Xie Ming

Chapter 14 Cleaning the battlefield
A few happy and a few sad!
The pursuing enemy troops led by Liu Heita retreated in disgrace. Xiao Jingchuan's side won a great victory and was happily cleaning up the battlefield.

But when Xiao Jingchuan and Qiu Zhizhong came down from the steep cliff, they saw the soldiers scrambling for equipment and food.

The two men were displeased by this. They had never imagined that the regular army of the Ming Dynasty, which they had commanded, had such poor discipline!
The "Jiashen Chronicle" records that, wherever the government troops go, they often rob merchants, search their homes, rape women, and burn houses in the name of stealing food. The common people fear the soldiers more than they fear the thieves.

There is also a folk proverb: When thieves come, soldiers go; when soldiers go, thieves come. Thieves plunder in front, soldiers plunder in the back. Thieves plunder like combing, soldiers plunder like shaving.

All these behaviors have become a trend. It is not something that happens overnight in a certain army or a certain corner, but a universal phenomenon.

Right now, although this team has not yet been pulled to the provincial capital, villages and counties, just the act of clearing the battlefield is enough to give us a glimpse of their effectiveness!

As for why military discipline has deteriorated to such an extent, the reasons are very complicated.

Today, Xiao Jingchuan did not follow the usual practice. Seeing this problem, he made up his mind and prepared to use strong medicine to completely eliminate the poison from these soldiers!
"Sun Peizhong? Sun Peizhong!" Xiao Jingchuan frowned, his face serious.

"exist!"

"Yes!" Sun Peizhong was terrified.

"What are they doing?!"

"Are you cleaning up the battlefield? If you weren't here, I would have thought it was a robbery by bandits!"

Xiao Jingchuan looked angry.

But Sun Peizhong looked confused and somewhat aggrieved.

"General, the troops were sent out before without any pay, so the brothers below should always be like this!"

"Always like this?! You are so good, Sun Peizhong, you..."

As he spoke, Xiao Jingchuan suddenly felt dizzy. He held his forehead to steady himself, and stood still, his mind racing with thoughts.

It has only been half a month since I traveled to this time and space and took over Xiao Jingchuan's body, but I already feel as if it is a lifetime away. The quiet disappearance of this sense of alienation should be closely related to the integration of Xiao Jingchuan's original memory.

"Old Xiao? Old Xiao? What's wrong with you?" Qiu Zhizhong saw that Xiao Jingchuan suddenly looked unwell, so he asked.

"Ah? Oh, I'm fine!" Xiao Jingchuan replied.

"Pei Zhong, go and gather the soldiers. By the way, inform Li Huchen and ask him to gather his troops as well!"

"Fei Yu (Qiu Zhizhong), you should also go and gather the servants."

Having said that, Xiao Jingchuan said no more and walked forward without paying any attention to the two of them.

Half a quarter of an hour later, all the troops were assembled.

Xiao Jingchuan stood on a high platform, looking at the hundreds of people below. At first, his face looked majestic, but when he turned around, he grinned again.

"Soldiers, brothers, this is our first battle since leaving the capital, and we won it!"

"Hey, uncles and brothers, how are you? It was a good fight, wasn't it?"

Unexpectedly, the unruly and handsome young man from the former Duke's mansion had an evil look on his face as he stood on the high platform today!
He did this suddenly, and not only the soldiers below, but even Qiu Zhizhong, Sun Peizhong, Li Huchen and others were all stunned!
Hundreds of people stood still tacitly. Not to mention speaking back, even their previous whispers stopped. They all stared at Xiao Lang on the stage in confusion.

Seeing no one responded, Xiao Jingchuan was stunned at first, but he did not continue in this awkward situation. Instead, he took the initiative to jump off the platform and walked into the team of soldiers.

"What are you standing there for? It hurts!"

"And you, are you happy?"

"Big brother, how do you feel? Have fun, have fun!"

Just look at Xiao Jingchuan patting one person's face and rubbing another person's shoulder. After a while, the soldiers gradually relaxed and people in the queue began to laugh unconsciously.

The relaxed and cheerful laughter became more and more frequent and louder and louder.

After achieving such an effect, Xiao Jingchuan once again leaped onto the platform.

"I'll ask you again, are you happy after winning the battle?"

At this time, the soldiers below were no longer restrained and started shouting loudly.

"happy!"

"Hahaha, good!" Xiao Jingchuan was quite satisfied with this.

"In the past, when my Ming army soldiers encountered the enemy, they only knew how to build a strong camp and fight a stupid battle! They didn't think or move flexibly, and they only knew how to passively take the beating and defend themselves. I, Xiao Jingchuan, really don't like this!"

"From now on, fellow soldiers, you must all learn to run for me!" "We must win battles, fight smart battles, fight unexpected battles, fight battles that bully others!"

"Stop being so bitter and resentful every day, be smarter!"

"You are my uncles and brothers, Xiao Jingchuan. You are flesh and blood people! You are not someone's vanguard, nor are you cannon fodder under the general's command!"

"Each of your lives is very precious!"

"So, we should not do things that will put us at a disadvantage in the future. If we fight a war, we must gain something from it!"

"Do you understand?"

"Speak clearly to me, can you hear me clearly?!" Xiao Jingchuan's words were shocking.

"Listen clearly!"

"General Xiao is mighty!"

"The general is mighty! Mighty!"

Hundreds of soldiers took these words to heart. How could they not be excited to see a general who was so considerate to his soldiers?

So what Xiao Jingchuan said while standing on the high platform was more like a declaration of some kind, and immediately, it was completely supported by the soldiers.

On the contrary, Li Huchen, Sun Peizhong, Qiu Zhizhong and others might have thought more, with their minds fixed on words like "clever strategy" and "running". They did not understand their meaning for a moment and fell into deep thought.

"Ma Minglu!"

"exist!"

Xiao Jingchuan waved his hand to suppress the soldiers' loud voices and called out their generals. Ma Minglu followed the order and hurriedly trotted out to reply.

"Minglu, I just ordered you to come down and count the number of enemies killed, their weapons and equipment, and their food. Please report to me."

"Yes!"

"General, we have won a great victory at Yixiantian this time. We have killed 436 enemies in total, and we can still find their bodies!"

"We seized a hundred sets of armor, more than a hundred Lumi guns, more than a hundred three-eyed guns, more than two hundred bird guns, and plenty of ammunition!"

"The rations we found on the enemy can probably last us four to five days!"

"only"

At this point, Ma Minglu hesitated and did not continue speaking for a while.

"Just what?!" Xiao Jingchuan interrupted, having been waiting for this sentence since early morning.

"It's just that we uncles and brothers are all afraid of poverty!"

"If you have something, just put it in your pocket!"

“I’m afraid I’ll miss out if I’m too slow!”

"Is it or isn't it?!" Having said this, Xiao Jingchuan suddenly became stern.

"Speak! Yes and no!"

"Yes!"

Xiao Jingchuan roared suddenly, and Ma Minglu was so frightened that he took two steps back, knelt down on one knee, and answered with a fist.

"Take that old man for example!" Xiao Jingchuan raised his hand and pointed at a middle-aged man with a beard in the team.

"You grab four or five Lumi guns and sling them on your shoulders! Won't it be heavy for you?"

"How many hands do you have to kill the enemy in battle? How many shots can you fire when two armies collide?!"

"And that skinny guy, he's so skinny, but his pockets are full."

"As soon as I saw you smile, all the silver coins fell to the ground!"

"I told you not to fight a battle where you will lose, not that you should desperately search for your own gains after the battle!"

(End of this chapter)