Although he has won one after another recently, for some reason, a feeling of inappropriateness suddenly arose in his heart, but he thought about it and didn't think clearly about the source of this inappropriateness.

Three days ago, Baili and Qiuhua were finally occupied by the Rong army as expected.

The Qi Yong coalition army, which was hidden in the mountains, encountered two or three ambushes when looking for a way out of the mountain, and after suffering heavy losses, they finally retreated to the mountain for a long time, and there was no movement.

There are no roads to speak of in those crowdless mountains, and the few exits are also firmly occupied by the Rong army, so the fate of those people is as auspicious as Lihua originally predicted, especially after the heavy snow in winter finally falls all over the sky, the life and death of the coalition army of less than 100,000 is even more uncertain.

After that, the Qi army on the waterfront took the initiative to abandon the waterfront, and only 10,000 soldiers remained in Xuchang, while the remaining 10,000 or so Qi troops all returned to the outside of Shangdang City and joined forces with the main force attacking Shangdang.

It seems that the people of Qi have no hope for this Hexi battle.

Although this is not good news, it is not a big deal in the eyes of Zhu Lihua. Mo said that only 10,000 defeated soldiers joined the army besieging the city, and even if all the 20,000 horses and horses of Xuchang on the waterfront came here, it would not pose any threat to the garrison of Shangdang City.

Therefore, the inappropriateness that has arisen in recent days will never be caused by this incident.

He shook his head, he decided to ignore these things that bothered him when he couldn't clear his thoughts, so just as he was about to gather the city guards to discuss the future military affairs, he suddenly heard the sound of hurried footsteps outside the door.

"Doctor Xizi, what made you so flustered, Doctor Xizi."

It wasn't until the owner of the footsteps entered the house that he asked a little strangely.

Xi Zihui's face was a little gloomy, and when he saw that Li Li even forgot Shi Li, he just touched his head and sweated profusely and hurriedly said, "General Li, something is wrong." ”

Looking at Xi Zihui's panicked appearance, she also knew that something was wrong, and hurriedly asked, "What happened?" ”

Xi Zihui sighed and stomped his feet and replied: This morning, some people in the city suddenly suffered from malaria, and they died of exhaustion in less than half a day.

Fortunately, the drinking water source of the whole army was not obtained from the well on the same day, so it was only some civilians who were poisoned. ”

Shocked when he heard this, he tried to stand up by holding on to the armrest of the bamboo chair, but he was unsuccessful. Seeing this, Xizi Hui took two steps forward and stretched out his hand to hold him, but Zhu Lihua shook his hand and called the herald soldier at the door of the house and said:

"Go and order the people of the city not to use the well water again. Seal all the wells.

Doctor Xizi, push me out to have a look. ”

As soon as Lihua's words fell, two responses sounded in the house at the same time, and then one person left the house in a hurry, while Xi Zihui stepped forward and pushed Lihua's bamboo chair and walked outside.

"Doctor Xizi, how do you know that the person who poisoned him was a fine work from Qi Guo, and people outside the city couldn't enter the city at all for so many days, how did they do this?"

While the two of them were walking in Shangdang City, Zhu Lihua asked with a frown.

Xizihui showed a little shame when he heard this, and he said hesitantly: "This matter is just Xizi's speculation, I think there are no Qi people in the city, and there are no Rong people, and the only person who wants to help the Qi army outside the city must be the meticulous work of Qi Guo." ”

"Dr. Xizi, you know that's not what I'm asking. I don't know

Did you say it in vain? Do you really think I'm a three-year-old? ”

Xizihui was cold when he heard Lihua's words, and knew that his words had made Lihua unhappy and hurriedly said: "Don't be angry, general, Xizi feels that this matter is very likely to be done by those nobles in the city, because there is no real evidence, so Xizi feels hesitant and afraid of wronging a good person." ”

"Wronged a good man? Hey. Dr. Xizi, but it doesn't hurt. If they didn't do it, General Ben would have given them a clean slate, and if they did, hehe. ”

Speaking of this, Zhu Lihua didn't seem to have any intention of continuing, but just looked at the crowd that suddenly appeared in the distance with a solemn face.

"The general is here."

"The general is here."

In the midst of the discussion, Zhu Lihua came to the well where the poisoned people used to draw water for drinking every day, and watched Lang Zhong in the army use silver needles and some living creatures such as cats and dogs to test whether the water was really poisonous.

When he saw several corpses lying on the ground, he knew the answer.

He said to Gao Yunce, who hurried over with an uneasy and panicked face when he heard the news:

"Marquis Gao, what can you find out about this matter?"

Gao Yunce shook his head solemnly and said, "General, during the war, the wells in the city were all strictly guarded by me, but it is inevitable that there are still some wells located in the people's homes that have not been reported to me.

Although the water in the well here was found to be poisonous, it does not mean that the person who poisoned the water was poisoned from the well here. ”

"So, it seems that I'm still a little too kind." After saying this coldly, he turned his head to look at Xi Zihui, who was pale and empty-eyed, and snorted coldly and said:

"Gao Junhou, you and Doctor Xizi should thoroughly investigate this matter.

From now on, every house in the city will send our soldiers and horses into the house to search for it, and if we find a well in the homes of the people that is not registered, whatever the reason, the head of the house will be beheaded immediately.

If there is an unregistered well in the noble family, it will be done the same, and the head of the family will behead all his family members and blast them out of Shangdang City.

If anyone dares to resist, they don't need to be reported again. ”

After saying this, he was about to leave, but then he suddenly turned back to Gao Yunce, who was walking to Xi Zihui's side, and said:

"I think I'll let Niu Yong do the matter of inspecting the well."

After speaking, Zhu Lihua did not give any more advice, so he immediately ordered someone to push him out of this place with an expressionless face.

On the way back, Zhu Lihua's heart was very troubled, and he found out that this matter involved a lot, and next to the well just now was the place where the nobles' mansions in Shangdang City gathered, so this matter must have been done by some nobles.

If it weren't for Xi Zihui's judgment that there was a problem in the well, then once the poisonous water flowed down the underground water veins throughout the city, then he would definitely suffer a big loss this time.

However, since it was found that the well was poisonous, there was no need to panic, because the enemy poisoning the city was not unexpected.

In fact, one of the things that the defenders of every besieged city must do is to investigate whether there are other available water veins to deal with the lack of water. Therefore, more than a month before the Qi army attacked the city, his subordinates had already found several backup water sources in the city and firmly controlled them in their own hands.

As long as these backup water sources are unobstructed, then the soldiers and horses of the whole city do not need to worry about drinking water in a short time.

Besides, there is boiling yellow water not far from the city, so it is really impossible to send people out of the city to get water from the yellow water

A simple and crude method, although that will inevitably entangle with the people of the Qi country.

But what really annoyed him was that this poisoning incident was not as simple as it seemed on the surface, because it had already involved many nobles in Shangdang City.

In the case of the siege of the city by the Qi army, it is not difficult to guess the identity of the poisoner, it is nothing more than Nei Ying, who deliberately stayed in Shangdang City after the Qi people fled last time, or those nobles in the city who were pro-Qi.

However, in the past two months, by mobilizing the people of Shangdang City to go north to Longmen, and then training the people in the city, the entire Shangdang City has been mobilized by itself like a war machine, so in this situation, there will be no Qi people in the city at all.

In this way, the identity of the poisoner is self-evident.

Therefore, how to deal with the poisoners and how to deal with the aftermath is bound to involve the nobles in the city, which is the key to why this incident is so complicated.

Arresting these pro-Qi nobles without real evidence will inevitably weaken the defenders of the city, and it will also make those noble servants and tenant farmers dissatisfied and sow the root of the problem.

But if you don't do anything and only rely on some clues to find the murderer, although as long as you give him some time, you will definitely be able to find out about it, but no one can guarantee that in the process of finding the murderer, there will be any moths in the city.

That's why Zhu Lihua made a decision and ordered to kill the nobles and the common people who secretly hid the wells. Although he also knew that there would inevitably be innocent people who wanted to save a little water from those who hid wells, just like every family had some grain and grass to prevent the city from running out of food.

He knew that this was not the best way for him to do this, and that the people who kept the well would definitely have nobles and people in their own homes, and once the order was carried out, the city would inevitably be full of blood, but it was much better than no way, at least it would be much more difficult to do anything in a short time.

After returning to the palace, Zhu Lihua immediately summoned Xu Xiaoyang and others, and arranged for them to strengthen the garrison of each gate when Niu Yong thoroughly inspected the city, because the people of Qi were very likely to attack the city when there was chaos in the city.

After arranging everything, Lu Lihua buried her face deep in the palm of her hand by the fire in her bedroom, carefully considering this seemingly simple but actually far-reaching poisoning incident.

In the following three days, the officers and troops led by Niu Yong once again gave full play to the fine tradition of the Lihua army's orders and prohibitions, and found out all the 36 wells in the city that had not been reported. In the course of the investigation, 64 noble family heads and ordinary people were killed on the spot, and 743 members of his family were driven out of Shangdang City under the watchful eyes of 20,000 armed people.

"General, isn't that inappropriate?"

Zhu Lihua glanced at Xi Zihui, who was sinking like water in front of him, and said coldly: "Since they think that the people of Qi are good, and they dare to act against the enemy country against the mother state, then don't blame General Ben for being ruthless." ”

After saying that, he was about to leave the city, but he heard a burst of cries from outside the city.

"General, the vast majority of these people are the family members of the four doctors, and they are guilty of concealing the water source, but their family members are innocent, not to mention."

"What's more, Dr. Liu and Dr. Yu have always supported me and made great contributions to me these days?"

Zhu Lihua then replied to the ugly Xizihui, but after he finished speaking, he was still expressionless and left the city as if he was unmoved.