Chapter Eighty-Four: Nature's Punishment

The great news can't stand a shiver from God. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

In the past few years, there have been cold waves in the Western Regions, and last year, a cold wave at the northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains once turned three small herdsmen who did not have time to return to their permanent residence into ice sculptures in the wasteland.

The horses, cattle and sheep that had been frozen to death were even standing, and before they died, they were frozen by the snow and ice carried by the cold wave.

Tie Xinyuan didn't expect that his army would also encounter such a situation.

At this time, continuing to march is irresponsible for the lives of the soldiers, and it is not a good idea to camp on the spot, although Meng Yuanzhi's idea is cruel, it can be regarded as a helpless way.

The hard state of the earth frozen by the cold wave is about to catch up with the steel, and it is impossible to dig a nest to escape the cold wave temporarily.

Meng Yuanzhi could only order the soldiers to wear everything that could keep out the cold, and as for the armor, it was already covered with a thin layer of ice edges.

An army of 34,000 would have been disastrous if it could not escape this cold wave.

In fact, the idea of using fire bombs to set fire to the bushes was Quack, and he was the only one who dared to face military law, and perhaps only he had a way to survive after violating military law.

The ground burned by the fire was a little hot, and soon became wet, and the water vapor condensed in the air was heated and turned into mist and fell to the ground, and after a while, it would freeze.

Quack struggled to cover a cowhide over the still-smoking soot, and the rest of the soldiers were doing the same, and the white breath exhaled by a group of people swirled around him like a cloud.

"Quick, hurry up, spread the cowhide, the ground is cold, and the cowhide won't stick."

When the bush was completely burned, the ashes of the bush were completely covered with an orange-yellow cowhide.

By the time Tie Xinyuan came, Gaga's head was already sweating profusely, and in such weather, sweating profusely would mean death, unless you can keep your body hot all the time......

Two guards approached, grabbed Quack and stripped him naked, wiped him with a towel as he yelled, and stuffed him into a thick sleeping bag.

The inside of the sleeping bag is very dry, but also very silky, the whole inside is sewn with seven or eight layers of thick silk, such a sleeping bag is not only waterproof, even the air is not very permeable.

The person who likes this kind of airtight sleeping bag in Hami is only Tie Xinyuan, and he can't stand the cold.

A thick leather hat was buckled on Quack's head, and Quack finally took off the mask, but was glared at viciously by Tie Xinyuan, and immediately obediently got the cotton mask and honestly straightened the corpse.

More than 100 tents stood on the cowhide paved ground as fast as possible, and if you look closely, you will see that each tent is supported by two tents stacked on top of each other, and every ten tents are closely connected, door to door, and then the back of the tent is cut with a knife.

A fire was lit at the entrance to each group of tents, and the smoke billowed off the tents quickly turned into huge chimneys.

After the smoke dissipated, the soldiers quickly lowered the curtain, and Tie Xinyuan walked in, finding that it was still very cold inside, but it was still within the tolerable range.

Although he didn't understand what the truth was, Tie Xinyuan still asked Meng Yuanzhi to order to burn more bushes with oil bombs, there was never a shortage of cowhides in the Hami army, and there were cowhides on the carriages, shields, and tents.

"Tell me, what's the truth?"

Quack was carried in by the guards and thrown at Tie Xinyuan's feet.

"The cold comes from the ground ......"

Listening to Quack's bullshit explanation, Tie Xinyuan was even more confused, and after carefully reading the setting of the tent, he understood it a little.

The cowhide on the ground is to isolate the cold air on the ground, the tent is connected, and the stove is placed at the mouth of the tent to heat the incoming air, and the moist air will evaporate into water vapor, and finally stick to the gap in the tent to isolate the invasion of water vapor from the outside.

It's a simple method, but it's very useful.

The cold wave generally lasts for three or two days at most, and no more than five days at most, which is a unique climate in the Gobi Desert, where water vapor cannot become clouds, and can only be stranded at low altitudes, and they are pervasive, and it is precisely because of them that they will feel even colder at the same low temperature.

More than 30,000 people crowded into these newly erected tents, and they soon became lively, but the hot air from everyone's breath was heated by the heat from the stove and turned into thin snowflakes and fell.

There is no such spectacle in Tiexinyuan's big tent, there are few people, there are too many stoves, and there are no conditions for snow.

"Stop for a few days, wait for the strong wind to blow away the humidity here, we will continue to march, this is just an expedient measure, and it is safe to return to Tianshan City as soon as possible."

Meng Yuanzhi took a sip of hot tea and nodded, this place is really strange, and it is indeed not suitable to stay for a long time.

Leng Ping walked in with trembling hands, and before he had time to salute Tie Xinyuan, he took a step forward and hugged the teapot to warm his hands.

"All settled? Are there many frostbitten soldiers? ”

"Sixteen dead...... Frostbite is common, especially on the hands and feet, as well as on the head and face. ”

Tie Xinyuan didn't ask in detail how many people were frostbitten, Leng Ping didn't report it carefully at this time, it should have his own considerations, if Tie Xinyuan didn't guess wrong, the number of frostbitten people might be beyond his imagination.

"We don't bring much coal, we won't last long, at most tomorrow, our coal will be completely burned out."

"The charcoal is given priority to the supply of soldiers who are not injured...... and the Fireheads. Meng Yuanzhi pondered for a moment and said.

Tie Xinyuan lowered his head and pretended not to hear, Meng Yuanzhi also hoped that Tie Xinyuan did not hear this military order.

Tie Xinyuan lived in the tents of the wounded soldiers, which were even colder because there was not enough charcoal supply, only some firewood.

When the king came, the wounded soldiers seemed to be more energetic, especially when the king ate with them in the same pot warmed their hearts.

The problem is that a warm heart does not mean that the body is warm, looking at the subordinates who are shrunk in their sleeping bags like quails and shivering, the iron heart is like a knife.

There are always people who are carried away at dawn.

To carry it away is to die.

The longing wind did not come, and this terrible depression was still full of water vapor, and even if you breathed, you could feel the heavy weight of the air.

The artillery bombarded a small hill helplessly, and a single shell could only dent the steep mountain wall into a small pit, and it was very difficult to bombard a large enough cave in the mountain wall.

Tie Xinyuan did not stop this futile act, because as long as the cannon was fired, those soldiers who were so cold and helpless that there was still hope to support them.

Quack dragged a tree through the wasteland with difficulty, and now, if he wanted to find more firewood, he had to walk more roads.

He didn't dare to walk quickly, and he didn't dare to sweat his body, in fact, he was about to freeze now, the weather was too cold, his skin would become brittle, and a slight scratch would crack a gap, and there were already many such cuts on his face and hands, some of which were like a baby's mouth.

Back at the camp, Gaga's long knife cut the tree into small pieces and roasted them by the fire.

Grocking to open his mouth and eat some hot food, Quack feels much better, these days, everyone has to eat a lot of hot food every day, and only when eating does the body have some warmth.

The army has been here for three days.

In the evening, the sun vanished, and the sky seemed to turn dark without any excess.

When Tie Xinyuan was patrolling the camp, he suddenly found that there was something similar to dandruff on the mane on the top of the jujube red horse's head, and when he looked up, he found that the sky was beginning to fall with snowflakes.

Cheers suddenly spread from the camp, and as soon as the snow began to fall, it meant that the excessive cold wave had dissipated.

It's a joy to not see those maddening ice chips. (I don't know if you have seen the cold wave in the north, you should have heard of the freezing rain that swept the entire south a few years ago, the south is freezing rain, and the extreme north is ice chips under the clear sky.) There is such a scene in the movie Wolf Totem. ）

At first, the snow did not fall much, and after a while, the real goose feather snow began to fall.

After dawn, the sky was bright and dazzling, the snow was clear, and the sun overhead finally turned from a miserable white to a red one.

It was still cold outside the tents, but the army was starting to set camp, and as soon as they left the damn depression and into the mountains, it would be much warmer and there would be more fuel for the army.

Seeing the first hill full of rime, Tie Xinyuan immediately ordered the mountain to be set on fire, he needed this hill overgrown with trees to provide enough warmth for the army, only those who were about to freeze to death could understand Tie Xinyuan's mood at the moment.

It is very troublesome, the tendons on the ballistas have long lost their elasticity, and if the ballistas are forcibly used, the consequence is that the tendons of the cattle and horses responsible for throwing the fire oil bombs will all be broken.

Fortunately, there were still some fire oil bombs in the army, and after throwing some fire oil, they ignited, and the pine trees full of grease quickly burned, and soon the whole mountain burned, and the towering pine trees turned into huge fire candles, and the fire burned for a whole day and a night, and the army also warmed up for a day and a night.

In seven days, Tie Xinyuan burned down four mountains......

When the whole army entered Tianshan City, Tie Xinyuan looked back at the northern foot of Tianshan Mountain, and he actually had a feeling of escaping death.

"The army suffered 3,116 casualties and 4,339 wounded, and the return trip was ......"

Tie Xinyuan looked at Leng Ping, who wanted to speak and stopped, and said, "Say it, you don't have to hide it now." ”

"Dead, 6,124 and wounded......

Soaking in a wooden barrel full of hot water, Tie Xinyuan found that cold air was rising from the cracks of his bones.

Looking at his red and swollen carrot-like fingers, he still felt that Leng Ping, who was already covered in frostbite, was hiding the number of injured people from him.

When he returned to Tianshan City, he had not seen a single soldier unscathed.