Northern Dynasties Imperial Industry

The conditions in the military camp in Xialu Juwai were often difficult, but the soldiers gritted their teeth and persisted, with few complaints. It's not because they have particularly tenacious personalities, but because compared to most soldiers, there are some people who are in a more miserable situation, and that is the right-wing soldiers brought back by He Baren.

Originally, this group of soldiers was abandoned on the battlefield due to the withdrawal of the Chinese army. However, they managed to escape due to the enemy's high hand and wide open net. They then reunited with the soldiers who had been abandoned on the north bank of the Tongda River. They can be regarded as brothers in need, and they return together together.

Unexpectedly, the Qiang thief Li Boshan was too insidious and cunning. He used false benevolence to divert all of their soldiers from the battlefield, but sent troops to chase them overnight during their retreat, causing his army to be completely defeated and countless people to flee.

There were originally more than 40,000 soldiers, but in the end, only less than 10,000 people were able to return, and each of them was in an extremely embarrassed state, with all their armor, horses, weapons, and staffs discarded. And when they returned to Xialiju, the good areas around the fort that were convenient for camping were all occupied by the ancestors. They had no choice but to climb to the top of a nearby hillside to sleep in the open. There was no shade during the day and no way to find food when they were hungry or thirsty. Eat and drink.

Many soldiers who originally felt that the conditions were difficult, after seeing the hardships of this group of people, could not help but feel sympathy and stopped complaining. But it was just sympathy. They also had no spare power to help these miserable soldiers. At most, they cursed the Qiang thieves for their treachery. If these soldiers dared to enter their camp and occupy the water point, they would also start a fight with each other. !

When Duan Shao came here, he happened to encounter two groups of people fighting over the problem of water supply. There were hundreds of soldiers involved in each other, and many injured were already lying on the ground. And what they were fighting for was just two water carriages.

Although Xialiju was close to the Zhuozhang River, due to the previous battle at the mouth of the river, when a group of people fled southward, many corpses fell into the Zhuozhang River, and some people jumped into the river and drowned.

In this midsummer season, the corpses of men and horses that fell into the river were not salvaged and disposed of in time. They soon swelled and rotted. The entire river was filled with a disgusting corpse smell. In order to prevent the soldiers from drinking sewage When the epidemic broke out in the military camp, Duan Shao banned the soldiers from stationing along the Zhuozhang River and taking water.

In this hot summer season, getting water has become a huge problem. In order to ensure that people and horses can divert water, they can only go further to find and haul it back. Many people and horses in various camps have died of thirst. Because life and death were at stake, fights often occurred in the military camp.

After Duan Shao entered the camp, he naturally stopped the war. However, when he learned that the tens of thousands of troops on the plains could not even put together a few water-carrying carriages, so that most of the wounded died of thirst, Duan Shao could not help but feel unbearable. So the staff transferred ten carriages from elsewhere for use. As for more material supplies, such as food and medicinal materials for healing injuries, even he is worried about it now.

With Duan Shao's arrival, He Baren and others also came out to welcome him. They all hoped that Duan Shao could allocate some necessary supplies to alleviate the current difficult situation. However, Duan Shao's next words made them greatly disappointed, and they became sad, angry and anxious.

"I have been ordered by the Supreme Being to ask you about the fact that your troops were attacked and fled on their way back. Most of the troops were killed. Do you know the crime, Grand Master Heba?"

Duan Shao knew that this was an offending errand, otherwise the emperor would not have specially arranged this matter for him, but since he had already arrived here, he still looked at He Baren and said in a deep voice.

"Your Majesty, listen to the explanation of the generals! The reason why the division and brigade were attacked was due to the treachery of the Qiang thieves..."

When Gao Anahu and other generals heard Duan Shao's accusation, they hurriedly opened their mouths and wanted to defend themselves. However, no matter how they explained and scolded the Wei army for going back on their word, Duan Shao did not respond and just looked at He Ba calmly. Benevolence.

After He Baren saw this, he could only step forward, lowered his head and said in a deep voice: "In the previous battle, we were unable to defeat the bandit army, which resulted in the defeat of the division and brigade. When leading the troops to evacuate, they misbelieved the bandit's words and were unprepared. This caused serious consequences. My son has suffered many hardships. I know that my sins are serious and I dare not ask for forgiveness. I only ask the king to have mercy on my son. God cannot bear to kill him and do not mistreat him because of man-made disasters."

"At present, the division and brigade are newly defeated and the armies are in disuse. I am not deliberately treating the soldiers here poorly. When the materials from the country are delivered here, the situation will surely improve. Taifu does not need to take this matter as a measure. I will definitely handle it properly. Military here.”

After saying this, he waved his hand slightly, and the sergeants from behind swarmed in and captured He Baren in public. He Baren's subordinates and soldiers around him had angry expressions on their faces when they saw this. But he only dared to be angry but did not dare to speak, and the eyes he looked at Duan Shao were not kind.

This is the reason why Gao Yang arranged for Duan Shao to come to arrest and question He Baren. Today, He Baren is already the most senior figure in the country, and he also has a high reputation and deep connections among the Jinyang soldiers. , Duan Shao came to question and punish him. Regardless of whether it was justified or not, it would arouse the dissatisfaction of many Jinyang soldiers.

If he still wants to actively plan a counterattack, Gao Yang will naturally not deliberately create disharmony in personnel, but now he has set a defensive-oriented tone, and the only person he can rely on here is Duan Shao. Naturally, I don’t want Duan Shao to gather too many people and power.

Especially in his almost explicit probing, Duan Shao still gave vague answers and refused to express a clear attitude of supporting the prince. This also made Gao Yang not completely trust Duan Shao, and naturally he needed to create some personnel difficulties for Duan Shao.

In fact, Gao Yang was not too sure whether he really had to pass the throne to the prince Gao Yin. Before this, he had been slightly dissatisfied with the prince, but he chose to tolerate it under the persuasion of Yang Yin and others, and did not lightly think of abolishing and enthroning.

But now that the East and the West have been defeated in the war, the border pressure brought by the Western Wei to the Northern Qi is unprecedentedly strong. Gao Yang couldn't help but murmur in his heart about this matter, and did not think that the prince Gao Yin was capable of taking over this foundation and handling the situation properly.

But the problem is that the closest relatives are father and son, and the prince is his appointed heir. At least at the moment, there is no obvious intention to abolish and enthronize. Duan Shao was vague about this. In Gao Yang's view, this is not aimed at the prince, but at the emperor himself!

Even though Duan Shao did not have a deep understanding of the emperor's thoughts, he knew that the emperor was indeed dissatisfied, so he still agreed to this difficult task. He did not deliberately save face for Heba Ren. He detained him in front of everyone and prepared to take him back to the camp to announce his punishment.

However, just as Duan Shao was about to take Heba Ren away, soldiers rushed over from the bottom of the pond, shouting loudly while running: "They are back, the soldiers who were abducted by the Qiang bandits are back again!"

After hearing this, all the generals were surprised, and Duan Shao was also quite surprised. They hurriedly turned to the north of the pond and saw a group of tens of thousands of soldiers with a fairly neat formation coming south along the Zhuozhang River.

After seeing this scene, everyone hurriedly walked down the pond and greeted this group of soldiers. As they got closer to each other, after seeing the full picture and details of this formation, the expressions on everyone's faces became more and more strange.

This group of soldiers and horses were neatly dressed and well-organized, and there was no sign of the embarrassment of the defeated troops. Moreover, there was a convoy loaded with supplies in the team. If it had not come from the north, there was really no way to associate them with the defeated army. I am afraid that people would think that they were reinforcements sent by the country.

"Yes, we were indeed kidnapped by Qiang bandits and Wei people, but this was just the arrogant and fierce general's own decision, not the order of Prime Minister Li. Because the general acted on his own and caused him to break his promise, Prime Minister Li personally punished the general and almost killed him. The Wei army really has strict military discipline. Once the order has been issued, it will never be partial to disobeying orders just because of merit..."

Faced with the comrades who came forward to greet and ask questions, these soldiers who had suffered many hardships and finally returned safely could not contain the excitement and joy in their hearts. They enthusiastically shared their bizarre experiences with the masses, not noticing that the atmosphere on the scene had become weird.

"General Li not only released us again, but also gave us a lot of food and clothing, so that we would have enough food on the way back..."

When they heard this, everyone's eyes suddenly turned green. They were originally glad that they escaped in time and were able to return here safely, but they didn't expect that the experience of these captives was far worse than theirs. For a moment, their mentality was greatly unbalanced, and they scolded and accused these people of betrayal and betrayal to receive such preferential treatment from the Wei army.

Otherwise, they couldn't figure out why the Wei army treated the captives so well, so there were many people shouting loudly to torture all these people to prevent them from colluding with the Wei army to attack Xiaju again.

When Duan Shao and others came here, the scene was already in chaos. The hungry and thirsty Qi army soldiers were already in a bad mood. Now seeing that these surrendered captives were treated much better than them, and even shamelessly showing off, it was simply intolerable!

The returning captives were also full of grievances and indignation. They were captured because they were unwilling to fight bravely. They were captured by the enemy because they were abandoned by the soldiers in the rear who had not even been on the battlefield. After a near-death experience, they were finally rescued by the enemy commander's mercy, but they did not expect to be repeatedly criticized and scolded by their comrades when they returned!

After Duan Shao rushed to the scene and understood the situation, he suddenly felt a headache. Now he can finally deeply understand why many veteran generals in the country shook their heads and were unwilling to talk more when they mentioned the battle with Li Boshan. Direct battles on the battlefield are already difficult to deal with, and the tricks outside the battlefield are even more difficult to guard against!