At the end of May of the fifteenth year of orthodoxy, Gongchuan Mountain.

Liu Juntao commanded the soldiers of each battalion to attack the mountain for seven consecutive days, but except for the heads of many thieves, there was no progress, and the soldiers of each battalion were still unable to rush up the mountain to stand on their feet.

Ye Zongliu led the remnants of more than 170,000 thieves to defend Gongchuan Mountain, and in the face of a desperate situation, they were able to unite and resist desperately, which surprised Liu Juntao.

In addition, the area around Gongchuan Mountain has been rainy for several days, and the road up the mountain is muddy and difficult to walk.

Liu Juntao was also anxious when he saw this, and in order to reduce the casualties of the officers and men of each battalion, he decided to temporarily stop the attack and turn to the mountain to close the mountain for confrontation.

At the same time, Liu Juntao hurriedly sent someone to inform the general Dai Jingkui, requesting a temporary truce and besieging the army of thieves with all his might.

After receiving the news, General Dai Jingkui also agreed with Liu Juntao's suggestion, after all, Ye Zongliu's 170,000 or 80,000 horses were trapped on Gongchuan Mountain, and the supply of grain and grass would definitely not be available for a long time, and it was very likely that the army of thieves would collapse by then!

It's just that the length of time is really hard to say, after all, there are also a lot of birds, animals, grass and fruit plants on Gongchuan Mountain that can be eaten, and there are also a lot of water sources on the mountain, at this time, the general Dai Jingkui can only wait with peace of mind.

In this way, Liu Juntao and the general Dai Jingkui led their troops to hold the camp, and repelled several attacks of the thieves within a few days, without letting the thieves rush out of Gongchuan Mountain.

Ye Zongliu stood on Gongchuan Mountain and looked out at the foot of the mountain to the north, his face was full of melancholy, he never expected Liu Juntao to have such patience to compete with himself for endurance, didn't he say that the grain and grass of the official army could no longer be supplied?

In fact, Ye Zongliu didn't know that in order to exterminate the thieves of Ye Zongliu's department in one fell swoop, Liu Juntao mobilized grain and grass from Xuzhou several times in a row to supply the front-line army, and the Ministry of Commerce did not hesitate to spend several times the price to purchase a large number of grain and grass from Nanzhili and other places, spending more than 100,000 taels of silver!

In this regard, General Dai Jingkui looked at his eyes, and his evaluation of Liu Juntao improved a lot, and privately said to the generals of the Beijing camp under him: "Liu Guerrilla cares about state affairs, and he is really a national soldier!" ”

Ye Zongliu looked at the dark sky, and his heart was like a sky, there was no light, and he even had an urge to cry out loud.

At the same time, Liu Juntao's heart was also very anxious, after all, when would Ye Zongliu's thieves collapse, Liu Juntao was not at all sure, so he could only resign himself to fate.

At this moment, Liu Zi'an rushed into the camp with a team of his subordinates, and this time Liu Zi'an came to report to Liu Juntao about the recent affairs of the Investigation Department.

However, after Liu Zi'an saw Liu Juntao, he said with an unkind face: "The general has an accident!" ”

Liu Juntao's heart sank when he heard this, and said, "Say it slowly!" ”

"General! Recently, it has been raining heavily, and it has been cold around Gongchuan Mountain, and I have received news: Many soldiers in the Beijing camp are suffering from cold fever! ”

"What!"

Liu Juntao knows that this cold fever is typhoid fever!

Once an infectious disease such as typhoid fever appeared in the army, it would be a catastrophe!

If Ye Zongliu learned about this, then this battle would be overturned, and tens of thousands of officers and troops would be wiped out in one battle!

Thinking of this, Liu Juntao couldn't help but sweat and turn pale.

It is not easy for me to establish such a foundation, and I must not sink into the sand in Gongchuan Mountain!

So, Liu Juntao said in a deep voice: "How did the Jingying side deal with it? Have you ever leaked the news? ”

Liu Zi'an said: "It is said that the general has locked up the sick soldiers alone, and I think the news has not spread yet. However, the skills of military medical officers are limited, and these soldiers are probably more than lucky! ”

Liu Juntao calmed his face and whispered: "Let me think about it, let me think about it!" ”

Liu Zi'an also understood that the situation was serious, so he stood aside silently and quietly waited for Liu Juntao's instructions.

Liu Juntao was silent for a while, I don't know why, he suddenly remembered the Black Death that broke out in Europe, his face changed rapidly a few times, and then he slapped the book case and said loudly: "I can only make this decision!" ”

Liu Zi'an's heart also jumped when he saw this, and he understood that Liu Juntao must have thought of something and was ready to be ruthless, so he asked: "General, how should I deal with this matter?" ”

"Let's go! Come with me to the general's camp! ”

On the same day, Liu Juntao and Liu Zi'an, escorted by a team of personal guards, came to the Jingying camp north of Gongchuan Mountain.

After seeing the general Dai Jingkui, Liu Juntao saw that there was no one else in the Chinese army's tent except for the general Dai Jingkui, so he said bluntly: "Dare to ask the general, are there any soldiers in the Beijing camp who have cold fever!" ”

Staff General Dai Jingkui was shocked when he heard this, and hurriedly asked, "What! There were also soldiers in Liu's guerrilla camp who fell ill? ”

Liu Juntao said: "Don't blame the general, the last general just heard the news, and no soldiers in my camp fell ill. ”

"What does Guerrilla Liu mean? But there are good pills? ”

Speaking of this, Liu Juntao couldn't help but darken his face and said; "Nope! General, these soldiers can only resign themselves to fate, we can't do anything! ”

Staff General Dai Jingkui also sighed heavily, and then said: "Then what do you say about Liu's guerrilla coming?" ”

"General, the last general has thought of a plan to capture Gongchuan Mountain!"

"Oh? What is Liu's good strategy? ”

"Cold fever!"

A few days later, several soldiers who were locked up alone by General Dai Jingkui died one after another without special medicine.

At the suggestion of Liu Juntao, General Dai Jingkui packed the corpses of these soldiers with a shroud, and then dispatched more than a dozen soldiers who were not afraid of death to set off overnight, taking the corpses of these soldiers who had died of typhoid fever and rushing towards Gongchuan Mountain.

Under Liu Juntao's arrangement, these corpses have all been dressed as thieves in order to confuse the thieves.

Under the cover of night, Liu Juntao and General Dai Jingkui stood side by side in the camp, looking at Gongchuan Mountain looming in the dark in the distance, and both of them had a trace of unbearable look on their faces.

"Guerrilla Liu! You're really ruthless with this move, and we probably will suffer retribution! ”

Although Liu Juntao was a little unbearable in his heart, his mind was still firm, and he said: "General, how many of the thieves on the mountain are innocent? Even those villagers who were coerced, in the fierce battle, they burned, killed, looted, and did all kinds of bad things, even if these people surrendered, it was a huge hidden danger. It is difficult for a person to be good, but once he tastes the pleasure of doing evil, it will be like an addiction, and it will be difficult to correct! ”

General Dai Jingkui also nodded secretly when he heard this, knowing that what Liu Juntao said was the truth.

"I hope this strategy can succeed as soon as possible, and we can calm down the place and let the people everywhere regain their vitality!"

Liu Juntao also secretly said in his heart: "Yes! It's time to end, it is estimated that the Son of Heaven is about to drive the expedition, right? I'm going to turn my attention to the north too! ”

That night, the soldiers of the Beijing camp touched Gongchuan Mountain from a sheep's intestine path, abandoned several corpses at the water source on the mountain, and the surrounding area of the bandit camp, and then disappeared like ghosts!

And the army of more than 100,000 thieves on the mountain is still unconscious, at night some thieves went to the camp to relieve their hands, patrol when they found the surrounding corpses, I don't know why these corpses moved to the camp, I thought that my family was killed by the official army spies, and I was ready to make arrangements after verifying my identity.

Early the next morning, the thieves in the camp went to the surrounding water sources to get water to drink, and found several corpses around the water sources, but they didn't care, after all, there were too many people killed in the battle, and these thieves just transported the bodies back to the camp.