Chapter 1406
Enemy Army Sieges the City [7]
Chapter 1406 Enemy Army Sieges the City [7]
Several prefectures in the Northwest Prefecture were breached by the rat plague.
In order to prevent the rat plague from continuing to spread, the Northwest Army had no choice but to retreat its defensive line... The latest battle report that Zhao Qianhu and his men received indicated that the western border of the Great Wei had already been retreated!
However, this battle report was classified and not made public, otherwise the Wei people would lose morale and stop resisting the enemy!
"Brother, Commander Jiang, I volunteer to lead the elite Wei army to continue searching for the secret chambers, burn them all down, and eradicate the plague bacteria that the enemy has been cultivating in our Wei territory!" Commander Zhao volunteered.
Before Jiang Dalang could speak, Lan Hu came to report: "Report, Commander, the latest royal and military orders from the capital city have been delivered day and night by the Imperial Guard and the soldiers under Commander Ling!"
This?
"Brother, take a look quickly!" Zhao Qianhu knew something important had happened and urged him hurriedly.
Jiang Dalang took the royal decree and military order and saw that the decree was given to Zhao Qianhu... Both the royal decree of the King of Ye and the military order of General Chu only wrote one thing: there was unusual activity on the main road from Dongfu Town to Tianmang Prefecture. All soldiers and civilians were ordered to immediately withdraw to the capital city and not to linger outside the city. Those who disobeyed the order would bear the consequences for the Wei people and be punished by military law for the Wei army!
"This?" Commander Zhao was very unwilling: "If we retreat to the capital city now, what will happen to the plague germs in the other secret chambers?"
Commander Zhao wanted to disobey the military order, after all, "a general in the field may disobey the emperor's orders," and all military officers of the commander rank had done such things before, so it wouldn't make a difference if he did it once more.
Jiang Dalang said, "Pass down the order: Wei troops outside the city, immediately assemble at the main road and prepare to return to the city. Anyone who disobeys will be executed!"
"Yes." Lan Hu only listened to Jiang Dalang and immediately turned around to do it. Zhao Qianhu said "eh eh" twice, but he didn't turn around.
"Brother, the plague is terrible, it must be destroyed! You all go back to the city, I'm staying behind with the troops. If General Chu asks after we get back, just say I left the army a long time ago and he hasn't seen me, hehe." Commander Zhao didn't even bother to come up with a complicated excuse.
Jiang Dalang shook his head: "No, Commander Zhao must return to the city with us... We don't need to worry about the fact that the enemy's dozens of tunnels may be hiding rats and plague bacteria in their secret chambers."
"How can we ignore this?" Zhao Qianhu said anxiously.
Jiang Dalang: "First, germs, like poisons, are difficult to cultivate. It is very likely that the rat plague was not successfully cultivated in other sealed rooms. Second, if the enemy besieges the city, then the enemy is outside the city, and the plague outside the city will first harm them."
"Everything and everyone is a double-edged sword. The rat plague doesn't discriminate between Wei people and Dongmo people; it parasitizes anyone. So there's no need to sweep away all the rat plague germs in the secret rooms. Maybe they can even help us eliminate the enemy."
"After the enemy is infected, we can observe whether they have a cure for the rat plague. If they do, we will kill them and seize the medicine. If not, then all living beings are equal."
Su Su once said, "Do you think poison only kills others? It also kills the one who uses it!"
"Moreover, Young Master Huang has already prepared medicine to treat the rat plague in Lingnan Prefecture. We just need to wait... Let's return to the city together and kill the enemy." Jiang Dalang stopped wasting words and gave the order forcefully.
After saying that, he grabbed Zhao Qianhu and left.
He then said, "Commander Zhu, move the things out of the secret room, starting with the valuable ones."
"Yes!" Little Zhu, the centurion, happily agreed, and then instructed Zhao, the commander: "Commander, don't be reckless. Let's go back to the city together and kill the enemy. We'll die together!"
Commander Zhao hurriedly said, "Pah, pah, pah, what nonsense are you spouting, brat? We will definitely win, and it will be the enemy who dies!"
"Commander, you're quite superstitious," Little Zhu, the centurion, mocked him, then hurriedly led his soldiers to move the goods: "These are all spoils of war, take as much as you can, but don't hoard any, hand them over and we'll share them!"
"Hey!" The Wei soldiers were overjoyed and immediately started moving things.
After much commotion, by dawn on the 16th of September, all the Wei troops outside the city had assembled on the main road.
Boom boom boom!
"Wei soldiers of all battalions, mount your horses! Those without horses, two people should ride together. Those who do not need to carry passengers should carry supplies. Our destination is the capital city. Let's set off!" the messengers shouted.
Da da da da da!
At a command, the sound of galloping hooves suddenly rose on the main road.
More than 500 Wei soldiers, riding on more than 300 warhorses, galloped towards the capital city.
They were all elite soldiers, and the warhorses they used were all top-quality horses, strong and fast. By midnight on the 17th, they caught up with the Wei people's caravan from Daheng Prefecture who had gone back earlier.
Commander Zhen, Commander Xiao Ling, and General Qian were delighted to see them, but their hearts sank slightly upon learning that they too had received a new royal decree.
"Even you've been called back, I'm afraid..." General Qian felt a surge of fear and hurriedly ordered, "Beat the drums, wake up the villagers, don't rest, travel through the night towards the capital city!" "Yes!" The surviving soldiers of Daheng Prefecture hurriedly went to carry out the order.
The sound of drums boomed, waking the villagers.
The villagers complained incessantly: "Sir, we've only slept for an hour, why do we have to get up and travel again? At this rate, we'll be exhausted!"
"Waaah, sir, I have a pregnant woman and an elderly person nearing seventy at home. We really can't walk anymore!"
Boom boom boom!
"Those with elderly, weak, sick, disabled, women, or children at home may ride in a carriage or on horseback. In any case, continue on your journey. Do you want to be exhausted to death or trampled to death by the enemy's charge?!"
The words "charge, kill, trample" terrified the Wei people, who screamed in terror. They had seen enemy soldiers on horseback charging and trampling the Wei people.
It was terrifying; they couldn't bear to think about it.
"Great-grandfather, get on the horse quickly! There are horses for transportation. You must hold on!" A clever man immediately helped his old man up and went to negotiate with the Wei soldiers who had horses. Soon, the old man was able to get on a warhorse.
"All Wei soldiers should dismount and give their horses to the elderly, weak, women, and children. Two or three people should ride together on one horse, with the Wei soldiers leading the reins. Wei civilians who do not know how to control a horse should just sit and not pull on the reins haphazardly, or they will be responsible for their own lives!"
The messengers, even with their naturally gifted voices, were almost worn out from shouting.
Wei Min of Daheng Prefecture hurriedly did as instructed.
Some people tried to steal the horses, and the Wei soldiers immediately attacked them.
Some old ruffians lay on the ground and made a scene, but the Wei army simply ignored them.
Boom boom boom!
"Assembled! Let's set off! Those still lying on the ground, you're on your own!" After the messengers shouted this three times, the large group immediately set off.
The hundreds of shrewish women still lying on the ground were stunned with fear, but they still refused to get up and remained lying there, waiting for Wei Jun to come and apologize to them.
Tsk tsk, he's quite ill.
until……
"He's vanished! Get up and chase after him!" Hundreds of shrewish women, pale with fright, cried out and ran after him.
"General Qian, Lord Lu, we were wrong! Please wait for us! Don't abandon us!"
"Eldest, second, and fifth sons, you didn't even wait for your own mother! A bunch of unfilial children! I threw a tantrum because I was worried about how hard you were traveling. But you abandoned your mother! Waaah, why is my life so miserable!"
Wei Jun said: "It's really our bad luck to be stuck with a bunch of bastards like you."
The Wei army escorted the Wei people of Daheng Prefecture, and after marching for more than a day, they arrived at the western suburbs of the capital city at noon on September 19th.
"We've reached the outskirts of the city. The capital city is just ten more miles away. Sir, sir, can we stop and rest now?"
"I can't walk anymore, I can't even crawl. Several groups of people have already fainted. I'm not going anywhere else. I'll stay in the wilderness for one night and then queue up to enter the city tomorrow!"
“I’m not going home either. Anyway, we have to be quarantined to prevent the spread of the epidemic, so I can’t enter the city today.”
The people of Wei have given up.
However, these Wei people were lucky; they didn't need to undergo quarantine to prevent the plague and were able to enter the capital city today.
Just because...
Bang bang bang bang, boom boom boom boom, a strange muffled sound and vibration came.