"Kill these injured horses, and I'll have a nice meal of meat later," ordered Li Shuang, who rushed over. This order made everyone cheer. It is a luxury for these soldiers to have enough to eat at ordinary times, and they rarely have meat. Even low-level officers like Li Shuang can only eat a few mouthfuls of meat when they encounter laborers before the war.
However, everyone did not stay where they were. Instead, after quickly cleaning the battlefield, they killed the horses and took them to the clearing in the mountains where the wounded soldiers were hiding for disposal. At that moment, everyone acted separately, keeping watch, making fire, and dividing. According to Li Shuang's arrangement, the horse meat was deboned and reserved for later consumption. The horse bones and offal were eaten first. The weather was hot in summer, meat was easily spoiled, and contained very little salt, so everyone smoked horse meat into dried meat. The smoked meat of these four Mongolian horses weighed hundreds of kilograms, with just a few spots. The tent was completely consumed by fire and no useful items were left behind. The heads of the two killed Tatar soldiers were cut off by Li Shuang's order, and they were to be taken to Yongkang City, pickled with lime, and brought back to Chongqing Mansion.
"You won't say this time that I took credit for killing good people!" Li Shuang pointed at the Tatar soldier Ouyang Xuan killed and said angrily. Only then did Ouyang Xuan realize that the Tatar soldier he killed had blue eyes and yellow hair. Apparently he was a member of the Mongolian army. In the late Southern Song Dynasty, the Mongolian army came from many sources. In addition to the Mongolian cavalry, there were also Khitan, Tubo, Xixia, Qiang and other ethnic minorities as well as Huihui and other Semu people from the Western Regions. Of course, the largest number was the surrendered army from the original Jin Kingdom and the Southern Song Dynasty. Some generals in the Southern Song Dynasty army lied about their military exploits, often killing civilians to obtain their heads, and reported the defeat of the Mongolian army as a great victory in order to obtain rewards, and they often succeeded. Li Shuang and Yu Zhu once killed Tatar soldiers in battle, but when they were trying to report their merit, they were falsely accused that they killed civilians and took their heads to report their merit. Pan Tong listened to the false accusation and not only did not reward Li Shuang and others, but also severely punished Li Shuang and others. . Li Shuang's story sent shivers down Ouyang Xuan's spine. Not only were rewards and punishments unfair in the Southern Song Dynasty army, but it was also a common practice to kill good people and take credit for their merits. It was really shocking that the Southern Song Dynasty regime was so bad.
After dawn, Li Shuang led everyone to Yongkang City to collect food. This was a top priority that could not be delayed. Yesterday, because it was dark and there were Tatar soldiers chasing him, Ouyang Xuan did not see the situation in Yongkang City clearly. The Yongkang City in front of him was backed by mountains and rivers. The four-sided city wall was made of rammed earth. It was only a few feet high and only two or three miles in circumference. Parts of the city wall had collapsed, and the gap formed was surrounded by wooden fences. It was completely different from the street in his memory. The shadow of the ancient town, but the Longmen Mountain behind the walled city and the Weijiang River flowing from west to east next to it are so familiar. Although Ouyang Xuan knew in his heart that Wang Da was not lying when he met Li Shuang and others, he still felt a little unwilling to whether he had really traveled through time. Until this moment, he did not see the bustling Jiezi Ancient Town, but the gray and damaged Yongkang City, which shattered the last glimmer of hope in his heart.
After entering Yongkang Village, everyone started working separately. Only Ouyang Xuan sat on the wall of the village and stared blankly at the river outside the city, still holding the useless car key in his hand. Li Shuang and Yu Zhu went to the county government office to find Yongkang County Magistrate Xie Jinyong to handle grain requisition matters. Huang Dagen took people to exchange pickled horse meat for salt. In these troubled times, although meat is precious, salt is even scarcer. Soldiers can still survive if they lack clothing and food. It's hard, but long-term salt deficiency will make your body weak and even walking will be difficult.
At noon, Li Shuang, Yu Zhu and others found Ouyang Xuan still sitting blankly on the city wall.
"Elder, we will leave Yongkang Town for Hengyuan Town. We have military affairs, so we will say goodbye and regret it later!" Yu Zhu's words interrupted Ouyang Xuan's meditation. He had been thinking about how to survive in this world.
"Li thanked the elder for his healing. Please accept my prayers." Before leaving this morning, Ouyang Xuan noticed that Li Shuang was walking more and more slowly due to the inflammation caused by the arrow wound. He remembered that there was a first aid kit in his backpack, so he took it out to help Li Shuang treat his injury. Ouyang Xuan first cleaned the wound with cold boiled water, then disinfected it with iodophor and sutured and bandaged the wound. After similarly treating the arrow wounds of the other two wounded soldiers, the medical equipment in the first aid kit had been used up, leaving only two suture needles, which he carefully put away in his backpack. In ancient times, war caused the most deaths not directly from weapons, but often from wound infection and septicemia. The Mongols knew this very well. Their arrowheads were often smeared with feces and other filthy objects, so that those who were hit by the arrows often died of subsequent infection even if they did not die on the spot. At this moment, Li Shuang's mental state has improved compared to the morning. It seems that Ouyang Xuan, the temporary guest doctor, is quite competent.
"Where are you going, elder? If you want to go to Huacheng Temple, you can go up 20 miles along the Qianwuli River and you can get there in half a day." Yu Zhu continued.
"Where are we going?" Ouyang Xuan stood up and threw the car keys into the Weijiang River under the city wall. Throwing away this crystallization of the industrial age means completely giving up the illusion of returning to the 21st century, and it means a new beginning in this world. "The Tatars are cruel and contrary to family ethics. I want to leave Buddhism and join you to kill the Tatars..." He had just thought about it. Sichuan in the late Southern Song Dynasty was extremely dangerous. He had no idea when he would die under the iron hoof of the Mongols. Since he had already If you can't go back, you might as well fight the brutal Mongols to the end.
Ouyang Xuan's decision made Li Shuang and others happy. Although officers and soldiers were redundant in the late Southern Song Dynasty, there was a serious shortage of soldiers due to long-term wars in Sichuan. Especially in Chongqing Prefecture and other places in western Sichuan, Mongolia was in serious trouble, and there was especially a lack of soldiers to fight. Grassroots officers like Li Shuang could recruit troops independently. In particular, although I only got along with Ouyang Xuan for two days, everyone was impressed by his generous conversation, knowledgeable person, and his wit and bravery in fighting the Tatars. How could he not welcome such a talent? Li Shuang immediately decided to appoint Ouyang Xuan as his staff. Of course, low-level officers like Li Shuang are not qualified to recruit staff, so Ouyang Xuan's official title is personal attendant.
Now that Ouyang Xuan had joined the team, Li Shuang and Yu Zhu no longer had any worries on the way to Hengyuan Town and told Ouyang Xuan in detail about their trip. There were 49 people in the group when they set out from Chongqing Mansion. One person disappeared shortly after setting off. He was probably a deserter. Two people were killed by Mongolian rangers when crossing the river. The two wounded soldiers who were injured by arrows stayed in Yongkang Village to recuperate. Now, including Ouyang Xuan, there were 45 people in total, divided into five fires. The fire chiefs except Cao Ergou and Huang Dagen , the other three fire chiefs are named Chen Hu, Liu Zhong and Wang Youfu, all of whom are elite members of the team. According to the military system of the Southern Song Dynasty, every 10 people in the local army (Xiang Army) have one fire, and the leader is called the fire chief; 5 groups are one team, the commander is called the escort team, and the deputy commander is called the support team; 10 teams are one battalion, and the commander is called the preparation team. The deputy commander of a general is called a general; a number of battalions are composed of a general, and those with more than 5,000 people are called an army, and the commander of an army is called a commander. However, due to frequent wars in western Sichuan, the army has been defeated repeatedly. It has long been unorganized and has serious shortages. For example, Pan Tongzhi of Chongqing Prefecture led his own army, but he actually only had 2,000 soldiers. Because Yu Zhu was kind to others and never beat or scolded the soldiers or deducted money or food from the soldiers, the loss of personnel in the unit was not very large. Even so, he was not favored by his superiors. Because the loss of soldiers was small, his superiors could not eat empty pay. No more money and food can be deducted.
From this, the topic shifted from money and grain to the mission of collecting grain in Yongkang County. Li Shuang became so angry that he couldn't help but curse.
