Since ancient times, it was very easy for the stronger side to win a battle, unless the leader of the other side was a strategist and the general was a fool.
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W? W? W? Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Therefore, in a situation where one had an absolute advantage in strength, winning a battle was not a big deal. As long as the general was not particularly stupid, he would be able to achieve a great victory and gain a large amount of military merit, gradually increasing his own position.
However, at the same time, the soldiers on one's side would also suffer a lot of losses. There was a saying that a general's success was built on the bones of ten thousand soldiers. This was the truth. When a general achieved a great victory on the front line, many times, it was at the cost of a large number of the soldiers under his command. After winning a great battle, the general could obtain glory, splendor, and wealth, but the soldiers under his command would die miserably. The light casualties ranged from a few hundred to a few thousand, and the serious casualties could be tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands.
Many times, in order to gain merit, the general would not think too much about the casualties of the soldiers under his command. As long as the number of casualties was within a controllable range, the general would be very satisfied.
For example, if the general annihilated ten thousand enemy soldiers and only lost two or three thousand soldiers, he would be very happy. This was considered a great victory, so how could he not be happy? As for the two or three thousand soldiers who died, it would be considered as paving the way for his own promotion.
The reason for this was because in ancient times, the competition was based on manpower. The difference in weapons between the two sides was not very big. Even if one used strategy, it would be difficult to annihilate the enemy with minimal casualties. If one could lose one soldier to annihilate ten enemy soldiers, it would be a great victory.
In addition, even if one was smart, the enemy was not stupid. It was not so easy to create a situation where one could fight against a hundred enemies. Everyone knew that by luring the enemy into a valley, and then throwing rolling stones and fireballs from the top of the mountain or halfway up the mountain, one could obtain a great victory. However, such an opportunity was not easy to obtain, so many times, one could only rely on weapons and military strength.
In addition, there were times when there was not enough time. When it was necessary to break through a certain strategic location within a certain time limit, the general would have no choice but to resort to desperate tactics and let the soldiers charge forward in droves to their deaths. Even if the number of casualties they suffered in the end was many times more than the number of enemies they annihilated, it would still be a great achievement for the general.
After such a thing happened many times, the generals had become accustomed to the death of their soldiers. As long as there were not too many casualties, the generals would not feel heartache. Only when the losses were extremely huge would the generals feel heartache and tension. When formulating the mission, the generals would consider how to defeat the enemy rather than the casualties. The more urgent the time was, the less they would think about the casualties.
However, at this moment, it was not urgent to annihilate the Horse Gang. It did not matter whether it was sooner or later. Therefore, Ang Lee was not in a hurry, and neither was Lao Guo. Under such circumstances, it was very practical to pursue the lowest casualties. Not losing any soldier was Ang Lee's highest pursuit. As long as the strategy was applied well, it was not impossible. Even if there were some casualties in the end, it would be good as long as the casualties were not too great.
Lao Chen was a little unhappy and said, "Isn't it too risky for you to pin all your hopes on a little Horse Gang who has just surrendered?"
"Haha! Lao Chen can't wait any longer. Don't worry, when we figure out the Horse Gang's movement, I'll definitely have a chance to fight to my heart's content. "
Ang Lee said with a smile.
"Okay, I'll wait. I'm hungry. Let's go find something to eat."
Lao Chen went out to find something to eat with a little bit of emotion.
For Ang Lee, who pursued zero casualties, the death of any soldier was a great loss to the imperial court of the Tang Dynasty. As long as conditions permitted, Ang Lee would not like to see any soldier of the Tang Dynasty die in battle. In order to achieve this goal, it was necessary to provide the soldiers with better weapons and armors. With these weapons and armors, the death rate of the soldiers would be greatly reduced. Apparently, Ang Lee had already done this. In these years, he had been developing powerful armors for individual soldiers, as well as the armors for the whole army. For example, the Iron-armored Chariot was the core offensive and defensive force of an army, which could greatly reduce the death rate and the casualty rate of the soldiers.
In addition to these hardware, Li An was also more inclined to command with zero casualties. He was more inclined to use strategies to obtain the final victory. If the enemy occupied a strategic location and our army had to attack forcefully to take it down, Li An was willing to give up on this objective. At most, he would just surround the enemy. Using the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers to obtain a strategic location was too cruel. If there was an urgent need for this strategic location, it would be understandable. If it was just for the sake of fighting for territory, attacking such a strategic location without any urgency was akin to disregarding human lives.
Since ancient times, some generals had been doing nothing at the borders, while some generals had been fighting in the east and fighting in the west, constantly gaining military merits through war. To a certain extent, they had also caused the deaths of thousands of innocent soldiers.
This kind of behavior of accumulating military merits by sacrificing the lives of the soldiers under their command was very disgusting. Many generals of a generation had done this kind of thing.
For example, among the generals of the Tang Dynasty, Geshu Han and An Lushan were very famous because they had a lot of military merits. Geshu Han was one of them. In order to attack Stone Castle City, he had sacrificed tens of thousands of soldiers of the Tang Dynasty. Although Stone Castle City was conquered, tens of thousands of soldiers of the Tang Dynasty could no longer go home. Although Geshu Han had been promoted, these poor ordinary soldiers could no longer enjoy the joy of life. Their families could only receive a pitiful pension.
Needless to say, An Lushan often deliberately created friction at the border and fought with the surrounding ethnic groups. No one knew how many soldiers under his command were killed or injured. In the end, in order to ascend the throne, he actually raised the army and rebelled. Thus, the whole Tang Dynasty was ruined, and from then on, the Tang Dynasty declined.
On the other hand, Lao Guo was different. Before the An Lushan Rebellion, there was almost no record of Lao Guo in the history books. It was as if he had been born as an old man. What he had experienced before was not clear to the later generations. The reason for this was that Lao Guo was a low-key person. He would not deliberately provoke conflicts with the nomadic tribes in order to gain military merits.
In this way, the region that Lao Guo was in charge of was always peaceful. There were no major events such as wars, so the history books naturally did not record it. This directly led to Lao Guo's appearance as an old man.
The reason why Lao Guo participated in the An Lushan Rebellion was to restore peace to the world. His own purpose was not to be promoted or to be rich, nor did he want to see the Tang Dynasty fall into war.
It was precisely because Lao Guo was a man who loved his soldiers as if they were his children that when Ang Lee proposed the issue of zero casualties, Lao Guo was very interested. Although he also felt that it was too difficult to achieve, he thought it was worth a try. It was always good to reduce casualties as much as possible.
This time, his superiors did not set a deadline for him to suppress the Horse Gang in Xia Province, so they would not punish him for not completing the task for a long time. Therefore, Lao Guo was not too anxious. If it were another general who came to deal with this matter, it would not be like this.
For example, Geshu Han was very likely to search the mountains on a large scale regardless of the lives of his soldiers. Even if he encountered a Horse Gang's lair, he would directly choose the most barbaric strategy. With the equipment of the Tang Dynasty Army, no matter which Horse Gang's lair they attacked, they would be able to take it down. As for the death of hundreds of soldiers, he would not care about it. As long as he completed the task, he would be satisfied. This was the kind of person he was.
Therefore, as a soldier, it was very important to follow the right general. At least he would not die for no reason if he followed the right general. If he followed the wrong general, he would have to be prepared to be buried in a foreign land at any time. If he followed a stupid general, he would be completely screwed and probably would not even know how he died.
When Lao Guo and Li An sent out the scouts, they were also patiently waiting for the information sent back by the colt. At the same time, they couldn't stop their subjective analysis. After all, they couldn't pin all their hopes on a little bandit. If the little bandit didn't finish the task and didn't make any preparations, they would lose the whole game.
Therefore, it was necessary to have a reliable backup plan, so that when the Foal failed to complete the task, there would be other ways to deal with the problem.
From Mount Qiwu to the east of the river, there were many paths. As long as these paths were analyzed, most of the paths that were not suitable could be eliminated. From there, one could prepare and analyze the paths that the Horse Gang would most likely choose.
For example, the Horse Gang would definitely not choose the roads that were too difficult and dangerous. The roads were often patrolled by soldiers and soldiers. The roads were in the desert, where it was difficult to get water along the way. Once the water supply was cut off and the Horse Gang got lost, it would be a dead end.
After these eliminations, the remaining roads could be counted with one's fingers. There were only a few roads left. Then, if the Foal could also get some information and make a comparison between the two, they could be more certain about the route the Horse Gang took after leaving Qiwu Mountain.
"Old Guo, you see, these roads all lead through the desert. The Horse Gang shouldn't have the guts to take these roads. The main road in the south is often patrolled by the soldiers. If the Horse Gang took this road, they would be frequently interrogated. These Horse Gang members don't have the proper identity, so they can't pass the interrogation at all. Besides, these checkpoints can only be cleared after the identity verification, so the Horse Gang can't pass them. Only these paths that no one pays attention to are suitable for the Horse Gang."
Ang Lee analyzed while looking at the topographic map of the north of the Tang dynasty.
Since ancient times, in order to maintain the stability of the empire, ordinary people in the territory were not allowed to leave their hometown at will. They had to carry a travel pass that could prove their identity when they went out. If they didn't carry anything, there was nothing to prove their identity and they would be arrested as fugitives.
This practice was also to maintain the stability of the society. It was an understandable practice, which could reduce the spread of the bandits' influence to a certain extent and completely separate the bandits from each other, so that they could not easily communicate with each other.
And at some relatively dangerous checkpoints, only a few hundred soldiers were needed to easily block the attack of tens of thousands of people and horses, which could protect the safety of the empire to a certain extent.
If there was a large enemy team that needed to go from one area to another, it was easy to be stopped by these checkpoints. If they wanted to pass through, they would have to pay a huge price to take down the checkpoints. However, for the Horse Gang, it seemed that they did not need to do so because they were few in number and did not have too many large siege weapons and large amounts of provisions. Therefore, they did not have to take roads or checkpoints. They could cross the mountains and find a small path to pass through, as long as they abandoned the large equipment.
The Yellow River was turbulent and not easy to pass through, but it was still possible to find a bamboo raft and a small boat to pass through. For example, the turbulent Dadu River was also very dangerous, but boats could still pass through. It was just that it took a long time to pass through. A small army was no problem, but if it was a large army, it could not be counted on.
In the past, there was a man named Shi Dakai who was besieged and annihilated by the Dadu River. It was because the river was too turbulent and there were relatively few boats on the riverside. It was difficult to obtain enough temporary boats. Therefore, it was destined that only a few people could cross the Dadu River, while the main force was blocked on the riverside and could only be annihilated in the end. If there were a few hundred people, there would not be such a problem.
The Horse Gang only had a few hundred people, which was very small in number and did not have large belongings. As long as they gave up the unimportant pots and jars, moving was very easy. At least in Ang Lee's opinion, it was not difficult at all. No natural moat seemed to be able to stop this small group of people.
However, Ang Lee still did not know much about the Horse Gang Leader. This middle-aged man was very stingy. He was reluctant to give up the treasures that he had obtained with great difficulty. These treasures were his lifeblood. No matter where he went to develop, he had to take these treasures with him. Only in this way could he feel at ease. In addition, food was his lifeblood. Without food, he would easily panic. Therefore, he had to take away all the remaining food for two months.
However, if they were to bring along a large amount of treasures and surplus rations, then the pressure on the entire group would be too great. It was simply a fool's dream for such a large group to cross the mountains. With such a large amount of resources as a burden, the Horse Gang would have to take the main road and pass through the checkpoints guarded by the imperial soldiers. This was not an easy task for the Horse Gang.
However, the Horse Gang Leader of Qiwu Mountain was not an ordinary Horse Gang Leader. He had eyes everywhere and was in contact with the high-ranking officials in Xia State City. Even some of the big businessmen in the city were his own people. Therefore, it was not difficult for him to get a customs clearance document. With a legal businessman leading the way, the Horse Gang under his command would not be easily suspected. After all, as long as the leading businessman completed the formalities, it was enough.
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