Tiantang Splendid

Chapter 3345 Decisive battle as soon as possible
Outside the sick and wounded battalion, the soldiers transporting the corpses spotted His Majesty Li Er and his party, they parked their carts aside one after another, and knelt down on one knee to give military salutes.

His Majesty Li Er jumped off his horse and strode forward.

The wind howled and the snowflakes raged.

Every soldier maintained respect in front of him, but the faces covered with frostbite were more numb and depressed. It was not the open-mindedness of life and death, but the hopeless and overwhelmed indifference...

His Majesty Li Er stood on the spot, silent.

After a long time, he said slowly, "A lot of injuries?"

All the soldiers dare not answer.

The military attendant in the camp heard that His Majesty was visiting in person, so he quickly put down his work and ran out to have an audience. After His Majesty Li Er asked again, someone replied: "Your Majesty, there are many."

His Majesty Li Er looked around, walked towards the barracks, and asked, "Is the medicinal material still enough?"

An old man with gray beard and hair bowed and followed behind. He shook his head and said with a heavy expression, "It's not enough. When we set off for the expedition, we had already expected that the war would not go smoothly until winter, so we prepared frostbite medicine, but Liaodong It's too cold...the navy has collected medicinal materials from Shandong, Hebei and other places, and they are desperately transporting them here every day, even digging ice to land, but there is still not enough for them."

Again, Liaodong is too cold.

Except for the elite troops who are the main attackers in each army, the rest of the troops do not even have a few cotton coats.Under this kind of bitter cold weather, even hiding in the tent is still unbearable to the severe cold. If he goes out for a walk, his hands and feet will be frostbitten immediately. If he is not treated in time, the frostbite will quickly worsen.

When the chilblains suppurate, the limbs will either be amputated directly, or the wound will become inflamed and the body will have a fever and wait to die...

Every day, countless soldiers died of frostbite, disability, and death. They had to use gunpowder to blow up the earth and dig a big pit at the foot of the hillside not far from the wounded and sick camp to bury their bodies.

His Majesty Li Er's face was gloomy, and he walked ahead with his hands behind his back, entering the wounded and sick camp.

The first thing you can see is that simple tents are set up row by row, and in front of many tents, numbness and other materials are used to block the wind and snow. Many soldiers with lesser injuries just nest there casually.

The ears are full of the bitter cold or screams from the wounded soldiers, as if stepping into hell...

The environment is fairly clean, the ground is cleaned and tidy, many places have been sprinkled with white quicklime, and there are more than a dozen large iron pots lined up on one side of the wall, with firewood placed underneath, bandages, cloth strips, bed sheets, etc. Boil in a pot, the water boils, and the white mist fills the air.

Seeing His Majesty Li Er kept looking at the cauldron, the doctor explained: "Pouring quicklime on the ground, boiling water to boil bandages and sheets, these are all methods for disinfection. Before treating the wounded, my lord must use The same is true for washing hands with alcohol. These are the requirements of the military medical regulations, and we follow them, and the effect is indeed very good."

His Majesty Li Er nodded slightly.

Li Ji on the side said: "The health regulations for military doctors are based on the fact that when the Duke of Yue conquered the Western Regions, he felt that the medical conditions in the army were poor, so after returning to Chang'an, he organized many doctors and doctors from the imperial hospital to jointly study and issue this regulation. , It has been implemented in the army since then, and the effect is very good, and now it has been implemented uniformly in the Tang army."

His Majesty Li Er really forgot about this. After Li Ji mentioned it, some impressions came to his mind, and he couldn't help but sigh.

Fang Jun again...

Although Fang Jun is now in the Western Regions, there are Fang Jun's shadows in all aspects of the Eastern Expedition Army, the indestructible gunpowder, the thunder that shook the sky, the navy that was responsible for transporting supplies across the sea and completely disabled the Goguryeo and Baekje navy, and even The wounded camp in front of me...

There are countless capable ministers and strangers in ancient times, but those who have made achievements in various fields like Fang Jun are rare, and they can be called amazing talents.

I can't help feeling a bit of remorse in my heart. If I had been able to stand firm, overcome all opinions, and include the Navy in the sequence of the Eastern Expedition, perhaps Koguryo would have been destroyed by now, and hundreds of thousands of troops would have returned to Guanzhong...

Of course, this idea can only be thought about.

Even if he has that kind of courage, regardless of the opposition of all parties in the army, those people will inevitably have conflicts in their hearts. If they don't work hard at that time, how can the navy alone achieve the strategic goal?

What's more, not only the river is frozen, but even the seaside is frozen for more than ten miles. The navy ships can't directly reach the city of Ping Rang. Naturally, it is impossible to bombard the city with ship-borne artillery and help the army break through the city...

In the sick and wounded camp, when they learned that His Majesty and a group of generals had come to make an inspection tour, the moaning and screaming suddenly weakened until they disappeared.

His Majesty Li Er had a solemn face, and from time to time he walked up to a certain injury, bowed down to greet him, asked carefully about the injury, and expressed his concern and condolences.

The soldier who was being sympathized was still tossing and crying a moment ago, but at this moment he was so excited that he shed tears. He kept saying that he was not seriously injured, and that he could go to battle with a knife to kill the enemy, and made great achievements for His Majesty that will last forever.

His Majesty Li Er also had red eye circles, and his heart was agitated...

Originally planned to inspect a few more military camps, but took over this wounded and sick camp, which touched the softness in His Majesty Li Er's heart. Seeing these soldiers who were originally alive and kicking and getting wounds while fighting against the severe cold and powerful enemies, it is almost impossible to Own.

Therefore, for most of the day, His Majesty Li Er visited the wounded soldiers in the sick and wounded battalion, and the generals and doctors gathered together to discuss how to improve the efficiency of treatment. Of course, the supply of supplies to the wounded and sick battalion should be given priority, and the wounded soldiers should not bleed. Weep again.

After returning to the tent of the Chinese army in the evening, he took off his armor and cotton clothes, washed with warm water, and took another elixir to restore his strength. His Majesty Li Er was still agitated.

He knew that the Eastern Expedition would be very difficult, but he really didn't expect it to be so difficult.

It can be said that if there is no navy who is desperately transporting supplies against the severe cold and maintaining the food supplies of the army, the order to withdraw the troops must have been issued by now, and hundreds of thousands of troops came bravely, but they returned dejected.

In the history, the reputation of His Majesty Li Er was ruined. If he still can't destroy Goguryeo in the future, it will become a stain that can never be erased.

A dry heat rose from the bottom of my heart.

On the one hand, there are appalling soldiers in the sick and wounded battalion shouting, and on the other hand, there are great achievements that will last forever. This made His Majesty Li Er feel sorry for those Han children who followed him to fight for thousands of miles, and felt that since the war has reached this point, why not A long pass is not as good as a short pass, so why not launch a general attack ahead of time and conquer Ping Rang City in one fell swoop?
After thinking for a while, he said to his servant: "Go and tell Zhu Suiliang, let him go to each battalion to inform the generals, and quickly go to the tent of the Chinese army to discuss the matter."

"Here!"

The servants took orders and left.

Half an hour later, all the generals arrived and entered the tent wrapped in cold air.

The servant stood at the door and put away the cloaks that everyone had taken off. Everyone came forward to salute and then sat down separately.

Zhu Suiliang led the servants to serve hot tea to everyone, and then returned to the table behind His Majesty Li Er, sat down, took a pen and waited for the record.

Seeing that His Majesty Li Er was silent, Li Ji couldn't help asking: "Your Majesty has summoned the ministers, but what's the matter?"

His Majesty Li Er pondered for a long time, then looked around at everyone, and said slowly: "I want to launch a general offensive in advance and end the Eastern Expedition as soon as possible, what do you think?"

As soon as this statement came out, everyone was shocked.

Cheng Yaojin frowned and said, "At present, the defenses around Pingrang City have not been completely conquered. The army cannot surround Pingrang City, leaving too much room for the Goguryeo people to move. Launching a general attack at this moment means that the loss of supplies and the casualties of soldiers will be reduced." It will be very huge, please think twice, Your Majesty."

Cheng Mingzhen also said: "At the moment the weather is very cold and the army is struggling. If we attack at this moment, the casualties will increase greatly. We should be more safe and fight steadily. After the outer defenses of Ping Rang City are completely cleared, Ping Rang City will be like a stuffy jar. Let's catch a turtle in an urn." , victory is just around the corner.”

Everyone didn't understand why His Majesty Li Er suddenly had such an idea, but they still tried their best to persuade them.

For the sake of this battle, Goguryeo has no way to recover, and it will only be a matter of time before the city is broken, so why take huge risks?
His Majesty Li Er is a man who knows how to fight, how can he not know that everyone's advice is a safe strategy?

He sighed and said: "But have you ever thought that such extremely bad weather will not cause fewer casualties to the soldiers? Moreover, the weather is too cold, the roads are difficult to travel, and the transportation of luggage is also under great pressure. Failure to transport them in time will shake the morale of the army. Since casualties are inevitable, why not simply launch a general offensive to end this war as soon as possible?"

(End of this chapter)