On the city wall, as soon as Tie Lanshan mentioned the deadly poison from the Southern Region, the surrounding air seemed to turn a few degrees colder.
Lao Sun, who was carrying a medicine chest, had been squatting on the ground, using iron pliers to examine a broken brick stained with poisonous water.
But upon hearing the words "Southern Region", a look of horror immediately flashed across his face.
Lao Sun crouched down shakily, rummaged through the medicine chest and took out a silver needle. He carefully inserted it into the pool of yellow water.
As soon as the silver needle touched the liquid surface, the originally shiny tip suddenly turned an eerie dark blue.
Then, the dark blue spread upwards along the needle shaft, and in the blink of an eye, the entire silver needle was corroded with fine pits.
Lao Sun was so frightened that his hand trembled, and he quickly dropped the silver needle on the ground.
Wang Shuan and several other veteran soldiers nearby sensed the gravity in the commander's words. They endured the nausea in their throats and surrounded them with blood - stained spears.
"Lao Sun, why do you look like you've seen a ghost?" Zhang San wiped the flying ash on his face with the back of his hand carelessly.
"We've been dealing with the Qiang dogs in the Northwest for half our lives. What dirty tricks haven't we seen? Isn't it just poisoning the water? We just need to stock up more lime and charcoal."
Lao Sun tore off the cloth covering his face, revealing his blood - less face.
He waved his hands repeatedly, and his fingers trembled as he pointed to the pool of yellow water outside the city.
"You guys don't understand a thing!" There was great fear in Lao Sun's voice, which everyone could tell.
"The deadly poison from the Southern Region that the marshal just mentioned is not an ordinary soporific or heart - breaking herb! It was a huge disaster in the Great Qian Dynasty fifty years ago!"
Wang Shuan frowned and said, "Fifty years ago? We weren't even in our mothers' wombs at that time. Lao Sun, tell us exactly how disastrous it was."
Lao Sun swallowed hard and almost in a dreamy voice, peeled back that dusty tragic history in front of everyone.
"In the year when the late emperor ascended the throne, the barbarians in the Southwest took the opportunity to rebel. The court dispatched 30,000 elite troops and headed south in a grand manner to suppress the rebellion."
"Those 30,000 soldiers were all fierce warriors in heavy armor!"
"At that time, the one leading the troops was none other than Marquis Dingyuan, who was famous in the Southwest!"
"But as soon as the army entered the Falling Star Gorge, before they even caught a glimpse of the barbarians, they were greeted by a yellow mist blowing from the depths of the valley."
When Lao Sun said this, the fear in his eyes became even more intense.
"In that battle, not a single weapon was drawn."
"The 30,000 - strong army, as soon as they reached that accursed place, were swallowed up by the invisible poisonous miasma! There were no shouts of battle. People just fell down, and not even a messenger could run out to ask for help."
"Due to the long distance, it was half a month later when the court received the news."
The young soldiers nearby felt a tingling sensation on their scalps. One of them boldly asked, "Sir, what were the symptoms of that poisonous miasma? Did people just die as soon as they fell?"
"Die? That would have been a blessing from one's ancestors!" Lao Sun gave a bitter laugh and stretched out his bony finger to gesture on his shriveled belly.
"When the Ministry of War found that the army was out of contact, they urgently dispatched 5,000 auxiliary soldiers to collect the corpses.
"Those soldiers who went to collect the corpses went in with lime and strong liquor. At first, they seemed fine.
"But within three days after returning to the camp, wails came from the camp! Red sores the size of soybeans began to appear on the soldiers' bodies. Those sores were extremely itchy. When scratched, the yellow water like what we see today would flow out!"
He pointed at the pus on the ground and exclaimed.
"Then, the bellies of the infected people began to swell day by day, as big as drums!"
"The belly skin was stretched extremely thin, and the blue veins and intestines wriggled under the skin.
"When people were still conscious, their bellies would split open, and their internal organs had already turned into a pot of thick blood and pus.
"The screams could be heard from ten miles away. The Imperial Hospital sent more than a dozen imperial physicians with century - old ginseng and antidote pills, but most of them died there, and they couldn't even come up with a prescription."
Lao Sun closed his eyes and let out a long sigh.
"Finally, the court had no choice but to issue a desperate order. They dispatched tens of thousands of catties of naphtha and sealed off all the entrances and exits of the Falling Star Gorge. The fire burned for seven days and seven nights, burning everything, people and plants, within a radius of thirty miles to the ground."
"Even to this day, not a single blade of grass grows in that place, and not even a crow dares to fly over it!"
After these words, the faces of the soldiers on the horse path all turned pale.
Several low - ranking soldiers who were cleaning up the minced meat with long poles almost dropped their poles on the ground.
"Uncle Wang..." A new recruit who had only been in the army for half a year, holding a long pole, his legs shaking constantly. He turned to look at Wang Shuan, his voice filled with sobs.
"You... you tell me, what on earth is the purpose of the Helian traitor going to so much trouble to soak the corpses of their own people in potion and hurl them over with catapults? Aren't they themselves disgusted?"
Wang Shuan gritted his back teeth and tightened his grip on the spear in his hand, remaining silent.
Another veteran soldier with half a missing front tooth took up the conversation, his face ashen: "You idiot! Is this still a question? What for? They want everyone in the city to die!"
"Yes!" Zhang San also realized it, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead and trickling down his cheeks.
"This Zhenbei Pass is such a small place. Our food and water all depend on the few deep wells in the city and the water source upstream. They hurl these poisoned corpses in here, and the poisoned water seeps down through the gaps in the floor tiles and enters the underground water veins.
"All the soldiers and civilians in the city, if they drink this water, will end up with their bellies rotting just like the 30,000 - strong army in the Southern Region!"
"These beasts! How cruel they are!" A scar - faced armored soldier cursed loudly, "Since they can't break through the city wall, they resort to such despicable and inhumane tricks! My wife and mother are still inside the inner city. If the water source is contaminated, how can they survive!"
"What should we do? Is there already poison in the air? I seem to have inhaled a mouthful just now. Why is my throat starting to feel dry..."
Panic quickly spread on the North Horse Path.
The formation of the soldiers began to loosen. Some dropped the long poles in their hands and instinctively covered their mouths and noses.
Some were looking around wildly, searching for a hiding place.
The morale of the army was on the verge of collapse.
Everyone was afraid that the sand and wind blowing from the city wall carried the deadly miasma.
Bang!
A dull sound exploded on the horse path like a thunderbolt.
Tie Lanshan's big knife slammed heavily on the brick, splashing a few sparks and firmly suppressing the surrounding panic.
"Shut up, all of you!" Tie Lanshan glared with his tiger - like eyes and shouted sternly, "The sky hasn't fallen yet! Anyone who dares to spread rumors and undermine the morale of the army will be punished by military law!"
After scaring off the soldiers, Tie Lanshan turned to look at Xu Qinghuan, who was standing quietly beside him. There was deep worry and impatience in his eyes.
"Magistrate Xu," Tie Lanshan said, his voice as heavy as iron, "The Helian people have been grazing on the north side of the Yin Mountains for generations. They can't even gather a few decent doctors.
"Where on earth did they get such a poisonous thing?"
The north wind howled. Xu Qinghuan took out a plain silk handkerchief from her sleeve and slowly covered her mouth and nose.
She took a step forward and walked to a battlement that had not been affected by the corpses.
"Marshal Tie," Xu Qinghuan's voice was cold and clear. "If I remember correctly, since the establishment of the Great Qian Dynasty over two hundred years ago, there have been a total of five recorded deadly plagues in historical books."
"In the third year of the Chenghua era, there were severe floods in the Jianghuai region. After the floodwaters receded, a plague of the plague spread. In the salt fields of Huaihe, nine out of ten households were emptied. In the early stage of the illness, the infected people suffered from chills and high fevers. Within three days, black lumps swelled under their armpits and necks, and they died coughing up blood."
"That year, the canals in Jianghuai were filled with nameless corpses drifting, and even the grain transportation along the waterways was cut off for a full six months. The imperial court issued one million taels of silver for disaster relief, but they couldn't even hire a single living person to transport the grain."
"In the seventh year of the Longqing era, there was a severe drought in Sichuan. The land was parched for thousands of miles, and then a great plague broke out."
"Those infected with this plague developed red spots all over their bodies, and their skin was burning hot. Within seven days, their internal organs were scorched by the high fever. The public tombs in the various prefectures of Sichuan were filled with the dead, and even the firewood for burning the corpses was sold at sky - high prices."
"Another one was the black sores in the capital area at the end of the Xuande era."
"This plague came on extremely violently. The nine gates of the capital city were tightly closed, and even the imperial palace was not spared. The Imperial Hospital was helpless and could only watch as the infected people's skin peeled off and they turned into dry bones."
"The corpse - burning grounds outside the capital city burned corpses day and night. The black smoke blotted out the sky and sun and burned for a full three months. Even the clouds in the sky were smoked black."
Xu Qinghuan listed these several extremely tragic plagues one by one in one breath.
With each word she spoke, the temperature on the city wall seemed to drop a little.
These heavy historical events were casually mentioned by her, but they pressed mountains on everyone's hearts.
"The symptoms of these five plagues were different, and their toxicity levels also varied," Xu Qinghuan said as she put down the silk handkerchief covering her mouth and nose. She pointed at the slope outside the city with her fair fingers and said in a determined tone.
"But take a good look, everyone. The poisonous water that fell on the city wall today has the characteristics of rotting upon exposure to the air like the poisonous miasma in the southern border, the bone - melting and flesh - dissolving effect of the great plague in Sichuan, and even the symptom of skin peeling of the black sores in the capital area."
She put forward a theory.
"Ordinary herbal medicines definitely do not have such a ferocious nature of rotting flesh and melting bones upon exposure to the air. Even the poisonous insects and plants outside the pass cannot brew such a deadly and hopeless aura."
"All things in the world are mutually restrictive. For naturally - occurring poisons, there is always an antidote growing within ten steps." Xu Qinghuan's voice was as cold as frost and she spoke with determination.
"But this poison was definitely not naturally occurring outside the pass. It must be that someone with malicious intentions traveled all over the north and south of the Great Qian Dynasty, and deliberately combined the sources of the plagues from the past hundred years."
"They must have used living people for drug trials, nurtured the poison with the aura of death, and borrowed the evil qi of heaven and earth to concoct this inhumane and sinister thing."
As soon as she said this, there was a suffocating silence on the North Horse Road.
Combining the plagues of a hundred years artificially!
This inference was even more terrifying than the simple poison itself.
What a huge and insane conspiracy was hidden behind this?
Hearing this, Tie Lanshan's beard under his chin trembled slightly.
As a military general, he was not as clear about such details. However, these five plagues were well - known to the old people in the Great Qian Dynasty.
"The sources of a hundred - year - old plagues..." Tie Lanshan gritted his teeth, and his voice seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth. "How could such a thing that harms heaven and earth be gathered out of thin air?"
"Magistrate Xu, please give this old man the bottom line. What kind of evil spirits are hidden behind this?"
