The winter sun rose again from the surface of the earth and shone on a small forest forty miles south of Xiangcheng. The air was filled with coldness, more than a dozen horses were tied to the trees around them, and hundreds of soldiers leaned crookedly together, they were lying, leaning, or sitting. From the tired face and the more or less scars on the body, it can be seen that this is a remnant of the army that has suffered a lot.

In the center of the crowd, Li You, who was lying flat on the car, was woken up by the pain of the wound, and when he opened his eyes, it was Heifu who was changing the blood cloth wrapped in his wounds.

"Hef."

Li You looked at the subordinate in front of him who was bandaging his wounds with skillful techniques, his mood was a little complicated, and after a long time, he said weakly: "Who borrowed your guts to let you escape with Captain Bendu?" ”

As soon as these words came out, the people around them opened their eyes, especially the military judge, who stood behind Heifu and clenched his sword, as if as long as Li You gave an order, he could behead Heifu!

But Heifu was silent, he continued the work in his hands, and retreated the wound that was hastily bandaged last night with silk, and after carefully tying the last knot, he took a step back and said:

"On the orders of the general, after the palace of the army, you can't retreat half a step, this is the duty of the captain."

"As soon as the military order is given, you must move forward and behead and kill the enemy, this is the duty of ordinary soldiers."

"Defend the left and right, protect the wings of the captain, everything is headed by the safety of the captain, this is a short soldier's job."

"Last night, the Chu army attacked fiercely, our army has resisted for more than two moments, but it is outnumbered, the army has collapsed, the general intends to martyrdom, does not want to retreat, but if the general dies, even if our short soldiers escape smoothly, they will still be investigated and beheaded. Therefore, in the eyes of the subordinates, I am just doing my duty, and if the lieutenant thinks that I am guilty, please kill him by military law! ”

After that, Heifu bowed down on one knee, and the short soldiers who survived thanks to him also surrounded him, and Dongmen Leopard, Ji Ying, Gongao and others bowed down together: "If the hundred generals do their duty to rescue the captain, they are also guilty, and we should die together!" “

"Well, yes, you are really just doing your duty, what is the crime? If you want to be guilty, I am defeated in this battle, and I can't escape the crime of overthrowing the army. ”

Li You closed his eyes weakly, he felt that his whole body was about to fall apart, especially the chest that was hit by the arrow, it was even more scorching, and the soft sunlight of the early morning seemed to touch the sadness in his heart, making him sad inexplicably.

In retrospect, yesterday's battle was simply a disaster, when the Nanjun soldiers who were ordered to be behind the palace gradually collapsed and defeated under the impact of the Chu people, Li You just wanted to scold.

scolded the arrogant and reckless Li Xin, and scolded Meng Tian who arranged his palace.

Li You has two choices, one is to die in the military formation and die on the battlefield, but he has just married the eldest princess of King Qin, it is when the wine marriage is matched with a new life and the career is promising, how could he be willing to die here inexplicably?

The second is to leave the army behind, turn around and run, but in that case, it will be a violation of military law.

The military law of the Qin State has a saying: all battles, and the generals abandon the soldiers who are alone in the north, and they will be killed.

Before Li You could make a choice, his position was attacked by a rain of arrows shot by Chu archers, although Heifu and other short soldiers immediately went to the chariot and raised their shields to block many arrows for Li You, but the unlucky Li You was still shot in the chest by stray arrows, and the horses of the chariot also ran in panic and threw him off the cart......

At this time, Heifu led someone to help Li You, shouted "protect the captain", and left the battlefield with hundreds of short soldiers before the Chu army rushed over.

Li You once wanted to vent his anger on the short soldiers for not fighting to the death and leaving the battlefield, but when he opened his eyes and saw that Heifu carefully wrapped his wounds, he still didn't make up his mind after all, he was right, everyone was just loyal to their respective duties.

"I was ordered to be behind the palace, and I was several times the strength of the Chu people, and I held on to the end, and I didn't abandon the army and fled."

There is a big difference between abandoning the army and fleeing and being invincible, the former will be considered a "national thief" and the crime will not be forgiven, and the latter will be a helpless move.

The generals who fought with the enemy but were unfortunately defeated, although they were supposed to be executed, could still atone for their crimes with their titles. This system has a long history in the Qin State, as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, Qin Mugong forgave the defeat of the Jin army in the Battle of Kun, and also made the three generals of Meng Mingshi, Xi Qishu, and Bai Qi Bing, who were captured, and restored their official positions as before. A few years later, the three generals were disgraced in one fell swoop, and the troops attacked Jin, crossed the river and burned boats, and defeated the Jin people to avenge the battle.

Therefore, the Qin State has continued this tradition, and will not be too harsh on the defeated generals, after all, except for Wu Anjun Bai Qi, no one dares to say that he can win a hundred battles.

In the past, generals such as Wang Di and Meng Fu also fought several defeats, and even suffered major defeats, overthrowing the army and losing land, and finally relied on the title to atone for the crime, and they were not executed, and after a few years of silence, they were appointed again. After the fact, these generals will learn a lesson and be even more fond of making meritorious contributions.

"The main culprits in this battle lie with Li Xin and Meng Tian, and I will atone for the crime with my title, and at most I will be exempted from being the head of Qian."

It's useless to think about things that are too far away, let's get out of danger first, Li You raised his head and asked.

"Where is the Lord of the Five Hundred Soldiers?"

No one responded, and Heifu's head bowed: "Five hundred lords are the queen of the Captain's Palace, and they have died in the chaos." ”

"It's a pity."

Li You sighed, he was seriously injured last night and fell off the carriage again, and was in a coma for a while, during which he was placed in the carriage by short soldiers, and he was also half unconscious, losing the ability to command, so he didn't know what happened later.

"How many people have you gathered in total?"

"More than 600 people were gathered, of which 400 were short-handed soldiers. The military officers only have three short-handed generals left, and another ordinary hundred generals."

"So little!?"

Li You was shocked, the Nanjun soldiers under his command were not full, unlike other captains, there were 10,000 people under his command, but there were 5,000 at all, why did only so many people escape?

After Heifu and Zhai Chong and other hundred generals next to him glanced at each other, they confessed: "I haven't told the lieutenant yet, the situation was critical, the soldiers were scattered, and most of them ran west along Yingshui, but we saw that the Chu army also sent chariots and horses to chase after them, so we didn't choose to go west, but went south...... This matter is discussed by us together, and I hope that the captain will not be blamed. ”

"To the south?"

Li You was startled again, and there was a pain in his chest again, he eased up, and looked at the strange forest around him: "Where is this?" ”

"Forty miles south of Xiangcheng."

Cheng Shang, a haggard Qin Guomo, also came over, he was also caught in the chaos of the army, separated from Tang Fuzi and Tang Duo, and finally could only follow this team to the south, along the way, he was secretly calculating the itinerary.

"Map."

Li You wanted people to take a look at the map, but Heifu and the others just looked at each other and said embarrassedly: "Captain, you withdrew too hastily and didn't bring a map." ”

Li You was helpless, but fortunately, he was originally from Shangcai, and he had an impression of the surrounding cities, so he pointed out a few short-handed generals and drew a general direction on the ground.

First there is the Yingshui and Rushui flowing to the southeast, and then there are the cities dotted around......

"The direction that General Meng Tian retreated to should be the front line of Dun and Yangcheng."

Hefu was recounting the scene they saw when they evacuated last night, Meng Tian had gathered about 20,000 remnants of the army, and now they knew that it was not Li Xin who led everyone to besiege Xiangcheng, but Meng Tian.

"The pursuit route of the Chu army should also be this road, or it wants to take advantage of the situation to recover the cities along the way."

Although Meng Tian gathered a small half of the Qin army and did not completely disperse, the Chu army chased the dead and chased the north along the way, and must have been able to kill and injure many people. So last night, the black man took Li You to avoid his edge and go south, which was undoubtedly a correct choice, the Chu people came from the east and north, and the south that had just been swept by Li Xin's troops did not have a single soldier.

"You can go to Pingyu."

Li You recalled the military situation that Meng Tian informed them, and pondered: "Half a month ago, General Li Xin sent troops from Shangcai, Lianke Pingyu and Bedqiu, defeated the Chu army, and left some soldiers in the local area, and Pingyu even had 3,000 soldiers......

As long as they arrive in Pingyu, they will be safe, and Li You can also get better treatment, Heifu has already said that he will only wrap the wound to stop the bleeding, and the more complicated gold sore treatment will be helpless, and the doctors in the camp have long been missing.

Li You is now extremely hopeful that he can leave the battlefield that brought him painful memories as soon as possible, return to Xianyang alive, and return to his newly married wife.

Thinking of this, he regained his strength, and said to the hundreds of generals who gathered around to listen to the order: "It will take about a day and a night from here to Pingyu, and we will ...... it."

Before he could finish speaking, a sharp pain in his chest hit him again, and Li You spat out a mouthful of blood and sprayed it on the simple map he had just drawn, staining Yingru red!

"Captain!"

Heifu and the others hurriedly helped Li You and asked him to lie down again.

"That arrow, I'm afraid it hurt my lungs, and the lieutenant needs to recuperate, and don't talk more."

"It seems that I can't even leave the Chu State with you in person."

Li You laughed weakly, he lost a lot of blood, and he could faint again at any time, and at most he could make a big evacuation direction, but this is the territory of the Chu State, and there are enemies everywhere, who knows what he will encounter along the way?

Therefore, they need a commander to replace Li You and respond to the situation.

In the Qin army, five people were armed, ten people were even, hundreds of people were killed, thousands of people were rated, and ten thousand people were generals. In battle, the commander dies in the morning, someone will take over in the morning, and if he dies in the evening, someone will take over at night, and the order of command succession is similar to that of later generations, first look at the rank, and then look at the rank (knighthood) if the rank is the same.

It stands to reason that when Commander Li You is unable to command, the command should be handed over to the commander and the 500 lord temporarily. But now that the five hundred masters of the short soldiers have died, the heavy responsibility of leading everyone out of the Chu realm can only be handed over to the four little hundred generals in front of them.

Li You, a hundred generals of the Nanjun soldiers named "Man", had no impression, probably running with him in the chaos, so he naturally didn't take it into consideration.

Among the three short-handed generals, Zhai Chong's title is just not better, not as good as the other two, and he has also lost his qualifications.

Li You looked at the remaining two, one was a hundred generals who had followed him since Xianyang, named Xu Yang, their family was a small nobleman with military merits, and they had been officials for generations, so they were a very good candidate, and Xu Yang was also looking at Li You eagerly at the moment.

But in the end, Li You set his sights on Heifu.

This little hundred generals from Anlu County, Nanjun County, who didn't even have a clan, started with a simple stack of quilts, which attracted Li You's attention. After becoming his short soldier, he made suggestions and suggestions, further showing his resourcefulness that he could not see on the outside.

What's even more rare is that Heifu is still very enterprising, and during the period when the army was stationed, he borrowed Li You's "Wu Sun Tzu" to observe, and also copied two volumes by hand. The 100 people under his command are also the most morale and order among the soldiers in Nanjun, and the system is still intact today.

"Hef, come closer." Li Youdao.

Heifu immediately came to Li You, who was lying down, and knelt on one knee.

Li You took out the tiger talisman he carried with him and handed it to Heifu: "Who can command on my behalf and bring everyone out of danger, who else can you be?" ”