The Birth of a Villainess

Chapter 329 – Food Shortage

The Chu generals and commanders waited for the assassin's signal to proceed with their ambush, however, even after a few hours had passed since the leader of the assassins sent his order for them to cause mayhem inside the city, there was still no news to be heard.

This only made the Chu soldiers stand on pins and needles. 

And just when they thought that the Zheng empire found out about them and executed them, a reply was received. 

One soldier was riding a stallion and passed through the barricades and soldiers guarding their camps. No one obstructed him aside from a casual glance and question, but the soldier who was questioned took out his Chu army medallion from the first commander. 

Everyone soon recognized that lone soldier as one of the ten assassins planted inside the city and let him go. No one questioned him about what happened as he looked like he was in a hurry.

But no one noticed that there were nine dirty bags hanging on the horse as it strolled forward.

When the assassin leader saw one of his men rushing toward them, he smiled proudly at first, boasting that his hand-picked men were outstanding and strong, capable of doing difficult tasks to his other fellow thousand-man army commanders. 

However, the leader hadn't yet revealed his teeth as he smiled when the lone soldier stopped right before him with a pale face.

'Whoosh!'

'Thud!'

A sound of something slicing through the wind was heard and soon a thud sound came after. No one understood what had happened not until they saw the lone soldier, still sitting atop of his horse, suddenly falling forward as though he was a puppet whose string was suddenly cut off.

It only took a glance for all of them to understand what had happened. 

From the back of the lone soldier's head, the shaft of an arrow was sticking out like an eyesore, the tip of it was undoubtedly inside the soldier's skull. 

The lone soldier or assasins was dead!

This single wave brought about a thousand, no, millions of ripple effects, making anyone who witnessed this event feel cold in their hearts.

Earlier, they let this soldier inside their camp without any obstruction, letting him waltz into their own house. What if that soldier wasn't their own but an assassin from the enemy who would stab the leaders in the army. Wouldn't that mean that they let a wolf inside their house when they assumed that it was a sheep?

Moreover, if that soldier was able to enter so easily, what about the enemy? Have they already entered their camp? And what about the arrow? Who shot it and where was it shot from? 

Thousands of questions were running and rushing inside their heads that they didn't know that Qu Xing Xu was only trying to demoralize the Chu army from the inside. Without using any weapon, he easily made the spirits and courage of these savage soldiers to wither into nothing.

After the incident was wrapped by General Han, he couldn't stop scolding his men specially the thousand-man army commander who was also the leader of the assassins for being such a coward. He also scolded the other commanders who stood there and questioned their usefulness in this war.

General Han lived up to his name and quickly recovered from the shock. He ordered people to guard the camp properly, not letting anyone sleep and relax even for a minute. If there were anyone who tried to relax, he would punish them, and those who had some thoughts of escaping and going back to the Chu empire, he mercilessly cut them in half in front of everyone. 

This method was tyrannical, but it was the best way to subdue and make his soldiers fear him and follow his orders without question. And just as General Han expected, the Chu soldiers worked harder than the first time they arrived there. They no longer questioned his methods, making him feel extremely happy.

However, what General Han missed was that Qu Xing Xu easily manipulated their minds. The soldiers, who were arrogant and excited to purge the Henzhou city, turned feral. And their General Han, who was said to be a fair man in war and extremely respectable turned into a tyrant that even his own soldiers couldn't wait to get rid of him.

As time passed by, the Chu army and Zheng army started their all-out attack. Both empires suffered greatly, but the damage on the Chu army was greater than what the Zheng army suffered because they lost several commanders who were assigned to take one-thousand-man army under their wings. 

Of course, the Zheng empire also didn't get away in time without receiving damage. 

The last day of the first month when the war started, a fire broke out inside the warehouse where the food supply was stored.

The fire swallowed half of the food supply stored inside there, rendering everyone inside the city speechless and in remorse.

Because the war has been going on for about a month now, the lack of medical supplies wasn't the only problem that arose. There was also the problem of feeding thousands of soldiers and city people. 

"Fuck!" Qi Yandi cursed out loud as he paced around the room. The five other people inside merely glanced at him and didn't say anything. "Does the Idiot Emperor want to surrender to the Chu people?"

"Do you think we'd be at war now if the emperor wanted to surrender?" Ni Zixuan sneered. 

Qi Yandi was still not reconciled and wanted to complain some more. Emperor Yun should have already received the letter of request to send supplies to the city even before the fire appeared. But even after two weeks, no reply was sent and the supply that everyone was expecting to arrive never happened.

And now, with the fire swallowing half of the warehouse containing their food supply, the situation was much more difficult than they thought.

"Should we send another message to the emperor?" asked Jiang Sheng.

Qu Xing Xu coldly replied, "No. Once is enough. We won't beg for the emperor to send supply." 

Although Qu Xing Xu was no longer inside the Capital, he knew that there was some conspiracy going inside the emperor and the several court official's minds. They couldn't deal with him when he's inside the Capital city but they could sneakily do something to him outside. 

And now that he's fighting against the Chu empire, they will exhaust every effort to deal with him even if it means colluding with the enemy empire.

With his past experiences and scheming nature that was created ever since he was young, how could Qu Xing Xu not know what was inside their hearts? 

"Then, should we just wait here until everyone turns to each other? The city might not complain since they don't want to die and disobey us, but what about the Zheng army? The soldiers will be frustrated and add their hunger to their might, they will surely side with any side that would give them food." Jiang Sheng exposed the points that everyone should focus on. 

The room was plunged in silence as his words landed in their hearts.

Jiang Sheng's comment was not an impossible thing to happen. When one is hungry, they will do anything to fill their stomach even if it means killing their own kin. They city won't dare fight against the people who saved them, but others will surely show their true nature.

Wu Xuanyi saw that everyone didn't have a solution to this problem, and thus, decided to choose this chance to get back their favors and have Qu Xing Xu think of her in a new light.

She opened her lips and said softly as if she was whispering, "I contacted my father a few weeks ago to bring food supplies in the city.. I received a reply from him and they're on the way here with a few carts loaded with food."