Chapter 1605: Chapter 1605: Siege and Bugs

The city was under siege, so everyone knew that grain was precious now. Because of that, these ten‑odd households couldn’t bear to eat the newly bought grain and were still eating the old stock at home. Only one household had run out of salt and was planning to eat the newly bought poisoned salt tonight.

But this family was too poor to bear using salt in every meal; they were planning to just sprinkle a bit of salt when cooking the dishes at night to add some flavor, so they escaped disaster.

When they saw Squad Leader Lou bringing people to search, they thought their family had committed some crime and brought the government office down on them, and were so frightened they all went down on their knees.

Squad Leader Lou had no time to explain much to them; he immediately searched out all the grain and salt in the house, and even took away the pot of mixed‑grain porridge that was still cooking.

Squad Leader Lou said, "The Rong spies have been poisoning the city. The grain and salt you bought from the Zhou Family’s shop have all been poisoned and can’t be eaten. We have to take the grain and salt away."

"What, the Zhou Family’s grain has been poisoned by the Rong people?" The old man of the house burst into tears. "Then what are we supposed to do? We’ve got nearly twenty mouths, old and young. Now the Rong people have besieged the city, the men at home can’t go out to work. If this grain can’t be eaten, won’t our whole family starve to death?!"

Dr. Fang said, "Don’t panic. Before dark, the Lei Family’s Trading Team will bring you grain and salt."

Since the Lei Family’s Trading Team had taken on this matter, they wouldn’t just watch the families who bought poisoned grain starve to death.

When the old man’s family heard this, they wept with joy. "Thank you, Elder Lei Wu, thank you, Manager Lei!"

Dr. Fang waved his hand and said, "Don’t thank me. All of you come over; I need to feel your pulses. Make sure you haven’t been poisoned or caught some epidemic."

The Rong people especially liked using contagious Poison; you couldn’t afford not to guard against it.

The old man hurriedly said, "Quick, quickly come over and let the doctor take your pulse!"

Dr. Fang stayed in the old man’s house for an hour, and only after examining everyone in the family did he feel at ease and leave with Squad Leader Lou.

However, Dr. Fang had Squad Leader Lou leave one Government Official behind to watch the family. "Someone has to keep an eye on them. If the poison flares up in a few days, or they’ve already caught an epidemic, that would be a disaster."

The Northwest Soldiers and civilians were very experienced with the Rong people’s poisoning tricks, so when Dr. Fang said this, no one objected.

The old man’s whole family was even delighted, thinking that at a time like this, with a Government Official guarding them, if the Rong people breached the Prefecture, they’d at least have someone to help hold them off.

Lei Mao, on the other hand, went to the households that had bought medicinal herbs from the Chang family.

The ones who would go out to buy medicine usually had sick people at home, and several patients who had taken the Chang family’s herbs had suddenly dropped dead.

When Lei Mao and his men arrived at the Yao Family, Boss Yao had just died, and Old Lady Yao was lying over Boss Yao’s corpse, crying her heart out.

"Pull her away, quickly. Everyone else out. Burn the corpse at once!"

The people of the Lei Family’s Trading Team immediately did as ordered.

Old Lady Yao had just lost her eldest son and was drowning in grief. When she saw that they were going to burn her son’s body, how could she agree? She swung her cane at Lei Mao, beating him as she shouted, "Stop it! You people of the Lei Family’s Trading Team, don’t you bully us just because you have power... My eldest son died of illness, and you won’t let us bury him, you even want to burn him—are you even human?!"

Old Lady Yao was too agitated. After she finished cursing, she broke down crying, then her breath caught, and she fainted dead away.

Yao Er stepped out and said, "Manager Lei, you can’t do this. My elder brother has already passed from illness; we have to put up a mourning shed and see him properly buried. Burning the body is a grave disrespect to the dead!"

Lei Mao hurriedly explained about the Rong spies poisoning the Chang family’s medicinal herbs. "Your brother was killed by Poison. That Poison may trigger an epidemic. There may be contagious toxin on his corpse, so it has to be burned."

He added, "As for the rest of your family, you all have to stay in the house and be guarded by people from the government office, in case you’ve also been infected with an epidemic. Otherwise you could end up harming everyone in the city."

"What?!" Yao Er was petrified, unable to believe that his brother had been murdered by Rong Poison.

The other Yao Family People, hearing this, were all scared out of their wits.

They cried and made a scene, but how could they out‑shout the people of the Lei Family’s Trading Team? They were all subdued.

Boss Yao’s corpse was dragged into the courtyard and burned, and even the bed and bedding were burned.

Dr. Fang rushed over and prescribed some detoxifying medicine for the Yao Family People, told them to hurry and bathe and wash themselves, and finally instructed them that the whole family was not to step outside.

Lei Mao and Squad Leader Lou’s group kept at it until midnight before they finished dealing with the poisoning carried out by the Rong spies. Afraid they themselves might have been tainted, they didn’t dare go see Ms. Gao Lei, and only sent someone to report these matters to her.

Ms. Gao Lei nodded when she heard. "Good thing you caught them all. Otherwise, half the people in the city would surely die."

Gu Jinli was currently sharing a room with Ms. Gao Lei. After hearing this, she asked, "Granny Lei, are the Rong people’s Poison really that vicious?"

Ms. Gao Lei, hearing this, thought of some disgusting memories, and her expression looked like she’d swallowed a fly.

After a moment, she said, "Not all that deadly, but it makes people die in very disgusting ways, and it’s contagious. That’s what makes it terrifying."

Gu Jinli asked, "Then what symptoms do patients poisoned by the Rong people show? Could you tell me?"

Ms. Gao Lei frowned and looked at her. "You really want to hear something that disgusting too?"

Gu Jinli nodded. "I know some medical skills, and the Rong people have already besieged the city. If I know more, then if they poison us again and I encounter it, I won’t panic."

"All the Rong spies have been caught. How are the Rong people going to poison us now? You really just like asking for trouble." Ms. Gao Lei grumbled, then forced down her nausea and described to Gu Jinli several sets of symptoms from the Rong people’s Poison.

And to be honest, it really was disgusting!

But there was something even more revolting.

Outside the city, under cover of night, Leimuqin and the Great Witch Doctor he had brought had already begun their operation, releasing several batches of sparrows... These sparrows carried poisonous insects on their bodies.

These poisonous insects were blood‑hungry; they would burrow into living bodies and breed there. After killing the person or animal, they would crawl back out of the corpse and then search for new living hosts to infest.

To put it bluntly, the Poison the Rong Great Witch Doctor was using this time were parasites—some sort of parasite that, after being specially cultivated, could live inside the human body, killing both people and animals.

The sparrows had already been infested with these parasites, but could still fly. Once released, they headed toward the city.

In the dark, sparrows were small, and as long as they weren’t like boulders whizzing through the air, the soldiers defending the walls wouldn’t pay them any mind. Sparrows were such a common sight, flitting about all day long, that even if the soldiers saw them, they wouldn’t care.

The sparrows entered the city without a hitch, but their bodies had already been eaten through by the parasites. Not long after flying into the city, they couldn’t hold out and died.

Thump, thump, thump!

The sparrows fell out of the sky, landing in the courtyards of the common folk.

Early the next morning.

When Lin Da Gui opened his door, he saw that several dead birds had fallen into his courtyard. He was overjoyed and called to his brothers, "Old Er, Old San, God has sent our family meat! Hurry up and come out to pick them up, clean these birds, and throw them into the mixed‑grain porridge to cook together. Today our family gets to eat meat porridge too!"

The Lin Family was not well‑off. Now that the Prefecture was under siege, no one could get out, and no one knew when they might die. If they could eat meat once, of course that was a good thing. When they heard that dead birds had fallen into their courtyard, they immediately got dressed and came out to collect the sparrows.

"Big Brother, there are eight of them—enough for all three branches of our family." Lin Sangui carried the eight dead birds off to pluck and wash them; he didn’t even bother cutting them up and just threw them straight into the just‑boiling porridge.

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