Late Ming Dynasty: Summoning players from Liaodong to support the Ming Dynasty

"vomit--"

Old Zhang, the auxiliary soldier pushing the supply cart, suddenly bent over, his withered hands clutching his stomach tightly, and he spat out a mouthful of acidic water.

The wooden wheels rolled over a gravel, and the unbalanced cart crashed heavily onto the muddy ground. The sacks on the cart slipped off, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Old Zhang, disregarding the bicycle, curled up like a shrimp, his thin cotton-padded jacket instantly soaked with cold sweat. His mouth was open, emitting a hissing sound like a broken bellows, and his face visibly paled.

"Old Zhang! What happened!" The auxiliary soldier next to him quickly dropped the push and rushed over to help him up.

Before he could even touch Old Zhang's arm, the auxiliary soldier's expression suddenly changed drastically. His legs went weak, and he collapsed to his knees in the mud, clutching his stomach with both hands, writhing in pain on the ground.

This is just the beginning.

In less than half an incense stick's time, one after another, people in the logistics and supply team collapsed.

The sounds of groans, vomiting, and heavy breathing instantly drowned out the screeching of wheels and the howling of the cold wind. Hundreds of auxiliary soldiers lay sprawled on both sides of the road, some even defecating in their trousers, and a pungent stench quickly filled the cold air.

The rear guard of the army was completely paralyzed.

Wang Erniu rode his horse back from the vanguard at breakneck speed, his whip cracking loudly in the air. He reined in his horse and looked at the auxiliary soldiers rolling on the ground; his bronze face instantly tightened.

"What are you all standing there for! Where's the doctor! Drag the doctor who's with the army over here!" Wang Erniu roared in his rough voice, making the players next to him cover their ears.

Two Ming soldiers, supporting an old doctor with a white beard, scrambled and crawled through the crowd.

The old doctor, carrying a tattered medicine box, trembled with fear. He squatted down beside Old Zhang and placed his withered fingers on Old Zhang's wrist. He touched it for a long time with his eyes closed, and cold sweat broke out on the old doctor's forehead.

"This...this pulse is weak and feeble, yet it carries a hint of pathogenic heat..." The old doctor trembled as he withdrew his hand, his voice shaking. "The weather has suddenly turned cold, and coupled with days of hard work, it must be due to acclimatization issues, with wind and cold entering the body, triggering a deficiency of spleen and stomach..."

"Bullshit!" Wang Erniu grabbed the old doctor by the collar and lifted him up. "Hundreds of people suffering from acclimatization problems at the same time? Do you think this is my first day leading troops into battle?!"

The old doctor was so frightened that he waved his hands repeatedly, his lips trembling: "General, please calm down! This...this onset is so rapid, and the symptoms are so consistent, it's probably...it's probably something unclean...maybe it's...the plague!"

Upon hearing the word "plague," the surrounding Ming veterans all took several steps back, their faces filled with terror.

In this era, plague was more terrifying than the Jurchen's steel blade. A sword cut only leaves a small scar, but once the plague spreads, even an army of 100,000 would be wiped out.

"Bullshit! Disrupting morale, I'll chop you down!" Wang Erniu roared in fury, drawing his ring-pommel sword halfway from his waist with a clang.

Li Xunyi came running over, panting, and grabbed Wang Erniu's wrist. The old scholar's hair was disheveled from running, his monocle was askew on his nose, and his face was full of anxiety.

"General Wang, you mustn't be rash! This matter is suspicious. If it truly is an epidemic, we should immediately isolate them and report to General Chu!" Although Li Xunyi was pedantic, he was still clear-headed when it came to matters of principle. He turned to look at the auxiliary soldiers groaning in pain on the ground, his heart aching so much that he pounded his chest. "How could we suffer such divine retribution before our mission was even accomplished!"

Panic spread like wildfire among the NPC soldiers.

But the group of players next to them had a completely different style.

A group of players with brightly colored IDs not only didn't leave, but instead gathered around with great enthusiasm, and some even took out black cubes to take screenshots.

"Holy crap, what kind of plot is this? Resident Evil DLC?"

"A group debuff event! It must be Huang Taiji poisoning us!"

"This NPC's vomit looks so realistic! The modeling team is amazing; they even included potato chunks in the vomit!"

"Quick, quick, someone go touch it and see if we can trigger some hidden antibody quest!"

Qian Lele held up the black cube, even shoving the camera right in the face of a soldier suffering from diarrhea, while announcing, "Family members, breaking news! The Ming Dynasty's logistics forces have been attacked by an unknown biological weapon! This smell is... incredible!"

Chu Ze rode a black horse, surrounded by a group of guards, and pushed his way through the crowd to the center of the incident.

His dark heavy armor gleamed with a cold, hard sheen in the gloomy light. He surveyed the mess below from his elevated position, his face so grim it could drip water.

"General Chu!" Wang Erniu and Li Xunyi quickly bowed.

Chu Ze ignored the old doctor who was lying on the ground in fright and turned to look at the guards behind him.

"Go and fetch Anji. Bring his medical camp with you."

In less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.

Anji, pushing a modified unicycle, arrived at breakneck speed, leading a dozen or so players in white coats. His homemade monocle was tied behind his head with a thin rope, and his leather apron was still stained with dark red blood from treating the wounded the day before.

"Get out of the way! Stop crowding! You're blocking the airflow!" Anji shouted at the onlookers, quickly pulling out several rolls of coarse cloth from the wheelbarrow and directing his men to set up a cordon.

He didn't take the pulse like the old doctor did.

Anji walked directly to Old Zhang, who was vomiting the most, squatted down, took out a wooden tongue depressor from his wallet, and forcibly pried open Old Zhang's mouth to take a look. Then, he actually leaned close to the puddle of foul-smelling vomit and poked at it a few times with a twig.

The Ming veterans around felt their stomachs churning, and even Wang Erniu couldn't help but turn his head away.

"Dr. An, this is a plague! Don't get so close!" Li Xunyi was so anxious outside the isolation zone that he kept stamping his feet.

Anji stood up, casually tossed the branch aside, took off his monocle and wiped it on his clothes, a mocking sneer curling at the corner of his mouth.

"Plague? Which quack doctor said that?" Anji glanced at the old doctor slumped on the ground. "A mass outbreak, no fever, no signs of respiratory infection, just severe abdominal pain, vomiting, and watery diarrhea. If this is a plague, I'll eat this medicine box alive."

The old doctor's face flushed red, and he retorted stubbornly, "What do you know, you little brat! Your pulse is weak and feeble, it's internal heat attacking you, what else could it be but the plague!"

"Shut up," Anji interrupted him rudely. "A weak pulse indicates dehydration! The internal heat is due to spasms of the smooth muscles in the gastrointestinal tract! This is called acute gastroenteritis!"

He turned to look at Chu Ze, his tone instantly becoming extremely professional and confident.

"General, this is a classic case of food poisoning. Moreover, it's due to the ingestion of some kind of highly irritating plant toxin. The toxicity isn't severe enough to be fatal, but it's enough to completely incapacitate someone within a few hours."

Chu Ze narrowed his eyes slightly and tapped his fingers lightly on the hilt of his sword.

"Can you identify what kind of poison it is?"

Anji pointed to the vomit on the ground: "There were undigested potato chunks in it. I just asked a few of the soldiers with mild symptoms, and they were all auxiliary soldiers who ate the third batch of breakfast. Those who didn't eat that pot of potato soup are perfectly fine."

Chu Ze's expression turned completely cold.

This is not a natural disaster, it is a man-made disaster.

Someone tampered with the military rations.

Su Qingying rushed over from behind, her blue cloak stained with mud. When she saw the auxiliary soldiers groaning on the ground and heard An Ji's diagnosis, her face turned deathly pale.

"General..." Su Qingying knelt down in the mud with a thud, her voice trembling and her eyes red, "It's Qingying's fault! I've always personally checked the supplies, and I even led a patrol last night, and we didn't find anything unusual..."

She was an extremely strong-willed and meticulous person. Such a huge mistake in logistics was more painful for her than death.

Chu Ze glanced at her but did not scold her.

"Now is not the time to assign blame." Chu Ze's voice was cold and hard, but it steadied Su Qingying's emotions. "Get up. Seal all the third batch of rations. Not a single pot or bowl is to be touched. Anji, take men to investigate and find the source of the poison!"

"Understood." Anji snapped his fingers. "Medical team, bring activated charcoal and saline solution. Induce vomiting and rehydrate these NPCs! Be quick, don't let them get dehydrated!"

The player medics immediately sprang into action, pulling out all sorts of strange-looking tools that would seem odd to the ancients, instantly transforming the scene into a large emergency room.

Chu Ze turned around and looked at the line that stretched for miles.

With their supply train paralyzed, the army could not advance. Without food and gunpowder, these tens of thousands of players would be nothing but a casualty once they reached the capital.

This move by the opponent was extremely insidious. They didn't kill people, but attacked their spirits, precisely striking at the army's weak point.

"Pass on the order." Chu Ze took a deep breath of the cold air, his voice carrying far in the cold wind.

"All troops, set up camp on the spot! No one is to break camp without my order!"

Wang Erniu hesitated for a moment, then hurriedly clasped his hands in a fist salute: "General! The capital is in grave danger, we can't afford to delay! We can leave these auxiliary troops behind and go first!"

"Without logistics, what are you going to use to fight the Jurchen heavy cavalry? Are you going to ram them headfirst?" Chu Ze gave him a cold look.

Wang Erniu was speechless, and could only angrily slam his fist into the tree trunk next to him, shaking off a pile of ice shards.

The army was forced to halt its advance.

The camp was rebuilt, but the atmosphere was completely different. The previously high morale was overshadowed by this sudden change.

The player forums were in an uproar.

"Holy crap, I'm stuck on the main quest? What kind of ridiculous system is this?!"

"Poison circle??"

"Have you found out who did it? I'm going to gang rape him!"

Chu Ze stood alone outside the central command tent, looking at the busy medical camp in the distance.

Long Shuo sat in a tent a few miles away, watching the halted army, a smug smile undoubtedly on his lips. The strategy of delaying the army had succeeded; although it hadn't triggered a plague panic, it had effectively crippled the army's mobility.

Chu Ze's lips curled into a cold, emotionless smile.

Playing dirty tricks?

In the five years he spent in Guangning City, he had seen all sorts of monsters and demons.

A gentle breeze swept by, and without warning, a figure appeared in the shadows behind Chu Ze.

Qin Jue was dressed in all black, only his sharp eyes were visible. He didn't say a word, just stood there quietly, like a dagger ready to drink blood at any moment.

"Go investigate." Chu Ze didn't turn around, his voice was extremely low, only the two of them could hear it.

"Su Qingying's ledgers are clean; the problem lies with the guards last night. Go and give me a detailed list of everyone responsible for guarding the third batch of supplies last night, including players and NPCs."

Qin Jue nodded slightly.

"And another thing," Chu Ze's tone revealed a chilling killing intent, "focus on investigating those who briefly left the camp last night, or those whose whereabouts were suspicious. No matter who they are, no matter which guild they belong to."

"Understood." Qin Jue's voice was hoarse and dry, without any unnecessary words.

As soon as he finished speaking, the black figure disappeared back into the shadows.

Chu Ze looked up at the gray sky.

Huang Taiji was waiting for him.

The maggots lurking in the shadows are also waiting for him to make a mistake.

But Chu Ze never plays by the rules.

"Trying to stall me?" Chu Ze snorted coldly, turned around and walked back to the main tent.

A silent cleansing is about to begin on this frozen land.

Anji acted quickly.

In less than half an hour, he entered the central command tent carrying a rough porcelain bowl. The bowl was half-filled with murky muddy water, with some pale purple powder settled at the bottom.

"General, we've found it." Anji placed the bowl heavily on the table and pushed up his monocle.

"This stuff is mixed in with the dirt on the potato peels, and you can't tell the difference unless you look closely. I had someone wash a few bags of potatoes that hadn't been cooked yet, and this is what came out when they were filtered out."

Chu Ze stared at the powder at the bottom of the bowl.

"This is called 'intestinal herb,' a kind of herb that only grows in shady, muddy ditches." Anji curled his lip, his tone carrying a hint of professional disdain. "Its effects are extremely rapid, specifically damaging the intestinal mucosa. The person who administered it was very crude, and the dosage was poorly controlled; some potatoes had too much, some had too little. So some auxiliary soldiers suffered from dehydration, while others only had stomach aches."

"Can it be cured?" Chu Ze asked the core question directly.

"Yes. Drink a few bowls of concentrated salt water, eat some charcoal powder to absorb the toxins, and you'll recover after a day of rest." Anji shrugged. "You won't die, but you definitely won't be able to walk today."

Chu Ze nodded and waved for An Ji to leave.

The tent flap was lifted, and Su Qingying walked in with red eyes. She was holding several thick ledgers in her hands, her knuckles white from the force of her grip.

"General, I've checked." Su Qingying's voice was still trembling slightly, but her words were still clear. "Last night, from midnight to 1 AM, the people responsible for guarding the third batch of provisions were several chosen ones from the Divine Continent Guild. But at that time, they were in what they called 'AFK' mode, completely unresponsive to the outside world."

She bit her lower lip, her face full of self-reproach. She had been aware of this strange state of the Chosen Ones for a long time, but because nothing had ever happened before, she had overlooked it.

"It's not your fault," Chu Ze said calmly. "There's no such thing as a thief who's been stealing for a thousand days, let alone someone who's been guarding against thieves for a thousand days."

He opened the ledger that Su Qingying handed him, which was filled with detailed records of every single item that had been moved.

Just then, the shadow in the corner of the tent twisted again.

Qin Jue appeared silently, holding a crumpled piece of paper in his hand.

He walked to the table and laid the paper flat.

"The list." Qin Jue's voice remained completely calm.

Chu Ze glanced down at the note. It listed more than a dozen names, some of which Qin Jue had circled with red cinnabar.

"Those circled individuals all have alibis from last night," Qin Jue explained. "The others, however, require closer investigation."

Highly recommend "Late Ming Dynasty: Summoning Players from Liaodong to Support the Ming Dynasty"! Click to enter the story world.