"Your undercover agents are truly formidable. I originally thought they could only deliver information to us, but I didn't expect them to be able to influence the Vietnamese king's judgment and subsequently kill all his useful subordinates. These people are all very powerful. Normally, if we wanted to plot against one of them, we wouldn't know how much effort we would have to put in. Give this spy a credit."
Li Xiang said happily that the situation has been opened up now. People keep driving ox carts to the door, and all of them are Vietnamese soldiers. We naturally have our own way of distinguishing them. If you want to fool us, then you don’t have to take your ox cart away. But if it is true, the 600 kilograms of rice will be taken away immediately.
The original quota was one thousand kilograms of rice, but too many people came, so Li Xiang cut it down to six hundred kilograms. Many people thought that some people would be scared away, but Li Xiang smiled and shook his head. These people had already tasted the sweetness. Although cutting from one thousand kilograms to six hundred kilograms was a lot, it was still profitable for these people.
The situation in the past two days just proved Li Xiang's guess. Although 600 kilograms of rice for one head was a little less than before, the number of people delivering rice continued to increase, because those people guessed in their hearts that it might become 400 kilograms of rice in a few days, so they had to hurry up and work while the price was still 600 kilograms.
The Vietnamese soldiers in the old forest were unlucky. No matter where they hid, there would always be ambushes. These people were familiar with the old forest and could always ambush them where they were hiding.
According to what Huo Qubing learned, 40% of the people around him had already joined this activity. With the aroma of white rice, he believed that more people would join this activity. You can't let the people at home go hungry. The neighbors all have white rice to eat, and if you can't take it back, it means you are incompetent.
Under this kind of comparison, many people were unwilling to betray their country, but they had no other choice but to go to the mountains and become bandits, trying to find a way to take off a head so that they could exchange it for money from the Tang army.
One or two heads naturally cannot affect the war situation, but if it is hundreds or even thousands every day, it is not a small number. The record of the day is not much, but if it is added up in a week, there will be four or five thousand people. The total number of troops in the mountains is less than 30,000. If it is based on this number, they can all be solved in a few days, and our people will not have to go in and kill people.
"General Huo's men are back."
The sound of horse hooves came from afar, and Li Xiang handed the things in his hand to Miss Huaihua. After spending these few days together, Li Xiang also felt that Miss Huaihua was very good. At least she was a person who looked like Cheng Ying. She didn't talk much and would do whatever he asked her to do.
"Has he received news again?"
Li Xiang knew Huo Qubing was very busy. Whenever he led his men into the mountains and forests, they would always reap a good harvest. Li Xiang also authorized him to provide information. He would give a thousand kilograms of rice to anyone who could provide him with information. It was just a matter of money. As long as they could help us quickly end the war here, what did rice mean? We already have plenty of it here, didn't we?
"The information provided by those bandits revealed a resting place for the army on the mountain. It is said that there are two to three thousand people there. Look at the smile on this guy's face. I think they must have wiped out the whole army."
In fact, there was no need for Changsun Ze to estimate. Huo Qubing rode over happily. Looking at the expression on his face, you could tell that he had won the battle. Although his men were in a mess, they all looked happy.
"Your Highness, I took my men in and in just two days, we killed two to three thousand of them. If it weren't for the difficulty of walking in the forest, I estimate that number could have doubled. The soldiers in the forest couldn't hold on. We have such a hard time outside. If there was no lamp oil, there would be deserters here too. Not to mention them in there. Some of them wish they could just soak in water every day."
When Huo Qubing discovered those people, he felt really miserable. Most of the mountain was covered with trees, but there was a lot of water in some places. In order to have a good rest, they could only soak half of their bodies in the water, which was a good opportunity for leeches.
When his army rushed forward, many soldiers simply did not flee, and some even lay there without moving. In fact, they no longer had the strength to move. Apart from breathing slowly, they were basically like dead people. Huo Qubing could only ask his men to be good people.
"This method the Vietnamese came up with has indeed caused us trouble, but they don't treat the soldiers on the mountain as human beings. In such an environment, they won't let them withdraw. It's obvious that they don't want these people to return alive. We should proceed step by step and keep them here for another week."
Li Xiang was not happy about the victory he had achieved. We had wasted a lot of time before. This time, we decided to proceed steadily and nibble away at them bit by bit. We had to wipe out all the troops on the mountain to prevent any crisis in our rear defense line.
"I will obey your orders."
Both of them bowed in answer, and then went to their own armies. Then Wei Shuyu came over. Although this guy did not follow Huo Qubing to fight, he also went to the mountain pass with his nine brothers. Their mission was to ambush people coming down the mountain. This battle was also bloody.
"What do you think?"
Li Xiang knew that this guy had gone to war with a knife, so he called him over to ask him.
"It's hard to put it into words."
Wei Shuyu thought about similar situations many times in his mind, but no matter how he thought about it, the final result was different from the actual situation. This guy vomited everything in his stomach. Of course, he was not the only one who did this. The soldiers who followed him up the mountain were all recruits, and basically everyone had vomited out their stomachs.
"That's how it is on the battlefield, but you don't have a choice now. When you join this army, you no longer have a choice. You will be tied to this army until the day you are old, when you can leave this army."
Li Xiang looked at Wei Shuyu meaningfully...
