The place where the battle took place last night was only about twenty li away from the Sagely Mountain City. The situation was unclear at night, so the soldiers of the Sagely Mountain City didn't go there. However, they still had to go and take a look during the day. At the very least, they had to collect the corpses of their fallen comrades and deal with the aftermath.
Ang Lee suggested that they go and take a look. The general of the Sagely Mountain City didn't stop him. They had enough soldiers and vanguards to scout the area. Naturally, there wouldn't be any danger.
After last night's battle, the five hundred soldiers outside the Sagely Mountain City had lost more than a hundred soldiers. Among them, the two hundred soldiers in the vanguard and rear guard had not suffered any losses. The three hundred soldiers in the middle had lost more than a hundred, leaving less than two hundred soldiers. Half of them were injured, which was not a small loss. Losing so many soldiers was naturally very disadvantageous for the defense of the Sagely Mountain City. However, there was also an advantage, which was that the consumption of food was reduced. One less person meant one less mouth to feed, which was a great advantage in the current situation of food shortage.
However, Li An felt that although they had lost more than a hundred soldiers, the number of commoners who had entered the city had increased by more than a hundred. It was just enough to make up for the shortage of soldiers. It was completely possible to give the rations of the soldiers to the commoners. This way, they would be able to survive.
Because everyone was on horseback, they quickly arrived at the location of the battle. As soon as they arrived, they heard heart-wrenching cries. Some of the heavily injured soldiers and civilians, as well as the captain's father, were crying. The captain woke up at this moment, but because of his injuries, he was lying on the ground motionless. It seemed like his body couldn't move anymore.
There was a trace of despair in these cries. Those who heard it felt numb all over. They didn't want to continue listening. In short, the cries were too tragic.
Looking at these heavily injured soldiers and civilians, the general of the Sagely Mountain City was worried. If these people were dead, it would be fine. They could just dig a hole and bury them. However, these people were still alive. This meant that digging a hole and burying them would be impossible. But now, not only was there a shortage of food, there was also a shortage of medicine. To bring these injured soldiers and civilians back, they had to prepare medicine and food for them. They also had to spare some people to take care of them.
At this moment, the general of the Sagely Mountain City hated the bandits. He hated the fact that these bandits didn't kill all the injured soldiers and civilians. Why did they leave these half-dead people alive? Weren't they just making things difficult for him?
He couldn't do anything about it even if he was in a bad mood. As the general of the Sagely Mountain City, he couldn't ignore the lives of these injured soldiers and civilians. Otherwise, he would be criticized behind his back.
There were more than 20 heavily injured soldiers and civilians, and there were nearly 200 motionless corpses. The general ordered his soldiers to move all the corpses to the nearby pit and then bury them on the spot.
................ Seven or eight soldiers' corpses............ from..............................
There were more than a hundred of these rolling logs that required a lot of people to lift. It could be seen that the bandits had made sufficient preparations. There were also countless stones on the ground. These stones were generally around a few dozen pounds, which meant that a person could definitely lift them up. Only then could they carry out an effective attack.
The mountainside on both sides was at least tens of meters high. Throwing stones from a height of tens of meters would definitely accumulate a terrifying amount of energy. If it hit a person's body, it would definitely cause a lot of damage. It wouldn't be difficult to directly kill someone. Most of the soldiers and civilians were crushed to death by the stones. Some escaped with light injuries because the stones hit their arms, or the fragments of the stones hit their bodies. Although some of the stones hit their bodies, because the stones hit a person first, then bounced, and then hit their bodies, most of the energy was absorbed by the first person, so the impact on the body was relatively small. Therefore, they only suffered light injuries.
Most of the stones didn't hit anyone. The stones that hit people would leave some blood stains. It took a lot of time to clean up the road.
The Sagely Mountain City's general led more than five hundred people out of the city. Among them, one hundred were in charge of guarding, four hundred were in charge of work. Ang Lee also led more than two hundred people. However, all of them were used to guard, no one went down to work.
These four hundred soldiers cleaned up the rolling logs and stones while dragging the corpses of the soldiers and civilians to be buried. As for the soldiers and civilians who were still alive, they simply moved them a few times. They didn't send them away, nor did they find anyone to treat them.
Ang Lee suspected that the Sagely Mountain City's general was deliberately stalling for time. He wanted to delay until the soldiers and civilians were dead so that he could openly bury them.
During the cleaning process, there were indeed some seriously injured soldiers and civilians who suddenly stopped breathing. Since they stopped breathing, there was naturally nothing to say. They just buried them on the spot. This way, they would have less of a burden.
Seeing these seriously injured soldiers and civilians without treatment and care, the soldiers under Ang Lee's command couldn't stand it anymore. If this happened in the Tang Dynasty, it would be unimaginable. This kind of thing would never happen in the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty always prioritized the care of the soldiers.
However, the Sagely Mountain City's general in Dongnu Province couldn't be blamed for this. After all, the conditions here were right in front of them. The local people lacked doctors and food, so they really didn't have the conditions to take care of these injured soldiers. Although they were a little cold-blooded, they were limited by the conditions. They weren't cold-blooded on purpose.
"General, save my son! Save my son! "
The only uninjured old man who stayed in place begged.
At this moment, the old man was full of regret. If he hadn't wasted so much time, there wouldn't have been such a huge loss. It was his own greed that killed so many people, and also caused his son to be seriously injured and unable to move.
In Ang Lee's opinion, the old man's son's spine must have been broken. Even if he could be saved, he wouldn't be able to stand for the rest of his life. Needless to say, there was no future for him in this life. His career as a soldier was completely ruined.
As for taking care of him, it was impossible. After all, the old man's son had mobilized the troops out of the city for personal reasons and caused a huge loss to the soldiers under his command. He should be responsible for these losses. It was good enough that they didn't punish him. How could they take care of him?
Such a big thing happened and so many soldiers died. Naturally, someone had to stand up and take responsibility. The severely injured lieutenant was undoubtedly the best candidate. Moreover, this responsibility should be taken by the lieutenant. After all, if he hadn't led the troops out, this wouldn't have happened.
"Hmph, it's because of your good son that we lost more than a hundred soldiers. I haven't even settled the score with him yet."
The general of the Sagely Mountain City said angrily.
When the heavily injured lieutenant heard this, he had a look of despair on his face. His neck tilted and he stopped breathing.
"Son! My son! "
The old man cried very sadly. At this moment, this old man had nothing left. He had lost everything. When he thought of how sad he was, he directly hit his head on a rock beside him and died. No one stopped him at all. They weren't in the mood to do so.
Another two corpses. The soldiers at the side didn't have time to sigh. They dragged the father and son into a big hole and prepared to bury them immediately.
Ang Lee looked sideways. The general of the Sagely Mountain City immediately relaxed. After all, two more burdens had died. Moreover, he really needed the lieutenant to take the blame. Now that the lieutenant was dead, he could easily put all the blame on the lieutenant. He wouldn't be at fault anymore.
Perhaps they were in despair, or perhaps they didn't want to implicate others, but after a short while, a few more soldiers and civilians committed suicide. Moreover, they were all severely injured, or perhaps they didn't have much fun anymore, so they might as well die.
In other words, the number of heavily injured soldiers and civilians that needed to be taken care of had decreased to about thirty people. The burden was indeed reduced by a lot.
"Assistant Minister Li, from these rolling logs and stones, we can see that there were at least a thousand bandits involved in the ambush. Otherwise, they wouldn't have caused such a big commotion. The ground is full of stones."
Chen Long analyzed.
The fact that there were so many rolling logs and stones was enough to explain the problem. If there were too few bandits, they wouldn't have made so many stones and rolling logs. They wouldn't have scared away the remaining soldiers.
Li An nodded. Regarding the number of bandits, the soldiers and commoners who escaped last night had already told him about the situation. However, these people who were scared out of their wits could not rationally tell him the true number of bandits. Instead, they all exaggerated the number. The least of them said that there were two to three thousand bandits, while the most said that there were five to six thousand bandits. There were even some who said that there were more than ten thousand bandits. The soldiers guarding the city gate were so scared that they did not dare to doze off, let alone let these people enter the city.
Naturally, Li An didn't really believe the number of bandits that the soldiers who had escaped had told him about. There was no way these exaggerated numbers could be trusted. Only by going to the scene and personally taking a look would one be able to determine the true number of bandits and the strength of the bandits from the traces of battle.
"There are at least a thousand bandits. The bandits here have grown so strong. This is really scary. I remember the last time I came to Dongnu Province, the people here were simple and honest, and there were almost no bandits. But how many years has it been since then? There are actually so many bandits here. The world has really changed! "
Ang Lee sighed.
Dongnu Province had always been a place with smooth politics and harmonious people. Although the people here weren't rich enough, they were happy and contented. The happiness of the people here had always been relatively high, even much higher than in the Tang dynasty. However, all of this was based on the foundation of being able to eat enough. If they couldn't even eat enough, then all of this beauty would cease to exist.
Now, the problem facing Dongnu Province was that there was no food to eat. Under such circumstances, the originally simple people were forced to become bandits. It was really very sad.
Reality was often so cruel. People could only be kind and follow the rules when they were full. However, when they were hungry, any rules would be ruthlessly trampled on.
It was really important to fill one's stomach. Of course, if civilization developed to a certain extent, then it was not as simple as filling one's stomach as it was important to have more money. Otherwise, they wouldn't even have the qualifications to start a family and could only die alone.
Reality was often so cruel that it made people panic. People had to have the ability to feed themselves before they could do what they wanted to do. People who couldn't feed themselves were suffering, and people who didn't have enough to eat would suffer even more. It would make people go crazy.
The bandits had left long ago, taking all of the food with them. The general of Sagely Mountain City was afraid of the madness of the bandits and his own limited strength, so he didn't intend to encircle and suppress the bandits. After dealing with the aftermath here, he would return to the city. Making sure that the city wasn't lost was the most important thing for him to do. In comparison, other things were not worth mentioning.
The dead soldiers and civilians were all buried. The remaining 30 or so soldiers and civilians who were severely injured still had to be brought back to the city. Ang Lee was watching from the side. He couldn't be too ruthless. He couldn't let the other soldiers under his command be bitterly disappointed.
"After these injured soldiers and civilians are brought back to the city, let the civilians who entered the city in the morning take care of them! In this battle, more than a hundred of your soldiers died. The food of these soldiers will be left for the civilians and the injured! "
Ang Lee suggested.
"Assistant Minister Li is right. That's what I think too."
The general of Sagely Mountain City was actually unwilling, but if he didn't agree, these civilians would starve to death. The only way now was to take out the rations of the dead soldiers and distribute it to the civilians so that they could survive. As for whether it was enough, that would depend on his mood. At the very least, he would distribute a portion of it so that the civilians wouldn't starve to death. As for filling their stomachs, that was out of the question. He wouldn't let the civilians be full, and it was impossible for them to be full. If the soldiers weren't full, how could the civilians be full?
The stones and rolling logs on the road were quickly cleaned up. More than two hundred corpses were buried on one side of the road. The general of Sagely Mountain City led his men back to the city.
Ang Lee didn't want to stay in Sagely Mountain City for too long. He was about to reach Gui Chang City and see his goddess. It was better not to complicate matters. The bandits here were too crazy. Ang Lee didn't want to lose his men. Even if one soldier died, he would be very distressed. After losing more than 20 soldiers last time, Ang Lee had decided that he wouldn't use his men to fight unless it was absolutely necessary. He would especially not fight a battle that he wasn't confident in winning. Even if he was confident in winning, he would have to consider it carefully.
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