Yang Wu galloped all the way, and by the time he arrived at the camp in the east of the city, the horses were already panting and foaming at the mouth. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

He didn't care about anything else, and asked the officer standing in front of the camp on duty, "How is General Li doing now?" ”

Without waiting for the officer to answer, he went straight in.

As soon as he entered, he saw Li Shenfu lying on the couch, his eyes closed, his face pale, and several guards on the side were wiping his body under the command of the doctor, and a few people were fanning on the side.

Wang Maozhang and several other generals saw Yang Wu come in and hurriedly saluted.

Yang Wu waved his hand to stop them and asked in a low voice, "What's the situation?" ”

Wang Maozhang said: "The doctor said that General Li was too tired, and the weather was too hot these days, so that he suffered from heat stroke. As long as you take a break, you can recover. ”

Hearing that it was heat stroke, Yang Wu breathed a sigh of relief, he stepped forward to look at Li Shenfu's situation for a while, pointed outward and whispered, "Let's go out and talk." ”

Several people came to the outside of the tent, Wang Maozhang introduced the situation carefully, and Yang Wu understood. It turns out that Li Shenfu is also in his fifties after all, although he is a military general, his body is still not as good as Yang Wu, Wang Maozhang and other young people.

These days the weather is hot, but he has always been on the front line, and the war has not been smooth, so he fell to the ground after giving the order to retreat, which frightened everyone.

"Is it really just heat stroke?" Yang Wu still asked with some unease.

"That's right, several doctors in the army have confirmed it, and there will be no mistake. Moreover, there were many people suffering from heat stroke in the army during this time, and General Li should be the same. “

Yang Wu was relieved, although heat stroke is also a fatal disease, but since the doctors have said that it is fine, it should be no problem.

He called the doctor again and questioned him carefully, and only after receiving repeated reassurances did he feel relieved.

"Your Highness, let's go to the camp tent of the last general and sit down for a while, the last general has some suggestions to report to His Highness about the siege of the city." At this time, Wang Maozhang proposed.

"Okay."

After sitting down again, Wang Maozhang said with some worry: "Your Highness, the siege must be stopped temporarily, such a big casualty, such a hot weather, the soldiers have complaints!" If you don't stop, maybe something will go wrong! ”

"Yes, it's not okay to not stop, many soldiers are dissatisfied in their hearts, especially those state soldiers mobilized from various states, during this time to redeem them, they suffered the most casualties and the most grievances, so they must stop and rest!" Lu Shizao and other generals also opened their mouths to persuade.

"Rest assured, Ben ordered the siege to be halted before he came here. No matter how you say it, you have to wait until this hottest time passes. Yang Wu said.

In today's situation, not to mention that Wang Maozhang and others are against it, even if they plan to continue to attack the city, Yang Wu has to stop, because the casualties are too great. It is no wonder that so many siege battles in history have finally turned into sieges, with long sieges to wear down the enemy, and this huge casualty alone is unbearable.

Of course, Yang Wu also knew that the defenders in the city were not having a good time at this time, and their casualties were only not much smaller than those of the Huainan army, and it was a miracle that they could survive until now. In fact, the reason why Yang Wu insisted on continuing to attack the city before was that he felt that the casualties of the defenders were also huge, and he had also reached the end of the crossbow, and maybe he could break through the city as long as he worked harder.

So he continued to attack the city with such a mentality, but unfortunately he still underestimated the defensive determination of Qian Biao and others and the defensive means of Cao Gui and other generals.

Hearing that Yang Wu had ordered to stop the siege, Wang Maozhang and other generals were relieved, they were afraid that Yang Wu would continue to attack the city out of face, so that even they themselves did not know what chaos would happen next.

Although these generals have fought a lot of tough battles in the past, there is no one as tragic as the siege of Hangzhou this time. Even in the original battle with Sun Ru, although there were many defeats, the actual casualty ratio of each battle was not comparable to this battle.

The only one who really experienced such a tragic battle may be Qin Pei when he defended Kunshan, when 3,000 troops defended Kunshan, and when the city was finally broken, there were only more than 100 emaciated soldiers left.

In fact, there are so many states in Huainan, and none of them have been defeated by tragic siege battles so far, and basically the defenders have various problems, so that the Huainan army can capture them at a relatively small cost.

"Your Highness, it is already July, and it will not be long before it will be the autumn harvest, and it is useless for those conscripted people to continue to stay in the barracks, and they are worried about the harvest of their farmland, and some of them often flee back without permission during this time. The subordinates felt that since the army was not attacking the city for the time being, it was better to let them go back. At this time, Song Qiqiu, who had been following Yang Wu's side, proposed.

During this time, he, Jiang Mengsun, and Xu Rong stayed in Yang Wu's camp to practice, but more of them helped Yang Wu deal with logistics and other things, but they also did a good job and did nothing wrong.

Yang Wu nodded, turned his head to Wang Maozhang and the others and asked, "What do you think?"

"The subordinates feel that now that the siege has been temporarily stopped, it is really useless to continue to keep these people, and they can be let back." Wang Maozhang said.

The Admiral agreed. The rest of the generals chimed in.

"Well, in that case, let them go back. However, the siege during this period caused a large number of casualties to the people, and they must be compensated. ”

Yang Wu thought for a while and then said in a deep voice: "The families of those who died in battle will be given a pension of five times, and the injured will be given a pension of one to five times depending on the degree of injury. As for the bereavement benefits for the casualties, they will be doubled according to the standard just now! ”

As soon as the words fell, they were unanimously opposed by everyone, and these generals didn't think much about the soldiers' pensions, but the pension standards of those ordinary people seemed a little too high to them.

What's more, they only need a cursory calculation to know that according to Yang Wu's standards, the bereavement expenses alone will only cost more than 400,000 yuan, and with so much spare money, it is better to use it to expand the army on a large scale or use it all to compensate the fallen soldiers.

As for the common people, these generals don't pay much attention to it.

Yang Wu shook his head and said: "There is no need to discuss this matter, since we have recruited them to attack the city, we should give them compensation, otherwise we will support us if we blindly abuse the people's power?" Therefore, the general has made up his mind, and there is no need to discuss this matter again! ”

Seeing Yang Wu's resolute attitude, everyone was helpless.

Jiang Mengsun said: "Your Highness, this year's summer harvest has just ended, because of the adoption of a new tax collection method, now I Huainan are all levy grain and other physical goods. If it is according to the standard of His Highness's husband, I am afraid that the cash will not be enough! ”

Last year, Luo Zhixiang proposed to change the collection of cash to the collection of goods in kind, so as to prevent businessmen from taking the opportunity to raise prices and reduce the burden on the people, and this proposal was approved by Yang Xingmi and others, so it was officially implemented during the summer harvest this year.

It's just that in this way, there are more grain and other goods in the treasury of Guangling Mansion, but the cash is a little insufficient, and you can only rely on the income from the monopoly of tea and salt.

Yang Wu said in a deep voice: "If the cash is not enough, then convert it into food and other physical goods for distribution, if it is not enough, then borrow it from the people." Didn't we borrow it once last year when we didn't have enough military rations? Borrow it again this year. In short, the bereavement pension must be in place, and we cannot ignore the will of the army and the people because of this. ”

Judging from the current situation, the reunification of the south is not something that can be achieved in a short period of time, and it will take even longer to unify the whole country. In addition, the south lacks military horses and the degree of development is not as good as that of the north, so if you want to unify the world, it is impossible to do it without a solid military spirit and people's support.

A little money and temporary difficulties are nothing compared to that.

Song Qiqiu said: "Your Highness puts the people first and never forgets the people's hearts, which is a great good." However, now is the time when the war is tense, and the 200,000 soldiers and civilians on the front line, plus the people who are responsible for transporting grain and grass in the back, need to consume a lot of money and food every month to maintain such a big operation. Therefore, the subordinates felt that it was better to wait for the end of the war to make a one-time compensation. ”

Yang Wu nodded and said, "This is natural, the needs of the war must be guaranteed first. ”

After deciding on the matter of bereavement, Yang Wu continued: "Now the morale of the enemy army is still very high, Qian Biao and his generals are very determined to defend, and our army is eager to break through the city, so in the future, our army should focus on long-term siege." Generals must remain vigilant and not take them lightly. ”

"The last general obeys!"

At this time, a guard came to report that Li Shenfu had woken up.

Yang Wu was overjoyed, and hurriedly took the generals to visit together, and as soon as he entered, he saw that Li Shenfu had indeed woken up, but his face was still a little pale, and the whole person looked very weak.

"Your Highness, General Li is no longer in serious trouble now, but he needs to recuperate well, and he will be safe in two or three days." Seeing Yang Wu coming in, the doctor hurriedly said.

Yang Wu nodded, then he breathed a sigh of relief, turned his head to look at Li Shenfu and said, "General Li, you finally woke up." How does it feel now? ”

"I'm tired of His Highness, the old man is much better now!" Li Shenfu patted his forehead and said with a wry smile: "The old man didn't expect to suffer from heat stroke and coma, it seems that he is old after all, and his body is not as good as you!" ”

"This should be caused by the general's overwork during this time, and now the general has ordered a temporary halt to the siege, and the general can rest for a while."

Li Shenfu nodded and said, "Have you stopped attacking the city?" It's also time to stop. In fact, during this time, the old man also thought carefully that Qian Biao and their hearts were sticking to the city, and with him personally in charge, the price that our army needed to pay to capture the city in a short period of time was too great. So if you want to break through Hangzhou, the best way is to persuade you to surrender! ”

He continued: "Now Qian Biao's hope is Zhu Quanzhong, so as long as Zhu Quanzhong fails to break the siege in the south and Qian Biao loses his last hope, then the possibility of him surrendering will be greatly increased." At that time, it may be necessary to send an emissary into the city to get him to surrender. ”