Chapter 43: General

"Why are you all here?" Wang Yao gently pushed Maomao away and looked at his teammates in surprise. According to Luna, the mission of the vanguard unit was over, and they should have returned to the base camp by now!
"Hey, hey, what's with that expression? Are you unhappy to see us?" Shi Liang came closer and glared at Wang Yao fiercely with his green eyes.

Wang Yao was stunned for a moment, then he turned cold and glared back: "No, if you weren't here, I'd still be very happy."

The two of them just stood there, like yaks that disliked each other, craning their necks and staring at each other.

After a while, Shi Liang's stern expression suddenly relaxed, and then a smile uncontrollably crept up to the corner of his mouth. Wang Yao did the same. The two of them suddenly looked at each other and burst into laughter.

"I didn't expect you to be still alive. Your vitality is comparable to that of a cockroach!" Shi Liang was as sharp-tongued as ever, but his enthusiastic pat on the shoulder could not conceal his sincerity.

Just like Maomao said before, he is just a little mean, but he is not a bad person!
"Don't worry, I will definitely be the one who dies after you!" Wang Yao laughed and retorted rudely. Then he turned to Maomao and asked, "By the way, you haven't told me why you came here? I thought you went back."

"After you fell into the jungle and lost contact, Lady Luna rushed to rescue you as soon as she heard the news. The captain said that if you were okay, you would definitely return to the top lane, so let us follow the top lane to find you. Unexpectedly, the captain's guess was right. You really returned to the top lane from the jungle!" Maomao grinned, as if he had not yet recovered from the joy of finding teammates.

Xiao Ye at the side also came up and said, "You have been missing for two days, and the captain has been very worried about you. Although the mission of the vanguard unit has been completed, you could have followed the unit back to Jingzhou to recuperate, but the captain still dragged us back to the road to find you."

It turned out to be the case.

Hearing this, Wang Yao immediately turned his attention to Su An: "I'm sorry, Captain, I've troubled you these past two days."

The experienced and steady Su An did not show too much emotional reaction like others. He just glanced at the armor-piercing bow on Wang Yao's back without leaving a trace, and then said meaningfully: "As long as you are still alive." Then, his face became serious, and he turned back to the silent 2 Da and said: "Don't you have anything to say to Wang Yao?"

The crowd, who were originally immersed in joy, suddenly lost their smiles as if they were poured with a bucket of cold water.

Sensing the sudden strange atmosphere, Wang Yao couldn't help but whisper to Maomao beside him: "What's wrong? What did Erda do?"

Maomao secretly glanced at Su An's back, then leaned close to Wang Yao's ear and said, "The captain said that the reason you fell into danger this time was all due to Erda's fault. You don't know that when the captain learned that you fell into the wild area two days ago, he slapped Erda hard and even deducted his salary for this month."

“No way?” Wang Yao was confused. Is 2 Cheng the scapegoat?

"That's nothing. The main reason is that the captain blocked the proposal of the military high-level officials to promote 2da. As you know, this time when we met the heroes of Wei State, not only did more than half of our vanguard troops suffer casualties, but even the leaders above the rank of sergeant suffered heavy losses. 2da has been a veteran for almost three years. In terms of military merit, he is no worse than any other soldier. He had great hope of taking this opportunity to be promoted to management, but he missed the chance because of this incident," Maomao said softly with red eyes.

Wang Yao was stunned. He knew that Erda’s dream was to become a hero and a senior general of the legion one day, but now he missed the opportunity for promotion because of him.

In fact, to put it bluntly, the reason why they went deep into the enemy-controlled area two days ago was just the result of a group of young people being angry with each other. 2da took the blame simply because he was the temporary captain of the team at the time and had joint responsibility, but strictly speaking, the fault was not entirely on 2da!

We have to find a way to help 2da.

After pondering for a moment, Wang Yao suddenly had an idea.

At this time, Erda had already walked over. He looked at Wang Yao with apology and said, "I'm sorry, Yao, I was reckless the other day. I have always felt very guilty about it. I shouldn't have taken you to take risks, and I shouldn't have questioned your guess."

Before he could finish his words, 2da stopped because Wang Yao raised his hand to stop him.

"No need to say anything." Staring at Erda's surprised eyes, Wang Yao smiled: "I still remember that when Fulongpo was besieged by the black army, you said that you were very happy to have me and Shi Liang by your side at the last moment. Today, I want to return this sentence to you, brother, I am very happy to fight side by side with you! I don't blame you!"

2Da was stunned. He looked at Wang Yao with a bright smile. Unconsciously, his eyes became slightly hot and blurred. He suddenly remembered the scene of the three of them fighting the enemy back to back. He also remembered the scene of them standing on Fulong Slope, laughing and giving the middle finger to the black soldiers below the slope. Although he lost the promotion opportunity he had longed for, at this moment, he did not feel any regret in his heart. Instead, he felt relieved because he had been forgiven by Wang Yao.

Patting Erda's shoulder vigorously, Wang Yao walked to Suan's side, stared into Suan's eyes and said, "Captain, this matter is not Erda's fault. Please don't blame him."

Su An looked at Wang Yao. Then he said in a deep voice: "He is the captain and should be fully responsible for all consequences. This is also the system of the army. If the person who made the mistake is not punished, how can we convince the others? How can we let the person who made the mistake learn from it in the future? Forgiveness sometimes hurts others. I did this just to teach Erda a lesson. This time, because of his recklessness, you can be put in danger. Then next time, he may put an army in an irreversible desperate situation. Have you considered this?" "The captain has good intentions, I understand." Wang Yao nodded, but then changed the subject and said: "Then please punish me too."

"Do you know what you are saying?" Su An's face flashed with a trace of anger. "I might as well tell you that this war has caused the death of more than half of the management personnel of our vanguard troops. At this time, the soldiers at the bottom have the greatest chance of promotion, and you are no exception. Do you mean to say that you want to give up your future because of Erda?"

Wang Yao smiled helplessly and said, "It can't be helped. I am just following your instructions, Captain."

Under Su An's slightly surprised gaze, Wang Yao turned around and looked at his teammates, and said slowly: "Remember when I first came to the 20th team, I was late, so everyone was punished to run 2 laps of the rocky hill. At that time, you said that because we are a team, today, da made a mistake. As his teammate, shouldn't I accept all the punishments with him?"

Su An was speechless. Although he knew that Wang Yao was making excuses, he just couldn't find any reason to refute!
Erda next to him looked at Wang Yao in a daze. He seemed to understand the intention of Wang Yao's words.

On the other side, Ono secretly bumped Shi Liang's shoulder, then turned back to look at Maomao, and the three of them smiled at each other.

"Captain, A Yao is right!"

"Promotion is a joke! We in Team 17 don't care about it!"

"If you want to punish Erda, please punish us as well! Captain, you said this, because we are a team, a team!"

Looking at the subordinates who were instigated and Wang Yao's cunning eyes, Su An couldn't help but glared at Wang Yao fiercely.

This kid actually knows how to take advantage of the loophole of "the law does not punish everyone" and play a psychological game with him! If it is just to punish 2 Da alone, it is not difficult. After all, 2 Da is a rare good seedling and is still young. It is not a bad thing to keep him by his side for more training. But now everyone is petitioning to be punished together under Wang Yao's deliberate instigation, which makes him very embarrassed.

Not to mention Wang Yao, who was personally recommended by him to the highest level, as for Maomao, Shi Liang and Ono, the shortest of them has been with him is only more than a year, but their qualifications are limited. Even if they follow him for a longer time, there will not be much room for improvement. In this case, it is better to let them leave him early and go to a higher position to overlook the more distant scenery.

A good leader will not hinder his subordinates from pursuing a bright future.

But now, Wang Yao has posed a difficult problem to himself. As the saying goes, the law does not punish everyone. In this situation, he can either withdraw all punishments against Erda, or stick to his own opinion and punish everyone together. But can he bear to ruin the future of these children?
Could not bear.

No one is heartless, and after being together for so long, these young people are like his own children. He hopes from the bottom of his heart that they can thrive under his protection, and then when they are fully grown, he will let them fly freely and see the world beyond.

This is his wish and his duty.

I have to say that Wang Yao hit his soft spot beautifully and grasped his own psychology accurately. He was sure that he would not be so cruel as to ruin everyone's future, so he thought of using "the law does not punish the masses" to force himself to eliminate the punishment on Erda, right?
This brat, I never thought he was so cunning and skilled in the art of doing evil!

Silently looking at his subordinates with stubborn faces for a long time, Su An sighed softly. He turned his head and said solemnly to 2 Da: "A friend of mine once gave me a sentence, that is, a general should know the strengths and weaknesses of people before learning the art of using troops. I am passing this sentence to you now, and I hope you will remember it."

After saying that, Su An turned around and looked at Wang Yao deeply: "You too."

"I remember it!" Wang Yao nodded with a smile, and then asked expectantly, "What about him?"

"I will resubmit his promotion application, but he can forget about getting his salary this month!" After simply saying this, Su An turned and left, ignoring his subordinates who were excitedly gathered together and cheering.

"I'm going to go say hello to Luna. The vanguard unit has completed its mission. The main force will take over the rest of the war. We can go home now!"

With his back to the excited teammates, Su An, who had been looking gloomy for the past two days, unconsciously smiled.

　Thanks to "箐鬆" and "永生" for their tips. I want to say something here. I know that I update very slowly, but I am not afraid of being laughed at. In fact, it takes me more than 4 hours to write each chapter on average, and these hours are the most time I can squeeze out every day. It is really not that I am lazy and inactive on purpose.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)