Chai Yong and the others looked at each other in dismay. They thought that Lu Tu had let the matter rest after killing one person, but they did not expect that he would start to settle accounts with them now.
For a moment, they stood there, at a loss. Liu Yang and his men, however, were not going to tolerate this. They had been holding back their anger for a long time. With a shout, Cang Lang drew his long sword and held it to the necks of Chai Yong and the others, yelling, "Are you deaf?"
Chai Yong and more than twenty others could only kneel before Lü Tu, their faces ashen as if they were mourning: "Sir, we don't know what we did wrong, why are you punishing us?"
Lu Tu was so angry at these words that he laughed: "You're about to die, and you still don't know what mistake you made?"
"We don't know!" All the soldiers shook their heads in unison.
"Fine! Then I'll tell you! Disobeying orders in battle will result in death, and desertion will also result in death! Will you commit suicide or do I have to do it?"
"ah?"
Chai Yong and the others were dumbfounded. They never expected that they would die like this.
With a sob in his voice, he cried out that he was wronged: "Your Honor, you have wronged us! When we were soldiers in the border army, when we encountered the Wuhuan people, we would run away first, and only when they were exhausted would we launch a counterattack."
Lu Tu's eyebrows shot up, and he shouted sharply, "You're talking nonsense!"
"It's true, sir. I wouldn't dare to lie to you. This is a traditional tactic of our border troops that has been used for many years."
At this moment, the remaining hundred or so military slaves also knelt on the ground and began to plead for mercy: "Reporting to Your Excellency, what Chai Yong and the others said is true. We did indeed carry out orders in this way when we were in the border army."
"If more than three Wuhuan cavalrymen appear, and our numbers are less than a hundred, we are allowed to escape."
Lu Tu was speechless and filled with endless sorrow after hearing this.
With just three cavalrymen, it takes a hundred men to even have the courage to fight them. How can this battle be fought? No wonder the Wuhuan people treat the Dayu as a hunting ground.
If it weren't for the Great Wall built by successive dynasties, the Central Plains dynasties would probably have fallen long ago.
Judging from the expressions of the crowd, they didn't seem to be lying.
Lu Tu threw down his riding whip and said, "From today onwards, everyone must strictly follow my orders! Any deserter who dares to betray his comrades will be executed!"
Upon hearing this, Chai Yong and the others knew that their lives had finally been saved, and they kowtowed repeatedly on the ground, saying, "Thank you for your mercy, sir. We will never dare to run away again."
"We've all only heard of your incredible bravery, sir, but we've never actually seen it. We thought it was just a folk tale. Who would have thought you were so valiant?"
"From now on, we will surely charge ahead to atone for our sins!"
"The death penalty may be waived, but punishment is inevitable. Anyone who tries to escape will be whipped thirty times!"
The soldiers were terrified. In this situation, being seriously injured was practically the same as being dead.
But after witnessing Lu Tu's skills, they dared not resist and could only grit their teeth and endure the thirty lashes.
These whips were all wielded by Liu Yang and his men, who wished they could beat them to death, causing Chai Yong and the others immense suffering.
After learning that fleeing was an old tradition of the border troops, Lü Tu gave up the idea of killing them. He was not an unreasonable person and would give these people a chance to atone for their sins.
After having the mutton slaughtered, he distributed it to his soldiers and the people who had done the most work.
That night, Chai Yong and the others lay in the makeshift shack, groaning and unable to sleep. Their backs were in so much pain that every lash of the whip caused open wounds.
Coupled with hunger and cold, they could even clearly feel their life force slipping away.
The other slaves closed their eyes and sat around piles of firewood, trying to fall asleep. They realized that being a slave under Lü Tu was no different from being anywhere else; they were all doing hard labor and being treated like livestock.
At this moment, Nie Yun and Liu Yang walked in with their men, glanced at everyone, and said, "Those who were whipped today, take off your clothes!"
Chai Yong and the others were already extremely weak, and when they heard such an outrageous request, even though they were only half alive, they still retorted with some anger, "It seems that Captain still has no intention of letting us go."
"If you're going to kill us, why not do it during the day? Why pretend to give us a whipping?"
Nie Yun shouted sternly, "Enough nonsense! This is the captain's order!"
This scene aroused resentment among the other slave soldiers, and some of the bolder ones spoke up, saying, "Heroes, please give us a way out. They don't look like they'll survive the night, so why kill them all?"
Chai Yong and the others felt a chill in their hearts. They had already foreseen their impending death. Memories kept surfacing in their minds, and they thought of their families.
With a wry smile, he forced himself to sit up and took off his coat. Some people, whose physical condition was slightly weaker, couldn't even lift their arms and needed help from others to take off their coats.
Nie Yun still didn't give them a kind look and continued to scold them: "I said, you have to take off all your shirts, that's a military order!"
The others had no choice but to comply. The other military slaves stood up, believing that if they died under military law, at least they wouldn't have failed their ancestors and would have some dignity.
To die under such humiliating methods was simply too humiliating, and they clenched their fists in anger.
They shouted, "Where is Lord Lü? We want to ask Lord Lü why, with his heroic spirit, he would humiliate us like this? Even though we have been reduced to military slaves, we were once soldiers. If we are to die, we would rather die on the battlefield!"
Nie Yun glanced at them sideways and chuckled, "Just as the master guessed, you guys aren't completely hopeless. You still have some backbone. My elder brother said he was worried you wouldn't be able to withstand the lashes, so he asked me to bring you medicine!"
"What? Medicine?"
The soldiers looked at Nie Yun in disbelief. In their subconscious, medicine was something extremely precious, something that they, the lowest of soldiers, could not possibly use.
Even when they were serving in the border army, they had to bear their injuries on their own. Occasionally, someone who could identify herbs would be regarded as a miracle doctor.
"My lord...do you really mean that? He's going to give us medicine?"
Nie Yun couldn't help but roll his eyes and said irritably, "If you don't need it, I'll go back and tell you that you're ungrateful."
"Yes! We need it!"
Chai Yong and the others wept with joy. They had thought they had deserted and that Lü Tu was deliberately humiliating them, and that they wouldn't survive the night. But unexpectedly, they were given medicine! They still had a chance to live!
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