The soldiers, who were still asleep, were startled. They quickly got up and went outside the tent. They were shocked to see flames shooting into the sky inside the camp.
The twenty or thirty old men who were imprisoned began to escape in the chaos. As they fled, they did not forget to take off the gourds they used for drinking water from their waists and throw them into the fire.
The water hyacinth immediately burst into flames, emitting a large amount of yellow smoke. Inhaling this smoke causes dizziness and persistent coughing.
Huo Pingxi was very tired today and was sleeping soundly. He was suddenly awakened by the noise outside and immediately sensed something was wrong. He hurriedly came to the outside of the tent.
At this moment, flames soared into the sky and thick smoke billowed from the military camp. Huo Pingxi immediately sensed that something terrible had happened; the military camp had been attacked.
At this moment, several lieutenants hurriedly came to his side and said:
"General Huo, something terrible has happened! The military camp is on fire! What do we do now?"
"The camp has been attacked. All soldiers must evacuate the camp immediately," Huo Pingxi quickly ordered.
The military camp was in chaos. It was no easy task for so many people to evacuate the camp all at once. Just then, a cloud of yellow smoke drifted over. Huo Pingxi inadvertently took a puff and found the smell of the smoke pungent, so he couldn't help but cough.
"This smoke is poisonous. Everyone must leave the camp immediately."
After Huo Pingxi finished speaking, he mounted his warhorse and charged outside.
The fire and thick smoke in the military camp had already made the soldiers dizzy and disoriented, unable to distinguish east from west, and they were running around aimlessly in the camp.
Most of the soldiers had already fallen to the ground; they were not burned to death, but were knocked unconscious by the smoke.
The fire was still raging, and the military camp was engulfed in flames, trapping 15,000 soldiers. Only a small number of them managed to escape.
Those who escaped the inferno were very lucky; most of them were coughing violently after escaping, indicating that they had inhaled large amounts of yellow smoke and were poisoned.
The fire in the military camp was finally extinguished, but the yellow smoke did not dissipate and continued to spread.
The soldiers finally realized that the yellow smoke was poisonous and could be fatal if inhaled.
It was already past midnight. The desert night was bitterly cold, and although the soldiers were all dressed, they were still shivering from the cold.
They had nowhere to escape and could only hope that dawn would come quickly.
Although many soldiers escaped the calamity, they inhaled large amounts of toxic fumes, and coupled with the unusually cold night, many fainted.
The military camp was burned down, and the soldiers did not know who had attacked them; they did not even see a single enemy.
There were two or three old men driving carts in the camp. I wonder how they are doing. This fire may be related to them. If they are attacked by the rebels again, they may be wiped out.
Huo Pingxi ordered his soldiers to strengthen their vigilance to prevent another sneak attack.
Thus, the soldiers remained on high alert until dawn, but were not attacked.
As dawn broke, Huo Pingxi began to assess the casualties among his soldiers.
After seeing this, Huo Pingxi was almost in despair. Only a little over 5,000 people escaped the fire last night. Because these people had inhaled poison gas to varying degrees, and because the night was unusually cold, more than 3,000 soldiers unfortunately perished.
Only a little over a thousand people actually survived, and their condition wasn't very good either; very few people were truly spared from inhaling the poison gas.
There are fewer than a thousand soldiers still capable of fighting. Let alone going to Lanwei to quell the rebellion, even returning to the capital is already very difficult.
The imperial court placed high hopes on him, ordering him to lead a large army to Lanwei to quell the rebellion. However, before the army even reached Lanwei city, and without encountering a single enemy, the army was wiped out. How could he possibly have the face to return?
If he returned to the capital, even if the emperor didn't kill him, he would have no face to live on. Thinking of this, Huo Pingxi drew his sword, intending to commit suicide.
The soldiers around him immediately stepped forward, embraced him, and took the sword from his hand.
Huo Pingxi also inhaled some toxic gas and was in poor health, coughing incessantly.
At this time, the soldiers were in dire straits, and he could not commit suicide. He had to bring them back to the capital no matter what, and then atone for his sins with his death.
Thinking of this, he ordered his soldiers to pack their belongings and prepare to return.
The fire destroyed everything in the military camp, leaving not a single grain of food behind. Fortunately, they had abandoned many supply wagons while crossing the desert, from which they could obtain some supplies for their return journey.
This place is not safe to stay in. We must leave as soon as possible. The rebels could come here at any time, and once they have their eyes on us, we will be wiped out.
At first, the soldiers were worried about being hunted down, but after walking for several days, they did not see a single person. At this point, they were getting further and further away from Lanwei, and the possibility of being attacked was no longer high.
The Gobi Desert stretched as far as the eye could see, and no one paid any attention to this poor team; they seemed to have been forgotten.
Along the way, people kept dying. There were more than a thousand people when they first left, but now there are only a few hundred left.
Huo Pingxi was in very bad shape. He was weak, but he persevered with great determination. He wanted to get out of the desert alive and bring these hundreds of soldiers back to the capital safely.
At this time, the weather in Narcissus Village is getting warmer and warmer, and the cotton seedlings in the nutrient pots have grown up and it is time to transplant them.
Transplanting seedlings in nursery pots is very simple. Just bury the pot in the soil to complete the transplanting. This method protects the seedlings' root system from damage to the greatest extent and improves the survival rate of cotton seedlings.
On the day the cotton was transplanted into seedling pots, many farmers from the village came over. It was the first time they had seen this unique planting method, and they wanted to see how cotton was transplanted.
When transplanting cotton seedlings, Li Guang ordered his soldiers to do it. Because there were so many people, the more than 2,000 mu of cotton fields were all planted in the seedling pots in just one day.
There were still some seedling pots left, enough to plant more than a thousand acres of land. Zhao Xian gave these cotton seedlings to the farmers in the village so they could take them back and plant them.
The villagers had already prepared farmland for transplanting cotton seedlings, so they all planted some cotton, with most planting one or two acres and some only planting a few acres.
After the cotton seedlings were planted, people began to take good care of them. As the temperature rose further, the cotton seedlings began to grow rapidly.
To date, the promotion of cotton has completed an important step, and with careful care, cotton seedlings can grow normally in the later stages.
After completing this task, Zhao Xian planned to build a cluster of workshops to develop the textile industry.
Currently, the warehouse has been built and put into use. Zhao Xian purchased a large amount of textile raw materials through the system and stored them in several large warehouses for easy allocation and use.
Building a cluster of workshops is equivalent to a modern industrial development zone. This scale is already quite large, and it may well become the textile industry development center of the Great Northern Dynasty in the future.
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