The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Chapter 308 Prejudgment
The northern foot of Dongxueshan Mountain.

All members of the Vanguard Battalion have returned to their posts.

During their snow lotus harvesting, they would send the fresh produce they found back to their base camp every day.

Fresh snow lotus flowers are delicate and cannot be preserved, and if you want to make them into dried flowers, you cannot expose them to direct sunlight.

It is best to air dry in the shade.

The team members had no idea about the intricacies of this situation.

General Gan said she would send these fresh snow lotuses to a drying ground and have the Rat King send his minions to guard them.

The team members naturally trusted him implicitly.

Actually.

With wood-based superpowers, it only takes three minutes to turn thousands of snow lotuses into dried flowers without damaging the medicinal properties of the snow lotus petals and leaves.

We'll be heading back to Hamiwei in two more days.

The team members were very reluctant to leave the snow-capped mountain.

Several centurions ran up to Gan Minglan, fawning over her, and asked:

"General, the brothers are all very concerned about these thirteen thousand snow lotus flowers. What price can they fetch? Do you think they can be sold in Hami City?"

"Even if we take out this much medicine at once, we won't be able to sell it for a high price! Let's distribute it all, three flowers for each person! And for those brothers who died heroically, give two flowers to each family!"
Lord Marquis, General Xiong, and several other generals should each receive a portion. The rest, you can divide among yourselves according to the rules!
Although this snow lotus doesn't have the legendary elixir of immortality, it's excellent for dispelling cold, enhancing virility, and stopping bleeding. It would be best to have an experienced military medic examine it and ask him how to prepare the medicine.

"You mean you'll keep it for your own consumption?"

"Of course! The gold and silver you've earned these past two times, isn't that enough to support three generations of your family? Isn't the point of making money to live a good life? Your parents and wives have suffered in the first half of their lives, so naturally they should enjoy the second half!"

"You're right!"

"General, I won't sell it. Keeping these herbs at home might save your life someday."

"Oh dear! I'll have to have a good talk with those brats!"

"."

The members of the vanguard battalion were quite obedient to advice.

Most team members stated on the spot that they would keep these for their own use.

A small number of people murmured that their parents had been frugal their whole lives, and they probably wouldn't be willing to eat such a precious herb.

Some team members were shouting, "What's there to be reluctant about? We'll eat it this year, and next year we'll come back to the mountain in groups to find more."

A team of thirty to fifty people would really not dare to go up to the top of a snow-capped mountain.

We encountered many wild animals, such as snow leopards, brown bears, and wild boars, along the way.

When the ferocious beasts saw their large group of over two thousand people and the weapons they carried, they slunk away and made a detour.

Once the allocation plan was drafted, the allocation began on the spot.

The centurions were in charge of assigning the tasks.

The four thousand captains sat around the campfire, roasting and eating meat.

Someone asked:
"General, it's been a month! Do you think the double compensation grain that the Hu people are supposed to give us might already be on its way?"

"It's hard to say, maybe fifty-fifty!"

"What? Do they really dare not to pay compensation?"

"Think about it, it's three thousand miles from Weilumu to Shache. We really can't reach the capital in a short time."

In another month, it will snow in the Hu region! We can't possibly travel three thousand miles through heavy snow to raid the Hu people's capital, can we?

"Hiss! Didn't those three lads take your poison? And their fathers, brothers, and a bunch of generals and noble sons are still locked up in the General's Mansion's prison. Do you think their families will just stand by and watch their loved ones die?"

"We'll most likely still receive the ransom! They might renege on the double grain debt they owe. But it doesn't matter! General Xiong and his 20,000 men went back from Huozhou specifically to make sure all the people in Huozhou pay their taxes!"

"Oh? But the Hu people's letter of cession hasn't arrived yet!" "Heh! If all the Hu people were so respectful and law-abiding, how could their Khanate's territory keep expanding? Last time we wiped out all the garrisons in Huozhou, and this time we completely annihilated the Hu people's 250,000-strong army. Do you think the people of Huozhou will pay us taxes or continue to be loyal to the Hu people?"

“Of course we’ll pay them taxes! It’s so close from Hamiwei to Huozhou! Their lives are now in the hands of the western border army of Angmen Pass. But hearing you say that makes me really uncomfortable. I really want to storm their capital and rob it.”

"Don't worry! I will definitely make your wish come true within three years!"

Upon hearing this, the team members who were nearby excitedly shouted, "Western expedition to conquer the Hu! Western expedition to conquer the Hu!"

General Xiong was even more decisive than Gan Minglan had predicted.

He knew that most of the 300,000-plus immigrants would have starved to death long ago if the Hu people had waited for their compensation grain to arrive.

On the way back to camp after the victory.

The 20,000-strong army was stationed directly in Huozhou.

In less than three days, the entire territory of Huozhou had changed dramatically.

Merchants, large and small estate owners, and the 600,000 people in the three counties within the territory were all required to pay taxes to the Bei army within the specified seven days.

Also.

The officials in the three counties were also replaced with officers of similar rank as border troops commanders.

Military and political affairs were combined into one.

The Bei army, which had just slaughtered 250,000 archers and cavalrymen of the Kashgar Khanate and was filled with murderous intent, was a force that ordinary people would not dare to challenge.
Moreover.

The Bei army only levied high taxes on manor owners and merchants; the taxes for ordinary people were still within their means.

Just as General Xiong and his men were collecting taxes in Huozhou.

Five hundred boys, aged between twelve and sixteen, who came from the border town, had already arrived at Guazhouwei ahead of the others.

They traveled more than 3,000 miles in just 53 days.

After enduring wind and rain and countless hardships, we finally arrived at our final destination before our companions.

They made them one by one.

His hair was like a bird's nest, and his clothes were tattered; he was worse off than a beggar!

On his dark, thin face, large patches of skin were peeling off.

Thin.

The average person lost more than ten kilograms.

Ignoring their hunger, a dozen or so young men, led by Pigskin, went directly to the garrison commander of Guazhou Guard.

"My lord, we were told before we arrived that the first 100 people to arrive would be rewarded with a fine horse from the Western Regions; those who came between 101 and 500 would each be rewarded with ten fat sheep."

Does this reward still count? Where do we go to claim it? And, and when can we join the Vanguard Camp?

The commander of the Guazhou Guard was extremely envious of these young men winning the award.

But they were incredibly jealous of the fact that they were qualified to join the vanguard battalion.

He replied sourly:

"What's the rush? You all just wait here in Guazhou Garrison. The General and General Gan will personally present you with your awards when they return. Kids, you're not old enough to enlist yet!"

The boys couldn't help but jump for joy after hearing the first part of the sentence:

"Wow! The General and General Gan will personally present the awards to us? This is enough for me to brag about for the rest of my life!"

"Hehe, Ang's mother will be overjoyed when she finds out that Ang has earned a BMW."

"I really love sheep!"

"."

(End of this chapter)