Zhao Nian bent his body into a shrimp, half kneeling and half lying on the ground. He was in excruciating pain, but he could not die. The five hundred generals could not think of a way, and they did not dare to stay in the tent for a long time, so they retreated outside the tent. But outside the tent, the soldiers were in pain as if they were a pro-camp, rolling on the ground in pain and wailing endlessly. Looking towards the neighboring camp, there seemed to be no peaceful place, but it was relatively quiet in the injured camp. So they came to the wounded camp.
Although it is called the wounded camp, in fact, in addition to the seriously wounded, those soldiers who were knocked down by the epidemic were also sent here. There is no medical treatment here, but it is actually a place to wait to die. It is located under Beishan and is built against the mountain. It was originally located here because it was close to the last line of defense in Changping and was relatively safe. But after Beishan was occupied by the Qin army, it became the front line. ——But it also has tactical significance: if the Qin army goes down the mountain to attack, it must pass through the wounded camp, thereby weakening its own strength.
The people lying here are old and new, and they have been there for a long time. There are even wounded soldiers who participated in the Battle of Taniguchi. His companions may have recovered from their injuries or died, but they have been lying in the wounded camp without death, witnessing a A life entered and then disappeared, which made them have no desires and needs; even the recent lack of food did not make them move at all. They lay quietly on the ground, waiting for the last day to come. Those who had a short time had just participated in the critical battle commanded by Zhao Kuo a few days ago. Their number was the largest, numbering thousands. Since entering the wounded camp almost means death, the tens of thousands of people will specially reduce the number of soldiers to the minimum: those who can still perform some duties in the camp are not allowed to come over, and almost all the soldiers who come in are seriously injured and dying soldiers. They were not used to the depressing atmosphere of Camp Shang. They made noises from time to time and remained curious about news from the outside world.
Seeing these dozen healthy people coming in, someone immediately inquired about the situation outside and asked, "Why is there such a noise in the camp?"
A general of five hundred men said: "If you eat Qinsu by mistake, you will have pain in your abdomen."
A soldier said: "It's true, it's true! We ate the millet, but we didn't realize it at first, and when we were in battle, we felt pain in our abdomen, so we were defeated. Otherwise..."
A soldier next to him said: "Now my abdomen is not churning and hurting, and my intestines are also coming out!"
These five hundred people will look around. They are all disemboweled, panting and unconscious. Although they are quiet, they are even more depressed. They cannot stay at all and come out immediately. Patrolling one camp after another, all the battalions fell into the trap of abdominal pain.
More and more people are experiencing abdominal pain symptoms. At night, almost all people have abdominal pain. Those who have abdominal pain at noon no longer have the strength to howl, and they curl up on the ground resigned to their fate, gasping for air. Some even fell asleep like this.
The wailing in the Zhao camp was so loud that the surrounding Qin troops also heard it, and military envoys kept flying to report in vain. Bai Qi only ordered each battalion to strengthen their vigilance, not to allow the Zhao people to escape, and there was no need to attack. Pi Wan also understood that his trip was in vain: Zhao Jun could neither enter Qin nor return to Zhao, and they would die here. He wisely stopped talking and only chatted with Bai Qi when he was free.
Because the sound in the Zhao camp was so loud, the soldiers in the Qin camp in the mountains also stayed up all night. Everyone looked down the mountain in horror, obviously hoping to know what happened, but there was nothing they could do. Wang Lu's military camp is nearly ten miles away from Zhao Camp. Zhao Camp's terrifying sounds can still be heard, but the sounds are smaller and less lethal than those from nearby.
On the hill beside Danshui, the movements of Zhao Camp were clear, and all the sounds were clearly audible. Those swordsmen who had experienced many battles felt a little frightened, but Bai Qi still had a good sleep.
In the second half of the night, the sounds in the Zhao camp gradually died down, replaced by an unsettling silence, and the daily military drum no longer sounded as usual.
Each army of the Qin army sent envoys to report their situation to Bai Qi. Bai Qi instructed each army to send one battalion each to inspect the Zhao camp after breakfast.
The Zhao camp was almost empty. The Zhao soldiers were lying on the ground in a mess. Most of them had cold hands and feet and were unconscious. The few who could still move could only breathe, and it was difficult to even stand up. The Qin army patrolled all the way to the tent of ten thousand generals, who were all dying.
The army of Shangjun approached the water tower and took the lead in entering Zhao Kuo's tent. Zhao Kuo's personal camp has been completely lost on the bank of Danshui, and there is an empty camp around the big tent.
The Northern Army also came down the mountain to inspect. In some camps, they unexpectedly found that there were still women and children. They were not qualified to eat yesterday's fried millet and were able to survive, but they were already dying of hunger. The sudden arrival of the Qin army did not cause much commotion. They looked at the incoming Qin army with indifferent eyes. There was no difference between life and death to them.
It took about a day to inspect the entire Zhao camp. Each camp reported that there were no fighting men in the Zhao camp, either dead or about to die.
Li Bing heard that there were still women and children in his jurisdiction, and hurriedly went to check with Meng Ao. Meng Ao found a woman who could still speak and asked. It turned out that they were Shangdang residents, and their whole family had been conscripted into the army. They were not sick or injured, but they had been without food for several days and had eaten almost all the plants and animals around them. Li Bing couldn't bear it and asked Meng Ao: "How can I save him?"
Meng Ao looked at it and said: "As soon as the three battalions are stationed, I will issue an order not to harm them, but if there are any alive, I will give them to them!"
Li Bing immediately asked the military envoy to transfer three battalions from the back valley to garrison. After they came over, Meng Ao personally guided them to carefully feed these women and children. At first, they were only allowed to dip a little fried millet in it and apply it on their lips, no more than five times a day.
The wounded camp is within the area of the Guanzhong Army. This is the area with the most vitality in Zhao camp. When the wounded saw the Qin army breaking in, they sat up from the ground one by one. Some even tried to fight for their lives on the spot, causing their wounds to burst open and blood to flow all over the ground. The Guanzhong army was very calm. Anyone who rushed over would be stabbed with a spear. Those who fell halfway would be ignored. The five hundred people were divided into five teams and patrolled the wounded camp. The place was so crowded that we couldn't even get down, and we couldn't tell the boundaries of the camp, so we could only generally go around them. Seeing that the Qin army did not invade them, the sick and wounded watched their movements with suspicion.
When the Qin army entered each of the Zhao army camps, and when they came out again, they were all seen by the wounded. They felt the painful howls of their companions most deeply at night, and despair had already penetrated their bodies. The Qin army's random entry and exit in the Zhao camp shattered their last slim hope, and many of the wounded cried in pain.
Compared with the Qin army in Beishan who could easily enter the Zhao camp, the Qin army in Taniguchi had to work harder. It took them a lot of effort to open the door of Qinbi and enter the Qinbi that they had been watching for a long time but were out of reach. Wang Lu was more cautious and sent a thousand men, half of whom occupied the fortresses along the wall, and the other half of whom entered Zhao's camp to inspect.
It didn't take much trouble to find that Zhao Yingzhong was lifeless. This is the first line of defense of the Zhao army against the Qin army. Those guarding here are all the elites of the Zhao army, and they are fully equipped. But now, they have been tortured to the point of being out of shape by the night of severe pain. Most of them have gone into shock. The few who are still breathing are watching the Qin army enter indifferently.
The official patrolling the camp counted the number of people very carefully. There were less than fifty people at each stove. He went to ask where others had gone, but the person he was asking just looked at him with indifferent eyes and said nothing. After counting, among the 100,000 people facing Wang Lun's army, there were about 10,000 less. It was unknown whether they were injured and left, escaped, or hid somewhere where they could not find them.
Bai Qi did not let Danshui's swordsmen enter the Zhao camp, and the Qin army in Dongling only let them enter the daunting southern camp. Bai Qi had racked his brains to occupy this fortress, but now that he was actually going to occupy it, he had no interest at all. It was like a fun toy was given to him, but he could no longer play with it. Those fortresses that had been captured by Bai Qi but were forced to withdraw were rebuilt by the Zhao army, but the tall archery towers did not have the strength to be rebuilt. Originally, Bai Qi had the opportunity to launch an attack after the Zhao army was short of food, but a plague disrupted everything. After the plague, the entire Zhao army dropped like ripe fruit. It was so smooth that even Bai Qi himself couldn't believe it. He only asked the soldiers from Dongling to patrol the camp, and locked himself in a big tent alone for a whole day.
At sunset, reports from each battalion came to him: more than 400,000 Zhao troops had completely fallen into the hands of the Qin army. Not only did they have no combat effectiveness, no resistance, they even had no power to restrain a chicken! Most of them are dead!
Bai Qi listened in silence to the almost identical reports coming from one military envoy after another, his face expressionless. After they finished speaking, he simply said: "Good!" without any instructions for further action. Only the Northern Army sent people to tell them that they had found thousands of women and children and had ordered Qin soldiers to rescue them. If they survived, they were willing to give them soldiers. Bai Qi raised his eyebrows and said, "Accurate!" which was a different word. Wang Ling's Guanzhong Army was the farthest, and the last one came to report that there were tens of thousands of wounded soldiers at the foot of the mountain, all of whom were unable to walk and were dying. Bai Qi still only replied with one word: "Good!"
When the military envoys came to report, Pi Wan sat next to Bai Qi and recorded the reports of each army on the bamboo slips. Wang Lu's report was the most accurate, and the Northland Army's report was the most unique. They actually wanted to give a group of women and children to the soldiers, but there were actually soldiers who were willing to give them food for this purpose. The Guanzhong Army's report is the most troublesome. What should we do with the tens of thousands of wounded? Originally, according to Pi Wan's plan, these wounded people were the perfect consumables to consume Zhao's national strength, but the prerequisite was that someone had to carry them back to Handan. Now that all the Zhao troops have fallen, who can carry them back? You have to solve it for them yourself.
