Prince of Tang Dynasty

Chapter 425 On The Road

As Gao Ming expected, not only Jingzhao Mansion, but even the soldiers gathered in Luoyang were "overloaded".

As the general in charge of conscription in Luoyang, Yu Chigong also expressed "helplessness" about such a situation.

"His Royal Highness, it's not that the veterans didn't follow your orders, it's just that they don't want to leave. If they are forcibly dismissed, it may cause mutiny!"

"..."

Mutiny?Liar you!
Gao Ming had heard of mutiny caused by forced conscription, but this was the first time he had heard of mutiny without a fight.

Of course Gao Ming would not naively think that the soldiers would be so eager to fight. In fact, it was the generals who wanted to fight.

In the Tang Dynasty, it was more difficult for military generals to be promoted than for civil servants. Civil servants had merits in all aspects. Perhaps as long as they survived the winter without freezing to death, it was considered merit and they could be promoted.

But military generals can't do it. Military generals must have military merits to be promoted, and military merits can only be obtained on the battlefield.

The Tang Dynasty attached great importance to military merits. Take the meritorious officials in Lingyan Pavilion as an example, even civil officials like Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui, who were active in the battlefield, all have considerable military merits.

Therefore, no matter whether it is the deputy lieutenant of the ninth rank or the general of the sixteenth guard like Yu Chigong, they all want to fight and are eager to gain great merits from the battlefield.

Maybe it's for the sake of leaving a legacy in history, maybe it's for the blessing of future generations.

Undoubtedly, Datang's expedition to Goguryeo was a very rare opportunity to gain military merits. How could the generals give up?

Cheng Yaojin, Yu Chigong and others are very aware of this, and they also hope that their generals will have the opportunity to gain military exploits, so Gao Ming asked them to disarm, so naturally they will not work hard.

Cheng Yaojin was fine, 15 people were laid off from 12 people, and only 20 people remained. Yuchi Gong went too far, only 5000 people were laid off from 19 people, leaving [-] people, which made Gao Ming very helpless.

He is fooling around!
But looking at Yu Chigong's face of "I love you so much", Gao Ming could only sigh again.

"Oh, fine, as long as you are happy, bring them all!"

"Thank you, Your Royal Highness!"

After gathering the soldiers and horses from Luoyang, the expedition team immediately doubled in size, but the speed of marching accelerated instead.

In Li Ji's words, the morale of the soldiers is high, so both the marching speed and combat effectiveness will increase greatly.

Morale is something invisible and intangible, so Gao Ming is not very clear about it, but what he sees are the changes inside the tank.

Because this tank is powered by steam, someone needs to shovel coal into the steam boiler. When it came out of Chang'an, it was two ordinary peasants who did this, but after arriving in Luoyang, it became two Armored soldiers.

And judging from the style of their armor, they are not ordinary soldiers, at least they are the official positions of school lieutenants.

Gao Ming also felt very strange about this, until one day when he was taking a walk after dinner, he heard a conversation.

"General, the last general also wants to sit on top of that big guy. It's an eye-opener. You should think of a way. This is a trivial matter, please accept it!"

"Tsk... well, when you set off tomorrow morning, take off your cloak and follow me up."

"Hey, thank you General!"

Hearing this conversation, Gao Ming suddenly showed a face of not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

"It turned out that Cheng Yaojin did it, but there are still people who offer bribes for shoveling coal. It's no one."

Now Gao Ming and Yu Chigong are sitting in the Beetle tank, occasionally Cheng Yaojin will go up and sit there, apart from them, there are only two people left who specialize in shoveling coal into the boiler.

So there is no doubt that Cheng Yaojin must have arranged for people to go to the tank to shovel coal.

"Forget it, let them be happy!"

As the saying goes, "When Zhou Yu hits Huang Gai, one is willing to fight and the other is willing to suffer." Gao Ming was not in the mood to care about such nosy matters, so he walked back with his hands behind his back.

The next morning, when the team set off again, Gao Ming watched as Cheng Yaojin led a man into the tank.

This man lowered his head after coming up, and then shoveled coal into the boiler in silence. If Gao Ming hadn't overheard the conversation between him and Cheng Yaojin yesterday, he would have only regarded him as an ordinary soldier.

As the fire in the boiler became more and more intense, the person who was shoveling coal inside was also sweating.

Seeing this scene, Gao Ming immediately sighed, and then raised his chin towards Cheng Yaojin beside him.

"Lu Guogong, he is your general after all, it's too unkind for you to take advantage of him and let him work."

"what?"

Hearing Gao Ming's words, Cheng Yaojin was taken aback for a moment.

"Your Highness, do you know everything?"

Gao Ming didn't answer him, but raised his eyebrows at him.

Seeing Gao Ming's expression, Cheng Yaojin suddenly showed a flattering face.

"Hey...His Royal Highness is indeed as insightful as a torch, and I, Lao Cheng, admire him, hehehe..."

Seeing him put on the hob meat posture again, Gao Ming sighed helplessly.

"Oh, forget it, let anyone who wants to come up to open their eyes later, let them come up. As for the shoveling of coal, let the folks do it. Let me shovel coal, a general of the Tang Dynasty, thanks to your thinking!"

After finishing speaking, Gao Ming turned around and climbed the ladder to the top of the tank. After he went up, Li Jing also shook his head towards Cheng Yaojin.

"Zhijie, you!"

After finishing speaking, Li Jing also went up the ladder, leaving Cheng Yaojin standing there with an embarrassed face, still muttering.

"What's wrong with shoveling coal? Who said that Tang generals can't shovel coal? Really..."

But after this incident, Cheng Yaojin didn't change people up to shovel coal frequently, but brought someone up to visit the tank from time to time.

Not only Cheng Yaojin, but also Li Ji, Yu Chigong, Xue Wanche and others, Gao Ming asked them to bring their cronies to the tank to open their eyes and introduce them to the weapons on the tank.

The reason why Gao Ming did this was not only to satisfy their curiosity, but also to use this method to tell them that he was safe in the tank and could not be killed by the enemy.

After all, in many wars, the enemy would falsely claim the death of the opponent's general, which would cause chaos. There are countless examples like this. Gao Ming does not want this kind of thing to happen to him in the future.

And to solve this kind of trouble, you must give confidence to your subordinates. As long as the generals have full confidence in the leader, then such a strategy will naturally be self-defeating.

The method is simple to say, but it is difficult to implement. Throughout the ages, few generals can do it.

But for Gao Ming, this kind of thing is extremely simple, because all the generals who have been on the tank, their confidence in Gao Ming is directly bursting.

At the same time, they also passed on this confidence to the soldiers under their hands. Therefore, when the expedition team arrived in Taiyuan Mansion, the morale of the soldiers once again ushered in a high.

Because all the soldiers knew that Great Tang's Tiance Admiral, the current Crown Prince, was among that iron-clad monster right now.

He is invincible!
is invincible!

With this kind of awareness, whenever Gao Ming's Beetle tank went, the soldiers would immediately shout.

"Wan Sheng! Wan Sheng!"

Gao Ming sat in the tank, listening to the voices from outside, he couldn't help showing a smile on his face.

"It's too ostentatious, but it doesn't feel too bad!"

(End of this chapter)