Chapter 986 Corpse Plague
??Just when Feiqian was facing some inexplicable problems in Pingyang, the people in Guanzhong were faced with an extremely rapid plague.
When the plague first started, not many people cared about it.
People simply don’t understand.
?Unknowingly, the plague came.
At the beginning, people thought it was due to the weather. It was not until the disease spread and more and more people were infected with the plague that people suddenly realized that the claws of the plague had reached right in front of them!
During this period, the battles in Guanzhong were too concentrated.
Sucheng was in relatively good condition. Feiqian ordered his soldiers to tidy up after the attack. But now the government functions of the central court have been shut down, resulting in corpses strewn all over the ground in many places, with no one taking care of them at all.
Most plagues originate from the decay of corpses. Among all the corpses of animals and plants, humans eat all kinds of things, so they accumulate the most toxins. Once they accumulate and decay, the bacteria and toxins produced are quite terrifying.
In fact, plague was not unfamiliar to people in the Han Dynasty.
One of the events that had a far-reaching impact, even affecting the order of the entire government and causing some deviations in history, was a plague during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was obsessed with the Xiongnu, which finally led to the Xiongnu being defeated. During the Zhenghe period, the Huns had their horses **** in front of the pass, and then expressed their willingness to give these horses and livestock to the Han people as a sign of goodwill...
??These war horses and livestock are actually said to have been "cursed by witches", that is, they have been cursed by the Huns'' witches. In fact, they are infected with some diseases that are found on the grasslands but not in the Han Dynasty. These war horses and livestock were then sent to Guanzhong, and a plague broke out.
?This plague was rapid and lasting, and continued to occur until the late Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
Due to his limited understanding, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty believed that the epidemic came from the Huns and their curses. Therefore, he became wary of Hus, including so-called witchcraft. He immediately issued an edict to "forbid those in the temple of Hus and search for them", and subsequently dispatched many dispatches. The special imperial envoy "the envoy of embroidered clothes" was sent to hunt down Hu witches across the country.
In the second year of Zhenghe, Prime Minister Gongsun He''s son Gongsun Jingsheng was accused of being a witch who had cursed Emperor Wu and had committed adultery with Princess Yangshi. Gongsun He and his son were imprisoned and died. The princesses of Zhuyi, Princess Yangshi, and Wei Qing''s son Changping Houwei were all sitting there. punish.
Later, because there was a gap between Jiang Chong and the prince Liu Zhi, he took the opportunity to frame the prince. He also framed the prince with four people including the criminal casemaker Han Shuo and the **** Su Wen. The prince was frightened and launched an army to kill Jiang Chong. Later, he was suppressed by Emperor Wu and defeated. The queen Wei Zifu and Prince Liu Ju committed suicide one after another, implicating more than 100,000 people.
?Later, under the comfort of the three elders of Huguan, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty suddenly realized it, but it was too late to regret it, so he vented his anger on the people who participated in the murder of Liu Zhi. Relevant figures were killed or committed suicide for various reasons. The executions were widely implicated, including the emperor''s relatives and important officials, which shocked the top leaders of the Han Dynasty regime at that time, and the country was shaken.
The original prince Liu Zhi had a kind, generous, gentle and prudent personality. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty thought that he was not like him, but perhaps Liu Zhi was a more suitable candidate to clean up Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty''s mess, and if his mother, Mrs. Wei, had not been affected by witchcraft, Perhaps under the suppression of the Wei family, the Huo family may not have become so arrogant that they couldn''t control it.
But all these assumptions were wiped out with the plague.
The Han people used to call the plague typhoid because these patients would feel unwell at first, accompanied by fever, and then develop symptoms such as hot foreheads, red, swollen and inflamed eyes, ulcers and bleeding in the throat and tongue, difficulty breathing, and a foul odor.
When the disease continues to spread, the virus will infect the entire lungs. The patient will begin to cough violently for a long time and is difficult to control. In addition, he will sneeze and become hoarse. Along with the onset of repeated vomiting, it means that the virus has spread. It spreads violently and has a strong ability to infect...
Once inflammation caused by bacteria and fungi occurs inside the body, high fever will occur, and this high fever will be accompanied by functional failure of the internal organs of the body, which will manifest externally. In the advanced stage, it will explode on the surface of the body. Some small blisters, pustules, bleeding, and even ulcers.
Faced with such a disease, neither ordinary people nor doctors at this time have any ability. They can only wait for the patient''s own resistance to take effect. However, in the face of such ferocious germs, most people have no ability to do so. Resistance became the prey of death.
Even high-ranking officials are no exception.
? Huangfusong has started to cough. Today is already the third day of his cough. He feels that his whole chest and abdomen are hot, but when he reaches out and touches it, there is not much heat. His throat is swollen and there is a lot of mucus. It is very difficult to swallow saliva. Every time Coughing is like coughing up all the internal organs in the body...
"My life... is not long..." Huangfu Song was half lying on the bed and said weakly, "I did not die on the battlefield, but died at the hands of the epidemic... This is God''s will..."
"Uncle!" Huangfu Li kowtowed to the ground, sobbing.
?In a daze, Huangfusong felt like he was back in Quyang.
There was blood everywhere.
Corpse littered the fields.
?Several red-eyed crows were rising and falling unscrupulously, pecking at carrion, staring with blood-red eyes, and laughing coldly.
?Zhang Bao, standing on the city wall of Quyang County, with his hair disheveled, wielding a sword in his hand and pointing it like a halberd, pointed at Huangfu Song: "Huang Tian is above! You will not die well!"
“…” Huangfu Song rolled his eyelids, then waved his hand and gave the order to attack.
Soldiers are like ants.
?Flesh and blood flying everywhere.
Zhang Bao finally died in battle, and his head was sent to Huangfu Song.
Huangfu Song looked at Zhang Bao''s head with squinted eyes, expressionless.
“General! More than 100,000 people surrendered in the city. How should we deal with it?”
Huangfu Song said calmly: "Why did you come to surrender? They are all thugs. Kill them all to build the capital."
“...General, this...only! I will obey the general’s orders.”
Huangfusong withdrew his gaze, and then looked at Zhang Bao''s head, which was placed in a wooden box. Just as a smile appeared on his lips, he saw Zhang Bao''s head suddenly opened his eyes, and black blood flowed from the seven orifices. It filled the entire wooden box and flowed down the sides of the wooden box...
Before Huangfusong stood up in surprise, the whole world was already black and red, and there were countless hands deep in the smelly sea of ??blood, some were old, some were young, some were plump, some had muscles and bones, all of them They all caught Huangfu Song himself and dragged him bit by bit deeper into the red and black sea of ??blood.
? Huangfusong struggled fiercely, but he couldn''t get away no matter what.
"Uncle! Uncle!" Huangfu Li saw Huangfu Song suddenly twitching on the bed. He couldn''t help but stand up and shouted outside the room, "Doctor, where is the doctor?!"
As soon as Huangfu Li finished speaking, Huangfu Song on the bed let out a long breath, then relaxed and stopped moving...
?Zhu Jun frowned tightly as he watched the peasants transport carloads of corpses out of the city.
??The farmer dragged his feet and pulled the cart with difficulty, like a zombie that could still move, dragging various shapes of evil spirits, leaving a few marks in the mortal world.
On the vehicle, perhaps due to bumps or hallucinations, Zhu Jun could even see a few hands pointing into the air like withered branches, which seemed to be trembling slightly.
Even animals seem to be aware of the danger of the plague. The wild dogs that used to swarm in the wilderness seem to have disappeared.
There were so many people who died one after another that there was no time to bury them one by one. They could only dig a big hole and dump the corpses one after another into it, until it was finally filled. Dig a new hole.
Throughout Xinfeng, many corpses that were too late to be collected had to be piled on the streets. The entire city seemed to be completely decayed, and even the houses in the city seemed to exude an unspeakable stench.
??Having just taken advantage of the internal strife among Xiliang soldiers to take down Xinfeng, they suddenly suffered such a heavy blow.
Xinfeng was not easy to fight originally, because although Zhu Jun had a large number of people, his cavalry did not have an advantage. Unexpectedly, Li Jue and Ma Teng attacked each other for some reason, and the two led each other''s soldiers to fight in Xinfeng City. Ma Teng was unprepared and was blocked by Li Jue in the city government office. Li Jue besieged the government office and attacked forcefully, while Ma Teng''s soldiers outside the city attacked the periphery in an attempt to rescue the besieged Ma Teng. The inside and outside of the city became a mess...
As a result, Zhu Jun and others just got an advantage.
??When Zhu Jun led his troops to press forward, Li Jue had just killed Ma Teng, and before he had time to clean up the mess, he evacuated Xinfeng when he saw something was wrong.
?However, before Yang Biao, Zhu Jun and others could celebrate, the plague struck with lightning speed and broke out suddenly, catching Zhu Jun and others by surprise.
?In the face of a virus that is invisible, unpredictable, and does not know how to resist it, the morale of the soldiers has dropped to a freezing point. If Zhu Jun''s reputation was not relatively good, I am afraid there would be defections.
?While Zhu Jun was inspecting the city wall and setting up defenses, suddenly there was some movement in the city. Yang Biao, accompanied by more than a dozen guards, also came to the top of the city.
After the two parties saw the ceremony, Yang Biao was silent for a while, and suddenly said: "The greatness of the public has just been rewarded, but General Yizhen will not be rewarded..."
?Zhu Jun opened his eyes wide: "What, Yi Zhen him..."
??Yang Biao shook his head slightly and sighed: "I am really jealous of talented people..."
The two of them were silent for a moment.
??Although Yang Biao felt that Huangfu Song had made mistakes in his previous leadership, and the incompetence of the commander affected the three armies, he was still sad after all.
?However, Yang Biao''s sadness was mostly due to his own considerations. After all, Huangfu Song was more or less a veteran in the army, so his death would more or less affect the morale of the Chinese army.
? Zhu Jun''s feeling is even stronger, and it is somewhat different from Yang Biao. After all, he and Huangfu Song can be regarded as comrades-in-arms in a sense.
In the seventh year of Guanghe''s reign, the Yellow Turban spread out of control. All the officials in the court recommended Zhu Jun, saying that he had talents. Therefore, the imperial court appointed him as the Youzhonglang General, who held integrity and went on an expedition together with Huangfu Song.
?However, the battle was not smooth sailing. At first, when fighting against the Yellow Turban thief Bocai, the Yellow Turban thief''s spirit was not yet clean. Correspondingly, the morale of the imperial army was not high, so failure became an inevitable result.
However, the Yellow Turbans were still a mob after all. With the upper hand, Huangfu Song''s fire in Changshe burned away the Yellow Turbans'' dream of changing the world. More importantly, it shattered the myth of the Yellow Turbans'' invincibility and strengthened the The morale of the imperial army was reduced. After that, the situation suddenly reversed. Even though the Yellow Turbans resisted tenaciously, they could no longer restore the defeat.
?But now, the person who set the fire can no longer maintain the candle of his own life...
The past is like a dream, and the human world has changed in a blink of an eye.
??Yang Biao covered his mouth and nose with a piece of scented silk, was silent for a while, and suddenly said: "Gongwei, we can''t stay here for a long time, we must lead the troops to Beijing quickly!"
“March into Chang’an?” Zhu Jun hesitated.
?At present, not only the people in the city, but also many soldiers in the army are infected with the disease. How can they march under such circumstances?
It is not that Zhu Jun has never encountered plague in his previous military career, but this time it is more ferocious, so ferocious that it feels like he was caught off guard...
?At the periphery of the military camp outside the city, there was an additional circle enclosed by a wooden fence. At a glance, it looked like a pustule bulging on the head of the original military camp.
In this "pustule" of the military camp, there are all soldiers who have been infected.
No one manages it, and no one dares to manage it.
The original dozen or so tents were no longer enough, but no one added more. The soldiers from the rear camp lifted the rice buckets and soup buckets to the door of the wooden fence from a distance, and then left from a distance. Throw it aside, drag the half-dead patient inside the fence in, and then drag him out after eating.
?This wooden fence is like the wall of life and death that separates the living from the dead. Being inside the fence means that death is not far away.
??Originally there was only one such wooden fence, but as the number of sick soldiers increased, a second one had to be built, and then a third...
"If we can''t do it," Yang Biao didn''t bother to cover his mouth and nose, got closer and gritted his teeth and said, "We will all die here!"
?In addition to the illness of soldiers, there is also a more critical point. The plague broke out, and Tongguan was the hardest-hit area, which meant that all Hongnong’s supplies could not be transported...
Even if they go through all the trouble to transport the food and grass, will anyone dare to eat it?
?In the past few days, most of the remaining rural forts nearby have moved with their families, heading to Jingxiang via Wuguan, or to Hanzhong via Chencang Road. In the face of the plague, no one will take any chances, because even if they are huddled in the Wubao, the surrounding farmland still needs tenants to take care of it, and among these tenants outside, who can guarantee that they will not be infected? Plague?
?So now, Yang Biao and Zhu Jun cannot do anything without advancing. There may be some hope in advancing, but not advancing would mean waiting to die...
After a long time, Zhu Jun finally nodded in agreement, and then called the ordering soldier: "Pass the order! We will set off tomorrow and send troops to Chang''an!"
(End of this chapter)