Zongwu: Madam, please respect yourself

The flames continued to burn under the city wall.

The smell of rotten and burnt paste penetrated into the nostrils, and the strong stench made people feel like their hair was crawling, and an indescribable feeling spread all over the body. The soldiers on the city wall all looked pale, and they looked numbly at the fire that had been burning for many days below the city wall.

From the fear on the first day, the panic on the second day, the nausea on the third day to now just numbly looking at the fire below, it can be said that the soldiers on the city wall have grown a lot.

No one knows why this war became such a situation.

Queen Wu walks on the city wall.

Behind her were two teams of generals, including the young and strong ones she had trained over the years, as well as veteran generals who had made great achievements in the early years. It is no exaggeration to say that the generals behind her are one of the biggest trump cards against Wu Guogong this time.

It turned out to be exactly what Queen Wu thought at the beginning.

Because of their thorough knowledge and perfect intelligence work, the imperial army entered Fujian with almost overwhelming force. The mob gathered by Wu Guogong was not the enemy of the imperial army at all.

It only took a month to capture 19 cities on Fujian East Road and Fujian West Road, two official roads, and completely imprisoned Wu Guogong in a small circle centered on Fuzhou. Although Wu Guogong had There are still hundreds of thousands of troops, but anyone with a discerning eye can see that defeat is certain.

Duke Wu wanted to negotiate.

I want to exchange the hundreds of thousands of troops on hand for a small prince in a remote area.

However, Queen Wu did not give him a chance to negotiate at all. Not only did he refuse the negotiation, he also beheaded the envoys who came to negotiate. Then the army pressed on the border and began to encroach on Fuzhou bit by bit.

But what no one expected was.

A sudden epidemic swept through the imperial army.

among the army.

Soldiers rarely survived the disease for more than three days.

Not only did the offensive momentum drop sharply, it could even be considered stagnant.

Even though Queen Wu had prepared a large amount of medicinal herbs in advance, she did not expect that such an epidemic would come so violently.

Empress Wu relied on the experience she learned from the Five Poison Cult. Once she encountered infected soldiers, she would kill them without mercy. At the beginning, such actions did have the effect of curbing the spread of the disease.

Moreover, as more and more doctors were urgently recruited into the imperial army, some special medicines were also provided, and the soldiers began to recover quickly. It looks like we can continue to attack again.

But no one thought that it was just the last calm before the storm.

Overnight.

Tens of thousands of infected or recovered soldiers have all turned into monsters that don't know pain and prefer fresh flesh and blood. The scary thing about these monsters is that not only do they not know pain, but they also have infinite strength.

It can run as fast as an average horse and is extremely contagious.

Just one bite.

It will become feverish and crazy within a few hours and turn into a man-eating monster.

Empress Wu always remembered what happened that night.

There was a general named Sun Jin.

He is one of the generals of the Qingzhuang sect. He is a very talented young man. Although his martial arts is not very good, he is superb in arranging troops and formations, and has the style of Wuhou Zhuge.

But because his martial arts skills were not very good, he fell ill as soon as the epidemic arrived. In order to prevent such an outstanding young general from dying young. Empress Wu was most concerned about his condition. When she heard that he was cured, she hosted a banquet for him in person.

But I never expected it.

Just at that banquet.

Empress Wu lost nearly half of her generals.

The violent Sun Jin was obviously just an ordinary person with no power to restrain a chicken. But he burst out with overwhelming power. With the power of one person, dozens of generals with martial arts skills were unable to suppress him, and they were all bitten by him.

Empress Wu had no choice but to kill him herself.

But I didn't expect that it would only be a few hours later.

The generals who were bitten all showed similar symptoms.

Then came the mutual infection.

Wait until dawn the next day.

Several military camps with tens of thousands of troops stationed were completely destroyed, with less than a few thousand people escaping. As for the cities on the border of Fujian, they turned into dead cities, and the cities were full of crazy life. corpse.

The imperial army shrunk across the board.

Withdrew from Fujian again, and blocked all the checkpoints between Fujian and the outside world, temporarily blocking these invulnerable living corpses.

After these days of research.

Empress Wu found that these monsters had almost no weaknesses. If there was a weakness, it would be that their intelligence was not very strong. However, compared with their super endurance and extremely strong hearing and perception abilities, Such weaknesses are almost negligible.

At most, it makes a fierce and harsh sound. Just attract them here.

But the sound should not be too harsh.

Because if it is too harsh, it will make these living zombies fall into a state of excitement. Facing the towering city wall, they can even set up a ladder and climb up!

Stand on the top of the city wall.

Looking at the beacon fire in the distance.

That was another city dozens of miles away.

The beacon fire at this moment is no longer an alarm device.

It is a device to report safety.

If the beacon is lit every day, you can know whether the city is safe. If the beacon is not lit at the specified time, it means that the city has fallen.

"Your Highness, I have made sufficient preparations. Although these living corpses are powerful and agile, they are not very smart. We can use our wisdom to dig traps and use weapons!" A young general knelt down on one knee. He sent his own suggestion to Queen Wu: "We still have hundreds of thousands of troops on hand. As long as we use appropriate methods, we can reopen the passage to Fuzhou in two months. The annihilation of Wu Guogong is just around the corner."

His speech naturally received heartfelt ridicule from many generals, but they soon put away their smiles because they discovered that Queen Wu's face actually showed a heartbeat expression.

After thinking about it carefully, each of them showed a helpless expression. An army of more than 100,000 people spent tens of thousands of taels of silver every day. This was because they did not attack and were huddled in various cities. Once they are marching and fighting, the daily expenses will be even greater. What's more important is that although there is no shortage of military expenses for the time being, there is a lack of a lot of food and grass.

Especially those cities that are surrounded by living corpses, because they are cut off from the outside world, they have no source of food, so if the passage between the cities is not opened as soon as possible, then there will soon be people who exchange their children for food. Condition.

The city has become an isolated island. Faced with endless living rocks that can't be seen to the end, the morale in the city will quickly decline.

How long it can last depends entirely on God's will, but it will definitely not last a month.

Although Empress Wu was very moved by this suggestion, she did not immediately express her approval. Instead, she still looked at the living corpse below that was crowded with people.

She was waiting for a piece of information.

She had to know where the damn things came from first.

Only then can you take the next step.

However, one thing she knew very well was that some clans in the south of the Yangtze River must have known that something like this was about to happen, otherwise why would they move their families and sell their grains at extremely high prices?

These damn clans have already alienated themselves from the imperial court. The imperial court still gives them tax exemptions and food exemptions every year. Unexpectedly, they have raised a bunch of white-eyed wolves.

While he was thinking, a white figure passed over the dense crowd of heads.

Countless living corpses raised their palms, trying to catch the white figure, but in vain.

I could only watch as the white figure sprinted across a distance of several hundred feet to the city gate.

The white figure turned around, and flames several feet high appeared out of thin air, igniting all the living corpses that rushed around, and then began to run upward along the city wall.

Queen Wu took out a long whip from behind.

With a strong swing, he threw it downwards, caught the white figure leaping high, and pulled her directly onto the city wall. This woman was none other than someone who was dressed in snow-white, with a white mask on her face. The red fire Buddha Mother is surging up and down with blazing true energy.

Empress Wu asked her urgently: "What happened? Where did these damn living corpses come from?"

The Red Fire Buddha Mother took off the mask on her face.

His brows were furrowed.

With a very serious voice, he glanced at the group of living corpses that were boiling again under the city wall and said, "Your Highness, do you still remember the news that came from Goryeo a few years ago?"

"what news?"

Empress Wu fell into deep thought. Of course, the court had spies about Goryeo, but in the past few years, all her thoughts had been on Mongolia, the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and Duke Wu. She may have seen what happened in Gaoli before, but she really couldn't remember it at all for a while.

However, it’s not her fault. No one is a saint, so who can do everything?

The Scarlet Fire Buddha Mother did not say much, but began to explain in detail, "There was an epidemic in Goryeo five years ago. The White Lotus Sect originally had a branch in Goryeo. Although its strength was average, it could provide food every year. The chief teacher provided millions of taels of silver as support.

But since five years ago, there has been no movement there. At first, we thought it might be that the branch there thought that its power had become stronger and wanted to develop independently.

But as time went by, we gradually discovered something was wrong.

There was no news from the several waves of troops sent out, so the then Holy Son of White Lotus was asked to go there in person.

But no one expected that the news he brought back shocked us. It turned out that the branch on the Goryeo side did not want independence, but all died.

In fact, most of Goryeo has become a dead zone.

But because he arrived a step late, he didn't know what happened there, and he didn't see what happened there with his own eyes.

However, through the few words of the surviving Koryo people, we know that a sudden epidemic swept across the entire Koryo, and half of the people turned into moving corpses. They were hungry for blood and killed people everywhere. In the end, the endless tide of corpses, like a wave, submerged half of Goryeo. However, due to the arrival of winter, these movable corpses were frozen into ice blocks, and only a quarter of the Goryeo people survived. . "

Empress Wu immediately showed an angry expression on her face, "You mean, these living corpses outside are caused by the disease introduced from Goryeo?"

The Scarlet Fire Buddha Mother nodded and said, "I came out of Fuzhou City. There was no epidemic in Fuzhou City, and it was sprinkled with lime in advance. The air was full of the smell of burning mugwort. This shows that they I must have known about the possible epidemic in advance, so I was fully prepared. In addition, I also learned from the White Lotus Sect members in Fuzhou City that the time for prevention in Fuzhou City happened to be the time when the epidemic broke out here. .This strange disease was definitely released by Wu Guogong.

Moreover, the White Lotus Sect also received a reward from Duke Wu, requiring us, the White Lotus Sect, to secretly put a kind of white dust into the wells in each captured city. "

"what?"

The Buddha Mother took out a cloth parcel from her arms.

Slowly opened the package.

Inside is an extremely fine white dust.

It looks a bit like wall dust.

The Queen reached for it.

But the Red Fire Buddha Mother grabbed her and said, "Don't touch it. After touching this thing, a rash will appear on the skin, and it is contagious. I am not afraid because I have the Red Fire Qi to protect my body. White Lotus Sect Many believers are infected, and they have to use a knife to cut out the entire infected flesh and blood to contain it." Then she wrapped the package again and threw the package directly off the city wall, while there was no trace of blood on the palm of her hand. The cause of the fire. It took a while before the flames were put away.

Queen Wu fell into silence.

Now that we know the origin of this living corpse.

Then we should send troops again immediately.

Eliminate the living corpses and once again besiege Fuzhou.

But this meant that hundreds of thousands of troops had to pay an extremely heavy price.

And there won't be any supplies on the road ahead.

Because all the cities in front have become dead cities, and only a few have become isolated islands, which means that the supply requirements for the rear are particularly stringent. It is hundreds of miles away from here to Fuzhou. Once the supply line is cut off, something terrible is likely to happen.

The Scarlet Fire Buddha Mother seemed to see Empress Wu's worries, and a strange smile appeared on her face: "Your Majesty, I know you are anxious, but Duke Wu must be more anxious. Because all his military expenditures come from ocean trade, but Now the whole of Fujian is full of living corpses. The goods he bought from the West can't be sold at all, and because the trade routes are cut off, things from outside can't be transported in at all. He is seeking death now. We don't have to worry and just use Just wait quietly for the arrival of winter!" (End of this chapter)