"I am dead?"
In a forest near Liuyi, Zhaoping murmured to himself.
His ears still echoed with the cries of "Zhaoping is dead and the Chu army has been defeated" from the Surabaya River.
In front of his eyes, he seemed to be able to see the Qin general taking the lead, charging into the formation and seizing the flag.
And, countless Chu soldiers saw the scene of their generals falling down and fleeing in all directions.
Ten thousand versus five thousand!
He Zhaoping actually lost. With such superior strength, he actually fought a huge defeat. Even his general's flag was captured by the Qin army.
If his new short-term soldier named Ge Ying hadn't been very clever and protected him from the rebel army, Zhaoping might have been in danger of becoming a prisoner of the Qin people.
But, what’s the point of living like this?
He might as well have been killed on the chariot by General Qin with a sword, at least he wouldn't have to endure such humiliation.
In the Battle of Qin and Chu, Shangzhu State defeated Li Xin north of Xiacai, and defeated the Mongolian and Wu army in the Battle of Huaiyang.
What a glorious achievement this is, what a glorious honor it is, it is enough to make all Chu people hold their heads high and their chests high, no longer afraid of the tiger and wolf Qin in the west.
It was enough to spread the reputation of Chu State among the people of the six kingdoms in the world, and let everyone in the world know that the former princes were long and the southern hegemonic country was still strong and brave enough to rival Qin.
This is an unparalleled honor for Chu State.
But now, he Zhao Ping has become a stain on this glorious record.
Five thousand Qin troops were on the banks of the Surabaya River, forming a formation with their backs to the water. They attacked with surprise troops and defeated the 10,000 Chu troops led by Zuo Sima of Chu State.
The less defeats the many, the weak defeats the strong.
This battle was rare in the world, and it was enough to spread the reputation of Qin general Zhao Tuo throughout the world.
And he, Zhao Ping, was just the loser who made people laugh.
In the future, whenever anyone mentions Zhao Tuo, he will be mentioned as Zhao Ping's incompetence.
A name full of shame.
Zhao Ping drew his sword.
He looked at the dozen or so guards standing in the forest. It was these people who worked hard to rescue him from the rebels and escorted him all the way here.
"Second and Third Son, I led a large army in pursuit. I had the strength to win, but out of anger I fell into the trap and was defeated by the Qin people."
"I was humiliated before the battle and was defeated after the battle. I, Zhaoping, feel deeply humiliated. I am ashamed of my ancestors of the Zhao family, and I have no shame to go back to Ying to meet the king. This battle does not require punishment from the king. I shall die to apologize."
"It's just that my two and three sons were humiliated together with me. Zhao Ping feels ashamed. I hope that after my death, my two and three sons will protect my body and return to the Zhao family's hometown, so that my soul will not have to stay in a foreign land."
Zhao Ping spoke calmly, as if everything was natural.
All the soldiers shouted hurriedly: "Zuo Sima, you can't do it."
Ge Ying even shouted: "Zuo Sima, although our army is defeated, it is not completely wiped out. As long as we gather the remaining soldiers, we can still win thousands of people, and we may not be unable to fight the Qin people. In this battle, the Qin army It was a sneak attack by surprise troops, not Zuo Sima's mistake."
"Is it not my fault?"
Zhao Ping murmured: "It's my fault if I lose."
He raised his head and looked back at the Zhao family's hometown in the south, and heard the teachings from his fathers in his ears.
"The generals of Jingchu, on the day when the master comes out, will have the glory of death but no shame of life."
Since ancient times, the Chu State has had a tradition of overthrowing the army and killing generals.
In the Battle of Chengpu between Jin and Chu, Yin Ziyu was defeated by the Jin army. He was so ashamed that he returned to the capital shamelessly and committed suicide in Liangu.
Sixty years later, the uncle of the Chu Communist King rebelled and fought with the Jin people in Yanling. He was defeated by the Jin army because of his drunkenness. Although the King of Chu did not blame him and even sent people to prevent his son from committing suicide, he failed. Still stubborn, he committed suicide and died.
During the Battle of Wu and Chu, Zuo Sima Shen Yinshu and Ling Yin Nangwa led their troops to fight against the Wu division. Nangwa did not listen to Shen Yinshu's advice and changed the battle plan without authorization, and was defeated by Wu general Sun Wu. Shen Yinshu led his troops to rescue, but was surrounded by Sun Wu's army. Unable to break through, Shen Yinshu was ashamed of being captured and asked his subordinates to cut off his own head in return for the king of Chu.
…
For hundreds of years, countless people have died on the battlefield.
General Shao Chu committed suicide after being defeated, and few people managed to survive.
Because they are the true nobles of Jingchu, their bodies are filled with the fire-like blood of Zhu Rong, and they are the descendants of the noble Emperor Gaoyang.
If you overthrow the army and kill the general, you will die if you are defeated.
This is the way their Jingchu nobles built their world and their dignity.
Just like the overlord of Western Chu who committed suicide on the banks of Wujiang River more than twenty years later and refused to cross the river to survive.
That was also his last dignity.
"I am the Zhao family with the surname Mi. I am a descendant of Emperor Gaoyang Miao. I am of the Zhurong bloodline. Today, the fallen army has overthrown our army. How can I survive?"
As he spoke, Zhaoping took out the silk cloth from his arms and gently wiped the sword to make it spotless. Then he stood up straight, looked in the direction of Surabaya, raised his hands, and placed the sword across his neck.
Suddenly, Zhao Ping remembered the enemy who defeated him.
"We have our backs against the water, and the weak will defeat the strong."
"This Zhao Tuo is really an extraordinary person."
Zhao Ping sighed lightly. Even until his death, he had never seen the Qin general who defeated him.
I don’t know what this person looks like.
With this indifference of regret, Zhao Ping stabbed himself with a horizontal sword, and his blood spattered in the forest.
Only a dozen short soldiers were left kneeling around, with tears in their eyes, kowtowing and shouting: "Send your lord off, we will send you back to his hometown."
Half an hour later, Jing Tong gathered hundreds of remaining soldiers and followed the trail to this place, but what he saw was the body of Zuo Sima Zhaoping.
His face was filled with bitterness.
"I feel so miserable when Zuo Sima dies."
…
On the banks of the Surabaya River, the Qin people who were chasing the defeated Chu army came back.
Most of these Qin soldiers collapsed on the ground full of blood, gasping for air. They didn't feel it when they were excited to chase. Now, when they stopped, they found that their hands and feet were shaking, and they could no longer stand up while sitting on the ground. Woke up.
But all of them had smiles on their faces.
Not only because the Qin army killed many enemies this time, but everyone was able to achieve meritorious service and be promoted.
It's because they can finally go home!
"The Chu army has been defeated, and no one will stop us from going home!"
"I can finally go back to my hometown and see my parents and relatives."
"I want to go back."
Zhao Tuo heard everyone's voices, and he also had a smile on his face, but there was a kind of indifferent sadness in his smile.
Won.
With their backs to the water and the strange troops around them, five thousand Qin troops defeated ten thousand Chu people, which was enough to amaze the world and save some dignity for Qin's defeat against Chu.
But the price was the lives of more than 600 Qin people.
Zhao Tuo knew all of these people and could even call most of them by name.
Most of them were soldiers brought by Zhao Tuo from Wei. They traveled thousands of miles with him and served him to the death without any complaints.
Although they are subordinates, they are like brothers.
From Daliang to Feng County, then to Shanfu and Changyi. Then they went south to the Chu region, Huaiyang, Pingyu, Xincai... until they reached the shore of Surabaya. They were only on the last leg of their way home, but they fell here forever.
"People will always die on the battlefield. When I first entered the battlefield, I saw corpses all over the ground and saw the corpses of my own soldiers lying on the battlefield. I also lamented and mourned like you."
Xin Wu came over and sighed beside Zhao Tuo: "But after experiencing it a lot, you get used to it. This is war."
Zhao Tuo nodded silently.
Xin Wu reached out and patted Zhao Tuo on the shoulder and said with a smile: "Okay, don't be sad after the victory, otherwise it will make the soldiers depressed. This victory should be used to boost morale so that they can walk back to Qin with a smile." And after this battle, your name, Zhao Tuo, will surely spread throughout the Qin Kingdom..."
Having said this, Xin Wu looked at the young military commander in front of him, and his eyes suddenly became blurry.
They formed a formation with their backs against the water, risked their lives and then survived, arousing the soldiers' desire to fight to the death, and then used surprise troops to surround the formation and seize the flag. In the end, five thousand soldiers were defeated by ten thousand.
Such a record coincided with Li Xin's tragic defeat.
Your Majesty, how will you reward him?
Zhao Tuo quickly adjusted his condition, no longer affected by negative emotions, and began to plan the next action.
He let the wounded and exhausted soldiers sit where they were to rest and recover, while the Qin soldiers who still had strength followed the military judge to count the gains.
[In view of the general environment,
First, the four thousand Qin army used chariots as barriers and massacred the attacking Chu army. It is roughly estimated that they killed nearly two thousand Chu people, which was equivalent to three times the number of Qin soldiers killed in the battle.
Such a ratio can be achieved because, firstly, it relied on the cover of the car base, and secondly, the Qin army fought against the odds, and with the intention of returning home to fight, their morale was high and they refused to retreat, so they caused a lot of damage to the Chu army.
Zhao Tuo estimated that in the first round of the Chu army's attack, they killed more than a thousand people, and the remaining nearly 4,000 Chu soldiers were on the verge of collapse.
If Zhao Ping hadn't paid for the replacement in time, those four thousand people would have been defeated directly by them. It can be seen that Zhaoping is indeed very capable. Even when he is angry, he can also notice the state of the Chu army and can replace his troops in time.
After excluding the bodies outside the chariot barrier, Shejian led a surprise attack and the Chu army collapsed, the Qin army chased them north, killing about 300 people in total.
After all, the Qin army does not need prisoners. Once they catch up, it will be a killing.
In this way, the total number of enemies they killed was two thousand three, which was enough to be called a great victory. Taking into account the entire army, everyone below the rank of fifth doctor could be promoted to one rank.
Of course, compared to the more than two thousand Chu people's heads, the truly heavyweight trophy was the Zuo Sima flag captured by Shejian's charge into the formation.
Sima is the highest military officer of the Chu State, equivalent to Shangzhu State.
The left and right Sima are Sima's deputies and senior generals of the Chu army, with very prominent status.
Capturing such a flag is equivalent to the Chu army capturing the Mengwu flag in the Battle of Huaiyang. It is a great achievement.
"It's a pity that Zuo Sima ran too fast and disappeared after I grabbed the flag. If I can capture him, I will definitely make a great contribution to the army."
Shejian said with some regret.
Zhao Tuo smiled and said: "Okay, if you can charge into the formation and capture the flag, it is a great achievement. If you run away, just run away. You did the right thing at the time. In the melee, compared with Zhaoping's head, this flag's The effect is even greater, it is too conspicuous, if Buemu seizes the flag, can the Chu people be defeated?"
"Moreover, the effect of this flag is greater than you imagine. On the battlefield, it can defeat the Chu people's military morale. After returning home after victory, it can also show off the merits of our Qin army."
"Your Majesty, you will definitely be happy to see this flag of Zuo Sima of Chu Kingdom."
Zhao Tuo had a faint smile on his face, but his eyes were full of frost.
Zuo Sima Zhaoping chased him for nearly a thousand miles and killed hundreds of people on the banks of Surabaya River. How could he let go of this kind of hatred?
"Just wait. When Wang Jian attacks Chu, I will use your Zhaoping's blood to pay homage to Paoze who died here."
"A blood debt must be paid with blood."
The sky is setting in the west, the winter wind is howling, and it looks even more freezing on the banks of Surabaya.
After the Qin army counted their captures and buried Paoze's body, they began to return home in a marching formation.
They still had 4,000 soldiers and about 1,000 wounded.
Ahead, there was only one Pei Yi left on their way back to Qin.
