Even though the general was captured, the commotion on the battlefield continued for a long time.
Liu Chengzong gathered his four generals Wang Wenxiu, Yang Yao, Gao Xian and Feng Yu and led them around to recruit surrendered officers and soldiers.
He knew very well that it would be difficult for others to recruit these soldiers who followed Li Bei.
Even if he wants to surrender, it will be more difficult than ever before.
Wang Wenxiu said: "What's so difficult about this? If you lose, you will lose. Except for those who run away, the rest are prisoners and those who stutter. Where are the soldiers who are not eating food? They will eat more if you follow us."
Liu Chengzong shook his head and told the four generals to keep an eye on them regardless of whether they were willing to be prisoners or surrendered soldiers.
This group of people is different from those in Liuguo Town.
The battle there was really about the strong bullying the weak. Liu Chengzong's headquarters had no fewer people than them. Coupled with the Tianhou's 3,000 troops, the official army was undoubtedly weak.
And from the beginning to the end, the thirty-man team of Sky Monkeys retreated again and again, but they never looked like they were about to collapse.
Surrendering is also an art. If you are strong, others will be willing to follow you to earn a living and survive.
Originally it was not easy for thieves to recruit soldiers to surrender, but they failed again.
It was a real defeat. Wang Zi used a thousand men and asked eight soldiers to chase them and ran for several miles.
Who among these eight people can surrender?
Liu Chengzong couldn't recruit him, so Feng Yu's cavalry went over and killed one and captured four. The remaining three fled into the mountains and would never come out.
These three people must have realized that even just three people can do great things.
If you can do great things yourself, who will follow you?
Even in a different place, if anyone defeats Liu Chengzong like this and wants to recruit him to surrender, he will not be willing to do so. He would rather fight you to death.
The result was indeed the case. Not many of the officers and soldiers fighting on their own were willing to surrender. They either fled into the mountains on the east and west sides or fought to the death.
In the end, including those who were beaten until they had no strength to move and could not be captured, there were only about 200 people.
In turn, the price they paid was too high.
In the military tent in Li Bei's camp, Liu Chengzong put down the letter in his hand and turned to look at the tent door.
Liu Chengzu lowered his head and came in with a complicated look on his face, which was both relief and sadness. He looked around the tent, sat down cross-legged and sighed.
Liu Chengzong asked: "Brother, how are you? How are the casualties?"
Liu Chengzu gritted his teeth and hammered the ground with his fist, his eyes were red, and he shook his head slightly: "Those who were killed, those who were lightly or seriously injured, and those who escaped, the total of each group is nearly two thousand."
"How much? Nearly two thousand?"
Liu Chengzong was also frightened by this number.
He and Liu Jiusi joined forces in the mountains to attack Liu Guozhen.
Liu Jiusi's troops were weak enough. Of the thirty centurions, five of them were wounded, and two were wounded, and they withdrew. It was almost a mere touch before they withdrew.
In this way, Liu Guozhen and more than a hundred officers and soldiers were killed with more than three hundred casualties, and the battle was won with a loss of three to one.
Liu Chengzong had probably calculated the losses in his mind earlier. They dispatched six infantry formations, three horse formations, and nine formations with more than 6,000 people to fight this battle.
There are only more than 800 enemies, and it would be enough if only 200 of them died. Even if three of them were replaced, wouldn't it be enough to kill 600 of them?
After fighting such a battle, it's not surprising that Liu Chengzu's eyes were red.
Liu Chengzu sighed and fell into deep self-blame: "If you hadn't made the final decision, we would have been defeated in this battle."
The feeling Liu Chengzong found in his brother for the first time was powerlessness.
He could only offer words of comfort. It was not his fault that the battle ended like this.
The eldest brother is the best cavalry captain and has brought twenty brothers home. These people obey his words and let him use their fingers like an arm.
Later, in order to help him, his right-hand man was sent over, as well as half of his subordinates.
His independence was achieved at the expense of his brother's reduced control over his subordinates.
To control five hundred people, at least thirty junior officers are needed.
The number of officers under Liu Chengzu was less than 40% of this number.
Not to mention controlling other teams.
Liu Chengzong sighed in his heart that his eldest brother was still the officer in Yuhe Fort.
For an officer, the greatest sense of frustration and powerlessness is not when facing an invincible enemy, but when the soldiers under his command lose their organization.
"Brother, we learn from each other." Liu Chengzong looked around and handed out a letter: "This is not necessarily a bad thing."
Liu Chengzu sighed and turned his attention to the letter. This was a letter sent from the Guyuan Trilateral Government Office, mentioning that Wu Weifan was in Qingyang Mansion to attack the Liu brothers there.
There were two brothers there who also had the surname Liu, Liu Daojiang and Liu Daohai, and their nicknames were Liu Liu and Liu Qi, which may have been borrowed from the names of the leaders of the Bazhou Uprising during the Zhengde period.
But this name is not a good sign. Zhao Hao, who fought with Liu Liu and Liu Qi, was later skinned and made into a saddle by Emperor Zhengde.
If these two brothers cannot stop Wu Weifan, they still have seven or eight days.
While the Liu brothers were discussing countermeasures, Cao Yao came.
This old thief was used to seeing life and death with a vengeance. He wiped his hands on his clothes and entered the Chinese military tent. He said with a smile: "What's going on? You're all worried. All the wounded soldiers have been arranged. The monkey in the sky got a doctor over there with Chengyun." The craftsman camp is on its way here with medicine."
Li Bei's military tent was full of novelties for him. He looked at the bumps here and there, and his expression was relaxed and happy.
After waiting for a long time, no one paid attention to him, and then he sat down next to Liu Chengzong, rubbed his hands and laughed, saying: "Lion, General Liu, there are seven infantry camps, three cavalry camps... none of them can play with cannons. "
As he spoke, Cao Yao leaned back and touched Liu Chengzong with his elbow: "Give it to me?"
This mentality is probably Liu Chengzong's biggest source of happiness. He smiled and said: "How many cannons are there?"
"Hey, I have to settle this with you."
Cao Yao clapped his hands together, sat upright, cleared his throat, and said: "Four five-hundred-pound Fran machine guns. The elite artillerymen of the government army all carry water. They can fight in several battles without any damage at all." gun."
"And there are three general cannons. They are not the old ones like before. They are new general cannons made by Ye Junmen. They weigh a thousand kilograms and are made of pure iron. They are all made. The quality is comparable to other cast irons. The bronze cannon is too powerful."
Hearing Cao Yao's description, Liu Chengzong couldn't help but wonder, forging cannons?
He also said that the quality is better than cast iron cannons. It is normal to be better than cast iron cannons, but the performance is better than copper cannons. The co-author is three steel cannons?
Cao Yao was so excited when he said that, he stretched out his hand and gestured: "That's the artillery carriage of Ye Gong's God Cannon. That's the small Ye Gong cannon. This is the large one. It's very good. There are also thirty small cannons. You can take them." Give me these cannons, and your battalion artillery posts will be expanded on the spot."
In the past two days, Cao Yao had been beaten by Li Bei's artillery. He was very proud at this moment: "Ten cannons and forty-five small cannons. If the Qingyang soldiers dare to come over, just fire cannons and defeat him!"
Liu Chengzong laughed when he heard this and said, "You still want to have such a good opportunity? Where can you find another good opportunity like this battle?"
This battle is really about opportunity.
They discovered that the Liuguo Town Headquarters had an opportunity to enter the mountains as a partial force. It was actually most beneficial to them on the flank battlefield without heavy firepower.
That is the biggest chance of victory.
Liu Chengzong actually had some plans for these cannons in his mind, and said to Cao Yao: "I will give you all the big cannons, but not the small cannons. I plan to distribute the small cannons to the sentries. Look at Li Bei's soldiers. After forming a formation, there will be artillery for the main attack." , but there are small cannons on all sides to protect it. If it were not surrounded, it would be difficult for the cavalry to rush in. "
As for Li Bei's army formation being broken through by Zhang Tianlin, he saw clearly from behind the formation that Zhang Tianlin was using a very standard cavalry formation.
When the cavalry soldiers rush into battle, it depends on whether they can be impulsive. The victory or defeat lies in the last twenty steps.
During those twenty steps, the cavalry exerted the strongest pressure on the infantry. If the formation moved, the cavalry could march straight in. If the formation failed, it would have to start again.
On the contrary, Gao Yingxiang's style of using cavalry to rush directly into the ground formation is one of the few.
But it works.
Only the two teams should not have rushed into the enemy's position at the same time. They would have collided with each other in the enemy's position and no one could get out.
Liu Chengzu said: "I think the biggest drawback of this battle is that there is no center, and it is difficult for each department to coordinate. Even if everyone is willing to sacrifice their lives, it will be difficult to win."
Liu Chengzong and Cao Yao were convinced, but then they looked at each other and had no other choice.
The biggest plus point for them in this battle was that Liu Chengzong took care of Liu Guozhen on the outside. The biggest minus point for them was the lack of unified command.
Whenever there is an order flag on the cannon mountain, Zhang Tianlin breaks the formation on the left wing, and Gao Yingxiang stays still on the right wing.
When Zhang Tianlin kills through from the right wing and Gao Yingxiang covers it from the left wing, it will be a brilliant victory and nothing will happen later.
Cao Yao sighed: "There is no one who can give unified command!"
This old thief knows best. Unified command is not easy for the army, let alone those who work together.
It's easy to say, as long as there is someone in the middle to direct, as long as the crowd can be convinced.
"When it comes to a life-and-death fight, will King Gao Chuang be able to make Chengzu Wanqing fight to the death with the officers and soldiers, or will the lion be able to make Zhong Douxing push the battle line into the faces of the officers and soldiers?"
After Cao Yao finished speaking, he crossed his legs and said, "It's better than this."
Moreover, if they retreat ten thousand steps, Gao Yingxiang and Liu Chengzong will both lead their own troops.
Without these two units, the combat effectiveness of the anti-king joint camp was directly reduced to the level of being able to fight a hundred-man army.
"Joint venture."
Liu Chengzong pondered for a long time, said these two words, and said to Cao Yao: "I plan to join forces with Shangtian Monkey, let him be the deputy general, appoint the commander of the center post at will, recruit all his subordinates as auxiliary troops, and expand the number to 4,000 people The camp is full of people."
Cao Yao had not experienced the battle to annihilate the Liuguo town headquarters. His impression of the Sky Monkeys was still dirty, and his impression of his troops was still in the past.
He took off his helmet and scratched his head, and said in surprise: "Shangtian Monkey is a good person, but his subordinates... Lion, please think about it again. I think among Luo Cao Cao, Guo Tianxing, and Shooting Sky, which one is better as the sentry commander?" He, not to mention the best candidate is your brother!"
As he spoke, he raised his hand towards Liu Chengzu, stared at the scarred eyelids and said to Liu Chengzong: "If you want elite soldiers, Liu Guan team will reorganize it. If you can get a hundred soldiers, if you want to make it full, just make it full of five hundred." Man; if you bring in those beggars from Sky Monkey, they will just dig their graves in another place."
Liu Chengzu didn't say anything. Cao Yao curled his lips and said: "Our brothers all want to live a good life. No one cares whether there will be a leader to dig graves after death. Why do you want him to be a gravedigger lieutenant?"
Seeing that Liu Chengzong was unmoved, he whispered: "Besides, nine thousand people have been gathered to fight this battle. Let them disperse after the battle. Can they afford it?"
This is the most important thing.
This army was stationed in the Yanhe Valley and fought for three days, eating up the food and grass they had spent in the past month.
Whether the Sky Monkeys are willing to cooperate is one thing. Even if they are willing, Liu Chengzong will not be able to provide this army with food and grass for the winter.
"Brother Cao, you didn't participate in the battle in the mountains to the west. The Sky Monkey people are not equipped well and their skills are not good, but they are obedient."
Liu Chengzong looked at Cao Yao and nodded heavily: "It suits me very well."
"As for my brother, my idea is to unite the camps of Shetaotian, Cao Cao, Chuangtaotian, Guotianxing, and Monk Wang. My eldest brother and father have experience in leading local areas, and I will move around to fight."
After that, he turned to the two of them and said, "It's a bit early to say this. I haven't thought about it yet. Anyway, I'll deal with Wu Weifan first, and then I'll think about what to do this winter."
"Speaking of what to do." Cao Yao said with a smile: "Where is Li Bei? If he doesn't get enough firewood and rice, it's useless to say anything. What are you going to do with him?"
Liu Chengzong also had a confused expression on his face, shook his head and said, "I don't know, I can't think clearly about this matter."
It's funny to say, what Liu Chengzong regretted the most during Lu Cheng's meeting was that Lu Cheng was stabbed to death by a piece of wood.
It was precisely because of this regret that he had countless beautiful fantasies in his heart. If Lu Cheng had not died and was tied up next to him, he might be able to influence this person and use it for himself.
He was a very traditional officer, not a sergeant or squad leader like them.
That's the general.
At the earliest, the battalion occupied by the old man belonged to the Normal Corps, and wasn't it specially prepared for recruiting surrendered officers?
But now that Li Bei was really captured, it made Liu Chengzong very difficult to deal with.
Keep it, he himself couldn't find a reason for Li Bei to surrender, so it can't be used by him.
It is impossible to let him go. If he is let go, General Li will make a comeback next month, and he will be very energetic to deal with him.
Killing was even more inappropriate. Li Bei couldn't be beaten today. In the end, he had no other choice but to capture him without mercy. If he was captured and killed without mercy, even low-level officers would not surrender if they encountered the army again in the future.
Keep it, it’s a bit uncomfortable to keep it.
If left with the troops, this is a military officer of the imperial court who may incite rebellion against his troops at any time.
A simple sentence: Let me go, help me get out, and recommend you as an officer.
This person is gone. He might be able to instigate a few more rebellions, and even decapitate him.
Seeing that he was in trouble, Liu Chengzu said: "Let him go to Zhuantianmao, let Mr. Yang talk to him, and pick a few good people from the tribe to watch him. He will be better than others."
In fact, it is better. Blood relatives are more reliable than others, but without common interests, they are more destructive.
Liu Chengzong raised his hand and knocked on the table a few times. Suddenly he thought of someone and asked his brother: "Brother, where is Ren Quan'er?"
