In the eyes of all the Tang Dynasty soldiers, after the troops in the mountains were driven out, the resistance of the entire Vietnam should have been reduced to a minimum, and the remaining people would have no fighting spirit. However, when they really fought, they found that this last point was very difficult.
Li Xiang really guessed right. The remaining people all supported the King of Vietnam. Now they were rebelling against the Tang Dynasty and were traitors to the Tang Dynasty court. Even if they surrendered in the future, there would be no good results. The King of Vietnam sent people to ask for surrender, but was directly sent back by Li Xiang. This meant that these people would never take the path of surrender.
After the news came out, the Vietnamese also knew that their way out was to resist to the end, so in several consecutive contacts, the Tang army suffered heavy losses. They unexpectedly discovered that the combat effectiveness of the Vietnamese army was quite good. Could it be that what we encountered before was all fake?
Many generals then remembered what Li Xiang said before they set out. The remaining people were able to leave their homes and follow the King of Vietnam to the south, which meant that they had finally surrendered to the Vietnamese court. In addition, the Tang Empire did not need such people to surrender. After all, they might become a destabilizing factor in the future. Therefore, these people had no way out, and they had to win this battle.
Only by winning this battle can they negotiate with the Tang Dynasty. Even if they can only retain two cities, they will have a chance to survive. If they fail to win, all their destinies will be in the hands of the Tang Dynasty army. They have already been identified as traitors. If they fail to win, the Tang Dynasty army will most likely drive them into the sea. They all know what is happening in the neighboring country.
However, Li Xiang was not an indecisive person. When he discovered that the resistance was serious, many generals were still thinking about whether to restart peace talks, but they were directly blocked by Li Xiang.
We have already given up this strategy when we had the most advantage. If the attack is thwarted and we want to negotiate with them, it means we are begging them. In this case, we don’t know what demands these Vietnamese people will make, but one thing is certain, no matter what they ask for, the Tang army cannot give it to them.
So Li Xiang immediately convened a meeting of the entire army and expressed his and the court's intentions from top to bottom, which was that the last group of Vietnamese must be eliminated. If they continued to be retained, even if they all surrendered, they would cause turmoil in this region again and again in the future. The Tang Dynasty court did not have the time to play hide-and-seek with them, so this time they must be wiped out in one fell swoop. This was also an effort made for peace in the entire South Asian region.
After this military meeting, none of the generals mentioned the negotiations anymore. They also understood the reason behind Li Xiang's strategy. At the same time, the Vietnamese court also knew about Li Xiang's meeting. They also abandoned some inappropriate ideas and prepared to fight the Tang army to the end.
Long Xuyen, Vietnam.
Although the remaining Vietnamese troops resisted fiercely, the Tang army was no joke after all. They had fought for so many years, and the opponents they encountered were all more powerful than the Vietnamese army. The reason they stagnated before was because of Vietnam's terrain. Now they have already reached the south, only two or three hundred miles away from the coast. With the support of the navy's warships, although the Tang army cannot be said to have made great progress every day, Vietnam's disastrous defeat is imminent.
Li Xiang has already told his generals that the whole of Vietnam must be occupied within half a month to a month at most. Even if they counterattack again, our army from the north has already arrived, with more than 80,000 soldiers on the front line. If Vietnam can still hold on under such a favorable attack, it would be really impossible.
"Boss, three more of our brothers are injured. Da Wuzi probably won't survive. They've just been handed over to the military doctor. They'll be sent to the rear. Do you have anything else to say?"
A soldier said with some low morale that Wei Shuyu was his superior at the moment. Wei Shuyu already had 120 men under him. This guy was promoted very quickly, which of course was also related to his bravery in combat. When he heard that three more of his men were injured, this guy's face turned ugly.
When they were in the northern mountains and forests, although it was also very dangerous there, there were not many people injured there. However, after entering the final war in the south, more and more of his men were injured, purely because of the surrounding civilians.
If they were all injured during the battle, it would be understandable, but many soldiers were hiding in the homes of ordinary people. According to the orders of the Tang Dynasty army, if there was no other reason, they could not slaughter ordinary people at will. After all, we will need to use this area in the future.
But these Vietnamese troops had no principles at all. After learning that we would not attack civilian villages, they began to split up into small groups and then entered civilian villages to ambush us. This caused us a lot of trouble. In addition, the local civilians were not good people either. The elderly and children among them also caused us a lot of trouble.
"Report this to the general immediately and tell him we've been injured again by these bastards. If this continues, our losses will reach one-tenth. So, I beg the general to authorize us to encircle and suppress the surrounding villages."
Wei Shuyu said in a distracted manner that the casualties of the Tang army reached one tenth, which was simply unimaginable. Even when fighting against the army of the Arab Empire, it would not reach one tenth. The reason why it could reach such a high proportion now was purely because the other party was not particular.
For the sake of your people's survival, we gave you a way out and would not fight in your villages, but you guys actually brought the battlefield into the villages, completely disregarding the lives of your people.
The soldiers under his command were also furious. Looking at the village with flames in the distance, they wanted to immediately let the artillery bomb for a while. Just now, the three brothers were patrolling around the village on horseback, investigating whether there were any armed forces inside. As a result, they were injured by coordinates flying out from inside. One of them was injured in the chest and probably wouldn't survive. There was also a serious snake venom on it. The other two also needed amputations...
