After expressing his attitude, Sun Tu brought the topic back to the extremely heavy casualties of the Qingzhou Army. This time, it was Yang Zhi who gave further explanation: "The casualties of our Qingzhou Army in the past six months have indeed been extremely heavy, with more than half of the casualties among the soldiers below alone.
"The former three battalions of A, B and C now only have about 500 people still in the city. The others were either killed in the battle or were seriously injured and found it difficult to return. There are also some who fled elsewhere after being defeated. So far, Their whereabouts are unknown. The scout battalion has also suffered heavy losses. The original 423 people were just full, but now there are only less than a hundred left."
When he came up with these numbers one by one, even the other soldiers who had known the results for a long time felt angry and dejected. Sun Tu's face was ashen, his hands were clenched into fists, and his breathing was a little short.
These casualties were all his close confidants, and they were the brothers he valued most. In the end, it was because of Gao Xiang and others' reckless behavior that it resulted in such disastrous consequences. As for the casualties in the scout camp, he had actually expected them. Although the soldiers and horses there were the most elite, the situations they had to face were often the most dangerous. Once the army was defeated, they would be the first to bear the brunt.
After being silent for a while, Sun Tu spoke again: "Where are the casualties on the general side?" This is the most important part of an army. As the saying goes, it is easy to get a thousand troops but hard to find a general.
Qi Desheng glanced at Yang Zhi, who had fallen silent, and then he spoke: "The commander and captain of the third battalion A, B, and C are no longer here..."
Just this sentence made Sun Tu's eyelids twitch wildly, his body trembled, and he immediately asked: "Were they all killed in the battle with the Liangshan bandits?"
Qi Desheng gritted his teeth and shook his head: "They were killed by He Mo! A few months ago, we were forced to lead troops to the Liangshan bandit nest. As a result, after a small contact with the enemy, the thieves continued to retreat, which made He Mo feel guilty. Thinking that we were sure of victory, he kept urging us to march as soon as possible. As a result... "
"In the end, we were ambushed by elite bandits from Liangshan?" Sun Tu immediately guessed the outcome and asked with a gloomy expression.
Qi Desheng nodded: "We suffered heavy casualties in this battle, especially the brothers from the scout battalion who were exploring the way ahead. Not many of them came back. Even Commander Shi lost his trace, and Deputy Commander Cao was killed after the war. Found where he died in battle..."
These words were simple, but they made everyone's hearts become heavier, and what he said next made Sun Tu feel even more angry: "After this defeat, He Mo found a way to deal with those soldiers who were not obeying his orders. As an excuse, I used the excuse that several commanders did not listen to orders, which led to this defeat, and killed all the generals who had just escaped from the enemy's sword...all of them!"
"Bang..." Sun Tu smashed the coffee table at his hand with just one palm: "He is so brave!" At this time, he really regretted that he had rushed to kill He Mo yesterday in order to establish his power. If he had known earlier Only by cutting him into pieces this time can he relieve the hatred in his heart!
Sun Tu would certainly feel furious when he learned that the Qingzhou Army had suffered heavy casualties, but after all, those were just numbers and outlines, far from being compared to the powerlessness and pain he felt now when he recounted the details one by one. Those soldiers died so unjustly, they really
They were harmed by Homer and the others!
After a while, Qi Desheng continued to tell the details of who died on the front line and who was later killed by Homer. This incident had a great impact on him, so even after so long, he could still clearly tell everything exactly as if it happened yesterday.
The atmosphere at the scene became more and more depressing. Everyone knew that every time he called out a name, it meant that this person would never be in front of everyone again. They were all good brothers who had fought side by side with them and shared life and death with them. But he ended up dying so cowardly!
At the end, Lin Chong made the final summary: "Because of He Mo and Gao Xiang's perverse actions, the casualties of our Qingzhou Army reached nearly three thousand, and nearly a thousand soldiers never came back. Now the third battalion in the city and the ones recruited later The total number of soldiers and horses is only about 800. In addition, in order to give an explanation to the court, they recently wanted to recruit strong men and recruited more than 200 people, but most of them are old and weak and cannot be used."
"Does this mean that we only have so few soldiers and horses on hand now?" Sun Tu had slowly calmed down at this time and asked with a cold face.
Everyone nodded bitterly. Originally, the Qingzhou Army was already large in scale, but it turned out that it had been ruined into this state in just half a year. It really corresponds to the saying of later generations that after working hard for decades, they returned to before liberation overnight.
Sun Tu took a deep breath to adjust his mentality: "Now that the matter is over, let's not think too much about the past. Since this is the situation in front of us, we should try to overcome all difficulties. The first priority is to stabilize Qingzhou City. The situation, this shouldn't be a problem with Brother Huang and me here." As he said that, he glanced at Huang Wenbing, who was half leaning on the couch. The latter also nodded hurriedly and said: "Although I am injured in my humble position, I can handle some official duties. It shouldn’t be difficult.”
Sun Tu nodded: "In addition, it is to recruit back those soldiers who fled. They escaped because they did not want to be harmed by He Mo, so naturally it is not a crime. Now that I, Sun Tu, have come back, I should call them all. They are back. Their number should be among thousands of people, and perhaps there are generals like Shi Qian among them. So the most important thing we should do next is to post notices everywhere to let them know the changes in Qingzhou as soon as possible. "
Everyone nodded in approval. This point was indeed extremely important. If the Qingzhou Army, which had been severely weakened, could recruit these people back, its strength would be improved. In fact, it was a credit to Sun Tu that he had not followed the laws of the Song Dynasty to tattoo the cheeks of newly recruited soldiers to leave a mark, otherwise they might not have been able to hide them.
Sun Tu then said with a grim expression: "There is one last thing and the first thing to do, which is to announce the crimes of Gao Xiang, He Mo and others, and then execute them in public as soon as possible and make the punishment clear. That's the only way , can we restore the confidence of our military and civilians in Qingzhou!"
Luda and others were naturally happy after hearing this: "These guys all deserve to die. Killing them with just one knife is considered a light thing!"
"Not only them, but also their family members and cronies, no one can escape! In addition, I will report to the court to make their various crimes public, so that their relatives back home will also be punished!" Sun Tu added , he was really angry to the extreme this time, and he already wanted to kill all these people.
Absolutely amazing!
This statement drew loud applause from Lu Da and others, but Huang Wenbing and Lin Chong looked worried, as if they wanted to say something, but for the moment they did not dare to dampen Sun Tu's enthusiasm.
"Of course, the most important thing for you guys now is to recover from your injuries as soon as possible. Although I can't live without my Sun Tu in Qingzhou, I can't live without your help." Sun Tu's expression softened as he spoke, and he continued With a warm smile. Although the enemy deserves to die, these brothers are all good, and he doesn't want anything to happen to these people again.
After deciding what to do next, everyone just stood up and wanted to disperse, but at this time, Sun Tu called Huang Wenbing, and Wu Song, who had been silent, also gave him a wink and stayed alone.
When only the three of them were left in the room, Sun Tu looked at Wu Song and said, "Erlang, do you have anything else important to tell me?"
"One thing I always feel is a little weird. Brother Lu and I were specially kept by Tong Guan for a period of time when we were in Bianjing. On the surface, he wanted to recruit us to serve under him, but in fact, it seemed that he only had one purpose, that Just to trip us there and prevent us from rushing back as soon as possible." Wu Song said solemnly: "And I think about it, if Brother Lu and I were here, Gao Xiang and He Mo would never have succeeded!"
Sun Tu nodded seriously: "You are right. With the temperament of the second brother and Brother Lu, plus your prestige in the military, once he comes forward to support him, it will be difficult for He Mo to seize the military power no matter how he uses his official power to intimidate. ." Not only that, with the courage of these two people, once they notice their thoughts, they might directly kill these two guys with a knife, and then there will be no other incidents later.
"So I always feel that Tong Guan is also one of the masterminds behind this matter, or at least a co-conspirator." Wu Song quickly expressed his suspicion. Although he was a martial artist, he was rough and subtle, and he quickly figured out the inside story from Tong Guan's actions.
Sun Tu nodded: "I'm actually aware of this. If it weren't for his acquiescence, Gao Xiang and Gao Qiu behind him wouldn't have the courage to do such a great thing in Qingzhou!"
When Huang Wenbing heard this, the worry on his face became a little heavier: "Captain, our situation will become more and more dangerous." He knew the relationship between Sun Tu and Tong Guan very well. If he loses With Tong Guan's support, does Qingzhou really dare to challenge the imperial court
After a pause, he added: "And this time you killed a court official again. Once the matter is really reported, even if they are guilty, I'm afraid your crime will be quite big..." This was his last sentence. Everything Sun Tu did was to challenge the authority and bottom line of the imperial court. If he did anything wrong, he would definitely get burned.
Sun Tu looked at the two of them and suddenly laughed: "Do you really think I made such a decision out of anger and impulsiveness? I even ignored everything just to vent my anger? No, I dare to do this I did it because I knew there was still room for change, and at least Tong Guan wouldn't really want to be my enemy."
"Then how do you explain what he did before?" Wu Song was still very concerned about this point.
Sun Tu smiled again: "That's because he thought I had died in Liao Kingdom at that time, but now the situation is completely different!"