On the same day, Du Wenhao called Li Pu and Su Shi over. The map was spread out, pointing to the so-called map on which the real area could not be seen, and said: "General Li, the army has already approached the city of Chengdu, but our army is still hundreds of miles away in the Guang'an army. How to retreat from the enemy, what are the opinions of the two? ”

Su Shi can write articles, and the administrative management is not bad, but the military is a layman, looking at Li Pu, I want to listen to his expert opinion first.

Li Pu said: "The enemy army has fought in Liankeya, Dengzhou, and Shuzhou until the city of Chengdu, and the morale is currently booming.

You can't confront it head-on, you must avoid its sharpness, one of them; How many people are in the enemy's army, and the specific location is not in the military intelligence report, and the enemy's situation is unknown, so it is not appropriate to act rashly, and secondly; At present, our army has only 5,000 men, and it also carries a large amount of grain and grass, and as far as is known, the enemy army should be at least 10,000 or more. There may also be some surrendered troops, and the enemy is outnumbered. Nor can it go head-to-head, thirdly; Our army has traveled under the stars and nights, and the journey is tiring, and there are still hundreds of miles away from Chengdu Prefecture, and we will continue to run for a long time. Dealing with the tiger and wolf army with a tired army is a taboo for soldiers. Fourth. Summing up the four reasons, the general believes that it is not appropriate for our army to fight in a direct confrontation with the enemy at present. ”

Du Wenhao and Su Shi both nodded, and Du Wenhao asked, "Then what should our army do now?" ”

"First, urgently ask the imperial court for more troops. Second, send spies to reconnoiter the enemy's situation; Third, as far as the last general knows, the city wall of Chengdu Mansion is high and thick, the city has enough grain and grass, and there is enough underground water and drinking water sources, and the rest of Han Xiu, who retreated to Chengdu, plus the local Xiang army, should be able to hold out for a period of time if they hold on. Therefore, our army immediately set up an elite cavalry battalion and rushed to the outside of Chengdu to contain the enemy, assist the defense of Chengdu Prefecture, and wait for reinforcements. ”

Du Wenhao said: "This method is good, the enemy army of more than 10,000 people is lone deep, it should be a plunder and then flee back, it will not last long, our army will harass the enemy army with movement warfare, lead him by the nose, and when it is exhausted and the team is scattered, find the right opportunity to concentrate superior forces to annihilate one of them, the enemy will be terrified, and when it retreats." Our army pursued and slew them. This is called "the enemy advances, I retreat." The enemy is stationed and disturbs me, the enemy is tired and I fight, and the enemy retreats and I chase! ”

Li Pu was stunned, looked at Du Wenhao and hugged his fists and said: "The general knows the key to the art of war, and the general admires it so much." That's a great plan! ”

Du Wenhao smiled and thought to himself that the 16-character formula of old man Mao's guerrilla warfare was a successful tactic that had been tested many times in actual combat. It is one of the magic weapons for our army to win more with less and finally defeat the bandit army, of course, it works, I want to repeat the guerrilla warfare of the old Mao family in ancient times, and treat the army as the Kuomintang army of encirclement and suppression, carry out anti-encirclement and suppression guerrilla warfare, and wait for the additional troops to arrive, and then clean up the Xishan tribe. Completely eradicate this cancer and take revenge.

Du Wenhao has already thought about it. Let Lin Qingdai reconnoiter the enemy's situation, and then use the night to attack and harass, and said: "Li Pu, you are responsible for selecting 4,000 strong cavalry from the 5,000 rear army, all lightly armed, carrying 15 days of dry food, carrying strong crossbows, longbows and rockets, and I will personally lead the team out, Brother Zizhan, you lead the remaining 1,000 people, escort the grain and grass and the families of the army, and then march, you will listen to my briefing at any time along the way." ”

Li Pu said: "General Du, it's better for you and Su Zhizhou to escort the grain and grass." The last general led his army to meet the enemy. Rest assured, I will strictly follow your battle plan. ”

Su Shi also said: "Imperial Doctor Du has a heavy responsibility, and he can't take risks easily, so let General Li go." ”

Du Wenhao shook his head and said, "No, I want to go in person." That's it. By the way, Zizhan, you followed on the way. Contact the government along the way, absorb the local armor and soldiers, and recruit troops along the way to form a new army as a backup. ”

Su Shi hesitated for a moment: "Recruiting soldiers without permission is a capital crime." ”

"Capital offense? The defeat of this Western Expedition is also a capital crime! Which one would you rather choose? ”

Su Shi was silent.

Du Wenhao said with relief: "Don't worry, the emperor has personally promised me to form a new army before I go out, this is my authority, you won't be wrong to recruit troops in my name, rest assured, I have a holy decree, and the military situation is urgent, this is also a last resort, and the emperor will not blame." ”

Song Shenzong said that once Xishan was conquered, let Du Wenhao form a new army in Xishan, but he didn't say that he would selfishly recruit troops to form a new army in the Great Song Dynasty, but now the enemy army is very strong, and there is no elite forbidden army nearby to dispatch. His own 4,000 men simply could not completely annihilate the enemy army. And when the imperial court troops arrived, I was afraid that the entire Chengdu Mansion Road would be ravaged by the army. Therefore, Du Wenhao put his heart on the horizon and asked Su Shi to recruit troops along the way in his own name to expand the army.

Su Shi heard Du Wenhao say that this was authorized by the emperor, although he was a little skeptical, he also knew that the situation was urgent, so he could only do so. He began to contact the local government to recruit local armor guards and erect a recruitment banner.

Du Wenhao and his rear army transported grain and grass, a lot of horses, plus horses rented along the way, and borrowed some military horses from the Guang'an army. The cavalry battalion was quickly formed. Set straight to the front. Their cavalry was fast, and they arrived at the boundary of Chengdu Prefecture in two days.

Along the way to see a lot of fleeing people, after inquiry, learned that the army has really hit the city of Chengdu, Chengdu Mansion is strictly defended, the army has no large-scale siege equipment, attacked several times, failed to overcome, but killed and wounded a lot of soldiers, then gave up the attack on Chengdu, and turned around plundering the nearby counties and towns that were not defended.

Du Wenhao and Lin Qingdai discussed, according to Du Wenhao's idea, the two of them went to investigate the enemy together, but Lin Qingdai didn't do it, saying that Du Wenhao didn't know martial arts, but it would be a burden to go, so he could rest assured that it was easy to get in the way by himself.

Du Wenhao agreed with fear.

While Lin Qingdai went out to investigate, Du Wenhao sent people to find refugees from all over the country to inquire about the enemy's situation.

Several of the people who were found were very sick, with persistent fever, fatigue, bloating, diarrhoea, and blood in their stools. There was even hearing impairment. Du Wenhao now, these symptoms are very similar to the virulent infectious disease typhoid fever!

Du Wenhao immediately isolated these people for observation and symptomatic treatment, but it was still too late, and two of them were seriously ill and died.

Du Wenhao immediately sent people to inquire and investigate the place where the dead died, and now they are from the Yazhou area, according to the people who rescued them, Yazhou itch is epidemic, and the ancients called itch death is a variety of acute infectious diseases, including typhoid fever. There are many people who have this disease, and many people have died. And Fan Jun is afraid of infection. Drink only the water and food they bring with them, and kill all the people they come across.

Du Wenhao was furious, and secretly scolded these beasts in his stomach! This now gave him a new way to defeat the enemy. The causative agent of typhoid fever is mainly in feces, as long as it is isolated, it is a good biochemical weapon!

If highly toxic drugs are dropped, the enemy will soon die. It is difficult to form a mass killing effect. The incubation period of typhoid fever is about a month or so. Just use this time to drag the enemy army around, taking the opportunity to poison. Wait until the enemy is poisoned. The majority of the army had contracted typhoid fever.

This virus could not be detected at all in ancient times, and this disease was very urgent, although it could be treated, the mortality rate was relatively low, but the treatment cycle was relatively long, and once the disease occurred, the infected person's body would be extremely weak for a long time, and he could not even walk, let alone fight. Then he became a lamb to the slaughter!

Du Wenhao immediately found the excrement of the two dead patients, and sent people to look for typhoid patients. Their excreta is extracted and then purified to extract the source of infection from the water sample.

Lin Qingdai acted quickly, and it only took one day to find out the general distribution of the Fan army, mark it on the map, and catch the tongue of a senior officer of the Fan army.

After Du Wenhao's interrogation, he learned that the Tibetan Xishan tribe had sent out this time and borrowed 10,000 troops from neighboring tribes. So the total strength reached 25,000 people.

Du Wenhao's heart sank, no wonder Han Xiu couldn't beat him, the previous military situation was wrong, and the enemy army was far more than the reported figures.

He ordered the prisoners to be brought down, and then he and Li Pu made a battle plan based on the map of the enemy's distribution found by Lin Qingdai.

After Du Wenhao told the two of them about his new idea, the two didn't know if it was useful, but since it was Du Wenhao's method, it should be no problem.

After deliberation. Du Wenhao and Lin Qingdai led twenty clever soldiers. Disguised as a civilian, she was responsible for transporting the source of infection containing a large number of typhoid bacteria to Lin Qingdai, and she took advantage of the opportunity of the enemy army to loot everywhere and the rear was empty, and poisoned the drinking water that the enemy army cooked.

With Lin Qingdai's superb martial arts, he wore a dagger army uniform, brought a pot of water and infiltrated the enemy's barracks for cooking and poisoning. It's still hard for her.

According to Lin Qingdai's discovery of the enemy's situation, Li Pu led the elite forbidden army and surrounded the 2,000 or so troops who were looting in a small town. Annihilate most of them, deliberately let a small part go.

The fleeing Fan army reported the news, and the Fan army immediately mobilized the main force to pounce viciously on Du Wenhao and his 4,000 cavalry.

Du Wenhao and they did not engage in battle, and took advantage of the cavalry to quickly get rid of the enemy's encirclement, but they were not far away, and maintained a state of imminent departure. And at night, after the enemy army set up camp, they became the target of Du Wenhao's attack. They were armed with powerful crossbows with long range and rockets, which soon set the enemy camp on fire. As soon as they get in the way, they immediately retreat, and by the time the enemy pursues them, they have already withdrawn from the battlefield.

Using this method of guerrilla warfare, the 4,000 forbidden troops led more than 20,000 troops by the nose, and they were exhausted by torture. Lin Qingdai took this opportunity to keep putting water containing a large number of typhoid germs into the drinking water of the enemy's barracks. At the same time, Lin Qingdai took the opportunity to probe the enemy situation and report the situation of the enemy army to Du Wenhao.

As soon as there was an enemy army that broke away from the main force, Du Wenhao immediately concentrated his superior forces to fight a war of annihilation. Thousands of dead and wounded.

At this moment, the backup led by Su Shi arrived.

Su Shi is very good at doing this kind of work, and along the way, the number of Fang Baojia troops and the army recruited and expanded reached 20,000!

The balance of forces between the enemy and us has changed significantly, and Lin Qingdai's typhoid fever has begun to work in the army.

After learning the news, Du Wenhao expected that the enemy army would soon retreat and prepare to flee back to the Xishan tribe. It was immediately decided to lead the newly formed 20,000 soldiers and 4,000 elite forbidden troops to make a detour to the mountainous areas around Dengzhou, where the enemy must retreat, and set up a pocket formation.

Sure enough, a few days later, there was a large-scale epidemic of typhoid fever among the Fan army, and a large number of soldiers fell ill. And the Song army, which had been chasing all the way, had nowhere to go. The wire report learned that reinforcements from the Song army were coming from all directions. The commander of the army could only order a retreat.

The route of retreat was exactly where Du Wenhao set up an ambush. When the army withdrew here, most of the soldiers had already contracted typhoid fever, and the military doctors had no time to treat them, because the soldiers were extremely weak because of the disease. Progress had slowed considerably, and soldiers had begun to die.

That's when it happened. They entered the ambush circle of Du Wenhao's army.

A cannon rang out, shouts of killing in all directions shook the sky, and with 4,000 forbidden troops as the vanguard, they rushed into the enemy camp from the front.

Although the 20,000 newly formed troops have not gone through battle, or even conducted regular scraping exercises, and their combat effectiveness is very poor, the army at this moment is already a soldier who has won and weakened, and it is difficult to even walk and stand, and he can't pull his bow or raise his gun. It has become a live target for these untrained Song Jun sword and archery skills!

The battle turned into a massacre, and in less than two hours, more than 20,000 troops were wiped out. These Song troops hated the Fan army's cruelty to the people, and did not accept prisoners of war at all, especially sick prisoners of war, so even if the Fan army surrendered on their knees, they could not escape death.

Du Wenhao had the intention to stop this kind of massacre, but the red-eyed Song army was already mixed with the Fan army at this moment, and he couldn't give orders at all, so the Song army couldn't do it at this time.

Du Wenhao stood on a high place, looking at the corpses of the Fan army lying in the valley for several miles, he witnessed such a large-scale ancient war for the first time, and the bloody scene made his heart strongly shocked.

When the last soldier fell in a pool of blood, deafening cheers rang out in the valley, and all the soldiers waved their weapons and shouted victory and salute towards the mountain where Du Wenhao was.

Du Wenhao sent someone to Chengdu Mansion to report the news of the victory to Han Yi, who had retreated there, and Han Xiu was moved to tears. And the news of the Song army's total annihilation and invasion of the tribes in the western mountains of Tubo spread as quickly as if it had grown wings.

Han Xiu took the remnants to join Du Wenhao Dacao, and Du Wenhao handed over the command of the army to Han.

But Han Yuan knew that Du Wenhao's prestige in the army at this moment. It's already far past him. So nominally he is a general, but in fact, the general in the minds of the soldiers is the young imperial doctor in front of him.

The Xishan tribe has now become a lamb to the slaughter without an army. After discussing with Han Xiu, Li Pu, and Su Shi, Du Wenhao decided to take advantage of the victory to pursue and capture the entire Xishan tribe. so as not to be profited by other tribes.

The capture of Xishan became a peaceful liberation, and almost no decent resistance was encountered, and the whole was taken away. The vast land of Xishan was trampled under the feet of the Song army. At this moment, reinforcements from all walks of life also arrived, and when the other Tibetan tribes saw this, they all shrank their heads and didn't dare to have any ideas.

Du Wenhao reported to the imperial court the news of the capture of the Tibetan tribe in the western mountains. Waiting for the emperor to honor the king of Nuoxi Mountain, before that, he could not govern in Xishan.

The center of his current work is to restore the lives of the people disrupted by the war and restore social order in Chengdu's Fulu. And began to implement the new policy in Yazhou first, and after accumulating experience in the future, he began to govern according to his own ideas in the Xishan tribe.

Therefore, after his army and reinforcements were deployed in various places in the West Mountain. He returned to Yazhou with Li Pu and others.

After the reconquest, Yazhou was full of sores and diseases, and there were remnants of the walls that were burned down by the war. Chengfu seems to be a lonely city, standing alone on the land of Shuzhou.

Very hot weather. Many people who accompanied him were sick, Du Wenhao also seemed a little tired, but he knew that he couldn't rest, now was not the time to rest, the people in the city were homeless and had nowhere to go, so they had to find a place to live as soon as possible, otherwise, someone in this city would soon rise up to rebel, and the people would take food as the sky, this is the most simple idea of the people. Many people have lost their homes, have no food, and have to eat grass roots and tree bark for a living, and this is by no means a long-term solution.

Du Wenhao took a group of people to look around the Yazhou Prefecture and understand the situation, Su Shi's body has not completely healed, Du Wenhao first asked people to find a relatively intact house for him and his family to live in, and he started work non-stop.

Come to the state capital yamen. Du Wenhao: This place is relatively well preserved. The houses and facilities inside were almost not destroyed, and Du Wenhao asked Li Pu to check the granary of the state government, but now it was empty, and there was nothing left.

Li Pu stood angrily outside the granary and scolded his mother, and the people accompanying him saw Du Wenhao's grim expression, and stood outside the door with his brows tightly wrinkled and pondered something, Lin Qingdai stepped forward and whispered: "In such a hot weather, you are still standing in a cool place, be careful of being sick." ”

Du Wenhao hummed but did not move, and after a while, he looked at the people accompanying him, asked Li Pu to come over, and said, "You quickly let people post a notice, saying that this place is a shelter." Homeless people and gills are lonely and can stay here. ”

Li Pu: "My lord, this is the state government, do you want to go and explain to Lord Su first, and then make a decision?" Du Wenhao said firmly: "No, let's settle down the people first, I will tell Master Su when I go back at night, you go and do it, I will go to Han to ask for food to help the people." ”

Li Pu was stunned: "My lord, that's military food, General Han may not be willing"

Lin Qingdai stepped forward and said: "The adults let you go, you will go to the shelter to be busy, how can the people live in, how can they have no food?" ”

Li Pu got the order and hurriedly retreated.

Lin Qingdai: "Wen Hao." I'll go with you. ”

Du Wenhao thought for a while: "No need, I'll take two officers and soldiers there." Then he took a few officers and soldiers and went straight to Han Xiu's military camp.

Du Wenhao stood outside the tent in the camp, it was very hot in the tent at this time, Du Wenhao was wearing open clothes, and he didn't feel a trace of coolness at all, the wind was blowing, it was hot.

An old man in a military uniform with a gray head, with a straight body, walked towards Du Wenhao with a swagger. This person was Han Yi, and laughed: "Imperial Doctor Du is here." I'm sorry, I'm not welcome, my family can settle down with me? ”

Du Wenhao smiled and stepped forward, walked up to Han Qi, hugged his fists and said, "I have something to ask Lord Han for this trip." ”

When Han Xiu heard this, he made a gesture of invitation, and Du Wenhao followed him into the tent.

After sitting down, Han Xiu said: "Master Du doesn't have to be polite, since he has something to find the old man, the old man naturally has no reason to refuse." ”

Du Wenhao said with a smile: "I'll ask the adults to borrow something." ”

Han Xiu looked at the young man in front of him suspiciously, with a polite appearance, although his face was a little tanned and his expression was a little tired, but there was still a spirit in his eyes, and he asked: "I don't know what Lord Du wants to borrow, I only have people here, and these people are actually the imperial doctor." ”

Du Wenhao smiled and said, "Borrow grain!" ”

Han Yi was stunned for a moment, and then asked: "Master Du, what did you say, borrow, borrow grain?" ”

Du Wenhao smiled and nodded: "Borrow military rations to help the drunk." ”

Han Xiu shook his head and said, "Imperial Doctor Du, tens of thousands of people in the army are waiting to eat, it's not that they can't borrow it, but they can't borrow it." ”

"General Han, now that there has been a war, many people are homeless, I came all the way, and I can see people everywhere selling their sons and daughters, eating grass roots and tree bark, we are all their parents and officials, we can't see death without help, Lord Han, what do you say?"

"I know the suffering of the people, but there is not much food in the army, even if it is all given to you, I am afraid it will not last long."

Du Wenhao nodded. sighed: "What Lord Fu said is true, but now we can only solve the urgent need, for a while, it is true that we can't do it thoroughly, we can take care of the urgent need first."

Han Xiu thought for a moment. He said, "How are you going to distribute this grain?" There are so many victims, but there are not enough points. ”

Du Wenhao: "I temporarily set up the state government as a shelter, let some widows stay here alone, and then set up a pot in the state government to cook porridge for them, so that I can support my eyes for the time being." ”

"That's it, okay, let's go, let's go to transport grain now, and strive to let the people have porridge to drink as soon as possible."

At ten o'clock in the evening, Du Wenhao rushed back to the house where Su Shi lived temporarily, only to see that the house was already full of smoke, and Li'er and Xue Yi'er were sorting out the things they had brought under the eaves of the courtyard.

Du Wenhao said: "What are you doing?" ”

Seeing that it was Du Wenhao who came back, Xue Liang'er got up happily and said, "Master Su said that we have no place to live, so he vacated the two houses in the west to us, and Li'er and I are packing up our things.

Du Wenhao sank his face and whispered, "What about the two ladies and the three sons?" ”

Seeing that Du Wenhao was displeased, Li'er replied cautiously: "There are four houses in total, one for Lord Su and two ladies. One for the three sons, and two for us. ”

"No, Lord Su's health is not good, the rooms here are so hot, where are the next three people? And there is also a place to cook and eat, you can't let the adults eat in the open air, why are you so ignorant, we can set up a few tents outside the door, hurry. Pack up and move out. ”

When Xue Jiao'er and Qi'er heard this, they hurriedly called the maid to move the things out.