So what if I traveled through time? I'll continue to roll in another place

Zhou Yao returned to Rong County with Pei Ji. Rebuilding the city wall was no small project. Fortunately, with the large army and craftsmen, the project progressed in an orderly manner.

After Wuge occupied a city, there would be a bloodbath. Therefore, if the people received the news from Wuge in advance, they would flee with their families. Only a few people who did not want to leave their homeland would choose to find ways to hide, or take refuge in the wild woods outside the city.

After being ravaged by war and occupied by Wuge for many days, Rong County almost became a deserted city.

Although Lin Guorui could not fight, he had a sincere heart that loved the people. If he had not delayed the pace of Wuge's attack and bought time for the people to escape, the casualties would have been even more serious.

Pei Ji asked his thousand households to lead the team to count the remaining people in the surrounding area and let the people hiding nearby return to the city to live. At the same time, he cleared out the Wuge people mixed in the city to avoid fighting and chaos in the city.

He had almost finished his work in the past few days and had some free time. It was not until the evening of this day that he had time to look for Zhou Yao.

Zhou Yao was unwilling to meddle in Pei Ji's affairs. When Shou Junwu was injured, he went to see him on the first day. However, Shou Junwu was filled with shame, and the two did not talk much.

Apart from the supervisor, Zhou Yao was busy with his own things in the room.

"Lord Zhou, how is the progress of the city wall repair?" Pei Ji came to the door carrying a pot of Jianzhou-style yellow wine, wanting to chat with this "rival in love".

"In addition to the craftsmen, your Excellency has assigned five thousand households to work day and night. Many people have also come to help spontaneously. It seems that the project will be completed in the next two days." Zhou Yao replied politely. He looked at Pei Ji's wine and did not reach out to take it, trying to show that he was not willing to keep the guest.

"Well, of course the sooner the better. I estimate that within three days, Wuge will send troops to attack the city. Of course, even if they do not take any action, we can't wait any longer." Pei Ji ignored Zhou Yao's attitude of thanking him for his visit, sat down by himself, took two cups, and poured one for Zhou Yao.

"This rice wine is brewed with local glutinous rice and millet. It is very sweet. Lord Zhou, wouldn't you like to try it with us?" Pei Ji raised his glass to invite him.

"No need. I don't like drinking anyway." Zhou Yao politely refused. He looked at the beige liquid in the cup with a little impurities. The concentration of ancient wine was lower, the taste was turbid and sweet, and he couldn't get used to it.

Pei Ji did not force it and just drank by himself.

"Brother Zhou, I am here to tell you the truth. Liangdu County is easy to defend but difficult to attack, but it is a strategic location. We must capture it.

This will be a tough battle. You are a civil servant. If the city wall is repaired, you can retreat to Ao County and wait with the army. You don't have to suffer here. " Pei Ji drank a glass of wine and said with some melancholy. He was in a complicated mood. Swords and guns are blind. If a fight breaks out, he can't even control his own life, let alone others.

He didn't want Zhou Yao to die here, and didn't want to make his sister Yueshan feel sad.

"Thank you for your kindness, General Pei." Zhou Yao could see that Pei Ji was an open-minded gentleman. Although the two had some entanglements, they were both people who clearly distinguished between public and private.

"In fact, if we mobilize a large army to attack the city together, wouldn't we have a better chance of winning?" Zhou Yao has always been a little confused. Liangdu and Rong County are basically right next to each other, connected by a main road in the middle.

He supervised the work on the city wall every day and could see that the city wall of Liangdu County was much higher than that of Rong County, and it was quite difficult to attack Liangdu from Rong County.

"Yes and no." Pei Ji was somewhat helpless. "More people is good, but the worst thing is that people are not united, and then they will lose their composure."

Pei Ji stopped at that point. Zhou Yao was also a smart man. He knew that Pei Ji wanted to say that Chu Yuanming did not fully trust him and was not willing to give him full command of the 300,000-strong army, so that he would lose his right to command the battle.

The two were silent for a long time, and Pei Ji drank a pot of rice wine in silence.

"In short, this will be a tough battle. Brother Zhou, take good care of yourself. If you want to return to Ao County, I will send someone to take you there." He drank the last glass and prepared to leave.

Unexpectedly, Zhou Yao raised his glass and drank the wine that Pei Ji had poured for him when he sat down. "General Pei, wait a moment."

Zhou Yao walked into the room, took out a crossbow, and fired ten arrows at the trees in the yard.

The tree was about two or three hundred steps away from him, but he didn't expect the arrows to go straight into the trunk. Pei Ji walked closer and saw that each arrow had only penetrated about an inch, and even he had to use some effort to pull them out.

"Brother Pei, I know I don't know martial arts, but I don't want to hold everyone back, so I have been developing this crossbow all the way. Now I have achieved some results, which is enough to protect myself." Zhou Yao said.

Pei Ji sighed inwardly, this man has a quick mind and is indeed a rare talent. If sister Yueshan falls in love with such a man, it would not be considered a waste of talent.

He took the crossbow and examined it carefully. "It's really a good thing. If the soldiers who break the horse formation are equipped with it, it will be even more powerful."

"However, this crossbow still needs to be improved. Currently, it can only shoot ten arrows at a time. It takes time to reload, and its range is relatively limited." Zhou Yao frowned.

"This is already very powerful. If we speed up the production of more, we can equip the soldiers in two rows. After one row shoots, the other row will take over, which will leave time to reload arrows. If two teams are not enough, we can send another team to prepare." Pei Ji blurted out without thinking.

Pei Ji was indeed a natural born general. Although he had never seen such equipment, his keen sense of warfare allowed him to immediately come up with the best tactics.

Zhou Yao nodded. Xiao Yueshan had told him the same thing before they set out. This way, the three teams would rotate in order to ensure the continuity of firepower coverage. She had also pointed out the direction for him to develop a repeating crossbow.

"General Pei is indeed perceptive and can tell the tactics at a glance. In addition, I want to make a bigger crossbow that can be equipped on the city walls and chariots for General Pei to use when attacking the city." Zhou Yao continued.

Pei Ji smiled and said, "I believe that with Brother Zhou's talent, he will be able to make a finished product. The city wall is almost finished. If Brother Zhou is willing to fight alongside Pei, he can stay and continue to complete the siege crossbow."

"Okay, I have already drawn the blueprint for the small repeating crossbow, and you can let the craftsmen make it first. It just takes more time to test, and we will be able to make a large repeating crossbow." Zhou Yao said. He learned about Pei Ji from Shou Junwu, and he also had some admiration for this rival, or general.

The two looked at each other, with determination in their eyes.

"Brother Zhou, the opportunity for war cannot be delayed. Three days from now at midnight is the time I plan to attack Liangdu. You can focus on developing the repeating crossbow. Even if it is not used in this battle, it will be useful in the future." Pei Ji was so open-hearted to Zhou Yao that he even told him the time of the attack.

"Of course. Just let Brother Pei arrange it. I will speed up the production. The sooner it is completed, the better the chances of success." Zhou Yao looked at him, a sense of heroism welling up in his heart.

Wu Ge's methods were cruel. Since entering Rong County, there were corpses everywhere. Even the old, weak, women and children were not spared. Many livestock were still kept in the pens, but they killed young children for food and entertainment. He had trained his heart in Jiangzhou, and the sight of the corpses made him nauseous.

This made Zhou Yao very angry, and he felt a sense of justice in defending his country.

Even though Zhou Yao had had some grudges against Pei Ji before, and Pei Ji also had many doubts about Zhou Yao, they both had to admit that the other party was an admirable rival in love.