On August 8th, the weather was extremely hot and muggy, and the air pressure was extremely low.
Dark clouds kept rolling and gathering, and dull thunder sounded from afar from time to time.
On the road to Dingting, dust rolled into a curtain and continued to spread forward, thick and dense. A deathly silence surrounded the battlefield.
It was in this atmosphere that Zhang Chong led his army slowly from the dust, and even the noise of distant carriages and horses was calmer than before.
Yang Mao, Cai Que and a group of military officials also stood silently on the side of the road. There was no whispered discussion or eye contact. Everyone looked at the dust, worried and ashamed.
Zhang Chong actually didn't know much about the situation in Dingting. It wasn't until he received the military report from Yang Mao and Cai Que on yesterday's battle early this morning that he knew what he had missed.
Yang Mao is responsible for this part. After he captured Dingting on August 6, he wrote a merit report, saying that he had captured Dingting. However, he never sent back a military report after that.
It wasn't Zhang Chong who got the latest trends of the Zhenbei Army from the Zhen clan, or even Cai Que's support troops were gone.
Zhang Chong himself also broke camp and headed for Dingting as soon as he got the information, but in the end he was still three hours behind.
At this time, he jumped off his horse and looked at Yang Mao, whose lips turned white. Zhang Chong himself blamed himself.
It was he who raised Yang Mao wrongly.
Yang Mao was his first assistant in the military, helping him create the first two hundred people. But later Zhang Chong wanted to leave Taishan Shouyi and fight in the Central Plains. At this time, Yang Mao was left in Taishan to guard the foundation.
But with this separation, Yang Mao's abilities gradually began to distance themselves from those of the commanders in the army.
After the Taishan army came out of the mountain, they fought a small battle for three days, a big battle for five days, and fought five or six battles with more than 10,000 people. It can be said that these battles greatly tempered the Taishan generals.
At this time, Yang Mao was in the mountains. Although there were soldiers, the intensity was completely incomparable to these.
In this way, Yang Mao naturally lagged behind the generals in terms of military command. Not only compared with Guan Yu, Yu Jin, and Zhang Dan, but even compared with Ding Sheng and Dong Fang, he was still far behind.
It's not that Yang Mao is incompetent, but that he has never led an army of more than 10,000 people to carry out specific tasks. He is very weak in dispatching and timely communication of intelligence with the base camp.
Zhang Chong had previously summoned garrison troops from all over the country and was in urgent need of a commanding general. At that time, Yang Mao came with 2,000 Taishan soldiers. With his qualifications and position, this was somewhat underqualified. That's why he assigned each of them to the garrison.
The town officials were under his command and promoted him to this position.
What Zhang Chong was most dissatisfied with Yang Mao was that he had clearly asked for reinforcements in the military report, so he knew he would come, so why did he let Lu Zhi go?
Lu Zhi's Zhenbei Army is the ultimate goal of this Northern Expedition. Unless this army is completely wiped out, the north will not be able to stabilize.
But this time, Lu Zhi was let go, and I don’t know when the next opportunity to seize Lu Zhi’s main force will be.
So Zhang Chong was very angry, very angry.
But after he led his army into the battlefield of Dingting, he vaguely understood why Yang Mao was like this.
Because at this time, there was a unique smell floating on the Dingting battlefield. It was the smell of corpses, blood, sewer, feces mixed with grass and soil, which was disgusting.
It is a smell that all battle-hardened generals hate, but it is also the most familiar smell.
But Zhang Chong didn't smell much of the smell as strong as it is now, which shows how tragic yesterday's battle was.
So Zhang Chong glanced at Yang Mao, Cai Que and other generals who were lying on the ground, and then said:
"Everyone, get up and take me to the battlefield."
After that, Zhang Chong came to the north of Dingting, where was the battlefield during the day yesterday.
When he arrived here, Zhang Chong was shocked by the tragedy of the battlefield.
On the smoldering battlefield, corpses were piled high, and officers of the Taishan Army were carrying stretchers to remove some of the wounded who had been left on the battlefield.
However, because the temporary army is a mixed army composed of local garrison troops, the number of military doctors is seriously insufficient, so the rescued wounded can only be placed in an open space to rest, groaning constantly.
Zhang Chong's face turned red all of a sudden, and he immediately shouted to Guo Zu next to him:
"Hurry up and get the Chinese army's medical and craftsman battalion to come here to save people."
Guo Zu did not dare to delay at all, so he mounted his horse and went to deliver the order.
Zhang Chong is a calm person on the outside, but he is extremely emotional on the inside. He feels sorry for and appreciates the officials who serve him from the bottom of his heart.
At this time, he suddenly saw a familiar person and walked up quickly.
He peeled off his bloody face and saw a handsome soldier. This man was the sergeant who had been corporally punished when Zhang Chong visited Yang Mao Camp.
At this time, his eyes were slightly squinted, and his lips were chapped and pale. If it weren't for his slightly panting breath, people would have thought he was dead.
When Zhang Chong wiped the blood on the sergeant's face, the young sergeant woke up in confusion.
He glanced at Zhang Chong, obviously not recognizing him, but hummed:
"Water, do you have any water to drink?"
Zhang Chong touched his waist, but there was no water bag there. At this time, Chang Diao, who was beside him, handed his water bag to the sergeant.
But as soon as the man raised his hand, he found that his right hand was gone. Still stunned, Zhang Chong snatched the water bag and put it into his mouth.
Drinking water in a daze, the man was still looking at his severed hand in a daze.
Zhang Chong just glanced at the rancid and black arm and knew that the soldier's wound was inflamed. He supported the man and forced a smile:
"do you remember me?"
Zhang Chong's question brought the sergeant back to reality. He glanced at Zhang Chong and finally remembered:
"You know, it's a noble person here. It's all thanks to you that we can still stay in the army."
When the generals beside Zhang Chong heard this, they thought it was a sign of resentment and ridicule, and they opened their mouths to scold him. However, seeing the seriousness of the sergeant, they did not open their mouths after all.
Zhang Chong, however, did not think this was ridicule. He blamed himself and said:
"Do you blame me? If it weren't for me, you wouldn't be hurt like this."
The sergeant smiled sadly and said:
"What do we have to complain about? This is our fate. General, you also gave us the opportunity to return home with the money, but we couldn't get over the hurdle in our hearts. Why did the three of us from the same company go out together, and finally ended up
I'm going back alone. We can't afford to lose this person."
Then the sergeant raised his severed hand and said with a hint of panic and helplessness:
"It's just that we are useless. How can we open the fields without hands? The king gave us the land, and I still need to go back and open it."
When the man said this, Zhang Chong burst into tears.
Zhang Chong's sharp eyes had already seen two corpses not far from this person. The Lishe names on the arms and shoulders were the same as the sergeant in front of him, which meant that the two people who came out of the Lishe with this person had died in the battle.
Already.
Hearing this man say again, Zhang Chong couldn't hold back his tears when the three of them left the club together and it would be embarrassing to go back alone.
In his mind, a sentence suddenly came to his mind, "The court bleeds into sea water, and Emperor Wu has no intention of opening the court."
Although Zhang Chong is not the Emperor of Wu, he is still a king who affects the fate of thousands of people. For example, one of his decisions now affects the fate of three soldiers and fellow soldiers.
Although Zhang Chong has his own vision and self-confidence, and believes that he is doing the right thing, all this still makes Zhang Chong think deeply about how to be careful about himself, cultivate his thoughts forever, and not take the people lightly and accept the difficulties.
Zhang Chong finally said to this person:
"May I have your name."
The sergeant said:
"Our name was Ma Huzi. When we entered the camp later, the corps commander thought our name didn't sound good, so he changed it to Ma Gui."
Zhang Chong said to Ma Gui:
"Don't worry, someone will help you open the land allocated to your family. You have no hand now, but you still have another hand. As long as you work hard, you can still live."
Seeing that Ma Gui didn't believe his words, Zhang Chong added:
"Ma Gui, my name is Zhang Chong, the king you mentioned. If I say you are useful, you will be useful. Do you believe me?"
Sure enough, when he heard this, Ma Gui's eyes lit up, and he was suddenly filled with hope:
"You, you, are really the King. Oh wow, okay, we have to talk to the Sixth Son and the others and tell them that we have also met the King. Now we have to let them flatter us."
Seeing Ma Gui regaining his confidence, Zhang Chong asked:
"Your injuries are a bit serious now, but you can still be saved. Later, the doctor will cut off your entire arm to see if you can carry it through."
When Na Ma Gui heard that he wanted to cut off his entire arm, he panicked and kept saying that he still wanted the arm because he hadn't found a wife yet.
Zhang rushed to him:
"You can't find a wife if you break your arm? You are my soldier, Zhang Chong. You must have confidence in yourself."
In the end, under Zhang Chong's "intimidation", Ma Gui regained his confidence and was dragged by a stretcher to the back for surgery.
I don't know if Ma Gui can survive it.
Thinking of this, Zhang Chong suddenly said to Li Heng beside him:
"You ask the generals in the doctor camp to try willow bark and apply the juice of boiled willow bark to the wounded soldiers' wounds to see if it can reduce inflammation."
Zhang Chong has taught these people the concept of inflammation, and they can understand it.
Li Heng had been in a daze since he followed Zhang Chong to the battlefield. Suddenly he heard Zhang Chong calling him, he hurriedly responded, and then stepped forward.
But he didn't know if it was because of his weak legs, so he stepped on the corpse of a Han soldier. The corpse was dripping with water from the wound on his stomach. Li Heng stepped on it and immediately slipped.
Already.
After slipping and falling, Li Heng put his hands on the ground to get up, and then put his hands on his head.
The head was cut off from the neck with a sharp weapon, rolled to the ground, and then probably trampled by a war horse. Its shape was completely lost, and it was just a pile of lumps wrapped in flesh and brains.
Feeling the sticky and wet touch and looking at the internal organs and limbs all over the floor, Li Heng finally couldn't hold himself any longer and vomited in front of Zhang Chong.
Seeing Li Heng's appearance, Zhang Chong knew that he could not pass on the order, so he called another aide.
Zhang Chong did not blame Li Heng, but in his heart he had decided to gradually release the staff secretaries around him to do some practical work, so as to cultivate them.
Then Zhang Chong took the generals to the wounded barracks on one side. He didn't need to do anything specific, but as long as he was here, resources would be tilted here, and no one would slack off.
With the support of the Chinese army from the base camp, the cleaning and rescue of the battlefield will become faster.
As in the past, the corpses of the Taishan army will be placed together, while the corpses of the Han army will be piled into pits and buried together.
Ox carts from the supply camp were also used intensively to transport the wounded.
The specific arrangement is as follows. Those who are seriously injured are concentrated in the same place for treatment, while those who are slightly injured and lose combat effectiveness are returned to the rear with the baggage. A complete military supply transfer has been built there, and they can receive proper treatment there.
On the other side of the battlefield, the Taishan army also found a large number of seriously injured Han soldiers on the battlefield, who were abandoned and left on the battlefield.
For Lu Zhi, abandoning the seriously wounded soldiers and evacuating with only the lightly wounded soldiers was actually saving the lives of these seriously wounded soldiers.
Because he knew very well that if these seriously injured soldiers were to accompany him, not to mention the impact on morale, even with the torment along the way, none of these seriously injured soldiers would survive.
Instead, he left it on the battlefield and threw it to the Taishan army, maybe even a life could be spared.
Even though he was on the hostile side, Lu Zhi admired the military discipline and benevolence shown by the Taishan Army.
There is always some morality that transcends the narrative of friend and foe and is respected by everyone.
The Taishan Army also recruited some villagers from nearby Lishe. These people were not as simple as imagined. In the past two days, the remaining soldiers after the collapse of the Han Army disappeared under their pitchforks.
This kind of hunting of remnants of the army is a gift from nature, and you can always encounter it several times a year.
So when the Taishan Army showed up to recruit them, they were frightened, but when they learned that they could get corn by digging holes there, they came happily.
The battlefield was littered with corpses of both the enemy and ourselves. In this battle, the Han army lost at least six thousand corpses, of which Liu Zhibu estimated that there were more than 4,000, and the Zhenbei Army had about 2,000, just lying on top of each other.
The same applies to the Taishan Army. Almost the entire army in Zhaojun Town was wiped out, and more than a thousand corpses were left behind. Adding in the corpses from other battalions, the number of corpses reached 3,000.
So there were nearly 10,000 corpses from the two armies piled up in this place, so terrifying.
But fortunately, with the arrival of the base camp, the rescue of wounded soldiers has become more and more systematic. The auxiliary soldiers in the supply camp helped to put the wounded on the ox carts, and the civilians on the carts kept providing the prepared water to the wounded. There were also auxiliary soldiers
They will be given simple bandages.
It can be seen that the Taishan Army is quite scientific and efficient in rescue.
Let’s just talk about this bullock cart. It is also specially designed. It is not only practical and simple, but also has an extra layer of detachable bottom as a stretcher. From another perspective, it can be regarded as a simple ambulance.
Zhang Chong stayed in the wounded barracks until order was stable, then he summoned the generals and began to hand over military affairs.
The first step is to set up camp. It is about to rain heavily. It is unrealistic for the whole army to enter the Dingting Pavilion, so we must set up camp quickly.
Then one of them was left on the battlefield, responsible for gathering the wounded, prisoners, discarded weapons of the Han soldiers, and burying the dead. The dead of our own army were cremated on the spot, and then gathered together according to the information on the armbands.
These bones will be sent back with the baggage logistics together with the personal belongings of the war dead, and then sent to their respective families through the post system in various places.
And the pensions and rewards for these war dead will be delivered soon.
Zhang Chong will never forget those who died for the great cause of the Taishan Army.