Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 33 Blight and Salt
"Ma Cheng! Huang Dong! The two of you will go east and west to find out the movement of the Khitan army." Guo Wuwei said in a deep voice.

The two attendants bowed and said yes, and left quickly, and the speed was as fast as galloping horses, and their martial arts skills were obviously better than the messenger before.

After the two entourages left, Guo Wuwei sneaked to an outpost where Da Song was lurking, killed the sentinel, changed the clothes of the sentinel, and sneaked into the Da Song army camp with a ghostly movement under the cover of night.

On this day, just after breakfast, Zhao Kuangyin was discussing matters with Zhao Pu and others in the big tent, when Li Jixun came in with a worried face, and reported that the epidemic had spread in the army, and hundreds of soldiers had fallen ill, vomiting and diarrhea .

Zhao Kuangyin was shocked, and hurriedly sent people to the camps to check. As a result, similar situations occurred in the Song Army in the east, west, and north of the city. Within a day, more than a thousand people fell ill, and the disease continued to spread.

Just at this time, Jia Xian, the general secretary in charge of distribution and management of logistics supplies, came to the imperial tent with a pale face, knelt down on the ground, and said with a mournful face: "Officials! Something happened to the salt warehouse, and the humble minister deserves death! "

Seeing this, Zhao Kuangyin's heart sank. He stood up from his seat and shouted, "Jia Xian! What happened to the Yankuang? Tell me quickly."

Jia Xian hurriedly said: "Officials! I just took all the troops to the salt storehouse to distribute the salt for next month. Unexpectedly, I opened the salt storehouse and took a look... I don't know why all the salt in the salt storehouse... all became The black waste. The humble minister deserves death...he deserves death!"

Zhao Kuangyin's face was so gloomy that he was about to drip water. Seeing that Jia Xian's eyes were filled with murderous intent, now that the grain and grass were robbed by the Khitan and could only be transported from China after nearly a month, the lack of salt in the army was to some extent In general, it is more serious than food shortage.

Because of the lack of food, it can still be raised from Guanzhong, but it is not so easy to lack salt. There are no salt ponds that produce salt in the territory of the Northern Han Dynasty.

In the current era, most of the salt supply in the Song Dynasty was collected from Shandong Road and Jianghuai Road, and was operated by the government to all parts of the country.Even if all the officials in Guanzhong were transferred temporarily, for the nearly 20 troops, that would be a draw from the bottom.

What's more, the existing food and grass in the army can last for ten days and a half months, but there is almost no salt at all.And the army without salt to eat, more than ten days and a half months, the body will continue to lose money and become weak and sick.

In addition, the epidemic is spreading in the army now. Under such circumstances, the soldiers' physical losses are tantamount to adding insult to injury. The army of more than [-] troops will definitely suffer serious non-combat attrition, the combat power will drop, and the number of soldiers will be greatly reduced.

At that time, will they be able to win the battle with the upcoming Khitan army?

These thoughts flashed through Zhao Kuangyin's mind in an instant, and his face was already ashen.

Seeing this, Zhao Pu was also shocked, because although Jia Xian was specifically responsible for the distribution of logistics supplies, he was the person in charge of logistics for the Northern Expedition.

"Come here! Take Jia Xian and all the people in charge of guarding the salt depot and chop them up." Zhao Kuangyin looked at Jia Xian as if he had seen the defeat of the army, and the murderous intent in his heart could no longer be suppressed.

Several soldiers on the left and right suddenly made promises. Someone stepped forward to escort Jia Xian, who was lying on the ground, out of the imperial tent, and Xiao Huangmen led several soldiers out of the imperial tent to arrest others.

At that moment, Zhao Pu couldn't do it anymore, he got up and knelt down with a thud, and said, "Wait a minute! Officials! As the chief logistics officer, I have committed the crime of negligence for destroying salt. Please punish me."

"Officials! Up to now, the most important thing is to find a way to raise salt. Jia Xian and others have committed serious crimes by dereliction of duty and putting the army in danger. He said that if they are familiar with the distribution and raising of food and fodder, it is better to let them perform crimes and make meritorious service, and then punish them after the teacher returns to the court." Before Zhao Kuangyin asked, Zhao Pu hurriedly bowed and continued.

He interceded for Jia Xian, on the one hand, he did have the reasons he said.But on the other hand, it is because Jia Xian is a top figure in the world in mathematics, and it is also a rare talent.Moreover, both himself and Guozi Jiancheng have a close relationship with him.At this time, he was fighting openly and secretly with the governor of Kaifeng, Zhao Guangyi, in the government. If he didn't come forward to intercede today, it would definitely cause damage to his family, and seriously affect his prestige.

Instead, Zhao Kuangyin took a deep breath at this time, gradually regained his composure, glanced at Zhao Pu, and said to Jia Xian: "For the sake of your hard work in managing logistics and raising and distributing food and grass these days, I will spare you for a while today." Fate, just like what the Prime Minister said, you wait for your crimes and meritorious deeds. Hmm... you should hurry up and confiscate all the salt in the camps of the army, manage and distribute it in a unified way, and remember to plan carefully and try to last as long as possible."

Jia Xian walked through the gate of hell, already drenched in sweat, knelt down quickly and said, "Thank you for your kindness, the guilty minister will definitely do the next thing well after risking his life, and make meritorious deeds."

After speaking, he got up and gave Zhao Pu a grateful glance, then quickly exited the imperial account.

"Zhao Pu! Go and investigate the matter of the salt store yourself, um... thoroughly investigate together with the plague. The matter of the salt store must have been done deliberately. I suspect that the army has been mixed with the enemy's secret work. And the plague There is also a strange thing. Our army has always paid attention to epidemic prevention. All the corpses killed in battle, regardless of the enemy or us, were buried immediately. Even the corpses that fell into the water a few days ago were salvaged and processed. There was an epidemic. And the two things happened almost at the same time. These two things are likely to be done by the same group of enemies." Zhao Kuangyin watched Jia Xian leave, sighed, and after a moment of meditation, his eyes shone coldly. Shen Sheng said.

Zhao Pu obviously also had some guesses about this, and he didn't show any surprise at what Zhao Kuangyin said, and took the order with a heavy expression.

At lunch today, all the soldiers in the four camps of the Great Song Dynasty cursed and complained.Because all the meals are as bland as birds, and there is hardly a trace of salt.

At the same time, the news that all the salt stored in the salt warehouse turned into black waste has spread among the army. Coupled with the epidemic, the soldiers of the Song Dynasty finally began to shake their minds and their morale was affected.

However, because the news of the robbing of food and grass has been blocked, only the commanders and generals of the various armies know, so everyone, including Ye Chen, is thinking about waiting for a few days for domestic food and grass to arrive, and after the salt is replenished, there will be a lack of salt. It will be resolved naturally.Therefore, the morale of the army is still within the controllable range.

But Zhao Kuangyin, Zhao Pu, Cao Bin and other principals who knew the truth knew that the impact of the loss of salt in the salt depot was far more serious than what ordinary sergeants and generals knew.

After lunch, Zhao Kuangyin called all the generals to the Chinese army to discuss matters.

Ye Chen and a group of soldiers followed Cao Bin on the way to the imperial camp of the Chinese army, all of them looked heavy.Cao Bin frowned even more, and he didn't relax all the way.

Ye Chen looked at Cao Bin's face, and faintly felt that things might not be as simple as they appeared on the surface.Then he couldn't help asking: "Commander! I heard that the genius doctor Qian around the official family has found a solution to the epidemic, and the spread of the epidemic has also been controlled. As for the lack of salt, wait until the next batch of grain and grass arrives in a few days. With the new salt supply, the problem will be solved naturally. Why does the commander look so heavy?"

If it was an ordinary soldier, even a lieutenant like Wang Chao would not dare to ask Cao Bin such a question, but Ye Chen came from a later life after all, and his conception and understanding are quite different from those of the current generation. Although he respects Cao Bin quite a lot, But the concept of superiority and inferiority is not as deep as Wang Chao and the others.

Cao Bin asked Ye Chen to be his personal soldier. Although what he did was a normal personal soldier, but because of Ye Chen's status as a master disciple, especially the strange phenomenon that happened to Ye Chen that day, he had a deep respect for Ye Chen in his heart. Chen's attitude was quite different from that of ordinary soldiers.

At this time, when Ye Chen asked, Cao Bin sighed and said, "The next batch of food and grass? I don't know when the next batch of food and grass will come?"

Speaking of this, he suddenly realized that he had made a slip of the tongue, so he said to the soldiers behind him: "Just now, you have heard what my commander said, and you must not spread it, otherwise it will be dealt with by military law."

Everyone looked solemn, and suddenly promised.

Ye Chen's heart trembled, and he had already made a rough guess in his heart, knowing that there must be something wrong with the next batch of grain and grass, it would be difficult to get it in a short time, and it might have been robbed by the Khitan army.He remembered that a few days ago, Cao Bin's [-] troops left to go south, most likely to protect the grain road.

Thinking of this, Ye Chen's heart skipped a beat, and he remembered that he had just traveled to the current world in a daze. In order to solve the problem of livelihood and the knowledge of later generations, he made a set of simple tools to make salt in the dry salt lake and sell salt in the border city of Yongle. .

"Is this a good time for me to make meritorious service?" Ye Chen's heartbeat speeded up inexplicably.

Ye Chen thought about it all the way, and finally when he was about to approach the imperial tent of the Chinese army, he said: "Commander! If the army can't solve the problem of salt shortage in a short time, the subordinates will have a way to solve it."

Cao Bin was taken aback when he heard the words, and said, "How do you solve it?"

Ye Chen had already thought about saying something, and was worried that Cao Bin would not believe him, so he showed a very confident look and said, "Master! Isn't it just salt! There are a lot of them in this hundred-mile radius."

Cao Bin reined in his horse and stopped, looked at Ye Chen, and said, "Ye Chen! There is no joke in the army. Where can you get salt within a hundred miles?"

Ye Chen continued to say persuasively: "As far as I know, there is a salt mine beside the Fen River, just dig it."

"Bullshit, I knew there was a salt mine by the river. It was poisonous salt. I couldn't eat it. After eating that salt, I would die from diarrhea, not to mention that my whole body would turn purple after eating it. The salt you mentioned is This kind of poisonous salt?" Cao Bin was a little displeased, and asked Ye Chen loudly.

Ye Chen was stunned when he heard this, and he admired the experimenting spirit of the ancients in his heart. It is true to eat salt, but if you eat nitrate, phosphorus, potassium and other impurities in the salt mine, it is pure courting death.If you eat nitrate, you may be able to survive for a while. It is strange that you don't turn purple all over your body after eating too much phosphorus and potassium.In later generations, Ye Chen has seen calcium supplements, iron supplements, but not nitrate, phosphorus and potassium supplements.

(End of this chapter)