The gods began by supporting Guo Jing to become emperor

Chapter 199: The Mongol Trick and the Opportunity Brought by the Plague
Man-made disasters are more terrible than natural disasters. The impact of war is only the decline of people's livelihood and the deaths of common people, but plague can turn an area of ​​thousands of miles into a ghost town faster than killing people.

In just over ten days, nearly 10,000 people in the Han army camp suffered from fever, diarrhea, vomiting and other symptoms to varying degrees.

The tent was filled with smoke and the smell of burning wormwood was particularly pungent.

Wang Shan pointed at the roster in his hand, his face full of sorrow, "My Lord, two more battalions have collapsed. We have tried everything we can think of, but there is still no effect. What should we do?"

"At this point, we have no choice but to withdraw our troops." Guo Jing sighed, "Wang Shan, send someone to count the number of people immediately. The healthy soldiers should go first, all the way back to Luoyang and the Three Jins. Send out elite soldiers to guard the main roads, and don't let the refugees attack the checkpoints."

The plague came too suddenly and spread too violently, and it has already shown a trend of spreading to Hebei. Fortunately, Hedong and Guanzhong are far apart, and there are mountains blocking the way, so not many refugees can run there. But this is just the beginning, and the situation in the future will be even more severe.

"My subordinate understands."

Afterwards, Guo Jing summoned his generals and announced the withdrawal of troops. No one present objected. Under the plague, all beings are equal. Once infected, the consequences are unpredictable. The sooner the troops are withdrawn, the sooner they can feel at ease.

……

In the Mongolian camp, a calm voice sounded, "Uncle, I am withdrawing my troops."

Mu Huali was a little surprised, "So fast?"

Guo Jing said calmly, "Thousands of people have died. All the seriously injured soldiers in the army have died. Thousands of others have symptoms of plague. Uncle, I'm afraid your soldiers are probably in the same situation. If we continue to fight, even if we take Kaifeng, we will have very few soldiers left. If the Jin army counterattacks, the consequences will be disastrous."

After these words were spoken, Mu Huali fell silent for a rare time. Although he did not say anything, Guo Jing saw that his brows were furrowed and there were very few soldiers walking around in the barracks. He guessed that there must be more people infected with the plague in the Mongolian army than him.

"You guessed right. Several troops in my army have been infected with the plague. We only know that it came from the north, and we have not found a cure yet." Mu Huali said, and the wrinkles on his face deepened. "Retreat, I will retreat with you."

Guo Jing was not surprised at all, as he had expected such a situation. Once he left, Mu Huali would be unable to hold on alone and would have to withdraw his troops.

……

After Guo Jing left, Mu Huali sat in the central military tent, his dark face full of worry. Even if he returned to Hebei this time, he was afraid that he would not be able to go south in the next few years. This was not something that could be easily solved by human power.

His expression kept changing, and finally a hint of cruelty flashed across his face, "Humph, I'll let you go this time, but I won't let you off easily either!"

Then, he called his personal soldiers...

On the Kaifeng city wall, Wanyan Chenghui, surrounded by soldiers, walked behind the parapet, his expression full of confusion, "Strange, they haven't attacked the city for half a month, what conspiracy does Mu Huali have?"

It was a good thing that the Mongols did not attack the city, as this greatly relieved the pressure on the city defense. However, the fact that there had been no action for such a long time made Wanyan Chenghui even more worried. He even climbed up the city wall himself to look at the enemy camp.

However, in the camp, there was only smoke rising from the cooking fires, blocking out the sky.

"Enemy attack!"

Suddenly, a soldier on the watchtower on the city wall roared loudly.

"General, retreat!"

Wanyan Chenghui knew that the enemy's catapults were very powerful, so he didn't dare to stay on the city wall and immediately left the city wall in a hurry.

The Jin soldiers on the city wall were ready for battle, but the Mongolian army came out with dozens of catapults. Seeing this, the Jin soldiers easily hid behind the parapets, and a familiar sound whistled up.

"Clap!"

There was no familiar shaking sound, and no warm or cold liquid was splashed on them. The Jin soldiers looked confused. They wiped their faces, saw the blood on their hands, and looked at the "fallen objects" in the distance. There were no stones at all, but only a pool of meat paste, and broken limbs and corpses were scattered all over the ground, a sea of ​​blood.

The scene before them was so inexplicably strange that the soldiers were speechless. The only thought left in their minds was: Are the Mongols suffering from hysteria?

In just a short moment, the city walls were covered with traces of blood, and many soldiers were covered in blood, but they didn't care. They had fought with the enemy in the past few days, and they were always covered in blood. This little blood was nothing, they just needed to wipe it off their faces.

After half an hour, the enemy retreated and did not attack the city as they had imagined. This attack left them confused. The officers below did not know what was going on and could only report the matter to Wanyan Chenghui.

When this person heard this, he didn't know what the Mongols were going to do, so he could only ignore it.

However, a few days later, the army besieging Kaifeng retreated one after another. Wanyan Chenghui was afraid that this was a strategy to lure the enemy, so he did not dare to leave the city to pursue. It was not until Guo Jing and Mu Huali's hundreds of thousands of troops had completely evacuated that he carefully sent soldiers out of the city to investigate.

When the soldiers came back to report, he realized that the enemy had really retreated, but the battle was a whimper and he couldn't figure out why the enemy retreated. It was not until more than ten days after the enemy withdrew that he understood the reason.

Wanyan Chenghui's hands trembled as he watched his generals' reports. When he saw the word "plague" written in black and white on the paper, his heart sank to the bottom. "Plague, Mu Huali is really hateful!"

There could be no other reason other than plague that could cause hundreds of thousands of troops to retreat without fighting.

What's even more terrifying is that a month has passed since Mu Huali threw the plague-infected corpses into the city. In other words, the plague has been spreading in the city for a month. Thinking of this, he was scared to death and hurriedly summoned doctors in the city to diagnose himself and his family and confidants. When he found out that several people had been infected, his expression suddenly changed.

That night, Wanyan Chenghui fled Kaifeng with his family. He wanted to go to Jiankang to ask for credit and escape the disaster. How could the plague be more important than his life?
In order to protect his own credit, he suppressed the information and concealed the plague.

When he arrived in Jiankang, Wanyan Honglie learned that the Mongolian army was defeated and failed to capture Kaifeng. He realized that there was something fishy about this matter, but the commander Wanyan Chenghui insisted that the enemy had run out of food and grass and was afraid of Wanyan Saibu's reinforcements, so he could only let the matter go.

For a time, the Jin court was celebrating and filled with laughter, but little did they know that the real nightmare was about to begin.

……

After the army crossed the Yellow River, Guo Jing's troops were divided into two parts, one part went to the Three Jins, and the other part went to Guanzhong. The remaining old, weak and soldiers with plague were placed in military camps outside Luoyang.

The plague spread very quickly, and Luoyang was one of the few big cities here. Before the army returned, the plague had already spread to Luoyang.

A long, pitch-black dragon was moving on the official road. Guo Jing sat in the middle of the carriage. Even though incense was burning on the carriage, with his sharp five senses as a warrior, he could still smell the faint stench in the air. With every village passed, the stench became stronger, and the fields were filled with dead bodies.

Walking along the road, the villages near the official road were already empty. Passing by the village entrance, many dead bodies could be seen on the road and ridges, some were still wrapped in bundles, as if they were trying to escape the plague, but they fell ill and died on the way before they could leave. The view ahead was clearer, and the living people silently shed tears and slapped the ground beside the bodies of their relatives; some dug holes while crying out the names of the dead.

Guo Jing looked at the scenes in front of him, his eyes full of worry. At first, he felt a little guilty. If he and Mu Huali had not started this war, perhaps the plague would not have come at all.

Later he figured it out. As long as there was a war, the plague would come sooner or later. It was just a matter of time. Besides, even if he was not there, Mu Huali would still start a war. The result might not be any different whether he came or not.

Surrounded by soldiers, he entered Luoyang.

Luoyang was deserted, the streets were empty, and the anxious people rarely took to the streets. Near the east gate, only a few people opened the windows and listened for something. As the carriage passed by here, Guo Jing lifted the curtain and heard faint cries coming from outside the city.

He sighed softly, said nothing, and drove the carriage slowly towards the marquis's mansion.

……

After arriving in Luoyang, he had more manpower at his disposal. He first collected medicinal materials in the city and ordered doctors to boil them into medicinal soup, which he distributed to the people in the city. Then he sent soldiers to check the people and gathered the patients who were suspected of being sick or were already sick in the city and isolated them from ordinary people.

In the face of the plague, even the richest and most powerful people did not dare to act recklessly. They began to investigate themselves and handed over the people they had killed. The powerful also did not dare to act rashly. At most, they gave preferential treatment to their families. Few people dared to conceal such a thing.

As time went by, the plague became more and more severe. Almost every family in Henan and Hebei had deaths. Nine out of ten houses in the countryside were empty. People had to leave their homes and flee their old places, either to the south of the Yangtze River or to Guanzhong.

Thanks to Guo Jing's early withdrawal, elite soldiers guarded the important roads in Jin and Guanzhong, and a large number of refugees were blocked outside the pass and could not enter. In the end, they could only leave in despair.

Looking over from the city wall of Hulao Pass, groups of ragged figures were gathering on the fields and official roads opposite. The generals on the city wall shouted at them loudly, asking them to stay away from the city gate, and even signaled the soldiers to shoot arrows to scare them to retreat a certain distance. Even so, many people still rushed over and blocked the city gate. The miserable sound waves passed over the city wall and into the city.

Guo Jing walked up to the top of the city wall, silently looking at the dark mass below, and then in the farther direction, on the horizon where the sky and the earth met, an indescribable number of people gradually merged into a black line, stretching across the mountains and plains, rushing towards the pass.

Even though he had seen this kind of scene many times, he still felt uncomfortable. He took a deep breath and said in a deep voice, "Tell the powerful people in Guanzhong and the Three Jins to find a way to provide disaster relief and grain. If anyone doesn't provide grain, don't blame me for being cruel!"

That’s right, Guo Jing was short of food.

In addition to the previous attacks on Guanzhong and Luoyang, and the war that lasted for most of last year, the food in the treasury is already empty. Now it is the spring ploughing time but there is a plague. It is foreseeable that there will be a food shortage this year and next year.

Not only is there a shortage of food, but there is also a shortage of medicinal materials. The more times get like this, the more people tend to hoard goods. Guo Jing has already ordered the raids of several medicinal material merchants' homes, and only then has he managed to intimidate those people.

In the distance that they could not see, on the plains hundreds of miles away from the Great Wall, more victims were pouring in here, layer upon layer. In their subconscious cognition, they all believed that only the government in Luoyang city could find a way to keep them alive.

In the Marquis' Mansion, Guo Jing was bent over the desk with a frown on his face. The more he looked, the more upset he became. The plague was like a huge rock pressing on his heart.

However, the plague in Luoyang City was never brought under control. Thousands of people were found infected every day, and the crematoriums outside the city burned day and night without a moment's rest.

One day, Lu Guanying and other generals arrived at the Marquis's residence. They knelt in the hall and pleaded, "My Lord, the plague in Luoyang is getting worse. You are worth a lot of money, and you must not make any mistakes. You should hurry back to Guanzhong!"

Guo Jing's eyes suddenly turned cold, "I have already made a decision on this matter, don't mention it again."

Wang Shan and the others were stunned and felt a heavy power coming towards them. They were speechless for a moment. However, Lu Guanying suddenly looked up and said bluntly, "I dare not. The plague is unpredictable. The Marquis is the one with the people's expectations. If anything goes wrong, we will die without hesitation." At this moment, he really didn't want Guo Jing to get into trouble.

Hearing this, Guo Jing's expression softened, but he just shook his head, "You all didn't leave, so how could I leave? If I leave, what will happen to the people of Luoyang and the tens of thousands of soldiers outside the city? Am I going to watch them die?"

"I called you here today because I have a great mission for you."

"The plague is raging in the North. I must stay in Luoyang to stabilize the people's hearts. I can't leave in the short term. In the next few years, there will be no major wars in the North. Someone must take my place to stay and deter both the people inside and outside."

After saying that, Guo Jing walked up to Lu Guanying, patted his shoulder, and said earnestly, "Guanying, you have been with me the longest. The terrain of the Three Jins is complicated, and Xijing is the gateway. You have to keep an eye on it and don't cause any trouble."

Upon hearing this, Lu Guanying felt mixed emotions. He never expected that what Guo Jing said that day was actually true!

"I obey my orders!"

"Shi Bingzhi..."

"Shi Tianni..."

"Zhang Rou..."

"Wang Shan..."

……

As the generals were settled in their places, Guo Jing held a banquet in the marquis's mansion to entertain everyone, which lasted until late at night.

The next day, all the generals came to his house to bid farewell to him, and then each of them took their personal soldiers to take charge of the local areas.

After arranging them, Guo Jing began to focus on sorting out government affairs and integrating the resources under his command.

Although the plague is an important issue, there are rarely large-scale outbreaks in Guanzhong and the Three Jins. Therefore, he has a stable rear, and as long as there is a steady flow of resources invested, this plague will be overcome sooner or later.

What he had to do was to receive the refugees from Henan and Hebei and resettle them in local areas.

Not all people who contract the plague will die, and not all refugees will be infected with the plague. As long as these people can survive, they will be the capital for his growth, and if he saves these people's lives, they will become his loyal subjects in the future.

A few days later, notices to reassure the people were sent to various counties in Henan. When the people heard the news, they rushed to Luoyang with their families in order to survive.

The eagle spread its wings, overlooking the dry land, and let out a long cry in the clouds. Below its soaring figure, in the distance, the Yellow River was in the distance, and more than a dozen cavalrymen crossed the turbulent river and headed north.

There are also opportunities in disasters. In the past, it was extremely difficult to relocate the people. Now that Guo Jing is forcing them to relocate, he only needs a little guidance and the people will naturally gather in his territory.

How can this not be called an opportunity?
(End of this chapter)