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

The water at that old river branch remained calm for three days.

On the fourth day, some people started having diarrhea again.

It wasn't eight hundred, but over a hundred, but the trend was upward. Su Heng brought back the water to test it; the soil around the spring was also white, just thinner.

"General, this whole area is like this."

Yang Hu put the bowl of water down.

He tried four methods over three days.

The first method was to dig deep. They dug to a depth of fifteen feet, but the water was still bitter. The second method was to filter it through sand, using three layers of cloth to hold fine sand before boiling. This reduced the number of people suffering from diarrhea, but some still did. The third method was to collect melted snow water, but by the end of March, the snow had all melted. The fourth method was to find fresh water. They searched fifty li to the east and fifty li to the west, finding three places, two of which were even saltier than this one.

On the afternoon of the fifth day, he sat at his desk and crossed out each of the four items one by one. Cui Ting watched from the side, not daring to utter a sound.

"General, what if we continue eastward?"

"Going east is going back." Yang Hu put down his pen. "Going back two hundred li would get us out of the alkaline land, but then we'd be retreating all the way back to the south of Baisha Ridge. This trip would have been for nothing."

"That……"

Yang Hu did not answer.

He stared at the picture for a long time, then suddenly looked up.

"General Cui, how many water-related orders did I issue last year in Qingshikou and on the grasslands?"

Cui Ting thought for a moment: "Boiling water, filtering water, digging a well, testing the water, discarding the water, five or six steps."

"How many people did those five or six orders save?"

"No less than three thousand."

"But this time, I won't need any of them."

Cui Ting was stunned.

"General..."

"I don't understand the water here," Yang Hu said casually. "I understand the water inside the pass, the water at the border, and the water in the southern part of the grassland. Beyond Baishaliang, I don't understand."

Cui Ting had been working under this man for two years, and this was the first time he had ever heard him say the words "I don't understand".

"What should we do then?"

Ask someone who knows.

"Where can I find someone who understands this?"

"They're available in the military."

Last year, in the battle north of Qingshikou, 839 prisoners were captured. Yang Hu ordered that they be released separately according to whether they were sick or not, and that the sick be treated. Those people were released in batches later, and they were given three days' worth of dry rations when they were released.

Forty-seven of them did not leave.

Of those forty-seven, more than twenty were people who had recovered from their illnesses but had nowhere to go; their unit had been scattered during last year's epidemic. The rest were wounded or disabled, and would have been abandoned if they returned. They begged to stay, and Yang Hu had them incorporated into the supply train, driving carts, feeding horses, and collecting dried manure.

A year has passed, and these forty-seven people are still here.

When Cui Ting brought the person over, his expression was complicated.

Three people arrived. The one in the lead was about fifty years old, with deep wrinkles on his face and one cloudy eye.

He knelt down as soon as he entered the tent.

"Get up," Yang Hu said. "Sit down."

The old man didn't dare to sit, he just stood.

"What's your name?"

A young barbarian who understood the language of the interior translated for him. The old man's name was very long, but it translated into three characters, which Yang Hu noted down.

"Do you understand the water in this area?"

The old man's eyes flickered slightly after the translation was completed.

"I understand. I've been herding sheep in this area for thirty years."

Yang Hu stood up and pushed the bowl of water in front of him.

"Our people got diarrhea after drinking this water. Will your people drink it?"

The old man lowered his head, smelled it, dipped his finger in it, and placed it on the tip of his tongue.

"Drink. The newcomers get diarrhea, those born here don't."

Why?

"I'm used to drinking it."

Yang Hu leaned forward slightly.

"In the past thirty years, have any other people come here to herd sheep?"

The old man thought about it for a long time.

"Yes. They come from the east and the north; there are always several groups every year."

"Do they have diarrhea? How long does it last?"

"Diarrhea. Half a month," the old man said. "If you can get through half a month, the diarrhea will stop. If you can't, then you're gone."

"I have eleven thousand men here," Yang Hu said. "If eleven thousand men can be detoxified for half a month, I won't have to fight this battle."

The old man raised his good eyes and looked at him for a while.

"There is a way," he said.

Cui Ting stood up straight immediately.

"speak."

The old man said three things.

The first thing is milk.

"Mare's milk, cow's milk, goat's milk, any will do. It has to be sour." The old man gestured to indicate the names. "Freshly squeezed milk won't do. It has to be put in a leather bag, hung on the saddle, and bounced for three days until it's sour. Yogurt diluted with water will reduce diarrhea."

"Why is it sour?"

"I don't know," the old man shook his head. "Our ancestors have always drunk it this way."

Yang Hu noted this down.

He didn't say anything, he just paused writing.

The second item is tea.

"Merchants from the east bring brick tea," the old man said. "Boil the tea in milk, add plenty, and make it strong. It'll be very effective."

The third thing is the most important.

"Not all the water in this area is the same," the old man said. "Some springs are astringent, and some are sweet."

"How do we divide it?"

"Look at the grass."

Yang Hu stopped: "Explain yourself."

The old man squatted down and traced lines on the ground with his finger.

"Beside the spring with its astringent water, two kinds of grass grow. One is tall and slender, growing in clumps, so tough it can cut your hand. The other is short and fleshy, with reddish leaves."

Yang Hu's breathing slowed down.

"Are the leaves turning red?"

"It turns green in spring and red in summer. Sheep love to eat it."

Yang Hu turned around.

"Call Liu Ye here."

When Liu Ye entered the tent, Yang Hu asked directly, "Last March, you said there were wild vegetables sprouting in the lowlands beyond the Great Wall, and you reported three kinds. What was the third one?"

"Lamb's quarters, shepherd's purse, and there's another kind with reddish leaves that the shepherds use to feed their sheep," Liu Ye replied after thinking for a moment.

"Where did you pick that kind?"

"By the water. They're everywhere by the water."

No one responded from inside the tent for a moment.

Last year, they spent half a month gathering that kind of herb, cooking it for over two hundred people who couldn't see at night. It cured their night blindness and has continued to grow near every body of water they drink from.

It kept telling them what was in the water. But nobody recognized it.

"What grows by the sweet spring?" Yang Hu asked.

The old man drew two more lines on the ground.

"The grass is soft and green, just like the grass in the south. And another thing: birds land by the sweet springs, but not by the bitter ones."

Why not?

"I don't know. But it just doesn't exist."

The military meeting that day was very short.

Yang Hu issued four orders.

First, sixty men from the scout team were immediately dispatched to learn to identify grasses from the old man. They were not allowed to leave the area until they had mastered the skills.

Second, the entire army will cease using existing water sources and instead rely on scouts to identify water sources by following the grass and reporting back from each location.

Third, exchange milk with the herdsmen still living on the grasslands. Exchange it for salt, ironware, or tea; no stealing is allowed. Willow Leaf led a group to carry out this task.

Fourth, brick tea is processed from Qing Shi Kou, and the process is repeated multiple times.

After Cui Ting finished writing, he looked up and asked, "General, the third point... are the shepherds willing to make the change? They are of the same race as the barbarians."

"Let's try a trade," Yang Hu said. "Their soldiers have surrounded their old and young as a wall, and we'll trade salt for milk. They'll figure out who's better off."

"What if they refuse to change it?"

"If you refuse to leave, don't leave behind a single grain of salt, and don't take a single sheep," Yang Hu said. "It's one thing to not be able to exchange, but it's another to steal. If we steal once, we'll never be able to get water from this area again."

After the banquet ended, the old man remained standing in the same spot.

"General," he said through the interpreter, pointing north, "if I say this, the people over there will say I'm a traitor."

"meeting."

"Why didn't the general ask me if I was afraid?"

Yang Hu closed the booklet containing the three methods.

"When you were sick last year, my army doctor gave you medicine," he said. "At that time, I didn't ask what ethnicity you were."

The old man stood there for a long time. He finally said something that the translator had to translate twice before he could get it right.

"The old folks in our area say that the water on the grasslands recognizes people," the old man said. "General, the water on the grasslands doesn't recognize people. It only recognizes those who understand it."