"I have no face to see the wives, children and children of my dead brothers!"
"It's all my fault. If I hadn't insisted on attacking Fengjiazhuang at that time, I wouldn't have met those officers and soldiers, and my brothers wouldn't have to die miserably. It's all my fault. I was the one who harmed my brothers!"
Seeing Fang Dongquan lying on the ground with a self-blaming look on his face, Li Xuan sighed deeply, feeling a lot in his heart.
On the one hand, he was glad that Fang Dongquan and the others did not rob and kill a large number of people, but on the other hand, he felt sad for the young men of Huangzhushan who died tragically at the hands of the officers and soldiers.
These are all the backbones of his Tang Dynasty. The small Tang Dynasty only has about 500 people in total, and the total number of young and strong people among them will not exceed 150.
However, this time Fang Dongquan came out of the mountain, but all thirty-two people did not come back alive!
It is not an exaggeration to say that it hurts menstruation and bones, but more importantly, behind these thirty-two young men are twenty or thirty families, including wives, children and parents.
After losing their backbone, how will these families survive future difficulties? Or, to put it more simply: How will they survive in the future?
But no matter how many words he had in his heart, he could only sigh at this moment. This defeat was not a crime of war!
Because when Fang Dongquan and others went to attack Fengjiazhuang, they happened to run into officers and soldiers. According to the bandits who came back, the number of officers and soldiers was more than 500, and there were dozens of cavalry among them.
There is no doubt that it was a regular army of the imperial court, not the kind of county warriors who came to attack them in the first place.
Even if the history books state that the army's garrison troops are in decay and have low combat effectiveness, there is still no problem in dealing with bandits like the ones in Huangzhushan, not to mention that the military strength gap between the two sides is nearly ten to one.
If the entire army is not wiped out, and only half of them can escape, that's good.
"General Fang, go back and have a good rest!" Li Xuan looked at the strong man in front of him. Judging from his expression, it was obvious that he had been completely defeated.
It was not because of failure, but because more than half of the brothers he took out did not come back alive. As he said himself, he no longer had the face to face the families of those dead brothers.
Maybe the failure was just due to their own luck, but no matter what, Fang Dongquan's responsibility is very large and cannot be shied away from.
After Fang Dongquan went out as if he had lost his soul, Liu Bagou also sighed: "I didn't expect to encounter such a thing!"
Butcher Chen also looked helpless: "If I had known earlier, I should have gone together. If I had gone, this kind of thing would definitely not happen!"
"What's the use of talking about it now? The top priority is to deal with the aftermath and comfort the families of the fallen soldiers!" Li Xuan said: "Prime Minister, go back and visit the homes of the fallen family members and help as much as you can!"
"I obey the order!" Liu Bagou said: "It's just that this time General Fang failed to receive food when he went out, and our food crisis has not been alleviated!"
Butcher Chen said: "There are so many officers and soldiers now, and the brothers who came back said that those officers and soldiers are entering the mountain. I think they are probably coming for us. It will be too dangerous if we go out of the mountain now. What do you want me to say?
Let’s go grab the Water Dragon Village!”
"Water Dragon Village!" Li Xuan recited these three words repeatedly in his heart.
This is not the first time they have talked about Shuilong Village. They have talked about Shuilong Village many times before, but they have not made up their mind every time.
This is mainly because Shuilong Village is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it is very difficult to attack. If it were easy to attack Shuilong Village, Fang Dongquan would not have chosen to go out to collect grain instead of attacking Shuilong Village at that time, because they felt that attacking Shuilong Village was dangerous at that time.
The nature is much greater than going out to 'collect grain'.
But judging from the current situation, it may be impossible to go out to 'collect grain'.
Let's not talk about whether the officers and soldiers outside the mountain are targeting them. Even if it is good, Fang Dongquan has already alerted the local government once he went out once. The government must be on guard. Maybe there are several officers and soldiers outside the mountain.
Waiting for them to fall into the trap.
The food crisis in Huangzhushan is real, and it is impossible to say that it will not exist without taking care of it.
Immediately, Li Xuan turned to Liu Bagou and said, "Prime Minister, what do you think?"
Liu Bagou said: "Although Shuilong Village is easy to defend and difficult to attack, it is not impossible to fight. It is much better to fight against them than against the officers and soldiers!"
This is for sure. No matter how useless those officers and soldiers are, they still have strong bows, muskets, iron armor, and swords. No matter how poor their combat effectiveness is, bandits like them and the refugees cannot compete, not to mention the numbers of both sides.
The difference is huge.
Bai Yunqi, who rarely spoke in such court discussions, also said at this time: "Our strength is much stronger than that of Shuilong Village. If we attack Shuilong Village, we have a higher chance of success, and if we can get
We can also recruit them into Shuilong Village, which will strengthen our strength!"
When Li Xuan heard these words, he suddenly woke up.
What Li Xuan had been thinking about before was how to solve the food crisis. Whether he was going out to 'collect food' or attacking Shuilong Village, he was all focused on this goal.
But now what Bai Yunqi said made Li Xuan think of another possibility.
That is to increase strength by annexing other bandits.
He is already a rebel with the name of the government, and there is an arrest notice for him outside. Sooner or later, these officers and soldiers will come to attack Huangzhu Mountain. Maybe the officers and soldiers of the guard station who appear outside the mountain are...
Come for yourself.
Under such circumstances, I cannot sit still and wait for death, I must try my best to improve my strength.
In the past, Li Xuan organized and trained the Guards to defend against attacks by officers and soldiers, but now, if Shuilong Village can be incorporated, it will also be able to strengthen its strength and resist the attack by officers and soldiers, which will give it more strength.
Thinking of this, Li Xuan no longer hesitated and made an immediate decision: "In this case, we will start planning to attack Shuilong Village!"
Although he was just a puppet emperor, Fang Dongquan was now disheartened by a big defeat, and even his prestige among the bandits in Huangzhu Mountain had plummeted. Chen Butcher and Bai Yunqi had originally supported the attack on Huangzhu Mountain, so Li Xuan made
There was no objection to this decision.
But Liu Bagou said: "The matter of swordsmanship is extremely dangerous, so we must be cautious when attacking Shuilongzhai!"
Butcher Chen said: "What are you afraid of? Isn't it just a Shuilong Village? I, Old Chen, will get it right away..."
Having said this, he habitually stopped and looked at Liu Bagou.
Liu Bagou silently gave him a hint: "It's easy to catch!"
Butcher Chen said: "Yes, with me, Old Chen, I will definitely be able to capture him when the time comes!"
But even though he said that, Li Xuan couldn't believe the fighting power of these bandits.
He was wondering if he could win Shuilong Village. He might have to rely on his own guards!