It was mid-spring, and the mountain wind at night was still chilly, blowing the tent up against the wind and making it bulge. I couldn't fall asleep in the tent, so I moved my hands back and forth on the tent, as if trying to detect the shape of the wind.
The fire outside the tent door crackled in the wind, making a restless sound; sometimes a humming sound could be heard from the west, like the weeping of a homesick person.
I haven't slept well these past few days, and I'm still tossing and turning today. I should get a good night's sleep for tomorrow's fight; but no matter how I toss and turn, I still can't fall asleep; but when I want to get up, I feel my body is too heavy and I don't want to get up even for a moment.
"Don't be lazy. The lives of the three brigades depend on my hands. Tossing and turning will not help." Finally, he counted one, two, three silently in his mind, and stood up as if he had received a military order. He thought that he was still not suitable to be a commander-in-chief. Perhaps a general who obeyed orders would be more suitable.
Before he was fully dressed, he stuck his head out of the tent and said to the soldier at the door, "Get me a bucket of water."
A bucket of cold water was poured over my whole body from top to bottom. I shivered immediately and all my tiredness and fatigue were swept away.
As I wiped it, I was a little nervous about the possible battle tomorrow. In the past, I had someone by my side to help me make decisions and lead the team to fight, but tomorrow I can only rely on myself. I have to do everything, and I feel a little uncertain. Song Zeng had advised me, but I had no choice but to ignore it. I asked myself where I could get so many people.
Suddenly she smiled, and while slowly combing her hair in the dark, she said to herself, "Xie Zhi, you really have no future."
I wiped the water off my body, tied all the knots on my military uniform tightly, and checked it carefully with my hands. I could clearly feel my heartbeat, and following its rhythm I put on my felt boots, tightened my ribs, and let out a long breath.
As I tied the headband with all my strength, I realized that I was completely different today than usual, and I had to be like this.
There was fog again tonight, and the whole camp was illuminated red by the flames of torches in the wooden fences around it. Although there were almost no torches in the camp, they were enough to find a way, and the sad wind could not take away the fog that was accumulating in the camp. Although it took away some, it brought more.
I couldn't see very far around me. When I climbed up the temporary shooting platform at the camp gate, I could only see the hazy moon in the sky and some vague stars around me. I couldn't even make out the shape of the mountain to the east.
"Marquis Fengyun, do you have anything to tell me?" The captain who was patrolling here tonight came to ask me.
"Be careful. It's foggy tonight. The enemy may launch a surprise attack at any time. Although we have already surveyed this place, the river in front, the deep ravine in the back, and the rocks on both sides will cause some trouble for the bandits' sneak attack. But we have come here with such a big fanfare and have made it clear that we are going to attack it early. There is no guarantee that they will not come. This is to avoid the yang and attack the yin. Cheer up and coordinate the defense between the brigades. What do you think?"
"My lord, you are a rough man and don't understand these things." He probably thought I was looking for him to discuss something and was a little at a loss.
To be honest, I'm alone and I don't have anyone to help share the burden with me. I always want to discuss things with everyone.
"It's okay. You'll learn it after fighting more battles. With our formation, the enemy will know to attack from the front and back waists after fighting with us. That's right here, and the direction due west of here."
"My Lord, you are too kind. You also understand that if you kill a wolf, you should hit its waist, right? In fact, I don't have such big ambitions. I just want to marry a wife, farm, have a few children, and finally have grandchildren." He nodded embarrassedly.
"It should be considered a very good ambition. Then... when you come to Xiangyang to find me in the future, I will do as I promised you. I will find you a maid in my house to be your wife. The maids in my house are all very hardworking and good-looking. I will give birth to a big fat baby for you and let you live a happy life." I smiled and nodded, as if I was already imagining his future life, and silently told myself not to forget this.
"That's great. Marquis Fengyun, please remember that this is yours. Thank you in advance." He also became happy.
"Well, it's mine. When have I ever denied my debt? Now Xianxin will take care of it." I smiled and patted his shoulder, then turned around and went down the arrow tower.
When I walked onto the road, I heard the brother who had just benefited from this shouting, "Brothers, please cheer up. Don't act like hail has hit a bird. Hey, Da Liu, you've been lying for half an hour, why can't you make any effort? Hurry up and catch up with the patrol team. We are short of manpower, so everyone should cheer up and stop playing dumb."
There was laughter in the camp. I also smiled and looked at the situation behind me. Then I shook my head helplessly and left to check other camps.
Our camp was not very big. It was built along the narrow river according to the terrain, divided into three camps: north, south and center. The radius was only a few miles, so we could make a circle quickly. There was no movement around, but we couldn't tell whether there was really any movement. Sometimes I would stand inside the fence and seemed to feel that there were flashing figures outside, but when I looked carefully, I couldn't see anything.
Because we sent out more than 200 people, scouts would come back from time to time to report to the captain on guard about the situation they had detected around them, and then the soldiers would come and report to me. At least everything was normal so far. After giving orders for various countermeasures, I continued to patrol the camp.
At the hour of Yin, the night watch drum sounded twice in the central camp. They went to bed early yesterday, and now it was time for them all to get up. This camp was the original garrison of Mingzi, and most of them were locals, so it usually took a lot of effort to talk to them. So I saved my energy and only talked to their captain.
In the fog, they were making a fire and heating up food. This midnight meal consisted of rice porridge and cakes. The gurgling sound of the rice porridge was very soothing, but there were too many cakes and they couldn't be boiled through at once. Many of them were only hot on the edges and cold in the middle. But in this kind of weather, after taking a bite of cake and drinking a mouthful of hot porridge, you wouldn't feel anything. As your whole body warmed up, your mood also became a little happier.
I ate with them, and no one noticed me eating with their captain at the edge until we finished eating. The fire was put out immediately after we finished eating. The whole process of cooking and eating took no more than a moment. After that, everyone took shelter by the tent and didn't say a word.
I had a brief chat with their captain, nothing big. I could only understand 50% of his words anyway, which were just some local folk legends. But I still gained something, as I finally knew the complete story of Mingzi. It was a very cheerful and exciting story, but when I thought of the dead young man in red, I couldn't help feeling sad.
At this time, a soldier at a tent on the right beat the ground rhythmically with the handle of his spear and began to sing softly. This was a poem from the Book of Songs, created by an unknown soldier in the Qin army during the Zhou Dynasty. It was called "Without Clothes" and the lyrics were:
"Who says I have no clothes? I share my clothes with you. Your Majesty, please raise an army. I will sharpen my spears and halberds, and I will share your hatred!"
(Note: Some scholars believe that the original meaning here is not hatred, but Jiao, which means to encourage each other.)
Immediately, the left side started to join in, although the voice was soft, it was very clear. The captain was about to stop them, but I told him not to, "They can't hear it."
Then, the left side also started singing:
"I have no clothes, and I will share the same clothes with you. If the king wants to raise an army, I will sharpen my spears and halberds, and I will work with you!"
(Note: The word “戈” here may also be written as “戈”)
The person on the right also chorused softly.
I also became interested, but this time I made some slight changes. In fact, it was unintentional and helpless, because I didn't remember it very clearly in the first place, so I could only vaguely follow the rhyme.
"I have no clothes, but I will wear them with you. If the king wants to raise an army, I will prepare my armor and weapons and go with you!"
(The original sentence is: I have no clothes, so I will share my clothes with you. If the king wants to raise an army, I will prepare my armor and weapons and go with you!)
It seemed that my changes caused some controversy. I soon heard a buzz of discussion, but no one questioned loudly. The captain next to me also felt very strange, and he asked me in a loud voice why my reading was different from his.
I just changed it casually. The original one was not powerful enough. He nodded and seemed to understand something, but I think he was pretending to know.
But at this moment, I felt that I was a little confused: "It seems that many of you have studied "Poetry"?"
"Well, most of us here are descendants of the Chu State during the Zhou Dynasty. Being literate is not a big deal." He sounded quite proud, which made me feel a little uncomfortable. This man was really proud. I know that most educated people have a bad temper, but I didn't expect that these listless and demoralized troops seen in Mingzi had a very unique side, that is, they were good at poetry and music. At least the Yellow Turban warriors I brought with me couldn't even recite "Xia Li Ba Ren".
"Then why do you like this song "Qin Feng"? Judging from your interactions, you should often sing it."
“Think about it, the Qin people were united in their hatred of the enemy, so they were able to compose such poems. However, our former doctors and generals liked to listen to "Yangchūn Baixue"; this is why we, the Chu people, had the largest army and the most extensive territory, but were eventually destroyed by the Qin State.” I didn't want to interrupt him, as I had a different opinion on this, but I let him continue.
"The people of the Later Qin Dynasty were cruel, so we hid here to avoid their tyranny and to think about how to restore our country, so we abandoned those decadent sounds."
"Fortunately, you still have Lord Qu Ping."
"It's not that the song of the Sanlu official is bad, but it is too sad and sorrowful, and lacks the heroic spirit and passion, so I won't accept it."
"Then you should learn Qin Feng." Now I finally understood what was going on.
He nodded and paused for a moment. "Now we have no grudges with the Qin people, and at least we have a Overlord. Regardless of victory or defeat, his behavior is heroic. We have nothing to complain about."
In fact, there seemed to be a second half to his words, but he didn't say it, and I had no intention or expectation of hearing it. We all knew this.
I figured out some things at this time. No wonder Chen Ying's ability to reorganize the army was so poor, but he was able to stabilize the entire brigade of Mingzi at that time. The reason was that these descendants of the Chu State wore armor but were composed of scholars. Just like General Chen's appearance, the armor was just a cover for them. To be honest, they really shouldn't have been soldiers, but now is obviously not the time to consider letting them disarm and return home, so I didn't say anything from then on, and they fell silent, concentrating on waiting for what would happen.
All the possible things I had planned finally found a final and definite result amidst various speculations and doubts and happened. That day was a certain day in February of the first year of Chuping. I really can't remember the specific day, because in my memory, my condition seemed to be the same as that night throughout the middle of that year.
After receiving an urgent report from the camp, I stood up quickly and prominently in the crowd and shouted loudly: "Get up... Line up!"
Immediately, he turned around and shouted to the messenger: "Order the North Camp and the South Camp to prepare for the attack."
Five hundred people are really not many. Five square formations of ten people standing in a row, the whole formation looks too thin. They have not been trained. This formation is not suitable for facing enemies from both sides. This is my negligence, but it is not too late. It is also because there are too few people here. Although it is not thick, it is much more flexible. So, I temporarily ordered a change of formation, and the whole army was arranged in five square formations in a cross shape. I kept saying in my heart: District thieves, come slowly, at least don't let me entertain two groups of guests at the same time.
We finally arranged our battle formation, and I gave the order on how to march, and asked the captain to repeat it. It seemed that my mumbling was of some use: they really hadn't arrived yet.
But coming slowly does not mean not coming, and finally we saw a group of flickering torches coming. Those who arrived first from the west might have been resisting them on patrol tonight. In fact, I asked them to resist a little and withdraw to both sides as soon as possible, but I didn't say it firmly. Now I feel a little scared, afraid that the captain who I promised to marry a wife to would really fight me to the death.
However, they still quickly jumped on their horses, holding their guns and standing in front of the formation. Only then did these people notice a tall man on horseback standing in front of the formation under the hazy moonlight.
Because we have never had fire for lighting here, we even built the stove more tightly, and put a mound of earth to cover the stove mouth to prevent too much light from leaking in. Therefore, the fire was not that strong, and the pancakes could not be heated through.
In short, I believe that Mr. Qu will come back tonight, because when it is daytime tomorrow, he will be more passive. At least there were more than 2,000 people when we left. It would be enough for him to worry about what to do with more than 2,000 people every night, and he only has 1,000 mobs, among which the main capable people are all asking around and figuring out the situation.
However, no matter how rabble it is, Ou is still a bandit, and a bandit must have the courage to sacrifice his life at any time. With such courage, he dares to take risks. Since we are ready to attack tomorrow, he may take a risk tonight.
Because the most important thing is, if he is really the local boss here, he would be able to learn from people who are gathering information everywhere that more than a thousand of us suddenly turned back to the south for some reason, while our strength did not decrease. Obviously, he would think that the gangs in the south were afraid of being defeated one by one, so they took advantage of our movement to attack us. We had to divide our forces to save ourselves, and at this time everyone had more than a thousand people, and we "intentionally" pretended to be more than two thousand people to appear to be lacking in confidence, just to scare him and make him dare not come over. We would only attack him when two thousand five hundred people were gathered. Therefore, everything was done in the hope that he would attack me tonight, and I set a trap in the camp early, just to wait for him.
So, in short, he decided to take action. There were other possibilities, but now that he had taken action, he didn't have to consider anything else.
However, there seemed to be some unexpected problems, as if all the opponents came from here, because torches kept appearing at the edge of the camp, and they formed a sea of fire that slowly came. In the somewhat fading mist, half of the sky was reflected red.
I looked at the front of the camp and saw that there was still no movement, so I signaled the army to prepare for the battle. Then, in the faint moonlight, I looked at the soldiers behind me. This was the first time I realized that their equipment was so simple and their morale was so low.
Some people were trembling, and the team was in turmoil. I even heard someone trembling, "There are so many people!"
If there are indeed 500 people behind me, then there are more than 1,000 people in front of me even if each of them holds two torches.
I didn't expect there to be so many people. I don't know where they came from. Could it be support from other bandits? Why didn't our scouts notice so many people? I tried to stay calm, but my whole body became a little stiff because I kept thinking about what was going on.
Suddenly, I heard the neighing of horses in the fog. A horse came quickly from behind. The rider dismounted and shouted to me loudly. Before that, they almost whispered to me, "Marquis Ping'an Fengyun, thousands of horses and soldiers suddenly came out from a secret road on the mountain behind us, and joined forces with the three hundred bandits from the district. They are coming here to kill us. What should we do?"
I remember that I was very calm at the time. Perhaps it was because I knew these circumstances that I really calmed down. I thought about it for a while, and then casually told him to pass on the message: "Everything will go according to the original plan. There will be only more than a thousand people. After the fight, we will have breakfast."
Then he swung the gun in his hand, turned around, and shouted to the soldiers: "I don't care if I have no clothes. I will share the same collar with you! I will raise an army to suppress the bandits, and I will share the same heart with you! I will follow the example of the Overlord, and I will go with you!"
They were silent for a while, and suddenly someone raised his spear and joined in, then someone began to sing: "Who says I have no clothes? I will share my collar with you..." More and more people joined in the singing, and I felt very excited. I turned around again and saw that the river of fire was rushing closer.
I raised my gun and asked everyone to be quiet again. This time I didn't ask the lieutenant to give orders for me. There was no sound from behind. I turned around and shouted, "Follow me. Don't be afraid. Don't look back. If you find that there is no one in front of you, either I am dead, or you are dead, or we have already dealt with all these bastards!"
When I turned around again, the loud responses from behind mixed with the hurried footsteps from the front, and it was as high as a war drum and made me extremely excited.
"Don't panic, they came here to die, it's not your fault! A gentleman should help others achieve their goals." I said loudly to the people behind me, but in fact I was also saying it to myself.
The horse was obviously getting restless, and would rush a few feet in a certain direction from time to time. I had to keep pulling the reins to calm it down a little, but I found that my hands holding the gun were a little numb, and my palms were full of sweat.
They were within a hundred feet of me, and I could already see their faces in the firelight.
"Sa..." Seeing them getting closer, I yelled again. Seeing that the team in front seemed to pause, I became much braver. I no longer had any scruples and just rushed into the enemy camp.
This time I didn't have the protection of the Lingxi Armor, and it wasn't a one-on-one fight, so I was stabbed on the left arm as soon as I rushed in. I immediately felt that my left hand was not strong enough, and then there was a sharp pain. I endured the pain and swung the spear with my right hand to hit both sides, which was more agile than usual. But before long, I was stabbed on both legs and the left arm several times.
I was also hit on the waist, but there was armor protecting that area, so although I felt a little uncomfortable, it was not a big deal. And when I was hit, it seemed that I didn't feel anything from those wounds.
Fortunately, these people were also a little afraid of me. Many of those holding torches were waving their knives around me, not trying to fight me head-on. In fact, if these people had rushed at me with all their strength, Xie Zhi would have lost ten lives, and my whole story would have ended. But since I was still alive, I had to find a reason for this.
The whole thing was much more complicated than it later appeared, but I didn’t think so much at the time. I just rushed forward. I didn’t feel that the wounds on my body were serious at the time. I just knew that there was some difference compared to usual times when I had no wounds at all.
I could hear the panting of the people next to me, and the heavy and uneven breath revealed anxiety and guilt. I thought it was the so-called enemy, and I felt a little happy in my heart, but as time went by, when my blind and violent swinging made me exhausted, under the torches, I clearly saw the same faces as our soldiers, without the cruelty I had imagined, without the violence I had imagined, but only the fear and helplessness I had seen before. I hesitated, and the gun was hanging somewhere, but I couldn't swing it anymore.
Suddenly, I felt a tightness in my abdomen, and then a sharp pain spread from there to the deep part of my head. I saw a spear stuck in my abdomen, and then I looked up at a man standing in front of me with his teeth bared, still holding this guy tightly.
Our pace of progress was also stabbed by this. I was in pain and immediately stabbed him with my gun, then I pushed him up with all my strength. He remained in the same place, but his stomach was opened by the tip of my gun, and blood and intestines were scattered all over the surrounding area. A six or seven foot passage was opened in front of me. I covered my wound, pointed my gun and shouted: "I am the Han Ping An Fengyun Hou. I don't want to die, so I abandon my army and surrender."
My voice was quite loud, but on such a battlefield, it had no effect at all. The gap in front of me slowly closed up again, and our people behind me were still following me forward.
I can't remember how much time the battle lasted, I only know that it was almost dawn when the enemy was completely defeated. The reason was that the battle on the west dragged on for too long. Initially, the North and South camps attacked them from the south and north respectively, but they had more than 2,000 people. The North and South camps each sent out 300 people at first, and then they felt that it was not working, so they sent all 900 people. After finally repelling some of the enemies, they happened to the east again, so they had to send troops to resist first, which was why the battle dragged on for so long.
I no longer knew where I was injured, I just felt that my head was still conscious, like being drunk and still able to control my body. My body was cold, my throat was dry, my body was numb, but I couldn't throw the gun away, it felt like it was stuck in my hand.
Maybe it was too cold, and it was hard to speak properly. I leaned on the felt blanket in the tent. Although I didn't know how I got in and lay down, I could still clearly remember a few things I was concerned about: "How is the east now?"
"They came late and failed to break through our defenses. Now we have been attacking the bandits from the east and west with General E Huan. The bandits in Qu were defeated, and General E Huan is now pursuing them." Their voices were intermittent, and they were probably frozen.
"Oh, you also call him General E Huan. Well, it seems that he did a good job. At least he succeeded in sneak attacking them before they attacked us head-on."
"Please stop talking. Everything is fine now. Please take a rest!"
"Well, then I'll take a break." Looking at all the blurry figures swaying in front of my eyes, I finally couldn't hold up my eyelids and fell into a deep sleep.
I slept very uneasily, with nightmares all the time, and I woke up with no recollection of what I had dreamed about. When I finally felt I couldn't fall asleep anymore, I opened my eyes and saw that it was already dark again.
After taking a long break, I still felt a splitting headache and unbearable thirst. I couldn't find a container of water around, so I stood up shakily and walked out. I couldn't even realize what time it was.
However, the scene outside the tent made me straighten my body and stand proudly even now. The wind blowing on my body felt cool and comfortable, which made me more awake.
"What time is it now?"
"The battle was fought in the morning, and now it is midnight."
"Why don't we march back to Mingzi? We have already set a date. E Huan and the rest of you, why don't you wake me up?" I paused. "There are so many soldiers who have been fighting all morning. Why don't they go and rest now? What are you doing here looking at me? Go back and rest."
E Huan was very surprised and kept circling around me, as if he didn't quite believe it. I couldn't help but get angry again: "E Huan, what are you doing? And you guys, tell the soldiers to go back and rest. We'll set off tomorrow morning. I have a lot of things to do."
I paused again and looked around to see that no one was moving. I felt touched and understood what they were doing, so I continued, "I haven't slept much in these few days. After the battle, I just felt sleepy. I'm afraid that my injury has healed by now." I stretched my whole body in front of them, gritting my teeth to hold back the pain, and finally my movements were smooth.
The people in front were a little restless, but no one left, which forced me to start lying with my eyes open: "Everyone knows who I am, right? I am the reincarnation of the spiritual beast Xiezhi, how could I be in trouble? Is there anyone here who participated in the Battle of Shogun Mountain? You should remember how many people I killed alone. I admit that I was a little soft today, because I saw that many of them were not deserving of death, and I couldn't bring myself to kill them, so I got injured. Since everyone is tired today, I won't urge you to leave. Now everyone listen to my orders, go back to the camp and sleep!" The last roar finally had some effect, and many people turned around and left after hearing it.
"E Huan, and the rest of you lieutenants, come here for a moment." I gave one last order and returned to the tent. I turned around and called E Huan, "Bring me a jar of water. I'm thirsty."
Inside the tent, I first drank more than half a jar of water, and then slowly began to speak.
"You are being unreasonable. Our plan was to leave right after the battle. If we didn't have time, we could just build a raft and rush back to Mingzi by water. Now we have wasted so much time and ruined my plan..." I was still furious, but suddenly I realized that staying here for a night and even making the soldiers nervous was a good thing: "We will leave tomorrow. I will take a carriage and you have to act like I am seriously injured and dying."
"What are you going to do?" E Huan felt strange, and I looked around and had a bad feeling, so I didn't answer his question.
"Where is the captain who is in charge of patrolling the camp tonight?"
"He... In order to give us time to wipe out the bandits who attacked from the west, he used the wall over there with dozens of people to guard for nearly half an hour. However, because there were too few people, in the end... when we turned back to support him, he had already..."
"Oh, is there anyone else at his home?" All the anger in my heart was extinguished, and my voice became much lower.
“No more.”
"Yes, I talked to him, and I remember he didn't have a wife yet." I sighed, "Originally I was going to arrange a marriage for him..."
"It was my mistake this time. I never thought that someone would help that guy named Qu. He took a road we didn't know about. General E also arranged his departure time a little late, forcing us to fight on both sides at the same time. But why didn't the guy named Qu launch an attack on our east? At least we could focus on dealing with the bandits in the west for so long. Otherwise, it would be hard for any of us to return alive today." I closed my eyes and rested for a while. I felt that it was difficult to figure out the confusion in the middle. Then I slowly asked, "Maybe the guy named Qu wanted to preserve his strength and let others fight us first? How many casualties did we have?"
"There were a total of 103 infantrymen in the north and south camps, with more than 120 killed and 327 wounded. There were 500 cavalrymen, 9 killed, 27 wounded, and five horses lost. There were 496 soldiers in Mingzi's army, more than 100 killed, and almost all the rest were wounded."
Maybe they didn't expect that after listening to it, I covered my face and burst into tears.
This battle was not fought well and the losses were huge, so I cannot escape the blame.
“Marquis Fengyun… this…” Everyone looked at each other, at a loss.
"What about the man named Qu? Has he been caught?" Thinking that this was not the right occasion, I quickly wiped my tears and started asking.
"It was our incompetence that allowed him to escape."
"Don't blame you, this was all decided by me. Okay, you guys go back and have a good rest, we have to set off tomorrow." I tried to calm myself down and asked them all to go back. Before E Huan left, he tried to persuade me, and I could only smile to show that I was fine.
They all left, and I could still hear some of their conversation outside the tent.
"Marquis Fengyun is too concerned. We have 2,000 people against 3,500 people. Especially when he led 500 soldiers to charge into the position of 2,300 people, he actually broke through. Moreover, we only suffered a few hundred casualties, while the other side had almost no survivors. How can we expect such a great victory?"
Maybe they are right. In the battle of Hanzhong, we suffered more than 20,000 casualties in one morning. There were corpses everywhere. The land in front of Hanzhong was red. But that was against Dong Zhuo's regular army. We were even prepared to die. These were just against some ragtag bandits. They were determined to win when they came. The dead brothers must feel that they died unjustly and can't close their eyes! I used to follow you and give you a good life. How can I repay this debt of gratitude? A voice in my heart warned me: Forget it, don't think too much. There are still many things to come. If I make mistakes later, more people will die.
I lay on the camp mattress. Although I finally gave myself an explanation, I still couldn't fall asleep. The more I thought about it, the more I couldn't let it go. Suddenly, I got excited and hit the ground hard with my fists a few times, which hurt the wound on my waist and abdomen. A pain came over me, and I slowly fell into a daze and fell asleep again.
The next day, I woke up early, and opened my eyes as soon as the sky was light. I didn't stay in bed that day. I put on some clothes and went out. Under the attention of many soldiers, I slowly walked to the west hillside, because many of my brothers stayed here.
I finally bid farewell to my brothers and broke my scalp. The so-called famous generals and commanders are actually nothing great. Without soldiers, you are a waste. Even if you have great abilities, you can't withstand the rush of others. If I don't cherish their lives, I am just a beast. Those generals who only put on airs in front of soldiers, those who don't care about soldiers on the battlefield and only use dead bodies to pile up achievements, are nothing.
Finally, when I was lying on the car to rest, there was no sound in the entire army column. E Huan said to me with emotion: "The soldiers are very loyal to you."
But I thought differently from him: "No, brother, remember, I don't need loyalty, and they don't fight for loyalty to me. This is a kind of trust. They trust me, and the power of trust is definitely greater than loyalty."
"Trust?" E Huan seemed to be thinking about something.
"Yes, because they know that when people are ready to fight to the death on the battlefield, I will definitely be the first one to rush in."
"But you are the commander."
"Don't forget, when you attacked from behind, I was the only so-called general in the entire camp, and below me were the lieutenants. Okay, brother, let me sleep."
"Brother, why do you trust me so much?" He was suddenly touched. I thought so. I gave him the task of sneak attack from behind when he first came. If he fails to complete it, we will be in a real fight here. But I have no choice. I really have no one else to send, and E Huan is obviously more familiar with that road. But I explained it to him with a reason that he found strange.
"Because you and Mingzi are friends."
I slept for two days on the way. I didn't get off the car until I reached the county governor's mansion in Mingzi City. I started walking, but after a few steps I lay down on the bed again. However, I still ordered a special military camp to be set up outside the city to treat the wounded. The reason why I didn't choose to do it in the city was that I couldn't tell anyone about it at will.
Brother Song and Brother Xing also rushed back the day before. In addition to asking about my injuries, they also brought some news.
"They didn't move. These people were just watching the excitement. Scouts kept coming and going. We didn't stop them. They may have seen your injuries."
"Well, very good, then everything will be done according to the plan. You can continue with the rest. Kill the bandits in the district. Next, we will open the market and keep the people safe. Let the soldiers accidentally or intentionally... I was seriously injured, but this matter cannot be reported to Guiyang. If my wife knew that I was injured, I would be in trouble at home. Okay, let me sleep. After all, I am really injured. Although it is not serious, it is still serious!"
My body recovered quickly. These days, Song would come to report to me every day, such as how much food, salt, meat, cloth, etc. were transported today, how much stone materials were transported, how many laborers came, how many soldiers were withdrawn, and the defense facilities such as guard towers and beacon towers built on various hilltops, the reconstruction of the damaged areas of Mingzi City, and the latest situation of various bandit gangs.
Some old friends also came to visit me, for which I was very grateful. They said there was no need to express gratitude and that I could just treat them to a few more drinks. It was obvious that after such a long time, none of us had changed fundamentally.
But ten days later, the situation has changed a lot. I got up early again, full of confidence. At the hour of Mao, I washed up and put on a set of pure white clothes. I looked in the mirror and found that I was indeed quite elegant and handsome. The last sentence is a bit exaggerated and shameless, but I was really excited today and couldn't wait for the hour of Mao to come.
E Huan, Xing Daorong, Chen Ying, as well as Sun Yuhai, Guan Hai, Su Fei, and Chen Ou, who had come from afar in the past few days, arrived on time. I was well prepared and ordered someone to bring out a piece of hot steamed cake. This steamed cake was made with great care, in the shape of southwest Jingzhou, and decorated with more than thirty dates of varying sizes.
"This is the location of the more than 30 bandits around Mingzi. We will divide them into seven groups according to their strength and the arrangements we have discussed in the past few days. Each of you will lead 2,000 people and three days of dry food. Within three days, I require that all battles be over. This is the breakfast I prepared for you: Jingzhou bandits, I hope you can eat them all up one by one, and eat them up cleanly. After breakfast, you can set off. We have already assigned all the guides for you. Your troops are several times that of your opponents, so there will be no problem. This time, Mr. Song and I will be in charge of Mingzi. Remember that we only have 500 soldiers, and they are all old, weak, sick and disabled. I can't spare any troops for you."
"Okay... Haha." Everyone laughed. Everyone here was cheerful and open-minded. There was no need to be so restrained. And after spending the past few days together, everyone was able to accept Sun Yuhai's appearance. In fact, after everyone finally accepted the appearances of Xing, E, and Chen, they became less concerned about appearance. Therefore, after spending a few days together, there was no longer any estrangement.
Finally, I told them that the armies should keep a certain distance from each other and not be too far apart, and to maintain contact with adjacent armies. At the same time, the army should maintain a certain thickness and deployment, so that those isolated bandits would have no way to deal with us.
After they finished eating, they set off. Looking at the date pits scattered on the table, they were extremely proud. I couldn't help but think back to my pride. I took advantage of my serious injury, and built a city and beacon towers to build defense facilities. The purpose was to make all the bandits think that we were going to take a defensive position. Moreover, knowing the hardships and heavy casualties we suffered when fighting the bandits, they were more convinced of this and put their minds at ease. Moreover, I sent 500 soldiers to the outside of Wuling Mountain every day, so of course they were more relieved. How could they know that I also sent food and grass here every day, and people were hidden in the food and grass carts, and people were also hidden in the cloth and various cloth carts. The civilians who came to ramming were all our soldiers. In this way, 500 people went out every day, but 1,500 came in. Later, when there were "only" 500 soldiers left in our city, we had to bring in 500 to 1,000 people every day. In this way, in ten days, we had nearly 15,000 people stationed in various places in Mingzi. There are many newly built defense facilities around, which will become our hiding places for troops after they are built. Brother Chen is very supportive of the bandit suppression and my plan. He actually sent so many people to me in such a difficult time and provided them with a month's worth of food and fodder. It seems that he has wanted to take action a long time ago, but couldn't find the trustworthy men to do it. He may be thinking: I got to the door myself this time, so I can't blame him.
I was very excited, but I had to act calm. As soon as they left, I pulled Song over to play chess with me. My face showed no expression, neither eagerness nor anxiety. The two musicians were the most worried. They even thought that this disaster was their own fault. Fortunately, they did not show any signs of being upset.
And these past few days I have been completely fine, not only in terms of work, because all the laborers have gone to the war, including the county officials; but also in terms of body, because now it is as if I have never been injured, and I have completely recovered the feeling of my previous body. Maybe this is the advantage of being young, but my body, which already had some scars, has now gained a few more. I wonder how my wife would feel if she saw me.
On the evening of the second day after they left, I asked Mr. Xing to play chess with me again because Mr. Song had something to deal with.
Suddenly, a fast horse rushed into the mansion, and someone tumbled down from the horse. My heart was pounding, but I pretended to be calm and took away the enemy's piece on the board. Then I asked calmly, "What's the report?"
"Generals E, Su, and Chen in the north have joined forces and received word from General Xing in Jingxi that the Huang and Wang bandits have been pacified, and the other bandits are also in the final cleanup process."
I still hypocritically continued to sit and play chess. My boss said he understood and asked him to go down to receive his reward and have a rest.
But the musician opposite me couldn't sit still. He was very excited, his hands were soft, he didn't want the material anymore, and gave me all the real estate he could. He even took the initiative to admit defeat in the last count. In this regard, I could only obey his command respectfully.
But after seeing him off, I saw that there was no one around, so I immediately finished my original form and jumped into the bedroom from the living room.
I guess it was because I was too tired from planning and making plans recently, and I soon fell asleep again without knowing how. I didn’t even know where I slept. But the interesting thing is not that I could sleep like this, but that when I opened my eyes at almost noon the next day, I saw my wife tidying up my clothes beside me.
She looked at me with a smile, scolded me for still sleeping in, and asked me why my left shoe was left on the threshold of the living room in front, and my right shoe was under the bedroom window.
In response to this, I can only laugh and remain silent.
But if the whole thing ended here, it would be quite boring. Because immediately afterwards, a local soldier came to report breathlessly, "The beacon tower in the southwest is emitting thick smoke, and an army is rushing towards Mingzi quickly! And it is definitely not our army."
It was noon, that day was February 28th of the first year of Chuping. I was eighteen years old and E Huan was seventeen years old.