Chapter 11 Peach Blossom Water

As mentioned last time, the Shu army, which had adopted a new policy, was more obedient to the barbarian stockades and marched towards Qike County.

It is said that Meng Shu has repeatedly failed in the battle with the Shu army, and even the mountain and forest battles that their southern barbarians are best at are now defeated, and they have lost many good hands in vain. You must know that for this jungle sneak attack, Meng Huo has drawn many top players from various clans and villages, they are usually the best hunters in the clan, and they are also the most fierce warriors in the army during wartime.

But in just five days, the pride of these barbarians was shot into hedgehogs by the crossbow arrows of the Shu army, which made him explain to the various tribes. The defeat is small, and it will not be easy to deal with the difficulties of the tribes when the time comes, and his prestige among the southern barbarians will definitely be greatly reduced.

Meng Shu was afraid that the various tribes of the Southern Barbarians would no longer trust him, and no longer believed that he would bring victory and strength to the barbarians. In that case, he Meng Shu will lose the power of the king of the Nanban, and the title of the king of the Nanban will also become a joke.

For the repeated losses to the Shu army, Meng Shu was very unconvinced, thinking that the Shu army relied on the kind of hidden weapons that would make loud noises, and the hidden arrows hurt people, and he was not a hero, and he hoped to have a dignified fight with the Shu army.

On this day, he discussed with the owner of the cave: "Liu Chan is really hateful, relying on the secret weapon to defeat our army repeatedly, and now he has occupied the stockades of many tribes. In the long run, there will be no place for my generation in the South Central Region. Now, even our Yi village has been broken by him, and he is worried that he doesn't know where to go tonight? ”

Bring the cave master and say: "There is only one country that can defeat the Shu Kingdom. ”

Meng was overjoyed when he heard this, and said, "Where can I go?" ”

Bring the cave master and say: "Here to the southeast, there is a country, named Ugo. The lord of the country has a vulture bone, a body of two feet, does not eat grains, and feeds on snakes and evil beasts; The body has scale armor, and the sword and arrow cannot invade. His sergeants all wore rattan armor; Its vines are born in mountain streams and coiled on stone walls; Chinese people take it, soak it in oil, and take it out for half a year before drying it;

Drying and re-soaking, where more than ten times, to create armor; Worn on the body, crossing the river does not sink, the water is not wet, and the sword and arrow cannot enter: so it is called the rattan armor army. Now the king may ask for it. With his help, capturing Liu Chan would be as easy as a sharp firewood knife to break through a bamboo. ”

Meng was overjoyed, and quickly went to the country of Ugo to see the vultures. The vultures lived in a large cave with no houses in it, and the Ugo people lived in such a cavern. Meng Shu entered the cave, and after saluting the vulture bones, he told him about the battle with the Shu army during this time, and when he talked about the sadness, he almost even shed tears.

When the vulture heard Meng Shu's statement, he got up angrily and said, "The land of Nanzhong is the place where my Yi clan lives, how can a foreign child be arrogant here. Behold me as I raise up my own soldiers to avenge thee. ”

Meng Shu finally got what he wanted, and happily thanked the vulture bone.

So the vulture summoned two leading soldiers and prisoners: one was called Tu'an and the other was Xi Ni, and he raised 30,000 soldiers, all wearing rattan armor, and left the country of Ugo to look northeast.

The army marched day and night, went straight to the Shu army, this day, to a river, called peach blossom water. There are peach trees on both sides of this river, and the leaves have fallen in the water over the years, and it is said that if outsiders drink the water of this river, they will be poisoned and die, but the people of Ugo will not only not die if they drink it, but will double their spirit. The vultures arrived at the Peach Blossom Ferry, and the spies found out that this was the place where the Shu army must pass, so they ordered their subordinates to set up camp and prepare to wait for the arrival of the Shu soldiers.

It is said that Liu Hou had already sent scouts to find out about the enemy's situation, and the news was reported: "Meng was invited by the lord of Ugo to lead 30,000 vine armor troops, and now they are stationed at Taohua Ferry. Meng Shu gathered a group of barbarians in various villages and caves, intending to fight to the death with our army together. ”

This time the scouts are different from the previous ones, and their main composition is the local brute soldiers. After this period of observation, Liu Hou found that the captured barbarians had generally returned to their hearts, and they were no longer hateful but fearful of themselves.

In this case, Liu Hou began to use them with confidence, they were familiar with the local situation, and they walked like flying in the mountains and forests, making them ideal candidates to be scouts. Therefore, Liu Hou, who has always paid attention to intelligence news, selected suitable candidates from the captives and served as scouts.

He raised their treatment to the same level as other sergeants, and these barbarians, who had never seen the world, were grateful to Dade and became more loyal to Liu Hou. Of course, Liu Hou will not fully trust them, and the necessary precautions are still needed.

In addition to these barbarians, the scouts in the original army were not canceled, Liu Hou mixed them with these barbarians to carry out the task, and only announced that he would strengthen the scout force, no one thought that this time the veterans in the original scout team were not only spying on the military situation, but also responsible for monitoring the barbarian scouts.

Now that the news has been found out and the goal is clear, Liu Hou is not polite, he led the army and accelerated all the way to the Taohua Ferry. As usual, lead the generals out to check on the situation. When I saw the barbarians on the other side, I found that they were not human-like, but very ugly.

These rattan armors are angular and angular in the sunlight, and the paint surface is shining brightly, giving Liu Hou the illusion of seeing mecha warriors.

"Hey, why is this river red?" Fei Yi observed carefully, not only looking at the enemy camp on the opposite bank, but also observing the river. Liu Hou and the others came back to their senses and looked down at the river.

I found that the river water was really red, but it was not that red color, the base color was still like the yellow turbid color of the Yellow River, and there was a reddish-brown feeling in the middle, which was very weird. No wonder this river is called the Peach Blossom River, in addition to the many peach blossoms growing on both banks, it is estimated that it is also related to the color of the river.

Liu Hou looked around and saw that the peach trees on both sides of the bank were still very verdant, now was not the season for peach blossoms, the peach trees were full of green leaves, and the reflection on the river should be green. It is certain that the red color of this river water is not due to the reflection of peach blossoms, but for another reason.

Everyone speculated about the reason why the river was yellow and reddish-brown, but they were still puzzled, so they called the local people and asked about the peach blossom water. The natives told Liu Hou that the name of this river is peach blossom water, the two banks are full of peach trees, a large number of peach leaves fall in the river every year, the river will be poisonous, now is the time when the peach trees fall leaves, the river water is poisonous, not drinkable.

Peach leaves, flowers and nuts are poisonous. The reason is that the seeds, flowers, leaves and bark of peach trees can produce hydrocyanic acid when hydrolyzed. Hydrocyanic acid is a thing that seals the throat with blood, and the local natives estimate that they have mastered the time law of peach tree leaf fall, and will avoid this time to take water to drink, so it will be fine if you drink it, and outsiders don't know anything, so it is easy to be poisoned to death.

Liu Hou was shocked, and at first he looked at the color of the river, thinking that there was a mine here, and the composition of the ore was washed into the river by the rain, making the river water poisonous. Now listening to the natives, it is found that it may not be the cause of the ore, but the cause of these peach leaves.

Look at the color of the river water, the most likely here is that there is an iron mine, the main component of hematite is Fe2O3 is reddish-brown, but a small amount of iron oxide ingestion will not be poisoned, but has the effect of iron supplementation, therefore, it is not impossible for the local natives to drink this water "feel more spiritual", because the iron supplement, the body is better, and the spirit will of course be better.

Liu Hou immediately asked people to summon the researchers accompanying the army and told them that there was very likely to be a hematite mine here, and asked them to mobilize people to prospect for the mine.

Liu Hou knew early on that the Nanzhong region was rich in mineral resources, so this campaign brought a lot of talents from major research institutes with the army, no, now they have played their role, if they can find an iron mine, it will play an incomparable role in promoting the economy of Shu, and mining ore, which requires a lot of labor, will inevitably have great benefits to the life of the local barbarians.

Since it was determined that the river water was poisonous, without further ado, Liu Hou did not delay for a moment, and ordered the whole army to retreat five miles and then set up camp. But it was still a step too late, and Gao Ding sent someone to report that many people in his forward troops had drunk the river water of peach blossom water and had symptoms of poisoning.

I am really not afraid of god-like opponents, and I am most afraid of pig-like teammates, this Gao Ding, as a general who leads the army, or a small prince, is so unparticular about doing things, and rashly let his soldiers drink river water without finding out the situation, which is really self-inflicted.

Liu Hou ordered the military doctor to immediately treat the poisoned soldiers of the Gaoding Department. Fortunately, the soldiers generally did not drink much water, and the poisoning was relatively light, and the Shu army brought a large number of herbs with the army, and the treatment was timely, so the situation was not bad, and the soldiers' conditions were controlled. After Liu Hou urgently sent someone to announce to the whole army that the river water was poisonous, there were no new cases.

After retreating five miles and camping, Liu Hou summoned the generals to discuss countermeasures.

"His Royal Highness the Prince, this rattan armor soldier is invulnerable, and it is really difficult to deal with." Gao Ding complained.

"Hehe, the vine armor soldiers are not enough to worry about." Liu Hou laughed.

"Could it be that the prince has already found a way to break the vine armor?" Fei Yi's eyes lit up and asked.

"Of course, although this rattan armor soldier is not afraid of slashing and arrows, according to the rattan cards of some barbarians captured before, it is found that they also have a certain defensive power against muskets, but it has a fatal weakness." Liu Houdao.

"Would you like to hear about it?" All the generals clasped their fists and bowed at the same time.

"It's very simple, this dried rattan is flammable, this tung oil is also flammable, these two are mixed, you say, is it not flammable? I actually soaked the rattan branches with tung oil, I really don't know what these people think. In my opinion, these rattan armor soldiers are nothing more than humanoid torches, nothing remarkable. ”

"Fire attack? Good idea! We've done a lot of this kind of thing, and we're familiar with it. Guo Youzhi listened to Liu Hou's explanation, his eyes lit up, and he blurted out.

In addition to Gao Ding, E Huan, and Guan Suo, the rest of the generals have followed Liu Hou to fight in Jingzhou, and they all remembered the ambush set up in Jingzhou City and captured the 7 Zhuguo generals and 30,000 troops of Eastern Wu in one fell swoop.

"The key is that we have to set up a special environment, we want to introduce the vine armor soldiers into this specific environment, and we also want to make them unable to come out for a while after entering, and then we can turn them into ashes with a fire." Liu Houdao.

So, the brainstorming meeting of the Nanzhong version began, and everyone began to discuss how to arrange an ambush battlefield, how to lure the vine armor soldiers to be fooled, how to prevent the vine armor soldiers from breaking through, and then how to set fire to completely eliminate the vine armor soldiers.

Looking at the generals who were arguing and arguing, Gao Ding, E Huan, Guan Suo and others who joined later lost their minds for a while, they felt that the scene was very strange, no matter how they looked at it, they didn't want it to be a strict pre-military meeting, but like a gangster arguing in the market.