Extreme Frontier Army: Starting from the bottom ranks, conquering the chaotic world

Looking at the contents of the wooden tub, she recalled the mutilated soldiers who had fallen beside her on the battlefield three days earlier.

Those people are now lying in these wooden barrels.

"Is it disgusting?"

Lu Jing squatted down and used his short knife to pull the broken arrowhead to the ground.

"The high command was eating roasted whole lamb in the general's tent and distributing the silver notes earned from selling grain. Meanwhile, the cannon fodder below were eating the flesh of their comrades and had to be grateful to their commander, thanking him for giving them extra food."

He stood up and wiped the blood off the dagger on the edge of the barrel.

"They're utterly inhuman. In their eyes, this is called 'recycling.' Even the King of Hell would give them a separate cauldron of boiling oil."

Shen Qingqiu looked up at Lu Jing's face, which appeared particularly cold in the darkness.

"What do you want to do...?"

Shen Qingqiu was in tears, her voice hoarse.

"Let's get out of here... If the patrol finds out we've entered the special supplies warehouse, we'll definitely be chopped up and thrown into these barrels..."

"Walk?"

Lu Jing raised an eyebrow.

"Since we're already here, wouldn't it be unfair to these officers for their efforts if we didn't leave some money as a toll?"

It's really disgusting.

But disgusting doesn't solve the problem.

He reached into his pocket and rummaged around for a bit, then pulled out three oil paper packets.

"I passed by the military medical camp last night and casually stole some good stuff."

Pinch open one of the oil paper packets with one hand.

In the dim light, it was filled with a bag of grayish-yellow powder.

"High-potency croton powder. The military medics originally reserved it for the digestive system of warhorses. The dosage is a bit large; one packet can cause three horses to become dehydrated."

Reaching the first wooden barrel, he poured most of the bag of croton powder directly onto the dark red marinade.

"Since the officers love the special supplies, I'll add some extra ingredients for them."

Lu Jing sneered: "In the past, this would be called fighting poison with poison; here, it's called giving someone a taste of their own medicine."

He looked around, picked up a thick wooden stick that he used to carry sacks from the corner of the wall, stuck it into the wooden bucket, held it with both hands, and began to stir.

Coarse salt, spices, marinade, and plenty of croton powder are slowly mixed together by stirring with a wooden stick.

"Diudiu Tongzai Yidu Amo Yidu Diu A Luo..."

While stirring, he hummed a country tune from his past life.

The voice was very soft, but it carried an indescribable sadness in the context of the scene.

It was as if he was suppressing the nausea and murderous intent that surged up into his heart.

Shen Qingqiu leaned against the wall, her scalp tingling.

What kind of monster is this person?!

Not only can I resist vomiting from this bucket of stuff, but I can even hum a song as I put the chrysanthemum powder in!

But when I looked at that face again, I suddenly couldn't say a word.

He simply knew better than anyone else that no matter how much he vomited, he couldn't kill Gu Changfeng.

"One bucket isn't enough; we must distribute the rain and dew evenly."

After stirring the first bucket, I went to the second bucket and did the same thing.

The three oil-paper packets of croton powder were evenly distributed into more than a dozen wooden barrels, ensuring that every portion of the specially supplied meat was coated with this potent medicine that could cause severe diarrhea.

After stirring the last bucket, I leaned on the edge of the bucket and took a couple of breaths, cold sweat trickling down my temples.

"All done."

Lu Jing threw away the wooden stick and patted the powder off his hands.

"Once this batch of special rations arrives at each camp tomorrow, there will be long queues at the latrines of the entire Northern Xuan Army. At that point, they won't even have the strength to pull up their pants, let alone fight."

He turned around and began to tap along the brick wall of the warehouse, inch by inch.

"Knock knock..."

"Knock knock..."

The walls emitted a dull echo.

Shen Qingqiu finally regained some strength and stood up, leaning against the wall.

"What are you looking for?"

"Find real food."

"These rats resell the good grain, but they always need to keep some for emergencies. In case the imperial inspector makes a surprise inspection, they'll need something to shut them up. This house looks big on the outside, but there are only a dozen or so wooden barrels inside; the space is wrong."

Shen Qingqiu forced herself to look away from the wooden barrels.

Walk to the wall and examine the gaps between the blue bricks carefully.

"This wasn't originally a warehouse."

Shen Qingqiu reached out and touched an inconspicuous blue brick in the corner of the wall, revealing a dark red paint stain underneath.

"This is sealing wax used by the Ministry of Revenue to seal the granaries. It was only applied to the corners of the inner walls when the imperial court directly allocated military rations to the granaries. Later, it was covered up with mortar."

His voice was still trembling, but it was a little more steady than before.

"If there is grain hidden here, it's not loose grain they've temporarily hoarded, but grain allocated from the imperial granary. The quantity won't be small."

Lu Jing glanced at her.

"You can still recognize this?"

"My father was in charge of the grain transport case for three years." Shen Qingqiu gritted his teeth. "I've seen rubbings of this sealing wax in his study."

"OK."

Lu Jing grinned.

"It wasn't a waste of time to bring you along."

Shen Qingqiu's newly mustered courage was almost choked back by his words.

He knocked along the wall to the innermost corner of the warehouse, tapping the back of his hand on the blue bricks.

"Thump, thump."

The voice has changed.

It was no longer the dull thud of solid brick walls, but a hollow echo.

"Found it."

The stupidest thing to do with these hidden grain storage rooms is to break them open by brute force.

If you were hiding something deadly, there would be guards outside, or there would be a lock and an alarm system.

Half of the guards outside were pulled away tonight due to rumors of food shortages and mutiny, which benefited them. But the mechanisms don't grow legs and run away on their own.

When I touched the third blue brick at the base of the wall, the edge of that brick was a little lower than the one next to it.

You can't see it at all unless you look closely.

He drew the fine steel saber from his waist, gently nudged the lower left corner of the blue brick with the handle, and then pressed it inward.

"Click."

With the sound of a mechanism, a crack appeared in the middle of the seemingly seamless blue brick wall.

Lu Jing reached out and pushed hard.

The hidden door flipped open, revealing a separate secret room concealed behind the wall.

The dry aroma of wheat and the grain fragrance of millet wafted towards me.

The sealed room was filled with moisture-proof oilcloth bags.

Go inside and use the tip of your knife to cut open the topmost bag.

The pure white wheat flowed out of the spout and fell to the ground.

It contains no adulterated sand or bran, making it the highest quality military rations.

Shen Qingqiu followed into the secret room, his gaze falling on the seal of the oilcloth bag.

The bag opening was made of double-stranded hemp rope, with the knot wrapped in a layer of yellow wax, and a blurry imprint pressed on the wax.

Reach out and wipe off the dust.

"Seal of the Left Granary of the Ministry of Revenue".

The voice suddenly became very soft; this was the seal under the father's jurisdiction.

"This is the winter ration allocated to the Northern Xuan Army last winter; it's the imperial court's life-saving ration."

A rough estimate suggests that at least tens of thousands of kilograms of fine grains were hidden there.

That's enough to feed the 600 soldiers of the Eighth Battalion for ten to fifteen days.

"There really is food..."

Looking at the mountain of grain sacks, my eyes finally lit up.

But this radiance only lasted for a short while.

Despair crept onto his face once more.

"It's no use."

He shook his head, his voice filled with a deep sense of helplessness.

"We can't take it. Several hundred pounds of grain, the two of us simply can't move it. Even if each of us carries a sack, we won't be able to get out of the quartermaster's office. It's full of patrols and heavily armored crossbowmen."

This is why the quartermaster dared to build the secret room here.

Even if someone discovers it, you can't move it.

Lu Jing grabbed a handful of refined wheat and rubbed it in his hands.

The grains are plump.

He nodded in complete agreement.

"You're right, you can't take it away."

He threw the wheat back into the bag, turned around, and walked out of the dark room.

"It's really unrealistic for two people to transport grain. Even if I could kill all the guards outside, I'd still be exhausted on the way to carry bricks."

As I approached the warehouse door, my gaze lingered on the corner behind the door.

There hangs a bronze gong that is half a person tall.

This is the highest-level alarm used by the quartermaster to prevent flooding or enemy attacks.

Once the bell is rung, the entire garrison at Yanmen Pass can hear it.

Shen Qingqiu followed his gaze and her expression changed drastically.

"Don't do anything rash! Once this gong sounds, Gu Changfeng's men will surround this place within half an incense stick's time, leaving us no way to escape!"

Lu Jing walked up to the gong and touched its bronze surface.

"Can't take it? Then don't take it."

He turned his head and gave Shen Qingqiu an extremely arrogant and completely unreasonable smile.

"Let them deliver it themselves."

Shen Qingqiu was taken aback.

Lu Jing lowered his voice and spoke very quickly.

"The men of the Eighth Battalion are starving, their eyes practically green with rage. All they need is a pretext. When the quartermaster's alarm goes off, everyone'll think there's a fire or a night raid by the northern barbarians. Once chaos erupts, if someone shouts that the granary is open, do you think those soldiers, who've been starving for three days, will obey Gu Changfeng's orders first, or will they rush to grab the grain?"

After saying that, a cold glint flashed in his eyes.

Damn it, as soon as this gong sounds, I have to run to the northwest corner of the courtyard wall first.

There are hay carts piled up over there; over them is the grain transport route.

As for Gu Changfeng's people?

Let them first explain military discipline to the six hundred starving soldiers.

Lu Jing strode to the door, bent down and grabbed the old soldier by the collar of his sheepskin coat, dragging him into the shadows inside the tin door.

He casually closed the door slightly and put it back in place.

From the outside, the door appears to be closed.

Then he turned and walked toward the gong.

He slammed his right hand on the wooden frame holding the gong, knocking the frame and the massive bronze gong, which was half a person's height, to the ground!

"Clang!"

The deafening roar was like a thunderclap exploding on flat ground.

The bronze gong struck the stone slab, producing a buzzing sound that tore through the stormy night sky above Yanmen Pass.

The echoes of the gong still reverberated wildly among the beams and pillars of the warehouse, while the first whistle pierced the wind and snow in the distance.