The Prodigal Son

After leading his troops in a surprise attack on Jiashi Wharf, Qin Yu changed his mind and did not burn all the grain.

After burning the grain ships, Qin Yu did not rush to leave, but chose to rest temporarily at Jiashi Wharf.

The Jiashi Wharf also has a large amount of grain, which their men can produce as much as they want.

Moreover, most of them are rice!

They worked through the night using the water mill next to the dock to husk some of the rice, and the bright white grains of rice were so dazzling that they made people stare.

As soon as I woke up in the morning, I smelled the aroma of white rice mixed with the smell of horse meat.

Soldiers surrounded each pot.

The white rice in the pot was actually very simple, just a little salt, horse meat, and some wild vegetables.

But even such simple white rice made these soldiers unable to resist swallowing their saliva.

"I could eat ten bowls of this plain white rice!"

"Get lost! If you eat ten bowls of rice, what are we supposed to eat?"

"Damn it, such a big dock, how come there are only so few pots?"

"that is……"

The soldiers gathered around the pots, staring longingly at the large cauldrons.

These are the large earthenware pots used by the dockworkers and laborers for their communal meals. Several large iron pots and steamers were also seized from the dock garrison.

At this moment, fragrant white rice is being cooked in all these pots.

But for these soldiers, the pots were still too few!

Don't be fooled by how big these pots look; if they were allowed to eat their fill, the white rice in one pot wouldn't be enough to feed twenty or thirty people.

Qin Yu had just washed his face when he saw Xiong Quhu, looking like a bear with his butt sticking out, grab a small handful of white rice from the pile of rice, blow off the chaff, and stuff the raw rice into his mouth.

Upon seeing this, Qin's face darkened, and he kicked Xiong Quhu in the butt.

Xiong Quhu stumbled and forced himself to change direction just before falling, thus avoiding crashing into the pile of rice.

"Damn it, find..."

Xiong Quhu flew into a rage and began to curse.

But before he could finish his sentence, he recognized the person who attacked him.

Xiong Quhu forcibly swallowed back what he was about to say and gave Qin Yu a dry grin.

"Are you fucking out of your mind?"

Qin Yu was both annoyed and amused. "It's not like we don't have white rice for you, so why the hell are you eating raw rice?"

"Isn't it because I'm really craving rice? I'll eat some first to satisfy my craving."

Xiong Quhu smiled sheepishly, quickly got up from the ground, and said, "General Qin, the brothers have milled so much rice, it would be a waste to burn it. Why don't we take the rest with us?"

Fearing there wouldn't be enough to eat, the soldiers worked through the night to grind large quantities of white rice using a water mill.

The problem now is that there's too much rice but not enough pots!

There simply aren't enough pots to cook rice!

This is white rice!

In the army, their staple food was still millet.

If you can eat sorghum rice, that's considered breaking your vegetarian diet.

As for white rice, that's something we only get to eat during festivals or when we've won a great victory!

It's so heartbreaking that it burned like that.

"Bring my ass!"

Qin Yu glared at him. "Give the order: once one pot is cooked, immediately continue cooking! Cook as much as you can, and burn everything that needs to be cooked before we leave!"

There's nothing we can do about wasting it.

Zeng Guan has already led his men to gather intelligence. Once Zeng Guan returns, they will be able to determine whether to attack Qixia Pass or launch a surprise attack on the enemy forces in Dongyuan.

His biggest worry now is that Dongyuan has already been captured by Liang Jingzhe.

If Liang Jingzhe's troops have already captured Dongyuan and occupied it, then their options will be limited.

However, they will leave here soon anyway.

If we don't burn all this grain, are we going to leave it for the enemy?

Damn it, the State of Chu is truly a treasure trove!

Even the grain supplied to the Min Kingdom was mostly rice!

Even during the prosperous times of Da Ning, the staple food of ordinary people was millet.

I have no idea what Emperor Xiaowu was thinking back then. With the time it took to launch four northern expeditions, he probably would have conquered the Chu Kingdom long ago!

It would be a terrible waste not to take over such a valuable grain-producing area!

"oh oh."

Xiong Quhu nodded, then asked, "When is Boss Zeng coming back?"

"How would I know?"

Qin Yu rolled her eyes at him. "Alright, now's not the time to be stingy! Everyone, eat as much as you want! But we have to leave as soon as Boss Zeng gets back!"

Xiong Quhu nodded slightly, greedily inhaling the fragrance in the air.

This white rice with wild grass and horse meat is much more delicious than just dry-roasting the horse meat by the fire!

For the first time, he hoped that Zeng Guan would come back later, preferably so that they could have one or two more meals of fragrant white rice here.

Qin Yu briefly looked around before sitting down on a nearby recliner.

I must say, the dock supervisor's deck chairs were actually pretty comfortable.

Qin Yu chuckled to himself and then sat there lost in thought.

As he pondered this, he became lost in thought.

"What are you thinking about?"

Until Nan Que'er's voice rang in his ears.

Nan Que'er stretched out her fair hand and waved it in front of him. Qi Dachui, who was next to her, had already brought him a bowl of fragrant horse meat and white rice.

"Thirteenth Young Master, have something to eat first!"

Qi Dachui handed over the rice bowl with a simple smile.

Qin Yu took the rice bowl and nodded and smiled at the two of them.

However, his smile looked a bit fake no matter how you looked at it.

Nan Que'er sat down next to Qin Yu and said with a pursed mouth, "I still prefer how you were in the capital. Now that you're on the battlefield, you're like a different person. You always look so preoccupied."

Qin Yu shook his head and smiled to himself, "It's better to use your brain more than to have more people die."

"That's true."

Nan Que'er nodded and chuckled, then asked curiously, "What were you thinking about just now? I've seen you sitting here alone for so long."

She had noticed Qin Yu sitting there in a daze long ago.

Knowing that Qin Yu was thinking about something, she didn't want to disturb him.

"I'm thinking, if I were Yu Wu, how would I break this deadlock?"

Qin Yu didn't hide anything, "I think Yu Wu is definitely not satisfied and will probably have other plans!"

Yu Wu is currently in a very difficult situation.

When the Yan state attacks, Yu Wu's situation will become even more difficult.

Since Yu Wu is so ambitious, he must be unwilling to accept defeat.

If we could put ourselves in Yu Wu's shoes and anticipate his next move, it might be of great help in the upcoming battles!

Hearing Qin Yu's words, Nan Que'er couldn't help but roll her eyes and casually said, "This is already a dead end, what's the point of trying to break it? If I were Yu Wu, I would quickly run to the south bank of Qujiang River and send people to destroy Sanli Bridge. Let's see what you can do to me then..."

He does not mean that.

Hearing Nan Que'er's words, Qin Yu suddenly froze.

He suddenly realized that he had made a fatal mistake!

He is not Yu Wu!

All he racked his brains to figure out was how to turn the tide in a desperate situation using limited resources and troops!

Yu Wu, on the other hand, probably wouldn't think that way at all!