Chapter 2719 Patience

“Prince, should we take advantage of the victory and press the attack?”

Second Prince Gao: “…What victory are you talking about?”

Holding the city is still a victory, the generals grumbled inwardly.

“They’ve set their checkpoints twenty li outside Anshi City. Like this, how are we supposed to live in Anshi City in future? Second Prince, whatever happens, we have to snatch back the land under Anshi City’s jurisdiction.”

Anshi City was a large city; everything out to eighty li belonged to Guo County’s territory. The Jin army had set the checkpoint twenty li out, directly taking over more than half of Anshi City’s northern suburbs and drastically shrinking their future living space.

Second Prince Gao hesitated, unwilling to send troops at this time. “What if it’s a trap?”

“They’ve already issued an imperial edict. It shouldn’t be a trap, right?”

But Second Prince Gao held firm; the gates facing west and north still remained closed.

They did, however, quietly send out scouts. “Keep an eye on their camp and see if there’s any sign of troops marching out. Every road that could lead toward us must be carefully checked.”

“Yes, sir.”

Manbao was carrying a winnowing tray. She set it on the rack, gave the herbs on it a quick turn, and when she glanced sideways she saw Bai Shan hurrying past on horseback with a group of men. The two only had time to nod to each other before he headed off toward the City Lord’s Mansion.

At the moment the emperor and several generals were living there, while Manbao and the people from the medical tents were lodged in the houses beside it.

She clapped the dust off her hands and turned back into the room. Inside, her students were busy making pills and medicinal powders.

Seeing Zhou Man come in, one student couldn’t help muttering, “Teacher, we’re about to triumphantly return to the capital, so why are we still making pills and powders?”

They were even making hemostatic packs. They’d started on those yesterday and had already made a lot.

Manbao said, “All these herbs were purchased for fighting this war, paid for with military funds. Even if the eastern campaign ends, the medicine has to stay with the army. There aren’t many physicians in the army—if we leave it to them to process, who knows how long it’ll take. Since we’ve got nothing else to do right now, you should make more. If they don’t end up using it, we’ll distribute it among the various units later, and they can hand it straight to wounded soldiers.”

Everyone could only keep their heads down and continue working.

Manbao went on checking the herbs they’d dug up over this period. Once she’d cleaned them, she put them on the winnowing trays and carried them out to dry.

Some herbs needed further processing after drying; there were quite a few steps involved.

Manbao carried the trays out and set them on the rack. Bai Erlang, who lived next door, sauntered over, grabbed a handful of herbs and absently flipped them over, lowering his voice. “I think something’s off.”

Manbao gave him a sideways look and slapped his hand away.

Bai Erlang stopped touching her herbs, but continued quietly, “Seriously—don’t you think Bai Shan’s been a bit too busy lately?”

He’d invited him to go stroll around the streets, have some fun, and take a look at Liaodong City—oh, right, it was Liaozhou City now—but Bai Shan had turned him down, and even told him not to wander around outside unless he had to.

Based on his understanding of Bai Shan, every time they arrived somewhere new, Bai Shan would insist on experiencing the local scenery and customs, no matter what.

Bai Erlang gave Zhou Man a glance. “You can still use the excuse that you have medicine to make. He didn’t even bother coming up with an excuse—he just said he was busy. But what exactly is he busy with?”

Manbao said, “Busy handling follow-up matters. Haven’t you seen them tallying up the lists of people who are going to be relocated?”

Bai Erlang said, “I asked. Assistant She is in charge of that.”

“And,” he lowered his voice further, “I’ve noticed there are fewer soldiers over in the main camp. Even General Ashina and General Xue aren’t in their tents.”

Where had their sixty thousand soldiers gone? Of course it was impossible for them all to move into the city; the main force was camped outside the walls. Manbao still had to assign army doctors and students to take turns on duty in the big camp, not only to care for the wounded, but also to grab medicine for soldiers who came down with the occasional headache or fever.

Manbao looked at him. “What are you doing over at the main camp when you’ve got nothing to do?”

Bai Erlang: “…I’m in charge of the Imperial Medical Office’s pharmacy, okay? I went to urge the army logistics officers to hurry up and deliver the next batch of medicinal herbs.”

Bai Erlang was used to prodding them. When this last batch of herbs was slow to arrive, he’d gone to logistics twice a day. Now that the herbs had come, even though they were supposed to be marching back to the capital, he still habitually wandered over and reminded the logistics officer: even if they did return to the capital, the herbs meant for them still had to be shipped over. How they were handled was the Imperial Medical Office’s business, wasn’t it?

After going back and forth like that, he’d realized the tents in camp seemed a bit empty.

Some tents didn’t have their full complement of people. A tent that normally held twenty men now held only ten, and some were simply vacant. When he walked by, there wasn’t that strong smell at all; when he lifted the flap, the inside was empty, no quilts, nothing—no one had lived there at all.

Bai Erlang stared at the unruffled Zhou Man. “Tell me, do you people know something and just aren’t telling me?”

Manbao gave him a meaningful look. “Some things you have to figure out on your own. They can only be grasped, not taught in words.”

Bai Erlang challenged her. “And you and Bai Shan are also ‘grasping without words’?”

Manbao said, “Ever since the army came back to Liaodong City, we haven’t been living together. We’ve only exchanged two sentences in passing: ‘Get some rest.’ ‘You too, be careful.'”

“You tell me, how are we supposed to pass anything along?”

Bai Erlang gave her a sympathetic look. “Compared to that, I’ve said more to Bai Shan than you have.”

After all, lately the emperor liked to haul him along to listen to court deliberations. He’d stand right next to Bai Shan and would always manage to say a few words.

From this conversation with Zhou Man, Bai Erlang confirmed his own suspicions: this eastern campaign was probably far from over. So he warned her, “You make sure you store our ginseng properly.”

Manbao waved him off casually. “Relax, I’ll keep it safe.”

The ginseng was currently stored in Keke’s space. She took it out occasionally to air-dry. Ginseng had to be dried in the shade, so there was no rush with that; she had plenty of time.

Manbao finished turning the herbs, and every now and then her thoughts drifted: where exactly were the troops who’d left midway now?

They were hiding in the forest at the moment. A scout carefully circled back from the outside and reported to the general sitting on the ground, “They only opened a small gate to let a few scouts out. This subordinate didn’t dare get too close; I watched from a tree. They headed off in the direction of Liaodong City.”

General Ashina said, “They’re definitely going to reconnoiter the situation at the main camp. Stay put and be careful; don’t expose our tracks.”

A bunch of Hu soldiers slapped a bug dead with a smack and sighed. “General, we’re heroes on horseback—how long do we have to stay cooped up in this forest?”

“Wait quietly for news,” General Ashina shot them a look. “Keep your hides tightened up for me. Suffering a bit now is better than storming the city gates. You think scaling siege ladders is easy?”

Of ten men climbing the siege ladders, six would die and three would be badly wounded. Only one might make it onto the wall, and even then, his chance of surviving was only twenty percent. Their role was to pin down the troops on the wall so the men below could batter the gates open.

They immediately shut their mouths. None of them wanted to be the ones climbing siege ladders.