Chongzhen Undergraduates

Chapter 559 : Liu Xuanchu finds out the source of poisoning

Here is a valley, here is a small river, the small river flows slowly from north to south.

The weather in early summer is not hot at all, especially in the Dabie Mountains, but it is the most comfortable season of the year.There are dense forests and dense vegetation here, and a narrow path leads to the south along the valley.Pedestrians walking on this road don't need to ask, most of them are going to Wuchang.

Contrary to such vigor and vitality, there is a group of tens of thousands of troops who walk staggeringly and are listless. They lie on the bank of the river in twos and threes, burning a fire, cooking some gruel and eating, gathering together listlessly and rarely talking.

A large group of military doctors bowed their waists and shuttled back and forth between the camps with wooden sticks. A group of young and strong men were forced to cook something in a row of marching cauldrons.

"Your Majesty, we have found the crux of the poisoning. It is the coarse salt we eat. The doctor said that we only need to filter the impurities in the coarse salt, and then get clean refined salt, and everyone will be saved." Many people are better off.

As Wu Sangui's counselor second only to Fang Guangzhang, his strategy is still higher than Fang Guangzun's, but his background cannot be compared with Fang Guangzun's.At least in the early days of Wu Sangui's influence, Fang Guangzhang, who came from a famous family, had a higher status than Liu Xuanchu.As for the later part of the official history, Liu Xuanchu's talent still received enough attention from Wu Sangui.

As the most counselor, Liu Xuanchu has one characteristic, that is, he is very careful.He is a literati, and he likes clear soup with little water when he eats, so this person doesn't take much magnesium sulfate at all, and his health is better than many people.

After so many days of deduction, Liu Xuanchu has found the root cause of the Ming army's poisoning.Ginseng poison in salt is unheard of throughout the ages.The poisoning methods that everyone can think of are alcohol, food and so on.

"Are you sure?" Wu Sangui was dubious, he even suspected that Liu Xuanchu did this, otherwise why would he look like a normal person.

"Your Majesty, once you have trusted me, I will make refined salt on the spot." Liu Xuanchu said with certainty.

As a cultural person, knowing some things is naturally much better than ordinary people.Salt farmers on the seaside cook salt or dry salt, which is a process of removing impurities and evaporating water.But the taste of boiled salt is bitterer than that of sun-dried salt, and the symptoms of eating too much are a bit similar to Zhou Jun now.

Sun-drying salt requires an additional process of precipitating brine, and the salt is much healthier.Liu Xuanchu is a talented scholar who knows the affairs of the world without going out.He did find the root of the problem, but unfortunately he only knew theory but not practice, let alone chemistry.

In front of Wu Sangui, Liu Xuanchu carefully filtered the fully dissolved coarse salt water through multiple layers of cotton cloth, and finally got a large vat of clear salt water.Then, in the earthenware pot, let some of the captured Baixin cook desperately.

"Look, this is refined salt. It is the same as the refined salt found from the homes of the untouchables." Liu Xuanchu complacently compared the boiled salt with the refined salt looted from the common people.

Wu Sangui really couldn't see any obvious difference between the two, but he couldn't be careless about this matter, he had to find someone to try it.

"I let you eat first. If there is no problem, I will definitely give you a head start. However, this small bag of refined salt will be handed over to my royal chef." Wu Sangui snatched the bag from Liu Xuanchu's hand in front of everyone. Refined salt plundered from the people.

Wu Sangui was not stupid, he didn't believe much in Liu Xuanchu's words, but since he had good things, it was of course the most important thing to save his own life first, those few ordinary people standing alive and kicking were the best proof.Wu Sangui also basically judged that the things in these common people's homes were not poisonous.

With refined salt, Wu Sangui still didn't dare to eat it directly, so he ordered people to hunt game in the woods, and then made a pot of stew with his own hands. A pinch of refined salt, slowly sprinkled into the pot.

After a while, the aroma in the pot immediately aroused Wu Sangui's boundless appetite.Wu Sangui picked up a piece of fat meat, and immediately stuffed it into his mouth regardless of whether it was hot or not.

"The emperor is not well, Mr. Liu has been poisoned." Suddenly there was a report from the soldiers outside the tent.

"Bah!" Wu Sangui spit the meat into the small iron pot in one gulp. He was so frightened that he hurriedly got up and looked for a mouthful of water.

"Didn't you say that there is no problem with salt?" Wu Sanguo came to Liu Xuanchu angrily, ignoring the meat, and reprimanded him.

"My Majesty, Your Majesty, I just wanted to find out the crux of the problem. I never thought that the poison in the salt was so difficult to solve. However, my experience just happened to show that the problem lies in the salt, but I just didn't find a solution. "Liu Xuanchu just feels uncomfortable in his stomach, and he doesn't have diarrhea yet.

Liu Xuanchu didn't have the ability to separate the magnesium sulfate in the coarse salt, he just relied on simple filtering of impurities. Magnesium sulfate is as soluble in water as sodium chloride.However, what Liu Xuanchu did proved that the problem was with Yan. He had a stomachache because he drank the salt water that he cooked himself.

Wu Sangui thought about it, Liu Xuanchu's words were correct.At least the root of the problem has been found, which is already a big step forward.He didn't bother to praise Liu Xuanchu, he went straight back to his camp, found a few guards, and forced them to finish eating the delicious meat in the iron pot.

An hour passed, and seeing a few guards who had no problems but gradually getting better, Wu Sangui gave an order and almost drove everyone to the surrounding mountains to grab salt and hunt.

If Zhu Cihong was here, he would definitely laugh at Wu Sangui's actions.When the Crown Prince of Ming Dynasty was exiled to Xinyang, in order to collect [-] refugees, he had personally been to the valley, even the deep mountain where wild beasts haunted, not to mention the valley where people can walk.If Wu Sangui can find a lot of experience, Zhu Cihong will probably admire him.

Can Wu Sangui find the salt?

The answer is yes.If he goes out of the Dabie Mountains desperately and goes two hundred miles southeast to Yingcheng and Yunmeng, there will be salt mines.It’s just that it’s not well-known, and it took until Zhang Zhidong became the governor of Huguang in later generations that “Yingyan” was slowly mined on a large scale.

There is nothing wrong with Wu Sangui's current approach. The first is of course to look for salt, which is fine salt that is not a problem; the second is to look for clean meat.It would be better if you can find salt, after all, people cannot live without salt for a long time.Another one, so many people have had diarrhea for a long time, their bodies are weak, and they need to make up for it quickly.They are all men, so naturally they can't slowly use gruel to recuperate like weak patients. They need meat now, a lot of meat.

If the supply is sufficient, there is no problem for Wu Sangui to restore the army's combat strength to [-]% to [-]% within two or three days.As for the war horse, as long as it can be dragged to the plain, it will recover.Liu Xuanchu's results showed that the so-called plague was a hoax, and the poison in the Zhou army was not a fatal thing. If it was fatal, there would have been a large number of dead people in the Zhou army camp.

However, will the Ming army give Wu Sangui a chance to stand up?

"Report! Your majesty, tens of thousands of Ming troops are coming from the direction of Dawu in the south, and they are already building fortifications. General Hu Guozhu, the commander-in-chief, please order, do you want to attack?"

Just when Wu Sangui felt a little more comfortable, the real bad news came.

Wu Sangui was puzzled. The two main forces of Daming Huguang had already gone north, and these tens of thousands of Ming troops suddenly appeared in the middle of his southward path. Where did so many soldiers come from?

At this time, Zhang Dazhong, already the governor of Hubei, was standing in the middle of the Dawu official road. To his left and right was a wooden wall more than three feet high, so long that it could not be seen at a glance. Behind the wooden wall was nearly 20 Jianghan Plain. people, as well as nearly 1 local defenders and more than [-] police forces.Among them, the main command was not the local army, but the more than a dozen defenders who survived the defense of Xuzhou under Yuan Yan Yingyuan, who was quite murderous and wore the uniform of a senior police officer.

"Director Wang, it's up to you how Dawu defends me." Zhang Dazhong respectfully saluted a police officer standing beside him. In terms of qualifications, he dared not call him a hero in front of them.

Chapter 5 Sixty: Wu Sangui Viciously Destroyed the Great Wall

"It's easy to say. General Li gave us a mission of five days, and I can assure Mr. Zhang that we can stick to it for at least six days." Wang Chuansong replied, patting his chest.

"I'm relieved." Zhang Dazhong has never fought a war. This temporary mission is equivalent to driving ducks to the shelves. There are no senior generals in Hubei, and he can't command the garrisons. He doesn't expect these retired veterans to rely on anyone. go?

"We have more than 20 laborers. Naturally, we rely on our strength to block Wu Sangui. We have discussed it a long time ago, and we only need to build a dam on the Lishui." Wang Chuansong continued, pointing to a long row of wooden walls in front of him: "Wooden piles with a thick mouth of a bowl are laid three feet into the ground, and sandbags are piled up to a height of one foot. Within a day, the muddy water will be poured back, forming a two-mile reservoir. At that time, Wu Jun wants to go south. It's harder than climbing to the sky."

"But isn't such a big reservoir afraid of jumping off the embankment?" Zhang Dazhong was a little worried. It was summer, and if it rained suddenly upstream, would such a dam be able to stop it?

"Don't worry, my lord. If there is a flood, the Zhou army may not even be able to stay in the valley. How can we attack our strength? Another thing is that we have so many people, we can continue to widen the dike to prevent the dike from breaking. The core of this battle The point is not to be lazy, and being lazy is tantamount to death." Wang Chuansong said.

"That's no problem. We're all men. If you don't know how to fight, don't you know how to work?" A magistrate answered.

"Then start working!" Zhang Dazhong waved his hand, and the whole valley boiled.Think about the later generations of the Agricultural Learning from Dazhai Movement, the current scene here is somewhat similar.In the words of "Baiyun", it was really "the sound of gongs and drums, firecrackers, red flags and crowds of people".

Wu Sangui has never ignored the issue of Zhou Jun's spies, which once again caused him trouble, because when Hu Guozhu asked for instructions to attack Dawu, Zhang Dazhong's dam was almost completed.In other words, since Wu Sangui seized the Queshan Racecourse, the entire encirclement and suppression operation could be officially launched. Otherwise, Zhang Dazhong, the governor, would not have been able to mobilize so many people to block Dawu so quickly.

……

"What did you say? There is a reservoir in front?" Wu Sangui lashed the face of the soldier delivering the letter with a whip. Originally, he had given the strike order to the striker just now, but in a blink of an eye he said he couldn't hit it. Is this a lie?

Hu Guozhu can’t be blamed for this. When he reported to Wu Sangui for the first time, Dawu’s dam hadn’t been filled with water. However, after waiting for a long time, a small-scale reservoir was formed. It was too late to launch an attack at this time. up.

"Report: Your Majesty Qizuo, the main force of the Ming army has come after us, less than twenty miles away from here."

When Wu Sangui was angry, Li Dingguo and the Ming army with four armies had already followed.The [-] Zhou army led by Wu Sangui was suddenly blocked in a [-]-mile-long canyon.

It is only more than 200 miles from Xinyang to Xiaochang, and the total length of this valley is more than 100 miles. It can only be blamed on Wu Sangui for taking too long and walking to a dead end.

However, Wu Sangui still has a way out, because Dabie Mountain is not a canyon area like Hangu Road, and he can still find a way to escape from it.The difference is that it is impossible to take the whole army out together. With so many people and horses, the target is too big and the action is slow.

However, Zhou Jun is not familiar with this place, and they have no guide.With so many people breaking out from one place, it is easy to be locked and caught up, and then surrounded again.If there are multiple ways to break through and distinguish between primary and secondary, at least some people can break through.

Wu Sangui stabbed Zhou Jun to death with a sword, but he didn't believe it was true.A dignified traitor in the world, no matter what, he doesn't believe that he will fall into the situation of Gaixia, the overlord of Chu.

"Send a flying letter to Wu Yingxiong and ask him to bring troops to rescue me." Wu Sangui has never been so desperate now, and he has never been so difficult when facing choices in Shanhaiguan.

"Your Majesty, there are only some soldiers and horses stationed in Guanzhong. If they are sent to the Central Plains at this time, the whole of Shaanxi may be lost." Fang Guangzhang persuaded.

"Now is the time when my life is at stake. Naturally, it is important to save me." Wu Sangui roared, but in fact, he also knew that even if Zhou Jun from Guanzhong was drawn here, Zeng Ying, the leader of the Sichuan Army, would not be a vegetarian. Follow the ass and kick it over.

"Let's find a way to divide our troops and break through the siege! To the east is Huangzhou, to the west is Suizhou, neither of which is dead, we still have a chance." Liu Xuanchu still wanted to help Wu Sangui out of trouble.