Only Sweet Potatoes Can Save Us Now

"What?"

Zhang Shi was stunned.

The city lord was dead?

Killed by cannon fire?

In other words, Hu Shaoyou had been blown to bits by a cannon?

Zhang Shi’s first reaction was disbelief.

The Hongyi Cannon, a weapon from Yunjing—its power was surely better understood by those near Yunjing than by people in the capital.

Yuancheng was close to Yunjing, so Hu Shaoyou had no reason not to know.

Knowing the might of the Hongyi Cannon, and still standing on the city wall, waiting to be blasted?

Wasn’t that just foolish?

"Men, charge with me!"

Zhang Shi’s momentum swelled. Beneath him, his prized Night-Shining Jade Steed galloped wildly, hooves thundering. Leading his brothers like an arrow loosed from a bow, he sped straight toward the source of the noise.

Along the way, it was as if nothing could stand in their way—god or Buddha alike fell before them!

After just two brief skirmishes, the remaining soldiers of Yuancheng, upon seeing Zhang Shi and his men charging at them, wasted no time. They cast aside their weapons and dropped to their knees with a thud.

All together, they shouted at the top of their lungs.

"We surrender, we surrender!"

"Please, General, spare our lives!"

"Your Grace, we were forced into this!"

These soldiers spoke from the heart.

They truly had been coerced.

After all, Yuancheng originally belonged to the imperial court, and they were imperial soldiers. But the city lord, Hu Shaoyou, had inexplicably lost his mind, choosing to oppose the court.

When the siege began, he stubbornly resisted, refusing to surrender. They had no choice but to obey orders.

Now that a chance to live presented itself, they naturally gave in one after another.

Thus, not long after the city fell, seven or eight out of ten of Yuancheng’s soldiers had already surrendered. The few who hadn’t were mostly Hu Shaoyou’s personal guards and trusted men, and Zhang Shi pursued and eliminated nearly all of them.

Yuancheng was mostly secured.

Yet, Zhang Shi still hadn’t seen Hu Shaoyou’s body.

"Reporting, rep... reporting," stammered a captured soldier, "the city lord’s body was taken away by the military medic. He said it was to be sent to the city lord’s mansion, to be handed over to his wife..."

"Move out!" Zhang Shi flicked his reins. His horse turned and galloped toward the city lord’s mansion.

It wasn’t only because Hu Shaoyou’s body had been taken there—more crucially, Hu Shaoyou’s wife was likely still at the mansion.

After the assault on Huai’an, Zhang Shi felt he had changed and understood the importance of dealing with the wife without a moment’s hesitation or delay.

...

Yuancheng, City Lord’s Mansion, Accounting Office.

Gu Qing, Hu Shaoyou’s wife, furrowed her brow. One hand worked an abacus while the other flipped through a ledger, calculating item by item.

The deeper she calculated, the more her brow knit.

Her face, once smooth as cream and delicate enough to bruise at a touch, was now pallid and drained—clearly the result of long, exhaustive toil, chronic sleep deprivation, and constant worry.

Still, Gu Qing wasn’t concerned about her complexion. Or rather, she had no mind to be.

What worried her was the debt!

"So much!"

"So much!"

"My husband borrowed this many supplies and funds—a staggering debt of ten million silver taels. How on earth will we ever repay it?"

Gu Qing’s anxiety grew.

Yuancheng was not a large city. Though its defenses relied on mountain terrain, adding some natural peril, it was far from being an impregnable fortress.

For her husband to hold Yuancheng, he would need vast sums of money, grain, and supplies. She had tried to dissuade him but to no avail, so she had followed along. Yet...

Sensing something amiss, she had come today to examine the accounts.

She hadn’t known until she saw it—and the sight shocked her.

In this short span of time, her husband Hu Shaoyou had borrowed so much money...

Even if one day he truly repelled the imperial army, this debt alone would take them—husband and wife—who knows how long to repay!

Moreover, among the military supplies Hu Shaoyou had borrowed from neighboring cities, the proportions were severely unbalanced.

He had managed to borrow everything else, even large sums of silver, but grain—

He had borrowed very little of that.

"Troops depend on grain above all else. My husband prepared so much in other areas, yet overlooked the most crucial resource. How can he fend off the imperial army like this?"

"My husband is always shrewd, especially in military matters—he knows them inside out. How could he neglect something as vital as grain?"

"What is wrong with him?"

"Could it be that the pressure is too great and he misjudged the situation?"

"But the situation is so simple that even I, a naive woman, can see it clearly. How could my husband make such a grave mistake?"

Gu Qing and Hu Shaoyou shared a deep bond, weathering storms and sharing glories together. Since the mess was already made, and she was calm and rational by nature, she knew complaining was useless. She had to figure out a way to plug the hole first.

"It seems I have no choice but to urgently mobilize people and bring out those sweet potatoes. Though they aren’t as refined as rice or flour, they’re sweet and abundant. With these, I can help my husband hold out a while longer!"

Having made her decision, Gu Qing didn’t delay. She immediately ordered people to go to the manors outside the city and to the Gu family’s fields across Yuancheng to fetch the sweet potatoes.

No sooner had she issued these orders than a great wailing arose from afar.

"Madam, Madam!"

"Something terrible has happened!"

"Something terrible!"

The cries were piercing, jolting Gu Qing into a start. Then she heard the approaching guard say, "Madam, the city lord, Hu, has tragically fallen to a cannon shot!"

Boom!

It was as though a thunderclap had exploded in the sky!

In an instant, Gu Qing’s body swayed, on the verge of collapse.

She could hardly believe what she had heard, clutching the guard’s armor urgently and asking, "You, you, what did you say?"

"Shao, Shaoyou... what happened?"

"Madam..." the guard wept, "The enemy general outside the city launched a full assault and brought in Hongyi Cannons. Amid the booming thunder, the city lord, who was overseeing the battle from the wall, was hit by a cannonball and died."

"The military medic has already transported his body back to the residence..."

Gu Qing’s body gave way, and she crumpled to the floor.

Tears streaked her face, though she hadn’t realized when they started.

It was a sudden, crushing despair, surging into her heart and catching her off guard. For a moment, she could hardly catch her breath, nearly following Hu Shaoyou into death.

After a long pause, she let out a broken wail.

"Ahhh..."

Her cries shook heaven and earth.

Her husband, Hu Shaoyou—dead, dead!

Why... why had he abandoned her, leaving her alone in this world, but a mere mortal?

If she had known it would come to this, she would have fought tooth and nail to stop him from taking this step.

That Xu Shang was from Yunjing.

He was only the acting city lord of Huai’an in Yunjing, and their city was originally from a different faction—separate as river water and well water. Even if they had dealt with each other in past years, it was only routine business. Gu Qing had no idea why her husband Hu Shaoyou insisted on sheltering Xu Shang.

At the time, she had advised him bitterly, time and again.

No matter what, Yuancheng still belonged to the imperial court. When General Zhang Shi came demanding the man, Hu Shaoyou refused the first time. And when Zhang Shi arrived a second time with an imperial decree, he still refused?

This was an act of rebellion!

At that moment, she wished she could surrender on behalf of her husband, Hu Shaoyou. Yet the bond of marriage, especially the mutual respect that had always existed between them, forced her to suppress the impulse.

She could only act as Hu Shaoyou’s wife and risk everything to help him!

But...

Her husband was dead?

How... how could her husband be dead?

He had fallen in battle. What was she to do now?

...