Chapter 38: Awe of power but not moral

Any kind of creature, even a person who claims to be the leader of all spirits, is always fearful of power and rarely virtuous in his nature. This is the instinct of living things and is understandable.

It is commonplace to be afraid of force and not dare to resist, but to sneer at kindness, and even to retaliate with kindness.

Especially at the end of the dynasty, people are like beasts, without the restraint of order. The more chaotic they are, the closer they are to instinctive beastliness.

Rogue thieves are a group of people who have brought their bestiality to the extreme.

When they held the people hostage, killed them, treated them like nothing, and destroyed everything, they never thought about how they would feel if they were in their shoes.

Instead, they will hate.

Why do you people want to live and work in peace and contentment, while I want to be a thief?

Not convinced!

If I become a thief, you all won't have an easy time.

This is the bestiality in human nature. After all, human beings are also animals, but they are more intelligent than animals. But animal nature is always buried deep in instinct. In peacetime, there is order and restraint. And when there is chaos, it will erupt.

Why do we say that heavy codes should be used in troubled times?

Here's why.

The more troubled the times, the more ruthless one must be. Otherwise, how can we control people whose bestiality breaks out?

In front of 20,000 to 30,000 bandit prisoners, Zhao Yu beat Ma Shouying into a pulp with a cone, nothing more than that.

Now that Shouzhou is under way, Huoqiu is next. According to the original plan, the other four armies were probably almost in place at this time. Along the way, the Chinese army had no time to waste in Shouzhou.

To go to Huoqiu, we must take away most of the troops and horses, leaving only a thousand. There are twenty to thirty thousand prisoners here. Disproportionate. Once changes occur, they may not be suppressed.

The fear in the hearts of these captives must be deepened.

Previously, Zhao Yuzong was in Shouzhou City and killed dozens of people with one cone. When Lao Hui returned to the old camp of 3,000 people, he killed almost 60 to 70% of them by himself, and it only took half a stick of incense.

This is scary enough.

But Zhao Yu still felt that it was not safe.

The imperial court was accustomed to Zhao'an, so the thieves were lucky. If you follow Ma Shouying's idea and recruit him to surrender, not only will it not be a good thing, but it will be a huge hidden danger.

This kind of compromise will make the captives think wildly.

Think that the imperial court is weak - if you can't defeat it, you will surrender, if you see an opportunity, you will rebel, if you cannot defeat it, you will surrender, how wonderful is it?

Zhao Yu interrupted this luck with a cone.

First, he killed Lao Huihui Ma Shouying, and then without saying a word, he directly ordered a hundred people to be dragged out from the prisoners below, with the sword in hand and their heads on the ground.

Killing Lao Huihui is not enough. These thieves may not be grateful to Lao Huihui, and may turn Lao Huihui into minced meat. Many people are still happy in their hearts.

We must let them know how painful it is!

One hundred heads is not much, but killing them without saying a word is such a cruel method, which is really frightening.

Zhao Yu then spoke, asking the prisoners to testify against each other and find out the leader among them. Within the limit of ten breaths, if no one can testify, another hundred people will be pulled out and the killing will continue.

So there was a rush.

As long as they were bandit leaders who commanded more than a hundred people, they would all be accused in less than a stick of incense, then dragged out and killed.

In just two moments, this group of prisoners was truly in disarray.

Only that few generals were left, and there were hundreds of heads in a pool of blood under the stage.

Only then did Zhao Yu feel relieved.

He just nodded slightly to the guide, who would later control Shouzhou City, walked down the general platform, and left Shouzhou City.

Outside the city, about nine thousand soldiers and horses had been waiting for a long time.

In this attack on Shouzhou, the loss of troops and horses was minimal. The main reason was that Zhao Yu broke through the door with one blow and defeated the old camp of rogue thieves with one person, causing chaos in the city and making it impossible to form a fighting force. This was why it was so easy.

The real casualties were less than a hundred.

Speaking of which, such an easy battle almost exists in legend.

After this battle, the soldiers became more convinced of Zhao Yu. There is no doubt about this. Victory boosted the morale of the soldiers. And the benefits brought by victory, such as capture, made the soldiers smile even more.

Rogue bandits are the best at plundering, and almost every rogue bandit has money on him. After capturing Shouzhou and defeating Lao Huihui, the amount of silver captured alone exceeded 800,000 taels!

Including valuable items such as gold beads and jewelry, as well as grain and grass, etc., the total value of the loot is definitely more than 1.4 million taels.

This is Yang He’s preliminary statistics.

The food and grass will be left directly in Shouzhou and will not be used at all. Three hundred thousand taels of silver were left with Shouzhou, and all the jewelry was handed over to the Juren. The remaining 500,000 taels of silver will all belong to the soldiers according to Zhao Yu's promise at Shanhaiguan.

There are only ten thousand people, and on average, each person has fifty taels of silver. This kind of harvest is simply ecstatic.

Not to mention anything else, at this time alone, the regular soldiers in the Ming Army could only get one or two taels of food and salary for a month at most. Fifty taels of silver, that's at least two years of military pay!

It has to be enough.

In fact, among these soldiers, there are definitely only a few who have seen fifty taels of silver at one time. And you have to be an officer.

Zhao Yu fulfilled his promise and even wasted some time to distribute silver coins outside the city. The purpose was to show the soldiers that he, Zhao Yu, kept his word.

So morale was high.

Victory, and silver, are the source of morale.

As for honor, not yet. It takes a long time to count the military exploits of the entire army. The war is not over yet, so we can only suppress it first. After all the five camps of Gezuo have been wiped out, we can then discuss the merits and reward them.

Then the army marched straight towards Huoqiu.

...

Huang Degong is a face-saving person. In other words, no one with a certain status is shameless.

Zhao Yu trampled on Huang Degong's face in broad daylight in front of so many people. This kind of humiliation was something that Huang Degong, not to mention a martial artist, could tolerate no matter how much he tolerated it.

So he wants revenge.

As for the general trend of the world and the safety of the imperial court, what is that?

However, what made Huang Degong feel aggrieved was that when he planned to deal with Zhao Yu, he found that the military camp outside Huaiyuan was empty.

But Huang Degong is not a person who is good at giving up. Of course, personal honor, disgrace and interests must never be given up. As for the rest, let’s talk about it later.

So he sent people to track the traces of Zhao Yu's army, and then found a way to kill Zhao Yu.

When people are angry and angry, they are often irrational.

Huang Degong never thought that even if he stabbed Zhao Yu in the back, would he be able to kill Zhao Yu? If it cannot be killed, what are the consequences?

Huang Degong, known as Huang Chuang'er, is a hot-tempered and impulsive person. He will not think so far ahead.

Especially the next thing made him think that God was helping him.

The boss of Chaozhongge actually sent someone here!

I thought it was a question of guilt, but after all, he had a guilty conscience, and Huang Degong often did things that were unconscionable. Or maybe he thought that he was ordered to cooperate with Zhao Yu in suppressing thieves.

But he didn't expect that the elder of the Chaozhong Pavilion actually asked him to hold Zhao Yu back.

He even hinted that he would kill Zhao Yu if he had the chance.

How could Huang Degong not be happy?

Immediately he agreed, offered a sum of money, and sent the people away. So he was very excited, summoned the people around him, and sent out a large number of people who stayed at night to follow the traces of Zhao Yu's army in a big way.

With the support of the imperial court, what else do you have to worry about?

Seeing the golden crow falling from the west, Huang Degong became a little impatient in waiting. Finally, a scout reported back.

"Zhao Yu went to Shouzhou in the first battle, killed the old man and returned to his horse to defend him, and took nearly 30,000 prisoners."

Huang Degong was stunned.

So fast? !

impossible!

When he went to Zhao Yu's camp, he secretly observed it. Although Zhao Yu has many soldiers, there are fifty thousand. But they did not carry heavy siege equipment. Neither trebuchets nor cannons were seen.

Although Shouzhou is not said to be the strongest city in the world, the city wall is still two feet high, especially after it fell into the control of bandits, it was even higher and reinforced.

How to capture a city without heavy equipment?

And also in such a short period of time? !

Of course Huang Degong didn't know that Zhao Yu attacked the city not with weapons, but with an iron awl in his hand. As for not carrying heavy siege equipment, the reason is simple - it slows down the marching speed.

The siege of Kaifeng was critical, and the bandits happened to gather slightly, all in the Huanghuai area. If we don't take this opportunity to catch all the bandits in one fell swoop, we'll be in big trouble if the bandits are scattered.

Moreover, the prince went to Kaifeng in person, which made Zhao Yu feel uneasy. The prince does not have a large number of elite troops available. The rest of the local troops are all rabble-rousers that he looks down upon. They are not much different from the bandit. If something unexpected happens, Zhao Yu does not want to put the prince in danger. with what is seen. The Ge Zuo and Xian thieves must be eliminated as soon as possible so that they can outflank and move northward to Kaifeng.

Therefore, Zhao Yu's army is lightly armed and simple. None of the heavy equipment was carried.

If it were anyone else, it wouldn't work without them, because siege would be a big trouble after all.

And without heavy equipment, he would be at a disadvantage against the cannons and heavy weapons of the upper-class thieves.

But Zhao Yu is not worried about this.

To attack a city, there are iron cones.

Zhao Yu also has his own way to deal with the bandit's important weapon - it's very simple. With only one man and one horse, the killing generals can go in and directly destroy the heavy weapons of the bandits. Then the army will cover them up and kill them. Why worry about being victorious?

That's why Huang Degong was confused.

Although Zhao Yu dealt with him like a chicken, he never thought that Zhao Yu could defeat the city with one person.

When Huang Degong heard the news, his face immediately darkened.

Feeling upset again.

It would have been great if Zhao Yu had known earlier that Zhao Yu was attacking Shouzhou, so he could attack Shouzhou secretly, and take advantage of his unpreparedness to attack from behind.

In fact, Huang Degong is not only brave in fighting smooth battles, but also has no wisdom. Zhao Yu led his army to Fengyang. A more sensitive general could probably guess Zhao Yu's goal.

But he didn't even think about it.

The Fifth Battalion of Gezuo is in Fengyang. Is the army coming here for tourists?

At this time, Huang Degong finally changed his mind and asked quickly: "Where is Zhao Yu now? Where is Huo Qiu?"

He said: "Returning to the general army, Zhao Yu only left a thousand soldiers and horses to guard Shouzhou and guard the prisoners. The rest of the army should have gone to Huoqiu."

"when?"

"After noon."

When Huang Degong heard this, he stood up and paced anxiously. After a while, he could only sigh: "It really makes me angry!"

Duanduan is helpless.

It's a hundred miles from Fengyang to Shouzhou. There is still a hundred miles from Shouzhou to Huoqiu. It was already dusk. If he mobilized all his troops to pursue him, his troops and horses would have to travel at least three or four days over a distance of 200 miles.

The daylilies will be cold by then!