The sun is sinking in the west, and the skyline outlined by the mountains is immersed in the afterglow of the setting sun, and the warm wind blows on the face of the high couture.

It was late spring, and the scenery in front of him was enough to enchant the poet and write a pleasing work, but Gao Dingbian did not feel this mood at all, because the smell of blood was in the air.

As a military general, he is really familiar with the smell of blood, but Gao Dingbian only feels uncomfortable now, because this is not the result of galloping and killing enemies on the battlefield, but a by-product of evil deeds against civilians.

Since the emperor accepted Wang Hanxin's suggestion, he began a new strategy against Goryeo, Su Chengdong allocated 4,000 elite cavalry from the Liaodong army, plus the original 2,000 cavalry of the Tiger Guard Battalion, a total of 6,000 people, each of whom was given two military horses and one pack horse, to implement this strategy. Since Wang Hanxin was the proposer of this plan, the imperial court specially authorized Wang Hanxin to be in charge of the command of this operation. Gao Dingbian, as the commander of the Tiger Guard Battalion, became Wang Hanxin's deputy general, and his authority was limited to the 2,000 people of the Tiger Guard Battalion. After entering the territory of Goryeo, Gao Dingbian began to feel all kinds of discomfort - the goal of the battle was no longer the opponent's army, nor the attack on the city, but the goal was to focus on the opponent's national strength. Penetrating deep into the enemy's territory, avoiding direct combat with the enemy army, simply plundering the people, spoiling the crops, burning the people's rations, fundamentally destroying the people's livelihood in the northern part of the Goryeo Kingdom, forcing Goryeo to mobilize food from farther away to feed the garrison in the north, so as to consume the national strength of Goryeo, and finally make Goryeo have no food that can feed the army and the people, and fundamentally disintegrate their ability to resist.

Gao Dingbian admits that this method of warfare is very effective, but it is inevitably too vicious. War is meant to cause the people to suffer, but now it is necessary to persecute the most innocent people to win. Gao Dingbian felt that it was really a shame for the generals. Although he understood the psychology of his righteous brother Wang Hanxin very well, he also understood that since the holy decree had been issued, he was powerless to change it. But I still can't help the disgust in my heart. What made Gao Dingbian feel even more depressed was that Wang Hanxin's popularity in the Tiger Guard Battalion and cavalry was quite high, and the soldiers showed absolute obedience to his orders. Therefore, since entering the territory of Goryeo to fight, the mood of Gao Dingbian has been declining day by day.

In particular, Wang Hanxin added a clause to the original battle plan, and all Koreans who were caught, regardless of gender, old and young, would have their thumbs cut off on their hands. In this way, these people can no longer be the fighting force that can take up arms to resist the attack of the Silk Country. To this end, Wang Hanxin also personally designed and funded a large number of tools. With this tool, you can simply put your thumb on and then clip it firmly with one hand, and you can cut off the thumb in its entirety. The distribution of these tools to the cavalrymen greatly accelerated the efficiency of torture. Therefore, everywhere he went, Gao Dingbian was always shrouded in a diffuse bloody aura, and this bloody aura induced Gao Dingbian's inner reserve, making his will more and more depressed.

Now Gao Dingbian is alone away from the troops, who are cutting their fingers and torturing the newly captured village, which is so large that it will take some time. After that, he had to burn houses and food, which he didn't want to participate in at all, he just wanted to stay for a while in a place where the blood was not so strong.

Swing the sword in your hand indiscriminately and cut down those innocent weeds. Gao Dingbian walked aimlessly. Suddenly, an extremely slight exclamation sounded from the grass where his sword swept by, and Gao Dingbian's whole person suddenly switched to a state of alert. He pointed his sword at the source of the voice and shouted, "What man! Come out! ”

After a moment of silence, a human face emerged from the grass. It was a girl's face. He looked like he was only seven or eight years old, and his face was covered with dust. Only a pair of shining eyes and two lines of tears hung on her face could be seen, and the girl's shoulder was cut a two-inch-long opening, which was not deep but the blood flowed for a long time.

"You escaped from the village?" Gao Dingbian asked in Goryeo, although his Goryeo language was not very authentic, but the communication was passable.

The girl's eyes were full of fear, and she nodded stiffly.

Gao Dingbian put a finger on his mouth to signal her not to shout: "Sorry for cutting you, don't be afraid, I won't hurt you, I'll help you bandage it." ”

Gao Ding tore off a strip of cloth from his cuff as he spoke, and stepped forward to bandage the girl's wound, the girl was probably too frightened to walk, and obediently asked Gao Dingbian to treat her wound.

Gao Ding said while rinsing the wound with the water in the kettle: "Wait a minute, you still hide here, don't run too far, it's not safe outside when it's dark." We'll leave after we don't stay long, and then you'll go back to the village, understand? ”

The girl blinked her eyes and asked a little puzzled, "Won't you kill everyone?" ”

Gao Dingbian smiled bitterly, wrapped her wound with a strip of cloth, and said, "No, but it will make the whole village crippled, so don't come out before we leave, okay?" ”

The girl nodded: "You're so strange, aren't you all bad people?" ”

Gao Dingbian couldn't help but raise his head when he heard this, looked at Tianchang and sighed: "Yes, we are all bad people, and everyone in your village will say this in the future." No, people in your country will say that. ”

"The country? What is Country? ”

Gao Ding smiled, touched the girl's head with his hand and said, "It's probably the villages around your village, the people who live in the town." ”

As he spoke, Gao Dingbian took out some dry food from the bag behind him and handed it to the girl, "It will take some time for us to leave, if you are hungry, eat this, don't show your head." ”

Before the words fell, Gao Dingbian suddenly heard footsteps coming here, and hurriedly pressed the girl into the grass, telling her not to move, and then stood up and pretended to enjoy the scenery.

"Big brother, why did you hide here?"

Gao Dingbian pretended to turn his head, looked at Wang Hanxin and said, "I don't want to do those things, come out for a walk." ”

Wang Hanxin smiled and said, "Big brother, you have to say that this is against the honor of the general." The little brother doesn't force you, you can't see it, so let the little brother do this kind of dirty deed. ”

Gao Dingbian couldn't help but sneer: "It's not easy for you to do it knowing how dirty it is." ”

"Big brother, you don't have to be sarcastic about me, little brother, I know very well in my heart what kind of infamy I will leave behind by doing this." Wang Hanxin continued to step forward: "After the death of Master Chang, we were invaded by Tuqi again, and now we can't do it again. However, Goryeo is a great disaster for our country, and if it is not eliminated in time, it will affect the strategy of the Turgean Contract. ”

Seeing that Wang Hanxin was getting closer and closer to the grass where the girl was hiding, Gao Ding stepped in front of Wang Hanxin and said, "You're right, but is it necessary to use such harsh means?" ”

Wang Hanxin smiled and said: "Big brother, what you want to say is nothing more than the honor of the general, and in this way, the entire Goryeo is bound to regard the country of silk as an enemy, so even if you occupy the entire territory of Goryeo, you will not be able to rule." But the younger brother wants to ask you, the eldest brother, even if we don't do this and conquer the whole of Goryeo, will the Goryeo people be happy to be ruled by us? The hatred of the lost country will still remain in their hearts, and it will take several generations for them to become our citizens willingly. Nothing we do now will make their hatred go away, so it doesn't matter what we do now. ”

"But the duty of the army is to protect the people!" Gao Dingbian couldn't help but raise his voice.

"It's to protect our people!" Wang Hanxin immediately retorted: "If the people of Goryeo are willing to be our people with peace of mind, I will protect them!" But they are not, they are the people of the enemy country, why should I protect them to harm our people? ”

Gao Dingbian was speechless for a while, and when it came to the battle of words, he knew that he was not Wang Hanxin's opponent, so he could only punch back into the air angrily, and turned around to ignore him.

Wang Hanxin continued: "Big brother, do you know why the little brother knows that you hate doing this, but you still want to do this with the big brother? That's because the younger brother's strategy can't be effective for three or five years, this matter is done by the two of us, which means that other generals can't interfere, then the meritorious service established is the two of us, three or five years later, you and I will have a huge leap in status, and then attack Goryeo at this time, you and I may be the generals who lead the army instead of the generals who charge ahead, so the credit for the capture of Goryeo can only be the two of our brothers, haven't you always hoped to make meritorious contributions? ”

Gao Dingbian couldn't help but be shocked when he heard it: his old chief Xue Boren has always told him about his righteous brother, and his intelligence is far superior to his own, but his shortcomings are ambitious and ruthless, and now it seems that he is really exactly right, but he didn't expect his calculations to be so far-reaching, not only to carry out revenge on Goryeo, but also to win a higher status for himself at the same time! It's really shocking that his pursuit of fame is also in his plan.

Gao Dingbian had to shake his head and smile bitterly, stepped forward and pulled Wang Hanxin and said, "You guy, you want to get the long run." It's better to take a step at a time when things are so long. Let's go, let's go back to the team, it's going to get dark. ”

Wang Hanxin looked at the grass behind Gao Dingbian, smiled, turned around and strode towards the village, and said as he walked: "Big brother, you are kind-hearted and a person who can achieve great things." Those things that make people cold, just leave it to the younger brother to do, anyway, it doesn't matter if I am already notorious, let the younger brother pave the way for you to soar for the eldest brother. (To be continued......)