Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 861 The epidemic breeds

Yang Feng said oh, waved his hand and said: "You go first, I will go in a few days."

Zhang Liao advised: "This place is dangerous. Cao's army may come at any time. If it is not urgent, Commander Yang would be better off leaving as soon as possible."

Yang Feng said: "It's nothing. It's just that Fierce Tiger asked me to send people to escort Yuan Shang's family out of the city. As a result, the men I arranged were dispersed by the enemy. Although Yuan Shang died of illness, his family members were not found."

"I have already mobilized my men to look around and wait for them to come back. If they cannot be found, I will hit the road."

Zhang Liao thought to himself that in such a chaotic situation, I am afraid that all these people will die in the chaos. What is the point of this?

His eyes suddenly lit up, "Did Yuan Shang leave any words for my lord before he died?"

Yang Feng nodded and said: "General Zhang's guess is pretty good. This is related to Jizhou's status. The judge may know it, but he is also missing."

"So at least we have to find Yuan Shang's family before we can do something legitimately."

Zhang Liao's expression became serious after hearing this. He thought for a while and immediately sent out cavalry to look around and help the spies sent by Yang Feng to search.

But he did not dare to stay here longer, so he personally escorted Yuan Shang's body and the generals and officials of the Jizhou Army to Anping County in the northwest.

Most of the Jizhou soldiers and people who escaped were injured, and the disease had spread among the people, so the team moved very slowly. After the first day, most of them only walked a dozen miles, and they kept encountering small groups along the way. Cao Jun's spies harassed him, and the situation was chaotic.

Yang Feng found someone to treat Hong, and at the same time asked about Liu's situation. She learned that Liu's whereabouts were unknown after Hong was forced to jump off a cliff. She couldn't help but lament that Liu was still a demon at that time. Is she probably dead by now?

The team walked for another four or five days. When they were still more than a hundred miles away from Anping County, scout Zhang Liao met Yang Feng's spies and learned the news about Yuan Shang's family.

Zhang Liao, however, had a solemn expression. He told Tian Yu about the epidemic epidemic within the Jizhou Army, and finally said: "In the past few days, my soldiers and I have been fighting with the Jizhou soldiers. I am afraid that there is also the possibility of contracting the epidemic. I had hoped before. It was a fluke, but some of my men have already started to get sick.”

Seeing that there was no other way, Zhang Liao discussed with Zhang He, the only one in the Jizhou army who could still lead the army to fight. The two of them each led their soldiers to ambush in the rear before nightfall.

"General Tian, ​​please report to the envoy as soon as possible to see if there is any countermeasures."

A few days later, everyone arrived in Anping. Yuan Xi had people place them properly, boil and disinfect their clothes, and isolate them for observation. Even Zhang Liao and Tian Yu were not spared, and the entire process was completed.

Yang Feng led people to search all night, and finally found Hong who was on the verge of death in the woods. After questioning, he learned that he had trekked in the rain for five or six days in the wild and walked more than 100 miles. Fortunately, he went in the right direction. That's right, and he chose a location close to the mountain road, and then he was discovered by Yang Feng.

She led Hong, Zhang Liao and others to meet up, and soon the team met Tian Yu who came with troops to meet them. At this time, everyone felt relieved.

After this battle, Zhang Liao finally breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that Cao Jun would not come easily. According to reports from spies, Cao Jun had returned to Yecheng and began to cut off the Zhang River and release the accumulated water in Yecheng. It should be Prepare to occupy Yecheng with peace of mind.

Although the type of epidemic disease in the Three Kingdoms can no longer be verified, the possibility of modern Vibrio cholerae is very small, but even so, when large-scale serious epidemics break out in this era, less than half of the people survive, which shows that its harm cannot be underestimated. Yes, it may not be much worse than cholera.

The only good thing is that although the word cholera appeared in China very early, the Vibrio cholerae that cholera refers to in the modern sense was only introduced from India in the Ming Dynasty.

After Zhang Liao heard this, he quickly sent a letter to Yuan Xi, asking for someone to respond. At the same time, he sent a letter to Xu Huang who was blocking the road between Yecheng and Qinghe, telling him to be careful of Cao's army in Yecheng sneak attack on his way back.

Yuan Xi urgently recruited doctors to open an isolation area for the people who were about to arrive, and prepared herbal medicine, firewood, and clean water. In ancient times, there were no immediate methods for severe infectious diseases. He could only use herbal medicine to enhance immunity and eat cooked food as much as possible to prevent and resist.

Zhang Liao's response in the past few days has been seen by Tian Feng, Zhang He and others. They had never thought that one of Lu Bu's surrendered generals could control the overall situation under Yuan Xi. They couldn't help but sigh at Yuan Xi's vision of others. accurate.

As expected, Cao Hong led thousands of troops to attack at night. He had just rushed to the rear of the team. Zhang Liao and Zhang He, who had been well prepared, led the ambush troops and directly attacked Cao Hong. Caught off guard, Cao Hong was defeated in the ambush and was stabbed by two people. , fled back with the remaining soldiers.

Yuan Xi learned the news quickly, and he also had a headache. Most of the epidemics in Yecheng were probably caused by dead bodies contaminating water sources. They could be enteritis, dysentery or even cholera. This was not a good sign.

At first, Jizhou's counselors and generals were a little confused when they saw Yuan Xi's precautions. However, as the number of people who fell in the camp continued to increase, they realized that the epidemic was serious, and then they obeyed the arrangements honestly.

Yuan Xi was quite anxious. He thought that Zhang Liao would be able to take action against Cao Cao after he returned, but he did not expect that he would end up in this situation, because if the epidemic was not handled well, he was afraid that it would also affect the Youzhou Army under his command, and there would be no need to fight that battle. .

At this time, he received news that Xu Huang had been engaged in a battle with Cao's army in Qinghe County. The other party really wanted to join forces with Cao's army in Yecheng to surround Xu Huang. After thinking about it, Yuan Xi transferred Xu Huang back to Anping County to prevent Cao's army from taking advantage of the opportunity. Attack north. Sure enough, Cao Cao personally led an army to fight.

Yuan Xi guessed that news of the epidemic in his army had reached Cao Cao's camp. Cao Cao would definitely not miss this great opportunity. He couldn't help cursing in his heart, Cao Cao's sense of smell was too sensitive!

He was forced to relocate the isolated Jizhou troops outside the city to the city. Although he knew that it might aggravate the spread of the epidemic, he could not let Jizhou die now. He could only arrange an isolation area as much as possible, and at the same time have people collect feces and transport it out to ensure that The water source is clean.

Of course, these feces were not wasted, and they were all poured on the heads of Cao's troops attacking the city in the future.

Cao Cao indeed came here after hearing about the epidemic in Yuan Xi's army camp. His purpose was to force Yuan Xi's army to fend for itself in the city just like he did with the Jizhou army in Yecheng.

Although he did not know the channels through which the epidemic spread, he also knew that it would be difficult to stop the spread of the epidemic as long as the opponent was tired and difficult to cope with. So Cao Cao made up his mind that since it was difficult to defeat Yuan Xi on the battlefield, he would use the power of the epidemic to spread!

Facts have proved that Cao Cao was unlucky. The city Yuan Xi occupied was Xindu in Anping County, which was also the largest city in Anping. It was still quite difficult to face the full attack of Cao Jun. At this time, the city was densely populated and the disease had begun to spread.

At this time, Cao Cao's army occupied Yecheng. In addition to Xiahou Dun who was responsible for the aftermath, Xiahou Yuan and Cao Hong also arrived with troops. They joined forces with Cao Cao and stormed Xindu together. However, Yuan Xi was good at defending the city and Cao's army lacked heavy engineering equipment. After fighting for more than ten days, there was no result.

During this period, Yuan Xi and Zhuge Liang stayed at the top of the city, pouring all the dirty things in the city that needed to be cleaned onto the attacking Cao army.

So it makes sense that a few days later, the epidemic began to spread in Cao's camp. As for its origin, it was Xiahou Yuan and Cao Hong's soldiers who returned from Ye City, or it was the feces that fell on the city wall, or other reasons. It is impossible to find out, but the fact is that Cao Jun also began to fall ill one by one.

After Yuan Xi heard the news, he was not happy, because Cao Jun was also using the water source in Xindu City, and water source pollution was inevitable. He could only ask the people in the city to avoid eating raw food as much as possible even if they demolished houses and cut windows. What we do is to see who can last longer.

In the following days, Zhang Liao, Xu Huang, Tian Yu, and Zhang He took turns fighting. Both sides tried their best. Regardless of the intensity and the number of people involved, it was like a battle of Guandu that had changed the battlefield.

However, as the disease spread rapidly in Cao's camp and the reinforcements recruited from Youzhou began to move south to join the battlefield, Cao's army gradually shifted from the initial offensive to the defensive.

One of the most important reasons is that the disease spreads faster in Cao's camp than Yuan Xi's army in Xindu City.

Cao Cao listened to the daily death toll in the camp, and his heart was filled with anger and worry. He knew that now was the best opportunity to attack Yuan Xi in one fell swoop, and was well prepared for the spread of the disease in his camp. But why did Yuan Xi's army If you get sick first, your side will spread faster than the other side!

Judging from the time, the epidemic started to spread in Yuan Xijun half a month earlier than in his side. But judging from the number of patients now, it is completely reversed. Nearly half of the people in Cao Ying have been infected, and nearly half of them have been infected. Half dead, the rest has almost no fighting power.

However, according to the news from Xindu City, the number of illnesses and deaths among the Fierce Tiger Army was less than half of our own. There were more than 20,000 people in the city, and only more than 3,000 were sick. Although their combat power was affected, it was not big.

The 50,000 troops and horses that wanted to fight against Cao Cao have been reduced by half!

Cao Cao specifically studied the composition of Yuan Xi's army and found that not only did it not implement the system of fielding, but instead adopted the system of conferring land for military merit and recruiting soldiers, which meant that Cao Cao had to spend several times the price of Yuan Xi to raise a soldier.

Cao Cao's method of ensuring morale was that if the soldiers could not find the body, they would be considered as fleeing and the whole family would sit together. Yuan Xi relied solely on military merit and rewards to motivate him. There was no essential difference in the morale of the two sides at ordinary times, but when the epidemic was prevalent, But there was a gap that even Cao Cao had not expected.

Yuan Xi equipped his soldiers with far more materials and supplies, as well as emergency response measures such as epidemics, than Cao's soldiers.

The Jizhou soldiers were equipped with a considerable number of doctors and medicines, so they gradually gained an advantage in the fight against the epidemic. At present, the strength of the two sides is equal, but in a few days, the situation may be reversed!

At the same time, Cao Cao received news that Xia Houyuan, Cao Hong and others were ill. He knew that the situation on his side had deteriorated sharply, and it would be too late if he didn't leave!

So the next night, after a day of fierce siege, Cao Cao broke camp overnight, took the people and property plundered from Qinghe County, and retreated towards Yecheng.

At this station, less than 10,000 people died on both sides on the battlefield below the city, but the number of people who died of illness was much higher than those who died in battle.

After Yuan Xi heard the news of Cao's army's evacuation, he finally breathed a sigh of relief, because he had also contracted the disease due to working day and night in the past few days, but he had been blocking the news.

Otherwise, if Cao Cao knew about it, he might insist on fighting.

This battle in Jizhou was not more brutal than the last battle between Yuan Xi and Cao Cao, but the casualties on both sides were greater due to the epidemic. In the end, no one expected that it would end in this situation.

In fact, at this point, both sides were unable to persist. Instead of treating the people of Jizhou as cannon fodder for military recruitment at any time, Yuan Xi also tried his best to maintain the stability of the three counties in Jizhou he occupied and ensured that they would be used as a link to separate Youzhou from the previous one. Qingzhou is completely connected.

There is so much work to deal with the aftermath, which may not be completed in a year or a half. Cao Cao also has to digest the half of Jizhou he acquired, so both sides must stop fighting.

Only then did Yuan Xi have time to meet with Jizhou's counselors and generals. He had a screen placed in front of his bed, opened the doors and windows, and invited Tian Feng and Zhang He to come over.

(End of this chapter)