There must be a reason behind any phenomenon, the plague will not break out for no reason, thanks to the blessing of the surplus, Bailizan finally crawled back from the ghost gate, took medicine for a few days, and his body basically recovered, so he began to trace the root cause of the plague outbreak non-stop.

In fact, during his recuperation, Cao Qian was already starting to investigate, but at that time, the first batch of people who fell ill were confused, unable to cooperate, and it was difficult to find out anything.

The little soldier was not in very good health, and the disease was also half a life, and he couldn't get up yet, Bailizan asked him to carefully recall if there was anything wrong with the first day of the disease, who he had met or what he had eaten, and after thinking for a while, the little soldier replied excitedly: "I remember!" At noon the first day, I bought a pearl necklace at the market in Yucheng, and the merchant didn't know what to think, a particularly good string of pearls was actually sold for only twenty copper plates, and I was greedy for a moment and wanted to take it back to my mother, so I bought it......"

"Do you still have the necklace?" Bailizan asked.

Xiao Bing said a place, Cao Qian went to look through it, but he didn't find it, Xiao Bing suddenly became anxious: "I almost lost my life for that necklace, who is so lacking in virtue and stole things while I was sick?" ”

Baili praised: "You don't have to worry first, the person who stole the thing must be among the infected people, and it is easy to find out, but you had better not keep the necklace, otherwise it will be troublesome to bring it back in case your family is also infected with the plague." ”

The little soldier looked reluctant, Cao Qian stiffened his face and said: "You were greedy for a while, and almost wiped out everyone's army, if the emperor blames it, I think you still have the life to go home!" As soon as he was frightened, the little soldier snorted and promised to let them find something and burn it.

After leaving the soldiers' tents, Cao Qian asked, "Do you now gather all the people who have survived the plague together and interrogate them one by one?" ”

Bailizan's expression was solemn: "The person who steals things will not admit it, the pearl necklace is not something that everyone can afford, even if he knows that it is the root of the epidemic, he will still want to take it back with a fluke mentality, just like the person just now." ”

"What then?" Cao Qian was in trouble.

Bailizan smiled slyly: "It's not difficult, it's not difficult, just ...... like this"

Half an hour later, Cao Qian rode through the camp on horseback and shouted loudly: "The emperor lost a piece of red jade dragon pattern pendant, who took it!" If you hand it over yourself, you can still avoid a capital crime, and if you find it out later, you will be beheaded on the spot! ”

The whole barracks was in an uproar, and the soldiers came out to see the excitement, all wanting to see who had eaten the gall of the ambitious leopard, and the stolen hands had touched the emperor. Cao Qian ran around and, as expected, did not recognize and pleaded guilty - because there were no prisoners at all - and ordered a search to begin for someone's luggage.

Because what was looking for something that didn't exist at all, the person who stole the pearl necklace was not at all guarded, and after a while, a soldier ran out of a tent with the stolen goods in his hand: "Found it!" ”

The onlookers looked at it, hey, why is it a pearl necklace, isn't it looking for a jade pendant?

Cao Qian sat on the back of the horse, his eyes swept through the crowd, and he saw the only pair of panicked eyes in the midst of surprise, and immediately pointed the horsewhip in his hand to that side: "Catch him!" The soldiers who had been waiting for a long time immediately rushed in that direction, and a burly man in the crowd immediately turned his head and struggled to break away from the crowd to escape, although the soldiers around him were pushed into confusion, but they immediately reacted, rushed up, and pushed the man to the ground.

Cao Qian picked the pearl necklace on the head of the gun, handed it to him, and asked in a cold voice, "What is this?" ”

The burly soldier was restrained by seven or eight people, unable to move, glanced at the necklace, avoided his gaze, and said stiffly: "This is what I bought for the lady in the family, what, no?" ”

"It's not that it can't be done, it's just that the cause of this plague that has affected the entire military camp is precisely this necklace," Cao Qian left the necklace in front of him, "Since you are the owner of the necklace, then only you are responsible for this plague, come on!" Drag it out and cut it! ”

The soldier was so frightened that he peed his pants on the spot, and quickly changed his words and said that the necklace was not his own and had nothing to do with him.

After Cao Qian's questioning again, the man admitted that the necklace was stolen by himself, kowtowed and admitted his mistake, so Cao Qian fined him 30 military sticks according to Bailizan's arrangement, and sent someone to escort him to the nearest county seat for detention.

"For a person to get the plague, he must either come into contact with someone who is already sick or come into contact with something that has been used by the sick."

After finding out the root cause of the epidemic and punishing the thieves in the army, Bailizan reported the results to Cui Yi: "According to Chen Erzhu's words, the one who sold him the necklace was a masked and gloved Humeng nursery merchant, Humeng nursery people live in the desert, both men and women wear veils, but there is no wind and sand in Yucheng, no need to be masked, let alone gloves, according to the minister's opinion, this person must know that the original owner of the pearl necklace had been infected with the plague, maybe he still died of the plague, and deliberately sold things cheaply to the soldiers in the army. In order to spread the plague to the barracks. ”

Cui Yi clasped his chin with his fingers, and said in a deep tone: "Humeng Nursery Merchant ......"

Xu Cheng was furious and said, "It must be that Guo Ziyan's ghost!" actually came up with such a vicious idea, and didn't dare to fight us with real knives and guns, so he knew that he was playing yin behind his back! When he is caught, everyone will be stabbed by one person, and he must not be killed alive! ”

Cao Qian hesitated: "It's not sure it's his trick, right?" Harming people with the plague is not quite like his old ways......"

"It's really not like what Guo Ziyan will do," Bailizan also agreed with him, "After returning to the capital last year, once my mother once told me about Guo Ziyan's personality, saying that this person is very sleek, between large and small officials, like a fish in water, at ease, and always has a three-point affection for things, and will not do absolutely, such a plan to hurt the heavens and harmony, it really doesn't look like he would come up with it, but it is a bit in line with the past." ”

Cui Yi suddenly coughed vigorously and interrupted his words, Bailizan looked inexplicable, and Cui Yi diverted the topic: "No matter who did it, we escaped this time, and we can't take it lightly in the future, they can think of using the plague to harm people, and they will definitely think of other more vicious methods, so they have to prevent it." ”

Although Bailizan didn't understand why he interrupted him, he was also kind: "What the emperor said is very true, Rong Chen will send spies out to investigate." Cui Yi nodded, and he went out of the tent.

Shan Jian's name was inadvertently mentioned by Bailizan, and Xu Cheng, who was still scolded with righteous indignation before, suddenly became very strange, as if he was constipated, Cao Qian looked strange, and couldn't help asking: "Why is your face so bad, is it also rumored to be sick?" Let's go to the military doctor! ”

Xu Cheng was inconvenient to explain, and went hesitantly, Cao Qian was very puzzled: "Yuan Ke, what's wrong?" ”

"Maybe it's sick." Cui Yi made a pun.

A few days later, the armies of the two sides clashed in Liangzhou Bataiyuan, the anti-rebel army was large in number and well-armed, but more than half of the coalition army was cavalry, which took the advantage of the battle on the plains, and it was actually a comparable battle, from close to noon until dusk, the anti-rebel army Mingjin withdrew its troops, and the soldiers of both sides returned to the camp for dinner.

In the tent, Cui Yi urgently convened a combat meeting, and the theme of the meeting was directly aimed at a different cavalry in the coalition army.

All countries in the Western Regions are built in the desert oasis, in addition to horses, common mounts and camels, but in the past, this animal known as the "ship of the desert" was not used in the battle, although Bailizan got the news that the coalition army had camel cavalry very early, but could not effectively analyze the combat effectiveness of this team, let alone put forward countermeasures in advance, and almost suffered a big loss in today's first battle.

Camels live in the desert area with drought and little water all the year round, and the temperature difference between day and night is very large, the body is strong, the strength is incomparable, the weight-bearing capacity is more than the horse, and it is not afraid of wind and sand, and the height is higher than the horse, and the volume is larger than the horse, the cavalry rides the camel to the crowd, and it is easy to knock people to the ground, and a hoof goes down, and half a life is removed if it does not die.

The generals only thought that the camel was bulky, eighty percent could not run fast, and the U-turn was not as flexible as the horse, until it was hit, and almost even the man and the horse fell to the ground, so they knew that it was powerful, and they did not dare to fight with the camel cavalry again, so they could only swim to deal with it, and lost psychologically first, and the momentum was naturally inferior to the other party.

Bailizan cautiously suggested: "Although the camel is very powerful, the big animals have a weakness of taking care of one or the other, or we can send a team of men to attack the camel's belly from below, and as long as we cut their belly, I don't believe that the big man can continue to charge." ”

"But the camel's strength is so great that maybe the man will be knocked away before he can get close." A general had palpitations.

Another person proposed: "They will attack us with the plague, and we can also find a way to put some medicine in the diet of their camels, whether it is poison or laxatives, as long as they lose their combat effectiveness." ”

This suggestion was rejected by Cui Yi: "Camels can walk in the desert for three or four days without eating or drinking, not to mention that the terrain around here is still dominated by desert grasslands, and most of the camels are eating on the spot, and they can't poison the food, and the water source is even worse. ”

Several people in the account put forward a lot of opinions, but either they could not implement them, or they did more harm than good, and after discussing them for a long time, they did not come to an effective conclusion.

The next day, the rebel army was a little worried about the camels, unwilling to confront them head-on, and instead focused on the horse cavalry, the number of casualties decreased slightly, but it could not be said that the problem was fundamentally solved, and even the dangerous situation of Cui Yi being besieged by seven or eight camels occurred.

After the number of troops was counted, the number of seriously injured increased to more than 1,600, and the number of lightly injured was nearly 10,000, of which nearly 30 percent were trampled by camels and hit and flew by plots.