On the fourth day after the surrender, Atez set out with an army of 1,500 people, 400 of whom were brought by him, another 1,000 were sent to him by His Royal Highness the Prince, and 100 soldiers followed from a distance. These people were all Fuso soldiers. They would not participate in the battle, but were purely here to monitor you.
When he was just born, Atez had thought about it. At most, he could just fight casually and show them the way. But his family had been brought here. Do you think you can only control yourself? This is impossible. The court does not trust any generals who surrender. Your family must be brought along at the same time. A commander without troops is not worthy of trust.
So now Atez is put in the hot seat. No matter what he thinks, he has to bite the bullet and fight this battle.
"General..."
When his subordinates called him this title, Atez didn't know they were calling him. After all, if it were in the original Arab dynasty, it would be impossible to rise from an ordinary local official to a general in one's lifetime, unless you had some kind of adventure, and this adventure had to be extremely life-threatening. If you didn't have this adventure, then you could only have this position in your dreams.
"We're still half a day's journey from Apotar. This is some information we gathered earlier. There are only about 300 soldiers there right now. They're all former soldiers, and their strength is pretty good. Apotar wasn't captured by the refugees last time, but many of them left afterward."
One of his generals began to introduce their target. Apotar is also a small city nearby. It originally had a population of about 10,000 to 20,000, but now it has a maximum population of 7,000 to 8,000. His Royal Highness’s letter of persuasion to surrender has been sent, and you guys have also passed the deadline. As long as you guys don’t respond, then we have to give you some response, otherwise do you really think that what our Royal Highness sent to you is waste paper?
Now that His Royal Highness's empire has just been established, everything must be done with credibility. If he said that he would destroy you when the time comes, then he must destroy you. If he fails to do this, then His Royal Highness's dignity will be gone immediately, and when he meets with local officials in the future, he may be ridiculed by them.
So in this situation, as the only general under His Royal Highness, Atez must lead the army into battle. If even you are unwilling to work, then who should this task be handed over to? So no matter how reluctant Atez is, he must lead his men to prepare for the battlefield. This is what you must do.
Atez had heard of the place called Apotar. It was not very important in the past. Unexpectedly, it was not affected by the refugee crisis. Although there were not many people, only four or five hundred, they were soldiers before the war. The combat effectiveness of the soldiers at that time was not weak.
However, the people under His Royal Highness the Prince have been training for a long time and have 80% of their combat effectiveness at that time. If they meet on the battlefield later, we will have to see who is more capable. If they can't beat them, they can just run away.
For Atez, running away isn't shameful; being killed is the most shameful thing. In our current situation, winning is just our luck. If we lose, you can't kill me. After all, I'm your only general. Even though there are Fuso's troops watching nearby, what's the point? Can a hundred of them stop us?
"Remember this later. If a fight really breaks out, you guys..."
Atez called his men over. These people were originally refugees. Atez put on military uniforms and gave them a piece of broken bread every day. This was considered as being soldiers, but they had never been involved in combat. Even if they surrendered to His Royal Highness the Prince, it would only be a forced march.
Although they had been training for half a month, it would not be possible to turn a refugee into a soldier in less than half a month, or even half a year. So after hearing what Atez said, these people nodded quickly. Fortunately, the general did not let us really fight to the death, otherwise we would not even know how to fight. The weapons in our hands have been issued for a long time, but we never know how to use them.
Looking at the happy looks of his men, Atez rolled his eyes. All of his men were like this, and they still expected me to build an empire for them. They originally thought that after surrendering, they could rely on the power of the Tang Dynasty and then act tyrannically in the north. Now they have the title of a general, but they have to go to the battlefield to fight in person. The sword is merciless, and they may lose their lives if they are not careful.
Apotar's scouts were nearby, and after seeing this army, they understood what was going on. If they had not received the letter of surrender from His Royal Highness the Prince, they might have believed that these were their own people, or perhaps people sent by the Imperial Court, and their days as wanderers would have been over.
But after all, they received a letter from His Royal Highness the Prince, and learned that these people were not coming to join them, but were part of the people who had betrayed the empire. These people are no longer our colleagues. They are the rebels that the imperial court just mentioned some time ago. As long as you can kill ten rebels, you can get a large piece of land and return to the central and southern part of the empire.
All the new recruits believed this, but after analyzing it, the veterans still felt that it was a bit ridiculous. If you want us to go back, you should also send some personnel over. Even if it is difficult to send troops, then ordinary officials should come. People are in panic now, and it is time for you to stabilize their hearts.
They actually harbor some resentment towards the Arab court in the south. If you really wanted to motivate us, you should have ordered the Beidaying troops to advance north, or at least force the Tang troops to retreat. But now, the Beidaying troops are like cowards, sending only a few letters without sending any reinforcements. They simply want to rely on us to wear down the Tang army, and even give us such useless promises. Do they really think we are fools? But even if we are fools, we are fools with brains.
