There is no trivial matter in the army, marching and fighting are major events, clothing, food, housing and transportation are also major matters, mosquito bites look like small things, but in Zhou Shixiang's view, they are major matters equal to attacking cities and villages. You must know that most of the production of malaria is caused by mosquito bites, once malaria is epidemic in the army, although the fatality rate of malaria is not high, but how can normal people withstand the fever every day, vomiting and venting at every turn, in the absence of effective medical means, such as antibiotics, to completely cure malaria depends only on time and the patient's own physical fitness, there is no other way.

What the Taiping Army lacks at the moment is time, and it is a task of thousands of miles to be transferred, and malaria will occur in the army at this juncture, so you can imagine what the consequences will be. Even if there is no malaria, how can a soldier rest when he is bitten by mosquitoes while sleeping every day? If you don't have enough sleep, you don't have enough spirit, and if you don't have enough spirit, how can you march during the day, and how can you fight with the Qing army in front. In view of this, it was necessary for Zhou Shixiang to convene a military meeting of senior officers of each battalion to brainstorm so that he could find a good way to prevent and control mosquitoes.

In addition to the Xiongwei Battalion, the other four battalions and 100 households rushed to the Qianhu House located at the highest point of Antelope Gorge after receiving the order, saying that it was a Qianhu House, that is, a temporary shack was built, and a total of more than a dozen people could be squeezed, and no more than one could be done.

There was also a wooden lookout on the side of the Thousand Households, and a few good-eyed soldiers were in charge of watching. Looking down from the lookout, the inside and outside of the canyon can be seen at a glance, and it is impossible for anyone who wants to sneak into the canyon and hide from the Taiping army on the lookout.

The situation of the hundreds of households and the trial of the hundred households is not better than that of Zhou Shixiang, one by one is either scratched red here, or there is a few bubbles bitten by mosquitoes, and then asked, basically they fell asleep in the second half of the night, and they were all busy swatting mosquitoes there in the first half of the night.

After the group of senior officers sat down. One by one, they were sluggish, even the most ordinary Heng meat Ge Zheng and the bald Jiang He also drooped their heads, unable to lift their spirits.

Zhou Shixiang looked at it in his eyes. sighed in his heart, he didn't blame his subordinates for being so unbearable. Because this is not just a matter of being bitten by mosquitoes, but since the high to set off, most of the time during the day is on the march, just marching is nothing, the problem is that the night when should be resting is not able to sleep peacefully because of mosquito bites, the rest is not good, people are sleepy, how can people eat? Now these subordinates can still hold on. If you stay up like this for another three or five days, then even if you are an iron-clad man, you will have to lie down.

As a thousand households, as the leader of these people, Zhou Shixiang has the responsibility and obligation to eliminate the interference of non-war factors for his subordinates, so he briefly stated the purpose of gathering everyone.

When they heard that the thousands of households came to them to discuss how to prevent mosquitoes, the hundreds of households did not feel that they were making a fuss, but everyone thought it was true, and Ge Zheng said with a yearning face: "If there is a mosquito net, everyone will not have to suffer this." ”

Hearing this, Qin Zhisheng smiled bitterly: "Let's march to fight." You should be happy at home, and return the mosquito net, where will you get the mosquito net in the wilderness? And so many people. How many nets do I need? ”

Ge Zheng sneered: "Didn't I say it casually." ”

"We can't get mosquito nets right now, and even if we get them, we can't use them for everyone, so you still have to think of other ways to be practical." Zhou Shixiang emphasized that it must be practical, and there is no need to mention the methods that are not practical.

After hearing this, everyone thought about it, and after a while, Peng Dazhu suddenly patted his head and shouted: "Qianhu, I remember that those big families seem to have incense burners. The smell of smoke in the furnace not only smells very good, but also repels mosquitoes and flies. I just don't know what kind of incense it is. ”

As soon as the words fell, Wang Youxi on the side rolled his eyes. choked him: "You said that it was prepared by a big family, who has that thing in the common people's homes?" Besides, that incense must be worth a lot of silver, how can we have so much silver to buy? ”

was choked by Wang Youxi, Peng Dazhu couldn't help but want to refute, but just as he was about to speak, he was stopped by Zhou Shixiang shaking his head, Zhou Shixiang said: "It's not about silver, Brother Dazhu said that I have heard of this incense, but we can't buy this incense even if we have silver." I've heard people say that the incense is only sold in the provincial capital, so we can't go to Guangzhou to buy it, right? ”

Peng Dazhu thought about it, closed his mouth obediently, Tie Yi saw this, and said: "Qianhu, this mosquito bite is not distinguished, so the rich have the rich man's method, and the poor have the poor man's method. ”

Lin Zhengsheng, who has not spoken much in the military discussion, rarely opened his mouth and agreed: "Yes, wormwood is useful, in addition to wormwood, it seems that there are other cordyceps, herbs and the like that can repel mosquitoes, some are directly placed in the house, and some are dried and lit, but the smell is a little choking." ”

"It doesn't matter if you choke on the taste, the important thing is that the grass is useful." Zhou Shixiang doesn't care about choking people or not, what he cares about is whether these flowers and plants can repel mosquitoes.

"It must be useful, I used Huoxiang and wormwood to repel mosquitoes in the army in my early years."

It was Li Fuguo who spoke in a hundred households, his voice was not too loud, and he seemed very humble. Zhou Shixiang glanced at him and nodded with a smile.

For example, Zheng Tiezhu said that he could put a large bucket of water and stones in the tent, and then put some frogs in the bucket, saying that mosquitoes love shade and will become a food for frogs as long as they fly in.

This method was a bit whimsical, Zhou Shixiang was stunned when he heard it, but he saw that Lin Zhengsheng, Song Erniu and other hundreds of households all nodded in approval, listening to them, it seemed that they had used this method at home before.

It doesn't matter if it's whimsical, as long as this method is useful, there are some wooden barrels in the army, and there is no shortage of frogs, so when Zhou Shixiang asked someone to write down all these methods, and then asked all these senior officers to return to the camp and send people to the vicinity to find wormwood, cordyceps and other mosquito repellent grass.

In order to completely eliminate mosquitoes and prevent malaria, Zhou Shixiang ordered that there was no need to march today, just stay in Antelope Gorge for a day, and at the same time sent people to the Xiongwei Camp to pass the order, so that Shao Jiugong also rushed to Antelope Gorge.

After the order was delivered, cheers rang out in the middle of the canyon, and the soldiers of the battalions were looking forward to a day of rest after five days of marching.

After the hundred households went back, they quickly arranged for people to search for mosquito repellent grass everywhere, Antelope Gorge is located in the mountainous area, as long as you carefully identify, wormwood and so on are not difficult to find, and by noon, each camp has a harvest, and the mosquito repellent grass is placed on the stone to dry under the scorching sun.

In the afternoon, a group of people rode into the canyon from the west side of the canyon, but it was Zhu Er and others of the cavalry team who had been sent by Zhou Shixiang to the rear camp earlier.

Zhu Er brought bad news, the rear camp was surrounded by the Qing army at Guifeng Mountain, forty miles southwest of Xinhui. (To be continued)