stubborn thief

The plague was like a loud slap, which made Wei Qian'er dizzy.

Within a few days, taking advantage of the opportunity to pursue the defeated army, Wei Qian'er moved east of Xi'an to fight in Lintong, Weinan, Huazhou, and Huayin, until he pursued the defeated army into Fenghuang Ridge and ran into the flag army of Tongguan Guards. .

The battle process was very simple. The Tongguan Guards' attacking banner troops were only in their early 300s. Although they were well-trained, they had not experienced many battles. The soldiers who encountered Wei Qian'er's camp collapsed at the first touch.

It was only because of the complex terrain in the Tongguan area that they fought and retreated, so they did not suffer too much damage.

Wei Qian'er did not expect to capture Tongguan with his own camp, so after several encounters in the encounter, he slowly withdrew from the battlefield to the west, found favorable terrain in Huayin County, deployed defenses, and planned to set up a stronghold. The marshal's army guards the east gate.

But while the camp was being built, sick soldiers appeared in Wei Qian'er's camp.

When sending troops to fight, it is normal for soldiers to contract some diseases, and it is also common for officers in the camp.

More than a dozen soldiers in the Three Thousand Headquarters were sick. When Wei Qian'er looked at the wounded soldiers, he only asked a few more questions.

The military medical officer in his camp was named Zhang Jingxiao. He had a well-educated family and rich experience. His ancestors had been doctors at the Good Medical Center of the King of Han for seven generations.

Originally, a doctor like him who was a good doctor in the palace was a treasure in the Marshal's Palace. He would not appear in the military camp at all, but should teach in the new city.

But Xincheng Academy in the Marshal's Mansion is a magical place, especially for surgery.

There were both Mongolian doctors who were proficient in bone setting and Tubo doctors who were proficient in surgery, which was an eye-opener for a palace doctor like Zhang Jingxiao who was proficient in internal medicine.

This time Zhang Jingxiao joined the army to observe corpses on the battlefield and correct errors in ancient medical books. While clearing the original text, he also improved his surgical skills.

For Zhang Jingxiao, who is proficient in Fangmai acupuncture, the situation of the dozen or so sick soldiers in the camp is easy to grasp: "General, don't worry, maybe the pursuit was too hasty in the past few days, and the soldiers got angry in a hurry, and the symptoms are very serious. Obviously, they are all symptoms of wind-heat disturbing the lungs."

After Zhang Jingxiao reported to Wei Qian'er, he set up several military tents outside the camp to house the sick soldiers, make decoctions and take proper care of them.

No one took this seriously.

That night, Zhang Jingxiao realized something was wrong.

It's not that there's something wrong with the soldier's symptoms. The symptoms are high fever, chills, and wind-heat bothering the lungs.

However, the number of sick soldiers increased sharply. Every half an hour throughout the night, soldiers with fever came to the military medical camp. He was so busy that he did not sleep well. When he was counted in the morning, the number of sick soldiers had doubled.

He quickly found Wei Qian'er and reported: "General, there is something wrong with this disease. The army cannot move and must be isolated on the spot!"

Wei Qian'er said suspiciously: "Can the doctor be sure?"

Zhang Jingxiao shook his head: "My subordinates just think they are similar."

This astuteness was not due to Zhang Jingxiao's professional sensitivity. It was entirely because they had all experienced the Marshal's Office's smallpox prevention training, and they had even personally experienced a small-scale outbreak of smallpox in Hehuang.

The situation happening now is very similar to that then. No one can afford the consequences of a widespread plague outbreak.

Zhang Jingxiao responded quickly, and Wei Qian'er also followed suit.

But, it's no use.

They set up an isolation camp and moved the military tents there. Before the old sick soldiers had passed, new sick soldiers came.

Counting from the time when the first batch of a dozen soldiers fell ill, in just three days, hundreds of people in the camp of 5,000 people fell down due to high fever. In almost every military tent, there were soldiers with high fever who were sent to the isolation camp.

It was not until the third day that Zhang Jingxiao began to doubt his medical skills and re-examined the sick soldiers. After some of the infected soldiers took off their clothes, they found large swellings on their necks, armpits, etc., and finally determined that this was not a wind evil. It affects the lungs and is a plague.

Pimple plague.

People's understanding of pimple plague is far from complete, but it is also very limited.

When things have developed to this point, Wei Qian'er is puzzled: How did my soldiers... contract the disease?

neither knows.

Wei Qian'er originally wanted to collect cotton and linen in Huayin County. After all, when smallpox broke out in Qinghai earlier, Liu Chengzong had people make linen clothes and masks, saying that these things could reduce the chance of infection.

But he didn't dare. He was afraid that the plague came from Huayin County if the soldiers were not sick. He was also afraid that Huayin County was not sick but his soldiers would be infected.

In the end, they had no choice but to try their best to make a batch of face towels and cotton cloaks from the army's common equipment for the soldiers to wrap themselves in. At the same time, they also asked the soldiers to practice guns and artillery near the camp, making the surrounding area a mess.

In order to find the source of the infection, Wei Qian'er asked Tang soldiers wearing cotton padded cloaks and face scarves to dig graves overnight, digging out the enemy soldiers buried in several previous battles from the ground, and finally found the same as their own soldiers on the bodies of the fallen Tongguan Banner Army soldiers. Same pimple.

Wei Qian'er and Zhang Jingxiao sat in the camp and watched the Tang soldiers who came back to report the news in silence for a long time.

Zhang Jingxiao looked at Tang Bing's face towel and cotton cloak that he had not changed, and his heart was trembling in his chest.

"General, general, if the source of the pimple plague is the Tongguan garrison, it has been three days since the first battle in our army when the first soldier in our army had a fever, and five days since he fainted and swollen."

"Not counting the pursuit and fighting, there are more than 200 soldiers who fought and came into contact with the Tongguan garrison. Currently, more than 100 people are sick... I don't know how to deal with this plague, but its toxicity is very strong, and the camp There are hundreds of people who have come into contact with sick soldiers."

Zhang Jingxiao spoke with a vibrato, but his thoughts were very clear: "For the current plan, we must strictly control the soldiers not to leave the camp or leave the army, and isolate the sick soldiers from everyone who has come into contact with them. At the same time, we need medicinal materials, Face towels, cotton cloaks, and more military rations are needed, so be sure to inform the commander of the situation here."

However, Wei Qian'er didn't respond. He just clenched his fists on the armrest of the chair and looked straight out of the tent.

Until Zhang Jingxiao reminded him for the second time: "General?"

Wei Qian'er woke up as if from a dream: "Huh?"

When Zhang Jingxiao repeated what he just said, Wei Qian'er lowered his head and cursed in a low voice, then took a deep breath and said with his usual expression: "I was distracted."

He finally figured out why the Tongguan banner army dared to go out to fight, and why it seemed to be well-trained, but collapsed many times during the battle.

They are sick.

Wei Qian'er's heart was very confused.

He felt guilty that he had failed Liu Chengzong in entrusting his elite regiment to him, and also feared that he was about to suffer from an unknown plague.

What's more, it's the pale anger of helplessness, powerlessness and helplessness.

Wei Qian'er turned his head and looked at Zhang Jingxiao: "Doctor, I'm afraid..."

He shook his head quickly and spoke faster: "It's difficult for Wei to restrain the army." This kind of restraint is different from sending troops to fight. Once people are trapped in the camp, the morale of the army will soon disappear.

Soon, Wei Qian'er took action.

First, an urgent letter asking for help was sent to Liu Chengzong in Xianyang through Tang soldiers who had never contacted the Tongguan defenders.

He worded the letter seriously and informed Liu Chengzong of the very tense situation. After all, most of the results were foreseeable. If it was not handled well, the plague might spread in Xi'an and even the entire Shaanxi.

Shaanxi is very big, but now the three places of Xi'an, Yan'an, and Yulin are equivalent to the entire Shaanxi - the population of other places can be ignored.

Later, Wei Qian'er summoned his officers of more than 100 generals to leave the camp, found an open place in the wild, informed them of the situation and situation they faced, and discussed ways to restrain the troops.

"At this moment, one hundred and sixty-six people in our battalion, including Du Bei, the commander of the left division in the front, Fang Qilang and Wei Cheng, the commanders of the command team, Wan Ling and Huoli Gun, are wounded and sick, three of them Xiao Lantern, a good rider, and Yang Bao, a second-class tiger warrior, both died."

Wei Qian'er calmly explained the situation, glanced at the military academy under his command, and said: "The symptoms of the soldiers are fever and big bumps on the armpits and neck. I sent people to dig the graves and found bumps on the soldiers who died in Tongguan, so ...I am infected with the military epidemic."

As soon as this statement came out, the generals were in an uproar.

No one can turn a blind eye to the continuous illness of soldiers in the camp in recent days.

But at first everyone thought it was the cold, and no one thought about the plague.

But when Wei Qian'er opened his mouth to clarify the matter, everyone was dumbfounded, because everyone knew what Wei Qian'er's words meant.

There were only more than 200 people in total who fought closely with the Tongguan Banner Army. At this time, more than 100 people fell ill. What kind of toxicity is this Tianxingshi epidemic?

Someone said: "But General, Huo Ligun didn't fight the Tongguan soldiers!"

"That's exactly what I want to say." Wei Qian'er nodded and said, "Huo Ligun didn't catch up with the enemy in time, but he visited the wounded soldiers after the war and contracted the plague."

Huoligun serves as a supervisor and is an officer.

As early as the Lion Camp period, the rules they followed were that when a soldier was injured, the officer directly under him would apply medicine; when a soldier was sick, the officer directly under him would also take care of him.

One-third of the officers participating in the discussion changed their faces.

Some of them are responsible for their duties, some are out of friendship with the countrymen and party members, in short... they all have contact with the sick sergeant.

"Every brother knows that Wei was born as a post soldier. After following the Marshal An Qianma in Yan'an, he was appreciated by the Generalissimo and asked me to lead a battalion. Many of the generals and soldiers in the camp were also born as post soldiers and Pu Si soldiers."

"Wei, like everyone here, is a damn vulgar person, but we know better about dealing with plague than the Ming army over at Tongguan."

Wei Qian'er said and laughed: "They think there is nothing we can do if we are infected with the plague? No, the Ming army in the northwest said that our general is Marshal of Plague. What they said is wrong, but we do have Ways to deal with the plague.”

When the officers heard what Wei Qian'er said, they slowly relaxed their frowns.

This is indeed the case. They are the people who know the most about plague in the world, and they are also the only people in the world who are capable of dealing with plague, and it is a severe plague like smallpox.

Generalizations of plagues in this era are very general.

Influenza is a kind of plague, and more often people refer to plague as military plague.

Because the military is an organization with dense personnel and mobile locations, war will also weaken local resistance to drought and flood disasters. Coupled with environmentally damaging tactics such as water and fire attacks, corpses litter the fields and bacteria can cause diseases. , many times the army itself is the source of plague infection.

Therefore, there is a saying that there will be a great epidemic after the soldiers.

Smallpox, which has a high fatality rate and is highly contagious, is undoubtedly one of the most feared plagues.

The Marshal's Mansion, led by Liu Chengzong, defeated smallpox.

They relied on the medicine of this era and the organizational and management capabilities of the army to eliminate smallpox in the Hehuang area with a population of nearly one million.

Therefore, although the officers of Wei Qian'er's First Battalion lacked understanding of Datou Plague, and the military doctors' anti-disease prescriptions such as ginger sugar drink and ephedra powder had little effect, people still wanted to believe that they had the ability to deal with this plague.

"This epidemic spreads very quickly. It can take as short as three days or as long as five days. People who have been in contact with sick people will be infected. The onset of the disease is rapid and severe. Our only effective method is isolation."

Wei Qian'er looked at the generals and said: "Isolate all the sick soldiers and people who have been in contact with them in the camp. First, there are more than a hundred sick soldiers, and then there are about eight people who have been in contact with them in recent days. There were more than a hundred people, and of course officers at all levels who had looked for them, and then left enough food to lock the camp."

"Build another small camp outside. If there are more infected soldiers in the army, we will do it again."

"If we repeat this three or five times, I estimate that we can kill this pimple plague."

Wei Qian'er's words once again caused an uproar among the officers.

"General, if you go back and forth three or five times, our battalion will be empty!"

Wei Qian'er looked calm about this: "Now west of Tongguan, we are the only ones infected with the disease. We will pay a heavy price, including me, half of the battalion or more."

The implication is that killing oneself is equivalent to killing the plague.

He quietly watched the officers whispering to each other without saying a word until the noise gradually subsided. Then he sighed, shook his head and said to himself: "It really can't be done."

The excited expressions on the people's faces made it clear that no one wanted to accept their fate, and they actually died of illness in the wilderness.

Wei Qian'er himself couldn't accept it.

He slowly raised a hand to stop people's noise, and then said loudly: "I'm calling you all over because I still have doubts about this. First, I can't guarantee that no one in the entire camp will escape. I know that soldiers are all good men and will not run away from the enemy, but staying here... is no different than waiting for death."

"Second, even if no one leaves the army, it doesn't make any fucking sense. We can't control the Tongguan Banner Army. Those sick bastards will come out of the gate again, and our township party leaders will suffer again. .”

"So I thought, since we can't escape from contracting this disease, we will only die. Leaving the sick soldiers in the camp to wait for death violates the oath of the commander-in-chief's family to work together to save each other. Instead of waiting to die, Why don't you follow me and fight to the death, march eastward, whether you can survive depends entirely on God's will."

Wei Qian'er raised his hands and cupped his fists: "Within five days, Tongguan will be conquered and the plague will end here."

In the afternoon of that day, the camp stationed at the foot of the mountain in the eastern suburbs of Huayin County was like a roaring camp.

There were cries and shouts inside and outside the camp, and it was chaotic for half an hour.

Until the drums sounded in the camp and the red military flag was unfurled at the camp gate.

Amidst the sound of military drums, trumpets and cannons exploded, and Wei Qian'er, wearing a bare-shouldered war robe, rode his horse and raised his sword, pointing to the east.

"March to Tongguan!" (End of this chapter)