Feng Shuo took the sugar-roasted chestnuts and the recipe and left Huotouying. He glanced at the sky and decided not to return to the palace, but went straight to his own military tent.
He needed to know the answers to whether the eldest daughter of the Jiang family was dead or not, and how the people from the Huotouying mistook him for Chi Qing.
As soon as he returned to his military tent, he saw Chi Qing slumped in a chair, holding his stomach, with his feet resting haphazardly on a low table beside him and his head tilted back.
He was wearing a bamboo green outer garment and a crescent white robe underneath. His posture made him look like a frog with its belly turned upside down.
"Master." Xing Yao bowed and saluted. He returned to the military camp a step late and did not find Feng Shuo, so he waited in the big tent.
When Chi Qing heard Xing Yao calling him "Master", he was so frightened that he rolled off the chair.
When he looked up, he saw Feng Shuo staring at him with a sullen face.
Chi Qing laughed awkwardly and got up. Seeing Feng Shuo still holding a bag of sugar-roasted chestnuts in his hand, he covered his stomach which was still aching from eating so much and waved his hands repeatedly: "Why did you bring me a midnight snack? I can't eat anymore..."
Feng Shuo had a bigger appetite than others, and the dishes prepared by Huotouying for him, a great general, were also sufficient. He strolled over to find Feng Shuo in the evening, and heard that Feng Shuo had gone back to the palace early in the morning, so he prepared dinner for Feng Shuo.
Unexpectedly, I was greedy and ate too much.
Feng Shuo returned to his desk where he was handling official documents and put down the sugar-roasted chestnuts. "Who said it was for you?"
Before Chi Qing could express his injury, Feng Shuo asked, "Do you know about Huotou's private stove?"
Chi Qing suddenly felt a little guilty, but since Feng Shuo had asked him directly, he must have known about this, so he nodded timidly and secretly looked at Feng Shuo.
But Feng Shuo's expression remained normal, so he couldn't tell anything.
Chi Qing panicked even more, racking his brains and saying, "I just found out about it this morning, and I haven't had time to check it out myself yet, so I didn't report it to you."
Feng Shuo spread out an official document and asked as he read it, "How is the investigation going? Why is there a private kitchen in the army?"
Chi Qing was not a person who would eat for free. After learning about the private kitchen from a few soldiers in the morning, he had already investigated the whole cause and effect clearly.
When Feng Shuo asked, he said, "It's all because of that bastard Fan Wei. He was greedy for military pay and rations, so that the lower-level soldiers could only eat coarse rice porridge every day. The Fire Camp set up a private stove, and he took 80% of the profit."
The more Feng Shuo listened, the colder his expression became. After Chi Qing finished speaking, he asked, "Did the Liaonan Army and the Xizhou Army eat coarse rice these past two days?"
Chi Qing nodded: "It's a bowl of porridge in the morning and evening, and only lunch is a meal."
Feng Shuo clenched the wolf hair brush in his hand, with a hint of anger on his face: "Why didn't anyone report this?"
Chi Qing muttered quietly: "You know the soldiers you brought with you. I don't think anyone would complain if you let them chew tree bark."
Feng Shuo glared at Chi Qing fiercely, and Chi Qing immediately shut up.
Feng Shuo then pinched his brows and ordered Xing Yao who was standing beside him: "Call the grain and grass supervisor to me!"
The grain and fodder supervisor was soon called to the big tent.
After questioning the grain and fodder supervisor, they found out that they had not had enough time to connect with the Fire Battalion in the Xizhou camp.
Having eaten coarse rice for every meal in the past two days, not only the lower-level soldiers of the Liaonan Army, but even some generals, thought that Feng Shuo had moved to the barren land of Xizhou and that it was difficult to transport food and fodder last week. So they were smart enough to avoid causing more trouble and did not bother Feng Shuo with the matter of food and fodder for the time being. Everyone in the military camp showed a heroic spirit of sharing life and death with their prince, so a bite of food was nothing.
After listening to the explanation of the grain and fodder supervisor, Feng Shuo's face turned as black as the bottom of a pot.
Chi Qing was trying hard to hold back his laughter, but he didn't dare to lose his composure in front of others, so he could only turn his back and shrug his shoulders suspiciously.
The grain and fodder supervisor, who was completely unaware of the situation, thought that he was so moved that he cried. He suddenly felt that their army was united, and the heroic spirit in his chest surged again.
He said to Feng Shuo: "We are willing to die for the prince, and the desire for food and drink is nothing!"
He was an old subordinate who followed Feng Shuo from Dazhou, so people were used to calling Feng Shuo Prince.
The blackness on Feng Shuo's face deepened. He said, "Immediately connect with the Fire Battalion of the Xizhou Camp, and let all the troops have good food from tomorrow."
The grain and fodder supervisor was moved by the prince's thoughtfulness and his lips moved as if he wanted to say more passionate words.
Chi Qing quickly said on Feng Shuo's behalf, "Alright, go down and hand over the food and fodder."
When the grain and grass supervisor walked out of the big tent, Chi Qing held his stomach and laughed breathlessly: "The soldiers under your command actually think that you are too poor to support them... If you were really poor, maybe the little emperor wouldn't be so afraid of you, but even if you lost Dazhou, you still have Yuzhou and Hengzhou, two wealthy prefectures in your fiefdom. If you are poor, are there any rich people in the world?"
Feng Shuo threw a memorial paper at him, hitting Chi Qing right on the forehead, and Chi Qing slowly stopped laughing.
He picked up the letter and handed it to Xing Yao, who put it back next to Feng Shuo's desk.
Feng Shuo suddenly asked, "Who was responsible for collecting the body of the Jiang family's daughter?"
Xing Yao didn't know why his master suddenly asked this, so he replied, "They are soldiers from the Tiger Battalion."
Although the soldiers of the Tiger Battalion are infantry, they were all trained by Feng Shuo, so it is impossible for them to betray him.
Feng Shuo's eyes turned cold: "You go and investigate it yourself. You must find out whether the one who was buried in the coffin that day was the daughter of the Jiang family."
Xing Yao sensed something unusual in Feng Shuo's words, and quickly bowed and stepped back: "I'll go right away!"
After Xing Yao left the tent, Chi Qing asked, "From what you said, the Jiang family's daughter is not dead?"
Feng Shuo's eyes were deep and dark, and his expression was ambiguous: "Go to the poplar forest and find the list of camp prostitutes."
Without waiting for Chi Qing to answer, he frowned again, took the cloak hanging on the wall and walked out: "Forget it, I will go by myself."
Back at Huotouying, after sending Feng Shuo away, Jiang Yanyi looked at Qiu Kui, who looked like she was about to cry but didn't. He unexpectedly understood her sadness and quickly said, "There's still some in the pot."
Qiu Kui sniffed and shook his head, his round face full of stubbornness and honesty: "You keep that for lighting the fire in the camp, I won't eat it."
This girl is like this. You may say she is stupid, but she is also quite knowledgeable about the ways of the world.
You say she is not stupid, but she was sold and helped count the money without knowing it.
Jiang Yanyi was at a loss for words for a moment.
She said, "You are also from the Huotou Camp."
Qiu Kui heard her say this, and for some reason, she was a little anxious. She wanted to explain but didn't know how to say it. She was so anxious that her eyes turned red: "I... I want to help you do something."
After that, he added: "It's not for food."
Although what she said was ambiguous, Jiang Yanyi still understood what she wanted to express.
She said, "What are you thinking, girl? You are naturally different from others. You have hot and sour rice noodles, but others don't. You can eat a lot of sugar-roasted chestnuts, but I won't give so much to others."
Qiu Kui then smiled innocently again, "You don't have enough to share with others, so I won't eat it."
This silly girl, Jiang Yanyi didn't know what to say to her for a moment.
She went back to the barracks and put all the sugar-roasted chestnuts into a small basket, and gave a handful to each of the firemen on duty.
She will be the official cook in the kitchen from tomorrow on. Several firemen saw that the dishes she cooked were favored by the military advisor tonight and will receive a reward tomorrow. They have been flattering her to begin with, and now that she is making sugar-roasted chestnuts, they are praising her even more.
The good relationships you accumulate will always be useful in the future.
Jiang Yanyi greeted them and took Xiaolouzi and Qiukui back to the barracks on the other side of the poplar forest.
It’s autumn now, and it gets dark especially early. Not long after the You hour, it’s pitch dark outside.
Fortunately, there were burning braziers supported by triangular scaffolds every few military tents. Although they could not illuminate every corner, they would not make it impossible to get lost.
The barracks where they lived were next to a poplar forest, quite a distance away from where the soldiers lived.
This is a military camp after all. If the barracks of a group of camp prostitutes are placed next to the barracks of the soldiers, wouldn't the soldiers in the camp have to climb over the walls at night
However, there was a section of road near the barracks on the other side of the poplar forest that had no lighting, so Jiang Yanyi specially brought a lantern.
On the way, she forced Okra to eat a handful of sugar-roasted chestnuts, and Okra happily ate them as he walked.
But maybe it was because I ate too many different foods today, but I got diarrhea halfway through the journey.
"No, I... I have to go to the bathroom..." She covered her stomach, looking guilty and embarrassed.
Jiang Yanyi looked around. They were now in a position that was neither too close nor too far. It was too late to go to the barracks where the soldiers lived or return to the Poplar Forest Barracks. There was only a patch of half-human-high weeds not far away.
In order to prevent enemy attacks, the entire Xizhou camp was surrounded by a fence made of sharp wood, with a sentry post every two hundred meters.
Behind the weeds is the poplar forest, but it is separated by a sharp wooden fence.
Qiu Kui pointed to the weeds and said, "I'm going to go over there first."
Jiang Yanyi handed her the lantern and said, "Then carry the lantern over and be careful with your step."
Okra waved his hands and said no, then ran straight into the weeds.
Jiang Yanyi knew that she was afraid that if she went over with the lantern, it would be even more embarrassing if someone noticed her, so she waited for Qiu Kui there with the lantern in hand.
Suddenly, they didn't know that a pair of sinister eyes in the weeds were watching them.
Qiu Kui hurried over and found a place, but before she could even untie her belt, she seemed to have discovered something and suddenly looked to the side. However, before she could utter any words, someone suddenly covered her mouth and knocked her to the ground.
The noise was quite loud, and Jiang Yanyi, who was waiting for okra on the roadside, couldn't help but look over here.
It was pitch black over there in the weeds, and the light from the lantern could not penetrate. One could only vaguely make out the outline of the tips of the grass.
“Okra?”
She called out, but no one answered.
A gust of night wind blew by, rustling the weeds, and a few crows' cries were heard from the poplar forest in the distance.
Jiang Yanyi couldn't help but tighten her grip on the lantern pole. She took a few steps forward and called out again, "Okra?"