Ma Chao quickly changed the topic to avoid Han Sui discovering the clues he had inadvertently exposed.
Facts proved that Ma Chao was overthinking, and Han Sui could not connect this matter with Ma Chao no matter what.
Han Sui even believed that with Ma Chao's IQ, it was impossible to achieve this level.
Just as Ma Chao changed the subject, Han Sui put the matter aside for the time being.
"Hey, now that we have lost our troops and generals, we are indeed in a dilemma!"
Ma Chao was secretly surprised. Hearing Han Sui's tone, could he be thinking of retreating?
"Uncle, how many soldiers and horses were lost in this battle?"
Han Sui stretched out two fingers and then twisted his facial features together.
"Twenty thousand?"
Ma Chao looked at Han Sui with some confusion. How could he be so depressed after only losing 20,000 people?
Han Sui glanced at Ma Chao angrily and cursed in his heart that this man had no brain!
Ma Chao and Yan Xing alone lost nearly 20,000 horses. How could it be possible that the total loss was only 20,000?
"It's two hundred thousand!"
"What!"
Ma Chao exclaimed, his eyes widened.
Two hundred thousand losses in one battle?
Not to mention that Han Sui couldn't bear it, even the instigator Ma Chao felt a sense of despair.
No wonder Han Sui was a little discouraged. If calculated according to this, wouldn't the next time he attacked Liu Zhang, his entire army would be wiped out?
"Where are the five chiefs of the Qiang clan?"
If we really lose 200,000 yuan, I'm afraid the coalition forces will immediately disband on the spot.
"There is no news about the five clan leaders yet. I don't know about them..."
Han Sui could only pray that they could survive, but it was indeed not easy to escape with hundreds of thousands of rebel troops.
"Lord, our losses shouldn't be this big."
Although Yan Xing's words were Han Sui's wish, the fact still made Han Sui helplessly shake his head.
"I just asked someone to do some statistics, and the number of soldiers and horses assembled so far is only about 100,000."
"My Lord, on the way back just now, I saw Qiang soldiers all over the mountains on both sides. It must be because they were too scattered in a panic."
"There are also five major clan leaders and the last general has seen that they are safe and sound. They should be able to return soon!"
Han Sui nodded lightly, and Yan Xing saw it with his own eyes, which was considered a blessing among misfortunes.
"I hope so!"
Due to the loss of all the baggage, Han Sui was unable to set up camp and the army rested in the open space.
After morale recovered slightly, Han Sui immediately dispatched a large army.
He wanted to collect the defeated troops as much as possible and find the five chiefs of the Qiang tribe.
Of the 100,000 troops, 90,000 were Qiang people, and Han Sui could only suppress them for a while.
Only the arrival of the five clan chiefs can completely stabilize the morale of the Qiang soldiers.
Fortunately, everything went as Yan Xing said. As time went by, more and more soldiers and horses returned, and the five Qiang clan chiefs also led many of their subordinates to the camp safely.
After half a day of gathering and searching, at night, the number of troops of the Qiang-Han coalition had increased to 200,000!
Despite losing 100,000 people, Han Sui still felt like he was surviving the disaster.
Losing one hundred thousand and having one hundred thousand left are completely different concepts.
The former may cause the coalition to collapse immediately, while the latter may still defeat Liu Zhang and achieve the final victory!
However, Han Sui's thoughts do not represent the thoughts of the five Qiang clan chiefs.
The loss of a hundred thousand troops is indeed not unacceptable if we put it on an army of three hundred thousand.
If it were applied to each Qiang tribe, each tribe would have lost less than 20,000 yuan.
It may not seem like much, but in fact each Qiang tribe only sent 50,000 troops in total, which is nearly half of the losses!
In fact, it is impossible for every tribe to lose the same number of soldiers.
For example, when the Qiang were first eliminated, less than 10,000 people were lost.
However, the Shaodang Qiang and Han Qiang tribes that were initially responsible for the offensive suffered losses of more than 20,000 each!
Twenty thousand might not be a big deal to Han Sui and Ma Chao, but to the Qiang clan leader, it was almost unbearable.
"Prince Han, we lost 100,000 people in the first battle. Shouldn't you give us an explanation?"
Contrary to Han Sui's expectation, the first to attack was the Beiqiang!
As a neutral faction, the Beiqiang were somewhat coerced in being able to join the coalition.
Now that the loss in the battle was nearly 20,000, the clan leader immediately felt the crisis.
The other four Qiang tribes are all in a two-to-two alliance. Even if some losses are acceptable, there are still allies after all.
But Beiqiang is different. Beiqiang has always been a loner!
Once the losses exceed a certain limit, the five major Qiang tribes will immediately become the four major Qiang tribes, and the Bei Qiang may even be at risk of being exterminated.
"Brother, calm down! This time it's Han's problem..."
Han Sui felt extremely guilty. Faced with Dai Si's questioning, he really had no reason to defend himself.
"Prince Han, I'm not pursuing anyone's fault. It's a loss of 20,000 men. We, the humble Qiang, cannot bear it!"
Dai Si's face was extremely ugly, and it seemed that his anger could not be easily resolved.
Seeing that Han Sui lowered his head and remained silent, Yueman, the leader of the Shaodang Qiang tribe, stood up.
"I understand the feelings of the leader of the clan! This time we burned nearly 50,000 Qiang and Hanqiang people, and we are just as heartbroken as you!"
Daiyi did not give Yueman a good look, and then snorted coldly.
"Heartache? Can heartache resurrect the warriors of our tribe? If it can, then I am willing to die of pain!"
To untie the bell, one must tie the bell. Han Sui knew that if he wanted to regain morale, he would have to be the governor.
"Chief Dai, Han is deeply sorry for the loss of your tribe! As long as I can defeat Liu Zhang, I will definitely double the compensation!"
Dai Si seemed to have heard a big joke and was so amused that he burst into laughter.
"Hahaha! Defeat Liu Zhang?"
"We lost 100,000 in one battle. How many times can we Qiang soldiers fight against you?"
Han Sui usually couldn't bear the ridicule of others, but now he had no choice but to swallow his anger for the sake of important matters.
"Chief Dai, you must have seen through today's battle how treacherous and difficult Liu Zhang is!"
"We can't defeat it if we unite. Once we disperse, we will only end up being defeated by him one by one!"
Once a hundred thousand were lost, all the upper echelons of the Qiang-Han coalition would be aware of the crisis at hand.
Not only Daiyi, but also the other four clan chiefs remained silent.
"So we must..."
"Lord!"
Suddenly interrupted by Yan Xing, Han Sui frowned slightly.
Now it was Han Sui's conversation with the five chiefs of the clan, and Yan Xing's sudden intervention was a little too reckless.
However, based on Han Sui's understanding of Yan Xing, he probably wouldn't interrupt him for no reason.
"Yanming, what's the matter?"
"My lord, I discovered on the way back that the Yizhou Army did not want to take prisoners. As long as they were Qiang people captured by them, all of them would be killed on the spot without exception!"
As soon as Yan Xing said this, there was an uproar.