Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 525: Trash is not really useless

As everyone knows, Fuliang's canned food is famous for its top-quality military rations, and it is also well known that Xia Daosheng is kind to his soldiers.

When had the Tang army ever been treated like this? When the cans were opened, they were either stewed with soybeans or sweet peaches or summer bayberries...

Is this still a war? Do soldiers eat so well?
Tang Jun was somewhat skeptical about his life for a moment. Kang Desheng was not a stingy person. He kept a box of canned food for himself and distributed the rest to his subordinates.

I have to say, the canned food smells really good, especially the canned soybean stewed meat. After opening it, pour it into the rice pot, and it will be a greasy, fragrant stewed meat rice. After eating it, you will feel warm all over, and the meaty aroma will fill your burps. Don’t you have to drink some wine? Unfortunately, there is no wine in the barracks...

After eating, the Tang army exclaimed that this was the life a human should live...

As for the Wei army, with the replenishment of fuel and fodder, the nights were finally not so difficult. A good night's sleep was especially important for them to recover their physical strength after a long journey.

Didn’t the Wei army say they wanted to go to war the next day? However, what the Tang army waited for was not the sound of war drums, but the envoy of the Wei army, who asked Kang Desheng if he wanted some wine.

Kang Desheng asked curiously, "Why do you have wine during the war?"

"The soldiers who came to fight this time are all from the south, and they are not familiar with the severe cold in the north, so we brought plenty of meat, wine and food."

"Wine..." Kang Desheng's throat was surging, and he leaned forward and whispered, "How much?"

"I want to change some bedding or something."

"I don't have any bedding, but I do have 20,000 kilograms of reed fluff and chicken feathers. Do you want any?"

"Yes, yes, yes. Then I'll exchange it for three thousand kilograms of wine?"

"Add a little more. Five thousand catties of wine, and I'll give you another twenty thousand catties of coal."

"it is good!"

The two sides hit it off immediately... Then 20,000 kilograms of reed fluff and chicken feathers and 20,000 kilograms of coal turned into 8,000 kilograms of wine...

Don't underestimate reed fluff and chicken feathers. If you mix these two things with straw, mash them up, dry them, and stuff them into cloth, they will be the best things to keep out the cold. With wine and water, the Tang army naturally lived a better life.

After a few days, the soldiers of Tang and Wei were almost unable to move due to the comfort. The commanders of both sides felt that this was not a big deal, so Guo Changchun decided to move the camp twenty miles back.

The Tang army even came to question them for this matter: "What are you doing? You moved so far away. Do you know how tiring it is to push a cart for another twenty miles in this heavy snow?"

"Go back and tell your coach that this won't work. At least have a fight."

After the Tang army replied to Kang Desheng, he felt that this was true. After all, it would be difficult to report if the battle was not started.

So he advanced twenty miles. Now, the two sides were ten miles apart again, and then the Tang army sent a victory report to Li Yuan - our army fought bravely and pushed the front line forward twenty miles, but the enemy fought bravely, and our army was in a stalemate with them and was trapped in it.

The two sides are facing off again. At this moment, local people have come to set up stalls between the two armies to sell food, clothing, haircuts, and even sex...

Sometimes the Tang army and the Wei army could enter the same tent at the same time. Some on each side ate noodles, some ate rice, and some ate steamed buns. They did not interfere with each other and would even chat with each other when they had nothing to do.

Some Tang soldiers asked what Jiangnan was like and whether the girls were tender and fresh, while some Wei soldiers were curious about whether the girls in Gansu and Shaanxi were white. Sometimes when they talked about something happy, cheerful laughter could be heard in the small dining tent.

Kang Desheng has been making a lot of money these days. Apart from anything else, he really likes the Jiangnandao liquor. In this area, liquor and canned food are hard currency. Jiangnandao liquor is so strong that one bowl of liquor can be added with three bowls of water. You can imagine how much money Kang Desheng has made.

As for the canned food, it even began to flow out to the public. Now the people in Hongnong all knew about this matter and said, "Ask the general to buy some canned food to try."

Until one day, Kang Desheng moved his camp back thirty miles. Guo Changchun on the opposite side immediately understood and followed Kang Desheng to move his camp forward thirty miles. Then naturally, there was a great victory report here - the Wei army was brave and although they were defeated in the first battle, they became more and more courageous in the subsequent battles. Not only did they repel the enemy, they also advanced thirty miles in this icy and snowy land...

The news was rushed to the capital over 800 miles away, and the whole city of Jinling celebrated! After all, they finally got rid of their anger.

At this moment, the baggage and goods have been arriving one after another. The scale is really terrifying. The combined forces of the two armies are 120,000, but the number of people in this caravan must be 150,000...

Goods covered the sky, hills and plains, and most of them went straight through the two armies and headed straight for Chang'an City.

There are also a lot of supplies left behind. As for Xia Lin...to be honest, there is a bit of overcapacity, mainly because Jinling City has no money, consumption has been downgraded, and a large number of products are unsold, but the factory cannot stop, so it can only advance money to continue production.

Li Yuan's throughput was no worse than that of Jinling City, and even stronger. Shouldn't they be filled up quickly? As for military supplies, Xia Lin was also generous. He gave 300,000 people six months' worth of canned food, as well as other scarce items in the northwest.

Fruits, vegetables, etc., even sugar.

Kang Desheng naturally knew about this, so they racked their brains and even started to communicate with local merchants. What is abundant in the northwest? Cattle, sheep, minerals, and horses!
Who would be willing to eat the shredded rations of the Tang army after being used to the canned food of the Wei army? Those things were only fit to be soaked in soup as snacks, so Kang Desheng began to use his connections from years of speculation to start a business, and the business grew bigger and bigger.

They didn't even realize how much money the industrial scissors gap had cut off from them. Of course, they didn't care, after all, the silver belonged to the country and the cans were their own, so they earned money by eating them.

As the year was coming to an end, the business of both parties was in full swing. Kang Desheng even drank with Guo Changchun several times and talked happily about the future.

"Brother Guo, to be honest, we can fight this war for five years. No one can suffer but our brothers, right?"

"Yes, yes, you are right."

"Brother Guo, I have an idea. What do you think?" Kang Desheng said mysteriously, "It is somewhat against military law."

"But it doesn't matter."

"We will each build a sentry city. This will provide our brothers with a place to shelter from the wind and rain, and we won't have to move around. We can change it every three months. What do you think?"

"This...isn't appropriate? What if the higher-ups find out?"

"What do you know?" Kang Desheng came forward and said, "Every month I give you 300 sets of old armor, and you give me 300 sets of old armor. Just hand it over to the higher-ups, and that's it."

"But this person... the number doesn't match."

"Simple." Kang Desheng was much better than Guo Changchun in this respect: "You and I will first send a letter to our respective military departments, saying that the battle is fierce and the troops are insufficient. Ask them to send 20,000 reinforcements. If there are no reinforcements, we can only draw refugees."

"Well, what happens next?"

"Then just make it up! Eating empty salaries, right? Twenty thousand people are eating empty salaries, and when they die, just cross out their names. No one will check, brother, don't worry, I've used this trick for twenty years, it's safe."

"OK then."

"Don't worry, brother. We are a family. If the people above are fighting, why should we fight for our lives? Right? I was stationed in Luoyang in the past. Did you also station in Longcheng?"

"Correct!"

"Look, we're family." Kang Desheng slammed the table and said, "Let's do this. We'll spend five years and get a hundred thousand silver dollars for retirement."

"Is it really okay?"

"It's really okay!" Kang Desheng patted his chest and said, "I have understood and understood brother these days. You and I are both from the Kitchen Army. If the higher-ups really want to fight, can they order the Kitchen Army to go to war? You and I are here to make money! It will also give an explanation to the higher-ups. Don't worry, brother."

If you say Kang Desheng is smart, he is really smart. Although he indulges in eating, drinking, whoring and gambling with Li Yuan's men, it does not stop him from being smart. He actually sees the essence of this war very quickly, so he becomes more bold.

The city of Chang'an also began to repair bridges and roads in earnest because of the large amount of goods that arrived. In Li Yuan's words, the money from the merchants was used to enrich the Tang Dynasty. It was a pity that Xia Lin was not his son-in-law.

At this moment on the front line, the most interesting things began. Because both sides began to build sentry towns, many soldiers had nothing to do. Since they didn't have to fight in a real war, they just stood there every day and got paid, but they didn't know what to do.

As a result, the small county town quickly prospered because of the tens of thousands of people. The originally unremarkable little place now has everything you need, including brothels, gambling houses, food, drink and entertainment.

It has made a great contribution to the local GDP prosperity.

And because it was a "battlefield", the public security management was relatively lax, so many people would come here to do some shady business. Over time, Hongnong County was divided into two parts called Hongnong and Yiyang. The Tang army was in charge of Hongnong, and the Wei army was in charge of Yiyang.

The service industry in Hongnong, which was under the jurisdiction of the Tang army, was extremely developed, with everything from eating, drinking, whoring and gambling. The Wei army said that Yiyang, which was under its jurisdiction, was particularly developed in commerce, and even many people from Luoyang would come to buy things that were only available in the south of the Yangtze River. In just two months, they turned a place that was once a battleground for military strategists into a small commercial and entertainment highland in the northwest.

The two armies can collect taxes and make money just by sitting there, and the common people don't know what's going on. Isn't this a war? How can this war boost the economy? It even attracted many travelers to settle down, and by the way, it also promoted the cultural heritage of Laozi's westward journey through Hangu Pass.

Of course, this matter could not escape Li Yuan's eyes and ears. He was also curious, so he took advantage of the free time before the New Year to go to Hongnong in person to see what kind of war could have led to such a mess...

(End of this chapter)