Shen Jue and the others, leading the Zhenbei Army and the fishing village residents, busied themselves from early morning until afternoon before they finally sorted the fish into several large piles.
“Let's leave a portion for the villagers of the fishing village, and we will take all the rest back to Wuling City,” Pei Du said.
Feng Chunya and Shen Jue naturally had no objections.
By the time the fishermen were settled, the sun was already leaning toward the west.
The group pushed wooden carts laden with fish, walking along the newly cleared official road toward Wuling City.
The setting sun cast their long shadows far behind them.
Along the way, they met many Zhenbei Army soldiers and Wuling City citizens holding shovels, filling in potholes on the road.
Seeing them, they waved and shouted from afar, “General Shen, General Feng, Military Advisor Pei, you're back!”
“We're back! We're cooking fish tonight!” Feng Chunya bellowed in response, triggering a burst of cheers from the other side.
Some people tossed aside their shovels and ran over to help push the carts, but with so many hands reaching in, they actually threw the group into a bit of disarray.
“Be careful! Don't damage the fish!”
“Exactly!”
“Stop making a mess, I can push it myself!”
Seeing this, Shen Jue said in a deep voice, “What is this nonsense? Hurry up and deliver these fish to Wuling City.”
No one dared to behave recklessly any longer.
By the time they reached the gates of Wuling City, night had already fallen.
Torches were lit throughout the city, planted in clusters along both sides of the newly cleared streets. The firelight cast flickering shadows over the half-collapsed walls and the piles of rubble on the ground.
The cooks had set up several large pots in an open space. The fires beneath burned brightly, and the water inside bubbled and boiled.
As soon as the fish arrived, the cooks deftly scraped off the scales, gutted them, chopped them into large chunks, and threw them into the pots. They also threw in a handful of salt that had been painstakingly salvaged from the ruins.
There wasn't much salt, just enough to bring out some flavor.
Yet the aroma of the fish soup already drifted out, wafting through the city on the night breeze and making everyone salivate with hunger.
“Dinner's ready! Dinner's ready!” Feng Chunya stood by the pots holding a large wooden ladle, scooping the soup into bowls one by one.
The bowls were salvaged by each household from the ruins; some were chipped, others cracked, but no one minded.
Everyone lined up to receive their fish soup. Once they got a bowl, they squatted nearby to eat.
Slurping sounds echoed from all around, interspersed with exclamations like “So fresh!” “Delicious!” and “This smells even better than what we eat during New Year's!”
Feng Chunya's lieutenant walked over to her with a bowl and handed it to her. “General Feng, you've been busy all day. Go have a bowl of fish soup first. I'll watch over things here.”
“Alright,” Feng Chunya agreed without hesitation.
That night...
The torches in Wuling City burned until the latter half of the night. After the first round of fish soup was finished, more water was added to boil it again.
In the end, even the fish bones were boiled to mush.
*
The next day, before dawn, clanging and clattering echoed throughout Wuling City, starting even earlier than the birds' chirping.
Everyone worked together to clear the broken bricks from the road one by one, stacking them along the roadside to form low walls.
A few carpenters gathered to piece back together door panels that had been scattered by the flood. They carved new tenons and reinstalled them. The wood was still damp, but they made do with it.
The breach in the eastern city wall was repaired the fastest. Feng Chunya had deployed all the strongest soldiers from the Zhenbei Army there. By the time the sun reached its zenith, the wall was already chest-high.
Over at Dawan Fishing Village, they weren't idle either.
Using timber salvaged from the ruins, they built shelters on the spot to protect themselves from the wind and rain.
Children and the elderly, unable to do heavy labor, could only wander around to see if they could salvage anything useful.
A young boy saw his grandmother insisting on bringing back a tattered fishing net. He said helplessly, “Grandma, this net is so torn up. Can it even catch fish anymore?”
“Why not? It can still be used once we mend it,” the elderly woman said, reaching out with her weathered hand to pat the boy's head.
Everything was improving, thriving with new life.
However, their only food reserve was the fish delivered by the blue whale. Between the citizens of Wuling City and the soldiers of the Zhenbei Army, there were tens of thousands of mouths to feed. They would eventually exhaust their supplies if they just sat and ate.
“Zirang, how much longer can our food last?” Shen Jue and Feng Chunya lifted the curtain of the tent and strode inside.
Pei Du had barely slept a wink over the past few days.
Leading a few literate young men, he not only had to tally the surviving citizens of Wuling City and the Zhenbei Army soldiers who were injured or killed while rescuing others in the flood, but he also had to ensure everyone got a warm meal while keeping the consumption of food from going too fast.
“General Shen, General Feng,” he said, his voice hoarse. “Even though we have a lot of fish, we also have too many mouths to feed. The relief grain from the north is a distant water that cannot quench our immediate thirst. We must find a way to fill this food deficit from elsewhere as soon as possible.”
Feng Chunya sighed. “The fishing boats in the village were all destroyed in the flood. Even if we could spare men to go out to sea and fish, we wouldn't have any boats.”
“As for building new ones now, there's simply no time.”
A long silence ensued.
“There is a forest thirty li to the north.” Pei Du paused for a moment, looking at Shen Jue and Feng Chunya. “The mountain beasts saved by the Divine Lady all fled there. We only need to send a squad of crossbowmen up there to hunt some game, and it will be enough to feed the Zhenbei Army and the commoners for several days.”
Hearing this, both of them were shocked and angered.
Feng Chunya had always respected scholars, but at this moment, she could not suppress the anger in her heart. “Military Advisor Pei, the Divine Lady saved those mountain beasts, yet you want us to hunt and eat them? How will we ever face the Divine Lady in the future?!”
Pei Du clenched his hands into fists. “Then you tell me, if we don't hunt the beasts in the forest, what will the Zhenbei Army soldiers and the disaster-stricken commoners eat tomorrow?”
The rims of his eyes turned red. “I am also a believer of the Divine Lady! If there were any other way, do you think I would want to play the villain? Do you think I want the Divine Lady to despise me?”
By the end, he let out a bitter laugh.
Feng Chunya also realized she had misunderstood Pei Du. She hastily bowed with cupped hands. “Military Advisor Pei, I am sorry. My words were too harsh just now. Please forgive me.”
Pei Du shook his head gently. “It is fine.”
Shen Jue looked at Pei Du, then at Feng Chunya, and said in a hoarse voice, “Tomorrow, I will lead men into the mountains...”
Before he could finish, a series of urgent and chaotic footsteps suddenly echoed outside the tent.
Immediately following that...
A messenger burst through the curtain. “General Shen! Several large ships have arrived at the docks!”
Hearing this, all three of them froze at the same time.
Pei Du was the first to react, grabbing the messenger by the shoulders. “What ships? Whose flag are they flying?”
“They're flying our Zhenbei Army's flag!”
The messenger said, “I saw it clearly!”
Shen Jue's face immediately lit up with joy. “Zirang, could it be Fuyan and the others delivering grain to Wuling City?”
Pei Du was excited at first too, but once he calmed down, he noticed something amiss. “It is impossible to procure grain from Liaodong Prefecture and transport it to Wuling City this quickly.”
“Could it be a trap?”
Feng Chunya's brow furrowed deeply.
Pei Du said in a low voice, “Let's go take a look first.”
Rate on N.U.
