More than half a month had passed since the siege of the city. The gates of Fugu City were still closed. They were only opened once when a few hundred old people were allowed out of the city, and then never again. The Song Army scouts all saw it, and the defenders on the top of the city were standing there.
The number of defenders decreased day by day. Initially, there were nearly 10,000 defenders on the city during the day, but now there are only about 3,000 left, and they are listless. They spend most of their time sitting against the wall, with only an upright spear showing their presence.
The Song Army's camp had withdrawn five miles away, and the Song Army soldiers were a little afraid. Military doctors classified the plague in the city as a severe plague. More than 300 old people who came to seek help all died, and no one could be saved. It was really frustrating.
The generals were surprised. They didn't know how serious the epidemic situation in the city was.
At night, someone shouted desperately on the top of the city, jumped down, and there was a muffled 'bang' sound, and then there was no more movement.
The surrounding Song army scouts secretly shook their heads. Another soldier committed suicide in despair. Basically, someone jumped into the city to commit suicide every night, but not during the day.
The Song Army scouts always kept a distance of about 300 steps from the city. This was the limit of how close they could get to the city. If they moved forward, they might be infected.
Suddenly, the north gate of Fugu County opened, and a soldier on horseback rushed out and bolted towards the north.
Song Army scouts immediately discovered him, and more than a dozen scouts galloped in hot pursuit. The scouts all knew that this man was most likely going to the Kingdom of Jin to seek help, and if they caught him, they could also know the situation in the city.
The leader who led the scouts to chase the messenger was Li Sanghuai, the deputy commander of the scout battalion. He was very experienced and was not in a hurry to catch up with the messenger. Instead, he wanted to observe the condition of the messenger to see if he was sick. According to what the military doctor told them, if he was sick,
I have diarrhea almost every half an hour. Even in the early stages, I have diarrhea several times a day, and I can't help but vomit.
Li Sanghuai led his men to follow him until noon the next day. There was no sign of diarrhea. Li Sanghuai judged that the other party was not infected. He immediately speeded up the chase with his men. They chased for about an hour, and they were less than a hundred steps away from the messenger.
At this time, Li Sanghuai drew an arrow, raised his bow and shot it, hitting the opponent's horse in the middle. The horse suffered pain but did not slow down.
Li Sanghuai shot another arrow. This arrow was very accurate and hit the hind leg of the war horse. The horse fell down and threw the reporting soldier ten feet away. The reporting soldier hit his head on a tree and fainted.
The scout soldiers worked together and stripped the reporting soldier naked, burned his leather armor and underwear, and sprinkled his body with quicklime. The reporting soldier woke up from the pungent smell of lime and found that he was naked.
, naked, so frightened that he put his legs together and huddled together.
The scouts laughed loudly and threw a pair of coarse clothes to him, "I'm afraid that the dirt on you will burn your clothes and armor."
The soldier who reported the news muttered in a low voice, "I'm not sick!"
“If you can speak Chinese, that’s good!”
The soldier found another important letter from the horse bag and handed it to Li Sanghuai. It was actually written in Chinese. It was written by Brother Li Cha to Wanyan Helisa. Li Sanghuai did not read it, rolled up the letter and put it into a bamboo tube.
Inside, the bamboo tube contains a lot of very fine lime powder. When the letters are taken out of the bamboo tube, they will not be infected with the virus.
Li Sanghuai ordered: "Take him back to the camp!"
When Zhe Yanzhi heard that the enemy's messenger had been captured, he immediately sent someone to interrogate him. He opened Brother Richard's autographed letter to Wanyan Helisha. Brother Richard's tone in the letter was very sad. He thought that in half a month
, the city could not be defended. Too many people died of the disease, many of whom were dead for several days before they were discovered. Even nearly half of the soldiers were infected with the disease. Their morale completely collapsed and they had no fighting power. He was ready to lead his army to break out.
Go to Datong Mansion and ask Jin Bing to accept it.
Brother Richard actually wanted to break out of the encirclement. Zhe Yanzhi immediately sent someone to invite Zhang Xiao and Niu Gao and showed the letter to them. Niu Gao sneered and said: "He is overthinking. How could the Kingdom of Jin let a group of plague gods pass by?"
Zhang Xiao smiled and said: "Niu Dutong, tell Zhe Dutong the news!"
"What news?" Zheyan was startled.
Niu Gao said quickly: "I have just received the Xinzhou Express. His Highness King Yong has arrived in Xinzhou and is heading to Fuzhou. This is the information from two days ago. It is estimated that he is on the road to Lanzhou now and will return in two days."
It’s here.”
Zhe Yanzhi was overjoyed, "Is His Highness King Yong coming?"
Niu Gao nodded, "So we must be extremely careful not to let soldiers contract the disease. The scouts who get this letter must be quarantined for three days to see how it goes."
"They have been quarantined. In addition, they have arrested a messenger who came out of the city. The military doctor is examining him. If there are no questions, he will start interrogating. We need to understand the intelligence in the city as soon as possible, otherwise it will be difficult to report to King Yong."
Niu Gao and Zhang Xiao were convinced by Zhe Yanzhi's words. Even if they did not attack the city, they still had to keep abreast of the latest situation in the city.
At dusk, the military doctor's examination was completed and it was determined that the messenger soldier was not infected with the disease. The Song army immediately interrogated him, and the results of the interrogation surprised everyone.
No one knows how many people have died in the city. At first, Bari Zuren went around to check, but now he is afraid of being infected and won't go anywhere. Officials are also unwilling to go, and they randomly report the number of sick people and deaths every day.
The number of people, how many people are still alive in the city and how many people have died has become a completely unknown mystery.
However, the number of deaths and patients in the army is clear: more than half of the people have been infected by the epidemic, and more than 4,000 people have died.
But even with this data, there are still problems, because the number of infected people in statistics is that they have already developed symptoms, but there are still many people who have been infected but have not yet developed symptoms, so it is generally believed that the number of infected people is close to 10,000.
The Dangxiang Army was originally a temporary recruitment of more than 10,000 people, and its military morale was very unstable. Now it was attacked by the plague, and its morale had completely collapsed. Now even if the Song Army holds a battering ram and hits the city gate, no one will stop it.
Of course, the Song army did not dare to attack the city. Now the offensive and defensive momentum of the two sides had completely changed. The Song army's archers and crossbowmen were ready to prepare. Their task became to prevent the other party's diseased soldiers from coming to attack the camp and prevent anyone from the other party from escaping.
They must shoot all the people on the other side who escape in time. Even the civilians must not be merciful. If they are a little negligent, the Song Army and the people in the surrounding prefectures and counties will fall into a terrifying situation where every family is wiped out and every village is wiped out.
After listening to the report, Zhang Xiao pondered for a moment and said: "Now it seems that Brother Richard is showing signs of jumping over the wall. I suspect that it was just an illusion that he sent someone to Datong Mansion to deliver the letter. Logically speaking, he should write in Dangxiang script or Jurchen script to be respectful.
The other party, writing a letter in Chinese is too unreasonable. It is most likely that he wrote it for us to see. Brother Richard knew that the letter would be intercepted by us, and he also knew that the Kingdom of Jin would not take him in. He was probably trying to make false claims."
"Where does the military advisor think he will go?" Everyone's eyes were fixed on Zhang Xiao.
Two words came out of Zhang Xiao's lips, "Lingzhou!"
Zhang Xiao has been the prefect of Lingzhou for two years. He is the only one who knows best what Lingzhou means to the Dangxiang people.
That is the burial place of their ancestors. If they cannot escape this disaster, they will definitely return to their ancestral land and reunite with their ancestors' souls.
Night has fallen, and on the streets in the west city, six thousand party cavalry have been fully equipped. In front of them are two generals, Xia Houliang and Shang Dongyan. Hundreds of soldiers are protecting Richard Brother and Bari Zuren.
These are the 6,000 soldiers who have not yet been infected, and they are also the last strength of the party members.
Brother Richard is going to lead his army to break out of the encirclement and go to Lingzhou, where their ancestors are buried. Even if they are all killed in the battle, they will die in the arms of their ancestors.
"My lord, the time has come!"
Brother Richard nodded and shouted with all his strength: "Open the city gate, let's go home!"
The city gate slowly opened, and under the moonlight, six thousand cavalry rushed out of the city gate like a flood and rushed towards the west.