"My Lord, the culvert has eighteen thousand-catty falling stone gates, which can be dropped without needing to place additional weight," Jiang Jun explained.
No wonder when I passed through the culvert earlier, I saw stone patterns and thought they were decorations, but they turned out to be stone gates.
"Is that so? Jiang Jun, I'm indeed not very familiar with your methods here. Tell me, how do enemies typically attack? Do they have siege engines and the like?"
"Siege engines, yes. In addition, there are catapults, cannons, arquebuses, and other weapons."
"...So modern?" I frowned, remembering that either Little King Yama or Ma Jiaojiao had told me that the technological level of the underworld was roughly equivalent to Yao Yao's era, which was the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, a time of transition between cold and hot weapons.
"What about your cannons and such?" I asked. If the enemy has cannons, how can you defend the city without them?
"Reporting to my lord, this sect does not have cannons or arquebuses. We only have bows and arrows, swords, and spears."
"Then what's the point of defending!" Bing Bing cursed. "Didn't His Highness send us here to die!"
Jiang Jun remained silent, merely looking at me coldly, waiting for my orders. The other Underworld soldiers also looked at me with anticipation, hoping I could offer something different in this seemingly certain defeat, this battle, or perhaps campaign, giving them a glimmer of hope!
"Among these three thousand troops, are there none who are particularly powerful, capable of fighting ten on one?" I asked with my last shred of hope.
"No, the elite troops have been deployed to other battlefields. These three thousand men were temporarily conscripted from the city."
Well, the last bit of hope was gone. I had originally thought about possibly exploiting the enemy's instability with a surprise attack, catching them off guard. But that wouldn't work, and neither would anything else. The area in front of the city was a vast open plain, with no place to set up an ambush. What could I do?
"How long until the enemy reaches the battlefield?" I asked.
"They have a lot of military equipment, so it will take about half an hour," Jiang Jun said.
I sat down on a chair and, trembling, took out half a pack of cigarettes from my inner pocket. The lighter still didn't work. At this moment, Jiang Jun, from somewhere, produced a box of matches and, with a strike, lit it for me.
I took a puff of the cigarette, and it actually had a flavor. It seemed there were some similarities between this place and the mortal world. As I smoked, I couldn't help but recall the scene of pacifying the wronged spirits of Black Mountain Fort. Back then, to comfort them, I had bought them quite a bit of tobacco. By transforming myself, I could deliver it to the ghosts' hands. Since then, I had figured out a small trick for sending things from the mortal world to the underworld.
After finishing one cigarette, I looked at the pack. It was empty because I had kindly given cigarettes to Jiang Jun and a few nearby Underworld soldiers. Yet, I still couldn't figure out a plan.
"You don't sell cigarettes here, do you?" I asked.
"Yes, but it's at the top of the city, quite far," Jiang Jun said.
Distant water can't quench immediate thirst. Forget it, it would be better to have my own people burn a pack over for me.
For such a minor matter, I naturally didn't need to approach my direct superior. Wu Zhao would suffice, as we had a mutually beneficial relationship.
"Lord Wu, you're so idle. Do you miss me?" Wu Zhao said with a laugh. From the background noise, she seemed to be in a busy and chaotic gambling den.
"Lord Wu, could you do me a favor? I'm in your Underworld, and I'm out of cigarettes. Could you burn a pack over for me?"
"Sure... but what are you doing in the Underworld?"
"Just visiting. It's nothing. You go about your business."
"Alright. Then give me the address."