Chapter 243: Cherishing talents is a virtue, recommending talents is a merit.

At this time, there were no enemies in Korcha's flag territory, only corpses were left on the ground. However, the soldiers were severely exhausted and could only withdraw from the battlefield to rest and treat the wounded.

The garrison battalion suffered heavy losses, but compared to the reinforcement battalion, these casualties were nothing.

More than half of the 3,000 cavalrymen in the reinforcement camp suffered casualties, and more than a thousand of the 3,000 infantrymen also suffered casualties.

This battle was truly brutal.

When Yang Zhengshan arrived at the temporary stronghold on the flag land, both the soldiers from the garrison battalion and the reinforcement battalion looked at him with respect.

"Master Yang!" Zhang Chengzhi saw Yang Zhengshan coming and hurriedly stepped forward and asked.

"How is Lord Zhang's injury?" Yang Zhengshan asked with concern, looking at Zhang Chengzhi's bandaged chest.

"It's just a superficial injury, no big deal!" said Zhang Chengzhi.

Yang Zhengshan nodded slightly, glanced around, and said, "I'll leave this place to you, Master Zhang. Our garrison battalion will be responsible for the surrounding security!"

"Okay, Lord Yang, don't worry, I will arrange everything!" Zhang Chengzhi naturally had no objection.

In fact, in terms of official rank, Yang Zhengshan and Zhang Chengzhi were the same. Yang Zhengshan was the deputy commander of Songzhou Guard, and Zhang Chengzhi was the deputy commander of Songzhou Vanguard.

In addition to Zhang Chengzhi, the reinforcements camp had another officer, who was the commander of the Songzhou rear guard, but this officer had died in battle.

Another is Zhang Yuanwu, who is the deputy commander of Songzhou Guard and is considered Yang Zhengshan's subordinate.

Since Wang Bin is unable to take charge, then Yang Zhengshan and Zhang Chengzhi should be in charge. However, Yang Zhengshan is not from the reinforcements camp, so it is not appropriate for him to interfere in the affairs of the reinforcements camp.

At this time, Zhang Chengzhi is enough, he just needs to help.

After some simple arrangements, Yang Zhengshan took the uninjured soldiers to take on the task of guarding.

Wang Bin slept for a day and a night and woke up the next morning.

"Ahem, I'm getting old and a little weak!"

In the tent, Wang Bin sat on the bed and said bitterly.

He is 46 years old this year. Although he is not very old, his physical functions have begun to decline.

If he was three or four years younger, he could have held out a little longer against Dobato.

Yang Zhengshan, who was standing next to him, smiled, handed him the tea in his hand, and said, "No matter what, we won this battle!"

That's true. Although they suffered heavy losses, they really won a great victory in this battle.

The defeat of the Korcha clan was enough to make Wang Bin and Yang Zhengshan famous in the book of military achievements.

Wang Bin grinned after hearing this, "Hahaha, that's right, Wang San, help me up, I want to write the battle report myself!"

He couldn't wait to report his achievement to Chongshan Town.

Yang Zhengshan couldn't help but smile when he saw him like this.

Wang San stepped forward and carefully helped Wang Bin up. When he stood up, the pain in his wound made Wang Bin grimace in pain.

However, he still insisted on getting up and sitting at his desk, writing a report of victory in a sweat.

After the victory report was sent out, Yang Zhengshan and Zhang Chengzhi led the soldiers to clean up the battlefield.

Harvest heads and collect spoils.

Although nearly half of the Korcha clan's territory was burned down, the spoils they obtained still surprised Yang Zhengshan.

How much wealth does a large tribe have?
Yang Zhengshan didn’t have an accurate understanding before, but now he knows.

Ten thousand taels of gold, one hundred thousand taels of silver, and thousands of gold and silver jewelry of various kinds.

There were tens of thousands of cattle and sheep, and war horses. Well, there were not many war horses, only less than two thousand. Mainly because many war horses were killed or injured in this battle.

There are countless other miscellaneous things.

"What a pity, a lot of it was burned!"

Looking at the piles of gold and silver, Wang Bin couldn't help feeling regretful.

Gold and silver cannot be burned, but furs, medicinal materials and other materials can be burned.

The most valuable things of the Korcha clan are not gold and silver, but the cattle, sheep, countless furs, and some precious medicinal materials.

"What do you think we should do with this gold and silver?" Wang Bin looked at Yang Zhengshan.

"Hand over 30%, keep 40% as compensation for the soldiers who died in battle, and give the remaining 30% to the soldiers!" Yang Zhengshan stated his thoughts directly.

Wang Bin agreed to his proposal without much thought.

Such a plan may seem to bring no benefits to the officials, but in fact, they will receive most of the profits.

Cattle, sheep, furs, medicinal herbs, some skills, etc., are actually more valuable than gold and silver. The key is that it is not easy to be criticized if you leave these things behind.

As for how to divide the remaining things, Yang Zhengshan did not ask. He believed that Wang Bin would leave him a share.

……

Heavy mountain pass.

"Great victory, great victory!"

Shouts of surprise spread throughout the general's residence, and the clerk in charge of receiving battle reports shouted as he ran to the study in the general's residence.

"My lord, my lord, great victory!"

Lu Chongde, who was handling military affairs, stood up immediately upon hearing this.

"Great victory!"

He was surprised at first, then confused.

Where did this great victory come from? Liang Chu should have just arrived in Fushan City not long ago. Could it be that they had just arrived in Fushan City and started fighting with the Hu people!
The clerk ran into the study and handed the battle report to Lu Chongde with a look of joy on his face, "Sir, Wang Bin, the lieutenant general of Songzhou Guard in the East Route, and Yang Zhengshan, the garrison commander of Anyuan City, have defeated the Korcha clan! A great victory, a great victory!"

Defeat the Korcha clan!

Lu Chongde shuddered suddenly and quickly read the battle report.

In the battle report, Wang Bin described the battle with the Korcha clan in great detail. He gave a detailed description of everything from when Yang Zhengshan found the location of the Korcha clan's flag, to when Yang Zhengshan proposed the fire bull formation, to the specific course of the battle.

However, he also concealed one point, which was the fact that he was no match for Dobato.

This is actually not very important. Although the Korcha clan was found by Yang Zhengshan and the Fire Bull Formation was also proposed by Yang Zhengshan, and Yang Zhengshan and the Anyuan City Garrison Battalion performed the best in the battle, he was the main general and the battle was won under his leadership.

In any case, his contribution is the greatest.

Therefore, it doesn’t matter whether he can beat Dobato or not, it’s just a bit embarrassing to say it out loud.

"Okay, okay, hahaha~~"

After reading the battle report, Lu Chongde shouted "good" twice and laughed out loud.

Although this great victory did not play a decisive role in the entire war, it could greatly weaken the strength of the Hu people in the East China Sea.

The Korcha clan is one of the seven large tribes of the Hu people in the East China Sea.

Defeating the Korcha clan is equivalent to reducing the combat effectiveness of the East China Sea Hu people by 10%.

What’s more crucial is that the army in Chongshan Town suffered very little loss, with only 3,000 soldiers and horses lost in Songzhou Guard on the east route.

Before the main force moved, a large tribe of the East China Sea Hu people was crippled. This is undoubtedly a commendable thing.

Lu Chongde looked at the battle report again, a big smile on his face.

"Fire Bull Formation, haha, what a great Fire Bull Formation!"

"This Yang Zhengshan is indeed the master of military strategy who wrote the Thirty-Six Strategies!"

He directly gave Yang Zhengshan the title of military master.

"Sir, Lord Yang is truly amazing. Not long ago, he defeated eight Hu tribes in a row. Now, he and General Wang have defeated the Korcha clan. It's truly remarkable!" The clerk next to him couldn't help but admire him.

You will know whether it is a mule or a horse by taking it out for a walk.

This time, most of the middle and high-level military officers in Chongshan Town were pulled out, and Yang Zhengshan was undoubtedly the most outstanding and prominent one.

"Alas, it's a pity that he is only a guard!"

At this time, Lu Chongde felt a little regretful. If Yang Zhengshan was a lieutenant general, his performance this time would be even more outstanding and his achievements would be even greater.

He knew that Yang Zhengshan was extremely good at training troops, and this expedition also proved this.

In just three years under Yang Zhengshan's command, the more than a thousand soldiers in the Anyuan City garrison camp became the elite among the elite, winning battle after battle.

The clerk's mind moved slightly, "Sir, should this victory report be reported to the court?"

This clerk was not a clerk from the General's Mansion, but a clerk from the Governor's Office. Liang Chu took most of the clerks from the General's Mansion with him when he went to the war. Since Lu Chongde came to take charge of the General's Mansion, he naturally had to use his own people, especially the clerks who helped him handle affairs, all of them were his people.

"Report to the court. Yes, it is time to report to the court!" Lu Chongde nodded and said.

"Such a talented general should be recommended to His Majesty!" said the clerk with a chuckle.

Lu Chongde was stunned for a moment, then reacted.

Cherishing talent is a virtue, recommending talent is a merit.

If he recommends Yang Zhengshan to His Majesty, His Majesty will certainly understand his virtues and remember his contributions in his heart.

Moreover, this can be considered as a favor, a recommendation, which can help me make friends with Yang Zhengshan.

Thinking of this, Lu Chongde no longer hesitated and immediately wrote a memorial and sent it to Kyoto together with the battle report. Of course, he did not forget to send a battle report to Liang Chu.

With the defeat of the Korcha clan, Liang Chu's pressure in Fushan City will also be reduced.

……

At this time, Yang Zhengshan naturally didn't know that Lu Chongde wanted to earn a favor from him. After several days of cleaning, the Korcha clan's flag land had completely turned into ruins. All the supplies they had had been sorted into piles, waiting to be transported by the transport captain Wang Sheng.

That’s right, Wang Sheng has now become the captain of the transport team.

At Wang Bin's request, Wang Sheng once again mobilized thousands of laborers from Jiacheng, and they carried the spoils to Jiacheng like ants moving house.

The Korcha clan's settlement is not limited to the banner area. About 50% of the Korcha clan members live in the banner area, which is about 30,000 to 40,000 people.

Even if only a small half of the property of these 30,000 to 40,000 people was burned, the remaining amount would still be a huge amount.

Even if 5,000 laborers were mobilized, it would probably take several trips to transport all the useful things back.

Fortunately, the Korcha family had a lot of cattle and sheep, and the laborers could use the cattle to transport supplies, which saved them a lot of effort.

In the following days, the soldiers of the reinforcement battalion and the garrison battalion rested while helping the civilians transport the spoils.

It was not until early June that all the spoils were transported back to Jiacheng.

At the same time, the soldiers had almost rested.

The soldiers with lighter injuries were able to participate in the battle, while the soldiers with more serious injuries returned to Jiacheng with the civilian laborers.

Now there are only one thousand cavalry and two thousand infantry in Wang Bin’s reinforcement battalion.

Yang Zhengshan still has about 700 cavalrymen under his command.

Zhang Yuanwu had only three hundred infantrymen under his command.

The total force is only 4,000.

(End of this chapter)