CHAPTER 1415: 1332 MIXED TROOPS

"No, we cannot fully entrust it to the people of Dahua! If they surrender, our positions will be directly torn apart!" Liu Zhian shook his head in his underground bunker, rejecting his subordinate’s suggestion.

He certainly doesn’t trust those Dahua people; they’re known for switching allegiances whenever it suits them, utterly untrustworthy.

If these rearmed Dahua troops happen to collapse and surrender, won’t the defensive line that the Qin Army painstakingly set up collapse all over again?

But no matter how this is arranged, there will always be someone dissatisfied. Liu Zhian realized that when things become complicated, he as the Commander seems to be somewhat inadequate.

Previously, he was merely commanding the Qin Army in battle, as if directing with ease, without needing to consider strange and peculiar matters. But now, it’s clearly different; the work he needs to do has multiplied.

First of all, it’s about how to coordinate the command and deployment of Dahua’s auxiliary troops. These troops mostly behave passively, only showing enthusiasm when receiving supplies.

Indeed, these troops only become very proactive when demanding things. As for combat, most of the time, they act like wise men who contribute little effort.

After all, these troops were once trained by Tang Country’s military advisors, and they are very familiar with Tang Country’s strength most of the time. They know if they resist to the end, they would only invite stronger firepower from Tang Country.

Especially those old subordinates of Zhao Yu who fought all the way from Fengjiang to the old capital, they are very aware of the Tang Army’s prowess. At that time, with the Tang Army assisting, they could not lose a single battle!

Now, Liu Zhian hopes these people will go up against the Tang Army, but it’s almost no different from wishful thinking. So he doesn’t dare let these troops act alone, as they may very likely surrender along with their weapons, equipment, map data, and even Qin Army supervisory personnel...

It’s impossible to rely on such troops for independent battle, so Liu Zhian can only honestly break them up, assigning them as reinforcement troops to all Qin Army units.

For instance, this Qin Country division has three regiments, but not anymore; it will have five regiments! The additional two regiments are filled with Dahua troops, and these troops must be dispersed and allocated to each company to ensure they won’t unite and sell out the Qin Army units.

But this approach still poses problems, a rather serious one: the Dahua soldiers, with weak combat power and fighting spirit, will negatively impact the morale of the Qin Army.

They will talk about how enticing and sufficient the Great Tang Empire’s supply goods are, describe the Tang troops as formidable, and highlight the Tang Empire’s preferential treatment for prisoners.

In short, they will share all the good aspects of the Great Tang Empire with every Qin Army soldier, and then the Qin soldiers begin spreading it among themselves, which directly leads to the collapse of Qin Army’s fighting spirit.

Ultimately, the senior Qin generals have no choice but to order the soldiers to cease discussing these matters, imposing severe punishment upon those caught.

Yet the more this happens, the worse the situation is within the troops. The added manpower seems unable to fully compensate for the decline in combat power. The result is that Qin Army’s frontline units appear massive and strong, but are actually fragile.

Just dealing with these issues has made Liu Zhian frantic, but there’s still a third problem waiting for him.

That is the issue of supply treatment: how exactly to coordinate the supplies between Qin Army units and Dahua auxiliary troops? Everyone eats, and they are not blind.

If you say simply favor some Qin Army soldiers, then the Dahua people serving alongside them in the same trench will definitely have opinions: I’m working as hard as you, yet you eat better and have more ammo? What kind of logic is this?

But if you equally distribute the supplies, the dissatisfaction reverses, with Qin Army units expressing strong discontent: We are the orthodox troops, proper Upper Three Flags, and you serve us the same food as those fools? What kind of nonsense is this?

Thus, while Liu Zhian is already nearly overwhelmed commanding battles, he still needs to deal with these petty issues, losing significant weight merely within half a month, becoming almost unrecognizable.

He has already applied to Emperor Qin Ying Duo for support, requesting the dispatch of several ministers to assist at the front lines and ease his pressures.

Yet this simple request remains unmet, as Emperor Qin Ying Duo is equally troubled, wanting to choose someone who each time encounters unexpected incidents, preventing them from fulfilling their duties at the front line.

These civil ministers are no fools; they definitely have their own thoughts: those chosen by Ying Duo are mostly moderate, lacking contributions, and not much liked by the Emperor.

Because those capable and influential, Ying Duo is reluctant to send them to the front lines since Liu Zhian has used mines at the front line, and engaging in business with him might incur Tang Country’s retaliation.

Judging from Tang Country’s attitude toward Mirage Country, as long as not involved in excessive matters, Tang Country, even if it wins momentarily, will not pursue the charges. But if you violate the treaty, no matter how distinguished you are, you will certainly face execution.

So they must distinguish themselves from Liu Zhian, and once chosen by Emperor Qin, they immediately feign illness to take leave or even resign outright. The more ruthless even self-harm, like a fracture or something to avoid disaster.

Thus, Emperor Qin becomes entangled: he genuinely worries that those ministers he values might become implicated by Liu Zhian and ultimately scrutinized by Tang Country.

Even he hasn’t noticed, subconsciously, he has begun to accept the possibility of Qin Country’s defeat, and a commander like Liu Zhian can only be held accountable for losing the war.

Therefore, Emperor Qin can only employ delaying tactics, letting Liu Zhian continue temporarily in full charge of all affairs at the front lines, appearing trustworthy but merely shifting blame.

"But General, the five additional divisions are all Dahua divisions, and if we scatter them as before, our own unit proportions will decrease again." The Chief of Staff said worriedly.

He was promoted by Liu Zhian, and since he accepted Liu Zhian’s promotion, he had been closely related to Liu Zhian. So he is very calm, unaffected at all by the landmine issue.

"...What is Chen Li doing over there? He’s mobilizing too few troops! Far too few! Have him send us the manpower we need as soon as possible! Otherwise, if there are problems, he will be the sinner of Qin Country!" Liu Zhian frowned and said.

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The second update will be very late, please watch it tomorrow morning.