Jiang Shuo said: "Although Shuo knows a few rudimentary kung fu, compared to his ability to kill enemies in a battle formation, he is far inferior to the methods of the 'Supernatural General'."
Jiang Shuo's words were not modest. Although Jiang Shuo's martial arts skills were high, his efficiency in killing enemies on the battlefield just now was far inferior to that of Li Siye. Li Siye smiled and waved his hand and said: "I am a martial artist, and it all depends on my proficiency in using the Mo Dao in my hand." Killing enemies like hemp is nothing."
Seeing that Li Siye was brave but not arrogant, and not like a ruthless and murderous man, Jiang Shuo couldn't help but asked the doubts in his heart truthfully: "I think General Li is also a man of deep moral integrity and loyal heart. Why is he here?" How can one kill people on the battlefield like plowing wheat without any mercy?"
Li Siye was stunned for a moment, then laughed loudly and said, "I asked you why Young Master Jiang is so unhappy despite having won a great victory. It turns out that's why."
Seeing that Jiang Shuo was silent, Li Siye suddenly said seriously: "Old Li, I want to call you Brother Jiang. You must know that kindness to the enemy on the battlefield is cruelty to your comrades. On the battlefield, thousands of people are fighting, and it is not a single soldier. The level of Kung Fu depends on the unconditional execution of military orders. A strict military formation can amplify the army's combat power a thousand times. The Mo Dao team can kill the enemy like cutting wheat by relying on the power of "moving in like a wall". As long as If anyone in the formation hesitates in the slightest, not only will the power be greatly reduced immediately, but it will even endanger the safety of the entire army."
Jiang Shuo hesitated and said: "But... people have compassion after all. Can they only suppress their own nature and kill bravely?"
What he said was not so much a question to Li Siye as it was his own inner struggle.
Li Siye said: "The Mo Dao is heavy. Do you think five hundred of us can kill these tens of thousands of soldiers? The Mo Dao seems ruthless, but it deters the enemy's determination to resist. Once its leader escapes, the remaining dragons will be leaderless and will naturally abandon their weapons." Wouldn't surrendering mean many fewer lives would be lost than a chaotic battle?"
Only then did Jiang Shuo understand why Li Siye and the besieging Tang army cavalry had allowed King Da Bolu to escape. If King Da Bolu was still in the formation, the enemy army would have fought to the death. However, after King Da Bolu broke through and left, the remaining The Dabolu army soon surrendered.
She couldn't help thinking that she was on the cliff earlier, and she hesitated for a moment and failed to cut off the rope as Bi Sichen said. As a result, the Feiyuan Army changed their attack by climbing on the rock. After that, everyone on the cliff fell into a bitter battle. The number of people who fell to their death after climbing down the rock wall was worse than those on the rope. There are much more people. Thinking about it this way, my "compassion" actually seemed a bit hypocritical.
Li Siye continued: "In Lao Li's view, the greatest benevolence is to use absolute force to make the enemy give up resistance on the battlefield. Brother Jiang, since you have the ability to reach heaven and earth, you must shoulder this responsibility for your compatriots." responsibility!"
Yuchi Sheng, the king of Khotan, also stepped forward and said: "Yes, I, Khotan, am a Buddhist country in the Western Regions, and I firmly believe in the Buddha's way of mercy, but if I have mercy on the enemy on the battlefield, who will have mercy on the people of my country? You need to know that eliminating evil also requires Shura means."
Jiang Shuo was disgusted with Yinmeng's theory of "ending war with war", but he only vaguely felt that Pei Min's ideas were wrong, but could not tell what was wrong. As time went by, he became distrustful of his peerless magic that could easily kill people. Self-loathing and self-abandonment.
At this moment, listening to Li Siye and Yuchi Sheng each express their opinions, Jiang Shuo thought to himself: What they said is that as long as everything must be done from the right and righteousness, that means you can hold a knife and kill people, but Pei Min and Li Zhu No matter who you are, Pi Luo Ge or Ye Guizhen, don't you think that what you are doing is a great good and the right way for the country and the people? Everyone has their own moral principles, so wouldn’t everyone be able to kill people at will without feeling guilty?
How to define good and evil in the world? Jiang Shuo became increasingly confused.
Yuchi Sheng saw Jiang Shuo's dazed look on his face and knew that he still had doubts in his mind, so he said: "Brother Jiang, everyone has their own principles for acting. This is understandable. General Li is a general, and of course he is responsible for the entire army. , I am the leader of a country, and of course I have to be responsible for the whole country. Since you are a chivalrous person, you only need to live up to the chivalry in your heart. Why should you be harsh on yourself?"
Li Siye also smiled and said: "God has given birth to thousands of people in this world, and it is Brother Siye's job to kill the enemy in battle and bleed them everywhere. One day he will die in front of the battle and it will only be up to his own conscience." Come on, why should Brother Jiang suffer for himself? I just want to be your hero, but you have to be like the people in our army who kill people without blinking an eye, okay?"
Along the way, Jiang Shuo was often called "kind" by people, but the word "kindness" was not a good name at all. I'm afraid it all contained the derogatory connotation of "benevolence to women". Today, Li Siye and Yuchi Sheng actually did not try to persuade him to harden his heart, but instead asked him to stick to his "Tao". Unconsciously, his heart became clear, and he felt a rare sense of understanding and encounter in his life.
Jiang Shuo crossed his hands to Li Siye and said, "Brother Li is right. I am not a general. Why should I learn the virtues of a warrior?" I don’t understand even more. I only have to do my own thing well and walk in the world to be worthy of the word ‘chivalrous’.”
Li Siye laughed loudly when he heard this, his voice was like thunder, and said: "Since Brother Jiang calls me eldest brother, if you don't dislike me, why don't we become brothers with different surnames?"
Yuchi Sheng heard the words and said hurriedly: "Slow down, slow down, I want to join. There are three of us, one king, one general, and one knight. Each is specialized in his own skills and has his own virtues. If we can discuss Tao at one table, wouldn't it be a good talk in the world? ?”
Jiang Shuo already admired Yuchi Sheng's righteousness and Li Siye's bravery, so the two of them wanted to sworn sworn sworn relatives with him. Naturally, they couldn't ask for it. The three of them did not hesitate to pay tribute, and immediately gathered some soil to offer incense and knelt down to kowtow. Dugu Xiang shouted from the side. : "It's fun, I want to become sworn friends too."
However, Ge Ruliang who was on the side pulled him back fiercely and glared: "You are still messing around!"
Dugu Xiang looked at his grandfather and mother for help, but Dugu Wen curled his lips and turned his head to the side. Mrs. Achu said softly: "Xiang'er, I listen to you, Shaoyao is willful..."
Now Dugu Xiang had no choice but to stand behind Ye Ye full of grievances. She and Jiang Shuo had not been together before to make a career in the world, and she had never seen Ye Ye so angry. This time, for some reason, she and her parents After their reunion, Ye Ye deliberately kept her away from Jiang Shuo.
Over there, Jiang Shuo and the other three people had already kowtowed. Looking back at their ages, Yuchi Sheng was the eldest brother, Li Siye was in the middle, and Jiang Shuo was naturally the younger brother. Jiang Shuo and his two brothers stood up, held each other's hands and laughed. They didn't notice that Dugu Xiang was sulking on the side, and Xiang'er couldn't help but feel even more sullen.
Jiang Shuo once swore sworn sworn vows with the leaders of the Cao Clan in Yangzhou, in order to form an alliance and quell the fighting. The four leaders mostly treated him like a subordinate to a leader, and did not dare to overstep their bounds. Later, he became sworn kinsman to Khitan Khan Li Huaixiu, but Li Huaixiu regarded him as the savior of the Khitan clan and treated him with great respect. Only today, when I became sworn sworn brothers with Yuchi Sheng and Li Siye, did I truly have the feeling of equal brotherhood.
At this time, the Tang army had disarmed the Dabolu people and piled swords, spears and armor into several hills. So many prisoners became a thorny problem. There were not many people in the high mountains of the Western Regions. These tens of thousands of young and healthy soldiers were almost They already had most of Da Bolu's available troops, so naturally they could not be let back. However, Feng Changqing and Li Siye could not resort to such dirty means as killing and surrendering. The plan for now was to transfer the prisoners and imprison them as soon as possible to wait for the escaped Da Bolu. King Bolu sent an envoy back to accept surrender and exchange prisoners.
The Tang army set up four towns in the four kingdoms of Anxi. However, except Suiye City, which was built by Tang general Wang Fangyi, and the military town and residential city were combined into one, the other three towns had the royal city first and then the military town. Therefore, the soldiers and civilians were separated in the two cities. The Tang army was in Khotan. There is also a garrison city, which is a small square city with deep ditches and high fortifications, which cannot hold such a large number of prisoners.
Yuchi Yao then invited the Tang army generals to return to Khotan City. Yutian City was much larger than the garrison city and had a much more abundant supply of food and water. It could support 2,500 Tang troops and tens of thousands of Dabolu prisoners.
Feng Changqing nodded in praise of the good deeds, but ordered the Tang army to set up a stronghold outside the city and set up a wooden fence to detain the prisoners. Although Li Siye had a high title, the Tang army's dispatch and command still only followed Feng Changqing's lead. With an order from Doctor Feng, the Tang army was ordered to A brigade of fifty men was divided into small groups and marched towards the city of Khotan with prisoners in tow.
Jiang Shuo and others and the generals of the Tang army followed Yuchi Sheng into the city of Khotan again.
Yuchi Yao had been looking up from the top of the city for a long time. When he saw Brother Wang finally returning, he hurriedly ordered the city to open and flew down to the city to greet him. Yuchi Sheng hurriedly held a banquet in the royal city for the generals of the Tang army and the powerful figures in the world. .
During the dinner, Yuchi Sheng briefly told the story of the Battle of Heilong River. As for what happened in the temple, Jiang Shuo narrated it. Jiang Shuo was humble and respectful, but the story was not very exciting. Hearing this made Dugu Xiang scratch his heart. If he had told it earlier in normal times, Jiang Shuo pulled him aside and let her do the talking, but recently he was caught in the middle by his mother-in-law and sat far away. It was really inconvenient and he could only scratch his ears and cheeks and sigh again and again.
Yuchi Yao also told what happened in the city. It turned out that he was not idle in the city. After the wellhead of the tunnel in the small temple of Heilong River was blocked, the big cannibal returned to Khotan City by the same route, but ran into The Yulin Guards led by Yuchi Yao, who had been well prepared, all the most elite warriors in the Great Cannibal died in the temple with Iben. Although the remaining black-robed regiments were not mediocre, the number of the Khotanese army Ten times and a hundred times stronger than him, they fought fiercely for a long time, but the cannibals refused to surrender until they were all strangled in the royal city.
After that, Yuchi Yao still did not let up. He divided the city guards into small teams, searched the city, and captured a lot of hidden weapons. He also sneaked into the city. There were big cannibals and big and small Bolu people, but there were no large armies outside the city. In response, these detailed efforts were nothing more than a turtle in a urn. It was already late at night when everyone returned to Khotan City, and the clearing operation in the city was basically completed.
Jiang Shuo praised in his heart: I can't tell how careful and considerate Yuchi's younger brother is. Although I don't know how he will fare in field attacks, if he is defending the city, he will not be blamed.
That night, everyone exchanged cups, sang and danced, and feasted all night long. It could be said that the guests and hosts were enjoying themselves, except Gu Xiang, who was sulking alone.
