weaving

Chapter 1246: One for Ten

When the Chuang army's cavalry rushed back to the eastern battlefield of Liuzhuang, the fighting here was nearing its end. The Yongyi Army did not attack outward. After chasing for a while, they withdrew their troops and re-established a defense line in the second trench.

On the western battlefield of Liuzhuang, the rebel army suffered more than 200 casualties but still failed to expand the gap in the camp wall. Instead, they were repelled after the arrival of reinforcements from the chariot soldiers of the Qinglong camp.

The more than 2,000 cavalrymen of the rebel army who were galloping back on the northern defense line of Liuzhuang might have made a breakthrough if they could dismount and attack immediately. However, after seeing the densely packed heads on the camp wall and the rows of black gun muzzles, they became timid and gave up the attack, thus wasting the only breakthrough opportunity in this battle.

As the sun gradually set, the sky became darker and darker. The two warring parties completely broke off contact and each cleared the battlefield area under their control.

In this battle, more than 120 people from the Qinglong Battalion of the Yongyi Army were killed, and more than 260 were injured, which added up to nearly 400 casualties. Almost half of them were on the Western Front.

However, compared with the nearly 1,400 casualties of the Chuang army, the number of injured exceeded 2,000. In addition, more than 1,600 Chuang army were captured by the Qinglong Camp, including as many as 900 combat soldiers.

Judging from the casualties on both sides alone, the Qinglong Battalion had a great advantage. This was not only due to the rigorous daily training, but mainly because the armor rate of the Qinglong Battalion was close to 80%.

This is the biggest difference between the regular army and the bandits. They have a high armor rate, are well-equipped, well-trained, and can enforce discipline!

The reason why the Chuang army suffered such heavy casualties was, firstly, that the attacking side always suffered more casualties than the defending side; secondly, their armor rate was too low. Even the bandits had less than half of their armor rate, not to mention those who were raised as slaves; thirdly, they had short training days and were unfamiliar with the battle formations, so they rushed like a swarm when charging and retreated like a flock of sheep when retreating.

However, among the nearly 4,000 casualties of the Chuang army, more than one-third were starving civilians, and their combat soldiers accounted for only a little more than half of the casualties. That is to say, the actual combat losses of the Chuang army exceeded one-tenth, which had a great impact on their military morale. It would be difficult for them to launch a decent offensive against the Qinglongying Liuzhuang front within two or three days.

…………

In the camp of Qinglong Camp in Liuzhuang, the captured rebels were guarded separately. First, they were identified by the servants and the rebel soldiers and then guarded separately. Then they were divided into teams of 100 people each, and each team was guarded together.

  Zhang Guodong personally inspected the area and gave a speech to the prisoners from each team, mainly explaining the "prisoner policy" of the Yongyi Army, which was "the wounded will be treated, they will not be killed if they do not resist, and they will be allowed to leave after the war and will be given travel expenses"!

After he finished his speech, he turned around and left amidst the whispers, without caring whether the captured soldiers believed him or not. The rest of the matter was naturally left to the soldiers from various units to explain and clarify in detail.

The captives naturally couldn't believe what Zhang Guodong said. They had seen government troops before. They would not let go of captives, not to mention ordinary fleeing civilians. How could they waste food to feed them?

But now that things have come to this, we can only take it one step at a time!

At least for now, the imperial army in Liuzhuang has no intention of killing them for the reward. As the saying goes, "a good death is worse than a miserable life." With the hope of life right in front of them, they naturally will not resist.

In order to guard these captured soldiers, there was a team of more than 30 soldiers to guard every 100 prisoners. A total of nearly 600 soldiers were involved in this work. They were all Huang Daguang's central soldiers.

The camp pacification officer Fang Zhihai was specifically responsible for this matter, and Huang Daguang assisted him. He was mainly responsible for the duties of supervision and protection. He had to ensure that the prisoners did not dare to cause trouble, and ensure the safety of the pacification officer Fang Zhihai and the pacification soldiers.

…………

"General, Han Rongqiu's poor defense caused the western front to be breached by the enemy, putting the entire camp in danger. He is truly derelict in his duty and asks for punishment!" Everyone looked at Han Rongqiu, the commander of the front detachment, who was kneeling in the middle, with regretful expressions on their faces, while the deputy general Kuang Yongzhong's expression was more complicated, with regret, concern and reluctance.

As the commander of an army, Zhang Guodong's attitude was the most crucial. Everyone's eyes shifted to him, and they were all quietly waiting for him to express his opinion.

He glanced at the two deputy generals and five thousand commanders under his command with a sharp gaze, stopped the deputy general Du Chungang who was about to speak with his eyes, and then coughed twice to attract everyone's attention.

Then he said: "In today's battle, we killed more than a thousand enemies, injured two thousand enemies, and captured more than 1,600 bandits, while our army lost 127 soldiers and 268 were injured.

If we only consider the casualties, our army exchanged one for ten, which greatly dampened the enemy's morale. It will be difficult for them to organize a large offensive within three to five days. This is all due to the efforts of all of you present. I will ask for your credit in front of the commander. "

Zhang Guodong did not directly talk about Han Rongqiu's defeat on the western front, but first summarized today's battle and then comforted and encouraged the generals.

Then he changed the subject: "However, today's battle is indeed dangerous, just like the crisis on the Western Front, which almost led to a complete loss. Thinking about it now, I still can't help but feel scared. This is all due to my planning mistakes, not the fault of the generals.

Fortunately, we made great gains on the eastern front, annihilating nearly 6,000 enemy troops, so today is a great victory!"

Only then did he turn his gaze to Han Rongkui who was kneeling in the middle, and said to him gently: "General Han Qian, you have done a lot of good things today, and you should get up quickly."

When the generals heard this, they felt relieved.

Especially the deputy general Kuang Yongzhong. You should know that in the Qinglong Camp, only Han Rongqiu and Kong Shouchang are his old subordinates. Therefore, he naturally wants to protect Han Rongqiu, so as to protect his reputation and retain some strength for building his own team in the future.

Han Rongqiu's face was covered with tears at this moment. He choked and said, "It's not the general's fault. It's my fault for failing to do my duty. The east was attacked by the bandits. The north was open, but there were also bandits in the southwest and the southwest. Only the west was breached by the bandits."

He then clasped his fists and saluted, saying emphatically: "The crisis on the western front is really Rong Kui's fault, and he has no shirking his responsibility."

Seeing him like this, Zhang Guodong's face suddenly darkened and he shouted in a deep voice: "Han Rongkui, stand up and return to your seat!"

Han Rongkui was shocked, stood up suddenly, and shouted in the same voice: "Yes!"

He immediately stood up and returned to his seat and sat down again. He stood straight, looking straight ahead, with his hands firmly placed on his knees. Except for his slightly heavy breathing, he was no different from everyone else.

Oh, that's not right. Han Rongqiu's sitting posture is obviously more standard than that of the other four thousand commanders!