The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

News of the imperial court's approval of war reached Kansai.

Despite the freezing weather, the hearts of the 150,000 troops stationed in Kansai were burning with fervor.

The Iri Valley was in an uproar:

A twenty-year-old sergeant was spouting nonsense in the canteen during his lunch break:
"Finally, we have a chance to attack the Hu people's stronghold? Ang said the other day that he didn't know if he would have the chance to see the Hu people's country fall before he retired at the age of twenty-five! Ang has finally got what he's been hoping for. This time, he has to go on the western expedition no matter what!"

A squad leader, two years older than him, scoffed at him.

"Old Chen, what are you dreaming about? This time, the western expedition only has 60,000 cavalry slots, and they've even reserved 1,000 for those student soldiers who have only been enrolled for two months. 150,000 to 160,000 people are vying for 60,000 slots, they'll fight tooth and nail for it."

A squad leader of an even higher rank joined in the commotion:

"Exactly! If your marksmanship isn't accurate and your physical strength isn't top-notch, you won't have a chance to go to the battlefield! With your performance in the assessments every quarter, what makes you think you can compete with us?"

The squad leader, who was called "Old Chen," was very dissatisfied:

"Don't underestimate me, you lot! I'll train like crazy for the next three months and show you! Nobody can stop me from going to the capital of the Hu people and making a fortune!"

Everyone in the cafeteria: "."

The abacus beads on this person's abacus have all fallen to the ground!
It's no wonder that Old Master Chen is so desperate for a spot on the Western Expedition; who wouldn't be thinking the same thing?

When it comes to defeating the Hu people, they're a piece of cake!

Despite being nearly thirty years old, the Grand General of the State still participates in actual combat assessments every year, alongside mid-level generals.

His skills are as good as ever.

No one knows where her strength limit lies!

She can use any kind of heavy weapon.

To put it bluntly, the 60,000 cavalrymen who led the expedition were simply there to make a fortune.

Not to mention how much wealth the Hu people's royal court has accumulated over the years.

Take those foreign merchants who were killed, for example; the goods they were robbed of were worth tens of millions of taels of silver.

Even a fool could guess how bountiful the spoils will be this time!

In the Kansai region, families with active-duty soldiers generally live quite comfortably.

In their first year of service, soldiers received a few taels of silver in military pay each month, and also received a bonus of several dozen taels of silver from the logistics and entrepreneurship center each year.

One person joins the army, and the whole family is honored.

In the Kansai region, this slogan is not just something to be shouted out.

Every year, military families receive various free high-yield seeds from the garrison.

Grain seeds include wheat, barley, rice, and various beans; cash crops include cotton, mulberry, hemp, and some high-yield fruit tree seedlings.

Every household had plenty of cattle, horses, and sheep.

After a bumper harvest of these grains and cash crops, any surplus can be sold directly to the military supply department at market prices.

Compared to immigrants, military dependents have a natural advantage.

Even the most ordinary military family had a total annual income of over three hundred taels of silver.

You'd think this is a pretty comfortable life, right?

But who can blame them when foreign trade cities like Bagua City and Tianzi City exist?

Ordinary soldiers are well aware that their meager savings are worlds apart from those of truly wealthy individuals.

War is the shortcut to getting rich!
Therefore, in order to compete for these 59,000 slots for the western expedition, the 100,000-plus troops stationed here will not be able to rest until the ice and snow thaw next year.

If not now, when will we ever get the chance to train like crazy and improve our personal combat power?
Gan Minglan was naturally pleased to see her subordinates so motivated.

Even the firearms laboratory at the military academy was working overtime, making a pledge to tinker with some handy gadgets for the battlefield.

The Quartermaster Department was even busier.

Warhorses, armor, and firearms must be prepared in advance.

They knew the general's fighting style well: a forced march, and the necessary rations for the march.

Fortunately, there's plenty of food we can bring these days. Cow, sheep, and camel milk powder, sweet and savory biscuits, toast of all flavors, dried meat, dried fruit, and more—you name it, we have it.

A few days ago, Gan Minglan made a request to the quartermaster department to make some dehydrated dried vegetables for the army to take on the road.

I repeatedly emphasized that it should be the kind of soup that you can drink as soon as you soak it in hot water.

This is actually not difficult.

It's baking and dehydration.

Cilantro, scallions, cabbage leaves, etc., can all be used.

The quartermaster department was extremely busy preparing these supplies.

It's truly a case of one small thing affecting the whole situation; there's no sign of hibernation whatsoever.

Marcoli, a Venetian merchant, was secretly astonished to see the Illyrian garrison training in the snow in the dead of winter.

He truly hadn't expected that, in order to seek justice for them, the Grand General of the State would actually send 60,000 troops to conquer the Kashgar Khanate.

Isn't he being a bit too demanding?

Marcoli was both nervous and inexplicably excited.

At the same time, he secretly resolved that as long as he could get back the perfume worth more than two million taels of silver from the Hu people, he would bring more craftsmen to Guanzhong next year.

As you can see, this time more than a dozen managers or servants of merchants from various countries stayed in Kansai, and they were hired as foreign teachers with high salaries.

If these people understood the concept of specialization as well as he did, how dangerous would his position as a headhunting supplier be?

It's time to take on more responsibility!
Gan Minglan had no idea that this Venetian merchant had such a wildly unpredictable way of thinking.

These days, she and other generals, including Tian Jiu, have been working on a sand table to plan the marching route for the western expedition.

Inside the council hall of the General of the Nation's Mansion, there is a table that occupies one-third of the entire council hall area.

On the table was a miniature topographical map of the entire Western Regions.

From Kansai to Kashgar, the cities, oases, deserts, Gobi, and grasslands along the way are all condensed on this map.

The generals and soldiers each expressed their own opinions.

Sometimes they would argue heatedly, trying to be the first to speak.

At times, they would also take up positions to provide cover.

In short, they all want to be the ones who stand out.

Outside the meeting hall.

Yuanyuan had been squatting by the door for over an hour, listening intently with her ears perked up.

This scene will be playing out in the mansion every day for the next few days.

No one could persuade them to leave.

Who could blame them when this little girl set her sights on killing the Hu people's capital when she was only five years old?
She's not grown up yet.

My mother was about to rush off to do the chores.

Ordinary people don't understand what a devastating weapon a level 10 wood-type superpower is.

As a daughter of the same wood-type supernatural power, Yuanyuan knew all too well that as long as her mother took action, the countdown to the destruction of the Hu people's kingdom would begin.

The little girl's only request was that her mother take her with her on this western expedition.

There's no way Gan Minglan would agree!

What kind of battlefield is a little kid who's not even ten years old (by Chinese reckoning) going to?
Furthermore, although his Xingyi Quan skills were quite good, his wood-type ability had only reached the mid-level of level four thanks to his crazy spending on crystal cores, which was still not at the stage where he could use plants as weapons.

What can you do on the battlefield?
Are you suggesting we perform for the barbarians a charade of scattering seeds and causing them to bloom on the spot?
When the mother and daughter couldn't reach an agreement, the little girl resorted to persistent tactics, spending her days squatting at the door to eavesdrop on their strategies.

Zuo Wenkang was so engrossed in watching that he practically clenched his teeth.

It's true what they say, once a daughter grows up, she's no longer under her father's control! (End of Chapter