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

Chapter 615 offered a glimpse into the future.

Emperor Jingtai was not in a hurry. He knew the quality of his subordinates and how fast they could work, especially in Jiangnan Province.

So he even wanted to go back to bed and take a nap with Jinlian, but Li Shimin was different. Erfeng was itching to know if these soldiers had really fought the disaster.

Some might ask, what's so strange about this? Isn't this always the case before a disaster? Well, such a question clearly comes from a socialist infantilist. In this day and age, why would soldiers willingly risk their lives for someone? Is it really for the meager pay? Or for a lofty ideal?

Of course not. Most soldiers in this era joined the army for the purpose of looting after a city was captured, for the prestige of "I can eat at restaurants for free elsewhere", and for the purpose of killing indiscriminately during an attack.

Historically, there have been generals who explicitly prohibited these behaviors, but the problem was that in an era of severe underproduction, prohibiting these things meant that soldiers lived worse than dogs. Unless a person could become a warlord and provide them with decent military equipment, it would be a miracle if the army could even keep from mutiny, let alone fight.

Without the will to fight, they could only rely on money and plunder to maintain their strength, which is why so many military reforms throughout the feudal era ultimately reverted to the old ways.

Ultimately, it boils down to two factors: one is the constraint of productivity, and the other is the difficulty in breaking through ideological barriers.

Li Shimin was awesome, but even the most awesome person can't break through the limitations of the times. He found it hard to imagine that such a small group of soldiers, with captains at their core, could maintain a high degree of self-discipline without a commander with sufficient prestige.

So he wouldn't allow Emperor Jingtai to take a nap, and dragged him into the rain to follow the soldiers inside.

"Are you crazy? Why are you dragging me along to your death?"

"Don't you want to see what they'll do?"

Emperor Jingtai looked at Li Shimin as if he were an idiot. How could he not know? Back when the Yellow River flooded, he personally led the team. Did he need to go and see what they could and couldn't do?
“Look, there are no generals or commanders at this time. They are all small groups of soldiers scattered about, with three to five thousand people in each group. This is the easiest place for trouble to occur.” Li Shimin was very confident that they would divide up the supplies they were carrying, and it would be best if they didn’t care about the disaster victims. There might even be a massacre, wiping out all the survivors. Then they could just blame it on natural disaster and wouldn’t have to worry about taking the blame, since no one would know anyway.

But Emperor Jingtai just smiled coldly, gently lifted the curtain of the carriage to look outside, and turned to Jinlian, saying, "Look at this person's petty nature."

"Your Majesty..." Jinlian smiled faintly, "Actually, Jinlian is also curious. As Your Majesty knows, Jinlian has witnessed the devastation of war in the past. Those soldiers were like wild beasts, extremely terrifying..."

“Right?” Li Shimin immediately got excited: “Whether you were here, or Xia Lin was here, or even my elder sister was here, I believe those soldiers would behave themselves. But soldiers are a disaster in themselves. Using disaster to fight disaster is a huge joke, isn’t it?”

The heavy rain has gradually subsided, and the upstream should have stopped. The speed of the water flow is no longer as frightening as when the flood peak passed through. However, the original small rivers have become extremely wide, as if we were in the Yangtze River.

They dared not get too close, fearing that these soldiers might suddenly turn around and throw them into a pot to be braised, after all, Li Shimin said that soldiers are a disaster.

"Please do not proceed, there is a risk of collapse ahead."

Just as the carriage was hesitating to move forward, five or six people wearing white hats suddenly ran towards them. At that moment, Li Shimin's hand was already on his waist knife.

Fortunately, the white hats didn't make things too difficult for them; they just stopped them from moving forward.

"Can we go and take a look?" Emperor Jingtai asked, lifting the curtain. "This place is my wife's hometown, and she is very anxious about it."

At this moment, she channeled her inner actress Jinlian, sobbing and wailing as she approached, "Gentlemen, please have mercy..."

Several people in white hats stepped back and discussed the matter briefly before stepping forward and saying, "People can cross, but don't go near the foot of the mountain or the riverbank; it's not safe here. Wait for our army to build a pontoon bridge."

"A pontoon bridge!?" Li Shimin sat up straight immediately: "Build a pontoon bridge in this kind of environment?"

The white-hatted men ignored his astonishment and continued to block the vehicles behind them.

"Let's go, stop talking nonsense."

They disembarked from the carriage and quickly walked to a spot about a hundred meters from the riverbank. Soldiers were swimming ahead of them. Swimming in such conditions was suicidal, as the river was extremely dangerous and the situation was incredibly complex. There were branches, debris, ropes, vines, and so on. Any obstacle would mean certain death.

But the soldiers who were about to go into the water did not hesitate. With a rope tied around their bodies, they jumped into the river in groups of four. In an instant, each person was dozens of meters downstream. The people on the bank kept letting out ropes. At this moment, one of the soldiers suddenly sank to the bottom and could no longer be seen. The rope could not be pulled.

Upon seeing this, Jinlian let out a startled cry, and even Emperor Jingtai couldn't help but feel a pang of anxiety.

The miracle did not happen; the soldier quickly disappeared into the surging river, but the others ignored him and charged toward the other side with resolute expressions.

Nearly a hundred people went into the water, but only ninety of them made it to the other side. Almost one-tenth of them perished in the water. But there was no time to grieve. The soldiers immediately began to look for a place to stand, and then took out the signal flares hanging from their mouths and set them off.

Just then, the soldiers brought out a cylindrical container with a round object inside, which was connected to an iron chain.

"Elevation 47 degrees, distance 135 degrees, prepare to fire." With a loud rumble, the shell, along with its iron chain, was launched to the other side of the river. The soldiers there immediately secured it to a large tree. After repeating this process several times, an iron chain bridge was indeed erected.

However, the iron chain bridge was still very fragile at this time, since the cannonballs could not hold the thick iron chains. So, someone immediately fixed wooden planks on it, and then several people crossed to the other side by holding sturdy hemp ropes as thick as their wrists.

Soon, a temporary bridge was erected to allow the troops to pass. The soldiers ran forward with their supplies, while Emperor Jingtai glanced back at the carriage and said, "I guess the carriage won't be able to get up there."

"Let's go!" Li Shimin was a ruthless man: "Let's go take a look together, we don't need the carriage."

The soldiers had no time to pay attention to the people following them across the bridge; they simply carried the various supplies and rushed to their target point.

“Those soldiers… what a pity.” Jinlian crossed the bridge and looked back at the rolling river: “Even their bodies are nowhere to be found.”

Emperor Jingtai remained silent, while Li Shimin nodded: "It is an iron army."

To be praised by Emperor Taizong as an "Iron Army" is an extremely high compliment. Whether it was the fearlessness of these men or the orderly and rapid construction of the bridge, they were able to cross such a treacherous river in less than an hour.

That means most of the rivers in the world cannot stop them. For a military commander of an "enemy country," this is a terrifying thing. In other words, there are no more natural barriers in the world to defend.

The soldiers in front continued their forced march, and Li Shimin followed behind. The more he ran, the more aggrieved he felt. Why were all the best soldiers in the world gathered here? They had been running all the way from Jiangnan Road, and had been running for more than three hours. They had crossed mountains and built bridges over rivers, and the conditions were harsh and difficult, but not a single one of them had fallen behind.

Emperor Jingtai and Jinlian were starting to struggle, especially Jinlian, whose mobility was rather poor.

Li Shimin said impatiently, "You were quite skilled back then, but now you've ruined your health by indulging in debauchery, and that's it?"

"You're talking nonsense! I'm just busy with countless affairs of state..."

At this moment, Jinlian spoke up: "Your Majesty, Your Highness, you may go up first. I will rest here for a while and then follow you."

“You probably haven’t seen the disaster victims. They’ve been suffering for several days and are probably already out of food. If someone sees you resting here, you’ll be cooked before you come back.” Li Shimin laughed, “Go, ask your emperor brother to carry you.”

"No... Your Majesty's health is of utmost importance."

"Ten thousand gold coins my ass! When he was fourteen, he carried the pig belonging to the Minister of Revenue for twenty li!"

Putting aside the question of why the Minister of Revenue's household had pigs, just mentioning this made Emperor Jingtai blush and cough twice: "Jinlian, come here! You don't weigh as much as a pig!"

Jinlian dared not, but Emperor Jingtai wanted to show off in front of Li Shimin, so he grabbed Jinlian and carried her on his back, running alongside the soldiers in front.

About fifteen minutes later, Emperor Jingtai was no longer able to function. His body was now being controlled by adrenaline, and he was getting stronger and stronger. But if nothing unexpected happened, he would probably be lying in bed groaning tomorrow.

Fortunately, about half an hour later, the group finally arrived outside a county town that had been flooded. At that moment, many refugees had gathered on the high ground outside the town.

There were probably ten or twenty thousand people, but their eyes were lifeless as they stared blankly at their homes submerged by the flood.

Just then, the whistle blew again, followed by the captain's hoarse voice shouting, "Medic, begin the examination! Everyone else, get the pots ready and start cooking!"

Although the young men were exhausted, military orders were paramount, and they began to unload their gear and prepare without any pause.

The supplies they brought could probably last for about three days, but for the disaster victims, that was a life.

Soon, the food was gathered together, and the white-hatted soldiers appeared to maintain order and distribute porridge. At this moment, the soldiers could finally rest for a while. They gathered together, sat on the ground, and began to eat the dry rations they carried with them, regardless of whether the ground was wet or not.

Because they arrived in a hurry and could not carry a large amount of supplies, they could only temporarily make do with these things to stave off hunger, following the pattern of field operations.

Li Shimin went over to take a look and saw that they were eating a kind of pancake made of flour, lard, sugar, and salt. He went up and asked someone for some and put it in his mouth. It was definitely edible, but it was really not very tasty. It was too greasy, too sweet, and too salty... It was far inferior to the meat porridge and rice that were cooked for the disaster victims.

But the soldiers ate with great relish, some even falling asleep halfway through their meal.

"That's strange." Li Shimin stood up and looked around, somewhat puzzled. "Why aren't they looting?"

(End of this chapter)