Huang Wan's letters are numerous and miscellaneous. In the book to Liu Hong, most of them are military intelligence, and they are picked up. The letters to the ministers of the DPRK and China are full of pessimism and sadness of sacrificing one's life for the country. In the letter to his nephew in Jingzhong, he wrote the teachings of the elders, instructing his nephews to read the scriptures more and not to indulge in safaris.

Ding Sheng passed by these things, and the most important of them were the three letters. One was sent by Lu Zhi from the current Bei Zhonglang, which clearly said that the war in Hebei had reached a stalemate, and the Youzhou Raiders who were originally assigned to him must be sent back after the war is over, so that they can go north. This letter is from Hebei, and it seems that the decisive battle between the Han army and the Hebei Yellow Turban has reached a critical period.

The second letter is from Zuo Zhonglang General Zhang Wen. He said in the letter that he had worked with Zhu Jun, the general of Youzhonglang, to rectify the pride of Runan, and would raise 30,000 troops to rush to Xingyang, and asked Huang Wan to be sure to strengthen the wall and clear the wilderness and not fight with the thieves of Mount Tai.

What shocked Ding Sheng was this letter, who would have thought that Huang Wan had just been beaten here, and there were 30,000 Han soldiers behind him? Will this Han soldier be killed?

And Ding Sheng is also unexpected, with his military literacy, he can see that Zhang Wen's strategy is very good, he knows the situation, the logistics pressure of the Taishan army has been very great, if Huang Wan chooses to clear the field and defend it, and wait for the Han army in the south to arrive, maybe it is the Taishan army that will be defeated in this battle.

I just don't know why Huang Wan gave up this.

In fact, what can Huang Wan do? It was Liu Hong who urged Huang Wan to send troops to exterminate the Taishan thieves, and those heroes also complained that they would go back before the autumn harvest, otherwise there would be no one to harvest the millet. As soon as the pressure was put on from top to bottom, Huang Wan didn't resist it, so he had no choice but to send troops.

This is the second letter, and what makes Ding Sheng's heart beat even more is the third one. From the content of the letter, it is obvious that it is from a senior military official or staff member in the Taishan Army, and the real and false situations in the general are written to Huang Wan, and most of the text is talking about Qu Shuai's character, experience, and decision-making.

After reading this, Ding Sheng had a thought at that time:

"There is a traitor among us!"

Ever since the Taishan Army experienced the Zhang Dog and Donkey incident, it has been pulling the traitor's strings very full. And now there is a traitor who is bigger than Zhang Dog and Donkey, what kind of storm will this set off for the Taishan Army?

Thinking of this, Ding Sheng called Jinquan to let him stay, and then took a few soldiers with letters and sneaked back to the camp at night.

It's too big a matter for the less people to know about it, the better.

……

The defeat in the afternoon, because Xingyang was not very far from the battlefield, it was Xingyang County who ordered Yang Zan to know it in the evening.

This time, Huang Wan led the troops to the expedition, and their Hongnong Yang clan also went out under the leadership of his nephew Yang Kang. And now, there is no news from his department, and Yang Zhan, who is an uncle, is heartbroken and doesn't know how to tell the clansmen. Originally, he should have chosen some powerful ones to go to the battlefield to check whether his nephew was killed in battle or captured. The results are different, and the way of dealing with them is naturally different.

But this will make him no longer care about his family nephew, because Xingyang City is already in chaos.

Each family in the city has its own way, or has children and nephews in the army, or checks and horses to roam around the battlefield to listen to the war. And because they selected all capable people, they were more concerned about the development of the war than Yang Zhan's county guards, so these heroes in the city knew the result faster than Huang Wan.

At this time, Xingyang City was in chaos. All the families were setting up ox carts, moving large boxes, and the inspectors were going to the west. There are Chenggao and Tiger Prison Pass, which are the first pass in the world, and it will be safe to run there. If the Taishan army at this time would take advantage of the victory to attack Xingyang City, it could even catch the Han army off guard and take Xingyang City at a very small cost.

But alas, if and only if. Originally, Ding Shengbu was the most promising to take advantage of the victory to attack. But because his people entered the Yuegang camp that turned back to the Taishan army overnight, only Jinquan commanded the army.

At night, there was a fire on the side of Xingyang City, and the sound of cars and horses was constantly heard. When the nearby sentinel got this information and told Jinquan, because there was no military order, he did not dare to raise his troops in vain, so he could only watch the fighter plane pass by.

The chaos in Xingyang City lasted until dawn, and during this time Xingyang was a little defense

None of them. The pride of Xingyang has lost hope in defending Xingyang City, and the four walls can no longer bring them a sense of security. So even if the field house is here, they can only endure the pain and cut the meat, and only by running outside the tiger prison can they have a chance.

As soon as the heroes left, one of the evil consequences was that the number of soldiers in Xingyang City immediately decreased by nine layers, and there were more than 800 county guards left in the city, and the other soldiers were transferred away with the heroes.

In the final analysis, these soldiers are still heroic.

In this process, Xingyang made Yang Zan look at him completely coldly, and he did not refuse the departure of the heroes. A friend wants to persuade him to go with him, with his Yang identity, even if he abandons the city and leaves, the decision is to be dismissed, and his life will be saved.

But Yang Chan refused, saying that it was because I was from the Yang family that I couldn't leave. My nephew has already sacrificed his life for the country, how can I, as an uncle, be better than a nephew?

Tianming, after the pride of Xingyang City was gone, Yang Zan immediately asked people to seal the four gates. He said to those who were left in the city:

"In this battle, I will die with the city. I'm here, and the city is there. If the city is lost, I will die. If there are two or three sons who dare to surrender, they will be decided."

At this time, Yang Zan no longer expects to be gentle with kindness and righteousness. He will unite these people in the city with iron and blood, whether they will defend it or not. Gather all the corn in your hands, and only those who go up to the city will have food. And once you go to the city, can you still live and die by yourself?

Can the Yellow Turbans be coerced? I can't be coerced by Yang Zhan?

In this way, Zhang Chong didn't know that there would be such a madman in Xingyang City, what kind of variables would this bring to his subsequent war?

……

The Taishan army did not attack the city, and Zhang Chong did not investigate who was a traitor after getting Ding Sheng's letter. He devoted all his energy to transporting and treating the wounded.

It was not until the afternoon of 16 September that the Taishan army transported all the wounded Taishan soldiers back to the camp.

Subsequently, the Tarzan army, which had rested for the night, returned to the battlefield and began to clean up the battlefield. There were a lot of armor and blades that they needed to carry, and those people didn't dare to take these things privately.

The battlefield is much quieter than yesterday. Obviously, many of the Han soldiers were seriously wounded and did not survive until now, and some of them were weak and could only moan, and these were obviously lightly injured.

When they saw the Taishan army returning, they begged for help and wailed, begging them to save them. They are lucky, because this time the Taishan army is indeed here to save them, because those who have survived until now are generally lightly injured, and they can recover with a little treatment. And these people will be a new round of soldiers for the Taishan Army.

The most requested by the Han soldiers was to drink water, and the thirstiest among them had not been in water for two days. Of course, there are also a lot of drinks to drink, which directly attracts the ignorance of the Taishan soldiers.

Jokes, they themselves have to wait for a big victory if they want to drink, where is the wine for them to drink?

Birds and beasts had begun to appear near the battlefield, and the strong smell of blood had kept them hungry for the night, and it wasn't for the bonfires that had burned here and there last night that hindered them, they had already come here to feast. And now the flames were gone, and only the two-legged beasts that looked less threatening, and the wolves, tigers and leopards in the vicinity rushed over. In the end, it became a meal for the two-legged beast.

Without the cover of the night, the horrors on the battlefield were directly exposed to everyone. There are debris and corpses everywhere, and you can see all kinds of people dying here. There are those who are smiling, some are curled up, and their faces are full of pain, and this kind of death must have suffered great pain.

If it was still last night when those wives came to clean up the battlefield, maybe they would have been scared to sift the chaff. But this time they are battle-hardened veterans, who are numb to life and death, this is the slaughterhouse, and they are the butchers. It's not a human being, it's just a two-legged beast.

There was also a wave of wounded soldiers on the edge of the battlefield, and they were obviously better taken care of than the Han army. These people are the Yellow Turbans. With the support of the Taishan army, these people limped back to the Yuegang camp, where there was food and water, as well as basic care.

One thing to say, the Taishan army must not be as concerned about these Ruying Yellow Turbans as their own wounded soldiers, otherwise it would not have dragged on until the next day, and some of the wounded soldiers were not transferred. But compared to past experiences, these Ruying yellow scarves are undoubtedly much luckier

Finish. In the past, they were wounded and left to fend for themselves on the battlefield.

The Taishan army held the armor of the Han soldiers, and these were the most important captures of the battle. As the Taishan army left the Taishan area farther and farther, it was difficult for them to supply their own clothes and armor in the battles on the outer line, so the clothes and armor taken from the Han army in each battle became the only supplement for the Taishan army.

There were about 4,000 soldiers in the Han army in this battle, which was undoubtedly a very large elite. The armor left on the battlefield now has more than 3,000 collars, to say the least. With the addition of these armors, although the Taishan army suffered a lot of casualties in this battle, the overall strength did not drop too much.

After stripping off the armor and cleaning up the battlefield, the Taishan army returned to the camp, and there was a huge bonfire tonight, and all the officials had to participate. They should go back as soon as possible to clean themselves up and participate in this all-army feast with a decent image.

The Tarzan army returned to the camp, leaving behind corpses all over the ground, which were no longer under their control. Later, a group of people will come from the Heji area and the Guansuo, Suo, Xinzheng and other areas of Xinzhan, and these corpses will be buried by them.

……

In order to hold this feast, the Taishan army prepared a lot. Not only are there pigs, sheep, and horses, which are hard to eat on weekdays, but even each person has a bowl of wine. Of course, these materials were all seized from the Han army barracks.

It was the seizure slip brought by Ding Sheng that gave Zhang Chong the confidence to hold such a large-scale bonfire party. This battle is the most tragic battle fought by the Taishan army, if you want to calm the irritability of the soldiers, you have to have a feast with wine and meat.

The cooks were busy cleaning up the pigs, sheep and horses, and the cooks from Huang Wan helped a lot, and with their help, the feast began to be prepared in an orderly manner.

The soldiers naturally thought about wine and meat, but the officials of the Taishan Army were thinking about another thing, that is, the meritorious rating of this battle.

Qu Shuai is very strict about military merits, but as long as he is meritorious, Qu Shuai is very generous, and he will never let the officials down or be wronged. For example, that Yu Ban was only born in Shanliao, and he was defeated and surrendered, but he has made great achievements and has now achieved the position of captain of the left part of the Central Protector Army. There is also a general like Guo Mo, the captain of the left department, who also relied on a knife and a gun to achieve this position.

In short, although the Taishan Army was very strict in pacifying military merits, the promotion channel was very smooth. Just let the meritorious have a place, I don't know how strong it is to be compared to the Han army.

In addition to meritorious service grading, the officials are also concerned about one thing, that is, rewards. Reward, reward, the so-called reward. Tonight's feast for the whole army is a reward, and the reward is naturally indispensable.

Because the Taishan Army implements the holy treasury system, it has no salary on weekdays. It's not that Zhang Chong is stingy, but the Han army on the other side has no salary, and they all make hair. But these things have long been included in the holy treasury system implemented by the Taishan Army.

But no salary does not mean that Zhang Chong does not have to pay money. Like the Han army, after the victory of the Taishan army, a batch of rewards will be issued, or wine or meat, or clothing or millet, in short, let the meritorious people have a reward, so that the role of encouragement.

This is actually a mental element. It is necessary to provide food and clothing on weekdays, and only these can ensure that the soldiers of Mount Tai do not disperse. But if after the war, nothing is sent, then there will be such a problem in the mentality:

Since my life and blood are treated the same as in the past, why should I work hard? You let me go to war, I can't refuse, but can't I mess around? Isn't it okay to fight a bad war? Can you control me above?

Therefore, the reward after the war became a means of satisfying everyone. Especially in such a big and bitter battle this time, the army's depravity and avoidance of war thoughts are becoming more and more pervasive, and they need to be rewarded even more.

And Zhang Chong has thought about all this, and this time he wants to give gold to the meritorious. That's right, it's gold, and it will be smelted into gold by him.

Ding Shengbu brought a batch of gold from the Han army barracks, probably thousands of catties. Zhang Chong also thought about the style of smelting, so he asked the craftsman to make a clay mold and write seven words inside:

"Zhang Chong gives gold to Xingyang"

These gold medals are Zhang Chong's honors to the meritorious officials, so that they can pass them on to their children, so that their descendants can remember and remember the exploits of their ancestors.

This is Zhang Chong's method, not only material rewards, but also spiritual rewards should be in place in one step.

Most of the gold medals have already been poured out, and they will be distributed after the banquet. The reason why it is so urgent is that Zhang Chong learned the lesson of later Song Taizong. During his Northern Expedition, he repeatedly postponed the reward for capturing Taiyuan, not saying that he wanted to recover Yanyun and then launch it at the same time, and finally the Northern Expedition failed, and the reward was gone. It is difficult to say whether the failure of the Northern Expedition has anything to do with the untimely reward, but it is certain that the soldiers are unhappy.

Zhang Chong will continue to fight later, if he learns from Zhao Er's style, it will really lose people's hearts. Therefore, Zhang Chong not only planned to distribute them after the banquet, but also piled up the gold medals, and he personally distributed them one by one. It is necessary to maximize the incentive effect of this reward.

In this way, the scribes of the bookkeepers hurriedly counted the merits; The cooks were busy packing up the ingredients; The officers carried water and washed themselves, and changed into clean military uniforms; The officers silently looked forward to the reward of this battle.

Everyone was looking forward to the big banquet this night.