When the war was in full swing, a large number of Northern Barbarians fell into despair due to the superior performance of the Ming Army and fled in all directions. Xiao Ruxun saw this situation and decisively ordered the generals to lead their troops to pursue them separately. They were not allowed to run too far and were limited to two days and one night.
The Liaodong Cavalry led by Li Rusong had the most gains. When they came back, some of them had two horses each and some had three horses each. The horses were loaded with food, goods, human heads, and even living people. They drove a large number of cows, sheep, and horses back with a full load.
Li Rusong had beheaded more than thirty people by himself. The four horses were filled with his personal spoils of war. His bravery and martial prowess could be seen clearly. It was no exaggeration to say that he was the bravest of the three armies.
The second was the elite Jurchen cavalry of Nurhaci. This time, he spared no effort to leave a good impression in front of Xiao Ruxun in order to let his son get better treatment and to curry favor with the most outstanding general of the Daming Empire. But this did not mean that he did not want benefits.
This time, Xiao Ruxun's military order allowed the soldiers to keep whatever they killed for themselves, and they didn't have to follow the military order. This made the Jurchen cavalry, who had been restrained for too long and were about to go mad with joy. Since Nurhachi, every single one of them had killed until they were covered in blood. Aside from the Han cavalry of Liaodong, there really wasn't any troop that killed more ruthlessly than Nurhachi's troops.
Naturally, their gains were the most as well. Rations, goods, animal skins, and bone products filled the backs of their horses. There were also living people, but of course, most of them were heads. The Great Ming Dynasty's army still counted the number of people killed. The rest were their own goods, and they distributed them among themselves.
In any case, they had earned a lot.
The third was a little unexpected. It was the Yulin Cavalry. Their gains were second only to Li Rusong and Nurhaci. Not only that, they also brought back the largest herd of cows and sheep. Xiao Ruxun felt that with these strategic supplies, as long as there were enough weapons and armor, it was possible to launch another expedition to the lair of the Northern Barbarians.
All in all, the troops that were scattered to chase after the Northern Barbarians had a lot of gains. Four hours after Li Rumei's troops returned, the battle results were roughly calculated. In this battle, the number of beheaded able-bodied men alone amounted to 51,763, and the old, weak, women, and children's heads amounted to 65,476.
In this way, on average, each Ming Army sergeant had beheaded nearly three Northern Barbarians.
These were the heads. As for the other Northern Barbarians who died in various ways, their corpses were either tattered or their heads were not collected in time. Their corpses were left exposed in the wilderness. It was already uncountable.
Each army could not tell how many Northern Barbarians they had killed. Xiao Ruxun also did not know how many Northern Barbarians were in Guihua City before he killed his way over.
Everyone only knew that this battle was a complete victory. After this battle, for a long time, there would not be any Northern Barbarians in this area who dared to go south.
Their courage was shattered.
The losses of the Ming Army were not worth mentioning.
When the Ming Army raided Guihua City, they lost about three thousand men. In the process of the pursuit, they lost more than five hundred men. The losses were small. Compared to these small losses, the things they seized were more worthy of attention.
In this battle, the Ming Army seized more than fifty thousand animals in one go.
These fifty thousand animals did not include war horses. They were all cattle and sheep. A large number of cattle and sheep belonging to the Northern Barbarians around Guihua City were plundered by the Ming Army. A considerable number of them died in the chaos of war.
This time, the Northern Barbarians lost human lives and livestock. They lost everything. What they had plundered and what they originally had were basically all returned to the Ming Army.
Not to mention the tents, the gold and silver jewelry, the bone products, the leather products, and the animal products that could be exchanged for a large amount of wealth in the Central Plains were all taken by the Ming Army.
From the generals to the soldiers of the Ming Army, everyone felt the joy and profits of war. They felt that war could bring such a large amount of wealth. If they could obtain such a large amount of wealth in every battle in the future, then what war could they not fight?
After returning, the extremely sleepy Ming Army soldiers all fell asleep. Many of them slept for a full day and night before waking up. As a result, the celebration was only held three days later. During this time, Xiao Ruxun focused on another matter.
Although the soldiers knew that the beasts belonged to them and it did not matter if they killed as they pleased, they also knew that some people could not be killed as they pleased. For example, those who were dressed in luxurious or even luxurious clothing. They were not ordinary people but headmen. It was better to capture these people alive than to kill them. If they were presented to Xiao Ruxun, the effect would be better.
Therefore, Xiao Ruxun obtained more than a hundred headmen as captives in one go. All of them looked panicked. It was estimated that other than the beautiful annihilation battles fought by Xu Da, Lan Yu and the others at the beginning of the Daming Dynasty who captured so many Northern Barbarian nobles, the Ming Army had never captured so many Northern Barbarian nobles at once.
These people represented not only money but also status. These people who represented status and wealth could also be exchanged for the same status and wealth in the Daming Dynasty. Therefore, within a day, the Ming Dynasty Army had more than two hundred guerrilla warfare generals and even generals.
The newly promoted officers were satisfied. Xiao Ruxun was also very happy. He did not expect these soldiers to be so sensible. They actually knew to capture these important headmen to please him during the break of the massacre.
It was probably because they wanted to return the favor. Even if they were full, they could not watch their commander starve. Therefore, they left the best for their commander.
More than a hundred Northern Barbarian nobles at the level of headmen. This glorious result was more important than the heads of more than fifty thousand young Northern Barbarians. This was not an ordinary symbol.
From their bodies, one could see a beautiful future, power and status. No one would not be ecstatic about this.
It was best to hand these people over to the Emperor to deal with.
The captive offering ceremony would definitely be a big one, but first, he would choose a few small ones to give to the Emperor. Wouldn't it be perfect to let the Emperor vent his anger?
In any case, in the Daming Dynasty, dealing with the Northern Barbarians was a very politically correct thing to do, not to mention there were so many headmen.
In this way, the Emperor would be happy, his position would be more stable, and his reputation would be unshakable. If those civil officials wanted to make a move on him, they would have to think about their own strength first!
Would they dare to make a move on a famous general who had just won such a great victory for the Dynasty?
Were they not afraid of criticism?
You people who are so concerned about your reputation and face that you're about to go crazy still have the nerve to say such things in front of so many people?
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