A divine healer, a general, a young marquis! Who can rival them!

Four days after the decree of restraint was issued, the commanders of the three battalions went to Black Stone Beam to discuss matters.

According to the customs of the border army, the commander-in-chief would give a speech when he first gathered his generals. Cui Ting had prepared a draft beforehand, which talked about unity and national affairs, totaling about eight hundred words.

After reading it, Yang Hu returned the manuscript.

"Need not."

"General, you should say a few words."

"They won't listen even if I tell them," Yang Hu said. "People who have lived for fourteen or nineteen years can't listen to three months' worth of advice."

The meeting that day lasted less than half an hour.

Yang Hu only mentioned one thing: to march out of the border in the spring and combine the three battalions. Before the combination, each battalion submitted three items: a roster of soldiers, a list of the wounded and sick, and a log of the military supplies for the past three months.

It was exactly the same as the rules he had established in the previous camp.

Yue Chong agreed on the spot. Shao Qi also agreed, even faster than Yue Chong.

After the banquet ended, Cui Ting followed them out.

"General, I dare to say this: these three things were reported by the vanguard because you are there. The left and right camps are more than a hundred li apart, so whatever they report, you must believe."

"I know."

"That……"

"So I'm not waiting for them to report it."

The next day, Yang Hu issued another order.

The military medical team was divided into three shifts: one shift stayed at the front camp, one shift went to the left camp, and one shift went to the right camp. The official purpose was to conduct medical rounds: in the winter, the three camps outside the Great Wall always suffered the most frostbite, scabies, and night blindness. The commander-in-chief had just taken over and sent the military doctors to inspect the wounded and sick in each camp, which was in accordance with precedent.

Cui Ting was still having doubts when he delivered the order.

"General, will they stop us?"

"We can't stop them," Yang Hu said. "Stopping the military doctor is the same as preventing them from treating the wounded. They dare not report this to the Ministry of War."

The military medical team went for twelve days.

On the day she returned, Su Heng entered the tent, placed the three books on the table, and stood aside first.

"General, the patrol is complete."

"State your numbers."

"The Right Battalion has 3,100 registered members, but 472 of them were found to be lying down, unable to walk, or with festering wounds during the patrols," Su Heng said. "General Yue himself reported 450 in his register. The shortfall of 22 is due to new additions during these twelve days of medical rounds."

"It matches."

"It matches." Su Heng paused. "There's one more thing that's not in the booklet."

"speak."

"After nightfall, more than two hundred soldiers in the right battalion could not see the road."

Yang Hu raised his eyes.

"Every month, people fall into the trenches or go to the wrong tent during night shift changes," Su Heng said. "They don't treat it as an illness; they just say they're born with poor eyesight. I've seen over thirty of them, and they're all the same: perfectly fine during the day, but as soon as night falls, it's like they're covered by a veil."

"What are you eating?"

"Millet, dried vegetables, and salt. Meat is given once every three months."

"Write it down," Yang Hu said. "When we leave the border in the spring, we'll be marching, camping, and on guard duty at night. There are more than two hundred people who can't be seen at night following us; something bad is bound to happen."

"Does the general know what this is?"

"I know." Yang Hu twirled the pen between his fingers halfway. "I also know how to treat it. I'll remember it for now and deal with it together later."

Su Heng added this entry to the end of the booklet.

Yang Hu pushed the book from the Right Battalion aside.

"Left Camp".

Su Heng paused for a moment.

"The Left Battalion has 2,800 registered soldiers. The register reports 60 wounded or sick."

Cui Ting stopped writing.

"sixty?"

"We found 341 people during our patrol," Su Heng said. "Eighty-seven of them had frostbite on their toes and couldn't walk."

There was no other sound inside the tent for a moment, except for the crackling of the charcoal fire in the basin.

Cui Tingxian lost his composure: "General, this is deceiving the commander-in-chief. According to military law..."

"Disregarding military law."

"General!"

"According to the booklet."

Cui Ting didn't understand.

Yang Hu opened the booklet belonging to Zuo Ying and wrote two lines of annotations on it.

First line: Sixty wounded and sick in the left flank, approved.

Second line: This month, allocate medicine, cotton, and linen to the left wing, enough for sixty people.

He put down his pen.

"Pay out this amount. Not a penny more, not a penny less."

Cui Ting stared at those two lines of text for a long time, then suddenly understood, and a layer of white sweat broke out on his back.

"General, what do you want to do..."

"He reports sixty, I'll give him sixty," Yang Hu said. "Three hundred and forty-one people divided into sixty doses of medicine won't last ten days. If they don't last ten days, he'll have to come back on his own."

On the ninth day, Shao Qi arrived.

He arrived on horseback, alone, without even a personal guard. Upon entering the tent, he first bowed with his hands clasped, a very proper bow.

"General, I have a request."

"speak."

"The Left Battalion received a slightly insufficient supply of wound medicine this month," Shao Qi said. "It's cold, and we added some for frostbite; could we... order another batch?"

"How much was added?"

Shao Qi's throat moved slightly.

"About a hundred."

Yang Hu picked up the booklet from the table and pushed it in front of him.

"General Shao himself reported sixty. How many more will be added?"

The charcoal inside the tent cracked again.

Shao Qi stared at the booklet for a long time. He was forty-seven years old this year, and it took him fourteen years to climb up the ranks from squad leader to this position. During those fourteen years, vacancies, underreporting, and using the allowances for the wounded and sick to make up for losses elsewhere were things that everyone in the Third Battalion of the Frontier did but no one talked about.

The previous commander was not questioned. Nor was the one before that.

"General," he finally spoke, his voice lowered, "the sixty I reported is inaccurate."

"Real numbers?"

"Three hundred and forty-one," Shao Qi said. "The general's army doctor has already counted them."

Why did you hide it?

"We've been keeping it a secret for six years." Shao Qi bowed deeply. "General, it wasn't just me who kept it a secret. The Left Battalion hasn't been fully replenished in three years. If the reported vacancies include injuries and illnesses, the first thing the Ministry of War will ask is how we've managed these soldiers. We're the ones who get punished, but the allowances for the lower ranks still won't come through."

"So you might as well not report it."

"I'd rather not report it."

Yang Hu took the booklet back, picked up his pen, crossed out the two lines of comments, and rewrote them.

The number of wounded and sick in the Left Battalion is 341, approved. This month, medicine, cotton, and linen cloth will be allocated for 341 people, plus an additional 20%.

Shao Qi raised his head.

"The general won't punish him?"

"You're punished. Those 341 men in the Left Battalion still don't have medicine today." Yang Hu closed the booklet. "I want the count to be correct, not whose punishment."

He handed the booklet back.

"General Shao, when you return, please provide me with a complete record of the actual figures concealed over the past six years. Do not dwell on the past, only examine today's figures. From now on, report once on the first and fifteenth of each month. If the report is incorrect, I will not question it; if it is not reported, I will question it."

Shao Qi took the booklet with both hands, his fingers trembling slightly.

He walked to the tent entrance, then suddenly turned back.

"General."

"Um."

"That day, when I defied you on the drill ground, General, I was truly dissatisfied," Shao Qi said. "That's not the case today."

He paused.

"If the general trusts me, I would like to request the medical team to stay in the left wing for a month to serve the 341 men."

"No need to invite me," Yang Hu said. "When we leave for the border in the spring, the three battalions will form one army. Your wounded soldiers are also my wounded soldiers."

After Shao Qi left, Cui Ting stood in the tent for a long time.

"General, that move you just made was truly astonishing."

"Which move?"

"Don't expose him, don't punish him, just administer the medicine according to the number he wrote down himself," Cui Ting said. "This is worse than giving him twenty lashes."

"It's not ruthless," Yang Hu said. "If the number he reported is true, then that batch of medicine will be just right. He knew it wasn't enough, and he filled in the gap himself."

He stacked the three booklets together.

The right wing had 472 men, the left wing had 341 men, and the front wing had 45 men left lying on the ground after returning from the front. Adding them together, the total was 858.

Eight hundred and fifty-eight people, they must stand up before spring.

"General Choi."

"Your subordinate is here."

"In early spring, all three battalions set out, heading towards the grasslands." Yang Hu placed his hand on the three booklets. "There are no old roads or boundary markers on the grasslands, and you have to find water yourself. How many people in the three battalions recognize the grasslands?"

Cui Ting thought for a long time. He mentally reviewed the scouts of the Third Battalion: those who knew the way all knew the roads around Heishiliang; after going eighty li, no one had ever gone back a second time. This trip out of the border took six days, still following the old road, relying on boundary markers and mountain shadows. Once they truly entered the grasslands, there were no boundary markers, and no mountain shadows either.

"Reporting to the General," he said, "There are those who recognize the old road, but no one who recognizes the grasslands."