There were more than 600 sick people that night, all of whom were killed by Qiu Wen, and they didn't bother to dig a pit, so they directly poured fire oil on the corpses, and there were fires everywhere along the way.

As the day began to dawn, the soldiers had walked all night, tired and sleepy, and exhausted, when the earth trembled in front of them, and a thunderous sound roared in the air, and a black line appeared two miles away.

"It's cavalry! The cavalry of the Jin army is coming! ”

Qiu Jingzhong's army was in chaos, and countless soldiers instinctively turned around and ran wildly.

Qiu Jingzhong was furious, drew his sword and stepped forward, killed more than a dozen people in a row, and shouted, "If you dare to run away again, there will be no forgiveness for killing!" ”

The soldiers were suppressed, no one dared to run around anymore, Qiu Jingzhong ordered the third son Qiu Pai: "You lead the cavalry up to meet the battle, buy me time!" ”

Qiu Jingzhong also had 3,000 cavalry, or more than 3,000 war horses captured from Zhang Ting'an's cavalry, and 3,000 people were selected to form a cavalry, which was led by the third son, Qiu Pai.

"Obey!"

Qiu Pai took the arrow and shouted, "The cavalry follow me!" ”

He led 3,000 cavalry up to meet him.

Qiu Jingzhong immediately ordered the front army, "Form a bow and crossbow array!" ”

His team was more than ten miles long, and it would take at least a quarter of an hour to assemble them all, and it was too late, so he could only organize the front army first.

Thousands of soldiers of the front army quickly lined up and formed a three-row bow and crossbow formation, raising bows and arrows and crossbows, ready to fire at any time

The 3,000 cavalry formed by Qiu Jingzhong was far from being trained, and was not at all a well-trained opponent of the Jin cavalry, and was defeated by the Jin cavalry in just a few moments, with nearly 1,000 casualties, and less than 2,000 people turned around and fled south.

An accident happened, the cavalry running in front turned out to be their own people who had fled, and the general at the head was Qiu Pai, who was hit by two arrows, wounded in the shoulder, covered in blood, and galloped wildly on his horse in embarrassment.

The crossbowmen looked at each other, and their own cavalry turned into meat shields, which could not be shot.

Qiu Jingzhong was anxious about his son's injury, and it was impossible to release the arrows anymore, so he had to order: "Remove the bow and crossbow array and replace the spear array!" ”

But it was useless to change the spear formation, they still had to face the impact of their own cavalry, and in just a moment, the sandstorm rolled up by the cavalry gushed in, the sand and dust were filled, and the line of sight was sharply reduced.

In the dust, the cavalry slaughtered like a raging storm, and countless cavalry rushed into the crowd of soldiers, spears pierced their bodies, heads flew away, blood splashed everywhere, and pieces of enemy troops fell like devastation.

Where did the demoralized and exhausted Flying Bear Guard army still have the physical strength and courage to fight a decisive battle with the powerful Jin cavalry, the soldiers shouted and fled in the wilderness, and when they couldn't run, they knelt on the ground and begged for mercy.

There were also quite a few soldiers who knew how to swim into the water and swam to the opposite shore.

This pursuit storm lasted for nearly an hour before it gradually calmed down, and the tens of thousands of troops that had been more than ten miles long had disappeared and turned into groups of captured soldiers, escorted by cavalry and quickly transferred westward.

A soldier found Qiu Jingzhong's body, lying on the river's edge, his head buried in the water, his heart pierced by a spear, and his sword in his hand, perhaps trying to climb into the river, and finally collapsed by the river.

Qiu Pai's body was also found, he died in the first wave of impact, not killed by the Jin army, but pierced through the body by a dozen spears of his own army, many of his soldiers died like this, the sand and dust were filled, they panicked, and crashed into the spear formation of their own army.

Qiu Wen also died in the chaos, he refused to surrender, but led 3,000 soldiers and Jin cavalry to fight to the death, and finally the whole army was annihilated, all of them were killed by the Jin army, and none of them survived.

The general Li Mian tried to swim to the opposite bank, but was shot and killed in the river by the Jin army's archers, and thousands of people jumped into the water to flee for their lives, or were shot, or drowned in the water by the armor, and finally swam across the other bank and fled the soldiers, less than 500 people.

The chief officers of the escort convoy were Qiu Yuan and Hou Xicai, and the two of them promptly ordered more than 10,000 soldiers of the rear army to put down their weapons and surrender, and escaped with their lives.

In this battle, Qiu Jingzhong's army was completely annihilated, with more than 50,000 captured and more than 10,000 killed.

Considering the raging plague, Li Bing ordered all the corpses to be piled up and burned, and then dig a pit to cover it deeply, which is the correct way to dispose of the corpses, which must be burned and buried deeply, and the corpses buried by Zhu Junjun and Qiu Jingzhong's army must be dug up in the soil, re-burned and buried.

The cavalry took the prisoners of war to the observation camp and quarantine camp in the west, where there were not many fleeing civilians, and it was just right to observe the epidemic of prisoners of war.

At noon the next day, Li Bing led 10,000 cavalry to Songcheng County, and he asked more than 1,000 soldiers to do a good job of protection, wearing hoods, masks and gloves, and leather boots on their feet, and they followed dozens of military doctors into the city to check the situation.

This plague should be acute cholera, extremely lethal, two or three days after infection, the onset of the disease, the body fever, and then vomiting and diarrhea, especially unstoppable diarrhea, the elderly and the infirm will die of dehydration overnight, or die of heart failure, and the strong will also survive for three to four days at most.

An hour later, the soldiers came out to report, "There are still thousands of people alive in the barracks, and more than 1,000 elderly people have been found in the houses, and they refuse to leave their homes." ”

Li Bing ordered all the surviving soldiers and residents to be evacuated and set up camps outside the city for medical treatment.

The next day, he ordered the soldiers to search the whole city and make sure that there were no survivors, so Li Bing ordered to pour fire oil on the city.

A raging fire engulfed the entire Songcheng County, which burned for three days and three nights, and burned the entire city to the ground.

Li Bing spent another half a month digging up the bodies of all the sick and dead people and burning and burying, the plague in Songzhou was finally stopped by the fire, but the plague spread in the neighboring states, the epidemic was brought to Bianzhou by the retreating Xiao Wanding army, and broke out in Bianzhou, and soon, there were also epidemics in Caozhou, Huazhou, and eastern Zhengzhou.

The people of the four prefectures were terrified and fled to the east and west with their families, but Zhu Zhu ordered the closure of the Tiger Prison Pass and did not allow the people of the four prefectures to flee westward.

Desperate people flocked to Puzhou and Yanzhou, and Li Bing's army turned into a disaster relief army and advanced into Bianzhou to help the fleeing people, while a large number of boats loaded with food, medicinal herbs, tents, and other supplies docked at the Yellow River wharf in Puzhou.

The Jin army set up the largest rescue camp in Puyang County to house the people who fled from the four prefectures.

This plague was not only an epidemic crisis, but also an opportunity, so that the Jin army completely recovered the Central Plains east of the Tiger Pass, and Zhu Zhu's territory was only Henan Province, and the army still had 80,000 people.

By the end of November, a cold wave from the north swept south of the Yellow River, the temperature dropped sharply, light snow began to fall in Hebei and the Central Plains, the river froze, the plague was no longer as active as before, and the degree of infection was significantly reduced, buying time for the imperial court.

In fact, the plague did not disappear until three years later, and more than 300,000 people died in the Central Plains, bringing a huge disaster to the Central Plains, and the vitality was greatly damaged, and it was not until ten years later that it gradually recovered.

At noon, the flower boats on the street outside Xi'an began to sing and dance again, and the people on both sides of the Cao River were crowded with people watching the parade.

Since last year, the flower boat parade is no longer held every day, but every five and ten held once, every five is noon, every ten is held in the evening, the Jin King Guo Song was opposed to the flower boat too luxurious, but the dancers wore cloth skirts to perform and lacked charm, Guo Song specially approved the flower boat dancers can wear satin dresses, but they are not allowed to use the most gorgeous Shu brocade.

The Tang Dynasty also banned the use of Shu brocade for clothing many times, but in the end there was no result, Shu brocade with its gorgeous wealth, has always become the most favored dress fabric of powerful women, surpassing the famous lake silk Su satin.

In front of the window on the second floor of the Pearl Restaurant, Bai Juyi and Xue Qing were drinking while watching the dancing girls on the boat.

Bai Juyi is currently serving as the secretary of the provincial school from Bapin, in fact, he is working as a book proofreader in Hongwenguan, and at the same time accompanying Shizi to study, his affairs are very leisurely, and he has more time, so he also serves as the chief writer of the people's livelihood column of "Chang'an Express", and writes articles in the newspaper under the pseudonym Bai Ding.

He actually took Guo Jincheng's position, and after Guo Jincheng resigned from the newspaper, he recommended Bai Juyi to the newspaper to take over his own column.

"Hey! Now Shizi basically doesn't come out, and it's been a long time since I've drunk with him. Bai Juyi raised his glass and sighed.

Xue Qing smiled slightly: "He came out to do things because His Royal Highness the King of Jin wanted him to learn more about the people's livelihood and hone his character, he came out to do it for more than a year, and he should go back, after all, he is the son of the world, many people are staring at him, and it is not safe outside." ”

After a pause, Xue Qing smiled again: "He was studying in Hongwen Hall in the morning, weren't you with him?" Don't you have time to drink? ”

(End of chapter)