Durin's Diary

Chapter 993 The Splendid Banquet

When Du Lin peeked out of bed early in the morning, he found the silence almost unbearable.

Fortunately, he was able to detect that none of the patrol teams on the city wall were missing.

It's really different from Zhennanguan. At Zhennanguan, the two sides started exchanging greetings with cannonballs and spells before dawn, but at Shanhaiguan, it's already past 6:30, and the two sides have been very tacitly refraining from throwing anything at each other.

It's also because Eleven and Daju aren't here. If they were, they would definitely complain about this battlefield spectacle.

After getting dressed and crawling out of the tent, Dulin walked up the city wall and glanced at the other side—there were visibly more unfortunate souls hanging on the gallows. These spiritual heirs of Slaanesh seemed to have a knack for finding joy even in hardship.

Unfortunately, their strength was insufficient. Those so-called Chaos Demon Army were all show and no substance, ultimately not the real deal. They were just like the so-called Bloodletters outside Zhennan Pass—they looked strong, but were like sitting ducks when you actually fought them.

Of course, they are still a threat to ordinary soldiers, but they are ultimately easier to deal with than the real ones.

It was all thanks to the early intervention of the anonymous figure; otherwise, once the genuine evil gods of the subspace completed the process of going public through a shell company, these four so-called evil gods would have simply vanished into thin air, and Chang Tang would definitely not have been able to hold on.

Not to mention Changtang, Xilu might as well just wait to die—the genuine evil god certainly wouldn't have any ties, and who knows, if Changtang couldn't take them down for a while, they might turn around and crush the kingdoms of Xilu first.

"Sir, is this your first time here? It's still early. The Chaos Lords usually don't start their siege until after nine o'clock," a veteran from the patrol team explained.

Dulin nodded, handed out a pack of cigarettes, and gestured for the patrol team to share them.

The veteran left happily.

Dulin glanced at the Chaos Elders' camp, finally shook his head, and turned to walk down—it was still early, he needed to find something to eat at the canteen first.

It snowed last night, and after walking for a while, Dulin simply took a picture of himself using a levitation spell—nobody likes walking in a meter-deep snow, especially a small guy like Dulin.

When they arrived at the cafeteria, before Dulin had even landed, a tall, bull-headed man reached out and plucked Dulin from the air.

"Mr. Dulin, what brings you out here? This road is difficult to travel. I'll have someone deliver meals to your tent from now on," the middle-aged man, who was the guard of the first pass, said with a smile.

Dulin shook his head: "I don't need any special treatment. I'll eat whatever the soldiers eat."

“That won’t do.” The bull-headed man was a little unhappy: “You are a guest general, how can you endure hardship?”

Dulin pulled out the short cane that Old Pang had given him: "How about I call the old owner of this thing over, and you can talk to him?"

The bull-headed man was shocked and shook his head repeatedly: "Then there's no need. If my elders find out that I invited Grand Tutor Pang over, I'm doomed."

"You know that much. Come on, let me see what the soldiers have for breakfast this morning." Dulin put away his short cane and walked into the building called the mess hall.

Like the soldiers' dormitories, the canteen uses double walls with a mezzanine in the middle, containing a stove and chimney to ensure heating and safety.

Therefore, the canteen is very warm. Unlike Zhennanguan, Shanhaiguan does not have a diverse menu. Different food is prepared every day of the week to ensure that there is no repetition within a week.

There's no way around it, it's too cold. To ensure the soldiers have enough heat, they need pork belly every day, and the cooks here even add sugar to the broth. For example, today's breakfast consisted of two meat patties, each weighing about 4.5 ounces, with about 450 grams of flour. The filling was made from a mixture of 200 grams of pork belly, 50 grams of cheese, and 25 grams of sugar, served with a bowl of broth and plenty of salt.

The two cakes together weigh nine ounces. If you're a big guy, you can add another cake, but someone with a small stomach and small stature like Du Lin will eat one less cake and replace the soup with porridge full of sugar.

When the soldiers finished eating and returned their plates to the storage area, they would receive a pot of strong tea weighing about one kilogram.

In Shanhaiguan, tea was the soldiers' favorite drink. The tea with sugar could be heated on the stoves in the city walls and rest areas. Although it seemed a bit strange to drink it like this in Dulin, it provided the soldiers with enough calories.

Dulin took a pancake and a large bowl of porridge. After finishing, he returned the plate to the storage area and received a pot of strong tea weighing about one kilogram from the storage area. Dulin had his own thermos, so he put the tea directly into the thermos.

"Mr. Dulin's pot looks like an extraordinary creation." The Minotaur Guardian recognized that the dark pot in Dulin's hand was no ordinary object.

Du Lin nodded: "Yes."

Then Dulin also observed the contents of lunch and dinner.

According to the cooks, at midday during the war, the soldiers would receive a thick flatbread coated with salt. They would tear the flatbread open, stuff it with the four ounces of salted meat that was given to them at the same time, and eat it with a large bowl of sugar water.

Dinner will be more substantial, featuring a golden-brown baked flatbread as the main dish, along with a can of meat weighing about 400 grams. These will be heated together with some dehydrated vegetables to create a steaming stew. The canned meat is made with high-quality ingredients, as it is produced in factories in the north. In the northern region where every family has children living near Shanhaiguan, it is absolutely impossible to use inferior canned meat.

Sometimes tea would also be served—though it wasn't anything special, just like morning tea, strong tea was truly the best drink for the soldiers during the long nights, especially since patrols were issued thermos flasks to ensure the tea wouldn't turn into a block of ice on a winter night.

Dulin thought about it and felt it was already quite good—on the northern provincial defense line of the Alessandro family, the soldiers' dinner consisted of a few potatoes, a bowl of meat soup, and a couple of pieces of meat.

Sometimes there aren't even any meat pieces in the broth.

Although Dulin understood that this was not because the Duke was withholding rations, and even the soldiers understood that they could tolerate eating less, they were already very happy as long as the Duke could provide them with enough ammunition.

Therefore, compared to their counterparts at Shanhaiguan in the east, the big shots in the west are really in dire straits.

Fortunately, the canned food in Dulin's territory should be able to be shipped out in large quantities in the next two days, which should be able to provide the Duke with more.

The price is negotiable. As long as they can hold the line and prevent the Chaos Ones from invading the Eastern Territory from the south, the Circle of Truth might even be willing to pay a portion of the money.

If we can just hold on a little longer, and once we've wiped out the remaining evil gods, the world will surely be in a much better state.

For at least the foreseeable future, everyone will be able to enjoy what can be described as a long period of peace.

With this thought in mind, Dulin heard the sound of cannon fire.

I glanced at my pocket watch and realized it was only eight o'clock.

The cannon fire came from the rear wall, indicating that the artillery crew had located a high-value target.

(End of this chapter)