Tiger Guards

Chapter 539 A Decisive Strike

Inside the camp, Zhao Ji's chariot and cavalry forces, after repeated attacks, had scattered into more than ten groups, each gathering their own guards, daredevils, and volunteer troops to annihilate the Xianbei infantry and cavalry fighting groups that were still resisting within the camp.

Zhao Ji's chariot and cavalry unit was the largest. After killing more than thirty people, Zhao Ji had no choice but to abandon his bow and take up a long spear to follow the charging chariot.

Basically, no Xianbei knight could get close to him, and the three banners were like a battle horn. When the core chariot and cavalry team composed of the three banners passed by, the defending army fought fiercely, while the Xianbei nobles huddled among the crowd.

Wherever the three great banners went, they were able to briefly suppress the Xianbei people.

With our forces increasing while the enemy's forces decrease, the gap in offensive desire and efficiency between the two sides has widened significantly.

Finally, some Xianbei tribesmen could not withstand the onslaught and retreated. The supervising team responsible for overseeing the battle, suppressing the fleeing soldiers, and organizing the next attack turned around to rescue Qianman, which allowed the Xianbei fleeing soldiers to collapse again and again, becoming difficult to control.

As a result, a long passage, destroyed by the Xianbei people, appeared in front of Zhao Ji, allowing him to break through the camp and pursue and plunder the routed soldiers.

Zhao Ji, however, held back and continued to lead his core cavalry force to stir up trouble in the camp.

There are sled chariots in the south... Even if the Xianbei defeated soldiers merged into one and became a human-horse, how far could they run?

A few comparative experiments will clearly show that horses are the least efficient at carrying people, far less efficient than pulling a cart.

Pulling sleds puts less strain on the horses... When the strain is reduced to a certain extent, and considering the horses' own recovery ability, this can result in an astonishing running distance!
Thus, Zhao Ji did not care about the battles outside the camp, nor did he care about reaping the spoils of the defeated Xianbei soldiers.

He only wanted to lead his cavalry to quickly defeat the desperate Xianbei fighting groups. The sooner the battle ended and the faster the wounded were treated, the more controllable the overall losses would be.

Only by having meritorious soldiers of the Central Army live and gradually occupy effective positions can the local areas of counties and prefectures be gradually eroded and controlled.

If they are wounded or killed in action, no matter how high their military rank is given, or how much they are rewarded for their children, it will be useless. Their merits and seniority cannot be passed on to their successors, and their combat experience and loyalty are incomparable to those of their children.

The more veterans of the Central Army we retain, the stronger our foundation will be in dealing with various uncertainties in the future.

This battle was different from the battle of Fushi, where the entire army had to fight to the death; but in this battle, after the swift attack and defeat of Budugen, the initiative was already in our hands.

The Xianbei wanted a quick victory, and this was their strategy; if the Xianbei wanted a protracted war, Zhao Ji wouldn't mind waiting until Zhao Yun and Xu Huang's armies arrived before engaging in a decisive battle.

He wasn't interested in Qianman's head... Ultimately, this raises the question of whether it's us using the army, or the army using, relying on, and exploiting us.
Bloodshed is inevitable; without a severe impact, the military structure cannot be effectively solidified.

At this moment, Zhao Ji patiently led his troops to drive out and annihilate the Xianbei infantry and cavalry in the camp, without participating in the subsequent pursuit of the routed soldiers.

Outside the camp, Zhang Liao's battlefield attention was nowhere near that of Zhao Ji.

In the midst of the chaos, he broke into the ranks of the Xianbei elite cavalry, only able to chase and kill those dressed in fine clothes; he could not discern their true identities.

It was precisely because Zhang Liao did not receive enough attention on the battlefield that Qian Man lacked any distinctive identifying features.

As a result, none of the officers and soldiers knew whether Qian Man was alive or dead. Even after Zhang Liao's troops cut down the royal court's battle flag, no one knew whether Qian Man was alive or dead.

With a huge bounty offered, they hunted down anyone who resembled Qianman, the new ruler of the Xianbei.

The Xianbei people also had a tradition of headhunting... but they did not develop a culture of seizing the heads of their fallen comrades.

As a result, the pursuit outside the camp did not go smoothly. The various Xianbei tribes were unaware of Qianman's fate, and whenever they had a chance to regroup, they would organize to counterattack the pursuers.

Pursuers prefer to kill heads, which wastes a lot of time.

Often, after defeating the Xianbei, they would be busy collecting heads and unable to penetrate deeper or pursue them continuously, allowing the Xianbei to regroup after withdrawing from the battle area.

As the battle raged until dusk, the various Han army units gradually escorted the prisoners back to their camps, exchanging the captured heads, prisoners, or horses for military scrip of the corresponding denominations.

As the sun set, Zhao Ji stood atop the highest point of the observation platform. Prisoners throughout the camp were forced to perform hard labor, rebuilding the camp's structure, moving corpses, and cleaning the battlefield. Before nightfall, the first batch of identified Xianbei corpses were piled up.

The terrain was too flat, and the land was frozen, so the only option was to transport the Xianbei corpses to a village garrison on the northeast side of the main camp.

The headless corpses, recovered from the cold-weather resource, were piled up on two layers of logs, while the various corpses with "Arrows of Zhao" stuck in their bodies were moved intact to the vicinity of the observation platform.

Initially, there were ten people in a row, but as the number of people increased, after a square formation of one hundred people was formed, a second one had to be set up.

As darkness fell, the number of bodies shot by Zhao Ji had accumulated to 174.

The sheer number of prisoners rendered the captured Xianbei people utterly resigned to their fate, offering no further resistance.

Even the strongest Han army can become negligent and corrupt one day.

The Grand Marshal of Han was in his youth, which meant that they would be unable to resist him for the rest of their lives.

Being captured now might not be such a bad fate.

In particular, the Han army would also treat wounded Xianbei soldiers, which greatly stabilized the emotions of the Xianbei prisoners... In fact, for the vast majority of Xianbei people, if they had known that the Han army was willing to treat even wounded Xianbei soldiers, they would not have fought so desperately!
Of course, it is only because they were defeated that they can view this issue so rationally.

Otherwise, since the Han army would treat the wounded and not kill prisoners even if they were defeated, why should they just surrender?
Zhao Ji stayed at the highest point of the watchtower. It was inconvenient for him to walk around. Now that the army's structure was complete and it had various experiences, there were many things that he did not need to handle personally.

If he just stays here and everyone sees him, many problems will be solved.

Finally, the first batch of Xianbei corpses were set on fire. Perhaps due to the large amount of debris, the fire burned slowly, producing thick smoke that was blown away by the increasingly strong north wind after nightfall.

Zhao Ji also went up to the third floor of the observation tower. Although he had no appetite, he still put some hawthorn pills into his mouth.

Most of the officers had left the watchtower to attend to various matters.

Only then did Zhao Ji have time to activate his mind-concentration and energy-nurturing techniques to accelerate his physical recovery.

About an hour later, the chariot troops that had pursued the furthest also returned to their camp one after another.

As Zhao Ji stepped out of the watchtower, he saw rows of identifiable Xianbei noble heads laid out around a roaring bonfire. Each head had a slip of paper attached to its forehead, indicating the recipient's name, identity, and the person who had captured it.

Not seeing Zhang Liao, Zhao Ji felt slightly uneasy. He walked into the main tent as if nothing had happened, but still did not see Zhang Liao. The military officers in the tent all stood up and said, "Grand Marshal."

"Keep working."

Zhao Ji took his seat in the main seat, but did not see Li Ying, so he asked, "Have you captured Qian Man?"

"According to the report from General Dangkou's troops, General Dangkou wounded a man suspected to be Qianman. He was rescued by his men and fled eastward. General Dangkou led his cavalry in pursuit."

Zhuge Jin, who was organizing military documents and archives, stood up to answer, then rubbed his hands together and picked up his brush to continue copying the military documents.

Zhao Ji nodded in agreement and remained seated, waiting for further news.

Zhuge Jin quickly copied the more detailed, rough statistics of the enemy's captures and handed them to Zhao Ji: "Grand Marshal, our army has captured or killed no less than 50,000, almost annihilating the enemy."

"Qianman is still alive, we cannot be careless."

Zhao Ji responded with a sentence, then picked up the military book to read, which this time was detailed down to each battalion.

In a few days, we will be able to get detailed records down to the hundred-man squads; and each battalion and squad will have even more detailed records of their victories.

(End of this chapter)