Xifang’s words were not an exaggeration at all. When the first ray of sunlight shone over Shaping City the next morning, these soldiers really cried.
It's too hot! It's unbearable!
Although the heat wave has swept in since entering Luotian Mansion, it is still bearable. It is not as hot as Shaping City where there is nowhere to hide. Xuan Tianming told them: "Biannan is between Gushu and Dashun. It looks inconspicuous, but Biannan is like a heat barrier that separates Dashun and the desert. Maybe you think the heat in Lanzhou and Biannan is still acceptable, but once you enter the real desert area and the territory of Gushu, this heat is very difficult to bear. The reason why I chose to rush to attack the first city of Gushu overnight was to take advantage of the cool night. When you have not been attacked by the heat and your vital signs have not shown any problems, we took a city with force, which is a deterrent to Gushu. At the same time, it also buys a transition period for our army to help you successfully overcome this difficult time of summer heat."
When he said this, people were not particularly convinced by this statement. Although they could not stand the heat, they did not think that there would be any health problems, or even that the problems were so serious that they could not go to the battlefield to fight.
But this thought did not last long. At noon that day, a large number of soldiers began to suffer from diarrhea, heat stroke, and even fainted. Even Xuan Tianming himself, if he had not secretly used his internal energy to dissipate the heat, he would not have been able to withstand the waves of heat in the desert.
Ancient Shu was the first country on the edge of the desert. Because it did not go too deep into the desert, its territory was much larger than that of the small countries in the desert. There were twelve cities in total, with the capital in the south of the center, behind the fourth city. Shaping City was the closest to Dashun. Although it was not in the heart of the desert, the city was surrounded by loess inside and outside. However, most of the ground in the city was paved with blue bricks, which were obviously taken from Dashun, so that people in the city would not be able to go out in the event of a strong wind.
Every city and country in the desert is built along the river. It can be said that the desert people are very sensitive and accurate in finding water sources. They rely on these water sources to survive. In order to protect the water sources, almost all city countries have built moats in the city and heavily guarded along the river. It can be said that water sources are the foundation of the residents of the desert country and cannot be neglected.
There is also a river in Shaping City, which is the mother river of the people of Shaping. In fact, the people of Shaping do not have much aversion to Dashun's occupation of them. They live close to Dashun. When Gu Shu surrendered to Dashun in the past, the trade between the two countries was very frequent. There were always merchants from Dashun coming to Shaping City to buy their specialties, such as fruits and spices unique to the desert, and the delicious dried meat they are very good at making. The merchants of Gu Shu would also go to Lanzhou and bring back Dashun's clothing, vegetables, grains and other things. It can be said that most of the food eaten by the people of Shaping City was exchanged from Dashun. Although their understanding of Dashun was limited to Lanzhou and Luotianfu, they already yearned for Dashun's wealth.
After Xuan Tianming's army entered the city, they did not destroy the buildings, nor persecute the people. Apart from the turmoil caused by the escape of the ancient Shu army, the city was almost the same as it was before. Xuan Tianming even personally brought the soldiers who were in better physical condition into the city to clean up, and also focused on protecting the river.
When the people of Shaping saw that the soldiers of Dashun were so reasonable and sympathetic, they were no longer afraid. They came out of their homes, brought their cleaning tools and came to help. At noon, they even invited the soldiers to their homes for lunch. Some people even asked impatiently, "Will Shaping be under the jurisdiction of Dashun from now on? Then, when we travel between Gushu and Dashun, will we not be as harsh as before?"
This person happened to ask He Gan, who was puzzled: "Were you very harsh before?"
The man nodded, "Yes! Although the two countries were allowed to trade with each other before the war, the taxes were too heavy. For every ten taels of silver earned, five taels would be deducted, which was just hard-earned money. And whether it was from Dashun to Gushu or from Gushu to Dashun, we had to register with the government first, and then the government would issue a pass before we could cross the border. However, the round trip was only ten days at most, and we had to pass through the desert in the south of the border. We all rode camels to and fro in a hurry, and we couldn't stay in Dashun for a few days."
He Gan nodded, "So that's how it is. We have just taken over Shaping City, so it will take a while for trade to resume. However, Shaping has been incorporated into the Dashun territory, so it shouldn't be that troublesome for merchants to trade with each other. I will talk to our commander later and ask him what he thinks, and try to make it as convenient as possible for you all."
The man was very happy to hear that, and repeatedly asked He Gan to drink more of their special fruit wine, saying that it could help relieve the heat.
In the past few days, Song Kang and other military doctors were the busiest. There were too many people suffering from heat stroke, and Song Kang wanted to treat them without sleeping. But no, under such conditions, he could not be strong, and he had to eat, drink and sleep well to ensure his physical strength. After all, he was a person from the Northern Realm before, and he was used to the cold, so he had a hard time dealing with the scorching heat. Fortunately, Xuan Tianming and other soldiers knew that no one could suffer at this time except the military doctors. Once the doctors fell down, there would be no one to treat the soldiers. Therefore, the herbal tea was first given to Song Kang and the others to drink as much as they wanted. Xifang even invited a few local girls to help Kang Song and the others fan themselves, so that they could fan wherever they went, so that there would be a little breeze.
Song Kang did not refuse, and no one else made any plans, because everyone understood that the physical strength of the military doctor must be guaranteed.
Fortunately, Feng Yuheng had prepared a lot of medicine for the army before, and they were all western medicines, easy to carry and with a long shelf life. Most of them were for summer heat, and there were quite a few diarrhea medicines and anti-heat medicines. Song Kang distributed them according to demand to ensure that no medicine was wasted. At the same time, he also suggested that Xuan Tianming ask a few local doctors for help. After all, they would be more adept at treating such diseases. In addition, there were some special medicinal herbs and special foods like homemade fruit wine in the local area, which were very good for relieving summer heat.
After several days of hard work, the soldiers who had been suffering from the heatstroke finally felt better, and Xuan Tianming also breathed a sigh of relief. It was only then that the soldiers secretly thanked their general for his foresight. They had just arrived and entered Biannan at night. The temperature difference between the night and day in the desert was very large, so they took advantage of the coolness to fight a beautiful battle. In addition, the Shenji Camp used the terrible thing called "thunder" to scare the ancient Shu army to death, which gave them a chance to breathe and adapt.
No one knew how many days it would take for the ancient Shu army to recover. Everyone felt satisfied just thinking about how they frightened the ancient Shu soldiers that night. They were full of admiration for their own commander and the future princess who was still far away in Ji'an County.
As the Dashun soldiers had expected, the ancient Shu army was really frightened and driven crazy in the battle that night, so much so that they retreated to Jueping City for several days and still hadn't recovered.
General Bi Xiu of the ancient Shu State fell seriously ill upon returning to Jueping City. He could not sleep even though he was sick, because whenever he closed his eyes, he would hear a rumbling sound in his ears, which kept him awake all night long.
As a general of Ancient Shu, Bi Xiu had been highly valued by the king of Ancient Shu for many years, and was even on good terms with the Eighth Prince of Dashun. Even the series of plans to attack Dashun to help the Eighth Prince ascend to the throne were made by the two of them, and then he reported it to the king of Ancient Shu and strongly persuaded the king until he agreed. It can be said that Bi Xiu and the Eighth Prince Xuan Tianmo were in the same boat. He firmly believed that as long as Xuan Tianmo took the throne of the Dashun Emperor, his Bi family's status in Ancient Shu would be able to rise to a higher level, and with Xuan Tianmo's support, the Bi family would also be able to develop a certain amount of power in Dashun.
What a pity! They made a wrong calculation. They only expected that things would be most beneficial to their own development, but they did not expect that the Ninth Prince sent by Dashun would be so powerful.
Bi Xiu cursed Xuan Tianmo in his heart when he was sick, blaming Xuan Tianmo for not telling him in advance that Xuan Tianming had such a hidden weapon. He still couldn't figure out what that thing was. Later, some people said it was thunder from the sky, and some even said that the ninth prince of Dashun was a god descended from heaven, but he didn't believe it! Are there really gods in this world? But why didn't the gods come to his ancient Shu?
But if it wasn't a god, how could such a thing be explained? He had fought for half his life, and had never seen such a terrifying thing that could actually blow down the walls of Shaping City. If it weren't for the soldiers desperately pulling him down when the first loud noise came, I'm afraid he would have been buried under Shaping City by now, right?
Bi Xiu's illness improved on the fourth day, and he immediately summoned all the commanders to the main tent to discuss military affairs. People analyzed the thing again, but to no avail. However, someone saw the form of the thunder and how to use it, and after telling Bi Xiu, he suggested again: "Why don't we find a way to steal it!"
But how to steal? Bi Xiu also thought this method was good, at least they could steal one or two and study them, so he began to think about the plan of stealing.
But at the same time, someone else said, "In addition to the thunderbolts, there were also those hidden weapons they had been holding. I looked back and saw that the hidden weapons were emitting fire when they were launched. It was very scary. No one who was hit survived and died immediately. It was really terrible."
Bi Xiu slammed the table, "Steal! Must steal!" He thought for a moment, then gave an order: "Go contact Deputy General Jiang in Biannan. His Highness the Eighth Prince is not in the Southern Territory, so he must figure out a solution for this matter!"
Bi Xiu recovered, but the anger in his heart could not be eliminated for a while. After defending for so many years, Shaping City was breached overnight, and he even had no chance to fight back. It was embarrassing to think about it. This matter could not be concealed. The capital would soon receive the news. It was unknown how angry the king would be after hearing the news. His Bi family would finally make a humiliating mark in the history of military exploits.
That night, Bi Xiu rushed into the red tent to vent his anger, and used all his vigor in the red tent, killing two military prostitutes overnight...
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