Yue Fei nodded, not caring at all: "If it were me, I would impeach him too."
Tian Shizhong nodded, and then they faced each other seriously on the ground again: "But I have another question. My 3,000 people are the essence of the entire Imperial Camp Right Army. It is not unexpected that they dare to fight to this point. But your 20,000 people today, although not as fearless as my army, but I look at the battle between the two armies... At the beginning, the momentum of both sides was evenly matched; then the casualties were two or three, and the two armies did not waver. As far as I know, this is already considered a strong army; but when both sides had four or five casualties, that is, half, Li Cheng's army began to waver, but the front army of the Imperial Camp did not move at all; then the two army commanders moved forward together, and the two sides fought to the limit. The casualties were nearly 10%, and Li Cheng's army began to crumble, and the flaws were exposed, but the front army of the Imperial Camp did not lose heart, nor did the formation fall apart, and it was still as one... How did they do it? Just pay enough military pay?"
Yue Fei thought about it seriously for a while, but still answered immediately: "If the military pay is sufficient, the equipment is guaranteed to be genuine, and the armor covers more than 70%, we can only survive a sudden casualty of 40% to 50% without being shaken. But if we want to survive a casualty of 10%, and the upper and lower levels are still united, we need proper training in normal times. However, since General Tian has asked me about it, I can't hide it... In today's battle, even if there are more casualties, about 15%, it should be safe, because I believe that I usually enforce the law fairly and treat the soldiers as soldiers. I rarely treat them as servants and drive them to work. And like the ordinary troops of the Right Army of the Imperial Camp, the soldiers also have to help the officers build houses and escort business. That is to say, if they are rewarded enough, they don't regard themselves as a 'soldier' in their hearts, but a 'servant' or a 'serviceman'. They will not be able to get through this hurdle anyway."
Tian Shizhong sighed deeply.
"Actually," Yue Fei thought for a moment and continued to answer. "This time they are just returning from a long journey and are indeed exhausted. Otherwise, if our army had won consecutive battles and rarely lost, and if we had let the scholars in the army explain the righteousness before the battle, they might have dared to fight a little more... But these people's wishes must be based on sufficient military pay and supplies, otherwise empty talk is useless."
Tian Shizhong became more and more silent.
In this way, time passed slowly, and the battlefield began to be dragged and deformed... On the one hand, some troops stayed in place to collect surrendered soldiers, rescue wounded soldiers, and clean up the battlefield; on the other hand, cavalry and many troops in the rear with low participation rate chased all the way to the banks of Longshui and the city of Zibo, and successfully forced the pseudo-Qi troops to surrender on a large scale.
However, facing the surrender of Zibo City without a fight, Zhang Xian still did not discover his important target Li Cheng.
Yue Fei could consider the overall situation and not care about Li Cheng alone. As for Wang Gui, it seemed that he did not need to care about the credit either. However, Zhang Xian and all the officers and soldiers under him could not ignore such a huge piece of military merit and glory.
So, taking advantage of the good conditions of the relatively late sunset in late summer, Zhang Xian let Li Kui, who arrived later, control the city of Zibo and properly gather the surrendered soldiers. Then he gave another order to send out all the cavalry units to find Li Cheng!
But to be honest, everyone felt that hope was a little slim.
Firstly, the terrain is complex; secondly, the vegetation is dense; thirdly, it is about to get dark.
In fact, this was indeed the case. Under the cover of Xu Dadao, Li Cheng escaped early, mixed in with the cavalry, and galloped towards the northwest... He abandoned his horse in the middle, chose the mountainous area and crossed the hilly area on the north side of the battlefield, then avoided the city of Zibo and went directly to the downstream of Longshui, waiting for the situation to be settled. When Zhang Xian sent out cavalry to search all around, he had already arrived at the bank of Longshui and was taking a short rest, preparing to take off his armor and cross the river to Jinan.
"My lord, drink some water!"
It can only be said that Li Cheng is indeed able to win people's hearts. Not only did they die for him with their two broadswords and those cavalrymen with long swords, but even when he fell into such a situation, there were still more than ten people following him. When he rested by the river, some people even took the initiative to scoop river water from their helmets and offer it to him, showing no respect at all.
Li Cheng looked dazed, but when he came to his senses, he instinctively asked, "Did everyone drink?"
The man raised his hand and pointed. Li Cheng, who was a little dazed, saw that everyone was standing in the river, bending down to drink water. Seeing this, the man, who was already extremely thirsty, was relieved a little, and then hurriedly brought the helmet to drink.
Unexpectedly, when he got the helmet in his hand and was about to pretend to drink, he saw the officer who delivered the water turned around and drank from the river himself. He could not help shaking his head and laughing, so he threw the helmet to the ground, walked down to the shallows, and drank from the river with others.
As his limbs were inserted into the water, countless blood threads immediately spread out. Li Cheng originally wanted to wait, but seeing the blood threads constantly escaping from his hands and feet, he was finally helpless. He could only pretend not to see it and lowered his head to drink all his breath in the shallows.
After drinking it all in one breath, the commander-in-chief was about to look up and say some words of encouragement, but he was stunned.
It turned out that when his thirst was gone and he looked up, he saw his face reflected in the water, with his pores clearly visible. However, his image at this moment was so miserable that it was appropriate to describe it.
While staring at his own face, he put his legs in the river, water was flowing around him, and the cool air dispelled the heat of the afternoon in late summer and early autumn, but gradually he felt a bit chilly.
The commander-in-chief who had regained consciousness sighed to himself... He knew in his heart that all his troops had been lost in this battle, and the foundation of the three counties in Jingdong would be completely lost. Not only that, with his narrow-minded use of troops, he would never leave any loopholes in the overall situation. He was afraid that he would immediately cross the river to the west and advance towards Zhangqiu.
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