"Please rest assured, Your Highness. Since I have come to the army, I will definitely persevere to the end. After all, Your Highness brought me here, and I will never embarrass Your Highness."
Wei Shuyu also sensed that Li Xiang had been testing him since he set out from Chang'an City, and the test should be considered completed now, so he said this to him. Of the more than 20 children from aristocratic families brought from Chang'an City, only he and Du Aitong persisted, and the rest all went back.
Of course, this is also very normal. If Li Xiang took them to the battlefields in Mobei or the Western Regions, perhaps those people would be able to hold on. However, Vietnam is too humid, which is completely different from the situation in Chang'an. Those people did not hold on, and Li Xiang did not blame them. After all, the climate difference between the two places is too big.
As an ordinary citizen, no one will find fault with you, and people may even resonate with you. But if you want to become a qualified Tang Dynasty soldier, your performance is a bit unsatisfactory, so you can only be sent back to Chang'an City. As for your future, the moment you choose to give up, you are not only giving up these things in the army, but also your future in life.
Although it seems a bit inhumane to give up someone's future because of this matter, Li Xiang believes in one thing: people without strong willpower will probably retreat in everything they do. You may retreat here today, but you don't know where you will retreat tomorrow. Now your position is not high, and your retreat will not cause much trouble to the Tang Dynasty court, but if you are in a high position in the future, then the Tang Dynasty court will be finished.
"Go back and have a good rest. You did a good job this time. If someone recommends you for a reward in the future, I will definitely promote you first."
Li Xiang has always used the policy of carrot and stick. He can't just put pressure on them, he has to let them see hope. If the appreciation continues, he will have twenty soldiers under his command. Wei Shuyu was also a little excited. After saluting Li Xiang, he immediately went back to prepare. Although he didn't necessarily let them go out, it was always right to make preparations early.
A mountain forest in Vietnam.
One of Wu Yuanhao's arms had been chopped off. This guy was bitten by a poisonous snake while he was sleeping at night. Fortunately, his guards discovered it quickly and cut off the black arm. If they had discovered it a little later, this guy would probably have lost his life.
He was relatively lucky. He was accompanied by a herbalist who was able to find some hemostatic drugs in the mountains and forests, which saved his life. If an ordinary soldier had chopped off an arm, he would probably have died in the mountains and forests by now. So many people who were brought in at the beginning have already left this world, and some of them came here later, and now they are dying in large numbers again.
"General, we can't stay here any longer. We're getting attacked too many times every day. We have to find a way to get down the mountain. Our brothers can't hold on any longer. Over a hundred of us ran away yesterday, and even more will run away after dark today."
After Li Xiang adopted this strategy, everyone was afraid of being killed when they slept. After all, in addition to the farmers outside, the people above also knew the policy of the Tang army. If you killed your comrades next to you, you could still be given 600 kilograms of rice.
In today's environment, killing two people is not noticeable at all, and there are several people in the group. If you kill them all, you can exchange them for a lot of food and find a wife to live with. Why bother to make things difficult for yourself in the mountains and forests, when in the end you are still defending an invisible country.
"But His Majesty the King..."
Wu Yuanhao said with some concern that His Majesty the King would not allow them to go back. If they went back rashly, they might not end up well. But the situation is like this now. If they don't go back, they will have no way to survive.
"General, open your eyes and look. You used to have five hundred guards, but now there are only twenty-nine of us left. Every one of us is a young man we brought from our hometown. They are all much stronger than ordinary people, but in a war like this, can they still survive? Is this still a war?"
The deputy general under his command shed tears. We are defending this country, but the people of this country have become traitors and are trying every means to get our heads just to exchange 600 kilograms of food from the Tang army. Now, not only the people are doing this, but even some people in our army are doing this.
After hearing his words, the people around him lowered their heads. Everyone was in a state of confusion, not knowing why they were fighting so hard in the mountains. When we first entered the mountains, we were able to cause losses to the Tang army, but after they increased the protection of patrols, have we ever succeeded?
Wu Yuanhao is not a fool. He certainly knows the current situation. These people have probably been abandoned by the court. The reason why the court does not allow them to go down the mountain is that it wants to use them to attract the attention of the Tang army. As long as the Tang army's attention is still on them, then all the people in the south of the court will be safe.
"You can't hesitate, General. We still have people carrying you down the mountain. If you continue to hesitate, we won't even have enough people to carry you. Look at us now. Are we still qualified soldiers?"
An old soldier pulled open his clothes and saw that he was really skinny and looked very pitiful. In fact, he was very pitiful. Not to mention fighting against the Tang army, it was not easy for him to survive. Now the army had lost its morale. Even if the general disagreed, they would find a way to go down the mountain.
"General, look, there's another fire in the northeast."
Someone shouted, and everyone looked northeast. Although the rainy season hadn't ended yet, the forest had already been set on fire. What on earth was going on? The Tang army had done this before, leaving them with very limited range of movement. Now they were attacking again, leaving them with no chance of survival. After this fire was extinguished, perhaps their range of movement would be reduced even more...
