Spring comes to the desperate place

Chapter 169 Eating Meat

A smaller man suddenly exclaimed, "Ah!" and shouted excitedly, "I know what's different. It's the salt. I didn't even taste any salt when I ate the vegetables today."

After his reminder, the others also came to their senses. They picked up the vegetables in the bowl and indeed found no salt lumps, not even salt grains. You have to know that the salt eaten in the army is in whole blocks, like stone blocks. This kind of salt is not refined pure enough and is very large in size. The salt blocks must be smashed before use, so it dissolves very slowly when cooking. There will always be a few larger salt lumps in a large pot of food, and there are even more salt particles that have not dissolved. Everyone has had their teeth hurt by eating salt particles.

But this kind of salt is the cheapest, and the salt blocks are easier to transport. Its large size and not being easily dissolved are also one of its advantages, making it very suitable for carrying when traveling long distances.

If Song Chunlin were given a choice, he would still choose fine salt, because he also doesn't like eating a whole piece of salt while eating.

The army will stop here briefly tonight, so they will not set up camp. Everyone will sit on the ground. Song Chunlin is better off, as he has a carriage. He can put a mattress in the carriage and sleep on it.

After a whole day's journey, Gu Fengyue was a little worried that he couldn't handle it, but the boy just grinned at him:

"When we were fleeing famine, we didn't even have enough food to eat, but we still made it through. Don't worry, they didn't get tired even when they were walking, so how could I get tired sitting in a carriage?"

Gu Fengyue was relieved when she saw that there was indeed no sign of fatigue on his face.

Song Chunlin said he was not tired and indeed he was not that tired. The only mental power he used today was to blur the memories of the soldiers who brought him here, leaving them with the impression that he had carried a lot of people with the surname Li on the bus, forgetting that he was actually riding empty-handed. Even on Gu Fengyun's side, no one prepared anything for him. Instead, Song Chunlin left Gu Fengyun three full buckets of spiritual spring water, which were three buckets of pure water, enough for Gu Fengyun to drink one cup every day until next year.

At first, Gu Fengyun was worried whether the water would go bad, but Song Chunlin asked him how could the water go bad when there was nothing in it. Gu Fengyun was speechless by this question.

However, Gu Fengyun also promised Song Chunlin that he would take care of the Song family during the time when he was away from home. For Gu Fengyun, this was just a matter of talking.

The army set out and walked for three days. At first, everyone thought that the tender and delicate young man would clamor to go home within a day, but they didn't expect that he actually stayed for three days. He even sat in a carriage for three days. When he rested, he was still full of energy and jumped up and down. It was quite puzzling.

In fact, they misunderstood Song Chunlin. They all thought that Song Chunlin was a child of some noble family and was sent to the military camp for training. They never thought that Song Chunlin was just a child from a peasant family.

While lying in the carriage, Song Chunlin did not forget to work in the space. He instructed Dabao to collect and sort all the medical supplies, and he went to the foot of the mountain to harvest various hemostatic herbs. He collected a lot of all the herbs that could stop bleeding as described in medical books. Of course, he didn't know how to prepare the herbs, so the most he could do was to throw them directly into the storage area, where they would not go bad anyway.

Not to mention that there are many hemostatic herbs, which can be used almost directly by simply crushing them and applying them. The space is rich in spiritual energy, and the medicinal materials grown there are several times more effective than those outside. They can be used directly even without processing.

After harvesting today's medicinal herbs, Song Chunlin did not forget to plant a large number of vegetables in the fields. Thinking of the strong winds and sand and the shortage of water resources over there, he also did not forget to grow more fruits with high water content, especially watermelons. Thinking that watermelons like to grow in sandy places, he also specially dug out many watermelon seeds, intending to let the people there plant watermelons when he got there. If it succeeded, it would also be an income-generating project.

On the third night, they arrived at a barren grassland. Gu Fengyue looked at everyone who had been marching for three days, so he suggested setting up camp tonight so that everyone could have a good rest.

Song Chunlin had never followed an army on a march, so he naturally didn't know their camping procedures. However, after seeing how everyone cooperated skillfully to set up several tents in the wild, he gave a thumbs up to the high efficiency of this group of soldiers.

Since we have set up camp, the food naturally cannot be as sloppy as it was in the past few days. It just so happens that everyone’s bread has been almost used up, so the cooks, in addition to preparing today’s dinner, also specially mixed several large basins of dough, covered them with clean gauze, and put them aside for making bread the next day.

Song Chunlin took a look out of curiosity and saw that the dough looked a little black and yellow, obviously mixed with other grains.

Song Chunlin grabbed Zhang Yu, the young cook who had spoken to him, pointed at the dough and asked him what was added to it.

Zhang Yu answered truthfully: "Young Master Song, buckwheat and sorghum are added to this, so the color is not as good as what you eat."

Buckwheat and sorghum? Song Chunlin had never eaten this combination before, and was a little curious, so he asked Zhang Yu for a piece of cake for them to eat.

Gu Fengyue looked at the cake in his hand and was particularly puzzled: "Don't you dislike this kind of hard food? Why did you ask for a piece back?"

Song Chunlin broke the pancake into two halves, gave half to Gu Fengyue, and took a bite of the pancake himself. As soon as the pancake entered his mouth, he felt that it was chewier than pure wheat pancakes. But in terms of taste, it was better than the pancakes he had eaten when he first came here, perhaps because it had not been stored for too long.

"It's ok, it's not that bad."

Gu Fengyue smiled and said, "Although the food in the army is not as good as your family's, it is already the best compared to most farmers. At least you can eat your fill. In times of famine, many people who can't survive will join the army just to have a full meal."

Song Chunlin opened his eyes wide when he heard this: "Don't you have any benefits when you are in the army?"

"Benefits? The benefits you're talking about are probably that when we're suppressing bandits, we can take advantage of the chaos to loot some gold, silver, and jewelry. When the Gu family army was at its most glorious, my father followed them all the way to the other side's prince's mansion, and my father robbed a lot of things and brought them back."

Song Chunlin was at a loss for words. He felt that the welfare that Gu Fengyue talked about was somewhat different from what he understood as welfare.

"What about other things, such as severance pay for retired soldiers, pensions for injuries and disabilities, don't you have these?"

Gu Fengyue: "Of course there are, but not many. Moreover, few people can escape unscathed from the battlefield. You know, war is always the cruelest."

Gu Fengyue's words made Song Chunlin fall into deep thought. Throughout history, those who led the troops died early. This was absolutely true. When two countries went to war, the casualties were all civilians and the lowest-level soldiers.

There was meat in today's dinner, and Gu Fengyue specially made a bowl for Song Chunlin. It was shredded and steamed dried chicken. The meat was very tough after being dried, but it was still eatable after being steamed.

Gu Fengyue was afraid that he would not be able to get used to it, so she only took a small bowl. When she saw that Song Chunlin took one bite and stopped eating, she knew that he did not like the taste, so she ate the rest herself.

He leaned close to Song Chunlin's ear and whispered to him, "If you don't like the food, go in and find something you like to eat. Don't starve yourself. You can get up later tomorrow."

Song Chunlin nodded to show that he understood. He finished his biscuits and dried chicken and got into the carriage. People around saw this and thought that this child was indeed from a wealthy family and could not endure hardship.

Song Chunlin also felt that he could not stand the hardship. In the past few years, the Song family had always been able to eat whatever they wanted. Under Song Chunlin's training, the cooking skills of Song A-ma and Song Qin-shi had risen sharply. The taste of the meals they cooked was not as good as that of big restaurants, but at least it could beat all the small restaurants nowadays.

So Song Chunlin felt a little melancholy. He always gave himself special treatment. What if he aroused suspicion after a long time? Don't even mention asking him to use mental power to give mental hints. It's not that he can't do it, he's just lazy. There are so many people. If he handles them one by one, won't he be exhausted after finishing them?

The safest way is to pass through towns on the way and get supplies in the towns.

The next day, Song Chunlin told Gu Fengyue about this idea. Gu Fengyue thought it was nothing. He looked at Song Chunlin with a smile in his eyes:

"Even if you didn't tell us, we would have gone into the town to get supplies. Otherwise, with so many people eating pickled meat every day, our bodies wouldn't be able to bear it. We should be able to reach a small town tonight. When you were still asleep just now, a small team of scouts had already gone to explore the way. If everything goes well, we can eat fresh meat tonight."

After listening to Gu Fengyue's explanation, Song Chunlin finally felt relieved.

"That was a close call. I thought I was going to be exposed. Can I go to the town ahead of time? The dumpling soup made by my grandfather is delicious."

Song Chunlin's words were incoherent, but Gu Fengyue understood that what he meant was that there was the dumpling soup made by Song Amao in the space, and he just needed to find a reasonable reason for it to appear.

The town was slightly smaller than Changping, but judging from its size, it was also prosperous. Therefore, Gu Fengyue had already sent someone to deliver a letter to the local officials. So when they arrived outside the town, they could see officials standing on the roadside waiting from afar.

Because they were just passing by, Gu Fengyue did not need the other party to welcome him. The two parties simply handed over the supplies. Gu Fengyue counted them and left immediately after confirming that they were correct. The army did not enter the city, but went to the open area outside the town to rest.

After the soldiers were settled, Gu Fengyue drove a horse-drawn carriage and took Song Chunlin for a stroll around the small town. When they came back, smoke was already rising from the camp.

Song Chunlin was also contented as he held a pile of lotus leaves and wrapped the various pickled meats in layers. He also asked Gu Fengyue to build a kiln with earth blocks.

Gu Fengyue couldn't guess what he was going to do, so he could only diligently build the kiln for him. However, he had never seen such an activity as kiln chicken, so the kiln he built always collapsed halfway.

Gu Fengyue's face turned black as he looked at the collapsed earth on the ground. Song Chunlin held back his laughter and said that he would do it instead, but Gu Fengyue firmly rejected his "kindness".

"No, trust me, I can definitely build it for you."

So when Song Chunlin watched his fifth kiln collapse, he finally couldn't bear it anymore and started to do it himself. He taught Gu Fengyue the techniques over and over again. By the time they had built a kiln together, it was completely dark, and it would take about half an hour for the earth kiln to be fired.

Song Chunlin and Gu Fengyue were both growling with hunger. Song Chunlin didn't care about being exposed at the moment and directly brought out two large bowls of dumpling soup from the carriage. He was completely unaware that the eyes of the people around him looking at him had become extremely strange.

The bearded man was particularly disdainful of the two people's playful behavior at the beginning, and said in a strange and sarcastic tone: "It's already this time, and you still have a pile of dirt. It's just to light a fire for heating, why do you have to do all this fancy things?"

But some people held different opinions: "I think that young master Song is smart. Didn't you see that he just wrapped a lot of food in those lotus leaves? Maybe he will roast them in the fire later."

"Throw it into the fire? Roast it. With such a big fire, I'm afraid it will turn into charcoal right away if you throw it in."

However, they all guessed wrong. Song Chunlin did not throw the lotus leaf packages directly into the fire, but let the fire burn until the earth blocks were burned red and shiny. Song Chunlin felt it was good to go and asked Gu Fengyue to remove the still burning firewood, leaving only the red-hot earth kiln, and then threw the lotus leaf packages in through the top hole. Song Chunlin wrapped three chickens, ten ribs, and even a whole tilapia. This species did not exist in this era. Song Chunlin marked them and only intended to give them to himself and Gu Fengyue.

The rest will be distributed to whoever is the lucky one later.

Because the kiln was big enough, Song Chunlin saw that there was still some space left, so he took some potatoes and sweet potatoes out of the carriage, placed them on the edge, and buried them with the remaining ashes. The residual temperature in the ashes was very high, enough to cook these things.

The people around were all stunned when they saw what Song Chunlin was doing. Zhang Yu was a brave man and had become familiar with Song Chunlin in the past few days, so he sneaked over and asked Song Chunlin what he was doing.

"I'm making something delicious. Hehe, you haven't seen it before."

Zhang Yu shook his head and said honestly, "This is the first time I've seen this way of cooking. Can the food you throw in really be cooked?"

Song Chunlin refused to be looked down upon. He put his hands on his waist and glared at Zhang Yu: "Are you questioning me? Then you are not allowed to eat later."

Zhang Yu opened his mouth wide, wanting to cry but without the tears. Ah, how could this be possible?

When his companions found out, they all gloated over his misfortune and laughed at him, saying that he deserved it.

"I told you to doubt Young Master Song, now the meat that was about to reach your mouth is gone. We all saw that Young Master Song packed a lot of meat, and it was obvious that he wanted us to have a taste. You, you don't have this good fortune, and the brothers will eat a few more bites for you later."