After inspecting the color battalion, Deng She returned to the Chinese army, and the officers of more than 1,000 households waited for a long time. There is no big agenda item in this military conference that was convened temporarily, and since the goal has been set, all that remains is to supplement the details and anticipate the enemy's calculations.

The grain and grass carried by the army were enough to support Chen Hu's division; As for the follow-up baggage supplements, Deng She had already ordered Wen Huaguo and Zhao Guo to supervise the army with the herald of Pyongyang.

In order to understand the terrain and know oneself and the enemy, Deng She also ordered Chen Hu, and after arriving at the Po Sa Inspection Division, he immediately set out to find a guide. At the same time, with a caravan, Chen Zhe, who had been to Jin and Fuzhou by land, happened to be in Pyongyang and never set off again, and Deng She had also ordered him to accompany the army.

And the number of soldiers and horses in Gaizhou has long been familiar with each other; Although Deng She had never fought with them personally, he had heard of their combat effectiveness for a long time, and he didn't dare to say everything clearly, but he still had points, at least he wouldn't be blind.

After discussing the matters that need attention, Fang Fuzhen made a suggestion, saying: "There are too many wounded in our army, which greatly slows down the speed of the march. If it goes on like this, let alone three days, even five or ten days, you won't be able to get to the Po Sa Inspection Division. It doesn't matter if you slow down the march, if you delay the division and have a bad impact on Liaoyang and the entire Liaodong, the gains outweigh the losses. General, in this critical situation, there must be no mercy of a woman; Humble opinion, why not leave the wounded, settle along the way, foster a farmer, and come back to pick them up later? ”

Through many days of contact, Deng She has an understanding of Fang Buzhen's character, he is different from Yao Haogu in treating soldiers and warriors, but he is quite similar to Hong Jixun, both regard him as a mustard and a reckless man, on the one hand, he has to use them, and on the other hand, he doesn't look down on them. It's like a rag that you throw away when you're done with it.

Li Jing was very opposed: "Foster farmer? Who's fostered? Who has deceived this nonsense? It must not be! In yesterday's and yesterday's battle, the brothers were all bloody, and they all took the lead; In the face of the iron cavalry of the Tartars, Ning and Ning would rather die than retreat. Good, good、...... Well, if you're injured, it's useless? If you leave them today, what will the other brothers think? There is a saying called rabbit death, what kind of sadness, stay until Ming, Ming、...... Tomorrow, how can you expect them to kill you and me? ”

Xu Ren is experienced and old, he has been in the army for a long time, and he is used to seeing people in life and death, unlike Li Jing. He pondered and said, "Master Fang is reasonable. He didn't think about it in the long run, but in the immediate future, "General, don't say whether it will delay our meeting and whether it will be a missed date; It's just the Tartar of Dongmu Mountain, although they haven't chased us now, so don't take it lightly. Once they made dumplings, it was not a hundred or ten wounded who died. ”

After yesterday's hard battle, including the nominal deputy and Xu Ren and Fang Buzhen, who actually supervised Deng She, they all seemed to regard Deng She as the real boss; Regardless of their tone or demeanor, they all regard themselves as subordinates.

However, Deng She didn't have the time to pay attention to these details now, Fang Buzhen and Xu Ren's proposal, he had also thought about it before, it was really a dilemma.

Li Jing is right, foster farmers are cloudy, and fools can hear it, coaxing children. To cast them away is to send them to death; If they are not left behind, what Fang and Xu said is not bad, delaying the march will affect the safety of the whole army.

Unable to find an answer for a while, Deng She thought back to the past. In the event of an emergency war, there are many precedents for the army to abandon the wounded, but he only went to the color number battalion to boost morale, and in the blink of an eye, he abandoned them and ignored them.

Besides, if you think about it from another angle, the more dangerous it is, the easier it is to gain people's loyalty. The ancients have a good example, in order to win the hearts of the people, Liu Bei, although the remnants of the army were defeated, the father who was reluctant to follow him, risked defeat, in exchange for the reputation of benevolence and righteousness.

Of course, Liu Bei had a specific background at that time, and there was no place to live when he ran around, so he had to do this risky strategy as a last resort. And what about him? Although he is based on Shuangcheng, Liaodong has no foundation, seeing the changes in Liaoyang and the battle of Gaizhou, the focus is not on whether he can fight or not, and after he is defeated, can he have it for himself.

The righteous soldier is the king, and the righteous soldier wins. This is not the life and death of a hundred and ten wounded, if it is used properly, it can expand his prestige in the Liaodong Red Turban, after all, there are many descendants of Guan Duo among the wounded. Deng She thought for a while and said, "I think General Li is right, the brothers sacrifice their lives and forget their deaths, don't chill their hearts." He said to Li Jing, "Collect some war horses and distribute them to the color number battalion, and use horse-drawn carts to increase the speed a lot." …… However, Lord Fang and General Xu's worries are not unreasonable, and the Tartars of Dongmu Mountain need to be guarded against a lot. Let go of the horses and always be ready for battle. ”

Deng She judged that the Yuan army in Dongmu Mountain was coming to catch up, and it was long overdue to leave; After a long time, there is a good chance that it will not be seen, just as Xu Ren guessed a little earlier, firstly, yesterday's fierce battle injured them a lot, and secondly, their thousands of remnants are not important for the time being, and their attention is afraid that all of them will be on Pan Mei.

Of course, this is just a judgment, in case of a mistake, the horse will be released thirty miles away, and the wounded will not be lost, and it can be adjusted again.

Fang Buzhen pursed his lips disappreciatively, but he didn't insist on objecting anymore. Xu Ren wanted to speak and stopped, and finally said: "The general is benevolent and righteous." He is different from Fang Buzhen, as a martial artist, even if he is an officer, he will inevitably die and be sad. In his heart, he was unwilling to abandon the wounded.

While talking, the food soldiers cooked the meal, the rice was very simple, the sorghum cooked in a big pot, there was basically no vegetables, not to mention oily, it was good to fill the stomach. It's still a special meal, much more than usual.

There is a Yuan generation, and the military households are sent out to serve as soldiers, and the soldiers need to be self-prepared; Later, there was some change, that is, the state gave a small subsidy to the soldiers who served. For example, for the Han army, in addition to the weapons, each person was given five buckets of rice and one pound of salt every month, which was naturally not enough, and the insufficient part was taken care of.

The military system of the red scarf, such as the Marshal's Mansion, the Ten Thousand Commanders, the Thousand Commanders, etc., mostly imitated the Yuan Army; In terms of the distribution of food and wages, it cannot be copied due to its own conditions. Many times it is more to eat, less to eat, and no to eat; What should I do if I don't eat it? "Listen to its sentry food" and take it yourself.

To rob, there are only two ways, one is to grab it from the Yuan army, which is not very feasible; As soon as he snatched it from the hands of the local people, he was the master if he had a knife. And the latter is also one of the reasons why the landlords in various places are arming ,—— "green army" and the number is extremely large.

The smell of rice filled the whole camp, and Deng She, Xu Ren and others also ate the same meal as the soldiers. The coarse sorghum is difficult to swallow, and the aftertaste of chewing in the mouth is more fragrant and attractive. Even with soup and rice, Deng She ate three bowls in one go, and then dropped the rice bowl with satisfaction, wiped his mouth, and smiled at everyone: "I'm very hungry, it seems that I haven't eaten such fragrant rice for a long time." He looked around and saw the grizzled and gobbling soldiers, and sighed deeply.

If you don't enter the troubled times, you don't know how expensive rice is. One meal is hard to find, let alone three meals. How many of the non-commissioned officers in the battalion are in the army, and their meager wishes are just to eat a bowl of food?

Dunshe thought again of the wounded of the Lottery Battalion, who could not be abandoned, even morally. But this thought is just a fleeting moment, if you are not in charge of the army, how can you be merciful if you have achieved great things?

He laughed at himself, for his hypocrisy, for a while, unwilling to continue to immerse himself in the cold calculation of interests, he saw Liu Yang in a blink of an eye. This Liu Yang Hills Resistance War fought beautifully, Deng She had the right to promote officers cheaply below 10,000 households, and after the war, he was promoted to become a deputy 1,000 households, so he had the status of participating in the military conference.

I saw the officers present, as far as he ate the most indecent, holding a big bowl, like a starving ghost, his head was almost buried in it, and he couldn't stop eating. Deng She couldn't help but laugh and said, "Why worry? And no one robbed anyone. ”

Liu Yang raised his head, his mouth was full of rice, and the soup flowed down the placket, he smiled innocently, swallowed the food in his mouth hard, and muttered: "I'm full,...... Practical. ”

Deng She laughed, the sun was rising higher and higher, but there was no warmth, on the plains and hills, the endless blue sky, the clouds piled up, like silk cotton wool, inexhaustible.

The subsequent journey was very smooth, only on the second day, he encountered a group of local Qing troops who came out to prey, one hundred and ten people, Deng She didn't bother to pay attention to it, but snatched the war horse and let them go. On the third day, the sentinel who was hanging far behind the Yuan army of Dongmu Mountain, about to see that there was no value in continuing to follow, turned back.

Along the way, these Tartars were very cunning, did not approach at all, only followed more than ten miles away, Xu people sent several people, set up two ambushes, they either avoided without fighting, or made a detour and sneaked, as soon as they saw the wind and grass, they immediately fled.

They were all elite of the Yuan army, with few people and horses, and they were mobile and flexible; There was also no good place to hide on the plains, and Xu Ren did not succeed once, and he felt very embarrassed in front of Dunshe. It's easy to see that it took the initiative to retreat, but it can be regarded as a thorn in the side.

"Dog Tartar!" Xu Ren spat fiercely.

Deng She's face was worried, he was not afraid that the Yuan army sentries would go back to report the news, even if Naha knew that he was going to fight Gaizhou? At most, Gao Jianu should be reminded that there is Liaoyang in the middle, and the reinforcements don't even think about it.

He was worried about another thing. The next night, his fears were confirmed. Staying behind the army, Tanmalai reported, Dongmu Mountain fell, Pan Mei failed to break through, and the whole army was destroyed. The Yuan army cut off the heads of all the red turban soldiers who died in battle, not for the sake of military exploits, and it is said that Naha planned to load them into a cart and transport them to the city of Liaoyang.

Deng She first asked the most worrying thing: "Where will the Tartars retreat?" "Don't kill Dongmu Mountain, and then chase your own army.

"Back to Shenyang."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at the same time, and Deng She asked, "Are there any brothers who have escaped?" ”

"I didn't see any of them, and all the villains saw were dead people." Tanma said, "The Tartars are in a hurry, and before leaving, gather the corpses of our soldiers, form more than a dozen hills, and set them on fire." When the villain went, the Tartar had retreated for half a day, and after ten miles, he still saw the flames rushing to the sky. ……”

The tragic scene was unbearable to witness, and Tanma couldn't help but tear up his eyes, and said, "The whole mountain is burned out." Everywhere there were headless corpses, stumps and severed arms, charred, black, and stinking,...... Large, large swaths of evil birds, like clouds, are all over the battlefield and all over the battlefield. ”

Deng She asked, "What about Pan Mei?" Any news? ”

Tanma shook his head and said, "The villain saw a simple execution ground in front of the corpse mountain, and all the dead in it were more than a thousand households in our army, among which there was a headless corpse, and the armor thrown next to the corpse seemed to be General Pan. ”

"Throw it next to the corpse?" Fang Buzhen was stunned, he hadn't heard that the Yuan army had a tradition of stripping people before executing them, but it was strange.

The tanma's face was unbearable, and said, "General Pan, he ,...... He was disemboweled. After a pause, he added, "Not only General Pan, but also other more than 1,000 households. ”

Fang Buzhen was shocked and changed, killing his people, disemboweling his heart, cruel and not to mention, what is the use of taking his heart? It was impossible to take it for viewing, and based on what he saw and heard, most of them ate it.

Deng She was silent for a moment, and he thought to himself: "I don't kill Beren, Beren will die because of me." "Even Guan Duo, who is not a lineage, praised Pan Mei as the pearl of the army, but he died like this, and died so tragically.

He said slowly: "Since he was tortured by the Tartars, it can be seen that General Xiao Pan must be unyielding on the verge of death, worthy of my loyalty to the Great Song Dynasty and my Han hero." Someone came, sent a letter to Liaoyang and Guangning, asking Pan Pingzhang to mourn the change, and asking Guan Pingzhang to reward meritorious deeds, so as to comfort the heroic souls of General Pan and other soldiers who died in battle. ”

Before his words fell, Bi Qianniu raised his head and snorted twice, as if he wanted to speak. Deng She shook his head at him, and Bi Qianniu immediately understood Deng She's intention: he wanted to take this opportunity to test Guan Duo's bottom line and see how he would react to his own army first and then go to Gaizhou.

That's fine, the situation is obviously here, Guan Duo is too busy to take care of himself, 100% of his life has suffered a dumb loss, and he can't say that he will praise Deng She vigorously, so as to grasp the only available army at the moment.

As soon as Dongmu Mountain is lost, Shenyang can free up its hands; It is conceivable that the vicious battle in Liaoyang is imminent. Traveling farther and farther to the southeast, the scope of Tanma's activities was limited, and there had been no news of the Yuan army in Shenyang for many days, Deng She speculated that his vanguard of Liaoyang was afraid that he had arrived under the city of Liaoyang.

Deng She told everyone: "You know the fall of Dongmu Mountain, you know it, I know, except for a few of you, you must not disclose it to anyone." In order to prevent morale from being frustrated and the morale of the army from panicking. ”

Four days later, he met a team of 1,000 people sent by Chen Hu to meet him halfway. With the addition of a new force, the morale of the army is higher.