Chapter 547 Life or Death

When it was almost dawn, Qin Li returned with the pursuit troops.

The camp was much quieter than in the middle of the night, and the soldiers were sleeping soundly. The villagers had cooked the rice, mixed with the cassava rice with the aroma of minced meat, which made the returned officers and soldiers swallow their saliva.

The soldiers on the night opened the camp gate and welcomed the exhausted cavalry troops in. The noisy sound of the horse neighing broke the tranquility of the camp, but the soldiers lying all over the ground turned over at most, cursing a few words in their sleep, and then continued to sleep, but none of them got up to watch the fun.

Regardless of how the people in the camp arranged their subordinates, Qin Li threw the reins to his personal soldiers and strode towards the central army tent.

The black-clothed guard saw the eldest prince coming and whispered: "Your Highness, my prince just fell asleep..."

"I'm awake." Before Qin Li could answer, Qin Lei's voice came from inside: "Brother, come in quickly."

Qin Li lifted the curtain and entered the battle. When he saw that Qin Lei was dressed neatly, there was Shi Gan in the tent, and he was cleaning up his sleeping bag and bedding.

"I'll go and serve breakfast to the uncle after packing up." Qin Lei ordered softly.

"Yes." Shi Gan agreed and carried the bedding that had been rolled out.

"Sit." Qin Lei said calmly, without any anger of interruption of sleep.

After looking at him up and down, Qin Li said strangely: "I haven't seen you for a night, you seem to have changed."

"Maybe," Qin Lei lifted his back and sat down on the bench, smiling: "After experiencing the ups and downs of yesterday, anyone's mentality will change a little."

With his eyebrows raised, Qin Li sat down opposite him, no longer obsessed with this question, and said in a deep voice: "Don't you ask about the result of our pursuit?"

"No questions," Qin Lei said calmly: "I thought you would be back at noon."

Qin Li's face stopped and he couldn't help but smile bitterly: "Zhao Wujiu turned around and acted as a desperate stance. The soldiers were willing but not enough, so we had to come back." He said that, and took the hot water channel sent by the guards: "This battle will kill about 100,000 enemies, which is also unsatisfactory."

Nodded slightly, Qin Lei said softly: "Thank you all for your hard work. The purpose of this battle is to defeat the Qi army. Now that the defeat has been reached, I can't ask for more."

Holding a cup to warm your hands, Qin Li said in a deep voice: "Where are those guys in Muye City? Why are there no signs yet?" Before leaving the night before, Qin Lei sent Xu Tian around to Muye City to deliver a letter, hoping that the four imperial guards in the city could participate in this battle, and then attacked each other in front and back, and a victory might be expected.

After squirting the letter on the table, Qin Lei whispered: "Look, as I expected, if you expect the broken shoes and your feet were broken, these idiots were fooled."

Qin Li picked up the letter paper suspiciously and browsed it quickly. He saw a letter saying: "I am not aware of Luo Yun, Che Yinguo, Jing Cheng Taiwei, and the two Your Highnesses: We are afraid and uneasy, and we have received the order of the Prince's Royal Highness. We have not been negligent for a moment, so we ordered Qi's army and horses, and we went south to help the battle. However, the Qi thief Zhao Wujiu had many tricks and set up an ambush in the Yanhou Valley area. When we passed by, we would go all the way and ambush everywhere to block our army's pace."

"We are in a hurry to go on the road, and we were in a vain and mistakenly made a trick. Unfortunately, we suffered heavy losses and were unable to make progress. In desperation, we had to retreat to Muye City, hold on to the city, sweep the bed to prepare food, and wait for the king's army to arrive. I knelt down south and prayed that God would bless me, my Majesty, and my 100,000 soldiers...'

"Hmph!" Qin Li slapped the letter hard, and said angrily: "A bunch of waste!"

Shaking his head, Qin Lei put the letter back into the flesh, then carefully put it away, and slowly said: "Even if you have a thousand anger, you have to wait to return to China and send it again. Now you need to unite."

"It's indispensable to settle the score with them!" Qin Li nodded and said, "I won't talk about this anymore. Is there any news about my father?"

"I don't know," Qin Lei shook his head and said, "The big river is blocked from north to south. Who knows what the river is like?"

Qin Li frowned when he heard this, and after a while he said in a deep voice: "What would you do if Zhao Wujiu said?"

At this time, Shi Gan came in with a bowl of rice with minced meat cassava and served it in front of the hall with both hands.

Qin Li was so hungry that he was worried about the past. He took it and ate the rice, and said to Qin Lei: "You said you, my ears are idle."

Qin Lei smiled and said, "His army was abandoned and his armor was defeated. He could not recover within ten days or half a month." Qin Li nodded and signaled Qin Lei to say down.

"But Qi State is not just these forces," Qin Lei crossed his fingers and supported his jaw and said, "He will definitely use other troops to do something."

"What are you doing?" Qin Li said while vaguely.

"Intercept us again, or go south to recover Hulao Pass." Qin Lei murmured: "The former may be bigger. If you want to get out of the shadow of failure, the best way is to defeat us."

Qin Li quickly finished the rice from the bowl, drank a few sips of water, and then he breathed a sigh of relief: "It's comfortable... You're right, I also think Zhao Wujiu will mobilize troops to encircle us again."

Nodding with a wry smile, Qin Lei said in a low voice: "Kill one thousand enemies and lose eight hundred of them. We cannot start another battle in a short period of time. The soldiers are fine, but the key is that the war horses need to recover their physical strength, and it will take at least five days to run again."

The speed and endurance of war horses are far superior to that of ordinary soldiers, but there is a fatal flaw, that is, the recovery ability of this thing is far inferior to that of humans. If young people are overdrawn, they can take a break for at most one day, but the war horses cannot do it. The price of their one-day running is to rest for five to seven days, and they also need to eat more beans and other nutrients to achieve.

"There is a battle at the gate." Qin Li touched his beard and picked a grain of rice. Without thinking, he sent it to his mouth and said in a deep voice: "The letter says that there are Qi troops in the Yanhou Valley area."

"The gate is whether this so-called army exists or not." With a chuckle, Qin Lei slowly shook his head and said, "The frightened birds huddled in Muye City can be scared to death when they hear the sound of bowstrings."

"You said Yanhou Gu was Zhao Wujiu's bluff?" Qin Li said with wide eyes.

Qin Lei did not answer directly, but handed another piece of paper on the table to Qin Li and said in a deep voice: "I settled the score for Qi before going to bed. I found that even if Zhao Wujiu treated his pants, he could not get the 'army' on Yanhou Valley."

Qin Li took it and saw a series of unrecognizable characters written on it, and immediately said, "Tell me, I can't understand your ghost-drawing peach talisman."

Qin Lei then remembered that he was using Arabic numerals. He laughed and did not explain, and said softly: "The Qi Kingdom has a total of 1.1 million troops. Except for the 200,000 troops guarding the northern border, 200,000 troops guarding the river, 200,000 troops stationed in the 13 prefectures of the two capitals, and 100,000 troops guarding Chaoge to Huguan, the rest of the troops are Zhao Wujiu's disposable forces."

"Before the war, Zhao Wujiu transferred some troops from various places," Qin Li shook his head and said, "So it's more than 400,000."

"Yes," Qin Lei nodded, "He drew 50,000 from the northern border and Dahe, and drew 100,000 from the garrisons of the two capitals and thirteen prefectures. This is the source of the 600,000 troops." As he said that, he calculated, "In Luoshuiyuan, we annihilated 120,000, Hulao Pass and Muye City, and wiped out a total of 40,000 enemies. In addition to the few small-scale battles I had carried out before, the Qi army had already lost 150,000 before sniping our army."

"When Zhao Wujiu launched the total attack, the number of people was 400,000." Qin Lei sighed and said, "There are still 50,000 left, and it should be south of the river."

"Why do you say this?" Qin Li's face became very cold.

"Zhao Wushang said." Qin Lei said with slightest: "He said that Zhao Wujiu arranged for Chen Liefeng to hide in the Wuchao area and form two interception networks with Xin Jiazang, to prevent our army from returning to Hulao Pass in the east."

"Father is in danger!" Qin Li stood up and said.

"With the Dongqi Navy here, we cannot cross the river. No matter whether our father is dangerous or not, we can do nothing." Qin Lei said calmly: "Now the gate is heading north and bring my elite Qin back to our country."

Qin Li sat down, looked at Qin Lei with his eyes narrowed and said, "Your heart is hard enough."

"Since I can't help, I'd better take care of myself." Qin Lei shrugged and said softly: "Brother, go back and have a rest. I will tell you to pull out the camp in Weishi."

"What if my father is in danger?" Qin Li looked at Qin Lei with his eyes fixed on him.

"The emperor has God's blessing." Qin Lei lowered his eyelids and said, "It won't be a problem."

"Open the skylight and speak loudly!" Qin Li said a little rudely.

"Let's talk about it that day." Qin Lei said softly.

Seeing Qin Lei avoiding his question several times, Qin Li laughed and said, "So you are not worried!"

Qin Lei did not answer.

"Let's go." Qin Li stood up and came out of the tent.

Throughout the morning, Qin Lei stayed in a tent and discussed the march route with Yang Wenyu and a few others before leaving the tent to move, preparing lunch, and then setting off the camp.

Walking around the camp casually, he unknowingly arrived at the territory of the Longxiang Army. Qin Lei found that the soldiers looked at him were mostly worship and fanaticism... and there seemed to be a hint of begging.

Stopped, he asked a soldier from the Longxiong Army and said, "What's wrong? Is there anything wrong?"

The soldier didn't expect the prince to pay attention to him. When his knees weakened, he knelt on the ground and kowtowed continuously. However, Qin Lei asked him, but he only said nothing was wrong.

Looking around strangely, Qin Lei found that everyone's expressions were strange. He only said that the soldiers saw that they were nervous and had to leave reluctantly. They didn't go far, but listened to the soldier kneeling on the ground crying and said: "Prince, please save my brother..."

Qin Lei stood firm, but did not turn around and said, "Say."

The Longxiong officer next to him stared at the soldier like a sucking man, trying to make him stop talking. But the young man obviously took his word: "They want to kill my brother." He cried loudly: "My brother killed five Qi soldiers yesterday, he made contributions..."

"Why?" Qin Lei's voice turned cold, and he looked at the Longxiong Officer beside him.

The officer whispered: "Prince, let me speak with you."

Qin Lei's feet were rooted and he frowned and said, "Just say it here!"

The officer had to hesitate: "Your Majesty, his brother is seriously injured and unable to heal... According to the convention, someone will help him to relieve him."

Qin Lei tightened his hands in his sleeves, and after a long time, he slowly said: "Where is Your Highness?"

"Your Highness sleeps in the tent."

"Take me to see him." Qin Lei said in a deep voice: "Let the final team rest first." Although Qin Lei was elected as commander-in-chief, the imperial guards are independent individuals, and he is not good at issuing orders directly, not to mention that the Longxiang Army is his elder brother.

The officer quickly did as he did and led Qin Lei outside the military tent in the center of the camp. When Qin Li's personal soldiers saw that it was Prince Cheng, they hurried in to report.

After a while, the boss's depressed voice came: "Okay, Qin Yutian, I have been disturbed by my dreams in the morning, so I have to return it?"

"It's impolite to come but not come." Qin Lei chuckled and walked into Qin Li's tent. Looking at the boss wearing only one-piece clothes, sitting barefoot on the camp bed, sleepy eyes and exposed breasts.

"Disturbate." Sitting opposite Qin Li, Qin Lei said lightly: "Tell me alone."

Qin Li whispered while wearing a belt: "Did you hear it? Go out to guard it, no one is allowed within three meters." The personal soldiers in the house bowed and retreated, and a cough came after a while, which meant that they were ready.

Qin Lei's expression became serious and he said in a deep voice: "Brother, please let me know something."

"Please?" Qin Li laughed while wearing a coat, "It's rare, let's talk about it, I have no choice but to do it."

"Can you kill a few less wounded numbers..." Qin Lei whispered: "At least those who can survive, keep them." For Jingshan Army, he could ask not to give up, but for other troops, he did not have the power, so he could only try his best to discuss it.

Looking at Qin Lei in surprise, Qin Li stopped the movement in his hand and said strangely: "Brother, I heard it right? Do you want to protect those injuries?"

"Not all, just those who still have hope of surviving." Qin Lei whispered: "I know this is not in accordance with the rules, but since I have already made a vow in front of the officers and soldiers before the war, then I have to abide by it, right?"

After pondering slightly, Qin Li shook his head and said, "You are talking about taking care of the families of the soldiers who died... I have no objection to this." The implication is that the rules cannot be broken.

Sighing, Qin Lei said softly: "Maybe I'm a little pedantic, but among those injuries, many people may be just disabled! If it weren't for yesterday's bloody battle, how could they be disabled? Isn't the eldest brother afraid of the soldiers' hearts being cold..."

"You're talking." Qin Li said with a serious expression: "But my Qin national strength is limited, and ordinary soldiers can't afford to support them, let alone raise so many useless people!" As he said that, he looked at Qin Lei and said strangely: "I just said that you were hard-hearted, why did you suddenly become soft again?"

After sighing softly, Qin Lei stood up and said, "Please give me the wounded person who can be cured this time. Even if I can make my conscience better, anyway, the speed of traveling twenty miles a day will not drag down the army."

"Yes." Qin Li was eager to do it, but after all, he was Qin Lei's elder brother, so he had to add: "This is a big burden! Even if there are three thousand injuries that can survive, you have to care about them for the rest of your life!"

Qin Lei suddenly smiled and said, "That's how..." and turned around and came out of Qin Li's tent.

Only the dazed Your Highness was left.

Before the time came, the troops set off.

In the middle of the winding team, there was a long convoy of supplies. Unlike before, there were still some injuries lying on the cart, which looked like more than 10,000 yuan in total...
Chapter completed!