"Today is the first day of October, the Qin New Year, and Lingnan has entered the dry season, but why does it keep raining?"
In Guilin, the base camp of the South Expeditionary Army on the West Road, with the continuous rain, the outside of the city has become a land of marshes, with beautiful picturesque mountains, like small islands standing on the sea.
In Zhao Tuo's eyes, the Qin army was the same, separated by a sea of Vietnamese people and jungles, and could only fight on their own.
"Too urgent."
Zhao Tuo sighed sadly as he recalled what had happened in the past few months.
The Western Route Army in Xi'ou was roughly divided into two camps, one in Guilin and the other in Cangwu. In April and May, General Tu used General Jia's plan to burn fire all over Xi'ou, because the Qin army carefully dug fire prevention
Gouqu, Guilin, and the Pingba area around Cangwu were almost burned to a white ground. It was not until the rainy season came that the fire gradually subsided, and the deeper rainforest was more difficult to ignite.
After all, manpower is no match for the sky. The area burned by the Qin army is less than one ten thousandth of the entire Lingnan dense forest. Once the rainy season is over, the area that was burned will be covered with green again. The natural healing speed is far beyond what ordinary people can imagine.
think……
But the effect was very good. Without the cover of the woods, the Ou people's attack was exposed to the Qin army's view. The Qin people were no longer passively beaten. They killed thousands of Ou people and forced them to return to the jungle. The army was able to live in peace for a few years.
months.
But immediately, Tu Sui ordered the troops stationed in the two places to set off again and continue to move south!
This order caused an uproar. The soldiers were generally unwilling to go south and complained that the military officials were too harsh and did not care about their lives.
The military officials complained that the general's strategy was too hasty. Before the army could gain a firm foothold in Xi'ou, they planned to attack Luo Yue, but they could not see the low morale in midsummer.
But as a captain, Zhao Tuo knew that there was nothing Tu Sui could do. Before starting the war against Baiyue, he boasted to Qin Shi Huang about Haikou, which would "pacify Yue in two years." The emperor hated breach of trust and procrastination, and the deadline was getting closer and closer.
, Tu Sui's military deployment became more and more impatient. He burned several forests and killed thousands of Xiou people, then announced that Xiou was secured and personally led his army deep into the dangers.
"Split your troops into two groups and fight to the north to celebrate the New Year!"
This was Tu Sui's plan. Unfortunately, the fire failed to burn all the Xiou people to death, let alone their determination to resist.
Just when Qin Guilin's army passed through the mountains at the junction of Xiou and Luoyue, and the troops were stretched into a long snake, they were attacked by this group of natives in the dense forest. The Luoyue people also moved forward to cover up the enemy, and the Qin army was attacked from both sides.
The formation, chariots and cavalry were of no use and were temporarily frustrated.
That's all. What's terrible is that when Tu Sui was observing the mountain, a bamboo arrow shot by a Yue hunter hiding in a tree scratched Tu Sui's skin.
The tip of the arrow was soaked in poison, and Tu Sui foamed at the mouth on the spot. After returning to the camp, he began to have a high fever, and then his skin ulcerated and he was unable to do anything.
Without the general, the army was also in disarray. Thanks to Zhao Tuo's presence, he discussed with the captains to withdraw the troops first and returned to Guilin despite the Yue attack. Tu Sui also died of a poisonous attack while crossing the Liujiang River.
Very unwilling to do so.
Fortunately, the Guilin Army's 20,000 men only lost three or four thousand because they withdrew in time. But the Cangwu Army's 10,000 men were even more miserable.
The two armies were hundreds of miles apart, and it was difficult to communicate with each other in the deep mountains and old forests. When Cangwu's army arrived at the agreed rendezvous point "Xiangdi" (Chongzuo, Guangxi), they learned of the defeat of the main force. They had to fight with Luo Yue and the Xiou people.
Under the nuisance of others, he began to turn back thousands of miles...
Next, Zhao Tuo didn't know the fate of Cangwu's army. A total of 10,000 people disappeared into the mountains. For two whole months, there was no news.
At this moment, a group of people braved the rain and rode to the gate of Guilin Village. It was Zhao Tuo's leader Hu Hui. He was sent by Zhao Tuo to Cangwu to deliver the news a month ago. He came back at this time.
There must be news about a biased teacher!
"How is it?" Zhao Tuo hurriedly came down from the sentry tower and went up to ask as soon as the city gate opened.
"It's too awful."
Hu Hui wiped the rain off his face and sighed: "The last group of people has returned to Cangwu. We counted the number of people and found that there were 10,000 people, but seventy-eight out of ten died!"
…
"Where are the hands? Where are those hands?"
In Cangwu, five hundred miles away from Guilin, the first thing centurion Chen Ying did when he woke up was to see if the dozens of hands with only bones left in his basket were still there...
There is not a single one left, they are all gone!
He immediately grabbed his subordinate Zhang Jia and questioned him loudly!
"The medical officer said that bringing them in would spread the disease, so they let us get burned."
His commander Zhang Jia said this, not daring to look at Chen Ying, but just picked up a dusty pottery urn and handed it to him.
"They are all inside..."
"It's good to be able to return home and be buried."
Chen Ying was helpless and asked: "How many of us are still alive?"
Shi Chang gritted his teeth: "Nineteen!"
"nineteen!?"
Chen Ying was stunned for a long time, burst into tears, and couldn't help cursing:
"A total of one hundred of my men died in Cangwu. Thirty of them died from injuries and illnesses. They followed the captain to attack Luo Yue. They were blocked and returned, and more than fifty of them died. These eighty people are all sons of the Dongyang Party.
, I, Chen Ying, were trusted by the county people, so they elected me to be an official, but now eight out of ten have died, how will I explain to my father and brothers when I go back!"
The past few months have been Chen Ying’s nightmare, something he will never forget:
The war has no end. After Cangwu is captured, there are still new areas in the south waiting for the Qin army to occupy and conquer.
It was not easy when we went there. The fire did not spread to the mountains and forests farther south. The march was extremely slow. The soldiers had to crawl hard while stumbling. Sometimes they walked less than ten miles a day. The forest became denser and denser, and they had to use machetes while walking.
open circuit.
After finally arriving at the agreed meeting point, there was no trace of friendly troops. There were only broken tents and military flags, and the roar of giant beasts in the distance...
The Guilin army lost its main general and suffered a lot under the attack of the Yue people, so it had to retreat in a hurry. They managed to save themselves, but they suffered a great loss from the Cangwu army. When the Cangwu army arrived at the mountains known as "Xiangdi"
At that time, what greeted them was an ambush from the Luo Yue people, spearmen riding elephants...
Although elephants often appear in the Chu region, they are wild beasts. They occasionally trample crops in the villages near the forest. But Lingnan is different. The Luo Yue people were once the leaders of the "Twelve Kingdoms". The main reason is that they have mastered a unique skill.
:Tame the elephant!
This was also the first time that the Qin army encountered the elephant soldiers. Although Luo Yue did not have strong armor and powerful crossbows, the sight of the running giant beast scared the Qin people and their horses fled in all directions. The world was shaking, and their minds were gradually losing balance. The purpose of the soldiers was
The mouth is dumb and there is no fighting spirit.
During the battle at Xiangdi, the forwards of the Qin army were defeated. The captain of Cangwu County did not see the Guilin army coming to join them for a long time. He expected that they were defeated and began to withdraw his troops.
But this withdrawal forced the Qin army into hell...
The Luo Yue people were chasing after them, and in the dense forest on the left and right, the Xiou people were harassing and attacking, but they never showed their faces. Only the Qin people fell down after being hit by arrows, and those who chased into the forest angrily never came back.
…
During the continuous fighting, the captain of the Qin army died in a night attack, and the remaining troops began to break up and run away, running around in the southeast and northwest. When daybreak, Chen Ying found that they had lost their way and were in an unfamiliar jungle.
After groping for half a day, they finally returned to the original trail. This group of straggler Qin troops was gathered up again by a commander. There were 2,000 people. Seeing that they could not find their superior commanders, they could only hug each other and walk north.
.
On the way north, thousands of wandering soul-like teams were meandering. In the vast primeval forest, fragments of sunlight fell on the ground from the gaps in the leaves. Under people's feet, there was a smell of fallen leaves and rotten tree trunks.
Stink.
In July and August in Lingnan, it is sometimes sunny and sometimes rainy. Sometimes, the scorching sun bakes the earth like a steamer, and the suffocation in the forest makes one suffocate. The clothes that have not been washed for a month cling to the body. Due to excessive sweating, the soldiers
The mouth is dry and bitter, the root of the tongue sticks to the roof of the mouth, and fire can burst out of the throat. When encountering water in the forest, you rush to drink it.
As a result, at night, they all had stomach upsets and continued diarrhea. By daybreak, more than a dozen people had died, and the rest were covered in filth and were limp and unable to walk.
As the roar of the elephant behind them got closer and closer, everyone had to leave the seriously ill person behind. After learning their lesson, they only dared to drink living water.
There is also rain.
The weather is unpredictable, and the rainy season is coming again. The dense forest that blocks the sun cannot stop the rain from pouring down. The sky seems to have been pierced, and the jungle has turned into a swamp. The soldiers lack rain gear and have nowhere to hide, so they can only let it go.
its wash away.
The soft soil has been soaked by rain, making it even more difficult to walk. When you step on it, the soft mud reaches the top of your feet, as if you are stuck in a swamp. More and more people are falling behind, and the marching sequence and troop organization are also disrupted, with various units mixed together.
, head down and rush forward.
But despair continued, and flash floods destroyed the road they came from. The Qin army had to change its route. They began to get lost and wandered in the forest all day long.
The Xiou people, covered in mud paint, still appear from time to time, like ghosts, killing several people and then leaving. Their harassment caused a large number of casualties, but more people were killed by the "mountain forest".
Leeches are rare before it rains. After the rain, leeches are everywhere, constantly attacking people. The dry leeches in Lingnan are as small as embroidery needles when they are not sucking human blood. They suck one end on the grass or leaves, and the other end.
Hanging in the air to search, Qin soldiers wiped grass or leaves while walking, and it immediately adsorbed on clothes or hands and feet. At first, no one felt it, but when others saw the reminder, the locust had sucked blood and was as long as an inch thick.
Terrible and terrifying!
It’s already so difficult during the day, and it’s even more terrifying in the primeval forest at night. Mosquitoes hiding in the grass during the day rush towards us. Giant mosquitoes are the size of dragonflies and make a low buzzing sound when they fly. No matter how you drive them away, they will wait for an opportunity.
Return. The sharp and hard long mouth pierces the human body. In a moment, the withered belly can be filled into a bright red blood cell, and a big bump immediately forms in the place where it was stabbed, which is painful and itchy.
Mosquitoes are the carriers of disease transmission. At this time, truly unexpected and terrible disasters in the tropical rain forest also followed: athlete's foot, scrub typhus, rash, typhoid, malaria, dysentery, ruthlessly tormenting this army every day,
Let all lives fall by the wayside.
When Chen Ying and others found the road heading north again, they found that there were signs of the evacuation of friendly forces: dozens of corpses could be seen every day, usually single ones, while in the campsite attacked by the Ouyue people, they were in a continuous mass.
Heaps of corpses gathered together.
When a person first dies, his skin color is pale. Two days later, the body is swollen due to extreme sun exposure and rainwater, and the skin turns black, ulcerated and pus-filled. Then, flies swarm and the body is covered with maggots or ants, and soon only one remains.
Frame white bones.
The army had been without food for a month at this time. There were hundreds of pack horses for the first battle. After entering the mountains, they were slaughtered and eaten every day. Occasionally, they shot wild beasts to the teeth. Most of the time, they only relied on wild vegetables, bamboo shoots, plantains, etc. to satisfy their hunger. There was really nothing to eat.
, moss can also be put into the mouth, and then the cold water is filled into the intestines and stomach until the person is so hungry that he feels dizzy, his eyes are filled with stars, and his legs are trembling.
In order to survive, some people secretly cut off the flesh of dead people on the roadside to satisfy their hunger...
Chen Ying and his men also ate. Perhaps as retribution, the chief of the village who ate the most became ill. He, who was originally strong, often suddenly fell to the ground, groaned, trembled, and shed tears, but as long as he lay on the ground for half an hour, he would automatically get rid of it.
, I can continue to walk, but I can no longer eat, and I will vomit after eating even a little bit.
As the condition worsened, Tuen Chang's attacks became more and more serious, and the intervals became shorter and shorter. Finally, he collapsed to the ground. Chen Ying and the others kept pulling and pulling, but he couldn't walk anymore.
Before he died, the village chief burst into tears and said that even if he starved to death, he should not eat human flesh. He pointed to Dongyang tremblingly and said intermittently:
"Baichang, I really want to go home!"
The crowd didn't even have time to bury the body, so they could only push him into the deep stream.
By this time, Chen Ying's men were dead and scattered, and there were only more than twenty left. The people of Chu had a rule: a fox dies on its head, and a man returns home after death.
Before he died, his subordinates told Chen Ying that since the body could not be brought back, they would cut off their hands and tie them up, hoping that they could be taken back to their hometown for burial.
So, every time a person died, Chen Ying cut off his hand, burned it with fire, and put it in the basket on his back. Every few dozen miles he walked, an extra hand would appear...
The extremely low morale also spread among the team like a plague. They had walked for who knows how long and how far, but they were just stumbling forward subconsciously.
Chen Ying counted silently, and when there were ten dead hands in the basket on his back, the group finally returned to the sentry point controlled by the Qin Army!
The leader of the outpost looked at this group of Qin soldiers walking out of the mountains and forests in surprise. They were unkempt, skinny, and not human-like. They could only support each other and stumble forward.
Chen Ying only remembered what the leader said to them.
"It's been almost three months, and you are still able to come out alive!"
They are the last batch of soldiers out of the ten thousand people in Cangwu's army to walk out of this green ghost!
After Chen Ying devoured a meal, he fell asleep. In his dream, he was still trudging in the forest, desperately trying to crawl out of a deep quagmire filled with bones and human heads, but withered hands were pulling at him.
Holding his clothes, the souls of those who had died were howling loudly at him:
"Baichang! I want to go home too!"
After waking up, they were sent back to Cangwu, only to find that only nineteen people were left in the camp that was once full of people!
When Cangwu's army marched in, it was vast and winding, but when it came out, there were only a handful of them. Of the ten thousand, only two thousand survived!
The eyes of the living people were empty, and they still had not recovered from the nightmare experience, and some even murmured to themselves:
"Did Emperor Qin deliberately let us people from Chu land come south to die?"
…
After listening to the leader's report, Zhao Tuo was silent. The commander was killed in the front, and Cangwu's army also suffered heavy losses in the back. This meant that Tu's plan to pacify Xiou and attack Luo Yue ended in failure. Even he
I also called in.
The leader said: "Captain, what should we do now? If Xiou and Luo Yue jointly attack, should we withdraw or defend?"
"It is a great sin to abandon the land."
Zhao Tuo sighed: "With our strength, Cangwu should be able to defend Guilin. If the two armies from South Vietnam can come to reinforce..."
Hu Hui said: "I heard in Cangwu that something happened in South Vietnam, and now we can only protect ourselves."
It was really raining all night because of the leak in the house. Zhao Tuo was silent for a while and said: "In this case, we can only fight on our own. Now, the news of General Tu's death should reach the emperor's ears. Wait,
Wait until the imperial court sends a new general with reinforcements to clean up this mess!"
It was indeed a mess, a complete mess, and this was the situation the Qin army faced. After suffering a major defeat, many Yue people from various places who had already surrendered revolted and killed officials.
At Zhao Tuo's suggestion, the Qin army on the west route shrank its front, and except for the two cities of Guilin and Cangwu, all the small outposts were abandoned to avoid being defeated by the Yue people one by one.
But there are also many Qin soldiers who did not have time to withdraw and became isolated islands in the ocean. I don’t know how long they can hold on...
Hu Hui said: "If it weren't for Captain Zhao, the army would have suffered heavy losses. Now, the officers of the West Route Army hope that Captain Zhao can be our commander-in-chief!"
Zhao Tuo's decision saved their lives, and everyone was naturally grateful.
"Who am I?"
Zhao Tuo smiled. He was self-aware. He was too young and ranked last among the captains of the Western Route Army. It was because he had made great achievements by killing Lord Xiou and guarded southern Xinjiang for a long time. He was familiar with the situation.
Only the other captains were willing to listen to him because of the local situation.
"General, don't even think about it, but if the deputy general commanding the West Road can be recommended by someone, it is not impossible..."
The commander was stunned for a moment and thought of someone: "Could it be that the captain was talking about..."
"That's right."
Now, Zhao Tuo is extremely looking forward to that person coming to the south to save this mess and push him to a higher position!
He sighed:
"If Your Majesty had used my brother's strategy to pacify the South, why would this have happened?"