Chapter 328 Soldier Selection

Half an hour later, 30,000 soldiers of the Sui Army stood in line on the school yard of the big camp. The queue was lined with battle flags, fluttering in the wind, hunting sounded, and the queue of soldiers was neat, all with swords, guns, armor, and full equipment.

However, although their lineup is good, their morale is not high, all of them are tired, solemn, full of sorrow, and occasionally some people can be heard talking and whispering in whispers.

Qu Tutong urged the horse to walk in front of the army, coughed dryly twice, and the originally noisy military formation was instantly quiet.

Qu Tutong's expression was serious, his eyes were as sharp as swords, he glanced back and forth at everyone, and said: "Ladies and gentlemen, at present, the rebel army of Li Thief is strong, and I originally planned to lead everyone to withdraw from Tongguan and break out!"

"However, at this time, we have been surrounded by Li Thief's rebels on all sides, and it is very difficult for the whole army to break through together, so the general is not ready to force everyone to break through together! Originally, I planned to temporarily divide the brothers into three teams, one of which stayed at Tongguan to attract the attention of the rebels and create a breakthrough opportunity for the other two teams..."

"After the two teams break through, one of them will go to Luoyang City, and the other will temporarily go to Donglai County. Now we will let everyone choose freely, whether to go or stay, and which team to follow to break through, all brothers can decide for themselves! ”

...

In the main tent, Qu Tutong stood quietly alone, his face was frosty, very gloomy, the soldiers had made a choice, and the result was very unexpected to him.

He originally thought that in his army, even if there were people with different intentions, even if some people did not want to withdraw to the eastern capital Luoyang, there would definitely not be many, and his pre-estimate was about 3,000 people.

It is precisely because of this that he decided to accept Fang Yanzao's suggestion, and wanted to take the opportunity to eliminate all the unstable elements in the army, after all, 3,000 people only accounted for one percent of the army, and it could not shake the overall strength of the army.

However, out of the three choices, the number of people who chose one did be very small, or even less than 10%, only about 2,900 people.

However, this choice is neither the choice of staying in Tongguan, nor the choice of breaking through to Donglai County, but the choice of going to Luoyang, the eastern capital, which he has always hoped for.

There were about 15,000 soldiers who chose to stay in Tongguan. Among the 15,000 soldiers, 13,000 were from the Guanzhong region, which already included more than ninety and half of the soldiers from the Guanzhong region in the entire army, and another 2,000 were from all parts of the Great Sui.

There were about 12,000 soldiers who chose to break through to Donglai City, and these soldiers came from all over the Great Sui, and even many from Luoyang, the eastern capital.

Of the 2,900 people who chose to go to Luoyang, the eastern capital, except for a small part from all over the Great Sui, more than eighty percent of the soldiers were from Luoyang City. This also shows that if it weren't for the parents, wives and children of these soldiers who still stayed in Luoyang City, they would not necessarily choose to go to Luoyang, and the number of soldiers who were truly loyal to the Great Sui and wanted to go to the Luoyang court to serve them might be much reduced.

The choice of the soldiers made a big joke for Qu Tutong, but he couldn't laugh. If he could have guessed this in advance, he would rather force the soldiers to withdraw to Luoyang City than adopt Fang Yanzao's suggestion, let alone let the soldiers choose first.

It's a pity that now that the results have come out, even if he wants to regret it, he can't do it! After this free choice, the morale of the soldiers has been confused, and if he forcibly declares the result invalid, it is very likely to immediately cause turmoil in the barracks, or even howl in the barracks.

He looked at the map of Da Sui in front of him fixedly, but his eyes were a little scattered and a little helpless, at this time his heart was full of bitterness, loneliness, and sadness.

He really couldn't believe the results of the soldiers' choices, he never thought that the brothers who fought on the battlefield together, were born and died together, and in the end were willing to follow him, it was less than one percent...

"General, Mr. Fang is here!"

The communication of the soldiers interrupted his thoughts, Qu Tutong immediately came back to his senses, stabilized the expression on his face a little, and then said, "Please let him in!"

With permission, Fang Yanzao hurriedly walked in, with a faint hint of joy on his face.

This time, he secretly went to Daxing City from Donglai City, persuaded Qu Tutong's family to evacuate in advance, and secretly came to Tongguan from Daxing City, and what he did all the way was to complete the task assigned to him by Su Shang, persuade Qu Tutong to join the Allied Army, and let Qu Tutong lead the army to withdraw to the counties under the rule of the Allied Army.

However, Su Shang also reminded him that Qu Tutong was very loyal to Yang Guang and it was not appropriate to persuade him directly, so he chose to establish a friendship with Qu Tutong first, and came up with ideas for Qu Tutong, planning to help Qu Tutong lead the army to break out first, and then slowly persuade him.

Of course, he also has some selfish motives. He was worried that Qu Tutong's personality was too straight, and in the end, he would not be able to complete the task by himself, so he strongly suggested that Qu Tutong let the soldiers choose to break through by themselves.

There are two benefits to this advice. First, Qu Tutong could take the opportunity to clear out the unstable elements in the army, reorganize the strength of the army, and facilitate the evacuation of the large army. Second, a group of soldiers who yearn for Donglai City can be selected from Qu Tutong's army and brought to Donglai City.

In this way, even if the mission fails, he can get a credit and not run in vain.

However, the results were very unexpected.

In his preconceived assumption, once the mission failed, if he could win 3,000 soldiers to go to Donglai City, it would be considered a worthwhile trip, and if he could win 5,000 people to go, then even if the mission failed, he would be satisfied.

Unexpectedly, now he got 12,000 people at once, which was more than double the maximum value he expected, which made him surprised and worried at the same time.

He was a little worried that Qu Tutong would be angry and kill himself in a fit of rage, or forcibly invalidate the soldiers' choices. Although the probability of these two things happening is very small and small, it is not impossible, I am afraid that Qu Tutong will be blinded by anger and make a big mistake in a fit of anger.

Therefore, after the results of Fang Yanzao's selection came out, he immediately entered the soldiers who chose to go to Donglai City, publicized the policies and treatment of the allied army to them, and strengthened their choice to go to Donglai City.

At this time, he had just come out of the soldiers' side, so he hurriedly came to the tent to find Qu Tutong, planning to take advantage of this opportunity to persuade Qu Tutong to join the Allied Army.

Of course, he also planned to comfort Qu Tutong, after all, he had also fought on the battlefield, and he understood Qu Tutong's mood at this time.

……