I, the prince, only want to be deposed.

Chapter 472: Military Damage Tolerance (Two-in-One)

Junji Mountain Camp.

"General, why don't you send troops to help?"

Standing in Wei Qing's tent with Sima Qian, Su Wu asked worriedly but cautiously.

Although Su Wu is still nominally an envoy sent by the emperor to make peace with Wusun, because Liu Ju currently does not agree with him sending Liu Xijun to Wusun to complete the marriage, he can only stay in the Western Regions temporarily. Before, he was at the disposal of Liu Ju, and now he is at the disposal of Wei Qing.

But he didn't lose out at all.

In the previous battle between Gu Shi, he also made military achievements, and his contribution was definitely greater than completing the marriage. Although he might not be granted a title of nobility, he would definitely be promoted.

But he was not satisfied. Like Sima Qian, he watched helplessly as people around him, such as Zhao Po Nu, Wang Hui, Dongfang Yu and others, were already guaranteed to be granted titles of nobility. He always felt that he was no worse than these people. As long as he followed Liu Ju's strategy, he would surely have the opportunity to be granted a title of nobility and bring back some decent "Western specialties".

"No rush, just wait."

However, even Liu Ju had not expected that the person who was the most calm now was Wei Qing. He turned his eyes away from the map on the table, looked at Su Wu and Sima Qian, and said slowly,

"Su Wu, your father Su Jian was once a general in my court just like you. Seeing your similar features always reminds me of the glory days back then."

"It is my honor, but General..."

Su Wu wanted to say something else.

Wei Qing raised his hand to interrupt him and continued:

"You are like your father. Although you are loyal, you are also a bit impatient."

"Back then, he stood in front of me like you and suggested that I raise scholars to gain fame. That was because he did not understand the court, let alone Your Majesty. And what he said could be fatal."

"Later, he and Zhao Xin were defeated together. Zhao Xin surrendered to the Xiongnu, and he was the only one who escaped back."

"Some people suggested that I kill him to establish my authority, but I know that he knew that he would lose the entire army and would most likely die if he escaped, but he still insisted on escaping, which was the greatest loyalty. He was just eager to gain merit in the battle, so I handed him over to Your Majesty for disposal, and wrote a memorial to Your Majesty suggesting that Your Majesty spare him the death penalty and demote him to a commoner as a punishment."

"Do you understand what I mean?"

"..."

Upon hearing this, Su Jian stood there in a daze, his face full of confusion, and had to look to Sima Qian for help.

"..."

Sima Qian also looked confused. As a man full of artistic cells, he did not fully understand Wei Qing's riddle.

Wei Qing saw that the two were still too young, so he finally gave them a small hint:

"Your loyalty to Liu Ju is certainly a good thing, but now is not his time yet. In the future, you must not show it too obviously in front of outsiders, otherwise it will hurt others and yourself."

"Follow the general's instructions."

The two seemed to come to their senses after hearing this. After digesting it for a moment, they finally bowed to Wei Qing and expressed their gratitude.

"As to whether and when to come to Liu Ju's aid, I have my own plan in mind. You just need to be ready to go at any time."

Wei Qing continued.

"promise……"

The two looked at each other again and finally agreed.

Wei Qing still didn't make it clear what he had in mind.

All they knew was that Wei Qing had known about Liu Ju being besieged by the Hun army several days ago. Even if Liu Ju and Zhao Po Nu had not lit the beacon fire, such a large-scale incident could not have been concealed from Wei Qing, who had stationed many scouts in the desert.

But what is puzzling is.

Wei Qing, however, remained silent and only ordered his men to keep an eye on the situation over there. It seemed that he had no intention of sending troops to provide assistance.

By the way, isn’t Wei Qing Liu Ju’s uncle?
Isn’t Wei Qing the one who cares about Liu Ju the most?
No matter what, they are uncle and nephew, and Liu Ju is the only prince born to the Wei family for the current emperor, and the legitimate eldest prince. For both public and private reasons, Wei Qing will definitely do his best to protect Liu Ju, right?
Not only Su Wu and Sima Qian were puzzled, but other generals also couldn't guess what Wei Qing was up to.

This continued until Su Wu and Sima Qian said goodbye.

Wei Qing turned his gaze back to the map and drew several routes on it.

However, the common target of these routes was not the Hun army that was besieging Liu Ju, but the Hun Dragon City far away in the North Sea.

"Zi'er, since you dare to join the game alone, your uncle has no choice but to trust you this time."

"Five million arrows. If you are really capable of pinning down the main force of the Xiongnu and making them willing to be used as targets, then the end of the Xiongnu will come."

"Although my uncle is worried, if we send troops to help you now, the main force of the Xiongnu will see that they cannot capture you and the reinforcements are about to arrive, so they will definitely flee. This will probably ruin your plan. If the Xiongnu retains its main force, it will definitely affect the overall situation of destroying the Xiongnu in the future decisive battle."

"As your uncle, I should be responsible for you."

"But uncle, as the commander-in-chief of the entire army, should be responsible for all the soldiers and the overall situation."

"That is what you mean, isn't it?"

"You didn't light the beacon fire, and Zhao Po Nu didn't light the beacon fire either. You must have some strength left... This time in the Western Region, you showed your uncle a completely different you. Even if your uncle didn't say it, he knew you were trustworthy."

"Just do it boldly. How many things in the world don't require risk?"

"As long as we destroy the Xiongnu this time, no matter your uncle is here or not, no one in the court will be able to challenge you. It doesn't matter whether your father showed me and your mother the will or not."

"This way, even if God wants to take your life tomorrow, you can rest in peace."

……

"kill!"

"disease--!"

As the Huns' arrows sounded, more than 50,000 Huns suddenly launched a general attack on the Han army from the east, south and west, rushing towards the Han army camp like a black mudslide.

Wu Shilu finally lost his temper and decided to break into the Han army camp at all costs and capture Liu Ju alive.

This approach is similar to that of some Western politicians in later generations.

In order to earn their own political capital, human life is worthless, national interests are unimportant, and even the survival of the country is unimportant...

Is their political correctness really correct?
Don't they know that doing certain things is like opening Pandora's box, which will ultimately lead to the destruction of the country?
No one in the world knows what they are doing better than them, they just don’t care, just as the God and Lord of the Western people don’t care about them.

But Wu Shilu overlooked the most important thing: human instinct...

"Your Highness, something terrible has happened. The Hun army has assembled and seems to be planning to launch a general attack on our army!"

This time, Zhao Po Nu and other generals had no time to ask Liu Ju for instructions, so they could only send a messenger to report.

"I see. Pass the order down. The shield soldiers and halberd soldiers are desperately defending the defense line. The crossbow soldiers are not careful about their accuracy and are shooting wildly at the crowd. These are things that have been discussed long ago. There should be no need to pass on the order, right?"

Liu Ju was not surprised at all by this, and said calmly,

"Oh, by the way, don't forget to tell Zhao Po Nu that we can light the beacon fire now, and have his cavalry get ready to rush out of the camp and chase the enemy at any time."

"promise!"

No matter what the messenger thought, he didn't dare to say anything at this moment, and immediately ran to receive the order. "Guo Zhen, follow me to the watchtower to see the enemy's determination this time."

Liu Ju then led Guo Zhen to the watchtower.

At this time, the Hun army had already launched a death charge towards the Han army camp. The mighty army gave people an unstoppable feeling, and at a glance it was clear that the number of people was at least tens of thousands.

"It seems that Wu Shilu is extremely determined this time. He is planning to fight us to the death. This is very good."

Liu Ju then grinned, but did not smile.

"Your Highness?"

Guo Zhen's brows knitted into knots when he saw this, and he said worriedly,

"I see that the Xiongnu army attacking our camp is at least 50,000 to 60,000 strong, and they are coming in full force. We only have 5,000 crossbowmen. If the enemy army is determined to attack our camp regardless of casualties, I'm afraid it will be difficult to resist the enemy's attack with only these crossbowmen."

At this point, Guo Zhen hesitated for a moment, and finally said relatively straightforwardly:

"Your Highness, please be prepared. If the situation is bad, I will escort Your Highness out of the encirclement even if it costs my life. Your Highness, please cooperate with me when the time comes!"

"You think there's no chance of winning this battle?"

Liu Ju turned around and asked back.

"There are too many enemy troops..."

Guo Zhen said helplessly.

"Yes, it's a bit too much. I'm afraid some of our soldiers will be buried here this time. This is what I care about most now."

Liu Ju nodded, his eyes swept over the Han army soldiers who were ready for battle below, and there was a hint of disappointment in his tone.

No one likes war, at least no one among the lower-level soldiers likes it.

No one is not afraid of death. This is not just human instinct, but an instinct possessed by all animals with a little intelligence.

"As for the number of enemy troops... In fact, in my opinion, their numbers are only equal to ours. We don't have any advantage at all. On the contrary, we may even be at a disadvantage."

Liu Ju continued.

"Equal in numbers to ours? Perhaps even at a disadvantage?"

Guo Zhen was a little confused again.

Liu Ju said:

"Watch carefully. The range of our strong crossbow is 150 steps, and the range of the large yellow crossbow is about 280 steps."

"Although the Xiongnu army is composed of cavalry, with the speed of their horses, once they enter the range of our crossbowmen and rush under the wall of our camp, our crossbowmen can shoot at least three arrows."

"These three arrows are enough to cause the Xiongnu army to collapse. They are seeking death."

"They actually tried to break into our army camp in this way. It turns out that Wu Shilu is of such a high level. I can only say that the fate of the Han Dynasty has indeed come."

Guo Zhen still didn't quite understand:
"Three arrows... Even if our crossbowmen shoot three arrows in a row, that's only 15,000 arrows. Even if all these arrows can kill the enemy, it can only kill 15,000 enemies. How can we deal with the remaining tens of thousands of soldiers?"

"Have you ever heard of a term called 'military damage tolerance'?"

Liu Ju did not answer but asked instead.

"W-what?"

Guo Zhen didn't understand at all.

"Everyone is afraid of death, so every army has a corresponding 'army damage tolerance' index. The more well-trained the army is, the higher its 'battle damage tolerance' will be."

As the Xiongnu army was approaching, Liu Ju even gave Guo Zhen a detailed explanation.
"Today, due to factors such as the timeliness of communications, the military's 'battle damage tolerance' is generally not high. For an army like ours, it's probably only around 10%. If it exceeds 10%, morale and combat effectiveness will be greatly damaged, leading to the collapse of the entire army."

"And the so-called elite army of the Xiongnu is nothing more than strong warriors drawn from various tribes, who were mixed together to form a large army after simple coordination training."

"Such a mixed army will inevitably have a lower 'battle damage tolerance'."

"Three arrows, don't underestimate these three arrows."

"These are the three arrows that our army fired without any damage, but they are the three arrows that can cause more than 10% casualties on the swarming Hun army. These three arrows alone are enough to determine the outcome of the battle."

"Our army suffered casualties when Zhao Po Nu led his troops out of the camp to pursue the defeated enemy army."

"This……"

Guo Zhen felt that he understood, but not completely.

Because no one in this era had ever proposed the concept of "battle damage tolerance", this concept was very unfamiliar even to some generals who had actually led troops.

And most importantly, this thing sounds a bit weird. Can an army really collapse so easily?
"Okay, although I still can't tell where the enemy's commander is, especially where that Wu Shilu is, it's time for me to join my brothers in shooting the big yellow crossbow happily."

Liu Ju did not expect Guo Zhen to fully understand, as facts would soon give the answer.

So he stretched his muscles twice and climbed down the watchtower to look for the large rhubarb crossbow that Zhang Nuying had prepared for him many days ago.

……

Soon after.

"Everyone is ready, listen carefully, and prepare!"

Seeing that the Hun army was about to enter the shooting range, the flag bearer standing on a high place waved the flag to point out the direction of the enemy. At a command, the crossbow camp, which had been on high alert for a long time, would fire thousands of arrows.

at this time.

"Snapped!"

Liu Ju's large yellow crossbow had already fired in advance, shocking the crossbowmen so much that they almost pulled the trigger of the crossbow.

Looking around, I saw blood spurting out from the head of a Hun cavalryman who was rushing in the front, red and white splashing everywhere, and his body went limp and he fell off his horse.

The Hun cavalry nearby were frightened by the bloody scene and quickly dodged to the side.

The Hun cavalry behind had no time to dodge, and a small-scale stampede occurred immediately, with horses and human bodies rolling around in a mess among the army.

"Your Highness, this is too accurate. He actually shot it at the head?"

The flag soldiers standing on a high place were stunned when they saw this scene.

at the same time.

"Prince of the Han Dynasty, let's see how you can handle this time!"

This time, Wu Shilu personally climbed up to a nearby high ground and looked down at the battlefield below. It seemed that he had already secured victory.

"I can't wait to see you kneeling in front of me and begging for mercy."

"But you will not be shown mercy. I will turn you into a human pig just like Empress Lü of your Han dynasty. This is the result of the trouble you have brought upon me."

(End of this chapter)