"May I ask, Lord Hanguo, what exactly was thrown into Yuezhou City that day?" Inside the tent, Xiao Min almost questioned Li Xian, "Is the strange disease that suddenly broke out in Yuezhou City related to this matter?"
Li Xian, who was sitting behind a low table with a sand table, saw Xiao Min so angry, and his expression softened. He smiled and asked, "So what? I'm worried about the war, what's wrong with that?"
Xiao Min was shocked and angry. When he was about to speak again, Li Xian asked him, "General Xiao, are you speaking up for those Bian soldiers who have been infected with the disease?"
"There are not only the Bian army in Yuezhou City, but also at least 50,000 civilians!" Xiao Min, who has always been calm, could no longer suppress his anger: "When Duke Han secretly made this plan, did he ever think about these innocent people? Such an act of disregarding the lives of the people is no different from the brutal and tyrannical Bian army!"
Li Xian had a sneer in his eyes, but his voice was very calm: "General Xiao may have forgotten that you are only here to support us, and I, Li Xian, will still be the commander-in-chief of this battle. It seems that it is not General Xiao's turn to make decisions on how the commander-in-chief decides."
Xiao Min clenched his fists: "The plan set by the Korean Public Office is to disregard the safety of the people and massacre their own soldiers?"
As Xiao Min spoke, he clasped his fists heavily in the direction of the capital, and said in a resounding voice: "I would like to ask the Saint whether the action of Duke Hanguo is sufficient for him to continue to serve as the commander-in-chief!"
"General Xiao, you don't have to use the saint to pressure me. When a general is on the battlefield, he has the right to act at his own discretion." Li Xian leaned back leisurely and said indifferently: "As for what General Xiao said about slaughtering our soldiers, are you referring to the hundred soldiers who participated in throwing stones? At this point, General Xiao still doesn't understand my good intentions?"
"If I don't kill them, what if the plan is leaked? How can we have such a good situation today?" Li Xian looked at Xiao Min with a smile: "Besides, does General Xiao still think that as long as I don't kill them, they can survive?"
Seeing Xiao Min's pale face, Li Xian said calmly: "If they come into contact with those things, they will most likely get sick. If we don't kill them, the situation in the army right now will probably be the same as that in Yuezhou City."
Xiao Min's face turned even paler, and his eyes became even colder: "What does Duke Han mean... is that this disease spreads very quickly, but there is no cure?!"
"You can say that." Li Xian smiled, "But General Xiao, please be patient. I have recently had someone develop a decoction that can be distributed to the soldiers to take daily to prevent this disease. Even if you accidentally get it, it won't easily cost you your life."
Then, he said in a rather "generous" tone: "Later, I will have someone deliver this decoction to General Xiao's tent."
"But what about those people in Yuezhou City who have already been infected or are about to be infected?" Xiao Min asked word by word.
Li Xian suddenly sneered: "General Xiao, how can there be no casualties in a war? You are so soft-hearted, you are not suitable to lead troops in battle."
"But these people didn't have to suffer what they are experiencing now!" Xiao Min bluntly refuted: "I have successfully intercepted the Bian army's food and grass. Everything went smoothly. If it weren't for Duke Hanguo's obstruction, our army might have taken back Yuezhou City by now!"
"What do you mean by obstruction? Only with this plan can we truly defeat the Bian army at the lowest cost!" Li Xian narrowed his eyes. "What is a Yuezhou city? According to General Xiao's plan, at most he can force Bian Chunliang to withdraw from Yuezhou from the rear, but it is destined to be difficult to severely damage the Bian army, let alone kill Bian Chunliang! With General Xiao's slow and steady plan, if he takes Yuezhou in half a year, will he need another half a year to take Dongting? And then it will take several more years to take Tanzhou, Hengzhou, Yongzhou, and Daozhou?"
"The current situation is in tatters, and the imperial court has difficulty in supporting the army. It is still unknown whether General Xiao can wipe out Bian Chunliang with this method. I am afraid that it will first drag down the national treasury--"
"And what I am doing now is for the benefit of the overall situation. Abandoning the people of a small state and getting rid of Bian Chunliang can also free the countless remaining people in Dongting, Tanzhou and other places in the rear from the hands of Bian's army as soon as possible - isn't this also for the sake of the people?"
Hearing this self-righteous and hypocritical remark, Xiao Min's anger suddenly rose: "In this case, Xiao wants to ask, to whom did Dongting and Yuezhou fall in the first place?"
The mocking smile on Li Xian's face faded away, and he slowly stood up, with a chill in his eyes: "No need for General Xiao to remind me, I will be able to take back Yuezhou and Dongting in a few days! Not only that, I will also cut off Bian Chunliang's head and wipe out the rebellion of Bian's army in one fell swoop! For the saint, for Dasheng, I will completely eliminate this great threat!"
After saying this, he looked at Xiao Min steadily and said, "At a time when great things are about to be accomplished, rather than just questioning and obstructing us, I hope that General Xiao will cooperate with the plan - otherwise, if the great cause of protecting the country is delayed, neither you nor I can bear the consequences!"
"I will write a letter to ask the saint and the court whether they agree with the so-called 'policy to protect the country' mentioned by Duke Hanguo!" Xiao Min turned around, brushed aside the curtain, and strode away from here.
Xiao Min returned to his tent and immediately reported the matter to the Emperor in a letter, which he had sent back to the capital by express horse.
After sending the letter, Xiao Min's mood became more and more difficult to calm down. He had previously thought that the Duke of Korea was ambitious, but he did not expect that the other party would secretly resort to such means! After returning from the Han River, he followed the advice of the envoy Chang Jie and paid close attention to Li Xian's every move, and then he discovered that he had secretly ordered people to kill a hundred stone-throwing soldiers... But by then everything was a foregone conclusion.
While Xiao Min was feeling anxious, a confidant came into the tent and asked to see him.
"How is it?" Xiao Min asked anxiously, "Have you found out everything?"
The soldier said in a heavy and complicated tone: "General, we have already found out that the sacks that Duke Han had thrown into Yuezhou City that day not only contained wet hay and lime, but also many poisonous substances and body parts..."
"Body parts?"
"Yes, most of them are human corpses..." The soldier said, "They should be refugees and the bodies of soldiers who died of illness in the army before."
Xiao Min clenched his teeth.
He had also heard of an old example of a war in which one side threw a large number of corpses into a city to create a plague, but that was several dynasties ago, a very distant event...
plague……
As soon as these two words appeared in his mind, Xiao Min felt a chill all over his body - so, from the very beginning, Li Xian's plan was to artificially create a plague in Yuezhou City! But Li Xian did it more covertly, making it even harder for the Bian army to defend themselves.
For Li Xian, if he just dumped the bodies into Yuezhou City, it would be difficult to succeed if Bian's army cleaned and buried them in time.
And Allan beside him is good at making drugs——
The body parts were mixed with prepared poison and hidden in hay mixed with lime to create smoke. After being set on fire, they were thrown into Yuezhou City. The poison could not be extinguished by water, so Bian Jun hurriedly covered it with soil.
Some of them fell into the inner river of the city, and the Bian army did not conduct a thorough salvage operation afterwards.
After that, a light rain fell in Yuezhou. The humidity, sultry heat, rottenness, summer mosquitoes, flies and insects, and the closed, dirty and food-deficient city provided a breeding ground for the spread of the epidemic.
The soldiers also told Xiao Min that at least 30% of the soldiers and civilians in Yuezhou City had been infected with the disease.
However, as the number of infected people increased, the speed of transmission became faster, and within a few days, the number of infected people in the city increased by another 10%.
Li Xian was still not in a hurry to send out troops. He wanted to wait until the Bian army was trapped and exhausted to the point where they had no power to fight back. One day, Li Xian even heard that even Bian Chunliang's eldest son had been infected with the disease.
"Has there been any progress on the antidote?" In Yuezhou City, Bian Chunliang was extremely anxious and questioned a group of doctors who had come to him.
The doctors knelt on the ground, and the leader replied in a trembling voice: "Not yet..."
"A bunch of useless idiots!"
Bian Chunliang suddenly drew his sword and slashed at the screen beside him.
He still had some sense and knew that what was most needed now was doctors, so he would not use them to vent his anger.
The screen was shattered into pieces by Bian Chunliang's sword and collapsed with a loud bang, frightening the doctors so much that they crouched even lower.
They heard Bian Chunliang's angry, yet sarcastic and hateful voice ringing above their heads: "Duke Hanguo, Xiao Min... this is the method used by the generals of the court today! Even if it weren't for me, Bian, the day of the fall of this government is not far away!"
After he finished his attack, the counselor beside him said, "My lord, this disease is enough to kill people within ten days. It is really terrible. Since it is difficult to make an antidote, there are two urgent tasks at the moment. First, deal with the people who have fallen ill to prevent them from continuing to spread the disease! Second, ..."
The counselor said, raising his hand and bowing solemnly: "The imperial army has deployed to surround our retreat route, intending to trap our army to death in Yuezhou City. While the situation is still under control, I dare to ask you to put your own safety first and prepare to withdraw from Yuezhou City as soon as possible!"
At first, soldiers and civilians in the city fell ill frequently, but they did not think it was the enemy's trick at first, until more and more people got sick, they had to start paying attention to this matter...
It has only been five days since it was discovered that the poisoning was committed by the imperial army.
Bian Chunliang's first reaction was to ask the doctors for a treatment, but after five days, nothing was found and nearly half of the doctors fell ill.
Now, the enslaved people in the city have no food to eat, and the sick soldiers are no longer provided with food. Even so, the healthy soldiers have not been full for many days. The food in the city is almost exhausted. Although the cities in the rear are stepping up their efforts to raise funds, it is difficult to supply Yuezhou for the time being.
In such a situation, Bian Chunliang knew that he no longer had the strength to defend Yuezhou.
The deputy general beside him suggested: "General, we should kill all the infected people as soon as possible and then burn them all!"
The reason why they kept these people before was naturally because these people who dared not resist could be used by them to command and guarantee their basic needs in the city, but now these people could not be kept.
"Of course we have to kill him." Bian Chunliang held the sword in his hand, his eyes full of reluctance: "But it won't be us who will do the killing."
He said in a serious tone: "It is time for the people of the world to take a good look at the true colors of those in power today!"
The next day, before daybreak, urgent news reached Li Xian's ears.
The gates of Yuezhou were wide open, and a team of thousands of people was rushing towards their military camp.
But it was not the Bian army that came, but the people who were in a state of distress.
To be precise, it is the people who are suffering from the epidemic.
They were driven out of the city by the Bian army. In order to speed up their pace, the Bian army rode their horses from behind and shot them with arrows, forcing them to flee forward like driving away livestock.
As the sky gradually brightened, the surviving people continued to flee. They heard the sound of footsteps and horse hooves in front of them. Just as they were startled by a bird, they heard an old man shouting in joy, "It's the imperial army! The imperial army is here to save us!"
This voice was like the celestial sound of salvation, giving great hope to the people in desperate situations.
But the next moment, the old man who was shouting in front was suddenly shot by an arrow and fell down.
This time, the arrows were no longer flying from behind, but from the front. They thought they had finally seen the dawn ahead.
After Yuezhou City was occupied by the Bian army, they were reduced to the lowest level of slaves, suffering every day. They wished every day that the imperial army could take back Yuezhou and rescue them from their suffering.
Now they have finally escaped from that purgatory, but they never expected that what is waiting for them ahead is an even more terrifying purgatory.
Countless arrows flew towards them, and those embarrassed figures fell one after another.
Some civilians fled in panic, while others, who were shot in the legs by arrows, fell to the ground and cried for mercy, thinking that the imperial army had made a mistake: "… We are all citizens of Yuezhou City, and we are also citizens of the imperial court!"
In order to prevent these infected people from approaching and to prevent the Bian army from being mixed among them, some soldiers formed a shield formation in the front, and archers half-crouched behind the shields, and arrows were shot through the gaps in the shields.
Behind the shields, listening to the hoarse cries for pleas, some soldiers showed reluctance on their faces, and their hands that shot arrows trembled slightly.
But military orders cannot be disobeyed, and these people are carrying deadly diseases... they will die sooner or later!
Besides, when the epidemic breaks out... setting fire to the village is common! Just give them a quick death!
One archer mentally persuaded himself to do this, numbing himself and gritted his teeth before firing another arrow.
The arrow landed in front of a woman, or to be more precise, on the child that the woman was holding tightly in her arms.
The child was very thin and looked less than two years old. He was held in his mother's arms, curled up in a ball, not daring to move.
The woman suddenly knelt on the ground, and called out a few words in a trembling voice. After a moment of stunned silence, she suddenly burst into sorrowful sobs, her words incoherent: "My child is not infected! He is fine, he is so young, he is just too hungry... Why do you want to kill him! Why!"
She suddenly sat up and rushed towards the shield formation in front of her: "I will fight you!"
The woman was thin, ragged, and her cheeks were ulcerated due to the disease. She looked vulnerable. She shouted that she wanted to "fight", but she didn't even have a stone in her hand. However, the hatred that burst out from her body and eyes was extremely shocking.
The crossbowman behind the shield actually felt fear, a fear that came from the most basic human nature and conscience.
He stared blankly at the woman rushing towards him until other crossbowmen shot her to death.
The crossbowman suddenly knelt on the ground, feeling that he was in purgatory and that he was one of the evil spirits.
When Xiao Min learned about this, he tried to go and stop it, but was stopped by Li Xian.
"General Xiao, those are not ordinary people, but people infected with the disease, and there is no medicine to cure it--"
"Once infected, even if our soldiers don't die from the disease, they will inevitably become sick and weak. How can the army hold up the overall situation then?"
"And if we allow those people to flee and even flood into Jingzhou, causing more innocent people and soldiers to get sick - will General Xiao take the blame for this?"
"General Xiao should put the overall situation first."
“…”
On the third day, the Bian army expelled the third batch of sick people from the city.
With Li Xian's words of obstruction still echoing in his mind, Xiao Min tightly grasped the copper coin tied with a red rope in his hand.
"General..." The deputy general at the side seemed to be hesitant to speak, his brows furrowed.
Xiao Min stood up suddenly: "Call five thousand soldiers and follow me out of the camp!"
He struggled for a long time, but he couldn't just stand by and watch.
Even though what he can do is ultimately limited, he should still try his best... Otherwise, he, Xiao Min, would not only be unworthy of being a general, but even less worthy of being a human being!
Two days later, Bian Chunliang planned to lead the remaining 50,000 soldiers who had not shown any signs of infection to withdraw from Yuezhou from the rear.
Li Xian had been waiting for a long time and had arranged everything, just waiting for this battle to personally cut off Bian Chunliang's head.
On the same day, a fast horse brought the empress's edict from the capital. This edict was a response to Xiao Min's letter accusing Li Xian of poisoning and creating a plague. The emperor's intention was clear and concise - the overall situation of the war should be given priority at the moment, and the merits and demerits can be discussed after the rebellion of the Bian army is quelled.
When receiving the order, Li Xian smiled slightly and looked at Xiao Min beside him.
Xiao Min lowered his head to receive the order, feeling as if a heavy weight was placed on his heart.
Li Xian, wearing armor and carrying a sword, turned and walked out of the tent: "...Order the rest of the army to follow me to kill the traitor Bian Chunliang who is harming the country!"
There are nearly 4,500 words. Good night, see you tomorrow.
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