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

On the sixteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, the cart carrying medicinal herbs from Qingshikou arrived.

There were fourteen carts in total, and the journey took seven days. The escorts dismounted outside the gate, removed their hoods, and revealed faces red from the cold.

It's a willow leaf.

When Yang Hu came out of the central command tent, she was squatting by the first cart, untying the rope. She was untying it very quickly, and the knot came undone with a single flick. Hearing footsteps, she turned around.

"Brother Yang."

She still uses this name.

It has been five months and nine days since the troops were separated at Qingshikou.

"Why are you the one escorting the truck?"

"The wounded soldiers on Doctor Liu's side are almost fully recovered." Liu Ye wrapped the rope around the cart shaft. "The medicinal herbs from the city arrived at Qing Shi Kou last month. They said they were going to be transported north, but the people escorting the cart don't know the way. I do."

"Do you approve of this route?"

"I've been there once." She patted the snow off her hands. "Three hundred and twenty li to the north, after crossing two ridges, there's a sheltered hollow on the eastern slope of the second ridge where you can rest your horse."

Cui Ting listened from the side and glanced at her a few more times.

There was no old path between the two ridges, only a shallow footprint made by shepherds, which was covered by a snowfall in winter. Scouts from the front camp had to rely on the shadows of the mountains to find their way, and it took them nine days to make the journey.

She was gone for seven days.

"What's in the car?" Yang Hu asked.

"Medicine, linen, and mugwort." Liu Ye lifted the corner of the felt blanket. "And the two boxes that Miss Lu asked me to bring."

The two boxes were moved into the tent and opened; one box contained medicine, and the other contained the tent.

There was a piece of paper on top of the ledger, with densely written characters. It was Lu Rou's handwriting.

The records were meticulously detailed: how much the medicinal herb garden in the east of the city had harvested this season, how much of the consultation fees paid by Jishetang had been paid, and the remainder to be converted into medicinal herbs and sent north in three batches. This was the first batch. At the end, there was a line: everything is fine in the city, no need to worry, except that the new well in the medicinal herb garden froze in the winter and will need to be re-dug in the spring.

Yang Hu finished reading the paper, folded it up, and put it into his sleeve.

"What else did Miss Lu say?"

"Miss Lu said that the medicine the general needs in the border region is plentiful in the city." Liu Ye thought for a moment, "Miss Su asked me to pass on a message that the official powder is also in short supply in the city now, so she changed the prescription and wrote it at the back of the account book."

Yang Hu turned to the last page of the account book. The prescriptions were written very neatly, with the dosage and reason for substitution noted for each ingredient.

Those are Su Qing's handwriting.

He closed the ledger and placed it on the corner of the table.

"Willow leaf".

"exist."

"What do you rely on to find your way in the mountains?"

Liu Ye was taken aback, probably not expecting him to ask that first.

"Footprints, broken branches, animal trails," she said. "Things in the mountains don't move; the branches broken today will still be there tomorrow."

"What about on the grasslands?"

"It won't work on the grasslands," Liu Ye shook her head. "On the grasslands, the wind can blow away footprints overnight. I've only been walking through ridges and gullies for the past seven days; I don't know where it will end any further north."

"Then what will we rely on?"

Liu Ye thought about it for a long time.

"We rely on water," she said. "Both people and horses need water. Where there is water, there are footprints left by people, and the wind cannot blow away the water."

Yang Hu nodded.

"And manure," Liu Ye added, then immediately felt it was impolite. She glanced at him, and seeing that he didn't laugh, continued, "You can tell how many days have passed by how thick the pile of horse manure is and how dry it is. Cow manure is different from horse manure; cow manure is for shepherds, and horse manure is for cavalry."

Cui Ting stood to the side, his expression slowly changing.

He had led troops in the front camp for five years, and not a single scout had ever said these words to him.

Yang Hu picked up the three booklets from the table.

"In early spring, all three battalions will set out to traverse the grasslands. Not a single one of them recognizes the grasslands." He put down the booklet. "Liu Ye, you lead a group of men out."

"Leading troops?" Liu Ye took a half step back. "Brother Yang, I don't know how."

"It's not about leading troops," Yang Hu said. "It's about teaching."

"What should we teach?"

"Teach them to look at the water, the manure, and how badly the grass roots have been eaten," Yang Hu said. "I'll have Lieutenant General Cui pick out those from the three battalions who came from hunting backgrounds, horse trading backgrounds, or those who have traveled beyond the Great Wall. You take them with you."

Liu Ye lowered her head, fidgeting with her fingers for a long time.

"Brother Yang, I don't know all the characters."

"Just learn the way."

On the 20th of the twelfth lunar month, the Third Battalion reported 147 men.

Cui Ting sifted through the list three times, eliminating those who only knew how to ride horses and those who signed up for pay, leaving sixty-two people. Among them were nineteen hunters, eleven who had traded horses, and eight who were migrants from beyond the Great Wall who had herded sheep with their families on the grasslands when they were young.

The first thing Liu Ye taught him wasn't tracking, but drinking water.

She had each of the sixty-two men fill a water bag, and then led them on a ten-mile run through the snow. After they finished, she had them take out their water bags to look at.

About thirty people had empty water bags.

"Those who finished drinking on the way, stand on the left."

Thirty-odd people stood over.

"You're all dead on the grasslands," Liu Ye said casually. "There's a day's journey between two water sources on the grasslands. If you drink all your water in the morning, you'll be thirsty at noon, and when you're thirsty at noon, you'll drink the stagnant water by the roadside. If you drink the stagnant water, you'll be lying in bed all night."

She took off her water pouch and shook it. It was still more than half full.

"I have walked from Qingshikou for the past seven days, and I have drunk water from a bag four times, three sips each time."

Someone below muttered quietly, "Three people aren't enough."

"Three sips won't be enough." Liu Ye hung the water pouch back on her waist. "Not enough is thirst, too much will kill you."

After that day, none of the sixty-two people murmured anymore.

Qin Ying went to see it on the third day.

She stood by the training ground, leaning on her wooden cane, watching Liu Ye and the sixty-two men lying prone in the snow. Each of them pressed their ears to the ground, listening to the distant hoofbeats of horses.

After watching for half an hour, she turned and walked back. Yang Hu followed behind.

"She teaches well," Qin Ying said.

"Um."

"Fortunately, she's unreasonable." Qin Ying shoved her wooden cane into the snow. "When the army teaches scouts, the first lesson is about directions and flags, but people still don't understand. She starts by having them run ten miles, and then asks about their water bags. People never forget that lesson."

"That's how she learned it herself," Yang Hu said. "Her father was a hunter; he would leave her in the mountains overnight and only go to find her at dawn."

Qin Ying paused for a moment.

"Now that my leg is better, I'll go lie down and rest for a bit."

"The general is of noble birth."

"I spent three nights lying in wait at Wild Fox Ridge," Qin Ying said. "I didn't hear anything during those three nights. If someone had taught me how to listen to the ground back then, perhaps..."

She swallowed the rest of her sentence and walked forward, leaning on her wooden cane.

On the third day of the Lunar New Year, the scout team went out for the first time.

Twelve men went out, traveled fifty li north, and returned in two days. When they returned, one was missing. It wasn't that he was gone; his feet were frostbitten, and his companions carried him back.

Liu Ye spread out what she had brought back on the table: a handful of dry grass dug out from under the snow, a few clumps of horse manure, and a small piece of broken ice.

"The ice on that pond forty miles north is freshly frozen," she said. "There's grass stubble underneath, and it's been gnawed cleanly."

"When did you eat it?"

"About ten days ago." Liu Ye rubbed the horse manure apart. "This manure is also about ten days old. It's frozen solid, and there are still unthawed beans inside."

Yang Hu stopped.

"bean?"

"Hmm." Liu Ye raised her head. "Horses on the grassland don't eat beans."

The charcoal brazier inside the tent crackled.

Cui Ting strode to the table, grabbed the frozen clump of horse manure, and examined it under the lamplight. He stared at it for a long time, and when he looked up, his face was pale.

"General, the barbarian horses are eating our bean fodder."

Yang Hu took the small piece of ice and melted a corner between his fingers.

What he brought back from that winter camp in October were medicine, cloth, and arrows. The medicine could be said to have been captured, the cloth could be said to have been looted, and the arrows could be said to have been found on the battlefield. There was a reason for everything.

The soybeans are different.

Horse feed wasn't obtained through war; it was transported out of the pass stone by stone. It had to pass through warehouses, be weighed, and the people who handled it had to be recorded in a register.

"Willow leaf".

"exist."

"How much further north can you go from that puddle?"

Liu Ye thought for a moment: "There are no more ridges further north, it's all flat. My group can only go another eighty li at most."

"Before the ice thaws in spring, I need to know two things." Yang Hu put the block of ice back on the table. "First, how many places like this are there on the grassland? Second, are there any beans in the manure at each place?"

Cui Ting looked up: "General, are you going to search north along the bean path?"

"Those heading north are the barbarians," Yang Hu said. "Those following the beans back are the granaries."