Chapter 1225

Wu Zhao glanced at Gao Yang and asked, "No wonder Lord Gao is so confident."

Gao Yang took a sip of tea and said, "For the Xiongnu, weighted running is the first time they have run it; it is an interest, it is something done despite the difficulty. But for the mining soldiers, weighted running is survival, it is a profession."

"When interest and profession collide, it is not impossible to run within an hour!"

Wu Zhao's mind became clear.

She then asked, "Then what does this have to do with combat power?"

Gao Yang continued, "Your Majesty may not know, but mines are extremely difficult to exploit; it all relies on manpower, one pickaxe after another, day after day—how can their strength not be strong?"

"Furthermore, mine shafts are often long and narrow, and they have to crawl forward every day..."

Speaking of this, Gao Yang paused specifically.

He looked at Li Erji and asked, "Erji, this official asks you, you can answer boldly, no need to worry about anyone pursuing it."

"Have you killed anyone?"

As soon as Gao Yang said this.

Li Erji hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and said, "I trust Lord Gao!"

"I have killed, and quite a few!"

He grinned and laughed.

"How many did you kill?" Gao Yang pursued.

Li Erji shook his head, "I really can't remember."

The phrase "can't remember" caused everyone's expression to change slightly.

Zhao Ponu asked curiously, "But you clearly only joined the army two years ago; where did you kill them?"

Li Erji replied, "Reporting to the Grand General, disputes over mines between two places are common occurrences. Sometimes a fight lasts for several months, with thousands of casualties; that was truly a tragic battle."

"What about the local government? Does the government not care?" Wu Zhao asked.

Li Erji shook his head, "The government comes too, but they can't manage it. Involving mines, this is the lifeline of survival; one can only decide the winner by force, otherwise, the government soldiers will also be hacked to death."

"The little one remembers the biggest battle: the neighboring county heard that there was a silver mine near my home and gathered thousands of people to rob it. In that battle, my younger brother was only ten years old, and he used a sharpened bamboo pole to stab someone's big butt; both sides had hundreds of casualties."

Once these words were spoken, the eyes of Gao Tianlong and the other military generals suddenly became heated.

A battle of thousands of people—this was not small.

Furthermore, the folk were strictly forbidden from having armor and swords; most weapons were hoes and sickles, which undoubtedly made the killing more bloody.

People who could survive this, once they reached the battlefield...

Gao Yang didn't expect Li Erji to be so fierce, making Gao Tianlong and the other veteran generals look so heated.

He quickly said, "Alright, Erji, you go down first."

Although Li Erji didn't understand, he still responded.

"Yes!"

Subsequently, Li Erji went down.

At this point, everyone finally understood why Gao Yang wanted mining soldiers, and the more remote the place, the more fierce the folk customs, the more he wanted them!

Whether it was physical fitness, fighting techniques, or battlefield combat, they were all top-tier; if they went through the battlefield, they didn't even dare to imagine it.

Zhao Ponu seemed to think of something, suddenly looked at Gao Yang and said, "Kid, you want Xiongnu, and you want mining soldiers—these elites—to train, and you are spending so much blood, what kind of bad water are you brewing in your stomach? You don't want to execute special operations against the Xiongnu, do you?"