Chapter 106 Summary

  "Reporting to the General, our army has a total of 2,461 deaths, 1,727 injuries, 88 chariots damaged, 63 chariots destroyed, 227 war horses killed and 153 injured. However, the casualties of the Qin army are not detailed. This is the detailed casualty situation."

  Li Mu nodded, because on the surface, this battle did not distinguish between victory and defeat. The Qin army was voluntarily withdrawing from the battlefield, both sides were clearing the battlefield together, and the Zhao army had not counted the number of casualties of the Qin army, so it was impossible to calculate the losses of the Qin army. However, from the situation on the battlefield, the number of casualties of the Qin army was also much higher than that of the Zhao army, which is beyond doubt.

  At this time, the officer in charge of the investigation handed over a stack of bamboo tubes to Li Mu. On these were detailed lists of the names and numbers of soldiers killed in action from each battalion. Li Mu also distributed these bamboo tubes among the commanders of the various battalions, letting them see for themselves.

  The plateau is most concerned about its own troops, so it finds the bamboo tube of its own regiment and opens it to see that 167 cavalrymen have been killed and 112 wounded, while 278 infantrymen have been killed and 223 wounded. The total number of deaths has reached 445, with 335 soldiers injured. Adding to previous casualties, the current loss of troops in the plateau camp will exceed 800 people.

  There are now about 6,000 soldiers from the plateau department to Jingying's large camp, accounting for two-thirds of the entire camp. Therefore, the current reduction in personnel has reached more than 10%. As it is a cavalry reduction, it has exceeded 20%, so the strength of the plateau department has also become the largest loss among all camps.

  However, since the war with Qin Jun, the soldiers under Gao Yuan have always been the main force of Zhao Jun's battle. Especially today's battle, Gao Yuan also mobilized the whole camp, so the loss is naturally more than other camps. But through these battles, the cavalry and infantry under Gao Yuan's command have also been tempered in actual combat, proving that Gao Yuan's training for his soldiers is indeed very effective.

  Although the highland training of new cavalry and infantry received Li Mu's full support, not everyone in the Zhao army was convinced of him, because Gao Yuan's promotion speed in the Zhao army could be described as rapid, with only a few months' time, he was able to lead a camp on his own, with nearly 10,000 soldiers under his command, all of whom were elite troops transferred from Li Mu's central camp, and almost all of their equipment and supplies were readily available, which would naturally cause a lot of people to feel unbalanced in their hearts.

  If they had participated in the previous Battle of Pingwu, it would be better. After all, they had been with Gao Yuan for three or four months and fought side by side, so even if they were dissatisfied, they wouldn't say anything. But now Li Mu's controlled Zhao army has a total strength of nearly 300,000, exceeding the previous force by almost double. Among the 120,000 troops stationed in the Jixing camp, nearly 50,000 have not participated in the Battle of Pingwu and are not familiar with Gao Yuan. They only know that he is a general who has risen to prominence and is now Li Mu's son-in-law, suddenly rising to such a position, so some people will inevitably feel unbalanced. After all, Zhao Guo has always valued military preparedness, and in the army, it mainly looks at real talent and learning. Relying solely on family background may allow one to obtain a high position in the court, but it is impossible to take on important responsibilities in the army.

  On the surface, Li Mu was in charge, so no one dared to say anything, but privately, especially among mid-to-low-ranking military officers, there were many people who were dissatisfied with Gao Yuan, thinking that he didn't have any real talent or learning, and that he was only able to lead a battalion because he was Li Mu's son-in-law.

  Actually, Li Mu was also very clear about the idea of the lower-level soldiers. Of course, it's normal for soldiers to have this mindset. The highlands are indeed a place for rapid promotion. As long as Gao Yuan shows his ability, this idea will slowly disappear. Therefore, since the Qin army went out to battle, Li Mu has been letting Gao Yuan go into battle. On the one hand, it's to let Gao Yuan strengthen his actual combat experience. On the other hand, it's also to let Gao Yuan establish more military achievements, in order to eliminate the sense of unfairness in the hearts of other soldiers.

  After these battles, although the dissatisfaction of the soldiers towards Gao Yuan could not be completely eliminated, it was indeed reduced a lot. After all, in these battles, especially in the first surprise attack on the Qin army's large camp and today's first full-scale battle with the Qin army, the cavalry and infantry trained by Gao Yuan showed very strong combat effectiveness and achieved quite impressive results. The military camp is still a place where strength speaks louder than words.

  Li Mu nodded and said, "Alright, in today's battle, although the Qin army suffered greater losses than us, they did not lose and their military strength is far superior to ours. If my guess is correct, the Qin army will definitely launch another attack on us in the next few days. After today's battle, the Qin army must adjust their tactics, focusing on strong bows and crossbows. Therefore, we should not clash with the Qin army head-on again. Everyone must strictly guard the camp and not make any mistakes."

  The crowd of generals hastily replied in unison: "Yes." Then they all left one after another, leaving only Gao Yuan and Li Yinghong behind.

  After everyone left, Li Mu said to Gao Yuan again: "Gao Yuan, in these battles, your subordinates have suffered a lot of casualties. Although we cannot transfer troops from the Banwu camp for now, future battles will still require the efforts of your camp's soldiers and horses. I plan to allocate another 1,000 cavalry and infantry from the central army camp to you, and start training them immediately as a supplement to the loss of your subordinates."

  Gao Yuan nodded in agreement, this battle was bound to be a protracted war, and it had only just begun. Therefore, he indeed needed to consider the issue of replenishing his troops. Moreover, the soldiers under his command, whether cavalry or infantry, all required rigorous training before they could participate in combat, and were not simply picked up at random. It was essential to train a batch of supplementary troops in advance.

  Li Mu said: "Your performance today is very good, to be honest, it has far exceeded my expectations."

  Gao Yuan also felt a bit embarrassed and smiled: "General, you're overpraising me. In fact, I made many mistakes in this battle, and there's still much for me to learn from it."

  Li Mu smiled and said, "You don't have to be too modest either. Making mistakes in command is something anyone can do, but being able to command an entire battle from start to finish is extremely rare. I remember when I first commanded a battle on my own, it was a complete mess. The battle had only just begun and I was already completely flustered. The rest of the battle was fought entirely by the soldiers themselves, and in the end, I wasn't even sure how we managed to win."

  Gao Yuan Road: "This is all because at that time there was a great general behind me, so I had a bottom line in my heart. If there was no great general, I might have also messed up early."

  "Alright, next time we go into battle, I won't show up at all and let you command alone."

  Li Yinghong said: "Father, what's wrong with you? It seems like you can't wait to let Gao Yuan take over from you. You wouldn't just want to wash your hands of it all, would you?"

  Li Mu was taken aback, then burst out laughing: "I'm too excited, it's not easy to recruit a good son-in-law, of course I hope he can take charge immediately, which parent doesn't want their daughter to be successful?"

  Li Yinghong listened and although she was very happy in her heart, she still felt a bit awkward and pouted: "Father."

  Although Li Yinghong was just a casual remark, Gao Yuan immediately reacted and realized that Li Mu's actions were indeed like trying to quickly put himself in power, with a bit of arrangement for the big things after his death. Is it possible that Li Mu still believes that his own life is coming to an end, so he is rushing to let himself take over as soon as possible? But from the current situation, hasn't Li Mu's fate changed? Even if Qin Guo uses another stratagem, it may not work, but why does Li Mu still think that he can't escape his fate? Is it because the history he knows has errors?

  But Gao Yuan suddenly thought that he knew from his own historical knowledge that Li Mu's death was due to the fact that King Zhao of Qin had been deceived by a counter-plot and was killed by Guo Kai. However, Li Mu himself did not know how he would die, so even though he had completely broken with the Zhao court and was now autonomous, he still believed his teacher's prophecy that he would not live past this year, which is why he was in a hurry to cultivate someone who could take over as soon as possible.

  So did Li Mu's fate really change? Or can history be changed at all? Gaoyuan also began to question, after all, there are many sayings about time and space travel in modern society, whether history will change or not. Some say it can be changed, some say it cannot be changed, but I have indeed come to the Warring States period, which means that crossing through time and space is absolutely existent. If crossing through time and space is real, then changing history is also completely possible. At least since I came to this era, the history of this era has actually already changed.

  At this moment, two sentences suddenly appeared in Gao Yuan's mind: Fate has not been decided, and the future is created by oneself... His heart suddenly moved, and he suddenly understood that compared to the history he knew, Li Mu's fate had indeed changed. However, in this space-time, Li Mu had another fate, so it was really hard to say whether he could live past this year. It seemed that Gao Yuan had been too early to be happy. Unless Li Mu could make it through this year.

  So the plateau also began to wake itself up, and from now on it must be more careful and cautious, pay attention to protecting Li Mu, cannot let Li Mu get hurt, and another thing is that in the future when thinking about problems, the known history can only serve as a reference, cannot take the known history as true.

  "It's all right, it's not early now. You two have been fighting for a whole day and are both tired. Go back to your tent and rest quickly. There are still many things tomorrow."

  Gao Yuan listened and looked at Li Yinghong again, finally deciding not to tell her after all, so as not to worry her. From now on, he would just be more careful himself. So he said: "General, then we'll take our leave first. You should get some rest too."

  Li Yinghong also said: "Yes, father, you should rest early too, I'll leave now." With that, the two of them bid farewell to Li Mu and returned to their own tent.