Yuzhang Prefecture
Columns of thick smoke rose straight into the sky. Drums sounded atop the city walls, followed by signal cannons carrying the news throughout the city.
Prefect Jiang Dou and Commander Ma Shi both wore grave expressions.
The fall and slaughter of Luling Prefecture had naturally brought immense pressure. Jiang Dou said, "According to the court reports, the rebel army has suffered considerable losses."
If they had exaggerated, the officials would instead have disbelieved it. Yet the court report was remarkably objective, stating that the rebel army had lost only ten thousand men, which made most people believe it.
Ma Shi frowned. "Even so, it will be a hard battle."
However, Yuzhang Prefecture had gained more time. Not many additional regular guards had arrived, but the conscripted laborers had been given over half a month to train. They had barely formed ranks and could understand commands now.
A horn sounded in the distance, and the two looked over.
Figures surged over the horizon beyond the city, stretching endlessly like a tide as far as the eye could see. Both men went pale at once.
"So many?"
But as they drew a little nearer, the two men's expressions turned strange. They first relaxed, then grew furious.
As they came closer still, cries could even be heard. Crying should not have carried so far, but the voices of tens of thousands of commoners rolled like crashing waves. Great masses of civilians were being driven forward by Ying soldiers—women and elders at the front, carrying grass, timber, bricks, sacks filled with earth, and other materials as they were herded onward.
Behind them came the able-bodied men and youths, issued only simple weapons such as long spears.
As they drew nearer, the miserable, despairing cries of the civilians became clearer. They were entirely