Frost for a Thousand Years

The siege lasted for seven days.

Song Shi'an's army surged in like a tidal wave, repeatedly besieging Shi Ting.

This was the first time these barbarian garrison troops had experienced a battle of this magnitude.

This sense of pressure made each of them feel as if the entire siege would be lost if they relaxed even for a moment.

This is high-intensity warfare; it makes you feel that once a breach is made, it will be magnified infinitely, and the enemy will rush in all at once and wipe them all out.

They can't hold out; they simply can't hold out for even six months...

Samoyed somewhat regretted his initial blind confidence.

He originally thought that the difference in numbers was not too great, and that he could hold out and drag the game out if he occupied the city.

But Song Shi'an's army seemed like a tireless lion, and there was no way to win by dragging out the battle.

Unless you take the initiative and launch a night raid on the enemy camp, inflicting a major defeat on them.

Otherwise, if this level of warfare continues, the population will be wiped out in less than a month.

What's even more infuriating is that a large portion of those attacking them are South Vietnamese allied forces, who had just fought against them at Qiu Juhuan!

They were the ones who charged into battle the most, and they also suffered the most deaths, but when these guys were following me, they didn't have this crazy drive they have now.

"Sand King, we have repelled Song Shi'an's three attempts to breach the city walls, and there are already gaps in them..."

Just then, a general came over, followed by several other generals.

If it were just one person coming to report, that would be fine, but with so many people coming, Samoyed sensed their intentions and coldly retorted, "What are you doing here?"

"Sand King!" the general finally couldn't hold back any longer and excitedly suggested, "If we continue fighting like this, the city will fall sooner or later, and then we will all die... Why not negotiate with Song Shi'an?"

His words seemed to reflect the thoughts of those behind him.

"Peace talks?" Samoyed retorted. "How can we make peace? How can we negotiate?"

“Song Shi’an is from the Central Plains, and people from the Central Plains are burdened by the lack of integrity,” he said. “Make him promise that as long as we can return to our tribe, he will let Shi Ting in and hand over the throne of the Sun family to him.”

"Is that what you all think?" Samoyed asked.

The others remained silent, their eyes darting around.

This startled the leader, who quickly turned around, winked at the others, and whispered, "Speak up..."

But as soon as he finished speaking, his head fell off his neck.

The others were so frightened that their eyes widened and they took several steps back, quite terrified.

"How naive! How could they even say that people from the Central Plains value integrity and trustworthiness!"

Shamoyi glared at the group and said angrily, "Do you really think that if we surrender, Song Shi'an will let us go? Why does he keep his word in Sheng'an? It's because breaking the rules and being unseemly will give others a handle against us. In the Baiyue region, is there such a thing as a word about trust? If we don't keep our word with him, why should he keep his word with us!"

These words easily touched the souls of several people.

"Haven't you heard? Of the four kings who surrendered at Beiguan, three were beheaded." Shamoyi pointed at the group and said passionately, "You, and some of your kings, stop daydreaming. Song Shi'an has long despised this king and that king of the Baiyue lands. If you want to live, you can only be his dog. And he already has far too many dogs!"

"...The Sand King is absolutely right; we have been foolish!"

They dared not discuss peace talks any further, especially since Samoi's words were quite insightful.

If we surrender, wouldn't Song Shi'an just throw a few knives in front of them and let them kill until only one person is left?

It's entirely possible.

"Then why aren't you guarding the city!" Samoyed shouted sternly.

So everyone quickly left his barracks.

After resolving the temporary mutiny, Samoy sat down at his desk, his heart heavy.

Am I really going to die?
No, he cannot die.

But with hundreds of thousands of people surrounding the city, even at night, it's not certain that they could break through...

Damn it!
……

"Your Majesty, I heard that Nassamoy beheaded a general who wanted to negotiate peace today."

Inside the Ba King's residence, Sun Zun's subordinates reported to him.

"Peace talks? What's there to talk about?" Sun Zun cursed. "Why didn't you do this earlier? Now that you can't win, you're trying to do it. Is there any possibility of peace talks?"

The subordinate lowered his head, not daring to speak.

Sun Zun rose from his throne, paced back and forth, and shook his head speechlessly: "This Samoyed is an amateur."

"Your Majesty, did he make a mistake in this battle?" his subordinate asked.

“Whether to attack or not to attack is not entirely wrong. But how to attack is completely wrong,” Sun Zun said. “Although this city is easy to defend and difficult to attack, it is not very large and has no terrain to rely on. If Shamoi wants to attack, how can he hold all his troops in the city? He should deploy his troops around the rocks, hide in the valleys, and guard the key roads. Most importantly, he should reinforce King Gui.”

“King Gui is also a king of the Sun family, so Shamoi probably wouldn’t be so kind as to help him,” he asked.

“He definitely won’t help, but helping him would mean helping myself.”

Sun Zun pointed to the location on the map and said, "Yuejiang is upstream of Shiting. If we build a dam here to store water, and then dig ditches to divert the floodwaters from the direction of the North Gate, then when it pours down, half of Shiting will be submerged."

Upon hearing this, the subordinate's eyes widened in astonishment. "No wonder the King ordered us to seal the gates and build high walls around the grain..."

“The people of Nanyue don’t use their brains in big battles, nor do they have the skills,” Sun Zun said. “Song Shi’an only needs a few hundred engineers, along with the more than ten thousand men under the Gui King’s command, to bring the flood in less than ten days and destroy Shi Ting.”

"Does Your Majesty mean that Prince Gui will surrender?" the subordinate asked nervously.

"If Song Shi'an did not use water, it means that the King of Gui has not surrendered, and this battle can be held for a while longer."

Sun Zun looked at him and said coldly, "If Song Shi'an used water, it means that Prince Gui has surrendered. And since Prince Gui, a king of the Sun family, could surrender without resisting from beginning to end, I, who have been eagerly waiting in the palace, can also surrender."

Ba Wang's thinking was quite clear.

"Your Majesty, after all, your surname is Sun, and you come from the Central Plains..."

.........

On the eleventh day, the canal was completely excavated and led to the north gate.

At this point, Song Shi'an completely withdrew his troops from the north.

The remaining three sides should be kept at a certain distance.

Although only the terrain of the North Gate is high and low, forming a long slope, and the water will eventually flow into the stone basin, preventing it from affecting dozens of miles, Song Shi'an still decided to proceed cautiously to avoid chaos.

At this moment, Ran Jin was with him, standing at the mouth of the canal at the north gate.

Here, it is just a long, empty riverbed.

"If Samoyed were to leave the city and evacuate at this time, he might actually be able to escape," Song Shi'an sighed.

“He is already a frightened bird, and can only hide in the city to survive,” Ran Jin said. “Even such an opponent cannot compare to Ji Yuan.”

"I have never considered him an opponent."

Song Shi'an smiled slightly, then gestured to the soldier beside him to lower his hand.

The next moment, the soldier lit the signal fire.

Soon, whitish smoke rose into the sky. At the same time, soldiers a mile away who saw the smoke also lit their own beacon fires.

The signal fires were passed along the canal all the way to the banks of the Yangtze River, and then upstream, little by little.

Within half an hour, the riverbank, more than seventy miles away, received the order from the front line.

Gui Wang and Ye Changqing stood together.

Ye Changqing was all smiles, while Prince Gui was extremely somber.

"Why don't you give the order?" Sun Hao couldn't help but say to Ye Changqing.

Ye Changqing smiled and said jokingly, "Your men are, of course, under your command."

On the one hand, Ye Changqing did not want to bear such infamy; on the other hand, after Sun Hao personally committed such a disastrous act against the country and the people, his way out was completely cut off, and he had no choice but to head north.

Of course, there's also the darkest idea.

After the war, reconstruction was needed.

Order needs to be restored.

Does Song Shi'an play the role of an invader or a beacon of civilization?

Therefore, as long as the Sun regime is made to be hated by the people of Nanyue enough, and all the anger is directed at the Sun regime and Shamoyi, the people will have a better impression of Song Shi'an's rule in the future.

"..." Gui Wang had no choice but to grit his teeth and immediately wave his hand.

The sandbags in front of the dam were removed one after another.

The moment the breach was opened, a raging flood surged forth...

A dozen or so barbarians who didn't have time to escape were swept away by the current and disappeared without a trace.

Once the breach appeared, the dam that couldn't be closed was also washed away, and the floodwaters that had been accumulating for ten days rushed towards the predetermined direction...

In less than three hours, the empty riverbed was filled with water.

Like a galaxy, it poured towards the North Gate!

Samoi, perched atop the city wall, stared blankly at the shallow water as waves rolled in.

The water flow is very moderate; even if a person stands in the water, they won't be swept away.

But what if the water keeps flowing?

A huge water pipe, running water for half a day?

Samoy swallowed hard, his face pale as he faced the scene, no longer intending to resist.

Meanwhile, the defending troops below the city watched as the water gushed and surged from the cracks in the city gate.

They kept trying to plug the gaps with sandbags, but water kept seeping through the cracks in the door.

After finally smoothing out the gaps, the more water there is outside, the greater the pressure the door has to bear.

The number of these barbarian soldiers fighting the flood is increasing, but the burden is growing heavier with time...

Until one person suddenly ran away, the remaining people scattered instantly, abandoning their goalkeeping duties.

Because everyone understood that when the door broke down, the immense water pressure would engulf them, and then there would be no escape.

"Song Shi'an has let the water go!"

"The city gates have fallen!"

"Run! You're drowning!"

The garrison at the north gate gradually withdrew, abandoning the area.

The other three soldiers, although not as severely affected by the flood, still had water seeping up to their ankles.

The city was congested, and people fled in all directions.

But the water kept flowing, and the water level continued to rise.

As a result, more and more people poured onto the city walls.

On the high platform in the distance, Song Shi'an calmly clapped his hands as he looked at the barbarians on the city wall, praising their determination to die rather than surrender.

It wasn't that Song Shi'an wouldn't let them surrender, it's just that it's too late to surrender now.

Even your Uncle Song Shi'an can't stop this raging flood.

"That's ruthless! Is this what the young Grand Secretary is all about?"

"In this battle, Shi Ting has thoroughly cleaned up the mess."

"But why didn't Qiu Juhuan come? This is the time to destroy the Shamoyi Kingdom, such a gratifying event, how could he miss it?"

During a conversation among the barbarian kings, someone asked this question.

Even if Qiu Juhuan is crippled and needs to recuperate, missing out on this scene would be a lifelong regret.

……

"General Song, please lend me another three thousand soldiers, and I will definitely wipe out the entire Shamo tribe. Then, I will offer all the territory to the young Grand Secretary!"

Standing on the mountain, watching the fierce battle in the valley, Qiu Juhuan gritted his teeth and pleaded with San Gou.

“I’m only giving you two thousand soldiers, and they’ll only be archers and crossbowmen; they won’t be used for frontline combat,” San Gou told him. “Once you take the Shamo tribe, this territory is all yours; the young Grand Secretary won’t take an inch.”

Qiu Juhuan frowned, struggling with the situation.

He did not participate in the war to attack Shiting because he felt that killing Shamoi would be more satisfying to his desire for revenge than killing Shamoi himself, but rather by killing his entire family and clan, including the tribe's big yellow dog.

However, he's really not in good shape right now.

If the Samo family were wiped out, even if tens of thousands of tribespeople could be supplied from them, the loss of the core strength would make it difficult for him to recover in the future.

but……

Should we just let revenge go unpunished?

eye for eye!
"General Song!" Qiu Juhuan pleaded again, "Even if you don't lend me troops, please lend me a thousand sets of armor, which I will return after I've used them all!"

San Gou looked at the serious Qiu Juhuan and said with a smile, "The empire's armor and soldiers are all valuable assets of the young Grand Secretary. But I like your temper. Go and take revenge, Qiu Juhuan, kill them all!"

"Thank you, General Song!"

Qiu Juhuan's soldiers donned Song Shi'an's armor.

Moreover, at the same time, they also borrowed one hundred of Song Shi'an's banners.

They launched a fierce attack on the Shamo tribe.

The military intelligence from the front reached the Samo royal court, which was more than ten miles away.

"Your Highness! Song Shi'an is here! Song Shi'an has arrived with his army!"

The old prince, sitting on the throne, was struck by a thunderbolt and nearly fainted. He stammered, "Song Shi'an... has he even tracked me all the way here?"

Meanwhile, behind a curtain behind the throne, Samogi sat on a leather couch, his hands wrapped around his knees, his eyes filled with uneasy fear… (End of Chapter)