The Ming Dynasty: Starting with bandits, it swept across the land.

Chapter 19 Investigation

Just past midnight, outside the north city wall of Yijun.

Han Sanhu and Yang Chongwang were lying on a embankment between the moat and the city wall, their clothes tattered and almost blending into the environment.

Yang Chongwang squinted, carefully examining the newly repaired section of the city wall by the light of the torches on the city wall.

After looking at it for a while, he turned back and whispered to Han Sanhu, "Your judgment is correct. The cracks and joints in the new wall and the old wall are different shades of color."

Han Sanhu followed his gaze and saw that, in the firelight, the old wall was grayish-yellow, while the newly repaired wall had a raw, dark blue color.

More importantly, the joints between the old and new walls are extremely irregular.

Normal wall repairs should have misaligned joints, but this is definitely not like this. It protrudes at the top and bottom, as if it was just piled up randomly without being properly aligned.

"Brother Yang, take another look at the base of their walls."

The base of the wall was far from the firelight and very dark; one had to strain to see it clearly.

Yang Chongwang stared intently for a while and discovered the problem.

The foundation of the old wall is noticeably sunken compared to the newly built one, a result of years of settlement, while the new wall is almost level with the ground.

"They didn't rebuild the foundation; they just piled bricks and stones on top of the collapsed old foundation!"

Yang Chongwang was surprised that the soldiers guarding the city would be so perfunctory, not even bothering to rebuild the foundation.

Their actions were like sticking their heads into a tiger's mouth, betting on whether it was hungry.

Then, Han Sanhu took out a horn-shaped receiver from his pocket.

This is an old item used by border guerrillas to lie on the ground and listen for distant sounds.

He placed one end of the receiver on the ground and brought the other end close to his ear.

Han Sanhu listened for about half an incense stick's time before putting the receiver away.

"It's all loose. Even if it's been filled with soil, it probably isn't compacted. At least the bottom part is loose. If it were a solid wall, the sound transmission would be solid."

Yang Chongwang was still worried, so he took the ox-horn stethoscope and wanted to listen to it himself.

At first, Yang Chongwang could only hear his own heartbeat.

But as patrolling soldiers walked along the city wall, some faint sounds came through the soil.

The old city wall transmitted a solid, even micro-vibration, the inherent frequency of its thick earth and stone structure. But below the new wall, the vibration became... diffuse.

There was a hollow echo, as if the sound came not from a solid wall, but from a large drum covered in leather.

The night was quiet, and the sounds coming from the horn-shaped stethoscope were clear.

Han Sanhu is right.

The sound of the new and old walls is indeed different.

Then Yang Chongwang and Han Sanhu exchanged a glance, and as the sound of the patrol footsteps faded into the distance, the two slowly moved closer to the city wall.

Han Sanhu slowly pulled out the short iron shovel hanging from his waist.

The iron shovel was sharpened at one end.

He gripped the shovel tightly and slowly thrust the tip into a crack where the new wall met the old one.

The tip inserts into the brickwork; it feels very soft to the touch and offers almost no resistance.

He exerted a little force, and the iron shovel actually went in half a foot deep before being blocked by something.

He tried again from a different position, and the result was similar.

The two of them lay down and observed the garrison's deployment on the city wall for a while longer.

The guards on the north wall were noticeably fewer than those at the city gates, and their patrols were spaced further apart.

After a patrol of soldiers passed by, the two quietly retreated and disappeared into the night.

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On the north side of the camp, Master Qin returned with five strong young men.

They carried a thick, dark beam on their shoulders, about ten feet long and two feet thick.

Li Chengye tapped the beam with the back of his knife, producing a dull thud.

"Wow, that's a generous portion."

This thing is absolutely qualified to be a battering ram.

Master Qin took a breath: "It's made of old elm wood. It took a lot of effort to dismantle it from a tea shop outside the city. The old camp gang wouldn't allow it at first."

I told them they'd attack the city tomorrow, and only then did they let us dismantle it, even tearing down some of the surrounding houses. It was only thanks to the intervention of Commander Luo of the front camp that we were able to take it down smoothly.

After resting for a while, Master Qin directed everyone to lay the beam flat on the ground. He picked up an axe and carved a sharp bevel at the front end of the beam.

Then he handed the axe to Wang Laoqi and the others, and asked them to carve out the tip of the battering ram according to the engraved lines.

When the tip of the battering ram was almost completely sharpened, Yang Chongwang and Han Sanhu returned.

The two men were covered in mud and smelled foul, having crawled through the muddy puddles of the moat.

But the two of them didn't take it seriously; instead, their faces were full of excitement.

"Brother Han's judgment is correct. That new wall is indeed not sturdy. If you use an iron pick to pry it off, you can get the bricks off."

Upon meeting Li Chengye, Yang Chongwang couldn't wait to tell him the results of his investigation.

"In other words, now all that's left is how to get this battering ram safely to the city walls."

Li Chengye already had an idea about this.

However, there is something else I need to do right now.

"Brother Yang, Brother Han, please change out of these wet clothes. Even though it's summer, you can't afford to catch a cold."

Then he led the two to the fire, warmed them up, and had Chengen bring them two old clothes to change into.

There was still some broth left over from the evening meal, so we added two more bowls of water and some millet.

Make it into meat porridge.

"You all wait here to have your porridge. I'm going to the rear camp, and I'll come back to discuss tomorrow's plans with you."

Yang Chongwang and Han Sanhu sat by the fire, waiting for the porridge to cook.

"Brother Yang, has General Jiang always been like this? If my superior had been more like him back then, I wouldn't have had to flee from the border army."

After hearing Han Sanhu's words, Yang Chongwang fell into deep thought.

He was seven years older than Li Chengye. When they were children, Li Chengye would often follow him around and play. They had known each other since childhood.

Later, he joined the army and stayed there for six or seven years. He only returned to his hometown after the siege of Jian'anbao was lifted.

When they met again in the village, the man bowed to him before the woman even recognized him.

At that time, he just thought the other person was grown up and polite, and there was nothing strange about him.

But in April of this year, after Li Chengye recovered from a serious illness, he changed. When they met again, he seemed to have an extraordinary way of speaking and knowing things.

Master Qin said he had delusions while he was sick and his mind was confused.

Yang Chongwang recalled what he had heard from the Mongolian monks when he was guarding the border: highly virtuous monks can be reincarnated, and as long as they awaken their innate wisdom, they can recall their past lives.

When Zhao Shouren was collecting taxes, he never expected that the other party would come to him to start a rebellion.

Although he also hated Zhao Shouren to the core, he only thought about enduring this season, and that he would be able to get by once the autumn harvest came.

As long as we can get by, it doesn't matter how bad things are.

It wasn't until Li Chengye came to their door and pointed out that "if you want to live a proper life, you have to eat people," and if you didn't want to, you had to exchange your knife for food.

He then realized that enduring the drought until the autumn harvest was pointless; there was still no way to survive.

I was just deceiving myself all along.

Then they teamed up with him, gathered the villagers, killed Zhao Shouren, distributed the grain, left the village, and encountered Wang Er.

Even tomorrow, they will lead men to attack the county town.

So much has happened in less than ten days. My heart has been in turmoil more than once. I don't know what tomorrow will bring.

Among the villagers traveling with us, many were privately pessimistic, disheartened, or even secretly shedding tears.

Only Li Chengye neither complained nor blamed others or himself, and remained completely at ease, as if he knew what would happen in the future and therefore showed no panic whatsoever.

Just as Han Sanhu said, could it be that Li Chengye is a born general who can remain calm in the face of chaos?

But when I was in Yulin, I met quite a few generals, but compared to Li Chengye, they seemed different, as if something was missing.

Just as Yang Chongwang was lost in thought about Li Chengye because of Han Sanhu's remark, Li Chengye himself was standing in front of a blue cloth tent in the rear camp.

An oil lamp was lit inside the tent, and a figure was holding a book, clearly engrossed in reading.

Li Chengye called out twice but didn't hear him.

Until the third tone.

"I hope you are well, sir. I apologize for my unauthorized visit at this late hour."

Only then did the figure move.