Chapter 264: The price of peace is higher
Ottawa's subordinates, in the shouts of Manila, suddenly gave birth to the idea of surrender in their hearts, they were originally 70,000 people, after being killed by the storm, there were less than 40,000 left, and they did not want to continue to fight with the enemy army on the premise that they knew that they would die. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info So, these people also followed the example of the sergeants in Manila, threw away their weapons, and knelt on the ground to surrender.
The battlefield, which had been chaotic and disorderly a moment ago, suddenly became quiet at this moment, and the two 120,000 Xin barbarians finally made a choice and surrendered collectively after losing 50,000 lives.
Seeing this, Manila smiled bitterly, drew a dagger from his riding boots, and plunged it into his heart. A stream of blood, along the incision of the dagger, slowly flowed out and fell low onto the hot yellow sand. On this sunny afternoon, Manila ended his life in such a way, he was born in the desert, and after his death, he handed himself back to the desert.
More than 30,000 of Manila's subordinate barbarians wept one after another. Even the more than 40,000 subordinates of Ottawa were silent and speechless, with sad looks on their faces. Manila gave her life in exchange for the hope that these people would continue to survive. He silently conveyed his feelings about life and death before his death to all the Xin barbarians present in such a way. In accordance with the customs of the Xin barbarians, Yuan Qi cremated Manila on the battlefield, although he was an enemy, but a respectable and admirable enemy, he was still worthy of respect.
With the death of Xin Manshan in Ottawa and Left Guard Manila. This fierce battle. This is the end of the curtain. The Xin barbarians killed as many as 50,000 soldiers, wounded countless people, and 70,000 were taken prisoner. On the enemy side, there were also considerable battle losses.
After counting, the final number of people killed in the battle was counted. The battle losses of the three elite troops, the Tiangui Army, the Flying Dragon Army, and the Earth Return Army, were basically around 200 people, and compared with the three elite troops, the casualties of ordinary sergeants were more than ten times more. Of the 50,000 soldiers in the new army, nearly 10,000 died in this service, and about 5,000 were disabled and could not continue to serve, and many were slightly wounded.
Yuan Qi ordered 10,000 lightly wounded sergeants to be assigned to transport the disabled robes back to Mingzhou, and asked Tian Yu to arrange their next injury treatment and the discharge procedures of the disabled sergeants, and ordered Zuo Ci to temporarily serve as the commander of this army, and be sure to bring them back to Mingzhou without falling behind. After that, Zuo Ci was automatically relieved of his position as commander, returned to Yanjing alone, notified the relevant personnel, properly handled the issue of pensions for the fallen soldiers, and engraved the names of these soldiers on the martyrs' monument to show their bravery and loyalty.
At the same time, this team returning to Mingzhou has another important task, they will be responsible for escorting 70,000 Xinman captives back to Mingzhou and teaching Tian Yu to deal with it. Population has always been an important factor in pacifying the world, and Yuan Qi has no reason to exterminate these 70,000 Xin barbarians, and it is a good choice to bring them back to Mingzhou and live with the Thorn Tower people. After these Xin barbarians were escorted to Mingzhou, they would gradually accept sinicization together with the Thorn Tower people, which could be regarded as a springboard for integration into the Han people, avoiding their direct contact with the Han people, and then inspiring the hatred of the Han people. By the time they were almost sinicized, it was probably a few years or more than ten years later, at that time, it is believed that the hatred of the Han people for the Xin barbarians had been indifferent, and then these Xin barbarians were mixed with the Thorn Tower people, and they moved to the interior, or let more Han people who voluntarily settled in Mingzhou move over, and then complete the great integration of the nation.
Of course, before the 70,000 Xin barbarian captives were sent away, Yuan Qi deliberately asked Zhuge Liang to give them an ideological education lesson, analyzing the evil consequences caused by the southern invasion of the Xin barbarians from multiple angles and depths, as well as the huge harm brought to the Han people, and then warned them in righteous words that if they want to live, they must obey the leadership of the Han people, abide by the laws of the Han people, and adapt to the living habits of the Han people. These frightened barbarians who were killed by the enemy army under Yuan Qi had no intention of resisting, and coupled with Manila's advice before his death, they willingly accepted Zhuge Liang's ideological education. In this process, Zhuge Liang's excellent eloquence is also an important part of it, since he and Yuan Qi studied the thirteen articles of Guigu together, Zhuge Liang's debating skills have become more and more proficient, even Yuan Qi can only bow down.
After dealing with the problem of wounded soldiers and prisoners, Yuan Qi's mind returned to the next battle. Ottawa and Manila are only the two most powerful of the various tribes in Xinman, Xinman still has dozens of tribes large and small, and their total strength adds up to 150,000 or 60,000 people, and now Yuan Qi has more than 60,000 people under his command. Save the limited forces and put them into the final decisive battle, Yuan Qi knows very well that the strategy can only win a temporary victory, if there is no hard-fought duel, the Xin barbarians are subdued and afraid, they will sooner or later have a repetition, only like the conquest of Ottawa and Manila, let them feel afraid from the heart, they will obediently obey.
After some discussion, Zhuge Liang and Xu Shu each offered a strategy. Zhuge Liang advocated defending the Greedy Wolf Mountain and building strong defenses, and at the same time sent troops to raid the tribes of Ottawa and Manila, plundering the armaments and supplies there. Zhuge Liang's reason is very simple, the Xin barbarians are still strong, and our army must be prepared to fight a protracted war. Previously, when the 70,000 captives were sent to Mingzhou, more than two-thirds of the grain in the army was taken away by Zuo Ci, and now the grain and grass in the army are in danger, and they must be replenished in the form of war and warfare, and Ottawa and Manila, which have lost a large number of young and middle-aged people, are excellent targets for plunder. When the supplies are abundant and the condition of the wounded in the army recovers, the Xin barbarians will be consumed little by little, and some tribes with strength in the middle and lower reaches will be eradicated, and finally the final decisive battle will be fought with the big tribes such as Qatar and the Right Guard.
Xu Shu's opinion is to adopt the policy of mobile warfare, to put it bluntly, it is to change places with one shot, and in the process of wandering, constantly eliminate some small tribes of the Xin barbarians, while consuming the total strength of the Xin barbarians, avoid a decisive battle with the Xin barbarians in advance, and at the same time enrich the armaments and materials, and also achieve the effect of nourishing the war with war.
After thinking about it repeatedly, Yuan Qi felt that what Zhuge Liang and Xu Shu said made sense. In fact, Yuan Qi is no stranger to the policy of mobile warfare, in history, Huang Chao in the middle of the Tang Dynasty once led a rebel army, and adopted such a combat method on the territory of the Tang Dynasty. Its positive effect is similar to what Xu Shu said, that is, to attack the enemy with a small force, and in the process let his strength gradually grow stronger, like a snowball, while rolling bigger and bigger, it can also consume the enemy's troops. However, this policy also has one of the biggest limitations, that is, it does not have a solid position, and once it is surrounded by heavy enemy troops, there will be a dilemma of losing ground and retreating.
Therefore, in the end, Yuan Qi decided to adopt the two opinions of the two at the same time, and at the same time as building defenses in Greedy Wolf Mountain, he sent Qi Tian and Zhao Hu to lead part of the elite of the Flying Dragon Army and the Tiangui Army respectively to plunder supplies in all directions, and the first target was the tribes of Ottawa and Manila. At the same time, Yuan Qi also asked Ma Yue to lead five thousand Thorn Tower cavalry, day and night, to investigate the situation of the nearby tribes, and immediately report back to Yuan Qi after locking the target, Yuan Qi will personally lead the remaining elite of the Tiangui Army and the elite of the Flying Dragon Army, and Ma Yue will be divided into two wings, and raid those small tribes with a population of less than 20,000 people.
Because the news of the annihilation of the Ottawa and Manila armies has not yet come out, the actions of the Yuan Qijun are extremely hidden. Three days later, Qi Tian and Zhao Hu returned to Greedy Wolf Mountain with a large amount of supplies, and they plundered the supplies of the two tribes, which was enough for the Yuan Qi army to use for a year. At the same time, Yuan Qi and Ma Yue attacked together, and within three days, they successively broke through the small tribes of the three Xin barbarians, and all the men, women, and children in the tribe were wiped out, and no one was left. It was not that Yuan Qi was cruel, but that he had to use this method to temporarily ensure the confidentiality of the news, to cover up the news of the defeat and death of Ottawa and Manila as much as possible, and to buy the enemy a few more days to recover.
If it had been before, Yuan Qi would definitely not have done this, he had always advocated treating his captives well, but that was only for the Han people, or for the alien races who did not have much hatred for the Han people, obviously, the Xin barbarians were not among them. Especially after experiencing so many lives and deaths, Yuan Qi has become more decisive and decisive, he understands that being merciful to the enemy is cruel to himself, in order to ensure that the enemy army is not lost, he can only send the Xin barbarians to hell with his own hands. Moreover, such a thunderous method, in the future, is also a psychological threat to the Xin barbarians, so that they can know the truth that those who go along will prosper and those who go against will die, and lay the foundation for victory in the future decisive battle.