For this war, if you want to retreat, of course you have to do it before the peasant army has discovered it.
If he were at the lake, he could leave here directly by boat without worrying about being bitten.
But now he was outside Nanchang City, and the waterway leading to Poyang Lake was blocked by the peasant army. He could not retreat quickly and could only rely on two legs.
There are at least 5,000 sick and wounded in the army now, and the number is still increasing. If we take them all, the speed will definitely not be faster. If the peasant army discovers it and pursues it all the way, Song will wait for Song The army is annihilated.
He, the commander-in-chief, will all be doomed.
If we want to retreat quickly, we must abandon these sick and wounded, leave them here, let them fend for themselves, and face the sharp blade of the peasant army.
Is this appropriate?
Wu Gong was hesitant at first, because among this group of wounded and sick, there were also many old troops who came with him from Sichuan and Sichuan to change defenses. He didn't mind other troops doing this, but it didn't seem right to do this to his own old troops. Suitable, may lose people's hearts.
But he soon thought of what his nominal father and actual brother Wu Jie had said to him - kindness does not control soldiers.
As a commander, he must take actions that best serve the overall interests at critical moments, and cannot ruin everything because of a moment of benevolence. He must preserve the maximum strength, even if he gives up something for it.
The gecko's will to survive by cutting off its tail is an example he should learn from.
This world is cruel. If you want to struggle to survive, you must be cruel. If you don't have Zhuge Liang's ability, don't think you can kill Zhang He who is pursuing you. You still have to make a careful plan to withdraw your troops and do not allow any setbacks. .
Wu Gong thought for a long time alone and finally made the decision to attack.
The Song army was ordered to retreat quietly on the snowy night.
Braving the heavy snow, the various units of the Song Army began a secret operation, withdrew completely to the north, went to the lake to find a boat, and quickly left here by boat, achieving a successful retreat.
Although they will abandon more than 5,000 sick and wounded patients and cannot take them away, this is a helpless matter and must be done to allow more people to survive.
When the news of the northward withdrawal was reported to all levels, some people were unwilling to abandon their fellow villagers, friends, comrades, and subordinates. Wu Gong ignored them and sent out his own soldiers to force the entire army to withdraw north. Anyone who dared to disobey would be killed without mercy.
Some people were really unwilling to leave and were eventually killed on the spot.
The steaming corpse silently told everyone to go or die.
In order to survive and live better, Wu Gong successfully led his army to retreat, braving the heavy snow and retreating all the way north, abandoning the wounded and sick soldiers in several military camps, leaving them to struggle in the cold wind.
They left, and those who remained were abandoned.
And when these wounded and sick soldiers finally realized that they had been abandoned, they were quite sad and angry.
They panicked and yelled, hating Wu Gong extremely, scolding his ancestors for eight generations, and cursing him for a bad death. They also tried to escape north, not wanting to be left here to die.
But their bodies were too weak and they couldn't run for long. They soon fell into the ice and snow, and no one could help them get up from the ice and snow and continue moving forward, so their ending was obvious.
After an unsuccessful trial, Zhao Yucheng made a self-examination, but he did not give up hope of reversing the situation, and his subordinates still trusted Zhao Yucheng.
After the whole army reorganized for a day, the snow stopped, and Zhao Yucheng sent out scouts to investigate the situation in the Song Army's camp to see if there was any movement from the Song Army. Only then did he realize that something was wrong.
There was too much snow in the Song Army camp, and there was almost no trace of cleaning. It was almost crushing the military tent. There was not a single guard or patrol post in sight. This was abnormal.
Could it be...
Did they withdraw?
Zhao Yucheng hesitated briefly, and then immediately sent Gao Meng to lead his troops out of the city, directly across the Song army's camp and all the way north to pursue the Song army.
Zhao Yucheng himself personally led people to inspect the Song Army's barracks and sent troops to clear the snow in the barracks, hoping to see if there was anything else useful in the barracks.
He was surprised to find that there was no one alive in this military camp.
After the snow was finally cleared, a tragic scene appeared in front of Zhao Yucheng and the peasant army soldiers.
Most of the military camps were empty. Only a few military camps at the back were occupied, which were mostly wounded soldiers' camps.
But right here, the scene is horrifying.
After clearing away the snow around the camp, I opened the curtain and looked inside. All I saw were frozen corpses lying on the ground sleeping with straw covered with broken cups. The military tent was extremely cold and without a trace of warmth.
Some camps were surrounded by corpses, and the corpses were all falling towards the outside. However, some beds in the military tents were empty. It was probably because these people could not withstand the severe cold not long after leaving the military tents and froze to death. .
Starting from the entrance of the military tent to the exit of the military camp, there was a long straight line of corpses of Song soldiers lying on them. There were no wounds on their bodies and their bodies were stiff. They had obviously died of freezing.
They tried to leave the military camp, but failed and froze to death.
What happened to these Song soldiers?
What did the retreating Song soldiers do?
Did they abandon them?
Zhao Yucheng didn't know.
Early the next morning, Gao Meng lowered his head and led his troops back. He said that he had not caught up with the main force of the Song soldiers, but he had caught a group of Song soldiers who had failed to follow the retreat of the main force for various reasons and were lying on the roadside waiting to die. About five soldiers. More than a hundred people.
Gao Meng brought them back as trophies.
Seeing that they were shivering with cold and only half alive, Zhao Yucheng ordered them to be clothed and given ginger soup to drink, thus bringing more than 500 people back from the line of life and death.
Then these half-dead prisoners of the Song Dynasty collectively knelt in front of Zhao Yucheng to thank him for saving their lives. While crying, they told him what Zhao Yucheng wanted to know.
Because there are even several military officers and soldiers responsible for military supply, Zhao Yucheng knows more details.
Wu Gong abandoned all the wounded and sick.
Due to poor logistics, the Song army's winter supplies were very poor. Many of them were defective and could not keep out the cold at all. Therefore, since the temperature dropped suddenly, a large number of soldiers in the Song army began to suffer from colds and fevers, and they lost their combat effectiveness.
And as the weather gets colder and colder, there are more and more such patients, and soon there are thousands. The trend cannot be controlled at all, but Wu Gong cannot solve the problem. Finally, it is snowing. Wu Gong is worried that if it continues, Song Jun will all They froze to death, so they decided to withdraw their troops.
But at that time, more than 5,000 people were seriously ill and could not get up from their beds. They were a burden to the retreat. Wu Gong decided to abandon them and leave with healthy and relatively mild soldiers who could run. Withdraw north.
Wu Gong took away all the rations and usable supplies, and abandoned more than 5,000 wounded and sick people.
And these people were struggling in the ice and snow, with no food, no water to drink, and no medicine. It is expected that their ending would be that they died miserably in the ice and snow, forced by hunger and cold.
Zhao Yucheng and an officer instructor from the Peasant Army were speechless after hearing this, and then took more than 500 people to see the Song Army barracks that they had cleaned up.
Seeing the more than 5,000 Song soldiers who died of frostbite, the more than 500 people cried hoarsely and all knelt down, as if to apologize to the deceased and hope to be forgiven by the deceased.
Looking at such a scene, Zhao Yucheng was deeply moved.
"Although there is an ancient saying that kindness does not control troops, and a general should control his emotions and give up many things for the sake of victory, but I always feel that a cruel general who only fights for victory cannot last long.
"Compassion does not control soldiers" may not only mean that the general must be ruthless to the end, but the scale of this may be something the general should carefully measure, rather than simply obliterating all emotions and becoming a killing machine just because of these four words.
Although Wu Gong is good at fighting, will anyone trust him from now on? Will anyone be willing to fight, live and die together with him? Maybe I will follow him because of orders, but I will never help him in times of crisis. Therefore, I have already seen Wu Gong's death. "
