In a few words, Mu Gongchun finished the strategy, Hou Dagui listened, first stunned for a long time, and then worried: "Doing this will inevitably hurt the heavens and reason." ”

Mu Gongchun shook his goose feather fan and said disapprerovingly: "If you can't capture Runing Mansion for a long time, tens of thousands of soldiers and horses in my Zhao camp may be in danger of overturning the nest." The lesser of two evils, the principle of not being in charge of the army, Manager Hou should understand better than Xiaosheng. ”

Hou Dagui hesitated for a moment, raised his eyes and looked at the seemingly endless heavy rain outside the account, but he still nodded slowly and said, "Mr. Xie Mu mentions, and leave the rest to me." ”

Mu Gongchun bowed and said, "That little student is waiting for the good news of Manager Hou." With that, he turned around and floated away.

Hou Dagui paced back and forth in the tent by himself and pondered for a while before someone gave an order: "Quickly call Zhang Xianbi and Zheng Shixin." "Zhang Xianbi is an officer in the Wuqi Battalion, and Zheng Shixin is the commander of the Jing and Zhong Battalions, and the two of them are Hou Dagui's two henchmen in the army. Zhang Xianbi doesn't need to mention that he climbed up to Hou Dagui, but Zheng Shixin was intended to be accepted by Hou Dagui. The three brothers of the Zheng family, the eldest Zheng Shihao served as the foreign affairs pedestrian of the Foreign Affairs Department, the second Zheng Shiqi was the deputy envoy of the Commander of the Envoy Department, and the younger brother Zheng Shixin, the commander of the army, were all prominent figures in the Zhao camp. Hou Dagui wanted to firmly control the army, and in addition to the Wuqi Battalion, the Jinghe Middle Battalion, which had a strength of 3,000 men, was a very good choice. Zheng Shixin himself is young and honest, has both wisdom and bravery, and is also a good talent. In addition, Hou Dagui values the energy of the two elder brothers behind Zheng Shixin more, after all, after studying in the Unified Power Inspection Institute for more than half a year, Hou Dagui's vision has long been limited to a military corner.

Not long after, the swarthy and sturdy Zhang Xianbi and the tall and fair-skinned Zheng Shixin arrived in the tent together. Hou Dagui had a good attitude towards Zheng Shixin, and first asked him about his two elder brothers with concern. Zheng Shixin answered truthfully, at present, Zheng Shihao is being assigned by Foreign Minister Fu Xunyu to go to the Zheng family in the southeast as a long-term liaison, and Zheng Shiqi is in Sichuan to assist Qin Qigong in handling government affairs.

"What's going on over there in Sichuan? Is there any change in the leather bear? Hou Dagui asked. At the end of last year, Pi Xiong, the general of Guizhou, and Wang Xiang, the general of Banzhou Town, took advantage of the fact that Wang Laixing, Qin Qigong, and others were busy clearing the western camp and came to the southern part of Chongqing Prefecture. Later, Wang Laixing led his troops to Chongqing Mansion to defend the town, but there was no news.

"Fortunately, as soon as the soldiers arrived in Chongqing Mansion, Pi and Wang lost their courage and retreated dozens of miles to Banzhou." Zheng Shixin's voice was disproportionately soft with his strong body, "But these two people are not dead, and they have repeatedly wandered around the borders of Banzhou and Chongqing. The matter in Sichuan is serious, and Mr. Wang does not want to work on the expedition, so he has been sitting in Chongqing, in short, he is in a position with Pi and Wang. ”

Hou Dagui smiled and said: "Pi and Wang are just grass flies, and when our army pacifies the thieves in Henan and Shaanxi, it is not too late to turn back and clean them up." ”

When Zhang Xianbi heard this, he interjected: "The chief manager urgently called his subordinates, but there is a siege dispatch?" He saw Hou Dagui's irritability in the past few days, and knew that with Hou Dagui's irritable temper, he couldn't help but storm the city again sooner or later, so he had already been mentally prepared.

Zheng Shixin worried: "The heavy rain is like a note, and the thieves are strictly guarded, and I am afraid that it will be difficult to fight." Although he is tall and fat, he is famous in Zhao Ying's "careful eye", before Hou Dagui attacked the city in anger, his Jinghe Zhongying was the vanguard several times, and many people were broken, he was very distressed, and he was afraid of being sent to be cannon fodder again.

Hou Dagui cleared his throat and said, "I have made up my mind, and I must take Runing Mansion City within ten days." ”

Zheng Shixin's heart trembled, and he asked cautiously, "What is the way to play?" He secretly made up his mind that if Hou Dagui still insisted on attacking with ants, he would have to persuade Hou Dagui to the death. Even if he offended Hou Dagui, he still has the support of his two elder brothers, Hou Dagui should not do anything to himself.

However, he heard Hou Dagui take a long breath, clapped his legs with both hands and said, "Don't do it this time, let's use ingenuity." ”

"Ingenuity?" Zhang Xianbi and Zheng Shixin glanced at each other.

Hou Dagui nodded and said, "I heard that there are some soldiers in the army who are suffering from plague?" ”

Zhang Xianbi and Zheng Shixin were waiting for him to explain the strategy, but when they heard this inquiry first, they were stunned and said, "Yes...... In the past two years, the plague has ravaged the provinces, and some of the soldiers in the army have also been contaminated. Fortunately, Dr. Wu has taken measures, and all patients are now under centralized monitoring and slowly treated. ”

As early as the sixth year of Chongzhen, Shanxi, which had been dry for a long time without rain, began to have a plague that was initially transmitted by rats, which was often called "plague" and "pimple disease". Natural disasters and man-made disasters are endless, displaced people are forced to move uncertainly, and the highly contagious plague has also spread widely from Shanxi to Henan, Beizhili, Shaanxi and other neighboring provinces with the flow of population, and has not been cut off until the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, but has a tendency to intensify. From April to June every year, it is the peak period of the plague outbreak, a person is infected with the door closed instantly, the patient is first born with a small tumor in the trunk and limbs, and then "unable to eat, dizzy and hot", accompanied by vomiting "like watermelon rotten meat" ulcers and rotten flesh, and finally died of exhaustion in a very short time. The plague spread to the densely populated Beijing, and it was infected by houses, and none of them were safeguarded, and the merchants, soldiers, and civilians could not escape the disaster, and even the flower children who had been all over the streets and alleys of Beijing were also extinct for a while, and the prosperous city of Beijing was "mixed with people and ghosts, and people could not be screened in the twilight", just like a ghost town.

Wu Youxing, a doctor from the southeast, arrived in Fanhecheng with Zhao Dangshi three years ago to settle down, and joined Zhaoying Medical Workshop, visiting Huguang, Henan and other places to investigate and study the plague, and achieved remarkable results. He denied the theory that the plague came from the inherent cold in the human body, and pointed out that the plague was caused by the "boils" that invaded the human body from the outside, so he first advocated that the patients should be wrapped with a cloth to prevent the boils from entering the body. In addition, through experiments, the "Da Yuan Drink" made of white peony, Huang Ling, and licorice seven flavor medicines in proportion to each other forced the evil qi from the inside to the outside, and later prepared the "Three Elimination Drink" on this basis, completely eliminating the evil qi from the external method of sweating and consolidating the curative effect.

Under the special instructions of Zhao Dangshi, Zhao Ying Medical Workshop gave Wu Youxing full support and cooperation, so that he had no worries, through several years, slowly perfected the prescription, and summed up a complete set of prevention, observation, treatment, monitoring, return visits and other complete processes related to dealing with plague, first piloted in the army, and then gradually promoted to Zaoyang County, Xiangyang Mansion, Huguang, etc.

Zhao Ying sent troops to attack Henan, Henan is densely populated, the plague is quite fierce, if it reaches the army, it will inevitably greatly drag down the combat effectiveness, so Wu Youxing and more than ten doctors in the medicine shop were ordered to accompany the army. Sure enough, more than a month after the army marched into Henan, the plague began to spread in the army, and Wu Youxing had already taken countermeasures, quickly isolated the patients, made every effort to treat them, and controlled the epidemic to a minimum.

Hou Dagui continued to ask: "How is the epidemic in the army? ”

Zheng Shixin replied: "Since entering Henan, there have been only dozens of people suffering from the epidemic, except for seven or eight deaths, half of them have recovered, and about 20 of them are recovering under the care of doctors. ”

"That's ......," Hou Dagui said while holding his chin in one hand and thinking about it, "So is the epidemic serious in other places in Runing?" ”

Zheng Shixin didn't know what to do, and only relied on what Yu Lu saw and heard and replied: "Some places are serious, and some places are unharmed." Fifty miles east of our camp, there is a place called Mengjiazhuang, and the subordinates sent people to raise food before, but found that half of the people there were infected with the plague, so they hurriedly withdrew. ”

"In addition to Mengjiazhuang, what other villages in the vicinity have plague?"

Zhang Xianbi thought for a while and said: "It's not too much, it's not too much to say, it's no problem to find seven or eight villages after careful investigation." ”

Hou Dagui grabbed his thick beard, and said with joy on his face: "Very good, I will give you two days, and you must collect a hundred corpses that died of the plague for me and send them to the army, may it be done?" ”

Zhang Xianbi was shocked when he heard this, his eyes widened and he said, "What did the chief manager say?" 100 ...... Plague...... Corpses? ”

"What? Are you deaf or are you slurred? Hou Dagui glanced at him, "Where is so much nonsense?" ”

Zheng Shixin also lost color and said: "If people die of plague, most of them are buried immediately to avoid death and life, the village is not a battlefield, although there are dead, but there are not so many ready-made corpses." ”

Hou Dagui snorted and said, "I don't care, even if I dig up the grave and drag the corpse out, I have to make it up." ”

Zhang Xianbi's face was pale and said: "Hundreds of corpses are brought to the army, but I am afraid that one will accidentally infect the soldiers......"

Hou Dagui said dissatisfiedly: "I didn't let you put a corpse next to each of the soldiers' pillows." The doctors in the medicine shop were clever at isolating the plague from the people, and asked them for advice before and after doing things, even if they took them with them to collect the corpses. After collecting, it will be placed in a unified manner, and it will be guarded closely, so that no idle people will approach, understand? If the soldier is contaminated, I will make you one of the corpses. ”

Zhang Xianbi had nothing to say, so he could only give up his life.

Hou Dagui said to Zheng Shixin again: "You go to the nearby state and county treasury to collect some old antiques." ”

"What antique?" Zheng Shixin's eyes were full of doubts.

"Artillery carts." Hou Dagui simply spit out two words.

"Aren't gun trucks everywhere in the army? Where do you need to search elsewhere? ”

"My cannon is not the cannon. Back to the artillery, have you two heard of it? Hou Dagui gestured and said, "I remember when I was a child, the county town performed martial arts, and took out many things left over from the previous dynasty in the treasury for the enjoyment of the people, and there was a kind of return cannon in it." It has a large and stable base, as well as a long pole-like cannon tip, and a large net pocket at the tip, and a stone is loaded into the net pocket, and the large stone weighs 100 catties. Then fix the tip of the cannon to the clasped object, release the clasped object, and the tip of the gun is jerked forward, and the stone in the net pocket is thrown out. Fly through the sky like a thief star, can go miles away, amazing! ”

Zheng Shixin suddenly realized: "I know." Most of these things were left by the Mengyuan Tartars, dedicated to throwing stones to attack the city, and I heard the elders say that the Mengyuan Tartars relied on this to lay a lot of fortified cities. But when the artillery came out, this thing was inaccurate and difficult to control in comparison, and the dynasty relied on firearms to expel the Tartars, so it was no longer used. ”

Zhang Xianbi also nodded and said: "The Mengyuan Tartars are desperate for military force, and there are still a lot of their remaining weapons in the treasury of various states and counties, and there must be some of them in nearby states and counties. But after thinking about it, I felt that something was wrong, "It's just that although the cannon can throw heavy objects this time, but the radius of Runing Mansion is hundreds of miles of plains and grasslands, and time is in a hurry, so we may have to find a large stone of the right size and enough power." And since the beginning of this dynasty, the city has mostly been covered with blue bricks on rammed earth, and the defense has long been not comparable to that year. I want to use the return artillery to throw stones to break the city...... "The artillery in the army is difficult to play due to the heavy rain, and now Hou Dagui suddenly mentioned the return cannon that does not rely on gunpowder, and he naturally thought that Hou Dagui wanted to use the return artillery to attack the city to overcome the unfavorable weather.

"Did I say I'm going to use the back cannon to break the city?" Hou Dagui raised his eyebrows, "I said, you have to use ingenuity to fight Runing Mansion City." Big rocks smashed into the city, stupid to death, what kind of ingenuity? ”

"And what does the manager mean?"

"You idiot, think about it, what do I want you to do?"

Zhang Xianbi was stunned and pondered, and muttered in his mouth: "The chief manager wants me to go to a nearby village to collect a hundred ......" Before he finished speaking, he suddenly figured out what Hou Dagui meant by "Qiaojiner".

Hou Dagui crossed his hands on his waist and said: "It is raining heavily, the climate is sultry, the muddy water in the city is raging, and tens of thousands of people such as thieves, soldiers, horses, and people are crowded together, just like Wang Ba's stewed soup is bound to be dirty." At this time, I gave them a dose of fierce medicine, and threw the corpses of the plague into the city from all directions, what do you say? ”

"This ......"

"The plague can be transmitted to people, the city is densely populated with thieves, and there is no means for our army doctors, not to mention hundreds of corpses, just a dozen or so bodies are thrown in, as long as there are soldiers and civilians contaminated, corpses are passed from person to person, person to person, one to ten, ten to hundred, the whole city is just around the corner." Hou Dagui said coldly, "And this plague is extremely severe, often three or five days of illness, we throw the corpse every day in the first few days, and ambush in various main roads outside the city in the next few days." Didn't the thieves rely on the high rain in the city and the turtle to shrink out? Okay, I'll see if he can get out now. The thief did not go out of the city, and was killed by disease; Broke through the siege out of the city and was killed by our army. Horizontal and vertical is a death, what is the reincarnation? ”

Zhang Xianbi and Zheng Shixin listened, dumbfounded, and speechless.

Hou Dagui snorted and said, "This plan was told to me by Mr. Mu this morning, and I think it is very feasible, so I will find you immediately." How about it, if you act according to this plan, within ten days, the city of Runing Mansion will be broken! ”

"Mr. Mu is really a poisonous man...... Zheng Shixin's face couldn't bear it, "It's enough to kill the thief, but there are still innocent women and children in the city, they have no grievances and no enmity with our army, but they will inevitably be wiped out!" ”

The corners of Hou Dagui's mouth twitched: "The war of our army in Runing Fudao must not be delayed any longer, and the battle situation on the whole front must be opened by our Henan side first. As soon as his voice was mentioned, he was full of energy, "For the sake of Zhao Ying's great cause, what are the tens of thousands of people?" ”

Zhang and Zheng didn't dare to say anything more when they heard this, so they only shook their heads and sighed.