resist desperately, but there were too many people in Etao, at least 20,000 people, and we couldn't resist them at all." Jin Mailang raised his arm hanging around his neck and cried miserably: "As a result, I He was also seriously injured. If the brothers had not saved him desperately, he would never have seen the marshal again. Wuwu..."

"Cry your mother!" Dao Silang shouted angrily, scaring Jin Mailang into silence. But he was Dao Silang's son-in-law and confidant. Dao Silang could only scold him, but could he really punish him?

"What should we do now? How can we attack the city when we don't have enough to eat? Attack this damn city!" Dao Silang looked at the generals angrily.

ps. The next chapter will be soon.