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

We bypassed that stretch of water and traveled an extra seventy li.

Seventy li is two days' journey within the Great Wall, but four days' journey on the grasslands. The grass roots haven't turned green yet, the horses can't find anything to eat, and they rely entirely on the beans they carry; people eat two meals a day, and water is supplied according to their sacks.

On the evening of the fourth day, the scout team returned from the north.

When Liu Ye dismounted, the mud on the soles of her boots was still wet.

"General, we have located three places of water within eighty li to the north."

"explain."

"The first place is in the northwest, with no livestock nearby. The second place is fifty li to the north, with six sheep lying nearby." Liu Ye unfolded a small piece of cloth in her hand, with a tuft of soil wrapped in it. "The third place is in the northeast, with nine cows lying there."

Cui Ting's face darkened.

"I found it in two out of three places."

"It wasn't two places," Liu Ye said. "The first place had no livestock, but the grass by the water was bent over, facing inwards, trampled by a herd of animals. The livestock were driven away later, but the water remained."

The people inside the tent remained silent for a moment.

Yang Hu pinched a little bit of soil and rubbed it between his fingers.

"Three places of water, three different methods," he said. "One place was used to release sick animals, another place was used to release sick animals, and the third place was used to release them and then drive them away, leaving only traces."

"General, what's the point of doing that at the third location?"

"I dare not use the image."

Cui Ting immediately understood.

Releasing sick animals is the real solution; driving them away only leaves traces, making you suspicious and forcing you to abandon the water source yourself. Nine thousand one hundred people, abandoning one water source adds another day to the journey; abandoning three places means the entire trip can be skipped.

"This is going to kill us with thirst on the grasslands."

"It's not about dying of thirst," Yang Hu said, "it's about us walking back ourselves."

The military council that night lasted until the third watch.

The solution they came up with could be summed up in one word: dig.

Digging wells on the grasslands is different from digging inside the Great Wall. Inside the Great Wall, you can find water after digging three zhang (approximately 10 meters), but on the grasslands, the water is shallow, and the shallow water disappears with the rain. You might find dry water after digging two zhang, and still dry after digging three zhang. Of the sixty-two people Liu Ye brought, eight were migrants from outside the Great Wall. When they were young, they herded sheep with their families and knew which patches of grass had deep roots and which low-lying areas accumulated water in the spring.

Yang Hu transferred these eight people out, one leading one team.

"Keep digging until you find water. But don't drink the water directly. First, check its color and smell, then filter it, and then boil it."

"General, we need firewood to boil water," Cui Ting said. "There's no firewood on the grasslands."

"Burn dried manure."

"burn……"

"The herdsmen burn this all winter," Yang Hu said. "Dried cow dung and dried horse dung, thoroughly dried in the sun. The fire isn't strong, but it'll burn. We send people to collect it with the scouts, a day's worth on the same day."

Cui Ting wrote it down. After he finished writing, he looked up.

"General, at this rate, we can only travel thirty li a day."

"Walk thirty li."

The first well yielded water on the afternoon of the second day.

The moment the water surfaced, the team that dug the well shouted from the bottom of the pit, a shout that could be heard throughout the entire camp. The water was murky, so it was filtered three times, boiled, and then distributed in bags.

One well cannot supply nine thousand people. Eleven wells were dug in three days.

When the pace of life slows down, other things start to emerge.

On the night of the seventh day, something happened at the right wing.

That night, the army changed course and headed east, traveling at night. By the second watch of the night, the right flank of the army had dispersed.

It wasn't a rout, it was that they couldn't keep up. The people in front were still walking, but those behind were stepping on their heels, tripping each other up. More than two hundred people simply stopped in their tracks and wouldn't budge no matter who tried to pull them away.

Yue Chong rode over himself and shouted twice, but the men still didn't move.

An old soldier squatted on the ground, raised his head, and opened his eyes wide, but his eyeballs did not follow the torch.

"General, I can't see."

When Yang Hu arrived, Su Heng was already there.

She carried the lantern and shone it on each one, standing up when she reached the thirtieth one.

"General, it's those two hundred or so."

"Is it all here?"

"They're all here," Su Heng said. "They were fine during the day, but they turned into this as soon as the sun went down. I just waved a lamp in front of their eyes, and they only reacted when I got close."

Yue Chong stood to the side, his face flushed red.

"General, this...this is called 'night blindness' in the right battalion, and it happens every year. I just thought it was a congenital blindness and never considered it an illness."

"It's not something you're born with," Yang Hu said. "It's something you eat."

He squatted down and asked the old soldier three questions: How many meals a day do you eat, what do you eat, and when did you eat meat?

The veteran answered honestly: Two meals a day, millet, dried vegetables, and salt. Meat is served once every three months, the last time being in the twelfth lunar month.

"The right wing gets to eat meat once every three months," Yang Hu said, standing up. "And the left wing?"

"Once every two months," Shao Qi said.

"The front camp goes once a month," Cui Ting said. "It was added after the general arrived."

Yang Hu mentally ranked these three numbers and matched them with the number of people in the Third Battalion who couldn't be seen at night; they matched perfectly.

"General Choi."

"Your subordinate is here."

How many livestock are left in the army?

"Besides the packhorses, there were about eighty sheep accompanying the army, which were kept for them to eat meat."

"Kill ten tonight," Yang Hu said. "The meat doesn't count; I want the livers."

Cui Ting was taken aback: "Liver?"

"Keep the sheep liver, horse liver, and beef liver," Yang Hu said. "Cook them, chop them up, and give each person a small piece a day to mix into their rice. Also," he turned to Liu Ye, "the wild vegetables in the low-lying areas should be turning green again after these days of thawing."

"Yes," Liu Ye said, "lamb's quarters, shepherd's purse, and another kind with reddish leaves, which the shepherds use to feed their sheep."

"We need them all. Have the scouts bring back a bundle each day when they return to camp."

Su Heng, who was listening nearby, suddenly looked up.

"General, what is this prescription for?"

"To cure what is unseen."

"But the liver and eyes..."

"The liver and eyes are related," Yang Hu said. "I can't explain why, just do as I say. See the results for yourself in three days."

Su Heng didn't ask any more questions. She had followed him from Qing Shi Kou to here and had seen this kind of thing too many times: he couldn't explain the reasons, but the result was always right.

On the third night, Su Heng took a lamp and went to shine it again.

Of the more than two hundred people, one hundred and seventeen were able to follow the light.

On the sixth day, only about forty remained, and they were still unclear.

Yue Chong arrived at the central command tent on the night of the seventh day. After entering the tent, he first took off his sword and placed it on the table, then lifted his robe and knelt down.

"General."

"General Yue, rise."

"I've been here for nineteen years," Yue Chong said in a muffled voice. "Every winter, men from the right battalion fall into the trenches at night. Four have died, and I can't remember who broke their legs. When I reported it, I always wrote just two words: 'accidental fall.'"

He lowered his head.

"This humble general did not know this was an illness. This humble general never even imagined that it would be an illness."

Yang Hu helped him up.

"Now I know."

"How did the general know?"

Yang Hu did not answer this question.

He lifted a corner of the tent flap and looked north.

The grassland was a uniform black, making it impossible to discern distance. The eleven wells dug in three days were all behind them; how many more places ahead had their water tampered with? Liu Ye hadn't yet retrieved the water.

The other party polluted three places of water, forcing him to change course; he changed course and took the night road, which led to the discovery of more than two hundred unseen people.

One link leads to another.

This wasn't a coincidence. Someone had calculated that he would take a detour and that he would walk at night after the detour.

"General Choi."

"Your subordinate is here."

"Pass down the order. Starting tomorrow, anyone who cannot see clearly at night but is perfectly fine during the day must report it. No one is allowed to conceal anything."

"Yes."

"There's one more thing." Yang Hu lowered the tent flap. "Tell Liu Ye that we don't need to touch the water to the north anymore."

Cui Ting was taken aback: "Not touching it anymore?"

"We can't keep up," Yang Hu said. "We have to make the same detours as many times as there are sick animals he has. It takes him two or three days to drive his livestock around; it takes us four days to make one detour. If we keep going like this, we'll run out of feed before we even see the main force of the barbarians."

"What does the general mean?"

"Make some changes, and try to find a way back."

"Why are you touching back?"

"Touch him," Yang Hu said. "A person who herds sick livestock must know how to avoid contracting the disease himself. There aren't many people like that on the grasslands. Every time he herds livestock to a new place, he leaves a mark. Willow leaves are no longer chasing the water, but chasing people."