Thinking of this, Master Zhou hurriedly said loudly: "The brother at the head of the city personally promised to prepare some food for us, as well as the two flavors of medicinal herbs of "hanging golden lamp" and "Chaotianzi". Everyone is a man in the army, and he must do what he says, otherwise wouldn't General Gong lose face? Dare to ask all my brothers, when will these grains and medicinal materials be properly prepared? My 100,000 soldiers at Yumen Pass are now waiting for this batch of supplies to save their lives. ”

Immediately, a sergeant on the city wall said: "What is the hurry? I, General Gong of Jiayuguan, have always been honest and honest, and I have always shared weal and woe with the soldiers. Hmph, do you think that all the generals of this dynasty are like Lu Yuanpo of your Yumen Pass, and there are only more than 30,000 people under his command, but they want to occupy the establishment of 60,000 people, so as to ask the imperial court for military salaries, almost one person eats two military salaries, but he still comes to ask me for food and medicine in Jiayuguan, which is really shameless! For the sake of our colleagues, General Gong agreed to prepare for you, and you, a master who eats military salaries by playing tricks, still have the face to urge us?"

Hearing the other party's reply, Master Zhou was speechless for a while, so he had to discuss countermeasures with Xian Jingyue. From this point of view, Gong Baisheng is probably on this city wall at the moment, but he wants to let the soldiers defending the city deal with everyone, and he refuses to show up in person, and there is nothing he can do for a while. Besides, the sergeants who accompanied him this time came to Jiayuguan to ask for food and medicine, and they had to transport these materials back to Yumen Pass afterwards, so Gong Baisheng had already agreed to prepare these materials, and it didn't hurt if he refused to let the sergeants enter the pass. However, among the thirty or forty people who accompanied him, there was a woman infected with the plague, and it was impossible for them to go back to the Yumen Pass with the procession.

You must know that Jiayuguan is the boundary of this dynasty, different from the topography of Yumen Pass, even if pedestrians do not go from Yumen Pass, they can spend more than ten days from the mountains in the north to bypass, but the city wall of Jiayuguan is continuous, to the north has been connected to the Great Wall, until the Shanhaiguan in Liaodong is considered to be the end, and where can it be bypassed? If you go south along the Jiayuguan city wall, you have to go to the shore of Qinghai Lake thousands of miles away, so that you can return to the Central Plains from the Haiyan area.

Just when everyone was in a dilemma, two more people behind him began to cough, obviously they were also infected by the plague in Yumen Pass, and they didn't come out until this moment. The sergeants and civilians present hurriedly avoided the surroundings, isolating the two coughing civilians in the middle, only Li Liu took care of the plague-infected woman all the way, but he didn't care about this, and hurriedly placed the two civilians in the trench in front of the city wall along with the previous woman. When the soldiers defending the city saw this scene from afar, they immediately began to talk about it, and after half a ring, a sergeant shouted: "These people are sick, most of them are infected by the zombies in the Yumen Pass! Everyone needs to be strictly defended, if these people make any abnormal moves, they will be shot to death immediately!"

Hearing this, the soldiers and the people under the city wall were in a commotion again, and Master Zhou hurriedly appeased everyone with General Wang, saying that since the other party had promised to prepare food and medicinal materials, for the lives of the soldiers in Yumen Pass, it was better not to clash with the garrison of Jiayuguan before getting the food and medicinal materials, and the soldiers suppressed the anger in their hearts. Here, Li Liu's family settled the three plague patients, and stabilized the remaining people, and then everyone rested in the trench in front of the city wall of Jiayuguan, took out the dry food they carried with them, and used iron pots to make fires, just waiting for the garrison of Jiayuguan to prepare food and medicinal materials.

Who knew that this was a day and a night, and there was no movement on the city wall. In the meantime, Master Zhou went to inquire several times, but the other party only said that he was still preparing, and asked everyone to wait patiently; if he was forced by Master Zhou to ask in a hurry, the soldiers guarding the city on the city wall scolded on the spot, and counted the ugly things of General Lu eating empty pay at Yumen Pass, which made Master Zhou disgraced.

After another two days, another child among the people began to cough, apparently also infected by the plague, and even several of the sergeants fell ill, and all of them were placed by Li Liu to rest in a distant moat. Although everyone was not surprised by this, they could not help but panic when they saw their companions fall ill one after another. By noon on the fourth day, the dry food carried by the sergeants and the people had already been eaten, and even the water in the kettle had not been left behind.

As for the guards on the city wall of Jiayuguan, there was still no response, not to mention the food and medicinal materials prepared for Yumen Pass, and even refused to give a sip of water. The crowd was hungry and thirsty, and many of the soldiers could not hold back, so they went to the city wall and shouted and cursed, but they were shot back by the soldiers on the city wall. Then a sergeant scolded a few words angrily and said: "Since the garrison of Jiayuguan will not save them when they see death, Yumen Pass will naturally not be able to go back." Rather than waiting for death here, it is better to disperse, and everyone can survive on their own!" As soon as the words fell, more than a dozen sergeants echoed and coaxed to disperse.

Master Zhou and General Wang Counselor hurriedly stopped, but could not solve the current situation of water and food shortage, the sergeants made a fuss, the situation became bigger and bigger, and then dozens of sergeants left one after another, and some of them planned to take refuge in those bandits who wandered between Yumen Pass and Jiayu Pass. Due to the previous attack by bandits, nearly 50 of the 200 sergeants on this trip have died, and with the departure of a large number of sergeants at this moment, there are only seventy or eighty sergeants left, and most of them were injured in the battle with the bandits, so they could not leave. Seeing this, Li Liu, who was next to him, was also helpless, couldn't help but sigh, and said: "I saw that I was about to return to the Central Plains, but who knew that I was stopped outside Jiayu Pass." Could it be that I am destined to die in the desert of the Western Regions?"

And Xian Jingyue was not good at words, and he didn't know how to dissuade the soldiers from leaving, and it was impossible to sword those who left. Seeing that the remaining soldiers and civilians were in disarray, lying in the moats one by one, with neither food, water, nor medicine to cure the plague, were they just waiting for death? But unexpectedly, at this moment, he suddenly heard the strange scream of Master Zhou, and said sharply: "That's it! Now, why should I pity this cheap life?"

Everyone didn't know what Master Zhou wanted, so they hurriedly asked, but Master Zhou ignored it, tidied up his clothes while walking, and finally stopped in front of the city wall, and said to the city guard sergeant on the city wall: "In the next Zhou Quande, he was originally a native of Dong Village, Ding'an, born in the last years of the previous dynasty, and was well-read since childhood, and was called a 'prodigy' by the villagers. When the dynasty was created, he originally wanted to gain fame with this knowledge, but in the end he only won a show, and then he would fail in the exam, and he would return to his name and fall to Sun Shan, and he would not have a career after all. Fortunately, with the appreciation of General Lu Yuanpo, I was recruited to the army as a staff member, all the way from Qinghai Lake to Lanzhou Wei, and then to today's Yumen Pass, which has been 13 years. ”

After saying these opening remarks, Master Zhou cleared his throat and continued: "In the past, the former dynasty was tyrannical, and the Han and Nanren were listed as third and fourth class people, and their status was like that of slaves in the late Spring and Autumn Period. Now that this dynasty has ruled the world, the Han people have returned to power, and since the present and the past, they have made concerted efforts to resist the enemy outside the country, but how can they not save themselves in the face of death and abandon their siblings?"

When everyone heard this, they already understood Master Zhou's intentions. It turned out that he wanted to emulate the eloquent, and only used his words to impress Gong Baisheng in Jiayuguan, and asked him to save everyone.