The conditions in the military camp at Xia Li Ju Wai were often difficult, but the soldiers gritted their teeth and persevered, rarely complaining. It was not because they were particularly persevering, but because compared to most soldiers, there were still some who were in the same situation.
What is even more tragic is the troops on the right that He Baren brought back.
Originally, this group of soldiers was abandoned on the battlefield due to the withdrawal of the Chinese army. However, they managed to escape due to the enemy's high-handedness and opened the net. They then reunited with the soldiers who had been abandoned on the north bank of the Tongda River.
They can be regarded as brothers in need, and they return together as a team.
Unexpectedly, the Qiang thief Li Boshan was too insidious and cunning. He used false benevolence to divert all of their soldiers from the battlefield, but then sent troops to hunt them down overnight during their retreat, causing his army to be completely defeated and countless people to flee.
There were originally more than 40,000 troops, but only less than 10,000 were able to return in the end, and each of them was in an extremely embarrassed state. Their armor, horses, weapons, and staffs were all discarded. When they returned to Xialiju, the surrounding area of the fort was easily accessible.
The good areas for camping were all occupied by the ancestors, so they had to climb to the top of a nearby hillside to sleep in the open. They had no shade during the day and no way to find food or water when they were hungry or thirsty.
Many soldiers who originally felt that the conditions were difficult, after seeing the hardships of this group of people, could not help but feel sympathy and stopped complaining. But it was just sympathy, and they also had no spare power to help these miserable soldiers.
Let’s curse the Qiang thieves together more for their treachery. If these soldiers dare to enter their camp and occupy the water point, they will have to start a fight with each other!
When Duan Shao came here, he happened to encounter two groups of people fighting over the problem of water supply. There were hundreds of soldiers involved in each other, and many injured were already lying on the ground. What they were fighting for was just two people.
It's just a water carriage.
Although Xialiju was close to the Zhuozhang River, due to the previous battle at the mouth of the river, when a group of people fled southward, many corpses fell into the Zhuozhang Water, and some people jumped into the river and drowned.
In this midsummer season, the corpses of soldiers and horses that fell into the river were not salvaged and disposed of in time. They soon swelled and rotted. The entire river was filled with a disgusting corpse smell. In order to prevent the soldiers from drinking sewage
When the epidemic broke out in the military camp, Duan Shao banned the soldiers from stationing along the Zhuozhang River and taking water.
In this hot summer season, getting water has become a huge problem. In order to ensure that people and horses can divert water, they can only go further to find and haul it back. Many people and horses in various camps have died of thirst. Because this matter is life-threatening, so the military camp
Fights often occur.
After Duan Shao entered the camp, he naturally stopped the war. However, when he learned that the tens of thousands of troops on the plains could not even put together a few water carriages, and that most of the wounded died of thirst, Duan Shao could not help but feel unbearable.
So the staff transferred ten carriages from elsewhere for use. As for more material supplies, such as food and medicinal materials for healing wounds, even he was worried about it now.
With Duan Shao's arrival, He Baren and others also came out to welcome him. They all expected Duan Shao to allocate some necessary supplies to slightly alleviate the current difficult situation. However, Duan Shao's next words
But they were greatly disappointed and became sad, angry and anxious.
"I have been ordered by the Supreme Being to ask you about the fact that your troops were attacked and fled on their way back. Most of the troops were killed. Do you know the crime, Master Heba?"
Duan Shao knew that this was an offending errand, otherwise the emperor would not have specially arranged this matter for him, but since he had already arrived here, he still looked at He Baren and said in a deep voice.
"Your Majesty, listen to the explanation of the generals! The reason why the division and brigade were attacked was due to the treachery of the Qiang thieves..."
When Gao Anahu and other generals heard Duan Shao's accusation, they hurriedly opened their mouths and wanted to defend themselves. However, no matter how they explained and scolded the Wei army for going back on their word, Duan Shao did not respond and just looked at He Ba calmly.
Benevolence.
After He Baren saw this, he could only step forward, lowered his head and said in a deep voice: "In the previous battle, we were unable to defeat the bandit army, which resulted in the defeat of the division and brigade. When leading the troops to evacuate, they misbelieved the bandit's words and were unprepared. This caused serious consequences.
My son has suffered many misfortunes. I know that my sins are serious and I dare not ask for forgiveness. I can only ask the king to have mercy on my son and survive the disaster. God cannot bear to kill them all, so please do not mistreat me because of man-made disasters!"
"At present, the division and brigade are newly defeated, and the troops are in trouble. I am not deliberately treating the soldiers here. When the materials from the country are delivered here, the situation will surely improve. Taifu does not need to take this matter as a measure, I will definitely handle it properly.
Military here."
After saying this, he waved his hand slightly, and the sergeants from behind swarmed in and captured He Baren in public. However, He Baren's subordinates and soldiers around him had angry expressions on their faces when they saw this.
But he only dared to get angry but did not dare to speak out, and the eyes he looked at Duan Shao lacked kindness.
This is the reason why Gao Yang arranged for Duan Shao to come to arrest and question He Baren. Today, He Baren is already the most senior hero in the country, and he also has a high reputation and deep connections among the Jinyang soldiers.
, Duan Shao came to question and punish the person, no matter whether it was justified or not, it would arouse the dissatisfaction of many Jinyang soldiers.
If he still wants to actively plan a counterattack, Gao Yang will naturally not deliberately create disharmony in personnel, but now a defensive-oriented tone has been set, and the only person he can rely on here is Duan Shao. Naturally,
I don’t want Duan Shao to gather too many people and seek power.
Especially in his almost explicit temptation, Duan Shao still answered vaguely and refused to express a clear attitude of supporting the prince. This also made Gao Yang unable to completely trust Duan Shao, so he naturally needed to create a relationship for Duan Shao.
Some personnel difficulties.
In fact, Gao Yang was not too sure whether he really had to pass it on to the crown prince Gao Yin. He had been slightly dissatisfied with the crown prince before, but he chose to tolerate it under the advice of Yang Min and others, and did not
Let go of your desire to abolish the establishment.
But now that the war between the East and the West was defeated, the pressure from the border troubles brought by the Western Wei Dynasty to the Northern Qi Dynasty was unprecedentedly strong. Gao Yang could not help but murmur in his heart about this matter, and did not think that the Crown Prince Gao Yin was capable of taking over this inheritance and properly handling the situation.
.
But the problem is that the closest relatives are father and son, and the prince is his designated heir. At least at the moment, Duan Shao has not revealed any obvious intention to abolish the throne. Duan Shao is actually vague about this. In Gao Yang's view, the person he is targeting is naturally not the prince.
It’s him, the emperor himself!
Even though Duan Shao didn't have a deep understanding of the emperor's thoughts, he also understood that the emperor was indeed dissatisfied, so he still agreed to this embarrassing job and did not deliberately save face for He Baren and did it in front of everyone.
He was immediately detained and planned to be escorted back to the camp before his punishment was announced.
However, just when Duan Shao was about to take He Baren away, soldiers rushed from below Piyuan, shouting loudly as they ran: "We are back! Those soldiers who were kidnapped by the Qiang thieves are back."
!”
After hearing this, the generals were all surprised, and Duan Shao was also quite surprised. They all hurriedly turned to the north of Piyuan and saw a group of troops in a neat formation, with tens of thousands of soldiers standing along the way.
Coming south along the turbid Zhang River.
After seeing this scene, everyone hurriedly walked down the Piyuan and greeted the group of soldiers. As the distance between them became closer, after seeing the whole picture and details of this formation, the expressions on everyone's faces became more and more intense.
Gets weird.
This group of people was neatly dressed and in neat formation. There was no trace of the embarrassment of the disorganized people. Moreover, there was also a convoy of heavy supplies in the team. If they had not come from the north, there would really be no way.
If you connect people with the defeated army, you might think that reinforcements have been sent from the country.
"Yes, a certain group of people were indeed captured by Qiang thieves and robbed by the Wei people, but this was just an arrogant and fierce general who made his own decisions and was not ordered by Prime Minister Li Dacheng. Because he was annoyed that the generals made their own decisions and broke their trust, Prime Minister Li Dacheng personally took the responsibility.
Beating a general would risk death. The Wei army really has strict military discipline. Once the order has been issued, it will never be partial and disobey the order just because of meritorious service..."
Facing the soldiers who came to greet them and asked them repeatedly, these soldiers who had suffered many hardships and finally returned safely were filled with excitement and joy. They enthusiastically shared their bizarre experiences with the masses without paying any attention to them.
The atmosphere at the scene had already become weird.
"General Li not only exonerated a certain class again, but also gave them a lot of food and clothing, so that they would have enough food and drink on their way home..."
When they heard this, the eyes of everyone present suddenly turned green. They were originally glad that they escaped in time and were able to return here safely, but they did not expect that the experiences of the captured people far exceeded them, and they were suddenly in a state of panic.
Because of the imbalance, they all scolded and accused these people that they must have done some betrayal to get such preferential treatment from the Wei army.
Otherwise, they could not figure out why the Wei army treated the prisoners so favorably even if they tried hard. Therefore, many people shouted loudly that all these people should be severely tortured and interrogated to prevent them from colluding with the Wei army to attack Xialiju again.
When Duan Shao and others came here, the scene was already in chaos. The soldiers of the Qi army who were hungry and thirsty were already in a bad mood. Now they saw that these surrendered prisoners were treated much better than them, and they were even shameless.
Showing off is simply intolerable!
And those returning prisoners were also full of grievances and dissatisfaction. Could it be that they were captured because they refused to fight bravely? They were captured by the enemy only because they were abandoned by a group of soldiers in the rear who had not even been on the battlefield.
, experienced a near-death life, and was finally rescued by the kindness of the enemy general. However, he did not want to return but was repeatedly criticized and scolded by Pao Ze!
After Duan Shao rushed to the scene to understand the situation, he immediately felt a headache. Now he can finally fully understand why many junior high school veterans shook their heads when they mentioned the battle with Li Boshan and did not want to talk more. Direct battles on the battlefield
It is already difficult for people to deal with, and the dirty tricks outside the battlefield are even more difficult to guard against!