On 8 August, the weather was unusually hot and the air pressure was extremely low.

Dark clouds were constantly rolling and condensing, and dull thunder was coming from afar from time to time.

On the road of Dingting, the dust is rolling into a curtain and spreading towards the front, thick and thick. A deathly silence surrounds the battlefield.

In such an atmosphere, Zhang Chong led the army slowly from the dust, and even the noise of the cars and horses coming from afar was calmer than before.

Yang Mao, Cai Qu and a group of military officials also stood silently on the side of the road, without whispered discussion or eye contact, everyone looked at the dust, worried and ashamed.

Zhang Chong actually didn't know much about the situation in Dingting, and he didn't know what he had missed until he received Yang Mao and Cai Qu's military report on yesterday's battle early this morning.

This part is responsible for Yang Mao, who wrote a list of merits after taking the Dingting Pavilion on August 6, saying that he had already won the Dingting. But not a single military newspaper was sent back after that.

It wasn't that Zhang Chong got the latest movements of the Zhenbei Army from the Zhen clan, and even Cai Qu's support was gone.

And Zhang Chong himself also pulled out the camp and drove to Dingting as soon as he got the information, but in the end it was still three hours behind.

At this time, he jumped off his war horse, looked at Yang Mao with white lips, and Zhang Chong blamed himself.

It was he who cultivated Yang Mao wrong.

Yang Mao was his first assistant in the military, helping him create the first 200 seeds. But later, Zhang Chong wanted to go out of Taishan Shouyi and turn to the Central Plains. At this time, Yang Mao was left in Taishan Town to guard the foundation.

But it was this difference that Yang Mao's ability gradually began to distance himself from the commanders in the army.

After the Taishan army came out of the mountain, there was a small battle on three days, a big battle on the fifth day, and there were five or six battles on the scale of more than 10,000 people, and it can be said that these battles were great and tempered the generals of Mount Tai.

And at this time, Yang Mao was in the mountains, although there were also warriors, but the intensity could not be compared with these at all.

In this way, Yang Mao naturally lagged behind the generals a lot in military command, not to mention compared with Guan Yu, Yu Ban, and Zhang Dan, but also compared with Ding Sheng and Dong Wan, it was also very inferior.

It's not that Yang Mao's ability is not good, but he has never led more than 10,000 troops to do the task, and he is very weak in scheduling and timely intelligence communication with the base camp.

Previously, Zhang Chong summoned soldiers from all over the country and urgently needed a commander, and at that time, Yang Mao came with 2,000 Taishan soldiers, with his qualifications and position, this was somewhat low. That's why he put the towns under his command and elevated him to this position.

Zhang Chong's most dissatisfied with Yang Mao was that he obviously asked for reinforcements in the military newspaper, so he must have known that he would come, so why did he let Lu Zhi go?

Lu Zhi's Zhenbei Army is the ultimate goal of this Northern Expedition, and if this army is not completely annihilated, the north will not be able to settle down.

And this time Lu Zhi was released, and the next opportunity to seize Lu Zhi's main force is not known when it will be.

So Zhang Chong was very annoyed, very annoyed.

But after he led the army into the battlefield of Dingting, he vaguely knew why Yang Mao was like this.

Because at this time, there was a unique smell wafting from the Dingting battlefield, which was the smell of corpses, blood, sewage, feces mixed with grass and dirt, which was disgusting.

It is a taste that all battle-hardened generals hate, but it is also the most familiar one.

But Zhang Chong doesn't smell much like the smell now, which shows how tragic yesterday's war was.

So Zhang Chong glanced at Yang Mao, Cai Qu and other generals who were lying on the ground, and then said:

"Get up, take me to the battlefield."

After that, Zhang Chong came to the north of Dingting, where was the battlefield during the day yesterday.

When he arrived here, Zhang Chong was shocked by the tragic situation on the battlefield.

I saw that on the smoking battlefield, the corpses were piled up high, and the officers of the Taishan Army were carrying stretchers to remove some of the wounded who remained on the battlefield.

However, because the provisional army is a regiment composed of local town garrisons, there is a serious shortage of military doctors, so these rescued wounded can only be placed in an open space to rest, groaning constantly.

Zhang Chong's face turned red all of a sudden, and he immediately yelled at Guo Zu on the side:

"Hurry up and let the Chinese army's medical artisan battalion come here to save people."

Guo Zu didn't dare to delay at all, and rode on his war horse to give the order.

Zhang Chong is a calm person on the outside, but he is extremely emotional on the inside, and he feels sorry and grateful from the bottom of his heart for these officials who are loyal to him.

At this time, he suddenly saw a familiar person and hurriedly walked up.

He picked up his blood-stained face and saw a handsome soldier, who was the sergeant who had been physically punished when Zhang Chong was inspecting Yang Mao's camp before.

At this time, his eyes were slightly squinted, his lips were chapped and pale, if it weren't for the slight panting, he would only think he was dead.

When Zhang Chong wiped the blood on the sergeant's face, the young sergeant woke up in a daze.

He glanced at Zhang Chong, obviously not recognizing him, but hummed:

"Water, do you have water to drink?"

Zhang Chong touched his waist, but there was no water bag there. At this time, Chang Diao on the side handed his water bag to the sergeant.

But as soon as the man raised his hand, he found that his right hand was gone, and he was still stunned, so he was snatched by Zhang Chong and sent the water bag to his mouth.

Drinking water in a daze, the man still looked at his severed hand in a daze.

Zhang Chong only glanced at the rancid and blackened arm, and knew that the sergeant's wound was inflamed. He held the man and forced a laugh:

"Do you remember me?"

Zhang Chong's question brought the sergeant back to reality, he glanced at Zhang Chong, and finally remembered:

"I know, it's a noble person who came, and we can still stay in the army, it's all thanks to you."

When the rampage generals on Zhang Chong's side heard this, they felt that it was resentment and ridicule, and they opened their mouths to scold. But seeing the misery of this sergeant, he didn't open his mouth after all.

But Zhang Chong didn't think it was a mockery, he blamed himself:

"Do you blame me, if it weren't for me, you wouldn't be hurt like this."

The sergeant laughed miserably:

"What do we have to complain about, this is our fate. General, don't you also give us a chance to return to our hometown with a plate, but we can't get over the hurdle in our hearts. Why did the three of us go out with the same club, and finally go back to me alone. We can't afford to lose this person. ”

Then the sergeant raised his severed hand, slightly panicked and a little helpless, and said:

"It's just that we are wasted, how can we open the field without hands. The land that the king gave us wants me to go back and open it. ”

When this man said this, Zhang Chong's tears flowed.

Zhang Chong's eyes were sharp, and he had already seen that there were two corpses not far from this person, and the name of the Li Society on the arm and shoulder was the same as the sergeant in front of him, which meant that the two people who came out of the Li Society with this person had died in battle.

Hearing it again, this person said, the three of them went out of the club together, and they were embarrassed to go back alone, how could Zhang Chong hold back his tears.

In his mind, he suddenly thought of a sentence, "The side court bleeds into the sea, and the Martial Emperor has no intention of opening the side." ”

Although he Zhang Chong is not a martial emperor, he is also a king who affects the fate of thousands of people, for example, one of his decisions now affects the fate of the three people in the same society.

Although Zhang Chong has his own vision and self-confidence, and thinks that he is doing the right thing, all this still makes Zhang Chong think deeply about being cautious, cultivating and thinking forever, and not taking civil affairs lightly.

Zhang Chong finally said to this person:

"What's your name?"

The sergeant said:

"Our name is Ma Huzi, and when we entered the camp later, Chief Wu thought that our name was not good, so he changed his name to Ma Gui."

Zhang Chong said to Ma Gui:

"Don't worry, the land allocated to your family will definitely be opened for you. You don't have a hand now, but you have another hand, and as long as you work hard, you can still live. ”

Seeing that Ma Gui didn't believe his words, Zhang Chong added:

"Ma Gui, our name is Zhang Chong, that is, the king you said, if we say you are useful, you will be useful. Do you believe me or not? ”

Sure enough, when he heard this, Ma Gui's eyes lit up, and he was suddenly full of hope:

"You, you, are really kings. Woo woo, okay, we have to talk to the six sons, tell them that we have also seen the king, and now we have to let them flatter us. ”

Seeing that Ma Gui had regained his confidence, Zhang Chong asked:

"Now your injuries are a little serious, but you can still be saved, and the healer will cut off your entire arm later, depending on whether you can carry it."

When Ma Gui heard that he was going to cut off his entire arm, he panicked, and said that he still wanted an arm, and he hadn't found a daughter-in-law yet.

Zhang Chong expelled him:

"If you have a broken arm, you can't find your daughter-in-law? You are my Zhang Chong's soldier, you have to have confidence in yourself. ”

In the end, under Zhang Chong's "intimidation", Ma Gui picked up his confidence and was dragged on a stretcher to go to the back for surgery.

I don't know if this horse can survive.

Thinking of this, Zhang Conflict said to Li Heng on the side:

"You ask the generals of the Medic Battalion to try the willow bark and smear the wounds of the wounded soldiers with the juice of boiling willow bark to see if it can reduce inflammation."

Zhang Chong has taught these people the concept of inflammation, and they can understand it.

Li Heng had been stunned since he followed Zhang Chong to the battlefield, and suddenly heard Zhang Chong calling him, hurriedly responded, and then was about to step forward.

But I don't know if it's because of the weakness of my legs, so I stepped on the corpse of a Han soldier with one foot. The corpse flowed from the wound on his stomach, and Li Heng stepped on it directly, and he slipped and fell all of a sudden.

After slipping and falling, Li Heng was about to get up with his hands on the ground, and his hands were propped up on a skull.

The skull had been cut off from the neck with a sharp weapon, rolled to the ground, and then presumably trampled by the war horse, and its shape was completely invisible, just a mass of flesh and brains.

Feeling the sticky and wet touch, and then looking at the visceral stumps all over the ground, Li Heng finally couldn't hold it anymore, so he vomited in front of Zhang Chong.

When Zhang Chong saw Li Heng like this, he knew that he couldn't pass on the order, so he called another staff member.

Zhang Chong didn't blame Li Heng, but in his heart, he had already decided to release these staff secretaries around him one after another to do a little practice, so that he could cultivate.

Then Zhang Chong took the generals to the wounded barracks on the side, he didn't need to do anything specifically, but as long as he was here, the resources would be tilted here, and no one would slack off.

And with the support of the Chinese army in the base camp, the cleaning and rescue of the battlefield will be faster and faster.

As in the past, the corpses of the Taishan army would be placed together, and the corpses of the Han army would be piled up in the pit and buried in a centralized manner.

Ox carts from the baggage battalions were also used intensively to transport the wounded.

The specific arrangement is as follows: those who are seriously injured are left in place for treatment, and those who are lightly injured and lose their combat effectiveness are returned to the nine gates in the rear along with their baggage. A well-established munitions transit has been built there, where proper treatment can be provided.

On the other side of the battlefield, the Taishan army also found a large number of seriously injured Han soldiers on the battlefield, and they were abandoned and left on the battlefield.

For Lu Zhi, abandoning the seriously wounded and withdrawing only with the lightly wounded soldiers was saving the lives of these seriously wounded soldiers.

Because he knows very well that if these seriously wounded soldiers are also with him, not to mention the impact on morale, even if he is tossed along the way, none of these seriously wounded soldiers will survive.

Instead, he stayed on the battlefield and threw it to the Taishan army, maybe he could save his life.

Even on the opposing side, Lu Zhi admired the military discipline and benevolence shown by the Taishan army.

There will always be some morality that will transcend the narrative of friend and foe and make everyone respect.

The Taishan army also recruited some villagers from the nearby Li Society, these people were not as simple as imagined, and the remnants of the Han army after the collapse of the Han army in the past two days disappeared under their straw forks.

This hunt for the remnants of the army is a gift from nature, and it is encountered several times a year.

So when the Tarzan army appeared to recruit them, they were terrified, but when they learned that they could get corn by digging a pit there, they gladly came.

The battlefield was littered with corpses of our enemies. In this battle, the Han army lost at least 6,000 corpses before and after, of which Liu Zhibu estimated that there were more than 4,000 and the Zhenbei army estimated more than 2,000.

The Taishan army is also here, Zhaojun Town was almost wiped out, but more than 1,000 corpses were dropped, plus the other battalions, the corpses also reached 3,000.

Therefore, the two armies totaled close to 10,000 corpses, and how terrifying it must be to be crowded and piled up in this place.

But fortunately, with the arrival of the base camp, the rescue of wounded soldiers has become more and more systematic. The auxiliary soldiers of the baggage battalion helped to put the wounded on the ox cart, and the men on the cart kept the prepared water for the wounded to drink, and some of the auxiliary soldiers would give them simple bandages.

It can be seen that the Taishan Army is quite scientific and efficient in rescuing.

Let's just say that this ox cart is also specially designed. Not only is it practical and simple, but it also has an extra layer of detachable bottom surface as a stretcher. From another point of view, it can be regarded as a simple ambulance.

Zhang Chong stayed in the wounded barracks until order was stable, and then he summoned the generals and began to explain military affairs.

The first is to set up camp, seeing that the sky is about to rain, it is unrealistic for the whole army to enter the pavilion wall, so we must quickly set up camp.

Then there was a piece left on the battlefield, responsible for gathering the wounded, captive, and discarded weapons of the Han soldiers, and burying the dead. And the war dead of our army were cremated on the spot, and then collected according to the information of the armband.

These bones will be returned along with the personal belongings of the war dead with baggage logistics, and then delivered to their families by the local post system.

And the bereavements and rewards for the war dead will also be delivered soon.

For these victims of the great cause of the Taishan Army, Zhang Chong will never forget.

(End of chapter)