The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 450 Unparalleled Fierce General
An interesting scene unfolded.

Two opposing hilltops, two seemingly proper military camps, surprisingly extend outwards from the camps into a large cornfield.

After completing their daily drills, the soldiers of both armies changed into linen clothes that allowed for easy movement and worked in the fields.

Since there was only one agricultural instructor, soldiers from both armies wanted to hear him lecture, but the instructor had limited stamina, and it would be too much of a burden for him to run between the two mountains and lecture at the same time. So, soldiers from both the Northern and Southern Song dynasties would gather in the valley between the two mountains at sunset, sit in rows, and listen to the agricultural instructor explain how to plant corn.

At this time, there was no distinction between the Northern and Southern Song dynasties; everyone was a Song person.

This was also a time when soldiers from both armies would chat about everyday things.

Just then, the agricultural official finished a lesson and let everyone rest. A Northern Song soldier approached the Yue Family Army soldiers and asked with a smile, "I heard that your Yue Family Army is now highly valued by the Southern Song emperor. They provide manpower, money, and food as needed. You are the best-fed army in the Southern Song Dynasty."

At this point, the Yue Family Army soldier became a little embarrassed: "I used to serve under General Dong Xian, and later I was transferred to the Yue Family Army with him. It's true that the food is much better after joining the Yue Family Army. But... here we mainly focus on 'filling our stomachs,' unlike where you are, where you have meat at every meal... oh dear..."

Northern Song soldier: "Huh? You guys have absolutely no meat?"

Yue Family Army: "Occasionally, there would be some. The general allowed us to hunt pheasants and rabbits in our spare time. In larger camps, we would also raise livestock such as pigs, sheep, and chickens. Occasionally, we could eat some horse meat if we had a badly damaged horse. Anyway, it was a very, very long time before we had any meat."

Hearing their pitiful story, the Northern Song soldiers couldn't help but pat them on the shoulder.

Actually, you can tell whether someone is eating well or not just by looking at their body shape and blood circulation.

The Northern Song soldiers all had ruddy complexions and were full of energy.

The Yue Family Army was far inferior.

As everyone was chatting, they saw Yue Wenxuan leading a group of people down the hillside. When Yue Yun saw that the other side's "boss" had come out, he also quickly came down the mountain out of politeness. Thus, the leaders of the two armies met at the bottom of the valley.

Yue Wenxuan smiled and said, "General Yue, your army seems to be lacking meat. This is not a good thing for the soldiers to grow strong and healthy."

Yue Yun was a little embarrassed: "This is not a good solution."

Yue Wenxuan waved to someone behind him, and a strangely dressed person with stiff movements and a vacant look walked up, carrying a strange chicken in his hand.

Yue Wenxuan explained, "This type of chicken is called a white-feathered broiler chicken. It only takes 40 days to raise a chick to a weight of five pounds before slaughter."

"What? 40 days?" Yue Yun was completely shocked.

The Yue Family Army soldiers who heard this number were stunned, momentarily unable to believe their ears. But they knew that Young Master Yue never lied to them.

Yue Wenxuan said, "If your army raises this kind of chicken, in less than half a year, every soldier will be able to eat chicken."

Yue Yun was utterly astonished: "How could there be such a chicken in the world?"

The veterans from the Northern Song Dynasty behind Yue Wenxuan were all secretly amused: because it was a celestial rooster.

Yue Wenxuan didn't explain much, only saying, "I can give you a hundred breeding chickens. They lay eggs every day, hatching chicks. You can select some chicks to eat after they grow to 40 days old, and keep some chicks to raise until they mature for breeding. After raising them for a while, the number of breeding chickens will reach a certain scale, and your army will not lack meat. By the way, although they can be eaten after 40 days, they need 150 days to be used for breeding."

After saying that, he pointed to the dazed man behind him: "This is a chicken farming expert. He can teach your army how to build a chicken farm and the techniques for raising broiler chickens in cages. Don't worry, I will also send you some chicken feed at the beginning, so it won't affect your army's grain reserves. Once the corn is harvested, you will have surplus grain to feed the chickens."

Yue Yun was at a loss for words. The other party was giving him corn, chickens, technology, and feed, one good thing after another, stuffing them into his hands as if they were free. What a kind person!
"What merit do I, Yue, have to receive such a favor?" Yue Wenxuan said, "We are all Song people. The two Song dynasties will eventually be unified. Helping you is helping my own people. General, you don't need to be so polite."

"Ugh!"

Yue Yun had no choice but to accept it.

A few days later, a simple chicken farm was built. Yue Fei's army quickly felled trees and built several large chicken coops, and then moved the first batch of breeding chickens in.

Plastic mannequins and chicken-raising experts provide hands-on instruction, helping Yue Jiajun build a chicken farm from scratch.

After studying for a while, the soldiers of Yue Fei's army finally understood why chickens were caged. It turned out that keeping chickens in cages and preventing them from running around would make them fat quickly, just like how humans who don't exercise are prone to becoming couch potatoes.

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, 40 days have passed.

The first batch of chicks have grown up!
Every day, the soldiers of Yue Fei's army eagerly went to the chicken coop to check on the chickens. Over the past 40 days, they had truly witnessed them grow from tiny chicks into large, fat chickens weighing five pounds each. Young Master Yue on the opposite hilltop had indeed kept his word; he had said 40 days, and it had been 40 days.

This chicken looks so fierce!
Yue Yun summoned all the military generals for a special meeting, the topic of which was "to eat them or not to eat them".

"I suggest we don't eat them!" Dong Xian was the first to jump out: "This first batch of chicks totals fifty. If we don't eat them, we'll have one hundred and fifty breeding chickens, and we can hatch twenty-five more chicks every day..."

"Twenty-five more breeding chickens every day!" Dong Xian's voice rose three degrees: "Eggs lay chickens, chickens lay eggs, eggs lay more chickens, chickens lay more eggs, hahahahahaha, the whole mountain is full of chickens. We can eat one chicken in the morning and one chicken in the evening, two chickens a day will be enough."

By the end, Dong Xian could no longer control his expression; he was laughing wildly.

Yue Yun quickly stood up and pulled Dong Xian to sit down: "General Dong, calm down, calm down."

Dong Xian: "Oops, I misspoke, I misspoke!"

Yue Yun: "If there are too many chickens, they will need a lot of feed, and we won't be able to keep up with them. Young Master Yue said that these chickens are currently eating the feed he provides, but he can't provide feed for us forever. When we make our own feed, the effect will definitely not be as good as his, and the chickens' growth rate may slow down. If there are too many chickens, they will be scattered all over the place, and their growth rate will be slow, and we won't have enough food to feed them."

"Ah, that's true!"

"We have too many chickens and not enough food for us."

"So we need to speed up the planting of corn too," Dong Xian jumped in again. "Chickens need corn too! Corn is amazing. Plant it, plant it everywhere, plant corn all over Tongbai Mountain, build chicken farms on every mountain, and if we don't have enough manpower, we can transfer Yang Zaixing's troops over to raise chickens, hahahaha, hahahaha..."

"General, calm down! General, calm down!" Several people stood up at the same time and pulled Dong Xian to sit down: "Yang Zaixing is an unparalleled general, not suitable for growing corn and raising chickens."

Dong Xian broke free from everyone's grasp, jumped up with a whoosh, and shouted, "Gao Chong, Gao Chong's unit is nearby. Tell him to come over and plant corn and raise chickens."

Everyone broke out in a cold sweat: "Gao Chong is also an unparalleled general, it's not appropriate for him to do these things, General, calm down."

Dong Xian: "Zhang Xian! Zhang Xian can definitely do it."

"General, calm down..."

(End of this chapter)