"What! An outbreak of disease in the army? ”

Zhu Jun slammed his fist on the table, his eyes spurting with anger, "How can there be an epidemic, are you looking for an excuse to withdraw the army?" ”

General Zhang Tingzhi lowered his head in shame, "The brothers have been stationed in the field for several months, and it should be that someone has drunk the unclean raw water in the canal and contracted dysentery, which is very contagious, and more than 3,500 people have died of illness. ”

"I want to know now, how many of you Eastern Army are sick?"

"If you count the dead soldiers, more than 10,000 people have been infected."

Zhu Zhu paced back and forth in the big tent with his hands, this news made him upset, since September last year, 200,000 troops surrounded Hedong City, it is now the middle of January, a full four months, but he has not been able to capture Hedong City, as a result of which his army began to break out of epidemics.

Zhu Zhu's 200,000 army is divided into four large battalions, stationed in the east, west, north and south, the outbreak of the epidemic is the east battalion, the main general will be Zhang Tingzhi, originally the Longyou River Huang soldiers and horses, after surrendering to Zhu Zhu, quite reused, was named Jing Guogong, Zuotun Wei general, is one of the six King Kong under Zhu Zhu.

"Guilty of contemplation!"

Zhu Jun waved his hand in disappointment, "What's the point of saying this now?" ”

At this time, the military advisor Liu Sigu hurried over when he heard the news, "Captain, where is the outbreak of the epidemic?" ”

"You ask him!" Zhu Jun pointed at Zhang Tingzhi and said.

Zhang Tingzhi recounted the outbreak of the epidemic with a bitter face, and Liu Sigu frowned and asked, "Are the infected soldiers isolated?" ”

"They were all isolated, special isolation camps were built in the lowly post, all the dead soldiers were burned, and nothing was left."

"How long has the epidemic been around?"

"Seven days, the first case was detected seven days ago."

Zhu Jun was furious, "I found out seven days ago, and you only reported it now, do you want my 200,000 soldiers to die, and you are willing?" ”

Zhang Tingzhi knelt down and cried: "Despicable and guilty!" ”

Liu Sigu hurriedly said to Zhu Jun: "Taiwei, now is not the time to investigate the responsibility, in just seven days, more than 10,000 people fell ill and 3,500 died, the momentum is too violent, we can't delay any longer, we must withdraw the army tonight, first withdraw the other three large battalions, and finally withdraw the eastern battalion." ”

Zhu Jun held back the fire in his heart, and kicked Zhang Tingzhi fiercely, "Don't get out of here!" ”

Zhang Tingzhi ran out with a roll.

Liu Sigu comforted Zhu Jun and said: "Actually, I think this epidemic came in time, so that the captain has an excuse to withdraw the army, otherwise there is no reason to withdraw the army, it is obvious that the army will be defeated, and the morale and morale of the army will be hit." ”

Zhu Jun nodded, of course he knew that the military advisor was right, Hedong City could not be captured, so he could only use the method of trapping and dying, waiting for the food in the city to be cut off, but the situation was not optimistic, it is said that Li Huaiguang had been stockpiling food for two years, if the news was true, they really couldn't hold on, fortunately, there was an outbreak of epidemics, so that he found an excuse to withdraw the army.

That night, the 150,000 troops of the three battalions besieging Hedong City retreated, and at the fifth watch, the eastern battalion began to retreat, first the healthy soldiers retreated, and finally the soldiers of the isolation battalion retreated, no one cared about them at all, they supported each other and went westward, and they fell one by one after a short time, and there were fallen soldiers all the way.

As soon as dawn, the defenders at the head of the city found that the enemy troops had all retreated, and immediately cheered, especially the eastern camp was well preserved, and all kinds of supplies were not taken away.

Li Huaiguang immediately ordered 3,000 soldiers to go to the East Camp to carry supplies, at this time, some soldiers found that the countless soldiers who died along the way were seriously ill, Li Huaiguang was shocked when he heard the news, and immediately ordered the city gate to be closed, and asked 3,000 soldiers to set fire to the enemy's East Camp.

The 3,000 soldiers could not return to the city, so they had to camp outside the city and be responsible for removing the bodies of the dead soldiers, but the 3,000 soldiers were still infected in large numbers, and some people continued to fall ill and die, and in the end, less than half of them were left safe and sound, and they followed Li Huaiguang's army to evacuate from Hedong City.

The epidemic broke through the city wall and began to wreak havoc in the city, Li Huaiguang was afraid that the epidemic would spread in large numbers, so he issued a closure order, strictly prohibiting the people of Hedong City from fleeing.

The epidemic that occurred in Hedong City did not gradually stop until May, and nearly seventy percent of the more than 100,000 people in Hedong City died.

.........

In early spring and February, when the ice and snow on the Hexi Corridor had begun to thaw and the flood on the Yellow River was approaching, the 30,000 Hexi Army set off again under the leadership of the commander Guo Song.

They rode war horses and marched all the way along the Helan Mountains to Yunzhou, passing through Fengzhou and arriving in Yunzhou, and the Hexi army entered Yunzhou along the Purple River.

The northern part of Yunzhou is a continuous mountainous area, where the Sui Dynasty built a majestic Great Wall to cut off the southern invasion of northern nomads, but the Tang Dynasty did not attach importance to the defensive role of the Great Wall, but built three surrendered cities to defend against the invasion of northern nomads.

With the war in the late Tang Dynasty, the surrendered city has been abandoned, and the Great Wall built by the Sui Dynasty has also been seriously damaged, and the northern defense line has become full of holes.

In fact, in the autumn of last year, the Hexi Army had left 20,000 troops stationed in Hedong for a long time, and this time it sent another 30,000 troops, bringing the total number of Hexi troops stationed in Hedong to 50,000.

In mid-February, the 30,000 Hexi army arrived in Yunzhong County, and the city of Yunzhong County suddenly became lively.

Guo Song, accompanied by Zhonglang General Li Tie and Yunzhou Thorn Shi Li Dian, walked to the head of Yunzhong County, where twelve large trebuchets had been installed, which could throw more than 200 catties of large iron fire mines to a hundred steps away.

Then this opportunity, Li Tie couldn't help but ask: "Envoy, everyone is talking about two questions this winter, one is whether the Hui people will come, and the other question is, will the Hui people bypass Cloud City and not fight?" ”

Guo Song looked into the distance and said lightly: "What if the Hui people come, what if they don't come?" What if you fight, what if you don't? ”

Everyone looked at each other, and the corners of their mouths showed a wry smile, and none of them understood the meaning of this sentence.

Guo Song glanced back at them, saw that everyone looked confused, and couldn't help laughing: "I said a little too vaguely, I mean to say, whether the Hui people come or not, everyone must defend the city, whether the Hui people fight or not, everyone must be prepared, you can't relax the guard because the Hui people don't come, especially at night, you need to take precautions, in addition, the beacon on the northern col is very well prepared, early warning is very important, we can't do a drop of water, but as long as the normal precautions are enough." ”

Only then did the generals understand, and they saluted together: "Thank you for your teachings!" ”

Guo Song said again: "But this time the Hui people should come, when our army arrived in Zihe, we met their hundred spies, everyone knows that once the hundred spies appear, then the army of tens of thousands of people is not far away, if I am not wrong, within three days, we will definitely get the exact news." ”

........

Guo Song's inference was still a little conservative, that night, the fire was lit on the top of Baishan Mountain forty miles away in the north, and the beacon fire of early warning was ignited, this was the third beacon, and the farthest beacon was on the Great Wall a hundred miles away, which meant that at least thousands of Hui cavalry appeared a hundred miles away in the north.

'When! While! While! The bell rang quickly, and countless soldiers rushed out of the barracks, and in the darkness the figures flashed rapidly, and the soldiers went up to the city.

Guo Song also went to the city surrounded by the brigade's own soldiers, and Li Tie immediately stepped forward to report: "Enlighten the envoy, the beacon fire of Baishan Mountain has been lit." ”

Guo Song stepped forward and stared for a moment and said, "Has the beacon fire farther away been lit?" ”

"I don't know!"

Guo Song nodded, now I don't know if it was the defenders of Baishan Mountain who discovered the enemy, or the defenders who were farther away who discovered the enemy, if it was the former, then the Hui army would be forty miles away.

"Let's not worry, hurry up and sleep for a while, the Hui people don't have the habit of attacking the city at night."

Li Tie shouted loudly, and the soldiers sat down one after another, resting against the wall, and gradually quieted down.

Guo Song looked at the north with deep eyes, pondering the strategy of breaking the enemy.

The Hui iron cavalry from the grassland came like a whirlwind, running thousands of miles, expecting them to carry a large number of siege weapons is unrealistic, and the cavalry will not carry siege weapons, but it does not mean that the Hui people do not attack the city.

The Uighur siege method is relatively simple, fill the moat with mud and sandbags, and then cut down big trees around to make siege rams, mainly attack the city gate, if the city gate cannot be attacked, basically give up.

The cavalry that the Uighurs are good at fighting on the plains, siege is their weakness, and they generally do not give up their advantages in favor of their weaknesses.

Once they enter the hinterland of the Central Plains, it will be the catastrophe of the Han people, so it is necessary to wipe out the invading Hui people in Yunzhou and Shuozhou.

This is also the main reason why there are very few county towns in Yunzhou and Shuozhou, there are only three counties in total, Yunzhong County in Yunzhou, Mayi County and Shanyang County in Shuozhou, and the population of Mayi County has all been transferred to Shanyang County, in fact, there are only two county seats, plus a Lou Fu Pass.

As long as the Hexi army held these three places, the Hui army could only move around in these two states and could not enter the Central Plains.

At dawn, a black line appeared in the north, and the Hui army finally arrived.