Weird Three Kingdoms

Chapter 3704 Suffocating Rats
The summer heat seemed to have materialized, pressing heavily on the Cao army's continuous camps along the water's edge.

The pervasive stench of decay didn't seem like a drifting odor, but rather like something alive.

They emerged from the dark green, bubbling sewage of the camp ditch, buzzing and forming a dark, dense mass. With the help of their trembling, thin wings, they took flight and then suddenly pounced on the wounded soldiers huddled on the straw mats...

Among them was Wang Su, a squad leader.

Wang Su had a wound on his left calf from the battle at Guiku Pass.

At this moment, the wound is festering horribly, emitting a cloying, stench.

He lay there helplessly, his cloudy gaze falling through the tattered tent roof onto a beam of light shining down at an angle.

Within the beam of light, dust swirled wildly, and to Wang Su, every tiny speck of dust carried an inescapable aura of death.

Not far from the wounded soldiers' camp, the fire used to burn corpses was crackling and popping.

Those were the final lamentations of Cao Cao's soldiers, their bones and blood stained with blood.

They were silent while they were alive, but when they died and were cremated, there was a crackling, popping sound...

A gust of wind, carrying heat and the smell of burning, swept in and blew half a charred piece of clothing onto Wang Su's straw mat.

Wang Su looked down and could vaguely make out that the style of the hem of the garment was the most ordinary coarse cloth battle robe.

Just like what Wang Su himself was wearing.

The stench was like a soaked burlap sack stuck tightly to the mouth and nose.

It was hot and suffocating.

But everyone endured it.

Hard work and perseverance were the basic requirements that the ruling class of Shandong Province placed on ordinary people.

Our ancestors carefully selected this product.

Wang Su curled up on a moldy straw mat, his festering legs attracting flies that buzzed around him.

The cook, limping, distributed bran cakes to the soldiers in the sick tents who were still able to eat. He walked over to Wang Su, his fingers still covered in years of grime, and handed him a rough, hard cake.

Wang Su lay half-reclined, then muttered to himself, "Back then... it seemed to be the same..."

"What do you mean, 'back then'?" Old Man Guai asked.

Wang Su grinned, his words sounding half-answering, half-groaning, "Back then... in Guandu..."

"Guandu..." Old Guai's voice was hoarse and dry, "Yuan Shao's men, their bellies are swollen like toads, at least... at least we still have dried meat to keep us half alive!"

Wang Su's outstretched hand, reaching for the cake, suddenly froze.

Old Man Guai chuckled, "This is flatbread...no dried meat..."

Wang Su then took the cake and slowly put it in his mouth.

A musty smell wafted from my mouth into my nasal cavity.

The nauseating musty smell actually put Wang Su at ease.

In that year, when he had just enlisted, he witnessed starving soldiers digging through frozen horse dung on the battlefield, just to find any undigested bits of soybeans and wheat grains inside...

He also saw the bodies of those people with his own eyes, and saw that their eyes were covered with a layer of gray...

But now...

Wang Su looked down at the dark purple showing through his fingernails, and a metallic, sweet taste rose uncontrollably in his throat.

Suddenly, a terrified scream shattered the deathly silence in the tent, bringing commotion.

"Lord Cheng! Lord Cheng, spare me! I didn't steal any food! I didn't steal any meat!"

The camp suddenly seemed to be swarming with hundreds of flies, buzzing around.

Huo Tou Lao Guai suddenly seemed to have his lame leg grow back, and he darted to the entrance of the ward, peeking out cautiously.

"Shut up! Have you lost your mind? Magistrate Cheng... Magistrate Cheng isn't here! Shut up!"

"I...I didn't eat, I didn't eat! I didn't eat...ahhhhh..."

The wounded soldier seemed to be hallucinating, struggling frantically.

But soon, a dull thud was heard, and then the roar disappeared.

Oh, poor child…

Old Man Hu shook his head and sighed, then walked back, a somewhat enigmatic expression on his face. "Tell me," he said, "what's the point of just arguing?"

"What's wrong?" Wang Su asked.

"Dead." Old Man Guai, the cook, said as if it were just because it was too hot, "What else could it be... Chief Qu is here... *snap*..."

Wang Su subconsciously thought of his nephew, and then of the dark red minced meat.

Delirium and struggle, illness and heat waves, like red-hot needles, pierced the brain.

Wang Su squirmed on the straw mat, his burning skin rubbing against the damp, cold mud beneath.

All I could see were wobbly ankles, swollen and bruised...

Faces of various people, Cheng Yu's, his nephew's...

Then the next image in my mind was of clashing cleavers, bringing up large and small chunks of meat, accompanied by the dull thud of cleaving into joints.

"It's...divine...it's all divine retribution!"

Wang Su suddenly started cursing, and the noise startled those around him.

A wounded soldier in the next bunk, his arm broken, had sunken eyes and had been lying there as if dead. Now, he opened his eyelids a crack, his cloudy eyes fixed on Wang Su. His Adam's apple bobbed, and his chapped lips moved silently a few times.

Old Hunchback was walking back, his back hunched. Hearing Wang Su's low growl, he jumped in fright. He quickly glanced at the shadowy figures of the patrolling soldiers outside the tent flap, then took two steps closer, squatted down, and said, as if to comfort him, or perhaps urge him, "Suwa... don't... don't talk anymore, get some rest..."

Old Hutt looked around, then saw the look in the eyes of the wounded soldier with the broken arm next to him, and immediately withdrew as if he had been burned.

Further away, several patients who could still sit up stared blankly into the distance, their eyes vacant.

One of them coughed, and blood-tinged phlegm dripped onto his chest.

They were also in pain and despair, but they still hoped that someone would stand up and break the window so that they could enjoy fresh air and avoid further problems.

China has never lacked intelligent people.

Soon, someone reported it...

The whistleblowers didn't gain any benefit from punishing Wang Su, but they still went ahead and reported him.

Because some people were afraid of being "implicated" by Wang Su...

Because Cao Ren said, "Don't believe or spread rumors..."

Because it's better to avoid trouble...

Soon, the wounded soldiers' camp received the latest orders.

Wang Su was tortured in public.

Soon, everyone in the wounded soldiers' camp, including Wang Su and those who had reported him, were driven out of Xiangyang and headed towards the direction of the Flying Cavalry...

……

……

On the north bank of the Han River, in the camp of the Flying Cavalry, another smell pierced through the murky air. A bitter odor, almost pungent, mingled with the acrid smoke of burning mugwort, stubbornly resisted the stench of corpses carried by the wind.

The newly arrived Cao army soldiers who surrendered and the displaced people who were forced into labor, regardless of age or gender, were required to take off their tattered and dirty clothes, walk naked through a long shed shrouded in thick smoke from mugwort, and then soak in a pool of water mixed with lime and sulfur...

Their old clothes, which they had taken off, were thrown into the raging fire, where they instantly curled up, turned black, and transformed into fluttering black butterflies.

"Listen up, everyone!" The doctor's roar drowned out the cries and groans coming from the prisoner-of-war area. "Typhoid fever is transmitted by the filth and foul air of corpses! It's not the work of ghosts or gods! Drink the medicine! Use the fumigation! Wash frequently!"

The doctor's voice was hoarse from days of shouting, but it carried an undeniable power.

"They're trying to poison us!"

A surrendered soldier of Cao Cao, who was being forced to drink medicinal soup, retreated in terror, his eyes filled with despair.

The surrounding cavalrymen watched him coldly, and one of them, expressionless, drank a bowl of medicine right in front of him.

Seeing this, the doctor couldn't help but curse, "Why would I need poison to kill you?! Wouldn't it be faster and easier to use knives and guns?! A bunch of idiots!"

Under the icy gazes of those around him, the surrendered soldier trembled as he picked up the soup bowl, closed his eyes, and drank it down...

Liao Hua stood on the watchtower and watched.

It's not about seeing naked bodies.

For those who are shriveled, as if they are just a skeleton wrapped in a layer of skin, and it's wrinkled, dark, and filthy, if they still have any "interest", then they are really not ordinary people.

After Shamoke destroyed two or three small Cao army camps in succession, suddenly there were many more Cao army soldiers and refugees who had surrendered!

It seemed as if they had been intentionally driven away and sent here.

Moreover, many of these surrendered soldiers and refugees appeared to be ill!
Zhuge Liang keenly sensed the anomaly and immediately ordered Liao Hua and Li Dian to carry out epidemic prevention measures for these surrendered soldiers and refugees.

At first, Liao Hua and Li Dian didn't realize what was happening, but then they realized that this was a vicious plot by Cao Cao's army!

If they don't accept the bribes, then the claims of the General of the Cavalry's "benevolence" will crumble, and the secret praise and encouragement of the General of the Cavalry in Xiangyang will naturally disappear...

If we accept them and allow these surrendered soldiers and patients to mingle in the camp and spread the disease, it would obviously be inappropriate. However, even if we set up separate accommodations and treated them elsewhere, it would still be troublesome.

Li Dian and Liao Hua disagreed on whether or not to accept these surrendered soldiers who were now patients.

Li Dian believed that they only needed to drive them away and there was no need to clean up Cao Cao's mess, but Liao Hua disagreed with Li Dian's opinion...

If Zhuge Liang hadn't come, Li Dian and Liao Hua might have fallen into a stalemate of disagreement and endless arguments.

With Zhuge Liang acting as a third party to mediate, a solution was quickly determined.

Even though Li Dian did not approve of accepting these surrendered soldiers and patients, once the three of them finalized their strategy, they didn't say anything more and made the same arrangements.

Liao Hua looked at the flames burning old clothes in the distance, and at the figures struggling and thrashing in the lime pit. Those dark, withered bodies, like candles flickering in the wind, made his chest feel heavy.

He couldn't help but sigh softly, "Back in the day..."

Back when the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out and refugees flocked to the area, he had also rolled around in similar pools, getting stung by the pungent lime water until his skin was torn and bleeding, just to get rid of the lice covering his body and any possible disease.

The despair of that time and the numbness of the people in the pool now bear a striking resemblance, even across the years.

War is indeed the most potent catalyst in the world.

If Liao Hua hadn't once rolled around in this pool, he might have been like Li Dian, preferring to avoid trouble, or even standing on moral high ground, coldly stating that this was a Shandong matter and why Guanzhong should take on this mess.

If Zhuge Liang hadn't traveled all the way from Guanzhong to Sichuan, and then from Jingnan to Jingbei, a young man like him wouldn't have been able to make the final decision when Li Dian and Liao Hua had differing opinions.

Of course, this doesn't mean Li Dian was wrong. In fact, if we only consider the current situation in Jingbei, Li Dian's strategy might actually be the optimal one...

Zhuge Liang also climbed the watchtower and stood beside Liao Hua. His gaze did not linger on the bodies struggling in pain, but rather looked beyond them into the distance.

On that winding mountain path, there were still shadowy figures, their steps faltering, like a flock of sheep being driven, slowly moving towards the direction of the cavalry camp.

"I bet..." Zhuge Liang suddenly said, "The Cao army soldiers who drove these people here... are less than one percent of the total number..."

Liao Hua nodded, paused for a moment, and said, "Back then... it was the same."

These ordinary civilian soldiers lost their fighting spirit and underwent self-castration...

In nature, castrated mammals are often bullied by their own kind.

This is because many mammals rely on pheromones to communicate, especially regarding sexual activity. Castration directly affects sex hormone levels, leading to changes in pheromone secretion. For example, after a male dog is castrated, other dogs may no longer be able to smell its original masculine scent, which could make the group think it's "not right."

In more hierarchical wolf packs or monkey troop groups, male status is often linked to testosterone levels. Castrated individuals experience a sharp drop in hormone levels, potentially leading to decreased dominance and a loss of their former status. Other members, noticing this change, may seize the opportunity to challenge them.

Meanwhile, in the wild, reproductively capable individuals compete more actively for resources because they need to reproduce. Castrated individuals may appear "unambitious," which is seen as a waste of resources by the group, so they will be ostracized. This is actually quite cruel, but that's how straightforward the logic is in the animal kingdom.

But there's only one advantage...

That is, domesticated pets, after being neutered, are more likely to integrate into human groups and become a tool for humans to relieve mental stress and eliminate life's worries, as well as a form of companionship.

Liao Hua's gaze darkened as he looked at those dark-skinned, emaciated 'people' who didn't even have obvious sexual characteristics.

How many years have passed, yet Shandong remains unchanged?
"Cao Cao's army is preparing to attack," Zhuge Liang said calmly. "And it's going to be a... major offensive."

Liao Hua abruptly turned his head, his eyes filled with surprise and doubt: "A full-scale attack? Why? These sick soldiers...aren't they here to deplete our supplies and spread disease?"

Liao Hua pointed to the reception area at the foot of the mountain, "The medical officers are so busy they barely have time to breathe!"

Zhuge Liang did not answer immediately. He leaned on the rough wooden railing, gazing into the distance, seemingly organizing his thoughts.

The mountain wind blew his wide sleeves, bringing with it the pungent smell of the lime pit below and faint mournful cries.

"Brother Yuanjian," Zhuge Liang finally spoke, his gaze still fixed on the mountain path, "look at those people who were driven here, are there any able-bodied men among them? Are any of them carrying weapons?"

Liao Hua squinted and looked carefully. Most of the figures on the mountain path were hunched over, staggering, and those who fell occasionally struggled for a long time before they could get up. Not to mention weapons, even decent bundles were rare.

"They're all sick, disabled, old, and weak...they look like abandoned burdens."

"Abandoned? No..." Zhuge Liang shook his head slightly. "If they were abandoned, why would Cao Cao's army bother to send troops to drive them to our camp? Wouldn't it be simpler to let them scatter and flee, or let them die in the wilderness?"

Liao Hua frowned: "You mean... this was deliberately grouped together... intentional?"

"Exactly," Zhuge Liang said with certainty. "Moreover, this decision was made only recently... A few days ago it was just a few scattered individuals, but in the last two days it has become a large force... Cao Zixiao is in dire straits in Xiangyang, and Cao Mengde is struggling to transport supplies in Yingchuan... If there weren't clear military orders, who would waste time and effort sending these scattered individuals here at this time?"

Zhuge Liang turned halfway around to look at Liao Hua, his eyes sharpening: "Driving away sick soldiers will, firstly, just as Brother Yuanjian said, deplete our supplies and medicine, and disrupt our morale. If we fail to prevent the spread of disease, we might contract it, and it could even trigger a mutiny in the camp… Secondly, these sick and disabled soldiers will block the roads, delay our scouts, and obstruct their movements…"

Zhuge Liang pointed to the surrendered soldiers and refugees below the mountain, who were under strict quarantine and undergoing fumigation and washing: "Thirdly... the arrival of these people... in my opinion... the epidemic in Cao Cao's camp is likely out of control! They are not 'spreading' the epidemic, but rather 'dumping' it!"

Zhuge Liang's voice was calm and powerful, "Or rather... they're clearing, tidying up! They're clearing the camp, making room for the army, removing obstacles!"

Liao Hua gasped, "You mean... their own camp can't hold on anymore, so they're throwing out all these sick soldiers so the healthy ones can..."

"Excellent!" Zhuge Liang nodded, his speech quickening. "Clearing out the sick and concentrating the healthy troops is a common practice for reorganizing the army before a major battle! The fact that Cao Cao's army is so eager to 'clean house,' even at the cost of exposing the appalling state of the epidemic within their camp... suggests they are forced to do so!"

Zhuge Liang gazed once more towards the end of the mountain path, as if trying to pierce through the towering peaks of Jingzhou. "Cao Cao is a trapped beast in Xiangyang… News has come from Xiangyang that rumors are rampant, and the people and soldiers are filled with resentment… Cao Cao's army is at its wits' end, with no choice but to gamble everything!"

"These surrendered and wounded soldiers..." Zhuge Liang smiled slightly, "Now, whether Cao Zixiao stays or leaves is also a dilemma!"

"Then..." Liao Hua lowered his voice, "Why doesn't Cao Cao's army..."

Zhuge Liang nodded and said, "It's not that Cao Cao is kind-hearted... but rather that he wants to take advantage of our army's distraction while receiving sick soldiers and fighting the epidemic, to swiftly wipe out a portion of our southern force, thus relieving the siege of Xiangyang and even reversing the tide of the war! Driving away the sick soldiers is just the prelude to their attack! They are using these people's lives to buy us a moment of chaos and delay, giving them time to assemble and mobilize their main army! Therefore... Cao Cao's army will definitely make a big move... but I don't yet know how they intend to do it..."

Liao Hua's expression turned completely serious. He understood.

These surrendered and sick soldiers were not simply "harassment" or "malicious," but rather a carefully planned attack signal that began with human lives!

He looked at the busy doctors and soldiers below the mountain, and at the struggling figures in the pool, and a chill rose up his spine.

"Then..." Liao Hua's voice was hoarse, "When...when will they make their move?"

Zhuge Liang looked up at the sky. The afternoon sun was still blazing, but it seemed to carry a hint of grimness.

Time is running out for them...