Water Margin people

Chapter 1720: The relationship between the lips and the teeth

The horn of Qi sounded, and the scattered army began to gather.

"Team one, three hundred people, all present!"

"Team Two, three hundred people, all present!"

……

As each team reported their numbers, Yue Fei nodded with satisfaction. No casualties was the best outcome.

"Send a message to those slaves and ask them to clean up the battlefield."

Yue Fei gave an order to a soldier beside him, saying that it would take a long time for them to clean up such a large battlefield with so few people, so they should let the slaves come over.

The soldier took out a bamboo tube and pulled the trigger, and a firework flew high into the sky and exploded.

The scouts on duty in the distance immediately went to convey the order. As early as when the army set out, tens of thousands of slaves had been arranged to come over, and now those slaves were waiting more than ten miles away.

More than an hour later, the slaves trotted over. Looking at the horrific battlefield, their faces turned pale. They did not vomit because they were not unfamiliar with death. They were just shocked by the horror of the Qi army.

These slaves knew very well how many Arabs had come this time, and they also knew very well how many troops the Qi army had. In their minds, the Qi army only had the power to protect itself and had no possibility of fighting a ten-fold enemy head-on.

But everything before them told them that the fighting power of the Qi army was far more terrifying than they had imagined, and they did not see the "Qi army" at all. There were only 3,000 Qi soldiers on the battlefield.

"General Yue, everyone is here!"

The general who came with the slaves saluted Yue Fei before speaking.

"Let them clean up the battlefield and kill all the wounded. Although Qi is wealthy, we will not spend money and supplies to treat the enemy's wounds."

Yue Fei looked at the general and gave the order. They did not kill many enemies directly in this battle. Many enemies were still lying on the ground wailing. Even if they were shot a few times, they would not die immediately as long as they were not hit in vital parts. These people were the most troublesome, so it was better to kill them than to keep them.

"Kill them all?"

The general asked for confirmation.

"My brothers must be cured even if we have to sell everything we have. These are enemies. They can't work even if they are injured. What's the point of keeping them? Spend money on their treatment and feed them? Kill them! Kill them all!"

Yue Fei said.

"Yes, General!"

The general immediately gave orders to make arrangements.

The slaves who received the order did not dare to resist. They picked up the weapons discarded by the Arabs from the ground and began to clean up the battlefield and finish off the injured Arabs.

With weapons in hand, they did not dare to harbor any disloyal thoughts. Hundreds of thousands of Arab troops were killed and their corpses were scattered all over the ground. What could these slaves do?

The wounded Arabs began to wail and beg. They wanted to survive, even if it meant betraying the Arabs.

But Yue Fei did not give them a chance. He could not afford to take care of so many wounded soldiers. His first priority was to ensure the safety of the army, and then to rule this land. Excessive kindness would only bring disaster.

"Disperse in teams!"

Yue Fei waved his hand and asked the troops around him to disperse. Although they had intimidated these slaves, they still had to be careful to prevent anyone from having ill intentions and to prevent the Arabs in disguise from escaping.

The army quickly reached the outskirts of the battlefield, monitoring the entire battlefield with guns and live ammunition.

From time to time, some Arabs hiding in the pile of corpses would run out. When they failed to surrender, they wanted to escape, but as expected, they were robbed and killed.

This made the slaves who were cleaning the battlefield even more afraid to raise their heads.

The ten thousand slaves moved quickly, and by nightfall the battlefield had been almost cleaned up. Yue Fei was too lazy to care about the enemy corpses and just let them lie in the yellow sand.

……

Saladin was terrified. He finally realized the gap between their fighting power and that of the Qi army. "Three thousand men, he only used three thousand men!"

Saladin's lips trembled slightly. Although the Qi people were well-armed, they only had 3,000 people attacking the camp of his army of more than 100,000 and achieved a complete victory even though he had an ambush.

"Sir, we suffered too many casualties this time. There were hundreds of thousands of people, but only tens of thousands returned. The rest either died or ran away. It is said that Yue Fei was a devil. He ordered the slaves to kill all the wounded soldiers! Not a single one was left alive!"

A general looked at Saladin and said.

"What! How dare he do this!"

Saladin's face became even uglier. Yue Fei had already won the war, but he still killed all the wounded soldiers. This kind of brutal act was rare even in the Arab world.

"What about the princes and tribal leaders?"

Saladin rubbed his forehead and asked.

"They all ran away, and we haven't been able to contact them yet!"

Someone answered that they had started contacting those people since they returned to Jerusalem, and those people had escaped first, so the loss should not be great.

"They are all cowards!"

When Saladin heard that they couldn't get in touch with them, he knew that these people were deliberately avoiding them.

"Sir, what should we do now?"

Everyone looked at Saladin. They had suffered another crushing defeat in this campaign. In the past year, they had not won any battles except for taking Jerusalem.

War consumes a lot of money, food and troops. If they can win the battle, these things can be replenished. However, after continuous defeats and Jerusalem being like an empty city, they are no longer able to sustain the war.

"Not enough food and grass?"

Saladin understood everyone's concerns. They were already short of food, and now that the Mesopotamian Valley and the Red Sea had belonged to Qi, they had lost their most fertile land, and the food situation had further deteriorated.

"It's barely enough for two months."

an official replied.

"Send people to Fatima and ask them to bring some food over by sea. If they are unwilling, we will not be involved in Qi's affairs."

Saladin looked at the official and said, Fatimid has the Nile River, which is also a rich land with very high grain production. Therefore, the Fatimid Kingdom has never lacked food.

"Also, send people to Byzantium and Rome."

Saladin spoke again.

"Byzantium! Rome!"

Everyone present had their faces changed drastically, because those were all enemies of the Arabs, pagan countries.

"Qi is too powerful for us to deal with. Rome and Byzantium are not immune to it either. Qi is building a canal to enter the Mediterranean. So what do you think is Qi's ultimate goal?"

Saladin asked, looking at everyone.

"Of course...attack Rome and Byzantium!"

Everyone suddenly realized that the canal was just an obstacle for them, at most a bit of trouble.

But it was different for Rome and Byzantium. The canal was like a sword piercing their chest, threatening their lives.

"There's a saying in the East that goes 'lips and teeth are interdependent'. Now we are in a relationship of lip and teeth dependence. If they just stand by and watch, then I don't mind watching and seeing who dies more miserably!"

Saladin spoke with a grim face, saying that the war over the past year had already hurt the vitality of the Arabs, while Rome and Byzantium had not suffered any losses at all, which was unfair.