"What has happened?"
Hearing the voice of his subordinate outside the door, Li Mao rubbed his temples, sighed, and then asked again.
"Reporting to sir, Liu Manor just sent a carrier pigeon with a letter, asking you to review it!"
"Bring it in!"
Upon hearing the name Liu Manor, Li Mao sat up straight.
"Yes!"
After receiving his order, the subordinate outside the door pushed the door open and entered, placing a letter tube in his hands before him.
"You can go about your business now!"
"Yes!"
After dismissing his subordinate, Li Mao opened the letter tube and took out a pigeon letter.
After reading the contents of the letter, Li Mao suddenly gasped.
"Sir, has something happened?"
Seeing his reaction, Wang Yuanji asked.
"Why don't you read it yourself!"
After a moment of hesitation, Li Mao handed the letter in his hand to Wang Yuanji.
Wang Yuanji, not understanding what was happening, took the pigeon letter and his eyes widened as he finished reading its contents.
"My, my, sir..."
Almost instantly, Wang Yuanji's voice began to tremble.
Seeing his nervous expression, Li Mao let out a wry smile. This matter could not be blamed on him; even Li Mao himself was shocked by the contents of the letter.
Originally, they thought that after Tan Zhen's demise, no one in Hebei could come to their rescue. Even if they did, it would be at least a few months later.
But, precisely at this moment, Liu Xu had sent a pigeon message, stating that he had gathered 3,000 defeated soldiers and planned to launch a surprise attack on the Jin camp tonight, asking them to prepare for reception within the city...
"As the commander of the troops within the city, what do you think of this matter?"
Rubbing his temples again, Li Mao looked at Wang Yuanji.
"Is this news reliable?"
After a moment of silence, Wang Yuanji finally spoke.
If this news were true, it would indeed be a shot in the arm for them.
After all, following the battles of the past few days, the morale of all the residents in Zhen Ding City had been extremely low.
People were dying on the city walls every day. Those sent up in the morning were often carried down in large numbers by evening.
Even those who survived rarely lived for more than three days.
Once Liu Xu could break through the Jin defenses and enter Zhen Ding City, it would not only greatly strengthen their defense force but also significantly boost the confidence of the city's residents.
But the problem was, they currently only had fewer than 2,000 well-trained soldiers.
As for the remaining men, they were all conscripted laborers from the city. They would be useless for going out to meet Liu Xu.
If these 2,000 men were lost, defending Zhen Ding City would be a fool's dream.
"In this situation..."
Looking at the sky, which was gradually darkening outside the window, Li Mao wore a wry smile.
The entire Zhen Ding City was now completely surrounded, and their external communication channels had been cut off for many days.
Under these circumstances, even he could not guarantee that this news was true.
"Sir, I think we should take a gamble!"
After some hesitation, Wang Yuanji finally spoke again.
"Sir, although our grain and fodder supplies are sufficient for the short term, the number of our soldiers is simply too few. To be honest, with our own strength, we probably only have about half a month left before Zhang Chengzhong will have no one to command..."
Although there were 200,000 soldiers and civilians in Zhen Ding City, the vast majority of them were old, weak, women, and children. With their current casualty rate, even if they gathered all the able-bodied men and sent them to the city walls, they could only hold out for another half a month or so.
"How about this, let me think about it again. You go and make preparations, and we will see how things go tonight!"
After another moment of hesitation, Li Mao directly interrupted him.
Wang Yuanji was just a general and only considered matters from a military perspective, but Li Mao had to consider the people of Zhen Ding City.
Unless absolutely necessary, he was unwilling to gamble with the lives of all the people of Zhen Ding City.
"Yes!"
After Wang Yuanji left, Li Mao locked himself in his study, staring blankly at the red candle in front of him, his mind constantly calculating gains and losses.
Perhaps influenced by his father, he had never believed in gods or buddhas in his life, but today, he was constantly praying to all the passing gods and buddhas from the bottom of his heart.
He prayed that this news was true, and that Liu Xu could truly lead his men to break through the siege. Meanwhile, in the Jin camp, the Jin general Han Qinghe was drinking in low spirits with his subordinates.
He was originally from Liao, but he was also frustrated in the army. After more than 20 years of service, he had only reached the rank of deputy commander.
However, after defecting to the Jin and especially after revealing his talent for warfare, he was immediately promoted by Wanyan Zongwang.
Not only was he given command of his own army, but he was also assigned the task of attacking Zhen Ding.
But he had received this mission more than seven or eight days ago, and even now, after so much time had passed, they still could not do anything about the city, which made Han Qinghe feel greatly ashamed.
"In another ten days, the marshal will arrive. If we still cannot take Zhen Ding by then, do you know what our fate will be?"
Looking at his silent subordinates, Han Qinghe heavily slammed the wine jar to the ground.
"General, I think we charged too quickly. Apart from siege ladders, we don't have many engineering machines. I suggest letting those Chang Sheng Army fellows wait a bit. We can have them wait until we've manufactured a batch of siege weapons before letting them fight to the death!"
Seeing Han Qinghe getting angry, his confidant Shao He exchanged glances with his colleagues and then stepped forward.
"Let's do it this way. Everyone rest early tonight, and start working separately early tomorrow morning to collect materials and build siege weapons. Seven days from now, if we still can't win, I think you'll all have to cut off your heads and ask for forgiveness from the marshal!"