The news of the plague in Songzhou flew with the letter eagle spreading its wings and soon reached Chang'an.

This is also a situation that Guo Song did not expect, he thought that the two sides would confront each other for a year or two, but he did not expect that in just a few months, the war ended by the epidemic.

But Guo Song is more concerned about the epidemic itself, will Zhu Jun's army bring the epidemic to Bianzhou? Will the epidemic break out in Songcheng County, and then the people of Songcheng County will bring the epidemic to nearby prefectures and counties, or even to refugee camps?

Thinking that the epidemic would be prevalent in the refugee camp and the consequences were unimaginable, Guo Song was so anxious that he immediately sent an order to Li Bing, ordering him to take all measures to stop the spread of the epidemic, and at the same time ordering all parts of Jiangnan and Jianghuai to collect lime and transport it to Yanzhou and Bozhou by boat, and at the same time recruit thousands of experienced doctors in Jianghuai and Jiangnan to support Yanzhou and Bozhou.

In the political affairs hall, Guo Song and the seven ministers urgently discussed the countermeasures, and everyone put forward their own opinions one after another.

"Your Highness, I feel the need to set up a half-way isolation camp and an observation camp."

Pan Liao, who had participated in the fight against the plague in Hexi more than a decade ago, knew that isolation was the most important thing, and the key was not to let the sick enter the healthy population, so all the people must be screened for disease-free.

"It is also necessary to send a large number of cavalry to intercept the refugees and drive them to quarantine camps and observation camps."

Guo Song looked at the map and said: "It's really a bit unguardable, what if someone in Bianzhou and Caozhou is infected and flees to Yanzhou?" The camps had to be evacuated to the east and south, and effective medicines had to be found to prevent the disease. ”

Xiangguo Zhang Qianyi said on the side: "Your Highness is right, prevention is very important, we must tell the people to wash their hands frequently, boil the water to drink, it is best to cook the dishes and chopsticks before eating, and go to the toilet to stay away from the place of residence, and do these habits well, which can greatly reduce the spread of epidemics." ”

Guo Song took a few steps and said decisively: "We must do the following things immediately, first, establish four isolation camps and observation camps in the east, west, south and north a hundred miles away from Songcheng County, and send 50,000 cavalry to Bozhou and Yanzhou to support.

Second, we will move two refugee camps to Chuzhou, south of the Huai River, build five refugee camps, and mobilize all ships from Jiangnan and Jianghuai to provide relocation support.

Third, the imperial court allocated 500,000 guan to purchase medicinal materials from various places.

Fourth, began to deliver supplies to Chuzhou, including all the reserve tents in Chang'an.

Fifth, immediately stop ferries to the Yellow River, Huai River, and Yangtze River, except for the ships going to Chuzhou for support.

Sixth, we will block the borders and strictly prohibit the people of Bianzhou, Huazhou, and Caozhou from entering our territory. ”

Du You immediately objected: "Your Highness, the blockade of the border is not proper, it will cause serious human disasters in these three states, we should send troops to guide them to Puzhou, establish a new refugee camp in Puzhou, and we will transport supplies to Puzhou through the Yellow River." ”

"Wechen supports Du Xiangguo's opinion!"

Cao Wannian said: "Isolation camps and observation camps can be set up at the border of Puzhou, and only after making sure that they are not infected can they go to the Puzhou refugee camp." ”

Guo Song waved his hand, "Let's talk about it!" We summarized all the opinions, divided them into three plans: urgent, heavy and slow, and then implemented them step by step. ”

The group deliberated until late at night, and finally drew up a detailed plan, in which they even considered how to transport the coal from Yanzhou to the Chuzhou camp as fuel for boiling water, and finally Guo Song appointed Pan Liao, the right minister, as the commander.

Everyone is aware of the great impact of this epidemic, and if it is not handled well, it will bring a long-term heavy burden to the imperial court, and the imperial court must go all out to fight the epidemic.

On the morning of the next day, with Guo Song's successive edicts flying to Bozhou and Yanzhou, and to Jiangnan and Jianghuai, various localities began to take urgent action, and more than one million refugees from the two major refugee camps in Yanzhou and Bozhou began to evacuate along Surabaya and Bianshui to the south, with great momentum, and at the same time, tens of thousands of ships from Jianghuai and Jiangnan went north to transport supplies, food, and the elderly, weak, women, and children.

Yang Meng led 15,000 cavalry into Songzhou, and established two large battalions in the south and east of Songzhou, which were further subdivided into two, one was an isolation camp and the other was an observation camp.

At the same time, Li Bing sent the general Zhang Wentao to lead 15,000 cavalry into Songzhou, and established isolation camps and observation camps in the north and east.

Li Bing knew that he was not alarmist, he had already received the news that the situation in Songcheng County was not optimistic........

Songcheng County was not spared because of Qiu Jingzhong's fire, and the epidemic broke out in the army.

The source of the disease was not in the tents or food, but the soldiers who participated in the dismantling and carrying of the tents secretly hid a large number of belongings found in the rear army camp, and they all had a sense of luck, and greed overcame the fear of the epidemic.

Another part of the soldiers were infected when the camp was dismantled, so the epidemic in the barracks did not break out one after another, but at the same time, and thousands of soldiers developed the disease.

The sudden outbreak of the epidemic was almost at night, which caught Qiu Jingzhong off guard, and he urgently ordered thousands of sick soldiers to be sent to the isolation camp.

Two days later, more than 5,000 soldiers were infected, and the disease began to spiral out of control.

Qiu Jingzhong was also upset, except for ordering the city gate to be closed and no one was allowed to leave the city, he could no longer think of any other way to deal with it, illness, isolation, death, burial, re-illness, re-isolation, death of illness, and burial.......

This plague lasted only two to three days from onset to death, and it was basically endless diarrhea, and finally died of dehydration.

At night, hundreds of men and women dragged their families and their elders to climb up to the south of the city, and they used the courtyard close to the city wall to set up a long ladder to climb up, and after climbing up, they used a rope ladder to climb down the city from the other end.

After climbing dozens of people, they were finally spotted by the soldiers patrolling the sentry.

"Someone fled the city!"

The soldiers rushed over, and dozens of people at the head of the city were in chaos, some jumped directly into the moat, some ran wildly and fled, some knelt on the ground and pleaded, and a few shouted for their own cleverness: "I am sick, you are not allowed to touch me!" ”

The soldiers did not dare to touch them, so they directly stabbed them to death with spears.

It was Qiu Jingzhong's eldest son, Qiu Yuan, who was on duty tonight, and after he got the news, he also hurried over.

"Don't kill them in vain, let them all go!"

Dozens of people knelt in front of Qiu Yuan and cried, "Prince, let us out of the city!" We didn't get sick, but if we stayed in the city, we wouldn't survive! ”

Qiu Yuan sighed, "Where can you go after you leave the city?" Hundreds of miles outside are barren and inhabited, and there are corpses of sick and dead soldiers everywhere, and there is no food, and it is easy to get sick, so it is better to stay in the city, at least there is something to eat. ”

"We brought dry food with us, so we could flee to Bozhou, where there was a refugee camp to take us in."

Qiu Yuan was in a dilemma, so he had to say: "You go home first, I'll ask the boss, if the boss is willing to let you go, let's go!" I won't stop it. ”

Dozens of people had no choice but to return to the city, Qiu Yuan hurried to the barracks and found his father.

Qiu Jingzhong sneered and said, "I won't stop them if they want to leave, but leave the grain and livestock behind." ”

"Father, without food, they won't be able to survive if they go out of the city!"

"Then I don't care, since they want to betray me, why should I care if they live or die?"

Qiu Yuan was speechless, and he asked in a low voice, "Then what will we do in the future?" Does Father have an idea? ”

Qiu Jingzhong looked out the window with his hands in his hands, and said slowly for a long time: "I got the news, Xiao Wanding's army stopped in Bianzhou, and the condition is very serious, I speculate that they are likely to withdraw to Luoyang, once there are no troops stationed in Bianzhou, I will directly seize Bianzhou, Caozhou and Puzhou, and Songzhou will give up!" ”

"What about the epidemic in Songcheng County?"

Qiu Jingzhong turned around and glared at him fiercely, and said with a sarcastic face: "Unexpectedly, you are really a living Bodhisattva, take care of yourself first!" We are the mud bodhisattvas who cross the river, and we are already unable to protect ourselves. ”

Qiu Yuan sighed in his heart, bowed and retreated.

Four or five days have passed, the epidemic in the city is getting more and more serious, it has been completely out of control, more than 10,000 soldiers have fallen ill, and the number of people who have fallen ill has been impossible to count, and many families have buried their bodies at will, resulting in the contamination of groundwater, so that the epidemic has broken out in the city, and the city is full of crying.

At this time, Qiu Jingzhong finally got the news he wanted, Xiao Wanding returned to the capital with 50,000 healthy soldiers, leaving Li Ji to deal with tens of thousands of sick people.

Qiu Jingzhong decided to abandon Songcheng County and lead his army to Bianzhou, and at the same time he opened the city gates and let the people out of the city, and at the same time sent an army to drive a large number of people to flee to the north.

This is Qiu Jingzhong's purpose, he has long known that the Jin army blocked the road to the north, he first let the people out, contain the Jin army, and his army can take the opportunity to break through.

As if they were about to escape from hell, hundreds of thousands of people flocked out of the city with their families and families in all directions.