Chapter 76 Bowang Night
At night, on the west side of Bowangpo, at the foot of Fengshan Mountain.

There was a cold spring in Fengshan, and Liu Bei stayed beside it at night.

On the other side was the garrison of Black Bear's troops, where five hundred men seconded by Liu Qi assisted in suppressing the prisoners.

More than a dozen large bonfires were ignited in the camp, and military doctor Li Feng, together with the young Taoist apprentice and the captured Taiping Taoists, treated the wounded on both sides.

Xiahou Dun's troops were mainly composed of soldiers from Qingzhou, and most of their grassroots military officers had Taiping Dao identities.

However, these military officials are mostly concentrated at low levels and it is difficult for them to be promoted.

It got dark too quickly and the battle lasted too long.

Therefore, there are still many corpses and seriously injured people left on Bowangpo. Many people were sun-dried to death due to lack of water after being injured.

Black Bear roughly estimated that the number of dead bodies from both sides on Bowang Slope was at least two thousand.

The wounded soldiers now being cleaned up on the battlefield are mostly soldiers from both sides who were injured in the afternoon battle.

Many of Cao's wounded soldiers had a stronger motivation to escape than ordinary soldiers, as they could still receive treatment and recover after escaping.

In this era, even a man like Liu Bei had to prioritize the medical conditions of his wounded soldiers.

As for the wounded soldiers of the enemy, those who were greedy for military merit would capture them and chop off their heads; those who were cruel and ruthless would capture them and let them fend for themselves, and it would be considered a blessing if they could survive.

Those who are more kind will allow the wounded to break through.

When Black Bear was cleaning up the battlefield, he carried everyone he could, except the dead, back to the temporary camp.

He inspected the area for seriously wounded soldiers. More than a dozen prisoners with amputations were lying in the open air. Whether they could survive until tomorrow morning depended entirely on their luck.

Some other seriously injured people had roughly the same fate and could only rely on themselves.

What they could do now was to force the captives to carry back those who were still alive, give them something to eat, and use it to practice surgical operations and courage with the military doctor and young Taoist priest in charge of Li Feng.

The number of seriously injured and lightly wounded was unexpectedly small, and the wounded soldiers who fought with Xiahou Dun and Yu Jin in the morning could hardly survive until the afternoon.

Whether it was Liu Bei or his own people, they all had the tradition of headhunting when pursuing defeated soldiers and capturing prisoners.

When the soldiers below were chasing prisoners, they would even think that the prisoners would slow down their efficiency and would quietly kill them and only keep their heads; this was the case with ordinary prisoners, not to mention the wounded.

The number of casualties was unexpectedly low.

When Black Bear arrived at the operating room, he saw Li Feng squatting in front of a basin of water washing his hands. The basin was already bright red.

After Li Feng washed, he washed his hands in another wooden basin with clean warm water.

After finishing these, he continued to clean the wound of the next wounded soldier.

The captives carried out the basin for splashing, and brought in a basin of cool spring water and a basin of hot water.

Our own wounded have been treated, and we are now helping to treat the captured wounded.

Li Feng used a knife that was cleaned with strong liquor to dig out the arrowhead, and then scraped the bloody wound roughly.

There was not enough liquor in stock, so they had to mix it with cold stream water from the spring to flush the wound. After doing this, they applied hemostatic powder and bandaged the wound.

The current stock of gold wound medicine powder is somewhat scarce, and some wounds are directly burned with fire to stop bleeding and close.

Black Bear looked around and saw an unfamiliar Taoist priest bringing horse meat porridge and feeding it to the wounded.

He ignored the other party and asked Li Feng: "How many more?"

"About thirty people."

Li Feng pressed the wound with both hands to close it, and turned his head to look at the other side: "Quick!"

A young Taoist priest held a red-hot iron close to the wound. The wounded man bit the willow branch tightly with sweat on his face.

Black Bear recognized at a glance that the branding iron was used to heat horses, and wondered where Li Feng found it from.

Li Feng went to wash his hands again and said to Black Bear, "Liu Yuzhou knows my name and wants me to go to his camp early tomorrow morning to rescue the wounded."

"Go if you can. Saving lives is always a good thing."

The black bear gave a dry reply before leaving the wounded area and returning to the campfire by the stream.

He stared at the raging flames, and heard footsteps, realizing it was Gan Ning. He turned his head to look, and saw that it was indeed Gan Ning carrying a jar of wine.

Gan Ning walked over and sat cross-legged, pushing the wine towards him: "General Qu, is there something on your mind?"

"How could there not be?"

Black Bear took the wine jar, raised his head and took a sip to moisten his throat, then pushed it to Gan Ning: "So far, I have not killed anyone with my hands. The funny thing is that more than a thousand people have died indirectly because of me."

Gan Ning drank and listened, and saw Black Bear looking down at his hands: "Today I have made up my mind to kill the enemy in battle, but in the end I did not join the battle."

"Captain Qu Shuai is not fighting, but dispatching and commanding."

Gan Ning continued drinking as he spoke: "Even if the general fought, how many people could he kill? On the other hand, that guy rushed back and forth and killed no less than a hundred people today."

He didn't know what to call that inhuman being, but a rough count showed that Lu Bu had actually beheaded nearly a hundred people today.

He put down the wine jar and squinted at the bonfire: "General Qu can save the wounded enemy soldiers. This is a rare kindness."

"What kind of mercy is this?"

"When I saw the wounded soldiers, I thought of my uncle and brother. They may not have died directly in the battle, but they were injured and no one was willing to take care of them, so they died in despair. In my family, not counting me, three people have died on the battlefield. Cao Cao is incompetent!"

Black Bear leaned back and lay on the untanned, dry, hard cowhide, looking at the stars in the night sky: "No matter what I do, people will die. Treating the wounded is not my kindness, it's compassion for the same kind. Treating the wounded can make me feel less sad."

Since that night when the three big white geese were snatched, people have been dying because of the ripples they caused; the goose thief most likely froze to death.

Even if you don't freeze to death, you will get sick from the cold.

Until now, he still refuses to look squarely at this chaotic world, as if his body is trapped by a spider web woven with human lives.

With just a slight struggle, many people's bodies were torn into pieces.

Many people are just the materials that make up the web.

Break open one net, and there will be another one.

Gan Ning looked at Black Bear in surprise and said with a smile, "I thought he was a cruel killer, but I never thought he had such a kind side. In fact, if all the wounded soldiers captured in this battle were killed, there must be some innocent people who were wrongly accused."

The troops under Xiahou Dun and Yu Jin were the elite of Cao's army, and most of their subordinates were veterans who had experienced many battles.

Even though they were wearing Han army uniforms, they definitely killed many innocent people. After a pause, Gan Ning said, "The morale of these two armies is bad, and Liu Yuzhou would not look down on them. Even if he is short of soldiers, he would not look down on such soldiers. I heard from some Jingzhou military officers that Liu Yuzhou would execute the captured military officers tomorrow morning."

Liu Bei could resist killing ordinary soldiers, but he wanted to kill military officers to vent his anger.

Even if it would cause some bad influence within Cao's army and make more military officers dislike and hate Liu Bei.

But Liu Bei didn't care.

Black Bear fell silent after hearing this. The scouts captured by Jackdaw Road had already shown signs of this.

Zhao Yun also lacked soldiers, especially veterans.

But they would rather have horses than the captured elite veterans of Xiahou Dun's army.

Just because these soldiers were from Qingzhou, Zhao Yun disliked them for being dirty.

Gan Ning would not say these words for no reason. Black Bear listened and pondered.

Now is the initial stage, and too many Qingzhou soldiers have joined, and they are Qingzhou soldiers with strong Taiping Dao ideology.

Of course it can be successfully used for one's own benefit, but is it possible to control it?

They couldn't afford to lose, and the Guanzhong coaches couldn't figure out their own pulse for a while.

The continued victories after entering Guanzhong allowed these handsome men to patiently watch the battle situation.

If they experience an unnecessary defeat and their true colors are exposed, these handsome men will definitely take action.

If most of the captured Qingzhou soldiers were transferred to Liu Qi, Liu Biao and Liu Qi, father and son, would suddenly have two thousand more elite Qingzhou soldiers under their command. I don't know whether it would be a headache for Sun Quan or for the big families in Jingzhou.

Handing over the two thousand Qingzhou soldiers would definitely bring in more food and young and strong men.

There were still many refugees from Guanzhong who were stranded in Jingzhou. Those who did not return home generally became retainers or tenants of big families, or simply lived in the mountains.

The young and strong men from Guanzhong that Liu Qi had recruited before were obtained through requests and trades from the powerful and wealthy people with whom he had been friendly.

Giving Liu Qi two thousand Qingzhou soldiers could at least exchange them for two thousand Guanzhong people with their families.

At present, Liu Cong has not yet married, and Liu Qi's status as the prince of Wuhou has not been challenged.

Therefore, Liu Qi still has a strong appeal, and there are many people who are willing to make friends with Liu Qi.

Even if Liu Qi didn't dare to take all of them, he could still sell these Qingzhou soldiers to Huang Zu.

Sun Ce defeated Huang Zu in those days. Nearly 30,000 of Huang Zu and Liu Biao's reinforcements were beheaded, captured, or drowned. Sun Ce even stole more than 6,000 ships of various sizes.

Huang Zu is now in great need of veteran troops.

With this idea in mind, Black Bear immediately asked Gan Ning: "I don't like the Qingzhou soldiers either. How about taking 200 to 300 of their best soldiers and selling the rest to Liu Qi in exchange for the young and strong men from Guanzhong?"

"This……"

Gan Ning frowned: "Only two or three hundred people left?"

"Yes, regardless of riding skills or martial arts, we should choose young people. They have not participated in the affairs of Xuzhou, have no wives and children to burden them, and have greater potential."

"Then wouldn't this war benefit Liu Biao and his son in vain?"

Gan Ning was a little unhappy: "Jingzhou is rich in products. Liu Biao and his son are not short of money and food, but they are short of elite veterans. These two thousand Qingzhou soldiers are like a blessing from heaven to him and his son. Commander Qu, you must not sell them at a low price."

Gan Ning then said, "After Liu Yuzhou has selected the prisoners tomorrow, he will hand over the rest to our army. It would be best for General Qu to be patient for a few days before negotiating with Liu Qi. We should not approach him proactively, but wait for him to come and beg us."

"You mean Wang Wei?"

"Yes, Commander Qu should treat the Qingzhou soldiers well and restore their spirits, so that they can be sold at a good price."

Anyway, everyone eats the food provided by Jingzhou, so there is no point in worrying about the cost of this detail.

Across the stream, Mi Fang came to the campfire holding two newly-woven bamboo scrolls and handed them to Liu Bei: "My lord, here is the list of the casualties today."

Liu Bei reached out and picked up the smallest scroll first. There were only twenty-three people on this scroll, and the highest-ranking one was a team officer.

Currently he only commands thirty to forty people, but if he is sent to Jingzhou, he will be able to be a Quchang who commands twenty to three hundred people.

The squad leaders and sergeants below were basically veteran soldiers. Liu Bei examined each name and he had an impression of them.

After experiencing this kind of thing many times, you will be able to deal with it calmly.

Then he opened another scroll, and saw ten people written on a bamboo slip, and each slip had a number.

At a glance, we can tell that more than 230 people were killed today, and nearly 500 people were seriously injured.

The injuries counted as minor by the military were actually very serious.

We are extremely lucky if we can save one-fifth of them.

In one battle, an entire battalion, one-fifth of the troops, were destroyed.

The results of the battle were also very fruitful. According to rough statistics, less than 1,000 of the 5,000 men in Xiahou Dun's seven battalions were able to escape, and two of Yu Jin's three battalions were lost.

The two groups of veteran generals and soldiers within Cao's army were defeated in one fell swoop. In the subsequent battle in Hebei, these two people could only watch helplessly.

It will take until the beginning of next spring before the troops are recruited and the training is completed.

The political and military objectives of this battle have been exceeded.

Politically, the agreement with the Hebei allies was fulfilled, and the arrogance of Cao's army, which had been growing more and more powerful since the crossing of the river, was dealt a blow.

Militarily, about one-seventh of Cao Cao's regular veteran soldiers in his central army were destroyed.

Xiahou Dun and Yu Jin were Cao Cao's die-hard supporters, and were the best of Cao Cao's followers.

If we deal a heavy blow to them, it will mean that in the next ten years, it will be difficult for their army to promote capable generals and captains.

The foundation is gone, and we need to train a backbone team of military officers from scratch.

One battalion replaced the nine battalions of Xiahou Dun and Yu Jin.

This battle is very profitable!

Now it depends on how Liu Biao reacts. If he sends more troops to help in the battle, there may be a chance to march into Xu Du.

　One more chapter

　　
　
(End of this chapter)