Chapter One Hundred Sixteen: The Infiltrator in Bamboo City

  Since it was discovered that Luosikei couldn't turn the tide on the battlefield, his words in the army weren't particularly important anymore.

  But she was after all the Chu king's special envoy to the army, exercising the function of monitoring the military. If it were an attack, that would be one thing, but this was a retreat, and the 50,000-strong army might disintegrate in a single night. Therefore, Tian Yu had to ask her; if the goddess agreed and the other generals agreed, even if they returned and the Chu king flew into a rage, he wouldn't punish Tian Yu too severely.

  In Tian Yu's view, the military situation was urgent and the situation was severe. Lu Siqi, no matter how capable she was, was just a teenager. In such an emergency, asking her was merely a show of respect for herself to have some leeway in explaining things to King Chu later on. Tian Yu thought that even if he asked Lu Siqi now, she could only agree with his proposal. He would start making arrangements for a swift attack on Bamboo City after getting her consent.

  Korosuke thought for a moment and said, "I don't agree with breaking through either."

  The crowd couldn't help but murmur again when Luosi said this, and they cast their eyes on her, some with puzzled gazes, but more with hope. Tianyu pressed his hands down to quiet them, also asking in puzzlement: "Does the goddess have a good plan?"

  Luoshi shook her head and said, "No, but I think General Sima is right. The army has been attacking the Qi army's camp for a day now, and we are already exhausted. After taking down Zhu City, the Qi army will definitely be prepared to wait for our final blow. If this blow fails, Chu State will be in even greater danger!"

  Tian Yu also understood this principle, but he was also helpless. He thought anxiously, "If we don't break through the siege, how can we do it?" So he had to say to Luosi Qi: "But our food and grass are running out quickly, what if we don't break through?"

  Luosiqi thought for a moment and said to him: "Although we only have five days of grain left, the enemy doesn't know!"

  "What's the use of this?" Tian Yu saw Luo Siqi actually had the idea of covering her ears and stealing bells, and she was so angry that she stuttered.

  "This is certainly useful!" Rosyth said: "The enemy has already taken the upper hand, and can win without attacking. As long as we don't run out of food, we can hold on indefinitely."

  "That's just five days! What about after that?" Tian Yu still didn't quite understand what Luo Siqi meant.

  "Who says it's only five days? The five days you're talking about are for when we're at war. The enemy is only defending and not attacking, so the soldiers' consumption isn't that great. Except for the necessary guards, all the other soldiers are quietly staying in their tents, moving less and sleeping more. Normally they eat three bowls per meal, now they eat one bowl per meal. Don't we have half a month's worth of rations?" Luo Siqi said with a smile.

  Although everyone felt that it made sense when she said so, Tian Yu still asked: "Even if we persist for half a month, what can we do?"

  Luoshi smiled: "Our siege of the Great King is impossible to know, with three million elite troops as the foundation, Chu State has a large territory and many cities, and armed forces are recruited from each city. As long as two million more people are recruited, the 50,000-strong army will attack the Bamboo City from another side at that time, and it will be difficult to predict victory or defeat. Maybe the Qi army will automatically withdraw and abandon the Bamboo City to avoid being attacked from both sides. At that time, our troops and Quili's troops will merge, even if we can't rescue Zheng State, but Chu State will definitely be preserved."

  Lu Shike's words were reasonable, and Vice-General Sima Yue strongly agreed with him. He incited the generals to say: "Breaking through the siege and escaping back is a defeated general. Holding on until victory is a meritorious minister. Is it necessary to choose between sealing one's wife and children or being guilty?"

  So the final resolution was to hold out, and the Chu army's forces could only stand by and wait for reinforcements from Quyi.

  Five days have passed without any news of reinforcements.

  Regardless of whether it was the Jin army that had advanced or the Qi army that was still guarding Zhucheng, neither side showed any intention of launching a fierce attack. The Jin soldiers even set up a fire in the open space outside their camp to roast deer meat, and the aroma of the deer meat gradually wafted into the Chu army's camp, causing the Chu generals and soldiers, who had not eaten a full meal for several days, to drool one by one.

  That night, Tianyu summoned Luosike and Sima Yue to discuss military affairs. He brought up the issue of breaking through the siege again, saying that since they still had food, the soldiers should eat their fill and still have the strength to fight. The desperate mood was spreading in the camp, and if it took another ten days for reinforcements to arrive, the soldiers would not even have the energy to break through the siege.

  Moreover, Tian Yu emphasized the most important thing, that is, because the Qi army occupied Zhushan and deployed cavalry squads around the city, scouts could not be sent out at all. Now they have completely lost contact with Chu State, and do not even know what is happening in Chu State now, let alone whether Qu Li has any reinforcements coming.

  Luoshi Qi was also strange, according to the route, the army of Qu Li should have arrived, but from the leisurely appearance of the two armies of Qi and Jin, it seems that Zhushan has never been attacked on the other side, and the enemy may not even have received news of the approaching Chu aid.

  It's really getting dangerous like this. If we don't break through now, we must get in touch with the domestic side as soon as possible. I don't know what the situation is at home, but waiting here doesn't seem to be a good idea no matter how you look at it.

  Bamboo City has fallen, and this place is surrounded. Tang Xiao Shrimp must have known, but he only had 5,000 men, still guarding the important border city of Chu State. His troops were not enough to take down Bamboo City, let alone if the Qi army sent more than 10,000 troops to attack Chengfu, it's uncertain whether he could hold on or not! It seems that there is no solution now.

  Such an idea once again increased Tian Yu's worries, and he even began to suspect that the Qi army in Zhushan was so leisurely, would they secretly divide their troops to attack Chengfu. If so, if the Chu army attacked Zhushan now, the possibility of success might be greater.

  So getting news from Chengfu and even domestically is extremely important now.

  Luoshuqi then made an agreement with Tianyu and Sima Yue that she would break through the siege to meet Tang Xiaoxia in Chengfu, and if no reinforcements or news arrived after five days, Tianyu would gather all his forces to fight a desperate battle against the enemy.

  The candidate has been decided, and the next step is to break through. Speaking of breaking through, Tian Yu thought of Luo Siqi and Tang Xiaoxia suddenly appearing in Chengfu back then, so he asked Luo Siqi if she could use magic again to return directly to Chengfu.

  Luosi thought that it would be necessary to have a spiritual stone monument, but this is a remote and desolate place, how could there be a spiritual stone monument here! So she made an excuse, saying that in order to cast that spell, she and her senior brother Tang Xiaoxia had to work together.

  Tian Yu and Sima Yue both looked very disappointed, so they could only use conventional methods to help Luosi Qi break through.

  Luosiqi refused Tianyu's suggestion to send a cavalry escort to break through, and she even left behind her own subordinates, including the Twelve Constellations, because for her, the more people there were, the bigger the target would be, making it actually harder to break through. Her idea was to put on night-traveling clothes and sneak past by herself.

  Tian Yu and Sima Yue still trusted Rosalie's personal abilities extremely, and agreed with her statement that the fewer people who knew about it, the smaller the target would be. They had no choice but to place all their hopes on her alone. In order to prevent any enemy spies from infiltrating the military camp, only the three of them knew about Rosalie's solo breakout plan. They didn't even see her off before she left Tian Yu's command tent, and this operation was considered to have begun from the moment Rosalie left. As for when to leave, it was entirely up to Rosalie herself to decide.

  That night, she wore the clothes she had brought from the Moon Goddess Temple, with a golden moon embroidered on them. She asked someone to bring her needles and black cloth, and then sewed the golden moon onto the black fabric. When it was late at night, she began to take action.

  The bamboo city on the other side looked like it wasn't heavily guarded at night, which was also one of the reasons Tian Yu planned to attack the city at night. However, based on Luosiqi's understanding of Sima Rangju, the relaxed appearance might have hidden a deadly trap.

  However, such an arrangement is very beneficial for Luosiqi's solo journey. She deliberately chose some places with dense forests to head towards Zhucity, and as she walked, she would discover some traces left behind by the Qi army's night raid on Zhucity. Within less than ten miles from Zhucity, Luosiqi began to encounter small groups of Qi soldiers patrolling in the forest, possibly because Sima Rangju himself used the dense forest to bypass the Chu army camp and launch a surprise attack on Zhucity, fearing that the Chu army would repeat the trick.

  As it was an alert to prevent a large-scale night raid, the infiltration effect of Losie alone was not significant, after all, no matter how many patrol teams there were in such a dense forest, it was difficult to achieve nothing.

  Luo Siqi tried to conceal her figure and summoned the ice sword to kill a few individual sentries in key positions, soon approaching the Bamboo City. Now another problem was placed before Luo Siqi's eyes, as the city gate had already been closed, with soldiers patrolling back and forth on the city walls. Although it didn't seem like they were being very vigilant, how could she enter the city? The dense forest ended at the foot of the Bamboo City, and both ends of the city were steep cliffs that were difficult to climb.

  Of course, the cliff wasn't completely flat either. If Lucy had a ladder that was long enough with her, it wasn't impossible to climb up.

  As soon as she thought of the ladder, Rosalie's mind moved quickly. She quietly came to a secluded place at one corner of the city wall, where the patrol team would take longer to arrive. She looked up at the crescent moon in the sky and didn't know whether today was the first or twentieth day of the lunar month. Using the power of the Moon God, she tried to use her mind to condense the ice into the shape she wanted.

  A staircase of ice that shone faintly in the moonlight was forming, bit by bit, in mid-air and finally settled on the castle wall before Rosalie.

  With a ladder, the city wall of Zhucheng was really not short. When Luosiqi climbed up, she completely held her breath and didn't dare to look down at all.

  As soon as she climbed up the city wall, she waved her right hand and the ice ladder that was still leaning on the city wall turned into many water droplets falling to the ground below. From the top of the city wall, it was too dark to see if these water droplets would form a small puddle on the ground. Seeing the firelight approaching from afar, Luosi Qi didn't dare to stay for a moment and directly jumped from the top of the city wall into the city.