Chapter Seventy-Three: Treason

The Mongol army's massive offensive ended in a crushing defeat. In total, the attacking army of 1,500 men lost 1,100 people, of whom more than 100 were killed, more than 200 wounded, and more than 600 captured. After this battle, the new annex army of 1,000 people in Dayi and Qingcheng County was basically wiped out, except for those who were killed and wounded, only a dozen people fled back to the two places, and the rest were taken prisoner. Xiong Ben's losses were less than 100 casualties, including dozens of people lost by the guards of Hengyuan Village, and he didn't care about this, but when he attacked the back door of Wanjiazhai, he lost the most elite men, which made him lose a lot of strength. Although the Mongolian 100-man team in the Jiagu Longgu belt was the focus of the Thunderbolt army, only more than 30 people were killed or wounded because of the new annexed army.

After all the captured soldiers of the newly attached army were handed over to the counterintelligence company of the internal guard battalion for screening, the sentence of hard labor was determined by judicial trial and judgment, and then sent to each mine to serve their sentences. Now the Perak Army is increasing the mining of lime mines, coal mines, and iron ores, and Li Shuang and others are worried about the lack of labor. As for the wounded of the newly annexed army, the Thunderbolts were not obliged and could not raise the dead. After being given water, the lightly wounded disabled were ordered to take the seriously wounded with them, and they were all driven out of the mountain. As for the more than 100 corpses, they were buried in the crops by the mountain people of the nearby villages for winter fertilizer. It is foreseeable that these fields with fertilizer will definitely have a bumper grain harvest next year.

The most important thing for Ouyang Xuan to capture the loot was the 100,000 catties of grain, although there was no shortage of grain in the mountains now, but the more strategic materials such as grain, the better. The boxes of money seized were not made of copper but iron, and were of little use. There was a shortage of copper in the entire two Song Dynasty, especially in Sichuan. Only Pengzhou and other places in western Sichuan have a small amount of copper production, which can not meet the needs of coinage, so the money is made of iron. This also gave birth to Jiaozi and Huizi, the world's earliest banknotes. Ouyang Xuan saw that the quality of the iron that was seized was far inferior to that produced by the Thunderbolt Army, so he asked people to go back to the furnace to re-melt the iron. As for the three thousand taels of silver Ouyang Xuan is useful, he is going to use it to make mercury thunder acid trial, and now that sulfuric acid and hydrochloric acid have been developed, he has the conditions to study mercury thunder fuses, but this kind of thing has to be personally led by a professional like him.

Compared with the captured money and free labor, the most important thing about this battle was to greatly expand the space for the Thunderbolt army's activities. Previously, the Thunderbolt Army could only stick to Wanjiabao, except for the reconnaissance personnel who could sneak out of the mountains in small batches to carry out intelligence activities, the rest of the personnel did not dare to go out of the mountains at all, and even the field battalions did not dare to openly operate on the plains outside the mountains. In addition to crippling the Mongol forces in Dayi and Qingcheng County, this victory also weakened Xiong Ben's strength, so frightened that he completely gave up Hengyuan Village, and only dared to shrink in Yongkang City to eat and wait for death. Although the risk of Thunderbolt personnel operating outside the mountains is still very high, they are no longer as dangerous as before.

Another major result of this battle was the capture of Zhao Shicai alive. Some people felt that Zhao Shicai was a strange commodity and could be used as a ransom to the Mongols, while others proposed to submit Zhao Shicai and then bring Dayi County under the jurisdiction of the Perak Army, of course, some people resented Zhao Shicai's stubbornness and wanted to kill him on the spot. Ouyang Xuan did not adopt the above opinions, and he wanted to put Zhao Shicai on trial and behead him for treason, and hang his head in Hengyuan Village. In addition to declaring the Thunderbolt army's determination to resolutely resist Mongolia, this was also to deter the traitors who had already surrendered to Mongolia and the Southern Song Dynasty officials who wanted to surrender to Mongolia. Historical knowledge told Ouyang Xuan that in the next Song-Mongolian war, a large number of Southern Song officials would surrender to Mongolia and become traitors under the military attack and political offensive of the Mongols. These traitors became the pawns of the Mongols, and in order to earn a show in front of their new masters, they slaughtered their own compatriots without mercy, and even more brutally.

Half a month after Zhao Shicai was captured alive, a Mongolian cavalry team under the banner of envoys appeared in the mountain pass. After being interrogated by the Thunderbolt Army's secret sentinel, this group of Mongolian troops came from Chongqing Mansion City and was ordered by the Jiagu Longgu Belt to negotiate with the Thunderbolt Army. The messenger and the interpreter were then taken blindfolded to Wanjiazhai, while the rest of the staff remained outside the mountain and waited. After learning the news of the arrival of the Mongols, Ouyang Xuan had no choice but to put down the chemical experiment in his hand to listen to what the Mongols wanted to do. During this time, he was leading the people of the research institute to be busy researching and improving the chemical products needed for the development of the military industry, which was naturally inseparable from a large number of chemical tests.

Although the attitude of the Mongolian envoy was still arrogant, the attitude of the envoy was still much better than that of the envoy sent last time, and he told Ouyang Xuan through an interpreter that the commander of the Thousand Commanders Jiagu Longgu respected the strong and proved his strength by fighting the Thunderbolt army. Now as long as Ouyang Xuan surrenders, he can ask Lord Liu Heima to make him the prefect of Chongqing Mansion. As for Zhao Shicai and other captured envoys, they did not mention it, on the one hand, the Mongols did not know how many people were killed and captured by the new annexed army, and on the other hand, in the eyes of the Mongols, Zhao Shicai and other degraded officials were just lackeys and consumables, and now that they are defeated, they are weak, and they are not worth asking about at all. In fact, when he heard that the envoy had entered the mountain, Ouyang Xuan guessed the meaning of the Mongols, but he just didn't expect that the Mongols still had a vision, and in order to win him over, he actually took out the position of the prefect, you must know that the prefect is a proper prince in that dynasty, but no matter how high the bid is, he will definitely not surrender to the Mongols. After rejecting the Mongol envoy in a few words, he hurried back to the chemical laboratory of the institute. In the initial stage of the chemical industry of the Perak Army, it is really inseparable from his personal participation.

A few days later, the meeting to try Zhao Shicai was held in Wanjiazhai. At Ouyang Xuan's request, representatives were sent from all villages and factories and mines in the mountains, and even prisoners from labor camps were sent to participate, and he wanted to turn the on-site public trial into a patriotic education. A dense crowd of people sat in the open space in the center of the wall, gathering to look at the wooden platform in the center of the open space. In the center of the wooden platform sat the presiding judge Li Shuang, his left and right were Lu Dezhi and Yang Xiucai, who were the deputy judges, and behind them sat seven members of the jury. And Zhao Shicai, the protagonist of this trial, was unkempt and pale, and was erected on the ground in front of the wooden platform by several Thunderbolt soldiers.

The whole trial process was silky smooth and did not last long. This is not that Zhao Shicai did not disagree with the accusations of killing the magistrate of Dayi County and surrendering to the Mongols and attacking the Perak army, but he was unable to refute the testimony of witnesses, including his petty officers and personal soldiers. The strong desire to save his life made him hiss and tried his best to defend himself, saying that killing Zhixian and surrendering was to avoid the Mongols from slaughtering the city, but in fact he saved the people of Dayi; The attack on the Thunderbolts was on the orders of the Mongols, and they were only acting on orders. However, his defense caused the crowd to boo, and the seven members of the jury shook their heads one after another, and the final result was obvious. "Kill and decide". The presiding judge, Li Shuang, faced the crowd and announced loudly.

Zhao Shicai's head was made and hung on a large tree outside Hengyuan Village, and his crimes and public trials were carved into dozens of wooden planks, which were erected on the main traffic routes outside the mountain, or thrown into the Wenjing River and down the river. In addition to warning traitors and traitors, Ouyang Xuan also wanted to publicly announce the attitude of the Thunderbolt army and the Mongols to fight to the death through this public opinion propaganda, and then attract anti-Mongolian fighters to gather under the banner of the Thunderbolt army.