King Wu Li Ke woke up at night. When he woke up, he found himself lying on a warm blanket. This was the marching blanket of Li Xiang's troops. Although it could not be compared with pure wool, it was already quite good in such an environment.
When the Xueyantuo army retreated, they left a lot of things in the barracks. Li Xiang ordered all the wood they left behind to be chopped down, and then lit a bonfire at night so that our soldiers could warm themselves by the fire. After a continuous rain, the temperature had dropped below zero. If there was no fire, most of the soldiers would probably catch a cold at night.
"Your Highness, we have captured a total of 10,700 of them and killed 6,500. The rest have retreated to the northwest and are currently 50 miles away."
King Wu Li Ke heard Su Dingfang's voice in a daze. He did not expect that Li Xiang's army had achieved such results in just one day. They had tried their best here, but there was no way to repel the Xueyantuo army.
"Just let them run. If we pursue them now, we won't have to split our forces into several groups. As they retreat along the way, they will surely take away everything they can. Then, as long as we find Xueyantuo Khan, we can take away all the wealth of the entire grassland."
Li Xiang doesn't like to split up his troops to pursue. Firstly, our people are not safe enough after being separated. Secondly, we are too lazy to do such a lowly thing as robbery. Let Xueyantuo Khan help us do it. In the end, we only need to rob him, which saves time and effort and preserves our reputation.
"Your Highness, you are awake."
A young eunuch said happily that this person was the eunuch serving beside the King of Wu. The prince also took the eunuch with him when he went out, but Li Xiang did not have such an idea, so Li Xiang never took him with him.
"Uncle San, are you awake?"
Hearing Li Xiang's address, King Wu Li Ke felt mixed emotions. He had already regarded Li Xiang as his enemy, and had lost his mind during this period of time, only thinking about his own achievements, and completely disregarding the lives of those people outside.
If Li Xiang came over to sneer at him, King Wu Li Ge would still feel comfortable. But when he heard Li Xiang's words "Third Uncle", King Wu Li Ke's eyes became moist. He was a man of iron will. He had been holding on here with his men for several days without shedding a single tear. But when he heard these two words, he felt like crying.
"Don't move, don't move, absolutely don't move. You have quite a few wounds on your body. It took me almost an hour to bandage you. For the next while, you'd better lie still and get some meat porridge."
When Li Xiang saw Li Ge was about to get up, he quickly let him lie down.
Now is the time for the wound to heal. The King of Wu has been lying down for a whole day. If he gets up now, the scar that has just healed will be useless.
“Those people…”
"Don't worry about those people. They have all been properly accommodated. My men have bandaged their wounds, but more than a thousand of them cannot be saved. Their wounds are too deep..."
When talking about this topic, the atmosphere in the tent became a little sad. It was very difficult to save seriously injured soldiers in any era. Even if Li Xiang's soldiers had medical kits, they could not save these seriously injured soldiers.
"Don't worry, Third Uncle. Take good care of yourself. You fought a tough battle here. We have seen the traces of battle all around us. We also know from the prisoners that you and your men fought very hard. You have not brought shame to our Tang Dynasty. Leave the rest to us."
The purpose of Li Xiang's words was to acknowledge the merits of Wu Wang Li Ge and let his opponent acknowledge his own merits. This would be a very satisfying thing for anyone. Li Xiang had studied human nature thoroughly and what he wanted to hear most at this moment was this sentence. It would make him happier and the wounds on his body would heal better. Why not do it? What's more, what we said was the truth. He really did not bring shame to the Tang Dynasty and would not surrender even after a life-and-death battle. There were not many people like him.
King Wu Li Ke wanted to say a few words, but his body was too weak, so he nodded. After the eunuch fed him a few mouthfuls, he fell into a deep sleep again. But now he slept very peacefully, because he knew that Li Xiang was right next to him. No matter how powerful the Xueyantuo army was, it would not be possible for them to suffer any harm.
After watching the king fall asleep, Li Xiang felt a surge of anger in his heart facing the loss. On the one hand, it was because the King of Wu was greedy for merit and reckless, and on the other hand, it was because Li Shimin was indecisive. Otherwise, how could he lose 20,000 soldiers?
You have to know that when Li Xiang led his troops to annihilate the entire Goguryeo, he only lost about 10,000 people. How long have you been here? 20,000 people were lost just like that. How many people do you think we have in the Tang Dynasty?
"I must make sure to count all the fallen soldiers and provide them with adequate compensation upon their return. As for those who are still able to fight, I will incorporate them all into my army. If anyone in the court dares to speak out, I will personally go and explain to them."
Li Xiang had already exceeded his authority by doing this, but at this moment Li Xiang was a little angry, and Niu Jinda and Su Dingfang were also very angry. This was all caused by the court. If you could have let us set off five days earlier, this would not have happened.
"Your Highness, we have captured more than a dozen Turkic nobles."
The voice of reporting from outside came in again.
"Since you've surrendered and don't want to help the Tang Dynasty defend its borders, what good are you doing? Take them to the nearby tribes and kill them on the spot. Gather all the young and strong men from each tribe. If they don't fight bravely on the battlefield, I'll kill their entire families immediately."
Li Xiang issued several orders in succession. He was extremely angry about the Turks' betrayal. In the future, there will be more and more vassal states of the Tang Dynasty. Whenever such things happen, they will be killed one by one until you are afraid. Otherwise, those vassal states will cause chaos again in the future.
"I obey your command!"
At Li Xiang's command, dozens of cavalry units left the camp. Their target was the dozens of nearby Turkic tribes. They took these Turkic nobles with them to show them the resolve of the Tang Dynasty. Your king had fled, but your tribe still had young and strong men. They had to accompany the army to the battle...