Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 10: Training and Eating
"Smells, really smells..."

Inside the Jiuquan military camp, under the light of the fire, Liu Jilong and eleven other people gathered around the stove, looking at two stone pots, and couldn't help swallowing.

Twelve pounds of rice and three pounds of meat were cooked in two pots respectively. Three pounds of pork was cut into small pieces and poured into the stone pot. Some sauce and coarse salt were added, and the aroma began to waft out.

As time passed, Liu Jilong could no longer hold back and said, "Let's eat."

"Hey!" Upon hearing this, Zhang Chang immediately pulled Zhao Qian to join in the action.

A palm-sized wooden bowl was handed to Liu Jilong. The bowl was filled with heavy corn rice, broth and a dozen pieces of pork the size of a fingernail.

Looking at the soup and rice in his hand, Liu Jilong didn't care about the heat and just picked up the chopsticks.

The scalding hot soup and rice burned his tongue, but he was reluctant to spit it out. He just took a few deep breaths and swallowed it quickly when it cooled down.

“It smells so good…”

The content of a simple bowl of soup and rice is not even as rich as the dog rice that farmers in later generations made by mixing leftovers from their meals.

Even so, Liu Jilong kept shoveling rice into his mouth as if he had eaten the most delicious thing in the world.

It wasn't just him. Zhang Chang and the others were in the same situation. Two of them even had red eyes from eating so much.

Their lives under Tubo rule were no different from those of slaves.

You are not allowed to speak Chinese, write Chinese characters, gather for no reason, or...

Thinking back to all the hard times in the past and looking at the bowl of meat soup and rice in front of us, who can not feel emotional?
"The last time I ate meat was four years ago during the Spring Festival. I thought I would never be able to eat it again in my lifetime, but I never expected..."

Ma Cheng, the oldest in the team, could not help but sigh, and Zhang Chang even cursed: "These bandits treat us as slaves. They eat meat and cheese themselves and only give us some corn in the shell."

"When I go to the battlefield in the future, I will definitely kill a few bandits to vent my hatred!"

"Correct!"

"Damn you barbarian bastards, I'll kill a few of them on the battlefield!"

As Zhang Chang started to speak, the others all started to curse as well. Only the 40-year-old Ma Cheng did not join in. Instead, he looked at Liu Jilong while holding his soup and rice.

"If the captain hadn't used his own military pay to buy rice and meat, we wouldn't have been able to have this soup and rice to eat."

"Boss, from now on, whenever you give us orders, we will never disobey you!"

"Yes! My life belongs to the leader!"

"My life too!"

"And I..."

After all, Ma Cheng is older and has experienced more things, so he naturally understands the ways of the world.

With him taking the lead, everyone expressed their attitudes, completely forgetting the verbal abuse they had directed at Liu Jilong during the training two hours ago.

"You are all my brothers. Although you are older than me, you are the best in the army for your bravery and wisdom."

"You have joined the third group, and you are my brothers. I have already settled my family during this expedition. I don't know when you might be beheaded."

"Rather than keeping these money and grain, it is better to enjoy it with you brothers."

Liu Jilong invested the money, so he naturally had some ulterior motives.

What he wanted was the hearts of the third group.

Only if he has people loyal to him can he protect himself in the future game with several major families within the military.

"Don't worry, Captain. We will train hard in the future and fight alongside you on the battlefield!"

"Correct!"

Everyone was talking and laughing, and Liu Jilong also laughed along, but he didn't think that a meal could win everyone's hearts and minds. If he wanted to do it, he had to persist. "By the way, have you divided the land among your families?"

When Liu Jilong asked about this topic, the smiles on everyone's faces became brighter.

"It was divided. Each family member got four mu of land, and the families of those who joined the army got fifty mu of government land."

The system Zhang Yichao adopted in Hexi was basically the old military system. However, in the old military system, the soldiers needed to provide their own consumable equipment such as arrows, but the Shazhou Army did not need to do so.

The situation in Hexi is complicated, and Zhang Yichao must take advantage of the civil strife in Tubo to recover as much land and population as possible.

Although the three states have been recovered, the armor of the Shazhou army is still insufficient. Except for the third group that is cared for by Zhang Huaishen, which has armor and horses, most of the remaining 900 people left in Jiuquan do not even have suitable weapons.

However, the weapons craftsmen in the city have already started making weapons and armor. Assuming thirty workers make one set of armor, and one set per day, the monthly output will not be less than thirty sets.

It may seem low, but if the other four counties can also produce such output, then we can still produce 1,800 pairs per year.

Moreover, the city has recruited many men over the age of 45 to go to the craftsmen's workshop to learn how to make armor, and the output of armor will surely continue to increase.

With the combat effectiveness of the Shazhou Army, as long as there are more than 10,000 soldiers, it will be enough to recover the entire territories of more than ten states in Hexi, including Gan, Su, and Liang.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong, who had eaten and drunk his fill, stood up and told Zhang Chang, "Make arrangements after you finish eating."

"Yes!" Zhang Chang is not stupid. After all, he was born a runaway slave and he is quite good at observing people's words and expressions.

Liu Jilong's words were obviously a reminder to him that there was something he wanted to discuss with him.

Because of this, Zhang Chang began to eat and drink his fill, and after instructing others to wash the stone pot, he went into the tent.

When he lifted the curtain, he saw bricks on the ground and Liu Jilong sitting cross-legged on a wooden bed.

"Here I come, sir."

Zhang Chang walked forward with a smile, and then saw a pile of copper coins in front of Liu Jilong.

These copper coins were the spoils collected by Zhang Chang on the day Liu Jilian was injured.

According to military rules, half of it was handed over to the army, and the rest belonged to Liu Jilong and his gang.

However, since he was the only one left in the third gang, and he became the gang leader, the money naturally belonged to him alone.

"I counted them, and there are still four strings of six hundred and fifty coins."

Liu Jilong looked at the pile of money in front of him and asked, "How are the prices in Jiuquan City?"

"A bushel of corn costs two hundred coins, a pound of goat costs twenty coins, a pound of pork costs thirty-five coins, a live chicken costs a hundred coins, and a pound of salt costs thirty coins."

Zhang Chang explained the prices in the city. Since a large number of nomadic tribes from the west and north poured into Hexi under the rule of Tubo, mutton was not expensive, but pork was ridiculously expensive.

The pork of that era was not delicious. Not only was it very smelly, it was also difficult to handle. However, the people in Hexi raised few pigs, and pork was high in fat, so it was naturally expensive.

In addition, since there are many well salts in the Hexi Corridor and the population is relatively small, the price of salt is relatively cheap.

If Liu Jilong has the opportunity in the future, he can extend the castration technology used on cattle and sheep to pigs.

"The army gives us 22 kilograms of corn every day, which is definitely enough for daily meals, but we still have to train..."

Without oil in the stomach, the consumption of grains is very alarming. If the oil is properly supplemented, even if one exercises every day, he may not be able to eat two kilograms of corn.

Liu Jilong thought about the prices for a moment, then said to Zhang Chang: "We practice every two days. If we practice, you can buy an extra dou of rice, four catties of meat, and half a catty of salt."

"This money is enough for us to use for a month!"

After Liu Jilong finished speaking, he pushed the money directly to Zhang Chang:

"From today on, you will be in charge of the money!"

(End of this chapter)