Chapter 188 Water and Fire
Xinhui City, which has been surrounded for several months, looks dead from the sky. Because of the lack of wood for burning fire, most of the houses in the city were demolished by the Taiping Army to make firewood. At present, only Xicheng and Nancheng still have several areas that maintain complete buildings. The rest of the places are full of ruins at first glance. It is a delusion to find one or two green shades on these ruins.
In addition to the tight firewood, the city also faced a water cut-off crisis. At the beginning of the siege, the drinking water of the Taiping Army and the people in the city was taken from several large wells in the city. At first, these deep wells were enough to ensure the drinking water needs of nearly 10,000 people in the city. However, since June, the water from the three deep wells near the city wall could no longer be drunk.
The first person to find that the well water cannot be drunk was Li Fuguo, a test household in the Guards camp. At that time, he was going to draw a bucket of well water to take a shower, but after lifting the bucket, he found that the originally clear well water had turned black, and there was an unpleasant and disgusting smell in the water.
The news that the well water cannot be drunk naturally alarmed Zhou Shixiang and Song Xianggong. The two of them wondered if there were spies from the Qing army sneaking into the city to poison the well water. If the water was cut off on this hot day, it would be even more dead than having no food.
Zhou Shiying personally led people to check the reasons why the three wells could not be drunk, but he looked around the well for a long time and didn't know the reason. A team of soldiers from the Guards camp spent most of the time scooping out the well water, but no abnormalities were found at the bottom of the well.
The reason why the well water deteriorated was not found, and the water that was oozed out again after all the scooped was still deteriorated, which made Zhou Shixiang anxious.
There are only seven wells available in the city. Together with the remaining people of Xinhui, there are nearly 10,000 people living in the city, and the daily water required is astonishingly large. Therefore, these seven wells can only barely guarantee the minimum daily water demand for everyone, and it is really a drop of water that cannot be wasted.
In order to prevent the enemy from causing trouble for the people of Xinhui due to water competition, Duke Xiang of Song specially asked Zhou Shi to order four wells for drinking in the back camp for the elderly, weak women and children and the people of Xinhui. Two of the three wells that had happened now belonged to the back camp. They were originally used in a hurry, but now they were missing two, which means that the daily drinking water for the people of Xinhui was reduced by half. How can people survive? The Taiping Army is not much better, and the three wells become two. How can the soldiers survive?
"Check it out, check it out for me, and check it to the end!"
Zhou Shixiang, who could not find the reason, blamed the deterioration of the well water on someone to poison it, but hundreds of households in each battalion were ordered to review the posts on duty last night, but they all reported to their subordinates without any problems. Jiang He and Ge Zheng even had to use their own heads to guarantee that their subordinates had no problems.
If it is not that humans poison it, how can this well water turn into poisonous water?
Just when Zhou Shixiang and a group of officers racked their brains to this end, an old man from the Houying camp who had helped people dig wells when he was young asked Duke Xiang of Song after hearing this. He looked at the three wells one by one, then asked someone to help him onto the city wall. After walking down the city wall, he explained to Zhou Shixiang why the water in the well deteriorated.
These three wells have one thing in common, they are all very close to the city wall, and the closest one is even less than three zhang from the base of the city wall. Moreover, they are all newly dug wells, which were temporarily dug by the Qing army when they rebuilt Xinhui City. Later, after the city was built, the three wells were not filled, but continued to provide drinking water for the Qing army guarding the city. In addition, there is also the need for fire prevention. (Note, one zhang is three meters)
What is the direct relationship between the water well close to the city wall and the deterioration of the water source?
Zhou Shixiang still didn't understand what the camp always wanted to say. He only realized Dawu after the camp elder pointed out the corpse burial place outside the city. It turned out that the root of it was here!
After Shang Kexi personally commanded the Qing army to fail to capture the city, more than 3,000 Qing army corpses were left under the city. After the war, Zhou Shixiang ordered people to shoot arrows at the Qing army and ask them to collect the bodies. However, it was not known whether the Qing army did not receive this letter or the Qing army deliberately did not collect the bodies. Anyway, the Qing army did not collect any movement after a day.
It was the hot summer weather, and the corpses could not withstand the release! On this day, the smell of rancidness could be smelled under the city, and the green-headed flies were circling in black, and maggots could be seen circling on many corpses cut with flesh and blood.
There was no way. The Qing army did not collect the corpses, so Zhou Shixiang could only order the Taiping army to collect the corpses. Otherwise, the corpses would be placed for another day or two without the Qing army attacking. The Taiping army and the elderly, weak, women and children in the city would all die of plague. Last year, Li Dingguo's army was forced to withdraw troops. On the one hand, it was because of the arrival of the Manchu and Han Eight Banners reinforcements from Beijing, and on the other hand, it was because the epidemic occurred in the army, so there was no way to stay in Xinhui City again.
As a lesson, Li Dingguo still has tens of thousands of troops in his hands. Even if the army is infected with the epidemic, it cannot hurt his muscles. However, the Taiping Army has only a little bit of its wealth. If an epidemic occurs in the city, the flag that has just been raised will fall on its own.
Just like that, the Taiping Army and some young men climbed the rope along the city wall and buried the bodies of the Qing army. After discovering that the Taiping Army was down the city, the Qing army seemed to know what they were going to do, and did not take advantage of the situation to launch an attack. Instead, they watched the Taiping Army bury the bodies.
If there are too many corpses, the best way is to choose to bury them on the spot under the city wall. Otherwise, there would be no such amount of manpower to drive them. If you really pull the corpses one by one, not to mention that Zhou Shixiang is unwilling, even the soldiers below will not be willing. Besides, the Qing army is eyeing them in the distance, so how dare Zhou Shixiang take the risk to let his soldiers run to the enemy's nose.
More than 3,000 corpses were dug up for more than ten long pits before they were buried. Because of the heat, the Xiongwei and Hujie Camp who buried the corpses and the young and strong prisoners were afraid of being infected with the plague, so the pits that buried the corpses were not dug deep, but at least they buried the people. Most of the pits that buried the corpses were in the East City, and there were three or four places in the south gate.
Not long after burying these corpses, the Qing army launched another siege under the command of Deputy Chief Wang Guohui, and returned in vain after throwing hundreds of corpses. Similarly, the bodies of the Qing army who died in battle were also buried by the Taiping Army.
At the beginning, these corpse-burying pits had no effect on the city, and the plague that Zhou Shixiang was worried about did not happen, but who would have thought that after half a month, the rotten corpses in these corpse pits actually polluted the well near the city wall.
According to the old man of Naying, a large amount of toxic corpse water will flow out after the corpse rots. These corpse water will gradually corrode the soil underground. It would be fine if it rains. If it rains, the rainwater will soak in the pit and the corpse water will quickly extend around. So, the three wells that are too close to the city wall will be the first to be pollutants of corpse water. This process cannot be seen by human eyes, and ordinary people will not pay attention to it. When something happens, it will never be saved.
After hearing what Mr. Ying said, Duke Xiang of Song also realized that when he was at home in his early years, he dug a well. The well was originally dug not far from the cottage. A few years later, the well water began to smell due to the infiltration of the pit. Now, I really regret it. I blame myself for not thinking about this festival earlier, so that the good well could not be used.
After hearing the explanation from Ying Lao, Ge Zheng and the others cursed the bastard of Qing Demon. It seemed that Qing Demon Ba was probably also using the abacus to polluting the wells in the city to avoid collecting the corpse.
Zhou Shixiang thought about it, Xinhui City is so big, and all the Qing troops in the city must have a clear understanding of the city. In addition to cutting off the food of the defenders, the water source of the defenders was to cut off.
Although Xinhui City is located on a plain by the river, most areas of the city cannot produce water wells that can be drunk directly. Most of them are saline-alkali water, and only the water from these seven wells can be drunk. In the past, there was no siege, so the people in the city could naturally fetch water outside the city, or there was a dedicated person to carry water trucks, so they bought it with copper coins. Now that the city is surrounded, the water outside the city cannot enter the city. With these seven wells alone, it is really a coincidence that the wife is also making trouble for a cook without rice. If the corpse water pollutes a few wells, the city will be in trouble.
I can last for a few days without food and drink it. I am afraid that I can’t hold on for a day in a fatal place like Guangdong.
Now, there is no way to regret it, so I can only find a way to save it. Fortunately, the old battalion pointed out that the speed of underground corpse water infiltration was not fast. In addition to the heavy rainstorms for several consecutive days, the corpse water would not seep out of other wells for a while. And there is no need to think of any way to prevent the underground corpse water from penetrating, because as early as when the Qing army deputy commander Wang Guohui directed the Qing army to dig in, the Taiping Army dug an isolation trenches in the city. The existence of these deep trenches just blocked the infiltration of corpse water. However, for safety reasons, the old battalion still suggested that Zhou Shixiang let people dig deeper and be careful, it would be impossible to make a mistake. After all, there are only four wells available in the city now.
Zhou Shi was very careful and followed the old method of this camp, asking Jiang He to lead his men to dig deeper the deep ditch, and in addition, he completely blocked the three water wells that had changed. After doing all this, he discussed with Duke Xiang of Song to the distribution method of the remaining four water wells. There was no good idea to discuss it. There were only four wells, and the front camp was divided into more places, so there was naturally no need to drink in the back camp. Many front camp officers and soldiers' families were in the back camp. If their wives and children had no water to drink, they would probably be a big disaster.
Finally, Zhou and Song divided the four wells evenly, including the front camp and the back camp. The young and captives recruited by the county government were provided by the front camp, and the back camp provided water to the more than 2,000 Xinhui people. Of course, how to supply water was the matter of Duke Xiang of Song, and Zhou Shixiang would not ask about it.
The wells were divided, but the amount of water was definitely not as good as before. Because there were many things that caused water competition, Zhou Shixiang was naturally in charge of the front camp, and Song Xianggong was responsible for it on the back camp. In order to save water as much as possible, Zhou Shixiang and Song Xianggong thought about all the ways, and tried to dig a few wells in the city. Unfortunately, they were useless and had to settle it. Since then, every rainy day, large tanks and small tanks could be seen everywhere in the city, and everyone who could move went to collect rainwater.
Chapter completed!