That night, several of Miao Changxiu's subordinates began to suffer from vomiting and diarrhea. Miao Changxiu did not take it seriously. Two days later, the first few subordinates who fell ill died of the disease at night. At the same time, dozens of others began to get sick as well.
, began to vomit and have diarrhea, and his whole body felt hot. Miao Changxiu became frightened and quickly sent someone to find a military doctor.
The military doctors had experience and immediately judged that there was an epidemic. They realized that the matter was of great importance and reported it to Xiao Wanding urgently.
Xiao Wanding immediately rushed to the rear army camp to check the situation. At this time, the rear army camp had been sealed off. The 10,000 rear army troops were not allowed to leave the camp, let alone move around at will. Anyone who dared to escape into the front army would be punished according to military law!
Xiao Wanding did not dare to go near the military camp, so he ordered Miao Changxiu to be brought up. Miao Changxiu was not ill, so he was extremely panicked. Of course he knew what was going on, and the root cause was the two deserters who died of illness.
But he didn't dare to say it. Once he said it, he couldn't bear the responsibility.
"I don't know what's going on, Beizhong? I just came back and I heard that someone got sick. During this time, Beizhong was not at the rear army camp."
A military doctor next to him couldn't stand listening anymore and whispered something to Xiao Wanding. Xiao Wanding's face sank and he scolded angrily: "How dare you deny it? The first people who got sick were the soldiers who went out with you. It was you who brought the disease."
Go back to the military camp, if you don’t tell the truth, I will punish you severely!"
Xiao Wanding knew his nephew very well. He had been telling lies since he was a child, and he had to be beaten severely every time before he would tell the truth.
Seeing that he could no longer deny it, Miao Changxiu had no choice but to tell the truth, "It should be those deserters. Two deserters also seemed to have died of illness."
"Since he died of illness, why weren't you careful?"
"The general never thought that there would be an epidemic! He thought he had diarrhea after drinking dirty water. They said it themselves, drinking dirty water on the battlefield."
"What?"
Xiao Wanding opened his eyes wide, "Which battlefield?"
"This is the battlefield where Qiu Jingzhong was defeated and we hunted down the deserters."
As soon as Miao Changxiu finished speaking, he suddenly bent down and covered his stomach, with a face full of pain and said: "Oh! My stomach hurts so much, I can't hold it in anymore."
Xiao Wanding took a few steps back in shock and said repeatedly: "Send him back quickly and give him medicine to treat his illness!"
Miao Changxiu finally fell ill. She suffered from vomiting and diarrhea, and a fever all over her body. Even taking medicine had no effect. Miao Changxiu died of the illness two days later.
At this time, more than a thousand people in the entire rear army were sick, and more than 300 people died. The breath of death enveloped the rear army camp, and the entire rear army was isolated. The soldiers dug a long trench to separate the rear army and the rear army.
The other camps were separated, and the food was moved to the central army for safekeeping. Three thousand soldiers stood in front of the trench with sharp swords in hand. Anyone who dared to come to the front camp would be killed immediately.
But no one in the rear army was willing to wait for death. Under extreme fear, a large-scale flight of soldiers broke out in the rear army. Even the soldiers who were sick had to struggle to escape from the barracks and fled to the north. This time, Xiao Wanding did not send troops
Instead of chasing them, he allowed them to flee. These fleeing soldiers turned out to be scattered troops, not his direct descendants. Xiao Wanding did not care about their life or death.
Xiao Wanding knew very well that these soldiers would not be able to escape for long. In the end, they would either die of illness or starvation, and there would be no food at all on their way home for hundreds of miles.
At the fifth watch, Xiao Wanding was woken up from his deep sleep by the soldiers. "What happened?" Xiao Wanding asked dissatisfiedly.
"Commander, please come out! There is an emergency. It seems that someone in the Chinese army is also sick."
"What!"
Xiao Wanding sat up suddenly, dumbfounded.
........
More than one person fell ill in the Chinese army camp. A total of more than 20 people fell ill at the same time, and they were not in the same camp. There were soldiers carrying food, soldiers enforcing military law, and soldiers responsible for burying corpses.
Military doctors have promptly isolated all the more than 20 people, but the question is, is it only this group of people who are sick, or are a large number of patients yet to appear?
"Have you found out the source?" Xiao Wanding asked.
The military medical officer sighed and said: "I estimate that there are about twenty deserters in this humble position. They are all infected and may have already gotten sick. Although they were killed, they were not careful when handling the corpses, and they were also infected."
"That's all?" Xiao Wanding asked worriedly.
"Another thing I'm not sure about is the boatmen. They brought wine, and many soldiers secretly went to drink with them. But three boatmen also fell ill. There was also a lot of filth in the boat, mixed with food.
At the same time, will the soldiers who carry the food and the cooks come into contact with this dirt?"
Xiao Wanding has a big head. If this is the case, there is really nothing to investigate.
Lieutenant General Li Ji whispered: "General, if it doesn't work, just retreat first! There is not much food anyway, so we retreat to Chenliu. If the problem is not serious, we can counterattack and come back. Maybe then we will have a chance."
Xiao Wanding was hesitant. It was not serious yet. Maybe it was just a false alarm. If he retreated like this, it would be difficult to explain to the emperor?
He hesitated for a moment and said: "Let's take another look. If the problem becomes serious, it won't be too late to retreat."
In fact, Li Ji's idea is right. It is easy to infect each other when gathering in a big tent. If it is a march, there will be distance between each other and there will be no sealed space, which will greatly reduce the infection, but Li Ji himself is not aware of it.
At this point, he simply wanted to withdraw his troops. Since the coach did not agree to withdraw, he no longer insisted.
But Xiao Wanding's luck failed in the end. Just three days later, a large number of soldiers from the Chinese Army and the Front Army fell ill one after another. The number of sick people turned out to be more than 2,000. In addition, boatmen and trackers also fell ill in large numbers, and they were kicked out of the military camp.
.
Xiao Wanding began to panic. After the strong persuasion of several military medical officers, Xiao Wanding finally decided to retreat. He hurriedly found Li Ji and apologized: "I made a mistake by not listening to the general. Now I want the army to evacuate. General
Any suggestions?"
Since the coach expressed his apology, Li Ji did not dare to show the slightest complaint. He stroked his beard and said: "I did not insist on retreating at that time. In fact, I was worried about encountering the fleeing rear army soldiers and worried about being infected on the road. I suggested it."
The army marched west of the Bianshui River to avoid possible infections along the way."
Xiao Wanding nodded and went west of the Bian River. This was a good suggestion. The ships could be used to transport the camps. As for the grain and pickles, all were given to the soldiers as dry food on the road.
That evening, the large tents disappeared one after another, and Zhu Si's army began to retreat.
"General, what should we do with the rear camp?"
Li Ji pointed at the rear camp and asked: "Burn it with a fire?"
Xiao Wanding looked back at the city, a deep hatred flashed in his eyes, and said lightly: "Leave it to them!"
Li Ji shuddered in his heart, this move was too cruel.
.........
The soldiers at the top of the city had long discovered the enemy's movements and immediately went to report revenge to Jingzhong. Qiu Jingzhong hurried to the top of the city. He stood in front of the battlements and looked at the enemy camp two miles away. He saw that the endless tents before had disappeared.
, the army was withdrawing westward along the river channel. At this time, the sun was about to disappear on the horizon, dyeing the earth into a golden color.
The city guard general Li Mian whispered to Qiu Jingzhong: "According to the scouts' observations, the enemy ships only have large tents and no food. I suspect that the enemy was forced to withdraw due to lack of food!"
Of course, it is impossible for the defenders on the city to know what happened in Zhu Si's camp. Li Mian's reasoning is reasonable and entirely possible. It should be said that this is because they strengthened the walls and cleared the country. Without the logistics and food, the enemy could not find any supplies.
Qiu Jingzhong nodded, "You are right, it should be like this!"
At this time, Qiu Jingzhong suddenly discovered that a large tent had not been dismantled and was still standing in the wilderness. There were hundreds of them. He pointed to the group of tents in the distance and asked: "That should be the rear army! Why are they still there?"
"
Li Mian didn't understand either, and asked after a while: "Is it because the other party doesn't have enough ships to take so much?"
"No matter what the reason is, send scouts immediately to investigate. What is going on?"
Li Mian agreed and immediately sent a dozen scouts to climb ropes down the city and go to the enemy's rear camp to investigate the situation.
At night, the scouts came back and reported, "The rear army camp is an empty camp. There are a lot of supplies and a large number of discarded soldiers and armors. It looks like there has been a turmoil."
The scouts found no corpses, and in fact there would be no corpses. The dead soldiers had been buried deeply, and the living soldiers were struggling to escape. No one would stay in the camp shrouded in fear and wait to die, as long as they could leave the camp.
There will always be a glimmer of hope.
Qiu Jingzhong was overjoyed and immediately ordered: "Move all the tents, supplies and soldiers into the city!"
Qiu Jingzhong didn't know that Xiao Wanding's pain of losing his son would be repaid to him twice as much.