That night, several of Miao Changxiu's subordinates began to vomit and diarrhea, Miao Changxiu did not take it to heart, two days later, several subordinates who were initially sick died of illness at night, at the same time, dozens of people began to be sick, began to vomit and diarrhea, and their bodies were hot, Miao Changxiu was scared and hurriedly sent someone to find a military doctor.

The military doctors, who had experience, immediately judged that there was an epidemic, and they realized that the matter was important and urgently reported it to Xiao Wanding.

Xiao Wanding immediately rushed to the rear army barracks to check the situation, at this time the rear army barracks had been blocked, 10,000 rear troops were not allowed to leave the camp, let alone move around at will, those who dared to escape into the front army were engaged in military law!

Xiao Wanding didn't dare to approach the barracks, so he brought Miao Changxiu up, Miao Changxiu didn't get sick, he was extremely panicked in his heart, of course he knew what was going on, the root cause was the two deserters who died of illness.

But he didn't dare to say it, and once he said it, he couldn't afford to take the responsibility.

"I don't know what's going on? As soon as I came back, I heard that someone was sick, and during this time, he was not in the rear army camp. ”

A military doctor next to him couldn't listen to it, and whispered a few words to Xiao Wanding, Xiao Wanding's face sank, and he reprimanded angrily: "You still dare to deny it, the first person to get sick is the soldier who went out with you, that is, you brought the epidemic back to the barracks, if you don't tell the truth, be careful that the commander is severely punished!" ”

Xiao Wanding knows his nephew very well, and he has lied a lot since he was a child, and he has to beat him hard every time before he is willing to tell the truth.

Miao Changxiu couldn't deny it, so he had to tell the truth, "It should be those deserters, and two of the deserters seem to have died of illness." ”

"Since you are sick and dead, why don't you care?"

"The last general didn't expect a plague at all! I thought he drank dirty water and had diarrhea, but they said it themselves, drinking dirty water from the battlefield. ”

"What?"

Xiao Wanding's eyes widened, "Which battlefield?" ”

"It is the battlefield where Qiu Jingzhong's troops were defeated and we chased and killed deserters."

As soon as Miao Changxiu finished speaking, he suddenly bent over and covered his stomach, and said with pain on his face: "Oops! My stomach hurts so badly that I can't hold it anymore. ”

Xiao Wanding was so shocked that he took a few steps back, and said in a loud voice: "Hurry up and send him back and give him medicine to treat his illness!" ”

Miao Changxiu finally became ill, vomiting and diarrhea, feverish, and taking medicine had no effect, and two days later, Miao Changxiu died of illness.

At this time, the entire rear army had more than 1,000 sick people, more than 300 people died, the breath of death shrouded the rear army camp, the entire rear army was isolated, the soldiers dug a long trench to separate the rear army from the other large camps, and the grain was also transported to the Chinese army for safekeeping.

But no one in the rear army soldiers 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 already sick had to struggle to escape from the barracks and flee to the north, this time, Xiao Wanding did not send an army to chase them, but let them flee, these fugitive soldiers turned out to be scattered soldiers, not his descendants Tiger Benwei, Xiao Wanding did not care about their life and death.

Xiao Wanding knew very well that these soldiers would not be able to escape for long, and in the end, they would either die of illness or starvation, and they would not find food at all on the way back for hundreds of miles.

At the fifth watch, Xiao Wanding, who was asleep, was woken up by his own soldiers, "What's wrong?" Xiao Wanding asked dissatisfiedly.

"Come out! There is an emergency, it seems that someone in the Chinese army has also become ill. ”

"What!"

Xiao Wanding sat up in shock.

........

There was more than one person in the Chinese army battalion, a total of more than 20 people fell ill at the same time, and they were not in the same camp tent, there were soldiers carrying food, soldiers enforcing military law, and soldiers responsible for burying corpses.

Military doctors have isolated all the 20 people in time, but the question is, is it only this group of people who are sick, or a large number of patients have not yet appeared?

"Have you found out the source?" Xiao Wanding asked.

The military medical officer sighed and said: "It is estimated that there are more than twenty deserters, they are all infected, and it is very likely that they have become ill, although they have been killed, but they were not careful when handling the corpses, and they were also infected." ”

"That's all?" Xiao Wanding asked uneasily.

"One more thing, I'm not sure, is the boatmen, they bring wine, and many soldiers sneak up to drink with them, but three boatmen also get sick, and there is a lot of dirt in the boats, mixed with the grain, will the soldiers who carry the food and the cooks come into contact with this filth?"

Xiao Wanding's head is big, if so, it really can't be checked.

Adjutant General Li Ji said in a low voice: "General, if you really can't do it, retreat first!" Anyway, there is not much food, we retreat to Chenliu, if the problem is not big, we counterattack back, maybe then there will be a chance. ”

Xiao Wanding hesitated, it's not serious now, maybe it's just a false alarm, if he retreats like this, it will be difficult to explain to the Son of Heaven?

He hesitated for a moment and said, "Take a look again, if the problem is serious, it's not too late to retreat." ”

In fact, Li Ji's idea is right, gathering in the big tent, it is easy to infect each other, if it is a march, there is a distance between each other, and there is no sealed space, it will greatly reduce the infection, but Li Ji himself did not realize this, he simply wanted to withdraw the army, since the commander did not agree to withdraw the army, he no longer insisted.

But Xiao Wanding's luck ultimately failed, and only three days later, a large number of soldiers in both the Chinese army and the front army fell ill one after another, and the number of sick people exceeded 2,000, in addition, the boatmen and slender men also fell ill in large numbers, and they were driven out of the barracks.

Xiao Wanding began to panic, under the persuasion of several military medical officers, Xiao Wanding finally decided to retreat, he hurriedly found Li Ji, and said apologetically: "I didn't listen to the general's words, I made a mistake, now I want the army to evacuate, what advice does the general have?" ”

Since the coach apologized, Li Ji didn't dare to show the slightest complaint, he brushed his beard and said: "At that time, I didn't insist on retreating, in fact, I was worried about encountering fleeing rear soldiers, worried about being infected on the road, and suggested that the army go west of Bianshui to avoid possible infections on the road." ”

Xiao Wanding nodded, go to the west of Bianshui, this suggestion is very good, it just so happens that the ships can be used to transport camp tents, as for grain and pickles, all of them are given to the soldiers as dry food on the road.

In the evening of the same day, the tents disappeared, and Zhu Zhu's army began to retreat.

"General, what about the rear camp?"

Li Ji pointed to the back camp and asked, "Is it burned down by a fire?" ”

Xiao Wanding looked back at the city, a bitter hatred flashed in his eyes, and he said lightly: "Just leave it to them!" ”

Li Ji shuddered in his heart, this move was too vicious.

.........

The soldiers at the head of the city had already discovered the enemy's movements, and immediately went to take revenge on Jingzhong, who hurried to the head of the city, and he stood in front of the battlements and looked at the enemy camp two miles away, only to see that the camp tents that had been endless before had disappeared, and the army was withdrawing westward along the canal, and the sun was about to disappear on the horizon, dyeing the earth golden.

Li Mian, the general of the city guard, whispered to Qiu Jingzhong: "According to the observation of the scouts, the enemy's ships only have big tents and no food, and they suspect that the enemy army is forced to withdraw because of lack of food!" ”

Of course, it is impossible for the defenders in the city to know what happened in the camp of Zhu Jun's army, Li Mian's reasoning is reasonable, it is entirely possible, it should be said that this is their fortified wall and clear the wilderness, without logistics and food, the enemy army can not find any supplies.

Qiu Jingzhong nodded, "You're right, it should be like this!" ”

At this time, Qiu Jingzhong suddenly found that a large tent had not been demolished, but was still standing in the wilderness, with hundreds of them, and he pointed to the tent group in the distance and asked, "That should be the rear army!" Why is it still there? ”

Li Mian didn't understand either, and said for a while: "Could it be that the other party doesn't have enough ships and can't take so much?" ”

"Regardless of the reason, immediately send scouts to investigate, what the hell is going on?"

Li Mian agreed, and immediately sent more than a dozen scouts, climbed the rope down the city, and went to the enemy's rear camp to investigate the situation.

In the evening, the scouts came back to report, "The rear army camp is an empty camp, with a lot of supplies and a large number of discarded armor, as if there had been a turmoil. ”

The scouts did not find the bodies, in fact, there would be no bodies, the dead soldiers had been buried, the living soldiers were struggling to escape, no one would stay in the camp shrouded in fear and wait for death, as long as they could leave the camp, there would be a glimmer of hope.

Qiu Jingzhong was overjoyed and immediately ordered: "Move all the tents, supplies and armor into the city!" ”

Qiu Jingzhong didn't know that Xiao Wanding's pain of losing his son would be doubled to himself.