The Three Kingdoms: I asked you to save Guan Yu, not to destroy Sun Quan.

Chapter 675 Guan Xing's Lecture

After listening, Guan Xing couldn't help but give Sun Lang a thumbs up. As expected of a seasoned bandit, his experience in escaping was incredibly rich, so rich that even Guan Xing couldn't find fault with it.

Guan Xing coughed to draw everyone's attention to him, then asked, "Sun Lang's experience can be summarized in three points: First, stay away from crowds and avoid acquaintances and informants to prevent betrayal; second, find food—wild game, insects, tree bark, grass roots—do everything possible to fill your stomach and maintain your strength; and finally, identify herbs to heal your own wounds. Do you have any objections?"

Everyone fell silent; they had no experience with Sun Lang's escape and could not offer any advice on the matter.

Guan Xing then asked, "Is there anyone who wants to ask a question? You can raise your hand to speak."

Li Gousheng raised his hand to stand up, bowed to Liu Chan and Guan Xing, and then asked, "May I ask, Commandant Sun, if you still can't shake off the pursuers or heal your injuries after doing the three things you mentioned?"

Sun Lang spread his hands and said, "Then just accept your fate. Human strength has its limits. Do what you can, and leave the rest to fate. To be honest, whether you can escape in this situation depends on luck."

Luck is also a part of strength. Sometimes, the key to escaping is that bit of luck. If you have it, you live; if you don't, you die. But luck is something uncontrollable, so you can't rely on it too much. You have to do your best before luck comes your way.

Seeing that everyone had fallen silent, Guan Xing said, "I'll give you 25 minutes to discuss the topic we just talked about, have a brainstorming session, and summarize the lessons learned."

The soldiers quickly gathered together and began discussing in groups of ten. Being young men, their discussions were naturally very heated, and soon turned into arguments.

Guan Xing did not stop them; the heated discussion showed that everyone had their own opinions, as long as they didn't fight.

After a quarter of an hour of discussion, class resumed. Guan Xing looked at the students, who were arguing heatedly and their faces were red with anger, and said, "You've argued and cursed, so you must all have your own ideas. But what we just talked about was a scenario of someone escaping for their life alone. It's true that you did that when you're escaping for your life alone, but what if you had hundreds or thousands of subordinates with you?"

"To give a simple example, suppose you are a battalion commander leading seven or eight hundred men. After a fierce battle, only half or even less of your men have been killed. And you are being relentlessly pursued by an enemy force several times your size. How would you lead your troops to escape the pursuers and survive?"

Li Gousheng raised his hand and said, "I know this. We need to conduct mobile warfare, get ourselves moving first, lead the enemy by the nose and drag them along, then find a way to make them split up, and then concentrate our superior forces to defeat them one by one."

He fought guerrilla warfare with Guan Xing in Jiangdong and learned a little bit about it.

Guan Xing laughed and said, "The method is correct, but how do you guarantee the supply of food, how do you maintain morale, how do you ensure that no deserters will appear in the ranks, and how do you ensure that deserters who leave you will not report you to the enemy?"

"This..." Li Gousheng was stumped by the question. After thinking for a while, he weakly asked, "How about we give everyone a lesson in ideology?"

Guan Xing laughed and said, "We can't even afford to eat, and the pursuers are right behind us. We could be dead in the next instant. Who has the mind to listen to your nonsense in this situation?"

Li Gousheng was speechless when asked the question. After a long period of contemplation, he finally asked, "Then what should we do? We can't just surrender, can we?"

Guan Xing said, "If this situation really occurs, the first thing to ensure is the purity of the team. My method is to first explain the reasons to the soldiers, then let those who want to leave go, and then lead those who stay to continue."

"Remember that the more dangerous the situation, the more you must abandon dictatorship, respect public opinion, and reach a consensus with your soldiers. You must never use harsh measures to oppress deserters, because people have a rebellious mentality. The more you suppress them, the more they will hate you and the more likely they are to betray you at critical moments."

"On the contrary, if you respect their opinions and take the initiative to let them leave, they may be reluctant to leave, and even if they leave, they will remember your kindness."

"Not only that, letting these weak-willed people go can reduce the number of people in the team and reduce the burden on the team. More importantly, the risk of betrayal is smaller if the weak-willed people leave. Under such circumstances, those who are willing to stay and fight with you are basically those with firm minds. You can then conduct ideological education on them and pay close attention to their thoughts to stabilize morale. As long as morale is stabilized and you don't collapse, you will have a chance to escape even if you face a powerful enemy. Do you understand?"

Everyone nodded in agreement. Shu Ma Zhong raised his hand and said, "Marquis Shence, you just said that when facing pursuers, we should respect the will of the people and reduce the size of the army to reduce the burden on the troops and maintain their purity. I think that makes a lot of sense. But what if doing this leads to another situation? What if we just give the order to let the soldiers leave, and they all run away in a flash?"

Guan Xing laughed and said, "Then you're a complete failure as a person. The problem is, if you're such a failure as a person, you can't build a team either. So it's impossible for everyone to run away. Even if only ten people are left out of a hundred, those ten are your most loyal comrades. They are part of the framework of the army. As long as the framework of the army is intact, the organization can be quickly restored after the crisis is over. That's a good thing. To put it another way, if everyone really runs away and you're the only one left, then it proves that you're not suitable to be a general. You should change careers as soon as possible."

Hahahaha...

This remark caused everyone to burst into laughter.

Guan Xing raised his hand to stop their laughter and continued, "Remember, everyone, the purpose of our team is to fight the enemy. Since it is war, there will be casualties and betrayals. You have a thousand soldiers under your command, but after a big battle, there may be half left. Then you have to recruit new people and sacrifice again and again. Although it may sound a bit discouraging, remember that no path in life is wasted. Every step is meaningful. Even if you fail, you can still gain experience."

"Take the previous topic for example. You had a thousand soldiers, but the enemy defeated you and reduced you to half. You fled in panic, and during the escape, you scattered another group. When you finally escaped the pursuit, you only had ten men left. Those ten steadfast comrades are your greatest gain in this battle. If you recruit another thousand men to continue fighting, and once again you are defeated and reduced to only a dozen or so, adding the ten men from last time, wouldn't you have twenty men? Wouldn't your army have expanded?"

"If we persist in this way a few more times, won't our ranks grow larger and larger, our reputation rise higher and higher, and recruiting soldiers become easier and easier? We are not like Xiang Yu, the innately strong general, nor are we like Huo Qubing, the military god who reached his peak at the outset and won every battle. We are just ordinary people. If ordinary people want to stand out, they can only accumulate experience and strength little by little by stepping on the lessons of failure. Today, we don't need to be much stronger than yesterday. Being a little stronger is a victory. Be a little stronger tomorrow than today, and a little stronger the day after tomorrow. If we persist, we will find that we are much stronger than we were back then when we look back in three to five years."

"In short, there are no shortcuts in the lives of ordinary people like us. The only shortcut is to choose a path and persevere in walking it."

Shu Ma Zhong raised his hand again and said, "I have another question. In this situation, is it possible to do the opposite, expand the force instead of downsizing, bluff to scare the enemy, and thus slow down their pursuit, or even make them retreat?"

Guan Xing laughed and said, "Bluster is also a common tactic in military strategy. It can be used if conditions permit, but it cannot be relied upon. Because what is fake is ultimately fake. If the enemy sees through it, you will be the one who dies."

"Furthermore, let me ask you this: it's not impossible for you to expand your forces and make a show of force, but where will the additional soldiers come from? You're being chased all over the mountains by the enemy, who would want to join you? Even if someone did join you, would you trust them? In that situation, even your own old troops were thinking of leaving you to find another way to make a living, let alone strangers who rashly come to join you. What is their purpose in joining you at this time? Do you think they want to go into exile with you, or do they want to sell you out for military merit?"

"This..." Shu Ma Zhong was stunned by the question and was speechless for a moment.