Chapter 441 Sacrifice
On August 8th, the weather was extremely hot and muggy, and the air pressure was extremely low.
Dark clouds kept rolling and gathering, and dull thunder struck from afar from time to time.
On the road to Dingting, the dust rolled into a curtain and spread toward the front, thick and dense. A deathly silence surrounded the battlefield.
In such an atmosphere, Zhang Chong led his army slowly from the dust, and even the noise of distant carriages and horses was calmer than before.
Yang Mao, Cai Que and a group of military officials also stood silently on the side of the road. There was no whispered discussion or eye contact. Everyone looked at the dust, worried and ashamed.
Zhang Chong actually didn't know much about the situation in Dingting. It wasn't until he received the military report from Yang Mao and Cai Que on yesterday's battle early this morning that he knew what he had missed.
Yang Mao is responsible for this part. After he captured Dingting on August 6, he wrote a merit list and said that he had captured Dingting. But no military newspaper was sent back after that.
It wasn't Zhang Chong who got the latest trends of the Zhenbei Army from the Zhen clan, or even Cai Que's support troops were gone.
Zhang Chong himself also broke camp and headed for Dingting as soon as he got the information, but in the end he was still three hours behind.
At this time, he jumped off his horse and looked at Yang Mao, whose lips turned white. Zhang Chong himself blamed himself.
It was his fault in training Yang Mao.
Yang Mao was his first assistant in the military and helped him create the first two hundred seeds. But later Zhang Chong wanted to leave Taishan Shouyi and fight in the Central Plains. At this time, Yang Mao was left in Mount Tai to guard the foundation.
But just with this separation, Yang Mao's ability gradually began to distance himself from the commanders in the army.
After the Taishan army came out of the mountain, they fought a small battle for three days, a big battle for five days, and fought five or six battles with more than 10,000 people. It can be said that these battles greatly tempered the Taishan generals.
At this time, Yang Mao was in the mountains. Although there were soldiers, the intensity could not compare with these.
In this way, Yang Mao naturally lags behind the generals in terms of military command. Not only compared with Guan Yu, Yu Jin, and Zhang Dan, but also compared with Ding Sheng and Dong Fang, he is still far behind.
It's not that Yang Mao is incompetent, but that he has never led an army of more than 10,000 people to carry out any specific tasks. He is very weak in dispatching and timely communication of intelligence with the base camp.
Zhang Chong had previously summoned garrison troops from all over the country and was in urgent need of a commanding general. At that time, Yang Mao came with two thousand Taishan soldiers. With his qualifications and position, this was somewhat underqualified. That's why he placed all the towns under his command and promoted him to this position.
What Zhang Chong was most dissatisfied with Yang Mao was that he had clearly asked for reinforcements in the military report, so he knew he would come, so why did he let Lu Zhi go?
Lu Zhi's Zhenbei Army is the ultimate goal of this Northern Expedition. If this army is not wiped out, the north will not be stable.
But this time, Lu Zhi is let go, and the next opportunity to seize Lu Zhi's main force is unknown when it will be.
So Zhang Chong was very angry, very angry.
But after he led his army into the battlefield at Dingting, he vaguely understood why Yang Mao was like this.
Because at this time, there was a unique smell floating on the Dingting battlefield. It was the smell of corpses, blood, sewage, feces, grass and soil mixed together. It was disgusting.
It is a smell that all battle-hardened generals hate, but it is also the most familiar smell.
But Zhang Chong didn't smell much of something as strong as now, which shows how tragic yesterday's battle was.
So Zhang Chong glanced at Yang Mao, Cai Que and other generals who were lying on the ground, and then said:
"Everyone, get up and take me to the battlefield."
After that, Zhang Chong came to the north of Dingting, where the battlefield was yesterday.
Arriving here, Zhang Chong was shocked by the tragedy of the battlefield.
On the smoking battlefield, corpses were piled high, and officers of the Taishan Army were carrying stretchers to remove some of the wounded who had been left on the battlefield.
However, because the temporary army is a mixed army composed of local garrison troops, the number of military doctors is seriously insufficient, so the rescued wounded can only be placed in an open space to rest, groaning constantly.
Zhang Chong's face suddenly turned red, and he immediately shouted to Guo Zu beside him:
"Hurry up and let the Chinese army's medical and craftsman battalion come here to save people."
Guo Zu did not dare to delay at all, so he mounted his horse and went to deliver the order.
Zhang Chong is a calm person on the outside, but he is extremely emotional on the inside. He feels sorry for and appreciates these officials who are loyal to him from the bottom of his heart.
At this time, he suddenly saw a familiar person and walked up quickly.
He peeled off his bloody face and saw a handsome soldier. This man was the sergeant who had been corporally punished when Zhang Chong visited Yang Mao Camp.
At this time, his eyes were slightly squinted, and his lips were chapped and pale. If it weren't for his slightly panting breath, people would have thought he was dead.
When Zhang Chong wiped the blood on the sergeant's face, the young sergeant woke up in confusion.
He glanced at Zhang Chong, obviously not recognizing him, but hummed:
"Water, do you have any water to drink?"
Zhang Chong touched his waist, but there was no water bag there. At this time, Chang Diao on the side handed his water bag to the sergeant.
But as soon as the man raised his hand, he found that his right hand was gone. Still stunned, Zhang Chong snatched the water bag and put it into his mouth.
Drinking water in a daze, the man was still looking at his severed hand in a daze.
Zhang Chong knew that the sergeant's wound was already inflamed just by looking at the putrid and black arm. He supported the man and forced a smile:
"Do you remember me?"
Zhang Chong's question brought the sergeant back to reality. He glanced at Zhang Chong and finally remembered:
"You know, it's a noble person here. It's all thanks to you that we can still stay in the army."
When the generals around Zhang Chong heard this, they thought it was resentment and ridicule, and they opened their mouths to scold him. But after seeing the suffering of the sergeant, he did not speak out.
But Zhang Chong didn't think it was a mockery. He blamed himself and said:
"Do you blame me? If it weren't for me, you wouldn't be hurt like this."
The sergeant smiled miserably:
"Do we have any complaints? This is our fate. General, didn't you also give us the opportunity to return home with the money, but we can't get over the hurdle in our hearts. Why did the three of us from the same company go out together, and in the end we I can’t afford to lose this person when I go back.”
Then the sergeant raised his severed hand and said with a hint of panic and helplessness:
"It's just that we are useless people. How can we open the fields without hands? The king gave us the land, and I still need to go back and open it."
When the man said this, Zhang Chong burst into tears.
Zhang Chong's sharp eyes had already seen two corpses not far from this person. The names of the Lishe on the arms and shoulders were the same as the sergeant in front of him, which meant that the two people who came out of the Lishe with this person had died in the battle. .
Hearing this man say again, Zhang Chong couldn't hold back his tears when the three of them left the club together and it would be embarrassing to go back alone.
In his mind, he suddenly thought of a sentence, "The court bleeds into sea water, and the Emperor Wu has no intention of opening it." Although Zhang Chong is not the Emperor Wu, he is also a king who affects the fate of thousands of people, just like his current One decision affects the fate of this soldier and his three companions.
Although Zhang Chong has his own vision and self-confidence, and believes that he is doing the right thing, all this still makes Zhang Chong think deeply about how to be careful about himself, cultivate his thoughts forever, and not take the people lightly and accept the difficulties.
Zhang Chong finally said to this person:
"What's your name."
The sergeant said:
"Our name was Ma Huzi. When we entered the camp later, the corps commander thought our name didn't sound good, so he changed our name to Ma Gui."
Zhang Chong said to Ma Gui:
"Don't worry, someone will help you open the land allocated to your family. You have no hand now, but you still have another hand. As long as you work hard, you can still live."
Seeing that Ma Gui didn't believe his words, Zhang Chong added:
"Ma Gui, my name is Zhang Chong, the king you mentioned. If I say you are useful, you will be useful. Do you believe me?"
Sure enough, when he heard this, Ma Gui's eyes lit up and he was suddenly filled with hope:
"You, you, are really the king. Oh wow, okay, we have to talk to the Sixth Son and the others, and tell them that we have also met the king, and now they have to flatter me."
Seeing Ma Gui regaining his confidence, Zhang Chong asked:
"Your injuries are a bit serious now, but you can still be saved. Later, the doctor will cut off your entire arm to see if you can carry it through."
When Na Ma Gui heard that he wanted to cut off his entire arm, he panicked and kept saying that he still wanted the arm because he hadn't found a wife yet.
Zhang rushed to him:
"You can't find a wife if you break your arm? You are my soldier, Zhang Chong. You must have confidence in yourself."
In the end, Ma Gui regained his confidence under Zhang Chong's "intimidation" and was dragged by a stretcher to the back for surgery.
I don’t know if Ma Gui can survive it.
Thinking of this, Zhang Chong suddenly said to Li Heng beside him:
"You ask the generals in the doctor camp to try willow bark and apply the juice of boiled willow bark to the wounds of the wounded soldiers to see if they can reduce inflammation."
Zhang Chong has taught these people the concept of inflammation, and they can understand it.
Li Heng had been in a daze since he followed Zhang Chong to the battlefield. Suddenly he heard Zhang Chong calling him, he hurriedly responded, and then stepped forward.
But I don't know if it was because of my weak legs, but I stepped on the corpse of a Han soldier. The body was dripping with water from the wound on its stomach. Li Heng stepped on it and immediately slipped.
After slipping, Li Heng put his hands on the ground to get up, and then put his hands on a head.
The head was cut off from the neck with a sharp weapon, rolled to the ground, and then probably trampled by a war horse. Its shape was completely lost, and it was just a pile of lumps wrapped in flesh and brains.
Feeling the sticky and wet touch and looking at the internal organs and limbs all over the floor, Li Heng finally couldn't hold himself any longer and vomited in front of Zhang Chong.
Seeing Li Heng's appearance, Zhang Chong knew that he could not pass on the order, so he called another aide.
Zhang Chong did not blame Li Heng, but he had decided in his heart to train the staff secretaries around him one after another to do some practical work.
Then Zhang Chong took the generals to the wounded camp on the side. He didn't need to do anything specific, but as long as he was here, resources would be tilted here, and no one would slack off.
With the support of the Chinese army from the base camp, the cleaning and rescue of the battlefield will become faster.
As in the past, the corpses of the Taishan army will be placed together, while the corpses of the Han army will be piled into pits and buried together.
Ox carts from the supply camp were also used intensively to transport the wounded.
The specific arrangement is as follows. Those who are seriously injured will stay where they are for treatment, while those who are slightly injured and have lost their combat effectiveness will return to the nine gates behind with the baggage. A complete military supply transfer has been built there, where you can get proper treatment.
On the other side of the battlefield, the Taishan army also found a large number of seriously injured Han soldiers on the battlefield, who were abandoned and left on the battlefield.
For Lu Zhi, abandoning the seriously wounded soldiers and evacuating with only the lightly wounded soldiers was saving the lives of these seriously wounded soldiers.
Because he knew very well that if these seriously injured soldiers also accompanied them, not to mention the impact on morale, just because of the torment along the way, none of these seriously injured soldiers would survive.
Instead, he left it on the battlefield and threw it to the Taishan Army, which might save him a life.
Even on the hostile side, Lu Zhi admired the military discipline and benevolence shown by the Taishan Army.
There is always some morality that transcends the narrative of friend and foe and is respected by everyone.
The Taishan Army also recruited some villagers from nearby Lishe. These people were not as simple as imagined. The remaining soldiers after the collapse of the Han Army disappeared under their pitchforks in the past two days.
This kind of hunting of remnants of the army is a gift from nature, and you can always encounter it several times a year.
So when the Taishan Army showed up to recruit them, they were frightened, but after learning that they could get corn by digging holes there, these people came happily.
The battlefield is littered with corpses of both the enemy and the enemy. In this battle, the Han army lost at least 6,000 corpses. Liu Zhibu estimated that there were more than 4,000 corpses, and the Zhenbei army had about 2,000 corpses. They just rested on each other's backs.
The Taishan Army was the same here. Almost the entire army in Zhaojun Town was wiped out, and more than a thousand corpses were left behind. Adding in the corpses from other battalions, the number of corpses reached 3,000.
So there were nearly 10,000 corpses from both armies piled up in this place, so terrifying.
But fortunately, with the arrival of the base camp, the rescue of wounded soldiers has become more systematic. The auxiliary soldiers from the baggage camp helped to put the wounded on the oxcart. The civilians on the car kept giving the prepared water to the wounded, and some auxiliary soldiers also gave them simple bandages.
It can be seen that the Taishan Army is quite scientific and efficient in rescue.
Let’s just talk about this bullock cart, which is also specially designed. Not only is it practical and simple, it also has an extra layer of removable bottom as a stretcher. From another perspective, it can be regarded as a simple ambulance.
Zhang Chong stayed in the wounded barracks until order was stable, then he summoned the generals and began to hand over military affairs.
The first step is to set up camp. Seeing that it is going to rain heavily, it is unrealistic for the whole army to enter Dingtingbi, so we must set up camp quickly.
Then one was left on the battlefield, responsible for gathering the wounded, prisoners, discarded weapons of the Han soldiers, and burying the dead. The soldiers who died in battle were cremated on the spot and gathered together according to the information on their armbands.
These bones will be returned with the baggage logistics together with the personal belongings of the war dead, and then sent to their respective families through the post system in various places.
And the pensions and rewards for these war dead will be delivered soon.
Zhang Chong will never forget those who died for the great cause of the Taishan Army.
(End of chapter)