Griffin Commander in the Late Ming Dynasty

"About seven days, sir."

"Four days...Did we find any traces of camping along the way?"

"This... I have never seen it before"

This is strange, Lai Bu fell into deep thought, he had been tracking the enemy for two consecutive days since he found traces of their movements outside the city. During these two days, he did not find even the slightest trace of the enemy camping. All he could see were some footprints, and they had never gone to any water source for supplies along the way. It was really weird, don't these people need to eat or rest?

Weird, so weird.

This incredible situation cast a shadow on Lai Bu's heart, but reinforcements were on the way. Judging from the appearance of the traces, the number of the bandits must not be large. Let's wait and see until we find them.

"Keep chasing!"

He led his men and continued to track the other party's footprints.

Volume 321: Chapter Chapter : Encounter

Lai Bu felt that he had encountered something strange that he had never encountered in his decades of marching career.

Now he had been chasing them along the road with his men for four days, but apart from some strange footprints and wheel tracks, he had seen nothing. There were no signs of fires or stoves, no signs of camping or repairs, and the signs on the road also showed that the other party had not considered any water source at all. They had not even seen a piece of feces on the road!

This is the most abnormal thing! People can not eat, but it is impossible not to poop!

Especially various large livestock such as war horses, they eat more and excrete even more every day, so they excrete a lot. And these livestock are not like humans, who will announce their excretion in advance and do it while walking. It is impossible for humans to control their excretion.

But along the way, Lai Bu didn't see any shit. You know, feces is also one of the important means to track the enemy. By feeling the moisture and smell of feces, and observing the ingredients (of course, you don't need to taste it), you can analyze what breeds of these livestock are, how long ago they excreted here, their diet and other important information. These are all very critical on the battlefield. Lai Bu couldn't understand, how could someone be able to clean up feces so cleanly?

He couldn't not poop, right? He couldn't figure it out. Lai Bu was puzzled. He couldn't figure out how the enemy did it. Everything in front of him made him feel gloomy. He wondered if he had encountered some evil monster. He could only ask his soldiers to be more careful.

But this idea grew stronger and stronger in Lai Bu's mind.

Until three days later.

The days of tracking made Lai Bu and his soldiers miserable. They, the cavalry, marched at full speed but could not see any trace of the enemy. On the contrary, the days of riding on horseback made their hips hurt badly, and the horses also needed repairs.

After three days of continuous pursuit, they came to a forest. Judging from the traces, the enemy should have passed through the mountain. Their goal was clear, which was to go to Phoenix City.

Don't enter the forest. Lai Bu didn't plan to rush into the mountains like this. That would be unwise. Moreover, the sun was setting in the west, the moon was high in the sky, and it was getting late. He decided to let his men rest first.

With a whistle, the cavalrymen began to dismount and set up camp, cooking. Of course, the first thing they did was to take good care of their warhorse ancestors.

"Shangguan, is it convenient?"

Lai Bu was feeding bean cakes to his horse when a confidant nearby saw the opportunity and came forward to talk to him.

"What's the matter?"

"This..." The confidant looked around in embarrassment. Lai Bu understood what he meant and turned around, leading the horse towards a secluded place.

"Are you willing to tell me now?"

"Please punish me, this matter is of great importance and I have to be more careful."

After the confidant apologized, he leaned close to Lai Bu and said, "Sir, you should have noticed that this war is very unusual."

"The defenders of Huangqibao were talking nonsense. We just thought they were a bunch of good-for-nothings who were scared out of their wits. But with so many people speaking so confidently, we brothers couldn't help but have some doubts..."

He carefully checked Lai Bu's face, ready to end the topic at any time. Seeing that the other party had no obvious intention to stop him, he continued boldly: "To be honest, we didn't see a single living person along the way. Even if we encountered people along the way, when we arrived, we could only see ruins and corpses on the ground. Many of them were frozen to death. These would not be a big deal, but there were so many of them. All the villages along the way were like this. Everyone felt a little creepy when they saw the smiling faces on the dead faces."

The people who were frozen to death had smiles on their faces. Although it was June now, Liaodong was still freezing cold. They had to walk around the streets for a long time to remake the dead bodies on the spot. The Qing army was a little nervous. On such a snowy day, they dug out several dead bodies in the village with smiles on their faces. Think about it carefully, although this situation is relatively common, the mood is different and the reaction to seeing this thing is also different.

"We have been tracking them for several days. The so-called enemy army has no popularity at all. There are already some rumors in the army..."

"say what?"

"They say... they say we have encountered an evil spirit. I'm afraid there is some demon causing trouble. The soldiers are in a panic. If this continues, it will be very bad, Shangguan..."

What kind of living thing doesn't poop? If you don't eat, drink, rest, or excrete, you're not a living person at all! You might not even be a human being. Who knows what kind of thing you are!

"So what?"

Lai Bu sighed. He knew the current situation and the rumors in the army, but now was not the time to rectify them. Besides, since no typical case had been caught, it was not convenient to take action.

"I think that now, we should...slow down and wait for the imperial court's reinforcements, and then join them. After the soldiers' confidence increases, you, sir, can give them a higher position, so that we can ensure the morale of the army..."

"But if that's the case, what should Phoenix do?"

Lai Bu frowned. All the way, the enemy almost wrote on their faces that they were going to attack Phoenix City. This was why Lai Bu kept chasing them day and night. But now...

"Shangguan, the morale of the army is unstable now. Even if we catch up, if the enemy really has some new weapons, the brothers will probably think more and more crookedly. Even if we fight, we won't gain any advantage. Phoenix City is different from Huangqi Fort. It is a big city. The enemy will not be able to do anything to it for a while. The most urgent task is to boost the morale of the army so that we can have a decisive battle with the enemy..."

"What you said makes sense..."

In ancient warfare, military morale can be said to have always been an extremely important factor. The success or failure of the entire battle depends on it. If the military morale is good, even if the weak defeats the strong, or the few defeat the many, there is confidence that the victory can be achieved. But if the military morale is unstable, they will be like those Ming dogs next door, running away faster than anyone else when a fight starts.

The warriors of the Eight Banners would naturally not be as useless as the slaves of the Ming Dynasty, but... they were also human beings, they would also be afraid and confused. If they continued to chase, Lai Bu had no idea what they would encounter.

"Just do as you say"

Even he, the commander-in-chief, is nervous about the current situation. Naturally, he cannot ask too much of his subordinates. If he wants to boost the morale of the army, he still has to wait for the arrival of reinforcements from the imperial court.

"Go down and prepare. We will set up camp again and wait for reinforcements. Pay more attention to the rumors in the army and control them. By the way, find out who is gossiping."

"Don't worry, Shangguan"

The confidant responded excitedly and turned to walk towards the military camp. Lai Bu's horse was almost fed and was now nudging his palm with its big nose.

Touching the horse's nose, Lai Bu walked towards his own military tent. The soldiers had already set up their tents. As he walked, he saw several soldiers gathered in twos and threes, pointing in the direction of the mountains.

Lai Bu frowned. After hearing what his confidant had just said to him, Lai Bu became quite sensitive to the current situation in the army. He was to the point where when he saw bare arms, he would think of naked bodies. Looking at a few people chatting there, he felt that these people were spreading rumors.

"Hey! You guys! What are you doing?!"

His shout obviously frightened those people. Before they could react, Lai Bu continued to curse angrily: "Get over here!"

Although they didn't understand what was going on, they hurried forward and knelt on the ground with a plop: "Greetings, sir."

"What are you guys whispering about over there?"

Lai Bu's nose is not a nose, and his eyes are not eyes. The morale of his subordinates is unstable, which hinders his path to promotion and wealth. Naturally, he dislikes them.

That’s right, Lai Bu’s goal is to get promoted and make money. To say that he cares about the common people is pure deception. In the eyes of the Manchu nobles, all the people in the world are slaves. How can a master worry about his slaves?

"To reply to Shangguan, we were just looking at the stars on the mountain."

"Shadow? What's so good about a shadow?"

"But, but those stars are all purple..."

Purple stars? Lai Bu looked towards the mountain in confusion: "Are those red ones you are talking about? No! Everyone be on alert!!!"

Lai Bu was still a little confused at first, but soon he realized that something seemed wrong - there were no stars on the land! ! They were the eyes of the beasts at night! ! !

Just estimating the distance between them and the monster made Lai Bu's heart sink. How could they see it so clearly from such a distance? How big must the monster be! !

"There's a monster! There's a monster!!"

A shrill cry echoed throughout the military camp. Turning around, bright yellow headlights were dim in the mountains and forests. Between the light and darkness, a huge and ferocious monster was approaching the camp.

With the help of the firelight, Lai Bu saw its huge front paws raised high.

"Crack!"

After stepping on a cockroach to death, Jiang Han shook his head with a mask on: "See? We must be very, very careful, especially with bugs like this! And its eggs! We must absolutely, absolutely burn them cleanly! Otherwise, we will never have peace. This thing eats food very fast. You don't want your rice jar to be full of these things, right?"

The American cockroach, this evil species, was discovered as a stowaway when Jiang Han was receiving guinea pigs, peppers, and a series of American-specific crops and livestock. These damn Dutch people were simply a group of live pigs, with no hygiene at all on the boat. He even found several large gray rats among the guinea pigs, which made him extremely alert. As a northerner working in the south, when he saw this damn thing, it can be said that his entire world view suffered a serious blow. He had never seen such a big thing in his many years in the north!

Listening to Jiang Han's story, the workers in charge of the on-site inspection also had in their minds the scene of opening the rice jar and finding it full of big bugs. They couldn't help but shudder and checked more carefully.

"After the inspection, spray the entire room with alcohol, then burn it with fire. Be sure to do it carefully."

After giving repeated instructions, Jiang Han began to explain the uses of these things to the people he brought with him: "This thing is the pig raised in the homes of people far away from the sea. Unlike us, we have the ability to tame the big wild boars into meat pigs. Those South Americans don't have the ability, so they can only tame such small things."

This is of course a lot of nonsense. There are no wild boars in South America. How can the local residents domesticate them? Oh, I am a pig. I don’t know how to raise such a good source of meat? But such a statement can bring these people a great sense of pride. Ours is the best!

"This thing is called a guinea pig. It's raised for meat. Although it's small, it's very fertile. It can give birth to a litter every week. And it's easy to raise like a duck. But when you raise it, you must pay attention to hygiene issues. Clean it regularly. If anyone ignores my words, I will hang him on the flagpole at the dock. Do you understand?"

A group of farmers nodded in agreement.

"Okay, give me a few. You guys can wash them clean and pick the ones that need to be picked. Then follow the rules and regulations to contract the breeding. I'll be leaving now."

Why did Jiang Han come? He came to beg for money! This person has long wanted to try it. The mouse is so cute, what does it taste like?

I, Jiang Han, love small animals so much that I can’t miss them at every meal.

Volume 322: Chapter Chapter : Poison

To be honest, there is really not much meat on a guinea pig, and it is quite troublesome to handle it. However, its fur is also very smooth, so it should be a very good source of leather products.

The main food source for guinea pigs is grass, and they can have as much of it as they want. They do not eat grass roots, but grass leaves with higher fiber content, which is similar to rabbits. If they eat food with too high water content, it will cause diarrhea. They are naturally cheap and a good choice for raising.

Watching Chuntian skillfully handling the rats one by one, Jiang Han couldn't help but drool out of sympathy for the rats.

Chuntian was preparing to make barbecue skewers. The cooking method in South America is rather rough. Generally, they would wrap the rat meat in leaves after a little processing and then throw it into the fire to roast, which has a very primitive flavor.

But Chuntian knew too well what Jiang Han wanted to eat, so she chose Xinjiang barbecue skewers. Guinea pig meat is very delicious, very gelatinous, and has a relatively low fat content. It is a good choice for making skewers or stewing soup. In fact, it is most suitable for stewing soup, as a large amount of gelatin enters the soup, which increases the purine content.

It is also a very suitable choice for the people today. After all, the current production level is completely unable to meet the people's demand for meat, and everyone looks malnourished. On the contrary, if there is meat and soup, plus rice, a meal can last for a long time and also has the effect of nourishing the stomach.

The hand-cranked blower hummed on the side, and as the air blew, the charcoal fire in the furnace began to dance excitedly. This kind of industrial gadget has begun to be widely popularized in Yangzhen. Originally, everyone used plywood blowers, which were not only laborious but also not very easy to use. The air was blown one by one and the efficiency was very poor. This hand-cranked blower was completely different. The rocker arm gear saved manpower to a great extent, and almost no effort was required. Moreover, the blowing was stable, which was very helpful for people to make fires. Especially when the weather turns cold, heavy snow will begin to fall in the Jiangnan region. This climate phenomenon, which seems very abnormal today, can be said to be a daily routine in the Ming Dynasty at this moment. By that time, firewood will be flooded and charcoal will be damp. With the help of the blower, it is very important for people to be able to make fires more conveniently.

Today's charcoal fire is also very particular. It is made of specially picked peach wood and fruit wood. The grilled meat will have a special aroma.

A guinea pig has very little meat on its body except for its limbs. The meat is carefully cut into slices, then mixed with some seasonings and marinated. Then, it is threaded onto bamboo skewers one by one, brushed with a layer of oil with a fine-bristled brush, and grilled over charcoal fire.

The peppers were dried early and ground into powder, then sprinkled with sesame, fennel and cumin, and sprinkled on the peppers while they were roasting. Soon, the aroma filled the entire yard.

"Is it all right? Is it all right? Is it all right..."

Halfway through the roasting, Jiang Han on the side was already a little impatient. He had been craving for peppers these days. He hadn't eaten peppers for almost a year!

Cornus officinalis, is cornus officinalis something that people eat? It doesn’t have the spicy soul!

"Okay, don't worry, you'll be able to eat it soon. I'm really anxious, Commander."

"No, you don't know what kind of life I've been living for almost a year! At the beginning, I could only eat dry food and couldn't even eat green leafy vegetables. Although the conditions improved later, you know my cooking skills. At most, I can make some ordinary side dishes. There are not enough seasonings here. I can't make non-spicy mapo tofu, right?"

While staring at the grill, Jiang Han explained that he was actually talking nonsense. After arriving in Yangzhou, the food here had never treated him badly. It was just that the seasoning was lacking in today's era, so the food was not tasty.

"Okay, okay, thank you for your hard work. Come, have a try."

Chuntian handed over a skewer of grilled meat. Jiang Han couldn't wait to take it, opened his mouth wide and took off a piece of meat.

"Woo!"

The scalding pork exploded in his mouth along with the aroma of chili and cumin. The freshly roasted meat was still very hot, but Jiang Han was reluctant to spit it out and kept moving his mouth to cool it down.

"too delicious!!!"

Jiang Han ate mouthful by mouthful, enjoying himself very much. It was really satisfying.

"Is this the source of the meat you just bought? Mm, it tastes good."

416 walked in after smelling the food, picked up a string and started eating. She was not afraid of the heat.

"But this thing looks like a mouse. Is there anyone who wouldn't dare to eat it?"

"What are you afraid of? When the time comes, just say it's a rabbit. After all, it looks quite like a rabbit. People nowadays are not that picky. As long as it's clean, they will definitely eat it. It's still a famine, and there are many people who can't eat. This is meat."

“That makes sense…”

416 nodded, and suddenly seemed to remember something and asked, "Come to think of it, Commander, didn't you sell a lot of locust powder or something? How is it going? Now that these locusts are fully grown, they are already quite poisonous."

"Oh yeah, I would have forgotten about it if you hadn't mentioned it. Damn it, why did you say that while we were eating? It's so unlucky!"

Jiang Han snatched the skewer of meat from 416's hand and said, "I'll give you this skewer of meat as a punishment."

While chewing, Jiang Han muttered, "Since more than half a month ago, there have been no proper locusts to collect. Even the nymphs have turned into clusters. They must be strictly cooked before they can be sold. What I sell to those Tartars are all collected adults. They have not been processed by high temperature. They are enough to make them drink a pot of wine."

Social locusts are indeed poisonous. When they live in groups, they will emit benzoylamine that smells like shit to their natural enemies. If there are birds that like to eat snail noodles and think that this thing smells stinky but tastes delicious, they will quickly convert benzoylamine into hydrocyanic acid. Although the birds will not be in danger of death if they eat it, they will feel very uncomfortable.

However, as long as this thing is not eaten raw, there will be no problem. High-temperature cooking will quickly evaporate the toxicity. At the same time, humans, as large animals, have much stronger regulatory abilities than tits. In fact, many disaster victims would catch locusts to eat. This was recorded by Xu Guangqi in his Locust Elimination Memorial. Farmers would cook and eat locusts, and residents in the city would give this thing to each other as gifts. Until today, there has been no case or record of locust poisoning.

The locust plague is terrible mainly because of the high mobility of swarming locusts. These locusts are like a black cloud, flying high and moving fast. It takes less than half an hour for a large group of locusts to land on the ground, and they can leave only the stalks of a large area of ​​corn. After eating, they fly away and rush to the next battlefield, which makes the farmers' harvest of several months come to nothing. How many meals can you eat after catching locusts? After satisfying today's hunger, what about tomorrow? What to eat in the next few months?

Jiang Han's move to collect locusts greatly stimulated the enthusiasm of many people to catch locusts. They changed from the original defense to stop losses, to actively attack and collect rewards. Many people followed the black clouds in the sky with large net bags, and as soon as they saw the locusts land, they would pounce on them and start waving their nets.

After the locusts have been processed at high temperatures and added with some other food ingredients, they can be eaten as emergency food. However, what Jiang Han sold to the Tartars did not include this step.

Locusts that have not been treated with high temperatures contain not only hydrogen cyanide, but also botulinum toxin, and can even cause allergies due to their foreign proteins. You can't detect these things at all, and they can only slowly accumulate in the bodies of the Qing army until the day of the outbreak.

"Your Majesty, recently the military medical officer reported that a large number of our soldiers have suffered from vomiting and diarrhea, and have developed rashes on their bodies. Some even have difficulty breathing and fainted on the spot..."

"What!!?"