About half a pillar of incense passed, and Mu Partridge finished blowing it for the second time.

Although the soldiers on the border of the Xia Kingdom were reluctant, they had no choice but to let the general leave because they had spoken first.

However, when the general left, they gave the former a great cheer, which can be described as a farewell in the middle of the road.

"General! Your trick is really amazing----- ”

Even Ding Run, the head of the guard, who had repeatedly reminded Mu Partridge to leave early, couldn't help but whisper praise at this moment.

Mu Partridge smiled slightly.

It is too hypocritical to be heartily recognized, supported and embraced by so many people, and to insist on saying that you are not happy.

But when he thought of the huge number of casualties, his heart was still a little blocked.

"That's all I could have done------

He sighed slightly.

"General."

In the distance, Luo Tao, with several military attaches under his command, walked towards Mu Partridge.

"General, it's really versatile, I just listened carefully, and that song is really ------- beautiful." Luo Tao hurriedly praised.

Before the words fell, the rest of the military attachés also spoke in admiration.

"Where, where, let you see the smile." Mu Partridge arched his hand towards everyone, and said with a humble face: "Ben General just feels that the sacrifice in this battle is too great, and his heart is also sad, thinking of these generals and young people, so he =====."

As soon as they heard the casualties of this battle, the smiles on the faces of Luo Tao and the big guy gradually converged.

You must know that the defenders on the south gate have lost thousands of elite border soldiers and young men today, which is not a small amount.

After a few pleasantries, everyone got down to business.

The advice of these military attachés was similar to that of Luo Tao, and they all proposed to take advantage of the defeat of the Xihu army today and pursue it while they were victorious.

But Mu Partridge shook his head and vetoed their suggestion of being greedy and reckless: "Although Xihu is newly defeated today, and many slave soldiers have been lost, the elite cavalry of Xihu has suffered almost no losses, to put it bluntly, our side is still at a disadvantage, if we want to force Xihu back in one go, and force Dorji Bugun to lead the army to retreat, we still need a big victory." ”

"That being said, it's a big win...... Where is it so easy to get? ”

Luo Tao and the military attaches looked at each other.

"Don't be anxious, you will observe Xihu for another three days. In three days, there will be a decision! ”

"In that case, then follow what the general says!"

Now that the main generals have been decided, the big guy nodded. Agree!

That night, these soldiers of the Xia Kingdom really lit bonfires and torches and disposed of the corpses in the area of the southern city wall.

I have to say that because the number of enemy soldiers in the area of the southern city wall is so large today, that the soldiers and soldiers on the border of the Xia Kingdom have been busy until late at night.

However, despite this, no one shouted tiredness or complained dissatisfied.

I saw the soldiers, carrying the corpses by the light of the torches, while humming the music played by Mu Partridge on the grass flute.

This surprised many of the soldiers who did not come to listen to Mu Partridge's playing.

No, a soldier grabbed Xu Wei, who was humming this song, and asked in surprise: "Hey, brother, what is that humming in your mouth?" ”

I saw Xu Wei smile and said, "Hehe, this is a tune that the general blew with blades of grass near the southern city wall around dusk------ it's good!" ”

"Okay, okay, don't talk about these useless things." The soldier was obviously not interested in whether the song was good or not, and interrupted Xu Wei's words impatiently, but asked curiously about the tune: "The tune played by King Su?" Why? ”

"Why?" Xu Wei scratched his head and said with a natural expression: "In memory of the sacrificed soldiers, our Xia State border army is the general's descendant army." ”

"Remembering the soldiers who died? Did the general play that tune on the southern city wall? The nearby soldiers gathered around.

Seeing this, it seems that Xu Wei and other soldiers who were fortunate enough to listen to the scene praised the grass flute played by Mu Partridge, and even, several soldiers of the Xia Kingdom also learned to use the grass flute to try to play, but unfortunately the technique was too poor, and the soldiers who had heard Mu Partridge play were buried for a while.

Subsequently, as more and more soldiers of the Xia State border discussed this matter, the matter of "General Mu, the general defending the city, played a song on the south city wall to commemorate the sacrificed soldiers" quickly spread throughout the entire Xia border army in the city, so that those soldiers who had not heard of this matter and had not been present to listen to it beat their chests for a while.

And Liang Stork, who had a few words of conversation with Mu Partridge, and another soldier who begged Mu Partridge to play another song, became the object of jealousy of the soldiers on the border of the Xia Kingdom in the blink of an eye, and for a time he was in the limelight in the army, which can be regarded as famous.

In just a few days, this grass flute song, like a storm struck, became a small song that almost everyone in the soldiers and young men of the Xia Kingdom could hum two sentences.

Even in the future, when the border army of the Xia Kingdom mourned the sacrifice of Tongze after the war, they would play this song on the grass flute as a farewell to their comrades.

Nothing was said all night.

The next day, that is, on the 24th, the Xihu people gathered again on the west, north, and south walls of Dingyuan City to attack the city again.

I have to say that maybe I couldn't see it yesterday, but today, there is a significant gap in the morale of the two armies of the Xia border army and the Xihu slave soldiers.

I saw that the soldiers on the southern city wall of the Xia Kingdom were still as high as yesterday, and even faintly had a fierce momentum that was even more desperate than yesterday; On the other hand, those slave soldiers are like beasts that have been plucked out of their claws, and they no longer have the madness of yesterday, as if they are sick and languishing.

As a result, the soldiers of the Xia State on the southern city wall today only relied on yesterday's "remnants of a battalion" to block the offensive of those Xihu slave soldiers. Immediately, Luo Tao, who was in charge of commanding the overall situation, responded to the situation, removed some of the shield hands, replaced them with a group of crossbowmen, and actually blocked those Xihu slave soldiers under the city.

Probably realizing that the situation was inviolable, the Xihu army only attacked for an hour today and withdrew its troops.

On the 25th, the Xihu people attacked Dingyuan City again, which was also the same as a few days ago, but as a result, the army attacked Dingyuan City for only half an hour, and the Xihu people hastily withdrew their troops.

After the war, the soldiers of the Xia Kingdom on the southern city wall were puzzled.

Because of the fierce battle on the 23rd, the offensive of the Xihu slave soldiers in the next two days was not fierce at all, as if those slave soldiers were purely here to send them to death.

Is that their delusion?

Of course not!

The reason for the consideration is nothing more than that the generals of the border army of the Xia State have high morale after listening to Mu Lu's words.

And those slave soldiers, the Xihu Khan Duoji Bugong and the Xihu soldiers under his command, will they care about the state of the slave soldiers under their command like Mu Partridge?

The difference in treatment made the Xihu army more and more unable to shake the rock-solid Dingyuan City, although it still had an absolute advantage in terms of troops.

After three defeats in three battles, Xihu Khan Duoji Bugong finally began to panic.

In all fairness, in the battle on the 23rd, to be honest, Duoji Bugong was quite satisfied, don't look at the fact that he lost as many as 80,000 slave soldiers in that battle, but he also succeeded in making the Dingyuan City side pay more than 10,000 casualties, the casualty ratio of one to eight seems to be exaggerated, but in the eyes of Duoji Bugong is not unacceptable.

You must know that at this moment, the food of the Xihu army is now becoming more and more tense, rather than keeping those Hu slaves to grab food from their Xihu people, it is better to pull them all out to fight with the Xia border army, and if you kill a slave, you will have one less mouth to feed, if you are lucky enough to kill a Xia border army, it will be an unexpected gain.

What Dorji Bugong never expected was that on the second day, that is, the battle on the 24th, the Hu slaves enslaved by his Xihu appeared the phenomenon of "powerless succession".

On the other hand, the soldiers of the Xia Kingdom on the southern wall of Dingyuan City, they gave Duoji Bugong the feeling that they were like a rainbow of morale, and they were even more brave than yesterday's fierce battle.

It's incredible!

Because it stands to reason that after any army in the world has suffered heavy casualties, its morale will be reduced. On the 23rd, the losses of the Xia border army were not insignificant, and Duoji Bugong estimated that there were at least more than 10,000 people.

And as far as Dorji Bugong knows, the Xia border army guarding Dingyuan City has a total of only tens of thousands, and 10,000 people died in a single day, how is this not a "major casualty?"

But the reality is that after the Xia border army suffered such heavy casualties, their morale on the second day did not fall but increased, and they were even more brave than the first day.

Could it be that this is what the Central Plains people said about "mourning soldiers will win"? ”

General Dorje Bugun was suspicious, and seeing that the situation was unfavorable to his side, he quickly chose to withdraw his troops, only waiting for a comeback tomorrow.

After waiting for the 25th, Duoji Bugong once again led a large army to besiege Dingyuan City.

But what I didn't expect was that the battle situation on their Xihu side that day was even worse than yesterday, and those slave soldiers, there were more than 100,000 empty, and they actually became a unilateral massacre by the border army of Xia State.

On the 23rd, the Hu slaves who had brought great oppression to the Xia border army were like rushing to the Xia people's blades to die today, whether it was fighting spirit or bravery, not to mention that it was not as good as the day before yesterday, even compared to yesterday.

"The morale of the Xia people...... Why don't you reduce it? ”

After returning to the camp where the army was stationed, Dorje Bugun couldn't figure it out.

He didn't know that in fact, the morale of the Xia border army had also dropped sharply on the night of the 23rd, but at that time, Mu Partridge happened to bump into this incident, and skillfully raised the morale of the Xia border army and those young men through a grass flute song and some inspiring words.

Dorje Bugun, on the other hand, did not guide the slave army with even heavier losses when he returned to camp that day, so it is obvious that the morale of the slave soldiers had plummeted due to the huge casualties.

In fact, it may be that many slave soldiers no longer have any hope for this battle, and are simply fighting with the belief that "if I die on the battlefield, my family will survive".

On the one hand, under the encouragement of Mu Partridge, the Xia border army tried to survive this battle tenaciously, and on the other hand, there were slave soldiers who had little fighting spirit.

Advance, can not advance, now there are still tens of thousands of troops in Dingyuan City, occupy the city, do not give Duoji Bugong the slightest opportunity to take advantage of, and retreat...... Where can they retreat?

Yesterday, Dorji Bugong and the leaders of the small and medium-sized tribes under his tent received news from the rear again that the border army of the Xia Kingdom had indeed attacked the camp of the Wuchi tribe and killed all the men and sheep of that tribe.

Although women and children were not slaughtered, the problem was that when a tribe loses its flock of sheep for survival, it loses everything.

You know, it's autumn now, and winter will soon be ushered in, and the tribes that have lost their flocks will not be able to survive this winter unless they have the support of the rest of the tribes.

But the question is, which tribe will be supported?

Now the tribes in the Dorji Bugong felt tent, these tribes themselves are not guaranteed, what can we talk about helping other tribes?

"Great Khan, this battle cannot be fought again."

As one of the core tribes that make up the major tribes of Xihu, the leader of the Huqi tribe, Jibha, couldn't help but persuade: "If you continue to fight, even if you capture Dingyuan City, it will be more than worth the loss." The Wuchi tribe was viciously retaliated against by the Xia border army, and the men who stayed behind and the sheep that grazed were all killed----"

Hearing this, the leaders of the large, medium and small tribes in the tent couldn't help but glance at the leaders of the Wuchi tribe.

I saw that the leader had a silent expression, and drank wine in his tent, as if he didn't care about this council.

That's right, because his tribe is finished, and it doesn't matter to him if he can't go back.

If Duoji Bugong wants to continue to attack Dingyuan City, then continue to fight, anyway, even if he doesn't die on the battlefield today, once winter comes, the remaining warriors of their tribe still have to take refuge in other tribes in order to get food to survive the winter.

Waiting for those tribal warriors to defect to other tribes for food, what is the use of his leader holding a tribal title?

The entire Wuchi tribe is already finished.

Of course, the leader of the Wuchi tribe has looked down on life and death, victory and defeat, which does not mean that the rest of the tribes are willing to give up their homeland, and are willing to watch the iron hooves of the Xia border army trample their tribe and kill their flock.

Therefore, when the Greyhorn Khan Jibha made a plea to "disband the army and return to the tribal garrison", he immediately won the support of the rest of the leaders in the tent, and the angry Dorji Bugun turned blue and angrily drove the group out.

"A plate of loose sand! A plate of loose sand! ”

After driving away the leaders, Dorje Bugon went furious in the felt tent and kicked over everything he could.

"Don't those people understand that if we don't unite to contain the Xia people at this time, the Xia people will wantonly invade our grassland?!"

Just when Dorje Bugun was furious, the young Xihu warrior Senge walked into the felt tent and saw that Dorji Bugun was angry, so he waited quietly aside.

After a long time, Dorje Bugun finally finished venting the anger in his heart, glanced at Senge, and asked in a low tone, "What do you say?" ”

Senge shook his head and whispered, "I conveyed the meaning of the Great Khan, but they are not willing to go to war!" ”

"Refusal? Why refuse?! Dorji Bugun roared angrily: "Don't he know that the Xia Kingdom will be my confidant and great enemy? ”

Senge hesitated for a moment and said, "They also have an explanation about this matter. He said that the Xia State was now focused on South Vietnam in the south, and in the north and northwest, the Xia people did not have an urgent need for land, and there was no reason to send troops to invade. He said that he would not be an enemy of a powerful country that does not have a conflict of interest. ”

"Fart!" Hearing this, Dorji Bugong scolded: "Could it be that he still supports peace and neighborliness with the Xia Kingdom?" In that case, why didn't they send a ...... to participate in the Xia people's support" Speaking of this, Duoji Bugong was suddenly stunned, and then seemed to understand something, and scolded tremblingly: "Okay, these guys, it turned out that I Xihu wanted to test the reaction of the Xia Kingdom for them...... Hmph, what a good idea! ”

After that, Dorje Bugun spat and asked, "Even that one refuses?" ”

"Yes." Senge nodded and said, "That one said that there are people in the Xia State border army stationed in the border states who support them, so out of interest, he will not interfere in this war." ”

Dorje Bugun opened his mouth and was speechless.

"It seems that we can only ask for help from the north......" After thinking for a moment, Dorji Bugun said wistfully.

It seems that all these events are becoming more and more unfavorable to Dorje Bugun.

"It seems...... Almost. ”

On the 26th, when the border army scouts who had quietly left the city to spy on the situation in Xihu's camp reported to Mu Partridge what they had seen and heard, Mu Partridge touched his chin and muttered thoughtfully.

At the end of the month, there are only four days left.

At noon on the 26th, after a few days, Mu Partridge once again gathered all the generals under his command together.

Unlike the first military meeting held on the eve of the arrival of the Xihu army, today, the mood of the big guys is very peaceful.

It is no wonder, after all, in the past three days, the Xihu Army's poor record of three battles and three defeats has made the generals clearly see the dawn of winning this war.

Although the border troops of the Xia Kingdom on the city walls suffered heavy losses, they did not reduce their excitement at all, because everyone could see it: the Xihu tribe is defeated!

Anyway, the guys who are busy with this matter are handling today's military meeting as a celebration banquet, and they have prepared scones and wine. There was even some meat to prepare.

Seeing this, Mu Lu simply invited several captains under the command of Luo Tao of the Xia State Border Army, anyway, he didn't think that this battle would be lost.

After three rounds of wine and five flavors of food, Mu Partridge ended the previous chats with the leaders, and gradually brought the topic into the current battle situation.

"Fortunately, with the strong support of your comrades, now that the defeat of Xihu has been decided, there is only a glimmer of anger left, and what I want to discuss with you this time is not how to defeat the Xihu people, but how to end this battle with minimal losses."

Hearing this, all the generals present were slightly stunned, because listening to the tone of the general in front of him, he seemed to have a plan.

"Isn't the general already thinking of a brilliant idea?"

A military general at the same table cheered at the right time.

"It's not a good idea." Mu Partridge waved his hand and said with a smile: "The general thought to himself, now the Xihu army in the western suburbs of Dingyuan City still has about 150,000 or 60,000 people, or even more, but according to what Ben Jiang heard when he attacked my Dingyuan City in the past few days, the number of Xihu cavalry seems to be much less than before, and Ben Jiang guessed that most of the brothers on the periphery led away some of the Xihu cavalry......"

Because he was not sure, Mu Partridge chose the word "lead away", but in fact, the peripheral army led by Han Boxian had already solved seven or eight thousand or even nearly 10,000 Xihu cavalry for him, so it is no wonder that when Mu Partridge watched on the city wall, he found that the number of Xihu cavalry outside the city was obviously much less.

“…… Ben will estimate that among the 150,000 or 60,000 Xihu men and horses, there are about 30,000 or 40,000 Xihu cavalry, and the rest are as many as 1120,000, most of which are slave soldiers. ”

"-------" The generals present looked at each other.

After a long time, Luo Detao asked cautiously: "Dare to ask the general, I don't know how to make those Hu slaves turn against him?" ”

"It's easy." Mu Partridge picked up his wine glass and said casually: "Ben General is thinking about how to inform those slaves of Ben General's decision, "Any slave who comes to Dingyuan City with a head of Xihu cavalry, Ben will grant him permission to restore his freedom, and after Xihu retires, he and his family will be allowed to survive on the land of my Lingzhou." ”

It has to be said that if this strategy works smoothly, it can definitely be called a "desperate plan" for the Xihu people, and under the temptation of "regaining freedom", those Xihu slave troops who have gradually lost the belief in defeating the Xia border army are very likely to rebel and try to kill a Xihu cavalry for the freedom of themselves and their families.

Thirty or forty thousand Xihu cavalry, about 100,000 slave soldiers, no one can guarantee that those Xihu cavalry, who are proud on weekdays, will not be killed by the slave soldiers they have always looked down on.

Of course, even if those slave soldiers are not the opponents of the thirty or forty thousand Xihu cavalry, Mu Lu doesn't matter, because as long as there are no Xihu slave soldiers, those so-called Xihu cavalry are just moving targets in front of the crossbows of the Xia border army.

But what made Mu Partridge a little puzzled was that this strategy was obviously quite good in his opinion, but the khans present had strange faces one by one, and no one agreed with it.

"What's going on ----- this?"

Mu Partridge couldn't help but be a little surprised, after all, in his opinion, this was indeed a good idea, but why didn't anyone support it?

He looked around the tent and found that all the generals had expressions of wanting to speak and stopping, and even Luo Tao, who had the best relationship with him, seemed to have some concerns and did not dare to say what was in his heart.

Seeing this, Mu Lu set his eyes on Luo Detao and asked, "Luo Detao, what do you want to say?" ”

Hearing this, Luo Tao subconsciously glanced at the other generals present, and saw that they were all looking at him with earnest eyes, and secretly smiled bitterly in his heart.

However, Mu Partridge asked him personally, and he just had to open his mouth.

"Before discussing this matter, the last general dared to ask the general what he thought of it...... Looking at "slavery"? ”

"Slave ......"

Mu Lu pondered the word for a while, and then glanced around at the generals present, and then had some understanding in his heart, and said with a smile: "I'm afraid that what Luo Detao wants to ask is not "how will Ben view slavery", but "How will Ben view the existence of slaves", right? ”

Seeing that Mu Partridge had broken through this matter, the generals present couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive in their hearts.

"Enslaving the loser", that is, when a war breaks out between two forces, and after one side defeats the other, all the men and women of the latter are reduced to slaves, making cattle and horses for the victorious side, which is a common thing.

For example, in the Xia Kingdom, when the Xia border army captured a piece of land, although it was committed to absorbing it into the Xia family, it was inevitable that many people would become slaves, although in essence, it was still the royal family and the nobles who ruled the commoners, and the people of this land would still be exploited by the Xia nobles, the difference was only that these people were exploited by the local nobles at the beginning, and now they have been replaced by the nobles of the Xia Kingdom.

In fact, in the Central Plains country, even in the Xia country, slave forms like house slaves abound.

"Slavery, Ah......"

Thinking of this, Mu Partridge was a little hesitant.

Man, enslaving man, this is a very barbaric act, and Mu Partridge also supports this idea.

But the problem is that slavery was a very important part of ancient cultures

This is the same as when the Xia people became developed, they would also buy a few properties and buy some house slaves to clean the yard and handle trivial chores.

Don't be surprised, in this day and age, this phenomenon is "common sense"!

And if you forcibly resist this phenomenon, you can only say that you are an enemy in this era.

This is also the reason why after Mu Lu mentioned the "free slaves", all the generals present looked strange, after all, Xia is not a country that "refuses to admit the existence of slaves". Such a rash recognition of the slave's right to freedom will also have a certain impact on the Xia Kingdom itself! These military attachés have more or less a lot of domestic slaves in their families!

After pondering for a long time, Mu Partridge said as if talking to himself: "Slaves are also one of the wealth. ”

This sentence is equivalent to acquiescing in the continued existence of slaves.

Hearing this, the generals who were always paying attention to the general's expression breathed a sigh of relief.

The tension caused by a small episode disappeared in an instant, and everyone present happily discussed the "last battle" proposed by Mu Partridge.

"The last battle", this is the name given by Mu Partridge himself, which means "the last battle with the Xihu army that can be called the victory of the war", its purpose is to inflict heavy damage on the Xihu cavalry, so that in the composition of the Xihu army, the ratio of the Xihu cavalry and the Xihu slave soldiers is unbalanced, so that Mu Partridge can later use the strategy of luring the Xihu slave soldiers to force back the main force used by Xihu to besiege Dingyuan City in one go.