Dusk was gradually falling.
On the open ground outside the camp tents, three large iron pots were set up on temporarily built earthen stoves. The firewood in the stoves burned brightly, sending waves of hot steam fragrant with rice wafting outward.
As Shen Jue approached, he happened to see a soldier in charge of military meals stirring a pot with a long-handled wooden ladle. The bottom of the ladle scraped against the bottom of the pot, bringing up a thick slurry of rice.
He paused in his tracks and looked at the soldier cooking the porridge, his gaze narrowing. “How much rice did you put in this pot of porridge?”
The soldier's movements instantly froze. The ladle hung in midair for a breath before he slowly lowered it back to the rim of the pot.
He did not dare to look up at Shen Jue. “A-According to what you said before, General, two handfuls of rice per pot, watered down well...”
Shen Jue did not respond.
He walked to the second pot, bent down, and used the firelight to clearly see what was inside.
The rice grains had already bloomed.
This was absolutely not a thickness that could be produced by just two handfuls of rice.
“Who allowed you to add more to the pot?”
Several soldiers near the stove stopped their work. Every single one of them lowered their heads, and none dared to speak first.
In the end, it was still the soldier stirring the porridge who looked up. His face was flushed from the heat of the stove, and sweat hung from his brow.
“General, the commoners of Wuling are starved to skin and bones. If they just drink watery soup, it won't do much good. Our cooking camp discussed it and decided to spare some of our own rations so the commoners could at least have one filling meal...”
Hearing this, Shen Jue fell silent for a moment before speaking. “If you give your rations to them, what will you eat?”
“General Shen, we are young and healthy. Going hungry for a meal or two really won't hurt us,” a tall, thin soldier nearby chimed in quickly.
After saying that, she felt it was somewhat inappropriate and said in a low voice, “Please don't blame Chief Zhao. This was everyone's idea.”
The tall, thin soldier had dark skin and carried herself with a heroic air. Had her voice not been distinctly different from a man's, perhaps no one would have realized she was a woman.
However, this was normal. After spending a long time in the military camp, there was really no visible difference between men and women. On the battlefield, it was a matter of life and death anyway; no one cared about gender.
Shen Jue's gaze swept across the faces of these cooking camp soldiers one by one. They were all around twenty years old.
They were indeed still very young.
“How much did each of you spare?” he asked.
“Just two days' worth of rations,” the tall, thin soldier said. “We can get by if we drink more water over the next two days...”
“Nonsense,” Shen Jue cut her off.
“General Feng and I are not dead yet. Since when do you need to tighten your belts to save food? However much food you spared, take that exact amount from my personal rations.”
“General Shen!” several soldiers cried out at once.
Chief Zhao was even more anxious. “General Shen, why must you do this? Your rations are already limited, and you still have to patrol the camp by day and review the accounts by night. Which of those doesn't drain your energy?”
Shen Jue's face remained expressionless.
“This is a military order,” he said in a low voice. “I have already sent a letter back to the north, and someone will deliver grain to the south in a few days. Seeing that you did this out of kindness, I will not hold your unauthorized actions against you this time, even though you nearly ruined a major plan. Do not let this happen again.”
This was indeed the truth.
Upon realizing that the Divine Lady intended to save the commoners of Wuling, he had written a letter and sent someone to deliver it to Shen Yu.
They only needed to hold out for half a month.
Shen Yu should be able to mobilize enough food and supplies from the nearest Liaodong Prefecture to relieve their urgent situation.
Everyone exchanged glances and hurriedly lowered their heads to comply.
“Once the porridge is ready, distribute it quickly.”
Leaving behind these words, Shen Jue turned and left.
Since the Divine Lady had not given them any divine decrees, they did not dare to act rashly, so they returned to their old trade.
Back in Xindu City, besides completing their daily military drills, the Zhenbei Army also had to help the farmers clear wasteland and farm.
It could be said that any random soldier pulled from the Zhenbei Army was an expert at clearing land and farming.
Early this morning, Feng Chunya had led most of the soldiers to look for land near the fishing village, preparing to plant crops.
He had to go to the fishing village to see the results.
Yun Shu stood beneath a tree, cradling the little fox, as she watched Shen Jue's figure disappear around the corner of the tents.
The little fox shifted in Yun Shu's arms. “Host, although Shen Jue has plenty of flaws and sometimes seems a bit eccentric, he really is a good person.”
Worried that Yun Shu might misunderstand and think it was urging her to win Shen Jue over, it quickly took a jab at him. “Then again, I really dislike him. He always likes to look for trouble. All day long, he's either bitter about this or jealous of that—he's such a sourpuss!”
“No one is perfect. As long as they haven't committed any unforgivable sins, there is no need to be overly critical.”
Yun Shu stroked the fur on the little fox's back. “Go keep an eye on Shen Jue, Feng Chunya, and the others. Make sure they don't notice that Chen Chao is leading his men toward the camp.”
“Oh, and one more thing.”
“Don't let them return to the camp too quickly either.”
With the strength of Shen Jue, Feng Chunya, and the ten thousand soldiers of the Zhenbei Army, defeating a rabble like Chen Chao would take no effort at all. They could easily send Chen Chao straight to the Avici Hell to experience the full package of the Eighteen Levels of Hell.
“Host, leave it to me!”
After the little fox left, Yun Shu silently followed the cooking camp soldiers.
They worked in groups of three. Two carried a full bucket of porridge, while one carried bamboo tubes bound with rope, which would be used to serve the porridge later.
“Make way, please make way! The porridge is here!” Chief Zhao bellowed at the top of his lungs.
Hearing the commotion, the commoners squatting on the ground looked up one after another, staring at the buckets of porridge in disbelief.
Before anyone could react, the cooking camp soldiers had already begun nimbly distributing the porridge.
“Here, elder, this is your porridge,” Chief Zhao said, handing a bamboo tube filled with porridge to the nearest old man.
The old man took the bamboo tube with his withered hands.
Bringing the bamboo tube to his nose, he took a deep breath, and his cloudy eyes instantly turned red.
“It's porridge... it's really porridge...” He mumbled indistinctly, as if speaking to those beside him, or perhaps just to himself. “The Divine Lady does not lie. Someone really is granting porridge!”
Chief Zhao said, “Elder, the Divine Lady is the very best deity in this world. Of course She would not lie to you.”
The old man hesitated before speaking his mind. “But this porridge was given to me by you, not the Divine Lady...”
“We wouldn't dare take the credit,” Chief Zhao waved his hands repeatedly. “This porridge was brewed from the rice granted by the Divine Lady. We merely contributed a negligible amount of effort in cooking it. In the end, the one granting you this bowl of porridge is still the Divine Lady.”
As he spoke, he did not forget to scoop porridge for the next person.
As more and more Wuling commoners received their porridge, the surroundings gradually fell silent, leaving only the sound of gulping.
Clutching their bamboo tubes, the commoners drank mouthful by mouthful, and many began to weep as they drank.
Some even went so far as to stick out their tongues and lick the leftover porridge residue from the inside of the bamboo tubes after finishing.
In the nearby woods, a group of people hid behind the trees, watching this scene with eyes full of greed.
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