Once the plague spread, the consequences would be very serious. Therefore, in any era, it was extremely important to prevent the outbreak of the plague. Before the plague broke out, it had to be nipped in the cradle. This was the most correct way and the only feasible way.
Therefore, in the ruins of Old White City where there were many dead bodies of Horse Gangs, it was necessary to dig a pit and dispose of these bodies in time. Otherwise, it would be troublesome if the plague broke out.
Digging a big pit was very tiring physical work. At this moment, there were so many Horse Gangs who had surrendered. Naturally, they had to make good use of them. Letting them be in charge of digging the pit could greatly reduce the physical consumption of the soldiers and make it easier to control these Horse Gangs who had just surrendered. If the soldiers were in charge of digging, their control over these surrendered Horse Gangs would naturally weaken when they were tired.
Digging a big pit was fine. They could also choose to dig a few more pits. As long as they could bury all the bodies of the Horse Gangs, it would be fine. In the end, they decided to let the Horse Gangs who had surrendered dig a few more pits.
This was because there were many horse bandits who had surrendered. If only one pit was dug, it would cause the workers to be stuck. If several pits were dug together, the number of horse bandits who had surrendered could be maximized. By letting all the horse bandits participate in the digging of the pits, the digging progress would be much faster.
However, this request also caused the horse bandits to panic. They were very worried that after they dug a hole, they would be buried by the soldiers in front of them. If that was the case, it would be terrible. They had really dug a hole for themselves!
However, they were now lambs waiting to be slaughtered. Even if the final outcome was to be buried alive by the soldiers, they could only obey temporarily. This was because resistance meant that they would die faster. Moreover, being buried alive was only a guess in the hearts of some Horse Gangs. It might not really happen.
Because of fear, they did not work hard and dug slowly. In addition, some Horse Gangs always wanted to escape from the control of the soldiers.
In order to deal with this situation, Lao Guo sent many soldiers to give these Horse Gangs a deep ideological education. He told them that there was a law in the Tang Empire, and they would be punished according to their crimes. If they had made meritorious contributions, their punishment would be reduced. He also told all the surrendered Horse Gangs in public that the one who had killed the tall Scar Face had made a great contribution and would not be punished by the imperial court. At most, they would be free after some education. He also roughly told these Horse Gangs how severe their punishment would be so that they could be mentally prepared. At the same time, he also dispelled their doubts and let them know that they would not be buried alive. In this way, they could work harder.....
The soldiers who had chased after the Horse Gang for more than ten miles returned very quickly. They did not find any traces of the Horse Gang. However, they did find traces of the Horse Gang in the ravine. It was just that they could not determine the direction the Horse Gang had fled in. As such, they could not pursue them. Moreover, it was dark and they were not familiar with the terrain. The soldiers did not dare to take the risk to scout the surroundings.
"What? The Horse Gangs have all fled."
Lao Guo looked a little unhappy.
"Yes, General. There are only leftover bones and a lot of broken wine jars left in the valley. The bonfire has been completely extinguished, but the residual heat is still there. The Horse Gangs should have just left. It's too dark to tell where they have fled to. But these surrendered Horse Gangs must know where their nest is. Why don't we let them lead the way?"
His subordinate said.
"If you can think of the problem, how can the escaped Horse Gangs not think of it? They won't go back on their words. They must have run to other places. Our troops are not strong enough. Let's camp here for the time being. When the main force arrives tomorrow, it won't be too late to divide the troops to go to their nests. "
Lao Guo said calmly. Then he ordered the soldiers to bring the surrendered Horse Gangs here one by one. He planned to interrogate them overnight to make them tell the truth. Then they could figure out the nest of the Horse Gangs and their real strength. In addition, whether any of them had colluded with the officials of the imperial court would be the focus of the investigation.
Interrogating them one by one was naturally to prevent these horse bandits from speaking carelessly when there were many people around. Otherwise, what they said might not be the truth. Interrogating them one by one, these horse bandits would naturally reveal everything they knew in order to render meritorious service and reduce their punishment. After verifying the words of many horse bandits, the most accurate answer could be obtained.
Lao Guo's trick worked. Most of the Horse Gangs told the truth in order to reduce their punishment. Only a few of them refused to tell the truth and kept the truth to themselves. For these Horse Gangs, the punishment should be doubled.
Since most of the surrendered Horse Gangs were ordinary people, they didn't know much about the secrets of the leadership of the Horse Gangs. Therefore, they didn't know much about the collusion between the officials of the Tang dynasty and the Horse Gangs. As for the location of the nests and how many nests there were, almost all of them told the truth. Though they didn't know the exact number of the Horse Gangs, they knew the approximate number. So they told the truth.
After figuring out the basic situation, Lao Guo thought it was necessary to take action in advance. In case the Horse Gangs sent someone to destroy the letters when they escaped, it would be very difficult to find the mole. As long as they could get the letters, they could follow the clues and catch all the vermin in Summer Province.
There was more than one nest of the Horse Gangs in the battle of Qiwu Mountain. There were at least a dozen nests, but there was only one core nest, and the letters must be in this core nest.
In addition, through the surprise investigation, Lao Guo learned that there were nearly a thousand Horse Gangs. Even if 500 or 600 of them were killed, there were at least 400 or 500 Horse Gangs left. However, these 400 or 500 Horse Gangs were not the main force. They were deployed separately and wouldn't gather together in a short time. Therefore, when Lao Guo sent his troops to raid the main nest of the Horse Gangs, he didn't need too many troops. He didn't bring many troops with him and had to leave enough troops to stabilize the situation. Therefore, in the ruins of White City, the troops that could be mobilized were limited.
"You two lead 200 cavalrymen and several Horse Gangs to lead the way and raid the Horse Gangs' main camp overnight. Take control of it as soon as possible and block it. I'll be there tomorrow afternoon. Go!"
Lao Guo gave the order.
In fact, if they were to divide their forces and attack different nests, they would be able to achieve greater results. It was possible that the escaping horse gangs would be too flustered and would not be able to control their companions in all the nests in time. In this case, when the soldiers immediately launched a surprise attack, these horse gangs would most likely not be ready and the results of the battle would be imaginable.
However, since White City was in a mess and it was nighttime, if all the troops were sent out, there would be very few troops left. In this way, the Horse Gangs would be easily deterred. Moreover, the soldiers would consume a lot of physical strength and energy by rushing here overnight. If they continued to fight, they would be very tired and even suffer losses. Therefore, leaving more troops here could deter the Horse Gangs who surrendered and prevent them from taking risks. On the other hand, the soldiers and soldiers could take turns to sleep. Even if they only slept for four hours, it was better than staying up all night. Only when they had a good rest could they fight better. If they didn't have enough rest, their combat effectiveness would be greatly reduced.
There were more than fifty soldiers who were left behind on the way. As long as these soldiers did not have any major problems, they would think of a way to continue moving forward. Moreover, this was indeed the case. After only an hour, twenty soldiers had returned to the group. Moreover, it was obvious that more soldiers would continue to return.
After interrogating dozens of Horse Gangs, Lao Guo felt tired. So he asked his subordinates to continue the interrogations, while he went to wander on the city wall. He had been suffering from insomnia for a long time, and the older he got, the worse his insomnia would be. At this moment, he really couldn't fall asleep. After all, there were so many surrendered Horse Gangs, dozens of Horse Gangs, the imperial court, and four or five hundred Horse Gangs left in the mountain. How could he fall asleep?
No matter whether he could fall asleep or not, it was always good to have a rest. After wandering on the city wall for a while, Lao Guo supported himself on the ground with his weapon and closed his eyes to have a rest.
The escaping Horse Gang leader ran all the way. At first, he planned to run back to his nest. But on second thought, he realized that the soldiers had set an ambush, and some of them might have surrendered. In this case, all the nests would be unsafe, especially the main camp. After all, all the Horse Gangs who were on the expedition were near the main camp, and they all knew where the main camp was. If the soldiers came directly to the main camp, they would be trapped. Therefore, he had to save his life first. If he couldn't go back to his nest, he could go to the camp with the most soldiers and horses, and gather more soldiers and horses, and then he would make the next plan. But not long after he left, the Horse Gang leader began to feel distressed about the treasures and money in the main camp, which were all his hard-earned wealth. If he gave them to the soldiers, he would feel distressed. So, he hurriedly sent several Horse Gangs to the main camp and asked them to transfer the treasures with horses, so as not to let the hard-earned wealth fall into the hands of the soldiers.
When he was about to arrive at a camp, the Horse Gang leader remembered that the letters he and his intelligence officers were still in the chest in the main camp. If those things were found by the soldiers, the intelligence system he had painstakingly built in Xia Zhou City would be completely ruined. In addition, some officials who had business dealings with him would also be found out, which would make the situation worse.
However, the Horse Gang leader sent his Horse Gangs to burn the letters for the last time, but it was obviously a little too late. The soldiers moved so fast that they had arrived at the main nest of the Horse Gangs before this batch of Horse Gangs arrived, and encountered some Horse Gangs and treasures that hadn't been transferred in time.
The soldiers of the Tang Dynasty didn't hesitate to capture more than a dozen Horse Gangs and seize all the items in the main nest of the Horse Gangs. Then, they completely besieged the place and built many arrow towers overnight, so as to prevent the Horse Gangs from gathering the soldiers around to attack the main camp.
In fact, it didn't take long from midnight to dawn, only four or five hours. In addition, the conflict had lasted for a long time, so the time was even shorter.
However, even in such a short period of time, many of the surrendered mounted gangsters had already dug out large enough pits. These pits were large enough to bury the dead mounted gangsters' corpses.
The light was not good at night, and the smoke in the city was very strong, so they mainly dug pits. During the day, the fire in the city was basically extinguished, and the smoke was much less. Naturally, it was time to bury the dead bodies.
However, the Horse Gangs who had been working for four hours always needed to take a rest and eat something before they could continue to work. The dead horses in the city were undoubtedly the best food.
Whether it was the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty or the surrendered Horse Gangs, their rations in the morning were destined to be the dead horses in the city.
The soldiers and the surrendered Horse Gangs each carried enough horses from the city to the open space outside the city, and then began to make breakfast.
In fact, some of the horses had been roasted, so there was no need to cook them at all. They could just tear them off and eat them. As for the unroasted horse meat, they could only light a bonfire, cut it off, and roast it slowly.
Lao Guo, who hadn't slept all night, also ate horse meat. He wanted to share the joys and sorrows with the soldiers under his command, so that they would support him more.
"Such a big piece of meat. When can it be roasted? Cut it into thin slices and roast it. Give them some daggers."
Lao Guo said angrily when he saw the Horse Gangs roasting a whole horse leg on the bonfire.
This really couldn't be blamed on the horse bandits for being stupid. It was because they were horse bandits who had surrendered and didn't have any weapons in their hands. Even the whole leg of the horse had to be chopped off by the soldiers. Otherwise, they could only roast the whole horse and eat it.
Roasting the meat in this way would either waste time or cause them to get sick from eating raw meat. Either way, Lao Guo didn't want to see it happen. But if the soldiers and soldiers were responsible for cutting the meat for the surrendered Horse Gang, the soldiers and soldiers would be dissatisfied. Moreover, it was difficult to do it precisely. Therefore, the best way was to give the Horse Gang some daggers and let them cut the meat themselves. In this way, the meat would be thin enough and easier to be roasted.
As for whether the Horse Gangs would resist with the daggers in their hands, Lao Guo didn't worry at all. They were just daggers, which were not powerful at all. Besides, there were more soldiers guarding the Horse Gangs than the Horse Gangs. These Horse Gangs only had a few daggers, so they couldn't do any harm to the soldiers at all.
These daggers were quickly distributed to the mounted gangsters so that they could better process the horse meat. In addition, since the daggers were given, they naturally had to be given a time limit to roast and eat the meat. They couldn't waste too much time.
"I'll give you two hours. Then you'll have to work. The time starts now."
Lao Guo gave the order personally.
This order was not only for the surrendered Horse Gangs, but also for the soldiers under his command. Both sides had equal time to eat.
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