At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

"Not what?"

Seeing Qiao Rui's perplexed expression, Yuan Shu immediately asked.

"It's better... For those who are hopeless, it's better to take off all the clothes on their bodies and let the soldiers who haven't got sick wear them to keep out the cold."

Qiao Rui pursed her lips, but decided to make such an opinion for the sake of the battle situation.

The surrounding civil servants and military generals looked at Qiao Rui with surprise on their faces, and fell into deep thought after a while.

In just one night, the number of people who died of frostbite will not cause the army to collapse, and if all the clothes on them can be taken off, at least the core elite will not be frozen to death, and more people will not be frozen to death. sick.

At this price, we will give up all the people who are currently dying of frostbite.

Yuan Shu was stunned for a while.

Even though he didn't pay attention to these lowly big soldiers, Yuan Shu inevitably hesitated to make such a huge sacrifice in one go and affect his own battle situation.

None of the subordinates dared to say anything, they could only wait for Yuan Shu's final decision.

There is no doubt that Yuan Shu has no doubts about his choice.

He first angrily reprimanded Guo Peng.

"If it wasn't for the traitor Guo's betrayal, why would our army be here today!!"

The grief and indignation on Yuan Shu's face was inexplicable: "You pretended to submit to me and obey me, but now you actually betray me! This is all caused by Guo Bandit! It is Guo Bandit who caused the people to live in poverty and starve to death! It is Guo Bandit who caused our soldiers to lack food and clothing. , Frozen and starved to death! They are all Guo thieves!"

The subordinates were immediately shocked by Yuan Shu.

This skill of dumping the pot is really first-class!

After scolding Guo Peng, Yuan Shu began to blame God again.

"Heaven gave me auspiciousness and jade seals, why didn't they give me victory?! Is it God's will to send heavy snow to hinder our army? Is this how God treats the emperor?"

The subordinates were even more surprised.

Yuan Shu really deserves to be Yuan Shu, not only hate Guo Peng, but also dare to hate God, I am the only one in heaven and earth, this ability is really unusual.

Yuan Shu wept uncontrollably, waved his hands, and ordered to his subordinates: "If you freeze to death, record your name and place of origin. When I win, their family members will be exempted from taxes for one year, so as to comfort their spirits in heaven."

The subordinates knew well that Yuan Shu was going to use the lives of these soldiers who died of frostbite in exchange for the final victory.

Reduce the number of troops and increase the average possession rate of warm clothes to increase the combat effectiveness of the army.

Perfect idea.

Although the implementation is not so satisfactory.

It's okay to die, no one cares.

However, the soldiers turned pale with fright when they saw that the weak comrades who could not afford to be seriously ill were robbed of their clothes and bedding, and were thrown outside naked.

Someone wanted to stop him, but he was kicked to the ground, and then he was threatened by thickly dressed elite soldiers with swords drawn.

"Want to die?"

"He's not dead! He just needs medicinal materials!"

"The medicinal materials belong to the people above, you still want the medicinal materials? He can't survive! Get out of the way! Or we will die together!"

This short conversation is over.

They were frightened by the blades of the elite soldiers and did not dare to move rashly, for fear of being killed.

So they could only watch with very sad eyes that their familiar fellow countrymen were thrown outside after being stripped of their clothes in the cold wind, and then froze to death alive.

Although he was sick and a little unconscious, he was still alive after all, right?

In this way, he was thrown away outside the barracks and froze to death.

It's freezing outside, and it's snowing heavily, and the wind blowing on my body hurts like a knife cutting flesh.

So those people died.

Those who survived were organized to dig pits collectively, and all those who died of freezing were buried, as if this matter did not exist.

Later, those who survived learned that their emperor ordered them to use the clothes of these voluntary warriors to protect those who were not sick from the cold in exchange for the final victory.

Dependents of the dead are exempt from taxes for a year, that's all.

If they still have dependents.

This was the last tenderness Yuan Shu gave them.

Afterwards, they got the clothes of the people who were frozen to death, but they didn't feel warm at all when they put them on. They only felt that the chills that were more terrible than the cold wind outside were raging in their hearts.

They are not soldiers, but Li Shu who were coerced by the war and lost their freedom.

Hungry, skinny, wanting to eat a full meal is still not enough.

To be born in the midst of hunger and cold, to survive in the midst of hunger and cold, to die in the midst of hunger and cold.

Or died of hunger, or died of severe cold, or died of accidents, or died on the battlefield.

Life is easy, death is easy.

In the eyes of people like Yuan Shu, they are just a series of numbers, a series of numbers that they don't even know, a series of numbers that make up people's heads.

They don't want to be soldiers themselves, they don't know what kind of war they want to participate in, and they don't know the purpose of participating in the war, and they don't know why the big men who command them force them to join the army.

Get a weapon, you can go to the battlefield, and then you don't know when you will die.

Sometimes they envy the elite guards around the big shots, envy them for being warmly dressed, well fed, and rewarded from time to time.

They would also envy those elite troops. Although they are not as good as the elite guards, they are still elite. They can eat enough and wear warm clothes, and their status is higher than them.

Even those war horses, they are very envious, because war horses will never go hungry, they will eat food without forage, and they can eat more and better than people.

So once in a while, someone has a dream.

"I will be a horse in my next life."

A young man who had just lost his fellow countryman said to the white-headed old man beside him, looking at a horse being led away by an elite knight while talking.

"Isn't it bad to be a man? Why do you want to be a horse?"

A wry smile appeared on the wrinkled face of the shivering old man.

"What's so good about being a human being? If you don't have enough to eat, don't wear warm clothes, and pay endless rent, how good are these horses? Some people take care of them, some people wash their bodies, and some people prepare food and drink. We don't even have to eat. They eat a lot, a horse eats more than five or six of us."

The young man's face was full of envy and yearning: "I've grown up so much that I still don't know what it's like to be full. My father told me that he was full once. I asked him what it was like, and he said he forgot .”

The old man laughed dryly a few times.

Then the young man approached the old man and said in a low voice: "I also heard that when the stallion arrives, someone will lead the mare to match it. Money, it’s not like us as human beings, if we want to eat or not, we have to wear or not, and we don’t have money to ask for a wife to warm the bed.”

"Your parents didn't ask for a wife for you?"

The old man leaned on the young man and asked softly.

"When my father married my mother, I spent all the money in the family. When it was my turn to ask for a wife, my father and mother were very sad. My father fell to his death while cutting firewood on the mountain, and my mother fell ill soon after. I just died of illness, and I just dug a hole to bury my mother, and I was arrested."

The young man wiped his eyes: "In the next life, I will stop being a human being and become a horse. How nice it is to be a horse. As long as you carry people on your back, you will be able to eat. I want to be like them. As long as you carry people on your back, you will be full. alright."

The old man leaned on the young man's shoulder and sighed, he didn't know whether he was sighing for the young man or himself.

"How wonderful would it be if you could have enough food while running with people on your back?"

"It's not like us, digging around in the ground every day, so tired that we can't stand up straight, and we can't eat enough."

"Being a horse is better than being a man, what do you think?"

The young man turned his head to look at the silent old man who was leaning against him with his eyes closed, and asked several times, but the old man didn't speak.

After all, the old man did not speak again.

Two soldiers in armor came over, tried the old man's breath, then took off the old man's clothes and threw them to the young man.

A soldier looked at the young man with pity.

"Put it on. You can live longer. If you're lucky, you might be able to live until the end of this battle. Then you won't have to pay taxes for three years. It's a good day."

Seeing the old man being carried away naked, the young man didn't move.

After the old man was transported away, the young man wrapped the old man's clothes around his body, and then continued to shrink here, trembling, while numbly looking at the flying snow in the sky.

so cold.

It's so cold.

Chapter 409 Four hundred and eight Don't you think Gu will win the final victory?

In the midst of the flying snow, Guo Peng sent out spies, dressed in white robes and hats, to investigate what happened in Yuan Shu's barracks, and then reported the matter to Guo Peng.

Guo Peng held a meeting and discussed the matter with his advisers and generals.

Knowing that Yuan Gonglu abandoned all the people who died of frostbite and used their clothes to protect the rest from the cold, Guo Peng's subordinates and military personnel felt sorry for this.

Xi Zhong sighed.

"Li Shu is so innocent... If all the people in power in the world treat Li Shu like Yuan Gonglu, Li Shu will die!"

"Yuan Gonglu hastily summoned an army, but he couldn't prepare enough logistics, so it won't last long. General, he will definitely launch an attack as soon as possible."

Guo Jia immediately pointed out this point, and said, "Whether our army will fight head-on or not hold out strictly, it is up to the general to decide."

Guo Peng nodded, looked around at the soldiers under his command, and said: "The soldiers under my command are not dispensable. I regard each one as a treasure. Yuan Gonglu doesn't care about human life. I care. If he can't guard it strictly, let him attack. I can't keep it strictly, and within a few days, our army will win without any effort."

Guo Peng made up his mind, and all the generals agreed one after another, returning to the camp and sticking to it.

Just as Guo Jia said, Yuan Shu quickly ordered [-] troops to attack Guo Peng's company defense line regardless of the heavy snowfall and the snow on the ground.

According to Guo Peng's order, the generals could not hold out, and commanded the army to counterattack calmly with superior ordnance.

Only half an hour into the battle, Yuan Shu's army was unable to continue the attack because of its poor condition and the road was too slippery. Although Yuan Shu was incompetent and furious, he could not change the road conditions and had no choice but to withdraw his troops.

Yuan Shu lost nearly a thousand troops in this battle, while Guo Peng's troops suffered little loss.

Yuan Shu was very annoyed, but the Lord of Heaven didn't want to be beautiful, so he really had no choice but to wait.

Fortunately, the snow stopped that afternoon, Yuan Shu immediately ordered people to clear the snow, and then prepared for the next day's battle.

During this period, the temperature continued to drop.

Guo Peng felt that the further drop in temperature would be unfavorable for soldiers to fight. He was afraid that some soldiers would get sick and spread the infection so much that it would affect the battle situation, so he ordered the "scarves" to be issued to keep out the cold.

Every soldier, including civilian husbands and auxiliary soldiers, must wear a scarf to keep out the cold.

He also ordered that ginger soup be changed from one bowl a day to two bowls a day, and that it should be served to the soldiers when they got up early and before entering the barracks at night. They were also ordered not to eat raw or cold food. Go to the medical camp.

The army strictly enforces these winter regulations until the weather turns warmer. If there is any mistake, the officers at all levels will be directly held accountable, and no one will escape.

However, hundreds of people under Yuan Shu's department froze to death, and more than a thousand people became ill due to frostbite. They had to continue to work as usual. Fortunately, Qiao Rui suppressed it in time, otherwise it would trigger a camp change.

Yuan Shu felt more and more that this battle could not last long, so he hurriedly assigned the offensive task, and sent troops to attack Qi County early the next morning.

Obviously, Yuan Shu has realized that if the war continues, his side will be defeated without a fight due to the continuous low temperature, and he has to retreat, thus ceding the country to Guo Peng.

How could someone as strong as Yuan Shu accept such a situation?

While he still has strength, he can't stop attacking wildly, so he must break through Guo Peng's defense.

It's not cold on his side, it must be cold on Guo Peng's side.

Yuan Shu's thoughts are so straightforward.

So it was no surprise that this offensive battle failed again, defeated on the slippery road, defeated by the rain of arrows, and defeated by the howling wind.

The attack lasted for an hour, and it was really impossible to continue, so they had to retreat again.

The so-called snow is not cold and the snow is cold. The snow is melting. Even if the sun is out, the temperature is frighteningly low. Guo Peng can't stand the low temperature, let alone Yuan Shu.

In other words, Guo Peng was well-prepared and willing to spend money, but Yuan Shu had no such preparations at all. He just relied on human lives to pile up. As a result, more people died of freezing every day than those killed in battle. This battle could not be fought at all.

Therefore, Lu Mianqiao, Li Feng, Liang Gang and other generals asked Yuan Shu to withdraw his troops to Longkang so that the soldiers could have houses to keep out the cold.

Even if you want to attack, you have to wait until the temperature rises.

If things go on like this, the soldiers are not killed in battle, they are all frozen to death, completely incapable of fighting, and dying for nothing is meaningless.

Yuan Shu could not agree.