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

I wrote until four in the morning that night.

When it was dawn, there was a thick stack of papers on the table.

Cui Ting ground ink half the night, his arm aching, but he didn't dare ask a single question. Only after Yang Hu put down his pen and finished the last page did he lean over to look at the first line.

The first line has nine characters.

Customized Guidelines for Border Army Medical Teams

"General..." Cui Ting's voice was dry, "Is the General going to write out that custom order for the Ministry of War?"

"Yes."

"He wanted to take over our medical team, and the general actually wrote out the regulations and submitted them for him?"

"He doesn't want to recruit the military medical team," Yang Hu said, smoothing out the stack of papers. "He wants to recruit my team."

Cui Ting didn't understand.

"Read this memorial aloud once."

Cui Ting read it from the beginning.

They recited it for half an hour.

After he finished reading, his hand holding the stack of papers trembled. He looked up at Yang Hu, his eyes red.

"General."

"Got it?"

"Understood," Cui Ting said. "In the entire memorial from the general, there wasn't a single word mentioning the three camps beyond the Great Wall."

"right."

That memorial was written like this.

It first counts the numbers.

The siege of Qingshikou lasted for forty-five days. More than 2,100 wounded soldiers were carried into the camp. On the day the siege was lifted, 974 soldiers went back to the city walls.

The front camp outside the Great Wall was established in August last year, with 573 people joining. 64 returned to the camp on the 22nd, and 311 returned in January.

Before setting out beyond the Great Wall this spring, the three battalions had 858 wounded and sick, but 612 of them were able to stand up on the day of the expedition.

In March, the grasslands ran out of food for six days, resulting in 394 serious injuries and 67 recoveries.

From April to June, more than 1,200 wounded and sick soldiers returned to their units.

After listing the numbers, it only asked one question: If these people had been abandoned in the camp that day, how many fewer soldiers would there be on the border today?

Next comes the charter.

First, every border army battalion must establish a military medical team, with the number of personnel set at 200 per hundred of the battalion's troop strength.

Second, for all military personnel on the roster, the list of the wounded and sick shall be kept in a separate book and reported monthly. They shall not be included in the vacancies.

Third, three rules for camping: first, dry the shoes; first, boil water; first, treat the wounded and sick.

Fourth, medicine, salt, and cooking pots should be provided on a per-person basis and must not be used for other purposes.

Fifth, all military personnel who die in the line of duty, whether from battle, disease, or fatal injuries, shall be included in the list of those killed in action and reported separately.

Sixth, in the event of an epidemic, isolation should not lead to abandonment: separate areas, separate clinics, and separate personnel to care for patients; no camps should be abandoned or soldiers left behind.

7. All prisoners of war shall be detained according to whether they have any diseases, and those who are sick shall be treated in accordance with the law.

After the seventh point comes the final paragraph.

"These seven articles were not created by me, but were tested day by day during two years of bloody battles by the border troops. I now present them to you in detail, and humbly request that the Ministry discuss and promulgate them to all border troops. If you deem them acceptable, then there is no need to set up a special department, and each camp can proceed on its own; if you deem them unacceptable, please specify which articles are unacceptable, and I will abolish them immediately."

Cui Ting put the paper down after reading this far.

"General, this last paragraph..."

"The last part is about the key."

What if he says no?

"If he says it's unacceptable, then he must clearly state which clause is unacceptable," Yang Hu said. "Would he dare write 'Injuries and illnesses need not be reported separately'? Would he dare write 'When an epidemic breaks out, camps should be burned and soldiers abandoned'? Would he dare write 'Those who die from the epidemic will not be included in the list'?"

Cui Ting's breathing became heavier.

"He doesn't dare to write it."

"He doesn't dare to write it," Yang Hu said. "These seven points are all things he himself has to say. If he wants to refute them, he'll have to refute them himself."

"What if he says yes?"

"It's settled then. These seven articles will become the standard for all border armies." Yang Hu rolled up the stack of papers. "Once the standard is issued, each camp will act independently. Who will he send to take over my branch? If he takes over my branch, the other camps will still have to set up their own. If he takes over one branch, he'll have to set up fifty branches."

Cui Ting stood there, stunned.

"Does the general intend to... scatter it?"

"Spread it out."

"Once it's scattered, it no longer belongs to the general."

"They weren't originally mine either," Yang Hu said. "The 974 people at Qingshikou were brought back one by one by Physician Liu and his men. The 311 people in the front camp were brought back little by little by Lieutenant Pang and his 30 soldiers who were learning bandaging. The 67 people on the grassland were fed by Su Heng with horse blood, mouthful by mouthful."

He put the scroll into the box.

"It was never mine. He can't take it; I can give it away freely."

That memorial was issued on June 29th.

Before issuing the memorial, Yang Hu invited Pei Yuanwailang to the main hall and showed it to him in person.

Pei Yuanwailang read it for a long time. He read very slowly, going down one line at a time, pausing at the fifth line and then turning back to the next page.

Article 5 states: All military personnel who die in the line of duty, whether from battle, disease, or fatal injuries, shall be included in the list of those killed in action and reported separately.

"General," he looked up, "I have a question that I shouldn't be asking."

"Please ask, sir."

"This is for those 3,162 names, General."

The main hall fell silent. Cui Ting's hand rested on the hilt of his knife, unsure whether to move.

Yang Hu looked at him.

"How did you know this number, sir?"

"I was in the Ministry of Personnel, and I handled the original file of the military report from Qing Shi Kou," said Assistant Minister Pei. "The report came in with 3,162 reports, and 2,317 were sent out. I inquired about the missing 845 reports."

"What did you find out?"

"I was transferred to review the military equipment register, and I've been doing that for three months." Pei Yuanwailang closed the scroll and handed it back with both hands. "I came here on behalf of the Director of this department."

Yang Hu took the document.

"Why are you telling me all this, sir?"

Pei Yuanwailang remained silent for a while.

"I have been in this camp for twenty-three days," he said. "I checked the medical team's register and visited the wounded and sick camp three times. On the third visit, a platoon leader with a broken leg told me something."

"What is it?"

"He said he crawled out once in March and was carried back by someone," said Pei Yuanwailang. "He said the general told him that if you crawled out two hundred paces, you would save the 1,400 li."

He paused for a moment.

"My home is in the clouds."

Yang Hu did not respond to this sentence.

"I will personally take this memorial back," said Assistant Minister Pei. "I cannot bring it into the office of the chief minister, but I can submit it to the department's archives. Once it's in the archives, someone will have to approve it."

"What if it doesn't get approved?"

"Even if it can't be approved, it's still in the files," said Pei Yuanwailang. "General, I've been in the ministry for nine years and I've learned one thing: once paper is in the files, it can't be completely burned away. If it's not approved this year, someone will dig it up and approve it next year; if it's not approved next year, someone will dig it up and approve it ten years from now."

He stepped back half a step and cupped his hands in greeting.

"This humble official takes his leave."

In July, the palindrome did not arrive.

There wasn't any in August either.

But in mid-August, something else arrived.

It was brought by a captain from the Right Battalion who had been transferred from Qingshikou. He said that they had received a document from headquarters in Qingshikou, saying that the wounded and sick in each battalion should be recorded in a separate book and reported monthly.

"Just this one?" Cui Ting pressed.

"Only this one," the captain said. "The document doesn't say where the regulation came from, it just says to do it this way."

When Cui Ting ran back to the central command tent, his feet felt like they were floating.

"General! The second clause! They've issued the second clause!"

Yang Hu was looking at the scout map that Liu Ye had sent him.

He put the drawing down and thought for a while.

"Only one clause will be issued."

"General, one more..."

"One of them is also true," Yang Hu said. "He chose the least important one to issue. Injuries and illnesses should be listed in a separate book, without involving money, people, or lists."

"That……"

"But he issued it." Yang Hu tapped his finger on the table. "Issuing one provision is tantamount to acknowledging that some of the seven provisions are usable. As for the remaining six, people will ask: if the second provision is usable, why can't the fifth one be used?"

He raised his head.

"General Cui, this isn't something that happened in just one year."

"How many years will the general have to wait?"

"One day, I won't have to ask him for it anymore."

On the third day of the ninth lunar month, the first frost fell in the border region.

Another thing happened in the camp that day.

Su Heng brought in a new booklet and opened it for him to see.

That was the injury list for September; the format had changed.

"General, each battalion made the changes themselves," she said. "No one gave the order; they saw that the Qing Shi Kou area had been modified, so they followed suit. All three battalions have made the changes."

Yang Hu took the booklet and read a page.

There was an extra line of small characters at the bottom of the page, which the scribe who copied the booklet added himself.

"According to Article 2 of the prescribed regulations."

Of the seven regulations, the imperial court only issued one.

But in these three battalions, all seven are proficient.