Chapter 652: Plague Outbreak
Sure enough, the battle went as expected, the offensive of the Xianbei Allied Forces decreased immediately the next morning, and the Pingzhou Army repelled the Xianbei Allied Forces with little effort.
However, in the afternoon, side effects!
Shang Ji led hundreds of guards, and rushed to the east gate of the inner city, where Zhao Yun had been waiting for a long time.
"How's the situation?" Shang Ji asked in a hurry as he dismounted from his horse and had no time to be polite.
"My lord, stay with the future." Shang Ji nodded, although Zhao Yun came to the city wall.
Climbing up to the city wall and looking up, not far from the inner city wall, a group of ragged, numb-looking "Xianbei Army" who only held simple sticks and walked wobbly was coming here at a turtle speed.
Behind them was the Xianbei Superintendent's team armed to the teeth. Anyone who dares to stagnate will be killed immediately by the rain of arrows.
However, all these supervising teams were covered with white cloths, and they resolutely refused to have any contact with the "Xianbei Army" ahead.
With Shang Ji's eyesight, it is natural to see at a glance that these so-called Xianbei siege troops are all sick, and they are also plague sick!
I saw that most of their bodies were swollen, their feet were stilted, and some of them even had pale yellow pus flowing out of their bodies. There were also a few who fell to the ground as they walked, letting the Xianbei Du team behind them shoot arrows at them without moving. Presumably died on the spot.
"The Xianbei people are 'repelling the epidemic and attacking the city'?" Shang Ji said with a frown after taking a look.
"That's right. Xianbei's offensive slowed down suddenly this morning and was easily resolved by our army. However, from the afternoon onwards, Xianbei people began to throw some stained clothes into the city with catapults. Mr. Xi Zhicai immediately ordered people to burn them all. But Half an hour ago, a large-scale attack of Xianbei soldiers who were infected with the epidemic began. The final general did not dare to make a claim, so he immediately reported it to the lord."
Shang Ji didn't answer, but frowned and watched for a while. The "Xianbei Biochemical Death Squad" outside the city moved slowly, and had almost no effective equipment, so it was impossible to pose any threat to the city wall. The only trouble was the plague they had caught.
"Shoot arrows, eliminate them from a distance, and then send someone to burn all their bodies to prevent the epidemic from spreading to the inner city."
"As ordered, the general will make arrangements." Zhao Yun shouted, and immediately went to command the army to destroy this army.
During this battle, the Pingzhou army was basically cavalry. Except for the black-armored Xuanqi who had a skill bonus with the javelin, the bows and arrows used by the rest of the troops were barely effective.
However, as a high-level army, even if it is not a full-time archer, it is more than enough to deal with this kind of slow-moving and defenseless "death squad".
After several rounds of arrow rain, the Biochemical Death Squad was wiped out.
The Xianbei army who was in charge of supervising the battle watched for a while, then patted their horses and left.
The Pingzhou army sent a small group of troops to burn the corpses outside the city after taking the dispelling pill to prevent the epidemic from implicating themselves.
However, only an hour later, the Xianbei army outside the city made waves again.
Dozens of catapults directly threw the corpses of Xianbei people who had died of disease into the city. With the speed and height of the catapults, when the corpses hit the ground, they almost turned into meat paste, and the flesh and blood could even splash ten feet away. can't clean up.
Looking expressionlessly at the plague-ridden corpses smashed to pieces in the city, Shang Ji turned and left.
"Pass down the order to gather all the Feifeng Huoqi. Suspend the burning of the sick Xianbei corpses, and throw them all into the Xianbei army. Let's see who we are afraid of!"
Following Shang Ji's order, the entire army of Feifeng Huocai was dispatched, hoisted the corpses of the Xianbei army who had died of illness with ropes, and then threw them to the place where the Xianbei army was densest by virtue of the height advantage.
The biochemical war between the two sides has no bottom line, and its consequences began to erupt in the evening.
According to the Qianhuan report lurking in the enemy army, the epidemic further broke out in the Xianbei army. Counting the part that was expelled from the city today, a total of 8,000 people died of the plague, and the number of sick people exceeded 50,000!
More importantly, the epidemic broke out in an all-round way, and more than 50% of the Xianbei tribes had the epidemic.
In some small tribes, the entire tribe has even fled.
On the other hand, in the middle of the night, the first plague patient was discovered in the inner city. Fortunately, this patient was not a soldier of the Pingzhou Army, but a former Xianbei inner city resident.
Although Xi Zhicai sent people to deal with it overnight, they failed to suppress the epidemic. As of the dawn of the next day, the total number of plague patients in the inner city exceeded 100, and the first infected soldier appeared in the Pingzhou Army!
"How's it going?"
Shang Ji came outside a heavily guarded tent and asked in a deep voice.
Xi Zhicai looked tired, and said in a hoarse voice: "All the robes that have been in contact with this soldier have been quarantined, and all of them have taken the dispelling pill, and there has been no outbreak for the time being. As for the sick soldier, double the dose of dispelling plague Dan has gotten better since then, but I'm not sure if he will be cured."
"Mr. has worked hard. The current quantity of Quwen Pill and Quwensan is still sufficient. If it doesn't work, take more. In addition, sir, you must ensure your own safety. If you fall down, you will regret it for the rest of your life!"
"The general cares, and the aspirations are kept in the heart!"
Xi Zhicai didn't talk nonsense, and simply cupped his hands.
"I'm going to see the sick soldiers."
"You can't, general... Forget it, the general can go if he wants to. Asking the infected soldiers personally will also help stabilize the morale of the army." Xi Zhi wanted to persuade him at the beginning, but he gave up after thinking about it.
Although the plague is terrible, it also depends on the person. For ordinary soldiers, the plague is a demon, but for high-ranking generals, the probability of being infected with the plague in the end without any protection in the epidemic area is much lower than being killed by arrows on the battlefield.
Even with the training quality of the Pingzhou Army, the appearance of a robe infected with the epidemic is a big blow to the morale of the army. Shang Ji's condolences in person can effectively alleviate this negative emotion.
After many inspections, Shang Ji finally saw the infected soldier, who seemed to be in a good mental state at first glance, holding a book and reading it quietly.
"You can still read?"
The soldiers looked very serious, and they didn't wake up until Shang Ji suddenly opened his mouth, but Shang Ji found that his book was actually taken upside down.
"This subordinate has seen the lord!"
When he looked up and saw Shang Ji, the soldiers were startled, and immediately stood up and shouted loudly.
"Sit down, sit down, now that you are sick, you don't need to be polite." Shang Ji smiled gently, and waved him to sit down.
"What's your name? Belonging to that army? How does it feel now?"
"My lord, my subordinate Li Feng is the head of Qu Zuobo, the front battalion and the back of the second division of Tanlangqi, under the command of General Liu Meng. Now, apart from feeling weak all over, I don't have any other bad symptoms!"
"Li Feng, what a good name! It sounds better than your general's name. Don't look at Huchen's name Meng, but he was as timid as a mouse back then, and he has nothing to do with the word Meng."
Shang Ji smiled and told some embarrassing things about Liu Meng back then, which relieved Li Feng's tense spirit a lot.
"General Liu, General Su and other senior generals in the army are our role models, and the last general also hopes that one day he can serve for the Lord like General Liu." Li Feng said with a somewhat excited expression.
Shang Ji smiled when he heard the words, patted him on the shoulder and said: "Don't worry, this day will come. Don't think too much, rest assured, recuperate, and continue to fight the enemy after you recover. Your starting point is comparable to that of your general. Gao, back then he was just a lowly bandit!"
"May I die for my lord!"
"Yeah, I understand what you mean, and you can rest assured. Tell the guards if you need anything. By the way, you seem literate just now, right? Here is a guide to the art of war. You can study it when you have nothing to do. Maybe you can learn something." What about the new harvest?"
With that said, Shang Ji took out a copy of "Speedy Military Strategy" and handed it to Li Feng. It's just a very ordinary military book, and there is a chance to learn the art of war [Quick March] from it. It is a very common skill, but it is a relatively precious thing for a low-level general like Li Feng.
"Thank you, my lord, I will definitely live up to my lord's expectations!"
Li Feng took the "Strategy of Quick March" excitedly, and said loudly.
Shang Ji nodded, said some words of encouragement, and then left the big tent.
Shang Ji personally went to condolences to the soldiers who were infected with the epidemic, which indeed played a role in stabilizing the morale of the army, but it could not prevent the further spread of the plague.
In fact, the plague in the inner city intensified. Compared with the Xianbei army outside the city, the residents in the inner city were less organized. Moreover, Shangji's troops are tense, and it is even more impossible to help them prevent the epidemic. Therefore, in the face of the plague, their resistance is not as good as that of the Xianbei army outside the city.
In just one day, by the night of the fourteenth day, the number of people infected with the plague in the inner city had increased exponentially to six thousand. The internal situation of the Pingzhou Army is better, and the number of infected people is only about a hundred.
What pleased Shang Ji the most was that Li Feng, the first soldier infected with the epidemic, had basically recovered after taking six Pills of Quwen in a row, and is currently undergoing isolation and observation.
Moreover, there have been no soldiers killed by the plague in the Pingzhou Army for the time being, which made Shang Ji feel a little better.
In fact, in the biochemical war between the two sides, the most unlucky people were not the residents of the inner city of Dragon City, but the residents of the outer city of Dragon City. Compared with the residents of the inner city, the residents of the outer city live in more distress and are less resistant to the plague.
At the beginning, Shang Ji expelled the residents of the outer city, but with the degree of control Shang Ji had over Dragon City at that time, it was impossible to expel them all.
At that time, only the surrounding area near the main road, which may be used by cavalry troops to maneuver, was cleaned up, and many remote areas were simply unable to control the merchants.
Moreover, the Xianbei people don't talk about the friendship of the same clan at all, and the red-eyed tribal coalition forces don't care about the life and death of the residents in the outer city.
In the biochemical war between the two sides, these outer city residents became the most unlucky ghosts. Without unified command and dispatch, the chaotic outer city is a hotbed for the breeding and spreading of the plague.
At present, no one knows how many ordinary residents in the outer city have been infected with the plague. Anyway, the entire outer city was full of ghosts, and the Xianbei army did not dare to go deep into the remote alleys to investigate, fearing that they would be infected with the plague.