Surviving in the chaos of war begins in the wilderness.

Chapter 136 Pity and vice

On the vast snowy plains, a caravan of "beggars" is marching.

This is the thousand-man unit led by Zhou Ye. They received their latest orders to reach a place called Wufangtai within half a month, to build a military camp from scratch, and then to garrison the Wufangtai military camp for a long period of time.

Before setting off, they did receive a batch of supplies. It consisted of nothing more than 20 days' worth of military rations, six hand-pulled carts, and a dozen or so broken tools such as knives and axes. To be honest, it was even worse than the old camp, where at least the tools were relatively complete.

In addition, Niu Meng pulled a big favor in the army and finally received three bows and 20 bundles of arrows. And one of the bows was even broken?

Even so, this thousand-man unit was still a disorganized mess. Forget about military bearing; at first glance, it didn't look like an army at all, but rather resembled a group of beggars and vagrants.

It was nearly noon when the team finally arrived at a small town. It was the small town outside the mountain pass, the place where Zhou Ye had first come out of the mountains.

This shows that this thousand-man corps was in complete disarray even during its march. Keep in mind, this small town is only a little over an hour's journey from the county seat. Even so, these beggar soldiers still took most of the day to travel.

Fortunately, they could rest in this small town, and Zhou Ye and Niu Meng breathed a sigh of relief.

And a caravan was already waiting by the roadside in the town.

Zhou Ye then instructed, "These goods are all ordered by me. Go and take inventory quickly. Oh, and leave all their mules, horses, and carts behind as well. We are buying, not requisitioning. Tell the manager to put all the money in my account."

"Yes, sir."

The man who spoke was named Wu Liqiang. He was a disciple recruited by another martial arts school, but he was only at the mid-stage of the Energizing Realm. However, he was not as rugged as his name suggested. Wu Liqiang was actually quite handsome, and he was passable in writing and arithmetic.

So Zhou Ye simply transferred Wu Liqiang to his side to serve as a clerk in the thousand-man team.

After giving his instructions, Zhou Ye exchanged a quick glance with the shopkeeper. Then, acting as if they were complete strangers, he quickly looked away. Indeed, the shopkeeper was Li Gui from the general store.

Besides the pills, Zhou Ye received 600 taels of silver as a reward, and another 110 taels from selling the five bolts of high-quality silk. However, after giving kickbacks to Treasurer Qin and the others, he only had about 600 taels left.

Since that's the case, Zhou Ye never intended to make a fortune from this war. After all, the money came from the people and should be used for the people; he'd just spend it all on his thousand-man unit!

Finally, deciding to keep the profits within the family, they simply placed an order with Tianxing Grocery Store. This included 1000 jin of salted fish and meat from the store's inventory, salt, and all their secondhand clothes, bedding, and shoes—they had indeed taken quite a lot from Jiao Defu's house back then. There were also some miscellaneous items—

According to military practice, Niu Meng and the other soldiers received military pay, while the displaced soldiers did not. However, they were all allocated a plot of military farmland. In other words, they would all receive land after the war.

However, when Zhou Ye's martial arts school recruits martial artists, in addition to the initial reward, they might receive another reward after a major victory. But if they lose, they will receive nothing. All other benefits will also be forfeited.

However, once any spoils were captured, all of them belonged to Zhou Ye and his men. Apart from a portion that was distributed to the officers and soldiers, the rest all belonged to Zhou Ye and his men—or, to be more precise, to Zhou Ye, the general's, private property.

Of course, don't assume the army is very generous. Just look at these worthless fodder and scraps! Actually, not losing the battle is already quite good. What are you even thinking about spoils of war?

Before long, the goods had been inventoried. Including the three horse-drawn carriages and one mule cart that remained, the total cost was 512 taels.

He signed and affixed his official seal to the IOU, then had Wu Liqiang hand it over to Li Gui.

Li Gui carefully put away the IOU, and together with the hired drivers, they bowed and said goodbye.

Zhou Ye then instructed, "Take 50 catties of salted fish and salted meat for lunch. Make sure there is enough grain so that everyone is full."

Also, make room in one of the carriages for the sick patients.

The soldiers erupted in cheers. They immediately and happily got to work.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Zhou Ye sent someone to the blacksmith's shop in town to buy some tools. He also patronized Manager Ding's business, purchasing ropes, miscellaneous items, and other supplies from his shop. This cost him another 238 taels of silver.

Interestingly, Manager Ding seemed to have recognized Zhou Ye, but he didn't dare to go up and acknowledge him. Zhou Ye simply smiled and nodded.

The only problem is that we've overspent. We even have to subsidize the army ourselves? There's really no way around it; this ragtag group is lacking in so many things.

Fortunately, the items in the general store were simply transferred from one hand to the other, and Zhou Ye deliberately set high prices. For example, salted fish and salted meat were priced at 3 qian of silver per jin. So overall, he didn't actually lose much.

Soon, the aroma of food and meat wafted from the roadsides of the small town. All the soldiers were happily engrossed in their meal.

They hadn't had a full meal in a long time. Not to mention, they could even find meat, and each person even got a few ounces of salted fish and meat.

But Niu Meng came looking for him with great concern: "General, if we keep eating like this, 20 days' worth of rations will only last for a little over ten days? What will we do with the remaining days?"

"Oh, right!"

Reminded of this, Zhou Ye immediately made the arrangements. Some soldiers knocked on the door of the town's grain store and loaded all 100-odd shi (a unit of dry measure) of grain into carts and took them away. Zhou Ye spent another 320 taels (a unit of weight).

Anyway, the more debt you have, the less you worry; the more lice you have, the less they itch. Let the subsidies come!

Zhou Ye's reaction was unexpected, leaving Niu Meng somewhat amused and exasperated: "General, I've never seen anyone lead troops like this. Using your own money to subsidize the army? Isn't it enough money to waste?"

Zhou Ye shook his head with a wry smile: "I just can't bear to see those refugees suffer. Didn't another person die of illness here yesterday? Now there are only 247 people left. There are three seriously ill patients, and I think one of them is about to give up."

"Sigh!" Actually, Niu Meng somewhat admired Zhou Ye's kindness. He looked around and, finding no one approaching, whispered, "General, before we set off, I actually consulted the old general. He told me that as long as we have more than 100 men left, we will have done nothing wrong. So this batch was specially selected from the stronger and more capable."

"Huh? They're considered quite fit?"

"That's for sure. Once we've established ourselves at Wufangtai and built our military camp, we'll send in several more batches of weaker soldiers. Otherwise, if the first batch consists of the weak, who knows how many people will die."

Zhou Ye was dumbfounded. He hadn't expected such logic. So, these refugee soldiers were all expendable resources. The first batch of them were simply the stronger ones.

"Old Niu, let's leave it at that for now. We'll save as many as we can. Actually, my abilities are limited, and this is all I can do."

"Alright."

"Also, you need to manage the troops well. If they continue marching at this pace, when will we ever reach Wufangtai?"

"Understood. Actually, the higher-ups have taken this into consideration. In the past, it should only take the army 6 or 7 days to reach Wufangtai, right? What they are worried about is encountering bandits along the way."

"Huh? We're an army, after all. Do you think any bandits would dare mess with us?"

"Why wouldn't you dare? Look at those ragged clothes! They're not even as good as a few dozen brave bandits."

Zhou Ye:

..

After thinking for a moment, Zhou Ye suggested, "Old Niu, it's alright if we march a little slower. But we also need to train. We can't afford to collapse at the first sign of the enemy. I don't expect them to win, but at least we should stick together and defend."

"Understood. I will teach them how to form a defensive formation after we set off."

However, at that moment, a commotion suddenly broke out.

It turned out to be the distribution of those secondhand clothes. Since there weren't enough warm cotton-padded coats and fur coats to distribute, especially the most valuable cotton-padded shoes and leather boots, some of the refugee soldiers began to fight each other.

Zhou Ye and Niu Meng exchanged a glance. Niu Meng immediately led several soldiers forward to stop the riot and arrested all the people involved in the fight.

Before things could calm down, cries and commotion arose again in the distance. It turned out that several refugee soldiers were robbing vendors on the spot without paying.

It must be acknowledged that these refugees are indeed pitiful, but many of them also harbor vices. They lack nothing in terms of cheating, swindling, and deception.

Once they had eaten their fill and regained their energy, these refugee soldiers began to cause trouble.

Zhou Ye was completely exasperated. Was it wrong to make sure they were fed and clothed?

At that moment, Zhou Ye suddenly thought of a problem—don't expect these refugee soldiers to be loyal. So no matter how much you try to win their hearts and minds, military discipline is nonexistent; rotten fish will still be rotten fish.

When the troublemaking refugee soldiers were brought over, they surprisingly reverted to their docile selves and knelt before Zhou Ye.

After hesitating for a few moments, Zhou Ye made his decision: "This time, I won't hit you or punish you; I'll let you off this time. However, from now on, everyone has only two choices: one is to obey me completely, without disobeying a single word I say; the other is to die!"

After saying that, Zhou Ye suddenly turned around, drew his bow, and shot an arrow.

"With a whoosh, an iron arrow accurately struck a large tree several dozen paces away."

With a loud "bang," the tree trunk was blown in half, and the entire tree crashed to the ground with a deafening roar.

Upon witnessing the "miracle" displayed by the Ming Jin master, almost everyone was dumbfounded, and the surroundings fell into complete silence.