"Xingba is really brave. He conquered two cities in a row and climbed first in every battle. With this military exploit, it is more than enough to be directly promoted to captain. Come on, I respect you."
As the Battle of Chaisang ended, it was quietly the dawn of the next day. After the Zhuge brothers entered the city, they immediately took control of the Yamen and the treasury, and then ordered people to serve wine to work the troops and reward the soldiers.
At the banquet, the most popular person was naturally Gan Ning, who once again led the dead soldiers to attack the city and seize the gate.
If we talk about the siege of Pengze County seven days ago, the main reason for the city's destruction was Zhuge Liang's persuasion to surrender.
Gan Ning was more of a last resort, taking advantage of the enemy's initiative to open the door, and rushed in to grab a few more heads.
So in tonight's battle of Chaisang, Gan Ning will be the real main force.
The Zhuge brothers used every possible means to undermine the enemy's morale and provoke infighting. Although the resistance was greatly weakened, the Zuo family still clung to the city gates and towers.
"You're welcome, Ziyu. I've been in the army for many years, but I'm having the most fun lately. Come on, let's have a drink together." Gan Ning was toasted by the Zhuge brothers and Chen Heng, who had just surrendered. Naturally, he was also in high spirits. The wine is dry.
After three rounds of drinking, Zhuge Jin called some military assistants and merit recorders to learn about the latest statistics on the results of the battle.
Although the battle ended not long ago, the approximate figures are already available.
Na Gong Cao reported in the 1510th Huihui: "Chen Sima abandoned the secrets and defected to the bright side, bringing more than 2,000 Danyang County soldiers, but only 1,700 remained, and the rest suffered casualties and fled.
More than 900 local soldiers were forced to land, and more than 500 people were sporadically captured or injured.
A total of more than 1,100 people were beheaded in the entire army, and more than 400 people were seriously injured and abandoned. Most of the remaining monk soldiers fled, and there were one or two thousand people who came out from the west and north gates or from the city at night. "
Zhuge Jin is concerned about the number of prisoners, but also worried that he currently does not have enough chips on hand.
Giving Gan Ning only a captaincy seemed to be insufficient to win two cities in a row, not to mention the important military location of Chaisang.
Therefore, he had to find something else to reward - and now everything was done in a haphazard manner, he had insufficient talents at hand, and his team was weak. The newly acquired prisoners of war already needed someone to command them, so it was better to allow Gan Ning to expand his direct troops.
This kind of thing cannot be done often in the future, as it will lead to warlordism.
Historically, many generals of Sun Wu in Jiangdong formed family private armies. On Cao Wei's side, there were also private military forces like the Li Dian family and the Zang Ba family. The troops only listened to the clan leaders and did not listen to direct orders from the court at all.
Zhuge Jin knew the dangers of doing this, but his current strength was too weak. If he did not divide the prisoners, he promised, "As long as you train the troops well, these people will be your direct troops in the future and will not be transferred casually."
How could the generals unleash their 120,000 potential and work frantically to rehabilitate the prisoners as quickly as possible?
Although Zhuge Jin captured two county towns, in terms of annihilating the enemy's effective strength, he actually only achieved 20% of his small goal.
There are still 80% of the enemy's strength gathered in Haihun and Nanchang.
Zhuge Jin needs to digest these prisoners as soon as possible and form new fighting power, so that he can join forces with his uncle and Guan Yu to win the final victory.
Therefore, Zhuge Jin decided to open this door equally within a limited time window, not only to Gan Ning, but also to Chen Dao and even Guan Yu.
He counted the reports and found that Chen Heng had more than 1,700. These were generals who surrendered on their own initiative. They could not move arbitrarily, otherwise no one would be willing to surrender on their own initiative next time.
Of the remaining prisoners, those who were injured and unfit to serve as soldiers could only have a maximum of one thousand, two or three hundred usable.
Looking at the overall situation, when Zhuge Jin first came to Yuzhang, he only had 2,000 Danyang soldiers and 300 cavalry from Chen Dao, and 1,000 from Gan Ning's side.
After this battle, the total strength of Zhuge Jin's troops increased by more than 3,000 people, including the 1,200 soldiers from the previous battle in Pengze County, and deducting battle losses and patients. The total force reached seven to eight thousand——
So within ten days, his army more than doubled. It is necessary to digest the results of the battle, reorganize and form combat effectiveness as soon as possible, and don't let these prisoners hold them back.
Zhuge Jin then said: "Xingba, I don't have the authority to give you more rewards for the time being. Let's do this. In addition to the post of captain promised to you, we will allocate 1,200 more prisoners of war and hand them over to you from now on." You, the commander, together with the men and horses you brought along along the way, deducting the casualties, can make up two thousand soldiers.
In the next few days, until the New Year, I probably won’t take the initiative again. We captured Chaisang and sealed the waterway connecting Penglize to the Yangtze River. Even if the situation of catching a turtle in a urn was complete, Zuo Rong had no chance to escape Yuzhang by water. We can plan for it later.
You should also seize this time to restore your combat strength and train your soldiers. I also want to meet up with Guan Xiaowei as soon as possible and ask him to help preside over the overall situation and make long-term plans for the follow-up decisive battle. "
Gan Ning was in high spirits after drinking, but when he heard that Zhuge Jin had promised to supply him with 1,200 men and then count them as his soldiers, he felt happy.
In tonight's battle, not all the prisoners of war were captured by his troops, but quite a few were captured by Chen Dao's troops who later followed the cover-up into the city.
Zhuge Jin gave him 1,200 people, but Chen Dao couldn't get much.
Gan Ning felt a little embarrassed. He looked around again and noticed that Chen Dao was not there. Then he asked with a smile:
"Would Uncle Zhi be unhappy with this allocation?"
Zhuge Jin: "There are specialties in martial arts. Qin is good at attacking and resolute. Uncle Zhi is good at defense and is as immovable as a mountain. When he came with me, he was responsible for guarding me. He didn't dare to leave without permission, so he would naturally miss some opportunities to make meritorious deeds."
However, I expect that the aftermath of this incident will not end - before we defeated Chaisang, we had only defeated the enemy's reinforcements coming by water from Haihun once. But with Zuo Rong's perspective, how could he fail to see the importance of Chai Sang? Will he give up so easily in his rescue? So it’s definitely not that Zuo Rong doesn’t want to save him, but that he doesn’t dare to go to the waterway to save him anymore because he’s afraid of being killed by you!
A Liang had estimated the enemy's overland journey. No matter how slow he walked, he would arrive within two days. If you don’t spare your energy when climbing over mountains and ridges, we’ll be there in just over a day.
So after breaking the city last night, I just let my uncle's soldiers and horses rest for a while and have a good meal, and then immediately set off south to set up an ambush at a dangerous place on the Lu Valley Road. Uncle Zhi's troops already have more people than you, and they were mostly in reserve during these two siege battles. It's not as hard as yours, so there's no problem in moving on to the next battle immediately.
In this Lushan ambush battle, if he can defeat the enemy, I will allocate as many prisoners as he wants. Xing Ba, don't hold your hands any more. "
When Zhuge Jin said these words, his tone was relaxed and seemed to be teasing.
But everyone knew that the conditions he proposed were no joke, and once you agreed, you couldn't bargain.
Gan Ning is also an arrogant person. He always hopes that rewards and punishments will be clearly defined on the top. He deserves the credit he deserves, and he doesn't want any less.
And he would not be jealous of the spoils of war from neighboring troops.
Gan Ning immediately drank the remaining wine in the wine jar and said proudly:
"In the future, you don't even need to ask - if you ask, you just don't know me. Whether this 'Battle of Lushan' will happen or not is still a matter of doubt. Even if it happened, I didn't participate in the war at all, how could I be so shameless? Share the spoils?
Ziyu, A-Liang, although you say that you have divine calculations, you are exaggerating when you speak so firmly. Fortunately, it's the twelfth lunar month of winter, so we won't be feeding mosquitoes. I just don't know if they are wearing enough warm clothes, otherwise they will get frostbite if they don't kill the enemy. "
Gan Ning obviously drank a little too much and was slightly dizzy.
He felt that it was impossible to predict this kind of thing accurately, but the other party said it bluntly, so he wanted to use force.
If I were sober and thought carefully about the fortune-telling experiences of the Zhuge brothers that I have seen these days, I would probably not dare to say this.
Zhuge Jin smiled slightly and didn't mind Gan Ning's confrontation.
On the side, Army Sima Chen Heng, who had just surrendered, had not seen much of the Zhuge brothers' defiance before.
After hearing Gan Ning's question, he felt that it was quite reasonable, and he casually echoed a few words, suggesting that Chen Dao should not let Chen Dao go all the way in vain and get frostbite on the soldiers.
Seeing this, Zhuge Jin was quite happy and decided to make a bet to establish his authority.
He then patted Chen Heng on the shoulder: "Chen Sima, our brothers have always been true to their word. When we were in Pengze, we made a promise: 'Those who defected to help kill the rebels will be pardoned, and the leader will be promoted to the first level.'" .
Li Yi, the Marquis of Peng Zequ's army, rushed to the door to greet the king's division. After the war, I was promoted to Sima of his army. Although you were unable to dedicate the door today, it is not your fault. You have tried your best. How about we add another bet——
If my uncle can wait for the enemy's land reinforcements in Lushan today and defeat them, then I will naturally promote him to the rank of captain. And when the time comes, you, the captain, will be temporarily under his command to avoid inconsistent military orders. "
Zhuge Jin himself is only a school captain, and Guan Yu is also a school captain. Having a few captains is already the limit of management.
However, Zhuge Jin has little ability to directly lead troops. He has to rely entirely on Chen Dao in ordering, prohibiting, and supervising battles.
The wish I made had to be sealed, and after it was sealed, the other party had to temporarily obey Chen Dao, who was his equal, so he could only rely on some magical bets to fully establish his authority.
Outsiders who have just come to Zhuge Army must find an opportunity to polish their skills.
Chen Heng had no doubt that he was there and readily agreed to the bet. Anyway, it doesn't matter if you lose. The worst thing is that you will be commanded by Chen Dao on the battlefield and just execute it step by step.
…
After Zhuge Jin took care of Gan Ning and Chen Heng, he motioned for them to eat and drink well, then he glanced at his second brother Zhuge Liang next to him, and then glanced at the meritorious officer who reported the merits.
Zhuge Liang has cooperated with his eldest brother in the past few days and has developed a very tacit understanding. He can tell what his eldest brother is questioning with just one look.
He thought about it for a while, then pulled the meritorious officer alone to the corridor outside the hall, and asked in a low voice: "Why is the number of beheaded heads different from the proportion of casualties and captures? He just surrendered to capture more than 3,300 people alive, and he actually beheaded them." Just one thousand and one?"
The meritorious officer lowered his head and said nothing, not daring to jump to conclusions. Zhuge Liang rolled his eyes and asked, "Did the soldiers under Chen Heng's command who died fighting the monk soldiers also have their heads cut off by their own comrades?"
The meritorious officer then showed a troubled look in his eyes, and said helplessly: "There are indeed some long-haired county soldiers among the heads, and almost none of the corpses of county soldiers found when cleaning the battlefield did not have heads. But this is still not good. There is no hard evidence to make a big fuss. After all, when I asked them, they said that not all the county soldiers had abandoned the secrets and turned to the bright side, but some were just stubborn and insisted on following the Zuo family. "
Zhuge Liang's eyes darkened, and he guessed that Chen Heng was indeed a greedy person, a bit unscrupulous. Even if one of your own people died in battle, you still have to use the waste to count the merits of the head.
But the eldest brother’s promise to his captain must be fulfilled, so let’s talk about the rest slowly. Incompetent people, even if they are given to the army, will not be able to hold on in the long run, and will eventually be lost to famous generals who are good at leading troops.
——
pS: That’s it for today. As of midnight yesterday, there are a total of 26,000 words.
thanks for your support.
