Poyang, inside and out, had entered a state of war readiness.
It was not only the soldiers who were run off their feet.
Ordinary commoners, too, could not escape corvée labor.
The Border Great Wall had been under construction for nearly two hundred years and required maintenance every year.
Now that a great battle was imminent, its weak points needed to be reinforced anew.
Two hundred li of Great Wall.
The Thousand Household Office's manpower alone was nowhere near enough; they could only rely on the common folk.
"Uncle Scabby, have something to eat."
Chen Sanshi had been assigned to oversee the work. He brought Wang Li with him to deliver food to the villagers.
This sort of temporary corvée labor did not even provide meals.
The common folk had to work whether they wanted to or not.
Otherwise, if the barbarians breached the city, not a single living soul would be spared.
"These cornbread buns sure smell good. Stone, now that you've become such a high official, you must have skimmed quite a bit lately, huh?"
Scabby Head took one and bit into it, not sparing a single kind word.
"How presumptuous!"
Wang Li snapped, "My lord kindly asked the Thousand Household Commander to give you grain to eat. How can you be so unable to tell good from bad?!"
"A dog's mouth cannot spit out ivory!"
The other villagers immediately began cursing him.
"Scabby Head, go die!"
"That's right. Go outside the city and die by the barbarians' hands; at least then you'll have died where you belonged!"
Chen Sanshi ignored them. Leaving Wang Li behind to keep watch, he went off to attend to his own affairs.
He had asked Xiang Tingchun to transfer the grain from the stores.
Without the commoners' cooperation, a defensive battle like