Seeing Du Zheng and them worship Xue Shao like this, more and more remnants of the soldiers gathered around Xue Shao, begging bitterly. Among these people, there were the first batch of people who fled with Xue Shao, some who were recruited from the small village, and some who were picked up halfway.

Among them, there may be mixed good and bad, but one thing Xue Shao can be sure of is that they are all from poor families.

Not everyone is like Xue Shao, who was sent to the grassroots level by the "strict teacher" Pei Xingjian to refine it. The intentions of these people in front of them to join the army are very simple, they are nothing more than rushing for a bite to eat, or they have the dream of making meritorious contributions and being crowned a wife and son. But all these things they want can only be achieved if they are carrying knives and playing with people.

If it is the son of an official eunuch or a wealthy family, who would be stupid enough to run into the army to be a pawn and suffer this kind of hardship, and take such a risk of playing with his life?

The main general was ineffective in commanding the battle, and the two states of Shuodai fell, and it was a blessing that these people did not die at the hands of the enemy; If you die under the sword of your own people, will you die without turning a blind eye?

More and more people gathered around Xue Shao, and the gradual ocean almost surrounded him. Some people knelt down for him and begged for mercy, some people were angry and complaining, and more people looked at him helplessly and innocently.

Li Duozuo was leading people to settle the people not far away, and when he saw this situation, he immediately rushed into the crowd with a team of soldiers to protect Xue Shao, and shouted: "Do you want to gather a crowd to make trouble? ”

The remnants of the soldiers saw Li Duozuo, these "regular soldiers" with clear clothes and majestic armor, and their hearts were a little weak, so they all stopped talking and didn't dare to make noise.

Xue Shao invited Li Duozuo to a secluded place and whispered, "General Li, don't blame them." It was I who made a promise in advance, and when I returned to the state, I would try my best to exonerate them, and those who were meritorious would ask for merit for them. ”

Li Duozuo frowned, "Young Master Xue, this matter is not easy to do. You see there are seven or eight hundred people here, who has merit and who has had, can you distinguish clearly? Besides, the Grand Governor and the marching commander Shi both perform their own duties, even if Marshal Pei himself is here, he can't take the place of the Governor's Mansion to give orders. If you want me to say, it is better to hand these people over to the governor of the state to dispose of them. Everything has its own military law, so why should you make yourself uncomfortable? ”

"A man cannot stand without faith." Xue Shao said: "If it weren't for them at that time, I would probably be a corpse now. And these people will not be able to reach Bingzhou alive. If I don't care whether they live or die, it is to cross the river and tear down the bridge, how will I still gain a foothold in the army in the future? ”

Li Duozuo frowned and shook his head, "Young Master Xue, I know that your previous promise to them was an expedient measure for an extraordinary period. I want to say, love and law...... It's hard to have both! ”

"It's not hard." Xue Shao said, "There are more than 1,000 people here, which ones are meritorious to protect the people, which ones are merit and demerits, and which ones are mixed in later, I don't know the details of the way, I probably know in my heart." ”

Li Duozuo was taken aback, "Really? ”

"Of course." Xue Shao said, "This is the big thing that I have been thinking about the most recently, so I have been paying attention to it all the time. I couldn't recognize any of them, but they weren't bad. ”

Li Duozuo thought for a while and said, "Okay, you first divide these remnants into several batches and report the list to me separately." Then I will come forward and hand over these people in batches to the soldiers of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion to join the army—but you must not tell these remnants of your intentions, or they will make trouble! ”

Xue Shao pondered for a moment with his eyebrows furrowed, and said, "Can you guarantee that they will not be sentenced to death by military law?" ”

"No one can guarantee it." Li Duozuo said, "The generals are still not subject to the orders of the monarchs, and the emperors do not interfere with the military orders and laws." ”

"I'm not going to shield anyone with the law of love and chaos, if I can really guarantee fairness and strictness, I have no second word." Xue Shao said.

Li Duozuo lowered his voice, "It's better to do this, do as I say first." If Bing Cao, the state capital, is handled properly, of course, this matter can be closed, and Xue Gongzi does not have to show his head. After all, you are just an ordinary pawn now, and it is not Chang'an here. If the handling is not done properly, how about Xue Gongzi find a way to negotiate with him? ”

Xue Shao thought for a moment, followed the normal procedure first, and then thought of a way if there was a problem - salute first and then soldier, you can't always take the law of love first, and fall into the hands of others!

"That's it." Xue Shao said, "General Li, this matter can be big or small. If you handle it well, you will save your life, and everyone will be safe; If it is not handled well, maybe there will be a war on the Chang'an side. Therefore...... Please do your best to help me out! ”

Li Duozuo's face changed when he heard this, and he nodded solemnly and said a word, "Okay." ”

Although he couldn't fully understand what Xue Shao said about "Chang'an War" for a while, Li Duozuo knew that Xue Shao was definitely not bluffing him with nonsense. After all, Xue Shao is not a real ordinary pawn, he has a very close relationship with the power center of the imperial court!

Xue Shao pressed down such a heavy burden, Li Duozuo didn't dare to slack off at this time. He immediately summoned a whole brigade of Xun Yifu Modao guards to maintain order on the scene, and assisted Xue Shao to resettle the more than 1,000 remnants in batches.

The first to be selected by Xue Shao was Du Zheng's group of people. There were about 200 of them at that time, and most of them were wounded. Along the way, more than half of them died, and now there are less than thirty people left, and only half of them are alive.

Sharing weal and sorrow, life and death along the way, Xue Shao was able to know each and every one of them.

When handing over these people to Li Duozuo, Xue Shao's tone was very hard, saying that these people were absolutely meritorious. If the state government dares to mess with them, I will go out of my way to fight them.

Li Duozuo knew that Xue Shao was not joking, he was also a soldier, and of course he could understand the friendship of "sharing weal and woe, living and dying together". So he promised that there were not many of these people, including the guards of the Yulin Army, and Li guaranteed that they were fine.

Xue Shao was a little relieved.

Then there was the group of rebels who had been recruited from the small village. Although their leader Feng Laoqi died, there were still a few small leaders who were more familiar with Xue Shao, so Xue Shao first found a few of them and asked them to gather their group of brothers together and strictly isolate them from the group of miscellaneous soldiers outside.

Li Duozuo was worried when he saw them, not to mention anything else, they all abandoned their armor and military uniforms, which is definitely the style of "deserters". Du Zheng and those people still have their pockets, and they wear their military uniforms no matter how dirty and messy they are, which means that they have never given up their identity as "Tang Army"!

Xue Shao truthfully said to Li Duozuo that these people had indeed been deserters before, but later encountered Turkic soldiers, and they had meritorious service in resisting foreign enemies and protecting the people, at least "merit and demerit were commensurate" - I swore blood to protect them!

Li Duozuo smiled bitterly, he knew that Xue Shao really wanted to protect these people. If these people survived, it would naturally be a great merit for Xue Shao, and from then on there would be the first batch of diehards in the army. More importantly, if you want to gain a foothold in the army, such kindness is quite important. On the contrary, if he loses his trust in them, it will be even more difficult for Xue Shao to win the trust of others and establish his grace in the future!

The remaining group of people are some of the remnants of the soldiers that Xue Shao gathered piecemeal after he led people out of the small village. Xue Shao didn't know anything about them, only that some of them were involved in that encounter.

Time is pressing, maybe the governor of the state will know the news, and soon send someone to pick up these remnants. Therefore, Xue Shao and Li Duozuo urgently dealt with these things overnight and reached the sky.

By the time dawn came, the more than 1,000 people were finally divided into three batches. Du Zheng's group of "meritorious guards" were the first to enjoy heroic treatment, and Li Duozuo sent his own guards and military doctors to take care of them. The remnants of the soldiers collected from the small villages were moved overnight to remote makeshift camps where the people were housed, and they were not allowed to move around.

Not long after dawn, the soldiers of Bingzhou Cao joined the army and really brought people here to contain the remnants.

The first batch to be handed over to Bing Cao was the miscellaneous soldiers who were picked up on the way back to Bingzhou. Xue Shao didn't know much about their situation, and there were any good or bad things, it was a matter for the soldiers, so let them follow the law and follow the normal procedures to investigate.

The second batch of those handed over to Bing Cao was Du Zheng and these people. Li Duozuo insisted that these people were meritorious guards who "protected the people and made meritorious contributions".

Bing Cao joined the army and took people to inspect it, and found that Du Zheng and the others were all skinny and thin, with yellow muscles and thin faces, either injured or sick, and it was difficult to stand firmly. If they were to be brought back to the governor's palace for questioning, they would have to send more men to serve and heal them. In case a few deaths are in the governor's mansion of the state, there will be a troublesome lawsuit.

Although Li Duozuo has no right to interfere with the implementation of military law by the Prefecture Governor's Office, he will have some weight as a four-rank lieutenant. So the soldiers who were busy with everything, more things are better than less, and those who pushed the boat down the river recognized the list reported by Li Duozuo and recorded "military merits" for Du Zheng and others.

Du Zheng and the others were naturally relieved and cheered, thanked Xue Shao, and then recuperated with peace of mind.

The remaining third group of rebels in the small village, Xue Shao asked Li Duozuo to try to hide them for two days and report back later. Anyway, the soldiers have just taken on so much work, and they can't be busy.

Li Duozuo agreed and sent his henchmen to supervise the camp of these rebellious soldiers and strictly guard the news. Xue Shao also took a lot of effort to inquire about Niu Ben's whereabouts, but he didn't gain anything. It was as if the reckless man had just evaporated.

Xue Shao was a little disappointed and sad.

This time I was busy until the afternoon.

After being busy all the way, Xue Shao was really tired. The camp of Xun Yifu is still seven or eight miles away from here, and Xue Shao really doesn't want to run around. There were a lot of marching tents in the vicinity that were intended to be used to contain the people, and Xue Shao didn't care about eating, so he casually picked an empty tent and slept in it, and slept in the dark.

Li Duozuo returned to the camp of Xunyifu, and he, the lieutenant general, had other military affairs to take care of.

After going back, the more Li Duozuo thought about it, the more unstable he felt, especially the four words "Chang'an war" that Xue Shao said, like four mountains, pressed on his heart.

In the final analysis, Li Duozuo is a "duty person" with a board and an eye, he is not as flexible as Xue Shao, and is used to playing cards not according to the rules.

After thinking about it again and again, Li Duozuo, who tried to be safe, finally came up with a "foolproof strategy".

After nightfall, Li Duozuo sent a few henchmen and guards to secretly drag out a few carts of old military uniforms from the camp of Xun Yifu and let the rebels from those small villages change into them. Then Li Duozuo solemnly told them that they must be sure that this is their own military uniform, and that they have never been a deserter - otherwise they will really die!

When Li Duozuo was doing these things, Xue Shao was snoring loudly in the tent, making the noise so loud that the people who also settled here not far away couldn't sleep.

The two figures silently crossed the eyes of the guards patrolling nearby and appeared outside Xue Shao's tent.

One was burly and dressed in armor, and the other was graceful and wore a black gauze palace hat. The two of them stood quietly outside the tent, listening to Xue Shao's thunderous snoring.

"That's right, it's him!"