Chapter 1596 Creating Panic
Cheng Chuliang was idle, Su Dingfang was a little slower, but the general situation was similar to Cheng Chuliang's. They blew up the city wall tonight, but the looting was much more than Cheng Chuliang's. Cheng Chuliang only found about 800,000 strings of money, but Su Dingfang found nearly 2 million strings of money.
Of course, this is related to the different sizes of the cities. Another reason is that Su Dingfang acted faster. His men directly occupied the official warehouses and did not let these people set them on fire. Cheng Chuliang's official warehouses were burned down, which was also a reason for the reduction in income.
Su Dingfang also captured more than 100 local government officials, but these people were useless. Su Dingfang did not have the time to distinguish them. Anyway, there were no high officials, so he simply treated them as labor. He gathered more than 5,000 laborers, some of whom were willing to surrender to the Tang Dynasty, and some were unwilling.
Anyway, Su Dingfang didn't care so much, and tied them up directly with hemp rope. In the Tang army, hemp rope can be said to be the second most important material after food and munitions. This thing is very useful for the Tang army. If you don't have this thing, you can't control a large number of prisoners.
When you can't control the prisoners, either bury them alive or escort them back to the rear, but if you have hemp rope, one person can at least watch over hundreds of people, this is the power of hemp rope.
The supply team that transported supplies to the two armies was also dumbfounded. We just drove more than 80 carts here. After handing the things over to you, we originally wanted to transport these gold and silver treasures out. When you came, you didn't say there were so many prisoners.
After much persuasion, the two generals agreed to leave 100 soldiers. They only had 10,000 people. If they left 100 soldiers every time, there would be many cities ahead. Did they let us divide all the people for you?
But the supply team only has about 200 people, and more than 50 of them are not combatants.
They are specialized in driving carriages. Although they are equipped with weapons and have received military training, their combat effectiveness is not much stronger than that of ordinary people. If you ask them to manage more than 100 prisoners, then you really overestimate them.
But now that the battle has reached this point, these people also understand one thing. These young and strong people are very important. After we take it down, we must build roads. To build these roads, at least dozens of lives will be paid for each kilometer. The prisoners on both sides add up to less than 10,000 people, and they can only build less than a few hundred miles of roads. How can this be enough?
So Cheng Chuliang and Su Dingfang both understand that labor is very important now. You can't kill them just by saying so, nor can you drive them away just because you want to. If we are a little more timid here, we will be able to have more people to build roads in the future. Only when the roads are built can we establish contact with the rear.
Having fought with Li Xiang for a long time, I naturally know the role of cement roads. Now most of the traffic arteries in the Tang Dynasty are built with cement roads. With this thing, the distance traveled per hour can be increased a lot, otherwise you just wait.
Now there are many coal mines and cement factories in various parts of the Tang Dynasty. If there were no them, there would probably not be so many cement roads.
Because of the large amount of cement used, building houses and the like has not been popularized, mainly because the amount of cement is not enough.
Li Xiang in the rear finally received the report from the two generals. There was no smile on his face before. Although he can't be said to be a group of geese now, he is also very happy. At least the current policy can make the Arab Empire feel the pain.
When we retreated before, in addition to being confused in strategy, the most important thing was that we didn't know what to do next. This is a very dangerous thing. So many troops gathered in the Western Regions. If we don't know anything, it will be really troublesome. Now we finally know what to do next.
Li Xiang will continue to build military stations on the way forward, and station troops and supplies in these places, move all the Western Regions to Afghanistan, and build a large number of military stations in Afghanistan to support the military operations of the two generals. At the same time, a large number of laborers can be dispersed, and they don’t have to be transported back to Duhufu.
Zhang Jiuli and Xiao Shougui have calculated that if all these people are transported back, the safety problem on the road is really terrible. Another thing is that too much water and food are consumed. It is better to arrange them to work locally. Anyway, we have to build a large number of military stations. Let these people work on the spot. We only need to send people to deliver various materials to them. You know, those materials are dead and will not cause trouble on the road.
But these prisoners of war are alive. If they cause trouble for you, then some things are really hard to say. So in this situation, the safest thing is that we transport the dead things over and leave these living things in place, try to reduce their running around, and reduce the chance of riots on the road.
Li Xiang quickly adopted the strategy of these two people, and let these young and middle-aged people disperse on the spot and wait at the location of the military station. When our logistics personnel delivered various construction materials, they had to start working. Of course, the selected military stations were all near water sources, so there was no need to worry about drinking water.
Of course, we cannot rule out that some people here will take risks. If you have such an idea, don't blame us for being rude. Most of the people here are from the battlefield. If you have other ideas, our swords will not dare to drink your blood. Anyway, the court will not pursue us. Everything is based on stability.
As for Cheng Chuliang and Su Dingfang, after a simple repair, the two of them immediately rushed to the new city. They also knew what Li Xiang was thinking. It is estimated that new troops will come soon, also in units of 10,000 people, running around in the entire Arab Empire, in order to turn the central and northern regions into a mess.
When the Arab Empire comes to its senses, it is estimated that dozens of cities in the central and northern regions will be gone, and these dozens of cities will have millions of refugees. They will run south like crazy, causing the central and southern regions of the Arab Empire to fall into chaos. The original trick to deal with the Tang Dynasty will be returned to you intact. (End of this chapter)