Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 44 Inspection
"Your Highness, please forgive me. I will ask them to stop right now." Li Chaodong apologized and immediately ran out of the city wall.

He came from a poor family, so he naturally knew that the "diarrhea" Zhu Cilang mentioned referred to the physical reaction of the malnourished soldiers after suddenly eating such oily food.

In the past half day, the discomfort could have been endured, but now that the Tartars have arrived, how can we take it lightly?

"and many more."

Li Chaodong's hands and feet were very nimble, but he heard His Highness' voice as soon as he stepped out of the city gate.

When he turned around, he saw that His Highness was hesitant. He paused for a moment before speaking again: "It's only about half a day. Pay more attention when you are on duty at night."

A centurion guards a city wall of more than 20 zhang in length. If this centurion loses his combat effectiveness due to a stomachache, then this 20 zhang in length may become an ant hole that causes the collapse of a dam of thousands of zhang in length.

Zhu Cilang naturally understood this truth, but after careful consideration, he finally stopped Li Chaodong when he was about to leave.

"But Your Highness."

"The war is about to start. If we miss this meal, I wonder how many people will be able to taste meat again."

Li Chaodong was already very upset that his good intentions led to a bad outcome, and the Crown Prince's words made him freeze at the door. He couldn't say any of the thousands of reasons he had thought of.

"Come and eat."

Zhu Cilang gave a call and started eating with the others. Although the other three had their own thoughts, they had no choice but to obey since His Highness had said so.

This meal was the most filling that Zhu Cilang had ever eaten since he came into this world, but it was also the one with the most depressing atmosphere.

Needless to say, Li Chaodong and Xu Renjue, one felt extremely guilty and was only thinking about how to make up for his mistake, while the other realized that His Highness was completely different from what he thought. But at the same time, Xiang Rensheng was also lost in thought.

Although he had only known His Highness three or two days earlier than others, the things he experienced there were more exciting than others' entire lives.

In these matters, His Highness was either calm and composed, or acted decisively, but he had never been as soft-hearted as he was just now. Was he too soft-hearted?

When this common word in opera flashed through his mind, Xiang Rensheng realized that it was somewhat disrespectful, and immediately dispelled it.

To be honest, how could a coolie who couldn't even read a single word understand the relationship between rulers and subjects?
He just felt that it was a bit inappropriate to describe his boss as "womanly".

As night fell, the bowl of meat was also eaten up by several people. In the end, Zhu Cilang even used the steamed bun to dip the inner wall of the bowl clean.

In the past few days, Zhu Cilang mostly wandered around the city. Although the food he ate was not quite to his taste, it still had some oil in it.

Now he has shifted his focus to the city, and after not having any meat for a few days, he is really feeling a little greedy.

The difference in food on both sides was not because Zhu Cilang still held on to his previous idea, nor was it because there were really no dozens of live pigs in Yingtian City. In the final analysis, it was just two words: "forgot".

Doing everything himself naturally increases his power, but a person's energy is limited after all, so how can he take care of everything?

However, these soldiers had difficulty getting even a full meal in the past, and now that Your Highness can ensure that they have enough to eat every meal, they are already grateful and will not cause any trouble because of this.

After Li Chaodong brought the dishes and chopsticks back to the stove, he did not return to the city wall, but went straight to find the centurion stationed there.

Although the captains here have less experience than him, they are not slacking off in their duty training. If Your Highness had come here first that day, it would be hard to say who would have been awarded the position of a thousand-householder.

"Old Liu, I'm going to patrol the city. Please keep an eye on His Highness."

When Li Chaodong found the man, Captain Liu was also patrolling near the tower. Seeing that the other party was about to salute him, Li Chaodong told him the purpose of looking for him and then stretched out his hand to stop him: "I have said many times that you and I have known each other for many years, why are you still bound by these conventional etiquettes."

"My lord, please remember our old friendship, but I cannot violate the rules of propriety." Although Li Chaodong spoke politely, Captain Liu did not dare to do as he did in the past.

Honestly speaking, ever since he was promoted to the rank of Qian Hu, his former colleagues have been extremely respectful to him, some even going so far as to fawn on him in their interactions.

As for whether there were people harboring jealousy or not, Li Chaodong, who had nearly two hundred soldiers under his command and had the Crown Prince as a big tree standing behind him, didn't care much.

"Your Highness is still worried that the soldiers can't bear it. We should be more careful in the next two days to make sure the Tartars don't take advantage of us."

The two exchanged a few more polite words, and Li Chaodong went straight to the point.

Although he took out half of the meat rewarded by Zhu Cilang and distributed it to other centurions, it was only a little over a hundred pounds, and each soldier could only taste the meat.

But after long-term malnutrition, who can guarantee that there won’t be anyone who can’t stand even a little meat?

"Your Excellency is right. I will bring some people to keep watch here tonight."

Captain Liu responded, and Li Chaodong did not delay any longer. He said goodbye and went directly to the defense area of ​​other captains.

Yingtian had hardly experienced any war, so the attitudes of the generals here towards ordinary soldiers were significantly different from those in the north.

Those in the north would collect empty salaries and make fuss about weapons and equipment, but they dare not go too far in terms of food and salaries.

Sometimes, when the soldiers' food and wages were not guaranteed due to the greed of civil servants, the generals would even pay out of their own pockets.

But in places that have not been ravaged by war, it will be fine as long as too many people don't starve to death.

In such a situation, the soldiers of the garrison had already done their best by not shooting arrows at their superiors during the battle. How could they be forced to fight against the Tartars?

It was not difficult to change this situation. Zhu Cilang only needed to distribute food and fodder in sufficient quantities, and at most add a few pigs to make the soldiers grateful.

But even such a simple measure would be almost impossible to implement if you are in the old system.

Even Zhu Cilang could only exercise his power freely when there was a power vacuum in Yingtian and the civil service structure collapsed.

If it were any other time, even if he was the legitimate emperor, he would have been in trouble.

Li Chaodong walked south along the city wall and turned back when he reached the junction with other thousand households.

Looking along the way, although the city defense equipment was not complete in some places and the weapons of the new recruits had not yet been fully replenished, there were no vacancies in the necessary sentry posts.

Such a result is naturally not perfect, but Li Chaodong is very satisfied.

Ultimately, the shortcomings are all in the equipment, and the performance of the soldiers is a far cry from the past.

After all, the Tartars have come from afar. Even if we start building siege equipment tonight, it will take at least three to five days before we can actually attack the city. By then, we should be ready.

When returning, although Li Chaodong was not as careful as when he came, he was afraid of making mistakes due to diarrhea, so he still gave instructions to each centurion.

As a result, it was almost late at night when he returned to Yaofangmen.

"Mr. Ji is back and is discussing matters with His Highness." Li Chaodong had just arrived at the gate of the city wall when he saw Captain Liu waving at him.

(End of this chapter)