The biggest difference between recruits and veterans lies in their mentality.
Just like Li Hui, generally speaking, when recruits first arrive on the battlefield, they will be frightened by the crazy atmosphere on the battlefield, and then their limbs will become stiff due to fear, and they will die in vain.
The fundamental reason is that such recruits cannot overcome the fear in their hearts.
Veterans are different, because they have seen the brutality of the battlefield. Therefore, before the battle begins, they will silently adjust their mentality and move their limbs. These good little habits will help them survive the brutal fighting.
In the final analysis, the difference between new recruits and veterans lies in whether the former can take that step, just like Le Leopard.
Le Bao was a new recruit like Li Hui, but Li Hui only managed to survive because of the timely rescue of the thousand-man general Ran Teng, while Le Bao survived by killing the enemy with his own hands.
As for people like Yangwu, who guarded the city wall a full foot wide with a shield and an iron sword, and had killed at least five or six enemy soldiers so far, he could be called an elite soldier.
This is precisely the reason why Ran Teng, the general of thousands, looked at Yang Wu in a different light after the threat was removed.
"Boy, you're not a new recruit, are you?"
Ran Teng, the general of thousands, looked up and down at Yang Wu, who was covered in blood, and asked in surprise.
"Ah, I joined the army in April last year." Yang Wu turned around and saw that the lives of his two companions were safe, and said with a smile.
Last April?
Ran Teng, the general of thousands, looked at Yang Wu again.
You must know that in April last year, the war between Chu and Wei had not yet broken out. In other words, the soldier in front of me, an old soldier who had experienced the Chu-Wei war, was a tragic battle in which only 50,000 people and 160,000 people survived.
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On average, more than half of a team of five soldiers will die after the war.
Those who survive cannot be described as lucky.
"Not bad." Ran Teng, a thousand-man general, nodded, then his expression changed, and he slapped Yang Wu on the back of the head and cursed: "You are looking for death! You dare to defend a gap of one foot wide by yourself.
?”
But having said that, he admired Yang Wu very much from the bottom of his heart, because if this soldier hadn't blocked the gap with all his strength, more slave soldiers would have poured onto the city wall from this gap.
The reason why he said this was that he just hoped that such brave soldiers would not be so reckless in the future. After all, their Merchant Navy Army had just been built recently, and what they lacked was the kind of brave soldiers who were likely to grow into the backbone of the army in the future.
At this time, Le Bao and Li Hui also returned to their posts. Seeing Ran Teng, a thousand-man general, still staring at Li Hui, Le Bao changed the topic and asked: "Thousand-man general, it seems that the enemy has not climbed up the city wall.
Have the enemy troops retreated?"
Thousands of people shook Ran Teng away from the blood on the sword blade, put it back into the scabbard, and said lightly: "Those slave soldiers were coerced by the Jiejiao people. The Jiejiao people didn't offer money to withdraw their troops. How could they dare to retreat?"
With that said, he pointed in the direction of the city gate and said casually: "In order to relieve the pressure on you new soldiers, General Wu Ji ordered the city gate to be opened, and all the slave soldiers rushed to the city gate."
After hearing this, Yang Wu was shocked and said in amazement: "How could General Wu Ji order the city gate to be opened? This... so many enemy troops poured into the city, is this okay?"
"What's the rush?" Ran Teng glanced at Yang Wu and was about to explain when he heard Le Bao ask in a low voice: "Are there any continuous crossbows deployed in the city?"
"..." Ran Teng looked at Le Bao with some surprise.
As a general with a thousand men, he knew the tactics Zhao Hongrun had given to General Wu Ji: dump oil in the suburbs outside the city in advance, and when the Jiejiao people drove the slave soldiers to consume the strength of the merchant soldiers, he would seize the opportunity to set fire to the city with fire arrows.
The oil outside blocked the large number of slave soldiers and took the opportunity to eliminate some of the slave soldiers.
That is, about two to thirty thousand slave soldiers who were cut off by the sea of fire.
As for how to destroy this slave soldier quickly, effortlessly and efficiently, all you need to do is open the city gate.
Because once the city gate is opened, those slave soldiers will naturally rush into the city. When the time comes, the repeating crossbows deployed inside the city gate can quickly kill most of them.
Even if they are lucky, or those slave soldiers still try to break in because they don't know what a repeating crossbow is, the Shangshui soldiers in the city who are responsible for firing repeating crossbows will be able to wipe out these 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers in one go.
Slave soldiers are not impossible.
However, what was different from Zhao Hongrun's tactics was that Wu Ji, as a general of the Shang Shui Army, delayed the order to open the city gate and deliberately allowed the slave soldiers to climb the west city wall and fight with the soldiers on the wall.
Yes, in fact, the close combat on the city wall in the scene just now was not part of Zhao Hongrun's tactics, but was Wu Ji's own consideration.
Because he wanted to take the opportunity to train troops and let the new recruits of the merchant navy under his command experience the atmosphere of the battlefield firsthand.
As for the root cause, it is simply that there are many new recruits in the Shangshui Army, like Li Hui and Le Bao, who have just joined the army and have not seen the battlefield.
Of course, this kind of deliberate military training could not last for too long. Therefore, with only half a stick of incense, Wu Ji quickly ordered people to open the city gate, relieving the pressure on the merchant soldiers on the city wall.
In order to achieve the effect of military training, these things are unknown to ordinary soldiers of the Shang Shui Army.
Even the weak wooden walls on the city wall were deliberately made by Wu Ji under the instructions of some thousand-man generals like Ran Teng. The purpose was to train these Shangshui soldiers to deal with emergencies.
The ability to adapt to situations, and hope that they can burst out with amazing will like Le Bao in times of crisis.
Of course, there are not many wooden walls that are not strong like that. They are just a few dozen wooden walls among hundreds of wooden walls.
After all, it is for military training. Otherwise, which Shangshui sergeant would dare to be lazy in such a major matter as reinforcing and heightening a wooden wall, which is a matter of life and death, a matter of victory or defeat?
At this time, an unimaginable amount of screams could be heard from the direction of the city gate, as if countless slave soldiers were dying at the same time.
The intensive howl before death made the recruits on the city wall feel numb.
"Here we go, Lian Nu..."
When he walked to the inner city wall, Le Bao looked towards the city gate. In fact, because of the distance, he couldn't see very clearly. He could only get a vague overview. He looked at the slave soldiers as if they were ants.
They seemed to pour into the city, and then fell to the ground one after another under the strong power of five hundred repeating crossbows. They came one after another in an endless stream.
"What? Since there is such a tactic, we should have used it early. It will also save us who are responsible for guarding the city wall a sweat." Yang Wu also came over and complained dissatisfied.
Hearing this, Le Bao touched the bite mark on his neck and murmured: "If this strategy had been used earlier, it would not have had the effect of training troops."
"Training troops? What kind of troops are training?" Yang Wu asked in confusion.
"Of course they are training us...forcing us to kill the enemy in order to survive in a critical moment..." Le Bao glanced at his hands. When he thought that these hands had just killed a living person like them, he became distraught.
I feel very complicated.
This guy...has a lot of ideas.
Ran Teng, a general of thousands, glanced at Le Bao and did not hide anything. He nodded and said in a deep voice: "That is General Wu Ji's good intentions! ... On a life-and-death battlefield, the only way to survive is to kill you.
The enemies in front of us, those cowards who are stiff with fear and do not dare to kill, will not survive long on the battlefield."
After hearing this, Yang Wu and Le Bao were stunned, and looked at their companion Li Hui in unison, only to see that his face was pale at the moment.
They wanted to comfort this partner, but they didn't know what to say, because what Ran Teng, the general of thousands of people, said was exactly the truth on the battlefield: Either kill the enemy so that you can survive, or give your life so that the enemy can survive.
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Perhaps because they felt that the topic was too heavy, Yang Wu and Le Bao looked at each other, coughed, and changed the topic and said: "Ahem, by the way, our army's crossbows are really powerful... I'm afraid the slave soldiers at the gate of the city will die.
Are you almost done? Tsk tsk, we worked hard and fought tooth and nail to kill so many people, but the brothers in the city easily killed enemies several times our number..."
"It's not just several times, I'm afraid there are more than ten times." Le Bao said.
But unfortunately, their good intentions of changing the topic failed to restore the color to Li Hui's face.
In fact, not only Li Hui, but also the recruits on the city wall who only had cold hands and feet out of fear and had no effect from the beginning to the end, looked just like Li Hui, pale and defeated.
Not surprisingly, this is a psychological obstacle that most recruits will encounter when they first enter the battlefield. Only when these people realize that can they be regarded as true soldiers and have the opportunity to fight on a cruel battlefield.
Survive.
As for this kind of thing, you have to rely on yourself to realize it, and it is difficult for outsiders to help.
As for saying to your companions on the battlefield that it doesn’t matter, I can protect you, this is not actually helping the other party, but harming the other party. Protection? How long can one soldier protect another soldier?
In many cases, the most common thing is that after a few battles, two people die together.
Soldiers who dare not kill the enemy are just a burden on the battlefield and will kill other people. This is something that the veterans already know very well.
Therefore, Yangwu and Lebao did not persuade Li Hui, but waited for the latter to make his own realization.
"Hmm? The brothers in the city went to drag out the corpse? It seems it's over."
"Yeah, it's over..."
"Tsk, those slave soldiers are too stupid, aren't they? That's a Lian Nu. It's a Lian Nu that shoots crossbow bolts through several people without any problem! Don't they know that they can't rush through?"
"Because they didn't know, they all died." Le Bao said calmly: "The death was worthless... Those Jiejiao people used it to consume the physical strength of our army, they were just here to die..."
"Ah." Yang Wu murmured.
At the same time, on the tower of the west city gate, General Wu Ji looked expressionlessly at the Jiejiao slave soldiers who were blocked in the fire sea in the western suburbs outside the city, and then turned his gaze to the Jiejiao army further away.
In this formation, look towards the place where the Jiejiao battle flag is flying.
We don't intend to stop here, Jiejiao... They obviously lost 20,000 to 30,000 slave soldiers, but they are indifferent. Moreover, they don't seem to be surprised by this... It's strange, could it be that the Jiejiao people have already known about it?
Our army's repeated crossbows and fierce fire oil?
Looking at the unexpectedly quiet Jiejiao cavalry outside the city, Wu Ji frowned.