Chapter 2699: Morale

General Ashina walked over and invited Zhou Man back to camp to enjoy the small stove together.

Manbao thought for a moment, then handed the remaining piece in her hand to Zhou Liru, stood up, and went with him.

She sat across from him and said, “I’m dirty, please don’t mind, General.”

General Ashina glanced at the bloodstains on her sleeve and said with a carefree smile, “Lord Zhou is too polite. If we talk of dirt, Lord Zhou cannot compare to us who fight on the battlefield. If Lord Zhou doesn’t mind us, how dare we mind you?”

General Ashina personally served Zhou Man a bowl of meat soup, “Why doesn’t Lord Zhou eat in the camp?”

Given Zhou Man’s rank, she certainly had access to her own small stove.

Manbao shook her head and said, “I’m exhausted and don’t have much of an appetite.”

Having seen too much blood and flesh, she didn’t quite feel like eating.

The somewhat appetite-lacking Zhou Man drank a bowl of meat soup, ate three steamed buns from General Ashina, shared half a plate of meat and two halves of vegetables.

General Ashina: …

After eating, Manbao put down the bowl and chopsticks, lowered her hands to do finger exercises lightly under the table. Digging out arrowheads is indeed meticulous work.

“General, how long will this battle last?”

General Ashina shook his head and said, “It’s uncertain. Liaodong City stands high and is hard to attack, with surrounding cities forming mutual defense, possibly half a month, or a month at the longest.”

Manbao widened her eyes, “Then winter will arrive.”

General Ashina said carelessly, “Rest assured, the Ministry of Revenue is already preparing winter clothing. In terms of supplies, they can’t compare with our Great Jin.”

Manbao frowned, “But we are an invading army, ultimately not matching their advantage of terrain.”

General Ashina’s lips curled slightly, “There are many enemies who think like Lord Zhou.”

Manbao: …

She always felt General Ashina was mocking her because she could hear him mock the enemies.

Manbao poured herself a bowl of tea to drink.

General Ashina said, “Lord Zhou, rest assured, we will protect the medical camp well. In the future, we request more advice from Lord Zhou.”

Manbao lifted her bowl and said, “You’re too kind, General.”

General Ashina and Zhou Man clinked bowls.

With an understanding between General Ashina and Zhou Man, they began to wholeheartedly attack the city.

He mastered the pace well, going to the city daily to curse, waiting for people to come out and fight a bit, most times without result, dragging dozens of wounded soldiers back, while the enemy’s casualties were even greater.

Three days later, General Ashina went with fewer people to curse at the city, but they had the medical camp prepare more hot water and medicine packs.

Manbao knew there would be a major battle, so in the morning as they just went out, the medical camp began preparations.

Less than two hours later, they faintly heard the sound of drums and fighting.

Manbao quickly jumped up from her spot, ran to a nearby high ground to tiptoe and look far away, seeming to see the place she stood days ago having a shout of killings.

Manbao turned and came down, happily telling Wen Tiandong, “Quickly prepare to receive the wounded.”

The garrison of Liaodong City was ambushed.

What Zhou Man didn’t know was that not only was Liaodong City’s garrison ambushed, but reinforcements from Gaimu City were also ambushed. State Duke Zhao personally led an ambush on the road, captured those coming out of the city, and then directly led troops to attack Gaimu City.

When the report reached Manbao, after thinking a bit, she pointed out Zhou Liru and Wen Tiandong, letting them bring some students to set up the medical camp, and recalled the old military doctor to manage the remaining students.

Who knows when the emperor will separate the troops to attack another place, better to save some manpower.

Manbao assigned some other students over, this time the wounded sent were much more, of course, their gains were also greater.

Any Goguryeo soldiers who chased out of the city after General Ashina were mostly captured or killed.

The military camp was bustling.

Until late at night, Manbao finally led people to handle all the wounded, then General Ashina’s vice commander came over to invite Zhou Man and others to take a look at the Goguryeo prisoners.

Manbao raised an eyebrow, took people over, treating them the same way as Great Jin soldiers.

Busy until dawn, when the sky was about to light up, she let the students go rest, planning to nap a bit before checking the injured soldiers’ condition.

After this night, the prisoners’ hatred for Great Jin diminished somewhat, General Ashina stood at the camp there looking, Manbao came out, and also looked back, asking General Ashina, “Are you trying to win them over?”

General Ashina said coldly, “This is His Majesty’s will, there is no need to specially conquer them, but they were originally Great Jin’s people.”

Manbao twitched her mouth without speaking, to the emperor, any area that was once Central Plains territory are Great Jin’s people.

Moreover, Goguryeo was originally a vassal state of Great Jin.

General Ashina said coldly, “To ordinary soldiers, they just need to live. To survive, they just need to live like humans. When they live like humans, they wish for better days, these His Majesty can give them, so no hurry.”

“As for those who are officers, disobedient ones are killed without special treatment.”

Manbao then understood, there is no need to spend too much effort on captured officers.

Manbao asked, “Don’t you need their testimony? Maybe to lure the enemy and attack a city, etc.”

General Ashina shook his head, “Goguryeo people are cunning, don’t pretend with them, His Majesty has good plans.”

Manbao stopped asking.

All the emperor’s good plans aren’t they just asking you all for them?

She turned and left, first drank a bowl of soup, munched two steamed buns, washed her face with cold water then went to check the wounded soldiers, altered a few prescriptions and let others watch over their condition, then she turned to go to sleep.

Such weariness.

It looks like later they must leave two students on duty alternately, can’t just put everyone at the front, who knows how long this eastern expedition will last, better not wear them out.

After Manbao woke up, outside was filled with shouts and laughter.

She washed her face, casually dabbed some whitening cream then went outside, to see everyone gathered around, with two foreign soldiers wrestling in the middle, surrounded by cheering and shouting people, even her female students watched with relish.

Seeing their teacher come over, they immediately stepped up to greet.

Manbao stood with hands clasped, and asked, “Why are they wrestling?”

“There’s also sparring with weapons,” Suye smiled broadly, “General Ashina organized the contests, saying the winner will be rewarded with ten strings of coins.”

Manbao exclaimed, “So generous?”

Manbao looked around slowly and realized, despite just having gone through a big battle, morale seemed to be very high.

Indeed morale was high, first, since they came out there haven’t been any defeats, second, they’ve captured two cities, this time the casualties were not large, third, with the medical camp here, the survival rate of the wounded was higher than ever, fourth, the Grand Medical Office’s female students were present.

During this time, quite a few clutching their belly or arm or leg and crying in pain ran to the medical camp wanting to get medicine.

General Ashina also had ulterior motives, therefore had unmarried soldiers wrestle and duel, to appear confident and strong in the girls’ presence, if they could marry them back to the foreign lands…