To put it bluntly, it is actually a kind of gambling on the martial arts of the generals of both sides and on the morale of the whole army.

In the era of cold-weapon warfare, if the two sides of a war with similar weapons and equipment and strength command the soldiers to fight as soon as they come up, they will be born and will inevitably suffer heavy losses, which is the so-called "wounding 1,000 enemies and losing 800 themselves." And in this era when the level of medicine, especially surgery, is still very low, injuries often mean death.

A tiny wound, if not properly treated, can easily lead to infection, and infection, in the era without penicillin, can basically mean amputation or death. Of course, in this day and age, especially on the battlefield, it is basically difficult to survive amputation.

Today's extremely underdeveloped level of productive forces determines that the most precious means of production at this time is man himself. Because the ox is hungry and does not want to plough the field, you will whip it twice, and it will not get up. People are different, especially the Chinese people, who are hardworking, industrious and intelligent, but at the same time they are as docile as sheep, and perhaps a fierce glare from a very authoritative person will make many small people obey his will. Therefore, in this day and age, the value of people is much higher than that of livestock.

Therefore, minimizing one's own casualties has become the common aspiration of both sides of the war. For the nomadic peoples with extremely backward social organization, the purpose of their war is not only gold and silver and other goods, but also the most important thing is to plunder the population. These plundered populations would be distributed among the ministries involved in the war as spoils of war, and then taken on the heavy manual labor as slaves. Especially in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, because of the continuous drought and war, the population of the Central Plains dropped sharply, and the importance of human resources became more and more prominent.

In addition, the importance of military morale has become more and more prominent in this era. In the cold-weapon battle against the incoming enemy, the morale of the soldiers seriously affects the combat efficiency of the soldiers.

If the morale of the army is high, the combat efficiency of the soldiers will be extremely high, and the most extreme example may be the situation of the soldiers of the Qin State during the Warring States Period. The Qin State implemented a system of twenty knights to reward military merits, which made the soldiers motivated by interests to boost high morale.

The so-called "Qin people donate armor to the enemy, the left hand is the head, and the right is the captive." In other words, the Qin people took off their armor and ran towards the enemy shirtless, holding the human head in their left hand and holding the prisoner in the creaking nest on the right. The brave and warlike Qin army ended the enemy army with bare arms.

Therefore, in the era when the focus was on reducing the damage of soldiers, and the morale of the army had a great impact on the victory or defeat of the war, the military generals were gradually derived.

The so-called courage of the general, this sentence is often most intuitively expressed in the era of military generals heads-up. Once your generals win in heads-up, your morale will definitely be boosted, and taking advantage of the situation to cover up will become an inevitable strategy for the next step. Because in any form of warfare, the pursuit of a fearful and unmotivated rout is always a battle with the least casualties and the greatest benefits.

Therefore, Guo Bin carefully protects his own army every time he fights, trying to avoid his own casualties. Even if the number of people is small, it has to form a situation of fighting more and fighting less on the local battlefield, and in this way, the 700 troops under his command have been fighting in the south and north for more than a year, but the casualties are very few.

This time to cover up the Xianbei people, because they are well equipped, the simple weapons of the Xianbei people are difficult to hurt the Han army equipped with leather armor, and because Zhang Fei killed the enemy generals and the morale is extremely high, so this time except for a few unlucky people who were accidentally injured in the battle, the others did not even scratch the skin.

When the battle was over, Guo Bin did not let Zhang Fei continue the pursuit, but asked Guan Yu to command the sergeants to clean up the battlefield. The so-called cleaning of the battlefield is nothing more than killing the wounded and fallen Xianbei cavalry, and collecting their blades and furs, and the most important thing is to collect the ownerless war horses that can be seen everywhere around the battlefield.

Suddenly, the battlefield that had been silent became noisy again. The sound of swords entering the flesh, angry shouts, and screams resounded in the sky, and the blood of the Xianbei people stained the ground red, and the thick bloody atmosphere even attracted the wolves on the grassland.

Wang Yun was puzzled when he saw Guo Bin asking the sergeant to kill the injured Xianbei cavalry, so he said to Guo Bin: "Qianyang has always been lenient, and hundreds of thousands of Yellow Turban troops were saved from death because of Qianyang. Why did you want to kill these injured Xianbei people now? ”

Guo Bin said: "Our army is lonely, there is not much food and grass, and there is even less medicine, where is there still enough strength to help these wounded?" Besides, now that the feud has been settled, why not take the opportunity to weaken the enemy's army? ”

Wang Yun argued: "The so-called benevolent people love people, since they have been injured and are unable to fight again, why not leave their lives?" ”

Guo Bin said: "Xianbei people are afraid of power but not virtue, since Tanshi Huai, they have repeatedly violated my boundary, and the murders they have created are difficult to write. The imperial court sent troops to encircle and suppress it several times, but it was inconvenient. If I kill one of them now, I will weaken his strength. I only heard his voice turn low, and said: "Moreover, the Central Plains region has been in drought for many years in recent years, and many places have no harvest, and they have been plagued by yellow turban thieves, and the people of the Central Plains have been displaced and have no food and clothing. The tragic situation of changing children and eating abounds. ”

Wang Yun sighed again and again, as a Confucian scholar, he naturally takes it as his responsibility to help the world and save the people. Wang Yunjing is good at Confucianism and loves the people, and he is naturally very sad about the chaos in the Central Plains.

At this time, the sergeants had already finished cleaning the battlefield, Guo Bin waved his hand, signaling Guan Yu to lead the team and accelerate forward. After all, it is in the area controlled by the Xianbei people, since it has gained benefits and taken advantage of it, it is the best policy to slip away quickly.

Guo Bin saw that the army was reopened, and Guan Zhang and the others also joined everyone, so he continued: "The population of the Central Plains has decreased sharply, the red land is thousands of miles, and the wealthy families have gone south, what will be the consequences of this? ”

Xi Zhicai said: "It must be that the Central Plains is empty and the frontier is weak." The chaos of the government will further lead to the instability of the defense line of the Great Wall, so the internal migration of the horse-riding peoples on the grassland is the inevitable result. ”

Guo Bin nodded, looked at Wang Yun with a shocked face, and said: "At that time, the drawbacks of the emptiness of the Central Plains region will be revealed, and the south of the Hao clan will lead to the redistribution of local power, and the horse-riding people can control the local power with their fierce combat effectiveness, and then establish the country." "What he said is what really happened in the history of the previous life, and this is how the Wuhu Chaohua was formed.

At that time, the people of the Central Plains will be reduced to inferior people, and they will become the objects of oppression and enslavement by the horse-riding national regime. If the Saiwaihu people do not know how to govern the place, the local grain production will gradually decline, but people always have to eat, what can they eat without food? Guo Bin's voice was extremely low, and his expression was very heavy.

Wang Yun trembled his lips and said, "There is no food, eat... Eat..."

"Yes, it is to eat human flesh." Guo Bin said coldly, "The Han people will be treated as two-legged goats, dismembered and eaten like livestock." When that time comes, it will be a catastrophe of extinction. ”

After a long time, everyone in shock did not come to their senses.

Guo Bin continued: "It's not that we don't want prisoners, but we don't want injured prisoners. If they are prisoners and herdsmen who are in good health, we can arrange them in the three outer cities, provide them with food and clothing, include them in our circle of interests, and eventually even give them the status of free people. And the cost of rescuing the wounded captives is too high, and besides, they are not the people of our Han Dynasty, but the enemies who have slaughtered the people of our border lands in a frenzy. ”

Although there is quite cold-bloodedness, it is really very reasonable.

Or it is said that war is the fastest way to accumulate wealth, and now Guo Bin has finally tasted the sweetness.

After this great victory, countless treasures were harvested, including hundreds of furs to protect against the cold, and hundreds of blades. What's even more surprising is that more than 800 high-grade war horses were directly collected, and nearly 200 war horses were killed or seriously injured in battle.

That's a lot of money! Not counting the fur and blades, the value of eight hundred of the finest war horses alone is unpredictable. Because such a large number of the finest war horses rarely appear in the Central Plains, most of them are the best horses kept by the herdsmen for their own use, and they will never be sold. Moreover, even if it was transported to the Central Plains, no one would have the financial resources to swallow it in one gulp.

As for the more than 200 horses that died in battle, they can't be wasted. Peeling and cutting meat and making them into jerky can greatly improve the living standards of the people in the three cities outside the Saiwai, which can be regarded as a windfall.

After the value of the spoils of this battle was settled, Xi Zhi couldn't hide the smile on his eyebrows, and reported to Guo Bin: "Lord, this battle is really worth it, let's get rich!" ”

Guo Bin couldn't help but laugh when he saw this, with the calmness and resourcefulness of Xi Zhicai, there were times when he lost his temper. However, the so-called "when the gun goes off, the gold is ten thousand taels" is not completely unreasonable.

During the day and night, everyone was still camping on the prairie, and the arrangements were made as usual, and they did not relax in the slightest. The location and establishment of the open and dark posts, the location of the camps, the arrangement of the military tents, and even the location of the latrines have all been reasonably planned.

Among the handsome tents, Xi Zhicai, Guo Jia, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and even Dong Xinger came.

Seeing that everyone had gathered, Guo Bin said: "This is the first time we have fought against a foreign race, well, the harvest is not bad." As for the question of how to distribute the spoils, let's discuss a solution. ”

When Zhang Fei heard this, he was puzzled and said, "What else is there to discuss?" Since the lord supplies the food, clothing, and horses of the soldiers, this spoils of war are naturally going to be confiscated, and the lord can arrange it? ”

Guo Bin said: "Yide, this battle was won by everyone's hard work, and the spoils of war were also won by the soldiers who fought hard, so it is better to distribute it to everyone." Today you have made a great contribution and deserve a share of the shares, don't you want to succeed? ”

Zhang Fei said: "Lao Zhang doesn't care much about any property, as long as the lord can supply me with good wine for Lao Zhang, I don't want anything!" ”

Guo Bin's face sank, he flew up with a kick, hit Zhang Fei's big fat buttocks, and shouted: "We are waiting to discuss the military situation, how can it be child's play!" I want to drink nothing! ”

Xi Zhicai shook his head, and he was very helpless in his heart: although Zhang Fei is not stupid, he always doesn't like to use his brain. Immediately interjected: "Does the lord mean to imitate the strategy of the Shang Dynasty to change the law and encourage the sergeants to be brave in public battles and timid in private fights?" ”

Guo Bin nodded and said, "With such a little meaning, defeating the incentive of wealth is the most stable and lasting strategy to improve the soldier's will to fight." I want to establish a whole set of rewards and punishments, let's come up with ideas together! ”