After that, there was calm for two days before the iron gate, Bermu did not send people to attack the city, and Qin Shoushan would not organize a second night attack in a short time, and the two sides just quietly guarded their own territory, preventing the enemy from attacking.

The calm situation even gave the Ming soldiers in the city a hint of illusion, as if the Ming did not start a war with Samarkand at this time, and the Xilu in front of him was also a messenger who came to pay tribute.

But this illusion was soon shattered. From the morning of the ninth day of the sixth month, the siege of the city was renewed, and it was much more fierce than before. The arrows shot at the head of the city as if they didn't want money, and the infantry also attacked the head of the city as if they didn't want to die.

The Ming army was almost defeated, but fortunately, Qin Shoushan was always vigilant, calmly responded to the attack of the Western Prisoners at this time, and finally defended the city with the help of geographical advantages.

However, Bermu's real killer move was not a fierce siege.

……

……

"It's so cool! It was easy to cut off the head of the Siyu. Wang Cheng shouted happily. He then took out a cloth that was not very clean, wiped the blood on the knife, glanced at the retreating soldiers of the Western Prisoners, and commanded loudly: "Collect the corpses of our soldiers and bury them, kick the corpses of the Western Prisoners, and let them dispose of them themselves." ”

The soldiers agreed, and began to drag the corpse.

Wang Cheng himself went down to the city and came to the barracks, and instructed his attendants: "You go and fetch two basins of water." It's for bathing, not drinking, so you don't need to heat it. The attendant agreed, turned and stepped back.

Wang Cheng walked into his tent, took off his armor, wiped the blood stains on it with a rag, took off his coat and hung it on the clothes pole, and sat on the edge of the bed waiting for the water to come.

But he was too tired today, and the water didn't come for a long time, so he slowly lay down on the bed and fell asleep.

I don't know how long later, he heard someone shouting in his ear: "Lord Baihu, Lord Baihu." ”

"Who?" Wang Cheng asked in a daze.

"It's me, my lord. You sent out to fetch water. ”

"It's you." Wang Cheng opened his eyes and saw that it was indeed the attendant he sent to fetch water, and immediately scolded: "It's just for you to fetch water, why did you use it for so long!" Are you ready? I'm going to take a shower! ”

"The adults are angry, it's not a small snubbing, but something unexpected happened, and the bath water didn't come. My lord," he hurriedly said before Wang Cheng became angry, "the Peacock River has dried up!" There is no water in the city! ”

"What? The Peacock River dried up? How could this be! Wang Cheng said in disbelief. Although this section of the Peacock River is not a big river, it is also one or two zhang wide, how can it suddenly dry up.

"My lord, it's not a villain who deceives adults, the Peacock River has indeed dried up." The man said again.

"I'll take a look." Wang Cheng said as he put on his coat and strode out of the barracks to the vicinity of the Peacock River.

When he walked to the edge of the river and looked closely, he couldn't see the water. Still not convinced, he squatted down and reached out to scoop water, but his hand fluttered into the air.

"This, how can this be!" Wang Cheng said in surprise.

He stood by the river for a moment, not knowing what to do. All the water in the city is counting on the Peacock River, but now that the Peacock River has suddenly dried up, he can think of what the result will be.

was standing in a daze, when someone suddenly shouted: "Wang Baihu! Wang Baihu! Sennohe-sama has called you to the council chamber. ”

When he heard this, he suddenly had a backbone, and muttered: "Yes, this kind of thing is still handled by Qianhu, I just have to listen to his words." Then he left for the council chamber.

When he came to the council chamber, the other nine hundred households had already come over, chattering. Seeing him coming, someone immediately asked, "Old Wang, do you know that the water of the Peacock River has dried up?" ”

"Yes. I had just come from the Peacock River and saw the dry surface of the river with my own eyes. ”

"It's really strange, how could the Peacock River suddenly dry up?"

"What do you care about now? The question is what next? If you don't have food to eat, you can last for ten days, and if you don't have water to drink for three days, you can't survive! ”

"I think I have to dig a well. This place is on the edge of the Peacock River, and there should always be some water underground, so dig a few wells to get water. ”

"It's hard to say. The Peacock River is dry, and the water under the ground is not guaranteed. ”

Everyone was discussing, only to hear Li Yuantong's message: "The Lord of a Thousand Households has arrived!" ”

During this time, Qin Shoushan led them to resist the attack of the Western Prisoners, and the results were outstanding, and they had established a very high prestige in the minds of everyone, and everyone hurriedly got up to greet them.

"Sit down." Qin Shoushan walked in, sat down on the right seat, and said to them.

After everyone sat down again, Qin Shoushan continued: "The brothers probably already know that the Peacock River has dried up. And this is probably the work of the people of Siyu. ”

"What? Did the people of the West get it? Someone asked in surprise.

"It was probably the people of the West who got it. A few days ago, someone saw with clairvoyance that Xilu sent people up the mountain against the Peacock River, and at that time I thought that Xilu was going to send people to bypass the city to the south, and I also specially arranged for people to guard the south. Now that I think about it, maybe they killed two birds with one stone, sending people to make a detour to the south and cutting off the water of the Peacock River. ”

"Qianhu, how is this good?" Wang Cheng asked.

"Now it seems that the only way to find water is to dig a well. But drilling a well is not something that can be done in a day. I have commanded that from this day forward, you shall not throw away horse dung or cow dung, and squeeze the juice out of this dung to drink. ”

"What? This," the crowd was amazed. Drink the juice from the dung of cows and horses?

"If you don't want to die, drink it!" Qin Shoushan glanced at them with a sharp look: "From tomorrow, I will take the lead in drinking the juice squeezed from horse manure!" If you don't drink, you will be dismissed! ”

Although everyone was still unwilling, seeing that he had already made up his mind, they didn't dare to refute it anymore, so they could only get up and agree.

On the eleventh day of June on the second day, except for those who defended the city, all the other hundred households got up before dawn and urged their soldiers to dig wells under the command of craftsmen. They were reluctant to drink the sap squeezed from horse manure, and the sooner they dug a well with water, they would be able to drink the sap less once, so they worked very hard to dig the well.

But to their sorrow, a day of wells was dug and more than a dozen caves were made, but not a single one came out of the water. They had to go back and drink the juice from the horse manure.

On the second day, another day's well was drilled, and the deepest was thirty feet, but there was still not a drop of water.

They panicked. If they could not get water, even if they did not care to drink the juice squeezed from the horse manure, it would not be enough to drink water for a thousand people in the city, and they would die of thirst before the Silu entered the city.

On the 13th of June, all the soldiers did their best to dig a well under the command of the craftsmen, and tried to draw water, but the deepest well had reached a depth of 40 zhang, but there was still no water.

"Go out of the city and fight with Xilu!" Wang Cheng saw that he couldn't get water, and said angrily: "If you continue to do this, you will die of thirst sooner or later." I don't want to die like this, I'd rather be hacked to death by the Western Prisoner! ”

"Let's go, let the soldiers get dressed up and go out of the city to do the western captives!" Someone immediately echoed. The real water has been drunk all on the 12th, and the juice squeezed from horse manure has been drunk all day today, and it is still available in limited quantities. Many people can't stand it anymore for a long time, but they still hold on to the hope that the water will be hit. But seeing that this hope was dashed, he planned to go crazy before he died.

As they were talking, they suddenly heard someone say, "Wait a little longer, if you don't get out of the water, I will personally lead you out of the city to fight!" ”

Everyone turned their heads and saw Qin Shoushan walking over neatly.

"Qianhu, what are you waiting for?" Someone asked.

Qin Shoushan did not answer this question, but walked to the deepest well, knelt down and looked up at the sky, and prayed loudly: "All the gods and Buddhas in the sky, if the will of heaven will kill the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, then everyone can only die, if the will of heaven will leave us a way to live, then I beg the gods and Buddhas to give us water sources to live." So he bowed three times. His retinue followed suit.

"Can this work?" Wang Cheng said in disbelief. He didn't believe in anything, and felt that these gods and Buddhas were all deceptive things. When Qin Shoushan finished worshipping and there was still no water in the well, he stepped forward to pull him up.

But at this moment, suddenly a sweet spring gushed up in the well. Listening to the crisp sound of water, countless people went to the mouth of the well to see, and immediately knelt down after seeing the water with their own eyes, shouting: "Thank you God and Buddha for the water!" ”

"Thank you God and Buddha for the water!" Countless people shouted again.

Then they got up and threw the barrel into the well, and when it had been filled with water, they pulled it up to drink.

"Stop!" Qin Shoushan suddenly stood up and shouted loudly.

Everyone was stunned. The water has already been fought, and you are still not allowed to drink it?

"Li Yuan, you fetch a few more buckets of water, take them to the city head and repair the city wall with mud!" Qin Shoushan continued to command.

The ordinary soldiers did not react, but the hundreds of households present had already understood Qin Shoushan's intentions: Xilu sent people to cut off the water source, naturally with the idea of dying of thirst, but if they suddenly found that their water was sufficient to use mud, they would definitely be very frustrated, and even affect the morale of the army. So do it first.

Li Yuan didn't figure it out, but his biggest advantage was that he never thought about what the purpose of his lord's orders was, just carried them out, so he started to fetch water as soon as he agreed.

The ordinary soldiers present were very puzzled, their mouths were also very thirsty and wanted to drink water, but finally Qin Shoushan had prestige and could still hold on, although everyone looked at the bucket with their eyes, but no one was in a commotion.

After Li Yuan took away the first ten buckets of water, Qin Shoushan ordered to fetch water for the soldiers to drink. In order to prevent the chaos of grabbing water sources, he called all 100 households over and organized his 100 households to line up to drink water.

Looking at the soldiers waiting in a neat queue to drink water, Qin Shoushan, who was standing on the side, wiped his sweat and said in a low voice: "With this matter, the city can hold on for at least a month." Hopefully, within a month, the army will be able to defeat the Silu. ”