The soldiers looked at the handsome, well-built驸马 (fù mǎ - imperial son-in-law) before them and felt that Princess would surely have fallen for his outstanding appearance.
After all, his claim to capture Fengcheng without a single soldier was highly unreliable, sounding a lot like bragging.
They themselves hadn't been able to capture Fengcheng in over a decade, and he claimed he could do it in a few days?
This was sheer fantasy!
That night, Bai Sheng changed into her night-clothes and teleported from her spatial dimension into Zuo Ye's tent. Zuo Ye was also ready. The two of them sneaked out of the military camp and rode fast horses towards Fengcheng.
The Great Xia army in Fengcheng was quite dispersed. The border defense military camp, which bordered Qinghuang's western front, was the main force.
However, there was a city defense military camp outside the gates of Fengcheng, and scattered troop camps were also stationed within Fengcheng. Therefore, tonight, Bai Sheng and Zuo Ye had to visit several military camps.
Before departing, Zuo Ye had repeatedly instructed Shi Sheng and Da Li. He would first sneak into the Great Xia military camp and drug the Great Xia soldiers. At the hour of Yin (3-5 AM) the next day, Shi Sheng and the others must bring thousands of soldiers to appear at the Great Xia military camp.
They could leave their swords behind, but they had to have enough ropes to tie people up, convenient for "collecting" prisoners.
Shi Sheng and Da Li were somewhat incredulous when he mentioned "collecting" prisoners, but thinking of his high martial arts skill, sneaking into the enemy camp to scatter sleeping drugs was not impossible.
Zuo Ye and Bai Sheng went to the border defense military camp first. With the spatial dimension providing cover and Hengheng acting as radar, they easily drugged over ten thousand soldiers.
Bai Sheng began to collect items into her spatial dimension: weapons, food, warhorses, pots, pans, bedding, clothes, even wall bricks and tiles. Finally, she stripped all the soldiers, leaving each of them with only a pair of underpants to avoid public indecency.
For some soldiers whose underpants were too torn and exposed their private parts, she couldn't be blamed. They should blame Great Xia for not providing them with new underpants.
As for those who didn't wear underpants at all, she couldn't be blamed either. Who told them not to wear underpants? They had no respect for their own privacy.
The two then sneaked into the city defense military camp outside the Fengcheng city gates and stripped them bare as well.
Afterward, they entered the city and stripped all the scattered large and small military camps within the city, including the wealthy Great Xia merchants who were doing business in Fengcheng and had kept many Qinghuang slaves.
After the Qinghuang civilians of Fengcheng were captured, they were used as slaves by the Great Xia people. They had to do the most tiring and heaviest work, ate food that was worse than that for pigs and dogs, and were often subjected to brutal beatings. Only a few could survive such abuse.
Bai Sheng and Zuo Ye opened the prison cells where the Qinghuang slaves were held and told them to flee east, where the Qinghuang army was.
If they were seriously injured and couldn't escape, they could stay in Fengcheng. In any case, the Qinghuang army would arrive soon and occupy Fengcheng.
Upon hearing this, the Qinghuang slaves didn't believe it. For so many years, how could the Qinghuang army have the strength to capture Fengcheng?
Seeing that they were all skin and bones, and too hungry to stand, Bai Sheng took out a basket of white steamed buns and distributed them to them, telling them to eat something first to fill their stomachs. By morning, Fengcheng would be theirs.
The Qinghuang slaves did not escape. Firstly, they were covered in injuries, and if caught while fleeing, they would only be beaten to death. Secondly, they also wanted to gamble whether it was true, as this young lady said, that Fengcheng would belong to their Qinghuang after sunrise.
At the hour of Yin in the morning, Bai Sheng and Zuo Ye waited for the Qinghuang army to come and collect the prisoners, but they waited and waited, and no one came.
Bai Sheng then took Zuo Ye and flashed back to the Qinghuang military camp, only to see the camp divided into two factions, arguing.
Shi Sheng and Da Li insisted on taking soldiers to support Zuo Ye, believing that even if Zuo Ye's side failed, they couldn't leave him alone there.
However, Deputy General Xu and several other lieutenants did not believe that the imperial son-in-law alone could drug tens of thousands of soldiers. If they went rashly, it would be a futile death. The Qinghuang army had held on for so many years and could not be destroyed.
The two sides were in an impasse.
In fact, neither side was wrong. After all, no one would have thought that the Great Xia military camp had been visited by the "money-carrying boy" again.
When Zuo Ye appeared, he told them that he had investigated and that all Great Xia military camps in Fengcheng had been stripped down to their underpants by the money-carrying boy again. Moreover, he had successfully drugged them, and the Qinghuang soldiers only needed to "collect" prisoners.
If any part of his words was false, he could be court-martialed upon returning to the camp.
Upon hearing this news, the Qinghuang soldiers all cheered excitedly. Those who needed ropes found ropes, those who needed carts pulled carts, and those who needed horses drove horses. In a flash, they all set off for Fengcheng, each running incredibly fast.
As expected, when they arrived at the Great Xia military camp, there was no resistance.
Unexpectedly, the Great Xia military camp was even more devastated this time than the last time. Last time, the money-carrying boy had at least left them an empty building, but this time, not even a roof tile could be seen.
On the open ground, divided into squares by rooms without walls, lay patches of bare white bodies scattered about.
The Qinghuang soldiers burst into laughter, holding their stomachs and squatting on the ground, laughing until tears streamed from their eyes.
After a while, urged by Zuo Ye, the Qinghuang soldiers reluctantly stepped forward to tie them up.
However, the only regret was that their weapons and warhorses had all disappeared.
The few children of Zuo Yun were a bit disappointed. They stepped forward and kicked awake a few Great Xia soldiers who were bare-chested, wanting to duel with them.
Who knew that after those Great Xia soldiers woke up, they saw the bizarre scene before them and were so terrified that they fainted immediately.
After tying up all the prisoners from the two military camps outside Fengcheng, thousands of Qinghuang soldiers, leading a long line of underpants-clad figures, marched straight into Fengcheng.
Besides Great Xia soldiers, Fengcheng was also inhabited by Great Xia civilians. Seeing the Qinghuang army entering the city, they all fled in all directions, not even having time to grab their household belongings.
The Qinghuang soldiers hated these Great Xia people bitterly because they had never treated Qinghuang captives well, treating their countrymen like livestock.
Some soldiers impulsively drew their swords and began hacking at any Great Xia person they saw, but Zuo Ye stopped them.
Zuo Ye ordered that any Great Xia people who had abused or enslaved Qinghuang captives be arrested and made slaves.
For those who had purely come to do business and had not bullied Qinghuang captives, their wealth would be confiscated, and they would be sent back to Great Xia.
All the Qinghuang soldiers secretly thought that either Zuo Ye was the money-carrying boy, or he had a very good relationship with the money-carrying boy, otherwise how could they have coincidentally encountered the money-carrying boy visiting the Great Xia military camp?
Therefore, all the soldiers obeyed Zuo Ye's words without question.
In less than a day, Fengcheng was completely under the control of the Qinghuang soldiers.
More than half of the Great Xia civilians in the city had previously abused and enslaved Qinghuang captives. Zuo Ye ordered them to be tied up and become Qinghuang laborers in the future.
Another smaller half of the people had never bullied Qinghuang people and had merely settled there. Zuo Ye released them, ordering them to return to Great Xia immediately and never set foot in Qinghuang again for the rest of their lives.
And the Great Xia people who had mixed in with the Qinghuang captives were also identified by Zuo Ye's sharp eyes.
These people were truly foolish. The Qinghuang captives were all emaciated, while they were plump and robust. Mixing in among them was as obvious as a louse on a bald man's head.