Of the 20,000 troops Danzhu led this time, half were cavalry.
To maintain marching speed, they carried limited provisions.
But Danzhu was long accustomed to living off the war.
He left 5,000 infantry to besiege Mao’er Mountain, personally led another 5,000 to surround Xichuan city, and dispatched the remaining 10,000 cavalry to plunder.
Qing Xinyao, the governor of Xichuan prefecture, had earlier shared the same view as Jin Feng: even if the plateau people attacked, it would take a long time, possibly dragging on until the next year.
But they had all miscalculated.
No matter the era, war is ultimately about money.
The various plateau tribes had been in constant conflict for years, forging batches of fierce warriors, yet also exhausting too much wealth.
It was much like the early Qin state in Jin Feng’s previous life. Although Ga Da Zanpu had conquered the other tribes, the surviving nobles and common people of those tribes still constantly schemed to overthrow him and restore their original tribes.
Ga Da Zanpu now urgently needed money and resources to rebuild his homeland, and he also needed external wars to divert internal contradictions.
It was not just the Ninth Princess and Qing Xinyao who wanted war; Ga Da had been eyeing Da Kang for more than a day or two.
Did Ga Da Zanpu not know that the rumours about the Ninth Princess were false?
In fact, he knew. He was merely using it as a pretext to extort Da Kang and going along with the flow.
To increase his bargaining chips, as early as half a year ago, Ga Da Zanpu had begun assembling troops near the border, preparing to intimidate Da Kang with military force during negotiations.
The Ninth Princess sending people to impersonate bandits and kill the plateau envoys conveniently gave Ga Da the justification to send troops.
As soon as the five-day deadline passed, he immediately dispatched forces to breach the border and head straight for Xichuan prefecture.
Though Qing Xinyao had prepared mentally, he was still caught off guard.
He could only send Meng Tianhai to block at Mao’er Mountain while beginning to organise the evacuation of nearby common people.
But time was too short, and many people clung to their meagre possessions at home, unwilling to flee to Xichuan prefectural city.
Those who were close were captured by Ga Da’s cavalry as slaves and transported back to the main camp for imprisonment.
Those farther away were slaughtered.
In half a month, Ga Da’s 10,000 cavalry swept a thirty-li radius centred on Xichuan city, plundering large quantities of grain and valuables, enough to sustain 20,000 men for some time.
With supplies secured, Ga Da felt at ease.
At noon on the day the troops assembled fully, Ga Da sent men to the north gate of Xichuan prefectural city to hurl challenges and abuse.
When it came to verbal abuse, how could the plateau people, still in the tribal era, outmatch Da Kang’s literary officials?
The abuse team Qing Xinyao sent out consisted of sharp-tongued individuals with booming voices, equipped with iron megaphones provided by Jin Feng. They directly berated the plateau people sent by Ga Da until they could not lift their heads.
Seeing they could not win the cursing, Ga Da directly ordered an assault on the city.
Soon, the open ground north of Xichuan prefectural city was densely packed with people.
But only one tenth were plateau people; the rest were all Da Kang commoners plundered from the surroundings.
This was a tactic Ga Da habitually used when conquering various tribes.
At the start of a siege, the defenders were most prepared and their morale highest.
Direct assaults would inevitably cause heavy losses.
Whenever this happened, Ga Da would order his soldiers to plunder common people around the city, using them to deplete the defenders’ resources and morale.
It was also a massive blow to the convictions of the defending generals.
At that moment, Qing Xinyao standing on the city walls gnashed his teeth in rage.
Among the crowd below the city, ninety per cent were Da Kang commoners. Qing Xinyao even spotted a familiar face in the front ranks.
This person was named Zhou Youda, a local gentleman from Linglong Town west of Xichuan city. His ancestors had produced two county magistrates.
Zhou Youda himself was extremely intelligent, well-versed in poetry and books from a young age. He passed the xiucai examination at fifteen and became a juren in his early twenties, a renowned talent in Xichuan.
With his affluent family background, he was the ideal husband in the hearts of countless young women.
In feudal times, xiucai status already conferred scholarly honour, exempting one from kneeling in court.
Becoming a xiucai was far harder than many modern people imagined; many studied for over a decade without passing.
Becoming a juren was even more difficult.
Many xiucai never passed until their death.
Passing as a juren in his early twenties meant Zhou Youda already surpassed ninety-nine per cent of his peers in Da Kang.
If all went smoothly, his lifetime achievements would likely exceed those of his two county magistrate ancestors.
Though not yet an official, he already had considerable fame in Xichuan.
Otherwise, even a governor like Qing Xinyao would not know of him.
A talent with boundless prospects was now walking like a zombie, numbly approaching the Xichuan city walls under the whips of cavalry.
The Zhou family had long received notification from Qing Xinyao, but Zhou Youda had been away visiting friends half a month earlier.
His elderly father, fearing his son would return to find no family, did not evacuate immediately.
By the time Zhou Youda received news and hurried home, it was too late.
That day, Zhou Youda personally witnessed his young children being speared through the belly and hoisted high by cavalry as if in a game.
He personally witnessed cavalry raping his wives, concubines, and maidservants in the courtyard.
He personally witnessed cavalry chopping off his father’s head and kicking it against the courtyard wall…
In that moment, Zhou Youda felt he had arrived in hell.
Even the most cowardly person could not endure such blows.
Zhou Youda forgot life and death, roaring as he charged at the cavalry.
But how could a scholar match battle-hardened cavalry?
He had not even gotten close before being tripped, then struck on the back of the head and knocked unconscious.
Until he fainted, Zhou Youda did not know who had hit him or with what.
When he awoke, he had been dragged by cavalry to the village entrance.
With him were other villagers.
Recalling the earlier scenes, Zhou Youda’s first thought upon waking was to fight the cavalry desperately, but he was tightly held by his mother and wives and concubines.
“Da’er, your father and the children are already dead. You are the only seedling left in the Zhou family. I beg you, no matter what, you must live on. Do not let the Zhou family line end!”
In feudal times, family continuity was a concept etched into the bones of the people.
For a prominent clan like the Zhou family, this belief was even deeper.
In his grandfather’s generation, the family had suffered a fire, leaving only his grandfather among the male descendants.
Due to injuries from the fire, despite a lifetime of hard work, he fathered only Zhou Youda’s father.
Zhou Youda’s father had been spoiled as a playboy from childhood. After marrying at sixteen and fathering Zhou Youda, he contracted a venereal disease from visiting brothels that year. Though cured, he lost fertility.
With his own painful lesson, the father forbade Zhou Youda from visiting brothels and, starting at sixteen, arranged six marriages for him over several years, producing four sons and three daughters.
The Zhou family was on the verge of flourishing with many descendants.
But now, all his children had been killed by cavalry.
His father had been killed.
The Zhou family was left with only him as the sole seedling.
To continue the ancestral line, Zhou Youda could only endure humiliation and survive.
