Upon hearing this, the soldiers all examined the two men carefully. After looking them over, not a single person recognized them. The tall, thin one said dismissively: “There are so many soldiers in the army—it’s not strange that we don’t know each other. Take you, General Du, for instance—do you remember every single soldier’s face?”
“That’s right. Anyway, we don’t want to die for nothing. We demand immediate withdrawal to Chang’an!” The other person appeared somewhat fatter.
“Won’t admit it, eh? Good, this general will make you completely convinced!” Du Ruhui’s icy gaze made the two men’s hearts skip a beat. Before they could guess what was coming, Du Ruhui had already shouted loudly: “Pass down the order—assemble the entire army!”
“Brother Du, assembling the entire army might be going too far. If we can’t control it, that would be troublesome.” The usually rough-and-ready Yuchi Jingde was being careful for once!
Du Ruhui insisted: “I have confidence—nothing will go wrong!”
While Yuchi Jingde was still hesitating, Liu Hongji spoke up: “This is the only method available right now. Do as he says.”
Seeing that Liu Hongji agreed, Yuchi Jingde said no more and helped Du Ruhui assemble all the soldiers in the army who hadn’t contracted plague. Although the previous casualties had been severe, there were still over eighty thousand men, gathering in a dense black mass below the platform.
After everyone had assembled, Du Ruhui pointed at the two bound men and said: “Open your eyes wide and look carefully—do you recognize these two men!”
With these words, over eighty thousand pairs of eyes simultaneously focused on the two men, examining them thoroughly. But strangely, not a single person stepped forward to say they recognized them—not one!
This result was already within Du Ruhui’s expectations. “They insist they are soldiers from our army, yet not a single person among all our troops recognizes them. Isn’t that strange?”
The tall, thin one said with a flickering expression: “We two have dull personalities and aren’t good at interacting with people, so it’s normal that no one recognizes us.”
“You two were the first to clamor for withdrawal to Chang’an, and you call that having dull personalities?” Before they could argue, Du Ruhui had already shifted his gaze to address the crowd of soldiers below: “I believe all you brave soldiers already know that what has been spreading through the army these days is not a cold, but plague. However, this plague is not Heaven’s punishment as they claimed earlier, but man-made!”
Upon hearing this, there was a commotion below. A soldier in the front row said dissatisfiedly: “How could plague be man-made? General Du, this lie is rather crude.”
Du Ruhui said unhurriedly: “Don’t mention you—even when I first learned of it, I didn’t dare believe it. But the facts are indeed so.” Before the soldiers could speak, he continued: “Think carefully—weren’t the soldiers who first fell ill those responsible for attacking Luoyang?”
The soldiers thought back and found this to be true. Then Du Ruhui’s voice rang out again: “Those who fell ill afterward were those who, after the great battle, were responsible for rescuing them. As for those who didn’t participate in rescuing the wounded, most remained safe.”
“So what?” Faced with voices from below, Du Ruhui said: “I once asked the imperial physicians to examine the stones and crossbow bolts that injured the soldiers. There, they discovered the same plague poison. In other words, these stones and crossbow bolts were the source of this plague!”
This statement was like a thunderclap, leaving the soldiers below utterly astonished. As for the two men on the platform, their faces were full of panic.
A quick-thinking soldier probed: “Does General Du mean to say this plague was caused by Luoyang?”
“That’s right. Li Jiancheng somehow obtained plague poison and smeared it on stones and crossbow bolts. Once wounded, the plague poison would enter the body and then spread to others through blood contact. As for them…” Du Ruhui turned back to glance at the two anxious soldiers and said coldly: “They are fundamentally spies sent by Li Jiancheng to shake our army’s morale!”
The two men waved their hands repeatedly, saying urgently: “No, no one sent us. We don’t know anything!”
Du Ruhui glanced at Yuchi Jingde beside him, who understood and raised his guan dao. After a sharp gust of wind, it lay across the two men’s throats. “If you don’t want to die here, answer honestly!”
The tall, thin one said with a mournful face: “General, please see clearly—we’re telling the truth and haven’t lied!”
He was answered by sharp pain at his throat accompanied by warm fluid flowing out. Yuchi Jingde said icily: “One more lie, and you’ll never speak again in this lifetime. Talk!”
Faced with Yuchi Jingde’s words, the two became even more frightened, trembling continuously, but their mouths remained tightly shut, refusing to say a word.
Du Ruhui stared at them coldly: “It seems you truly don’t want to live. Fine, this general will grant your wish!” With these words, he actually drew a steel blade from a personal guard’s waist and immediately slashed toward the two men without the slightest hesitation.
His manner was so convincing that not only the two men but even Yuchi Jingde was startled, even forgetting to intervene. Seeing the steel blade about to take their lives, the two finally couldn’t bear it and closed their eyes tightly, shouting: “Don’t! Don’t kill us!”
The blade stopped half an inch from the tall, thin man. Du Ruhui withdrew the steel blade and said coldly: “This is your last chance. One more false word, and I’ll take your dog lives!”
The tall, thin one swallowed and said carefully: “If we tell the truth, will you let us go?”
After exchanging glances with Liu Hongji, Du Ruhui said: “As long as what you say is true, I can spare your lives!”
Hearing this, the two men hesitated no more and spilled everything like beans from a bamboo tube. It was exactly as Du Ruhui and the others had guessed—they were sent from Luoyang, had killed two Tang soldiers and changed into their clothes, then waited for the opportunity to incite internal chaos and turn them into scattered sand.
Although they knew nothing beyond their own orders, it was enough. The soldiers below were all furious. The previous poisoning at Qishui had already made them hate Li Jiancheng to the extreme, and now he had created plague and various other schemes—truly detestable!
Liu Hongji was very good at seizing opportunities and shouted loudly: “You’ve all heard it with your own ears—this plague is not a natural disaster but a man-made calamity. Everything is Li Jiancheng’s doing. To win, he has become unscrupulous, abandoning human ethics and heavenly principles. If we withdraw today and let him grow stronger, even more people will die in the future!”
“Soldiers, I understand your feelings. No one doesn’t want to live, but can you guarantee that by retreating to Chang’an, you can definitely preserve your lives? Li Jiancheng now holds Luoyang, but he won’t be satisfied. Chang’an will eventually be his target. When that time comes, not only you, but even your families will suffer!”
With his words, the crowd below gradually quieted. Eighty thousand soldiers, not one speaking, all silently listening to Liu Hongji’s words. “There are also the soldiers buried beneath this land and the soldiers suffering from plague who could lose their lives at any moment. They once fought shoulder to shoulder with you, once advanced and retreated together with you. Now, are you planning to abandon their hatred and grievances and retreat to Chang’an like cowardly turtles?” Liu Hongji looked around at everyone and shouted loudly: “Answer me!”