Water Margin people

"I asked you to gather all the people around you? Where did they go?"

Zhang Qing looked at those people and asked.

"This...we don't know, we just handed the person over to them upstream!"

Those people said that they were sand bandits and they didn't need so many civilians. All they wanted were money, food and beautiful women.

"Helping Saladin to kidnap people?"

Zhang Qing narrowed his eyes. It seemed that Saladin did not dare to confront them head-on, so he hired these bandits to do the job.

While Zhang Qing was in deep thought, the bandits kneeling on the ground breathed a sigh of relief, as if they had gotten a chance to survive.

"Kill three people!"

Zhang Qing waved his hand.

The bandits were stunned. They didn't know why the general in front of them suddenly wanted to kill people again.

The soldiers didn't care about that. They raised their swords and chopped off three heads, which rolled to the ground.

But then two more heads rolled down, making a total of five heads on the ground.

"General, this... the knife is not retracted!"

The two soldiers spoke, and although it seemed like they were asking for forgiveness, they did not seem to be apologetic at all, as if they had done something insignificant.

"If you can't catch it, then don't catch it!"

Zhang Qing didn't care. He only said to kill three people, but he didn't know which three people to kill. Soldiers acting on their own were bound to make mistakes.

The remaining bandits collapsed on the ground with fear, and some even suffered from incontinence. They were truly frightened. The Qi army in front of them did not treat them as human beings at all. Their lives were not worth mentioning in the eyes of the Qi army.

"You lied, so you must be punished!"

Zhang Qing looked at the frightened bandits and spoke.

"General, we are not lying. It was Saladin who really sent us here!"

The bandits wailed for mercy, tears streaming down their faces.

"Saladin asked you to come here. Are those footprints in the desert also yours?"

Zhang Qing looked at the bandits coldly. These people did not tell the truth.

"We didn't know, they asked us to come!"

The bandits cried and said they didn't even know where all of Saladin's men were.

"In that case, there is no need for you to live!"

Zhang Qing saw that he really couldn't get anything out of him, so he just waved his hand.

The soldiers raised their swords again and all the bandits were killed.

"General, shall we continue the pursuit?"

Several generals looked at Zhang Qing and asked, the mastermind behind the scenes has not been found yet, so the battle is not over yet.

"No need for that. They were sent here to test us. If they succeed, the enemy behind us will make the next move. If they fail, we will suffer heavy losses and the enemy will come out to take advantage of us. But now these people have been defeated miserably, while we are unscathed. Those people have already run away!"

Zhang Qing shook his head. He had thought that it was Saladin who brought people here last night, but now it seems that Saladin is still very cunning. In this way, everything can be blamed on the bandits.

"General, is this the end of it?"

Those generals were somewhat unwilling to accept it. If they tolerated the enemy's provocation, how could they hold their heads up in the army in the future? The army could shed blood but could not lose face!

"Let's continue patrolling northward along the two rivers. I want to see where so many people can go!" Zhang Qing said. He had limited troops in the Persian Gulf and could not completely control the Mesopotamian region, which gave the enemy a lot of room.

……

A village in the desert.

Saladin sat in the tent, with a group of bearded leaders sitting around him.

"Everyone, Qi is coming with great force and is ready to completely occupy this land. We cannot fight against Qi with our own strength alone. We must unite."

Saladin said, looking at the leaders.

"Saladin, it's not that we don't want to, but the last disastrous defeat has already severely damaged our tribe, and then there was the Black Death. We are now unable to send troops."

A leader looked at Saladin and said that they were once very powerful, but now it is different. Due to the war and the Black Death, their tribal strength is less than half of what it was in its heyday.

"Then are you all waiting for Qi to encroach on our land step by step? When the Qi army comes to you, can you still be the leaders of your tribe?"

Saladin looked at those people and spoke. He knew that what these nobles cared about most was family status and wealth, and the State of Qi was here to break all of this.

All the leaders were silent. Qi's encroachment on this land was already very serious. The teachings of the Imperial Religion attracted common people, and the foundation of the Arab Religion was being shaken.

Correspondingly, these tribal leaders were also affected, and their orders were met with some doubts, which was impossible before.

"Saladin, even if we cooperate with you, the result will be the same as last time. We cannot defeat the Qi army."

The tribal leaders looked at Saladin and said that they had gathered the elite forces of the entire Arab Empire in the last war, but still suffered a crushing defeat. Now that their combat power has been damaged, what good results can they expect if they go again?

"It's different. Last time the Emperor of Qi was here, the army of Qi in the Mesopotamian region was close to 100,000, with dozens of generals. But what about now? Zhang Qing only has 20,000 troops, and only a few generals!"

Saladin looked at the leaders and said that he was telling the truth. The enemies they were going to face this time were much weaker than last time, but they were not without the ability to fight.

"Everyone, Qi is still not stable right now. Although many people have been bewitched, as long as we win, they will wake up! This land will still be ours!"

Saladin continued his seductive words.

"But...but the problem is that the Qi army is likely to continue coming! Then there will be another big war!"

Those leaders were still somewhat worried that if the Emperor of Qi could lead his troops once, he would most likely come a second time.

"Everyone, you don't seem to know how far Qi is from us?"

Saladin looked at the leaders and spoke.

The leaders looked at each other in bewilderment. They had lived in the desert for generations and knew little about the outside world. They only knew that Qi was in the far east, but they had no idea how far away it was.

"Let me put it this way. At the speed of our ship, it will take at least three months to sail on the sea. Even Qi's steamship will take a month. How long can the Emperor of Qi stay here?"

"Why do you think Qi only left 20,000 troops in the Persian Gulf? Why not 100,000 troops? How many troops do you think Qi had? How much money and food did it have?"

Saladin said, looking at everyone.

Everyone's expression changed. They understood what Saladin meant. This was a war of attrition, just like the one they had done against the Tang Dynasty. As long as they held out for a few decades, the Orientals would retreat.

But this would require several generations of them to fight, and there would definitely be a lot of casualties.

"Are you sure you can win?"

Everyone looked at Saladin and asked.

"The Western Church has contacted me. They will raise their armies at the same time. When the war breaks out, Qi will have no reinforcements and will inevitably be defeated."

Saladin said. (End of this chapter)