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

The echo arrived on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month.

It wasn't a reply to that memorial.

The one who arrived was an assistant director of the Ministry of War's Department of Military Affairs, surnamed Pei, who was in his early thirties. He was accompanied by four clerks, twelve horsemen, and a document from the Ministry.

When Pei Yuanwailang entered the camp, the May notice was posted on the pole at the camp gate. He paused at the foot of the pole, looked up at it, said nothing, and walked in.

After sitting down in the main hall, he first offered three words of congratulations.

"On the 30th of March, the general defeated the main force of the barbarians, beheading more than 4,700, a victory unprecedented in the border regions for nineteen years. The entire Ministry of War is overjoyed."

"I wouldn't dare."

"The imperial decree has been issued, but the document is still en route," said Pei Yuanwailang. "I have other business to attend to this time."

He spread out the document from the Ministry of Justice.

The document is very short.

First, the Third Battalion of Military Medical Teams outside the Great Wall shall be transferred to the Ministry of War from this date, and the Ministry of War shall send personnel to reorganize, verify and dispatch them.

Second, the personnel, medicines, and equipment of the military medical team shall be registered and transferred together.

Third, the regulations previously implemented by the military medical teams that have not been approved by the Ministry shall be suspended until further notice and promulgated by the Ministry.

Cui Ting listened from the side, his expression changing inch by inch.

"General..."

Yang Hu took the document from the Ministry of Justice, read it from beginning to end, and then put it down.

"Article Three," he said, "Anything not approved by the Ministry shall be suspended. Lord Pei, does this article include the nightly roll call of the wounded and sick, and the public recitation of their numbers?"

Pei Yuanwailang paused for a moment.

"Well... in the army, reporting numbers has always been the responsibility of the commanding officer."

"Does this include separate reporting for injuries and illnesses?"

"General, what does this mean from the department...?"

"Does this include triage within three laps, separating prisoners, and boiling water before setting up camp?"

Pei Yuanwailang's forehead was covered in sweat.

"General, I am merely following orders to issue the document."

"I know," Yang Hu said. "I won't make things difficult for you, sir. I only have one question: Was this document from the Ministry of Personnel issued by the Bureau of Military Affairs?"

"Yes."

"The Bureau of Military Affairs is in charge of military reports," Yang Hu said. "Whether or not military medical teams belong to the Ministry of War should be decided by the Military Selection Bureau or the higher-ups in the ministry. Is it in accordance with regulations for the Bureau of Military Affairs to issue these?"

The main hall fell silent.

Pei Yuanwailang clenched his fist inside his sleeve.

"General," he finally raised his head, "this humble official dares not deceive you. This document from the Ministry of Justice was signed by the Director of this department."

"And above a physician?"

The official wrote three words: "Do as instructed."

"Which official?"

Pei Yuanwailang did not answer.

Yang Hu did not ask any further questions.

After that day, one thing after another happened.

On the ninth day of the sixth lunar month, the military merit report for the battle on the thirtieth day of the third lunar month arrived.

The comment was for the four characters "克敌有功" (meaning "to have merit in defeating the enemy").

It wasn't a major victory.

Four thousand seven hundred and twelve were beheaded, eight hundred and thirty-nine were captured, and two thousand one hundred horses were seized. The decree was issued for meritorious service in defeating the enemy. The three battalion commanders were each awarded one rank of merit. Yang Hu's own decree read, "He was disciplined and effective, and was awarded two hundred taels of silver."

Cui Ting slammed the paper onto the table.

"Qingshikou was defended for forty-five days, and the praise was for its meritorious defense. This time, it broke through 20,000 of the main force, and the praise was for its meritorious victory! What's the difference between these two phrases? Not a single word is different!"

"It's missing one word," Yang Hu said. "To hold firm is to defend, to defeat the enemy is to fight. He gave me one word."

"The general can still laugh?"

"I didn't laugh."

Yang Hu picked up the approval document and examined it against the light.

"A meritorious victory over the enemy." He read it aloud. "These four words have a significance. A great victory is recorded in the national history, but a meritorious victory over the enemy is not. If it is not recorded in the national history, when you look back, the battle on March 30th will just be seen as an ordinary military expedition in the border region."

"What about the two thousand three hundred and forty-one people?"

"The compensation will be paid as usual." Yang Hu put down the paper. "The money will be paid in full, but no written agreement will be given."

On June 14th, the documents from the northern route arrived.

The provisions for the second half of the year for the three battalions outside the Great Wall were transferred from Qingshikou. The reason given was quite reasonable: the road north of Heishiliang was far, and Qingshikou was closer.

Cui Ting did the math and understood immediately.

The journey from Qingshikou to Heishiliang is 320 li, along the old road. Although the northern road is far, it is the official road and is open all year round. The road at Qingshikou, however, is cut off for half a month when two river branches swell during the rainy season in July.

"General, this is an attempt to cut off our food supplies."

"It's not a card," Yang Hu said. "It's to allow the grain to be delivered at any time. He has a reason to do so, since those two river branches flood every year."

Come all three together.

They seized military merits, cut off supply lines, and confiscated the military medical team.

Pei Yuanwailang settled into the camp. He was very polite and did only two things each day: check the medical team's brochures and ask who drafted the regulations, when they were drafted, and whether there were any official documents from the ministry.

Su Heng came to see Yang Hu on the seventh day.

"General." She placed a stack of things on the table. "Lord Pei wants me to hand over all the prescriptions from the past two years, saying he needs to verify them."

"pay."

Su Heng was stunned.

"General?"

"Hand it over," Yang Hu said. "Let him verify it if he wants. What can he take away after the verification? A stack of papers."

"But……"

"The prescription is on paper, and it's also in people's minds," Yang Hu said. "How many people are in the military medical team right now?"

"Including the supplements from the past two months, it's 174."

"Of these 174 people, which one doesn't know how to filter water, how to triage patients, or how to determine whether a wound needs to be amputated?"

Su Heng's eyes slowly brightened a little.

He was checking the booklet.

"He's checking the booklet," Yang Hu said. "He can take the booklet with him, but he can't take the person with him."

On June 22nd, the car from the border town arrived.

Sixteen vehicles, two more than last time.

The people escorting the truck were still from Xinying, but there were three more things on the truck.

The first item was the accounts. Lu Rou's handwriting was meticulous, page by page: how much the medicinal garden harvested this spring, the income and expenditure of Jishetang's consultation fees over the past three months, and the value of the three batches of medicinal herbs sent north. The last line read: "The new well in the east of the city has been re-drilled, and the water flow is more abundant than the old one."

The second item was a prescription. It was written in Su Qing's handwriting and bound into a small booklet. The cover had four characters written on it: "Northern Medicine Substitute".

Su Heng opened the booklet, flipped through a few pages, and looked up.

"General, this is... she matched each and every medicine that is not available in the interior but can be found in the north."

Read one.

"The official powder is short, so calamine can be used instead, mixed with honey and applied to the sores; the mugwort from within the pass is not easy to send, so wild mugwort from beyond the Great Wall can also be used, but it must be dried for three more days." Su Heng stopped reading here, "General, she doesn't know that we ran out of medicine on the grasslands, she just thought that it might run out."

The third item was a letter.

Lu Yan's handwriting. The letter was very short, only three lines.

The first two lines say that the city is safe and sound, the shops are secure, and the neighbors are looking out for each other.

The third line contains only one sentence: The box is still in its original place, perfectly fine, no need to worry.

Yang Hu read the letter twice, folded it, and put it in his pocket.

He sat under the lamp until very late that night.

Three things were laid out on the table: the official document from the Ministry of War, the approval of military merits on the ninth day of the sixth month, and the document on the rerouting of grain and fodder on the fourteenth day of the sixth month.

There was nothing wrong with any of the three. Everything was up to standard, and everything was stamped.

When Cui Ting came in to add lamp oil, he saw that he had placed these three pieces of paper side by side.

"Is the general still watching?"

"Counting."

"What are you counting?"

"Let's count how many things he made in total." Yang Hu pushed the three sheets of paper together. "Medicine, arrows, provisions, and a memorial. I made four suggestions. He responded with three, each one more relevant than the last."

"close?"

"The first thing to do is to take away my military merits, which is to damage my reputation. The second thing is to cut off my supply lines, which is to attack my soldiers." Yang Hu placed his hand on the official document. "The third thing is to undermine all the rules I have established in the past two years."

Cui Ting's heart sank.

"General, shall we... hold out?"

"I can't hold out," Yang Hu said. "He's from the Ministry of War, and I'm a border general. If I defy his orders, it's considered disobeying orders."

"What should we do then?"

Yang Hu put away the three papers, leaving only the one for Pei Yuanwailang.

He stared at the phrase "to be customized by the relevant department" for a long time.

Then he took the pen.

"General Cui, grind the ink."

"What does the general want to write?"

"He wants to give the military medical team a custom-made award." Yang Hu spread out the paper. "Then I'll write it for him first."