"Interesting."

"That's interesting."

Chang'an City, Weiyang Palace.

The news of Mayi's victory has been quickly spread in all directions with Chang'an as the center with Liu Sheng's connivance.

By the middle of October of the second winter of the second year of Tianzisheng, the news had spread almost throughout Guanzhong.

And the significance of this big victory for the Han family can also be summed up in such a sentence.

- Unprecedented victory!

- A total victory like never before!

Although the specific details have not been known by too many people, the general situation has spread all over the streets and alleys of various local counties and counties in Guanzhong.

As for this moment, Liu Sheng was full of intriguing smiles, looking at the three reports placed on the plan in front of him.

To be precise, this is the battle report sent by the general Zhidu, the general Zhang Xu, and the former general Cheng Buzhi without knowing each other.

It is precisely because of this that Liu Sheng finds these three reports 'interesting'.

The first letter was sent by the supreme commander of this battle: the general of the chariot cavalry.

In the Zhidu report, the focus of the Battle of Mayi was almost entirely focused on the defense of Mayi in the first half of the battle.

According to the data compiled by Zhidu, more than ninety percent of the Han family's casualties in the Battle of Mayi were in the defense of Mayi.

Correspondingly, the main losses suffered by the Xiongnu army were basically in the process of attacking Mayi.

——A battle to defend Mayi, after less than a month of fighting, the Han family lost more than 5,000 soldiers!

If we include the minor and serious injuries and even the disabled due to their injuries, this number is likely to more than triple.

In other words: in Mayi alone, the Han family announced that more than 15,000 active soldiers were retired from active duty due to casualties.

As for the losses of the Huns, although Zhidu used words such as 'heavy losses', 'quite huge' and 'broken muscles and bones', he did not give accurate figures.

This did not surprise Liu Sheng.

The Huns~

There was already a custom of robbing corpses, plus it was an offensive and defensive battle in the city, and there was no overwhelming result;

Even if it was dark, it was completely reasonable that the Mayi garrison under Zhidu could not go out of the city gate to cut the head.

But Liu Sheng's ability to understand it does not mean that the system of the Han family today - the staggering military merit system can be understood.

Take this battle, the combat merit accounting of the chariot and cavalry army of Zhidu, the core indicator: floating slashing, is a headache that Zhidu must be having at the moment.

According to the calculation formula of 'the number of casualties on the side minus the number of beheadings against the enemy', in the Battle of Mayi, the casualties of the cavalry army of Zhidu were roughly around 5,000;

The corresponding number of beheadings against the enemy is a jaw-dropping single digit.

- Even for this digit beheading, Zhi Du is afraid that he will have to thank the few Huns who rushed to the city without knowing whether they were alive or dead, causing the corpses to fall on the head of the Mayi wall, and even within the city wall.

In this way, the problem is a bit serious.

Zhidu, a chariot general with shallow military qualifications and who had just recently become the 'first person responsible for the erosion of the northern defense line' and commanded the Battle of Mayi as the supreme commander, finally calculated that it was nearly minus 5,000?

Just as killing 5,000 enemies is enough to make Zhidu tear the earth and seal the marquis: the floating beheading of minus 5,000 is also enough for a marquis of thousands of households to 'atone for his crimes' in order to save his life, and the marquis of Che, who is the highest point of the 20th level of military merit, was swept to the end to the prince.

Those who have a marquis of the city still have to atone for their crimes, and at the cost of 'the title being swept to the end', they can get their lives worry-free, not to mention Zhidu······

Liu Sheng has also had a headache for a long time recently.

It is of course not scientific enough to use floating slashing as the core indicator of military achievement;

But after many investigations, Liu Sheng had no choice but to admit that relatively speaking, floating beheading is the lowest verification cost in this era, and the most fair method of accounting for military results.

Therefore, for Zhidu, Liu Sheng could only punish him on the grounds of 'floating beheading' at most, and then pardon him on the grounds that 'the overall result was quite optimistic'.

As for the reward, he can only sing a play with the two queen mothers of the East Palace according to the tradition of the past: Liu Sheng sings red face, and the two queen mothers sing white face, and privately make up for Zhidu.

Zhidu's 'negative floating slash' has long been mentally prepared, and Zhidu's report naturally did not surprise Liu Sheng too much.

What really surprised Liu Sheng, and even felt 'interesting' and 'interesting', were the other two reports that were in stark contrast to Zhidu's report and had diametrically opposite positions.

——After the general Zhidu, he is naturally the former general Cheng Buzhi as the 'deputy marshal'.

Unlike Zhidu, who defended himself between the lines, Cheng Buzhi's letter is the same as his personality, highlighting an upright and honest person.

From the first day when the chariot cavalry army arrived in Mayi, what orders Zhi Du issued, what kind of mobilization the chariot cavalry army was ordered to make, what results were achieved, and what losses were suffered, all of them were written on the report by Cheng Buzhi.

How detailed is it written?

A report, the bamboo slips used by Zhidu are four feet long, Zhang Xu is less than three feet, but Cheng Buzhi uses five feet long bamboo slips to use six volumes!

Moreover, in the whole report, there are no descriptions from subjective perspectives such as "I think" and "he is", and some are just cold narratives like history books: in a certain year, month, and place, such and such an order was issued, such and such was ordered, and such and such did such and such a thing, and how many enemy soldiers were killed and wounded by such and such a unit, and how many people were wounded and killed by such and such a department.

After such a flow of accounts, Cheng Buzhi did not forget to make a summary report in the end: In the first battle of Mayi, the chariot army lost 4,736 people and 11,217 were disabled.

As for the capture, Cheng Buzhi took the 'eye side' as the standard and gave a rough judgment: the losses of the Xiongnu Aries Department and the Lou Fu Department were more than 1,000, so that the army's morale was weakened;

The loss of the Zhelan Department was at least more than 3,000, so that it was unable to continue the attack on Mayi, so it had no choice but to return to the camp to rest.

In addition, there are slave cannon fodder that the Huns have always been accustomed to using for siege and fortification, and there are at least 3,000 people, and it is very likely that the loss of 5,000 people will be reached.

The cautiousness of his words and the neutrality of his position made Liu Sheng sigh: If Li Guang's two goods had the consciousness of Cheng Wuzhi, they would not end up with a 'Li Guang is difficult to seal'.

Overall, the meaning that Cheng doesn't know what this letter wants to express is still obvious.

If it is said that Zhidu's report is Zhidu's use of words to justify and excuse himself, and he is a little blunt to say that he has 'merit without fault' or 'merit is greater than fault', then Cheng does not know this report, which is quite convincing.

Put the data and facts, and directly tell Liu Sheng with the facts: The casualties of the Zhidu department were not due to incompetence, but inevitable casualties, and they were also exchanged for what they should have been.

Moreover, compared with Zhidu's subjective perspective description of 'I have more merit than fault' and 'I really have merit', Liu Sheng still prefers Cheng Buzhi's euphemistic and convincing description.

- That's the thing, that's what happened, I don't want to say who is right and who is wrong, who has merit and who has fault, the data and facts are here, Your Majesty will judge for himself, right?

I have to say that compared with Li Guang, who is unorganized and undisciplined, has no force and the name of 'Flying General', Liu Sheng still prefers Cheng Buzhi's almost mechanized step-by-step order.

It is not that Liu Sheng has become conservative and stubborn at a young age, but the particularity of the emperor's profession makes Liu Sheng instinctively resist some subordinates who are too subjective and often unable to bring good results.

Especially when this subordinate was born in the army, as a military general, every move is related to the survival of thousands of soldiers, and even the victory or defeat of a war, Liu Sheng's love for Cheng Buzhi has become more and more uncontrollably inflated.

To get back to the point: What makes Liu Sheng interesting is, of course, not the difference between Zhidu and Cheng Buzhishi.

Whether it is Zhi Du's self-defense, or Cheng Buzhi's euphemistic exoneration of his senior brother, they all belong to human nature in the absolute sense.

What really made Liu Sheng feel interesting was the report from Zhang Xu, the captain of the Flying Fox.

What did Zhang Xu say in that recital?

Liu Sheng can only say: Zhang Xu, the captain of the Flying Fox, is really a very pure martial artist.

First of all, in the opening stage of the report, Zhang Xu counted several crimes such as 'not keeping mobile troops outside the city', 'not using strategies flexibly in the process of defending the city', and 'not effectively boosting the morale of the army in the course of the battle';

After almost bluntly expressing the intention of 'Zhidu is a trash, I really didn't say, he is really not worthy of being a general of the chariot cavalry', Zhang Xu began a formal report.

——As soon as he arrived at the battlefield, Zhang Xu found that neither the Huns outside the city nor the Zhidu cavalry army in Mayi City occupied the only high ground.

As a result, Zhang Xu led his army to occupy the high ground almost without hesitation, and put on a condescending posture that could cut into the battlefield from the flank at any time.

Such a move undoubtedly greatly relieved the pressure of defending the city for the cavalry army of the Zhidu of Mayi, so that the Huns could not concentrate on attacking the city at all, and instead concentrated more attention, even more than half of their attention, on the Flying Fox camp outside the city.

The reason is very simple: no matter how strong the Zhidu chariot army of Ma Yi is, it will eventually shrink within the city walls, and it is almost impossible to risk the loss of the city gates to get out of the city;

But for the Flying Fox Commander, who has been in a hundred battles, especially as a border firefighter countless times, and has dealt with the Huns countless times, it is almost impossible to pour down from the large camp located on the high ground.

The Xiongnu's later strategic choice also effectively proved this point: after a long period of success outside the city of Mayi, the Xiongnu would rather face the Flying Fox Captain, who has extremely rich combat experience and combat effectiveness, than to bully the Guanzhong young master soldiers under the command of Zhidu.

- Even if it was just a night raid, and it was a complete failure, it proves it.

And that night attack is undoubtedly the climax of Zhang Xu's report.

According to Zhang Xu's statement, he did not intervene in the offensive and defensive battles of Mayi because Zhang Xu believed that compared with the arrows shot, they were undoubtedly on the full bowstring and ready to attack, but they did not know when the arrows would be shot to cause more deterrence.

Based on this alone, and in fact did share the defensive pressure of the Ma Yi, Zhang Xu cleared himself of the accusation of 'sitting on the sidelines and watching the Ma Yi chariot army suffer heavy casualties'.

Then, Zhang Xu was sure that the Huns would not give up, and would never return to the grassland after attacking Mayi.

After a series of deductions, Zhang Xu came to a very simple conclusion: after excluding the target of Ma Yi, the only remaining choice for the Huns was the Flying Fox Captain led by himself.

So, Zhang Xu ordered the Flying Fox Lieutenant to do business as usual during the day, and at night he lurked and evacuated the Flying Fox Camp in batches and hid in the mountains and forests east of the Flying Fox Camp.

In the end, the Huns launched a night attack as expected, nor did they encounter an ambush or counter-encirclement as Zhang Xu expected.

As for the results, they are even more fruitful······

"——The Xiongnu Aries Department, from the left general to the shepherd slaves, beheaded 1,482;"

"——The Hun Lou Annoyance Department, from the right to the big household down, beheaded two thousand one hundred and forty-five levels;"

"——The Xiongnu Zhelan Department, since the Zhelan King Hakan and below, the whole army was wiped out, and no one survived."

"——There are more than 3,000 heads of the Lan soldiers, and thousands of corpses that have been burned, all of which are based on the skull as the Beijing view, and are cast forty miles north of Mayi······"

···

"Whew~"

"There are no less than six thousand levels of 'conclusive evidence' alone;"

"Plus the thousands of Zhelan people who were burned to ashes, and even the Zhelan King himself."

"Especially the troika of the Xiongnu suppressing Munan······"

"-Zhang Xu, I'm going to be named a marquis."

"It's not just Zhang Xu, I'm afraid that after this battle, Captain Flying Fox will have at least five more martial arts marquis."

"Especially Zhang Xu himself, there are at least 3,000 households in the food ······"

Looking at the scroll in his hand, which was obviously not long, but it made people surge with blood and snort, Liu Sheng couldn't help but take a deep breath.

When his eyes fell on the end of the report again, the young genius who was still a little helpless because of the victory in the battle finally showed that intriguing smile again.

"The impeachment of Zhidu was ineffective, the fighter plane was delayed, and the right virtuous king of the Huns escaped······"

"Hey;"

"The name of a 'Che Cavalry General', I'm afraid that Zhang Xu's husband will be angry······"

···

"Zhidu, my Han family will be the most trustworthy coach in the next twenty years;"

"Cheng doesn't know, my favorite and most trusted new generation general;"

"Zhang Xu, who has served for many years as the Flying Fox Captain and the General of the Che Cavalry, is the first hero of this battle, and is about to be named the hero of the Hou."

"——It is the first person in my dynasty to be crowned, and he is a meritorious hero who was awarded the title of Marquis for his martial arts."

"The first hero who is determined to be buried at the foot of the Emperor's Mausoleum in the future······"

Muttering to himself, Liu Sheng's gaze swept over the three letters in front of him again.

After a while, the young Tianzi spoke in a relaxed tone, and he remembered from the couch.

"In the first battle of Mayi, Captain Flying Fox should be the first to take credit."

"Going: The Flying Fox Commander's Department returned to the Flying Fox, selected 100 meritorious soldiers, and followed the Flying Fox Captain into the court to be rewarded."

···

"The chariot cavalry army has worked hard and made great achievements, and the chariot cavalry general has served as the guard of Yanmen for several years, and it is time to enter the court to report on his work."

"Hold: Che Cavalry General Zhidu, select 500 meritorious soldiers of the Che Cavalry Army, and return to Chang'an first."

"Former General Cheng doesn't know how to stay in Ma Yi temporarily, and he is a teacher."

···

"Go and give a lecture to the Empress Dowager and the Empress Dowager again: The battle of Mayi, my Han family has won a great victory!"

"—The Queen Mother and the Imperial Grandmother were also worried for a while."

"In a few days, I will serve the Empress Dowager and the Empress Dowager, and lead the Flying Fox Captain, the Che Cavalry General, etc., to sue the temple to worship the ancestors."

(End of chapter)