Chapter 66

Fang Hedong led Little Wei Yuan to a small ancestral hall in the village. This place had already been renovated, with a square table placed in the center, and a map on the table.

Little Wei Yuan glanced at the map and saw that the map was hand-drawn, which was exactly the terrain around Quyang County. The map was drawn very finely, even small rivers and earthen mounds were marked clearly, the brushwork was excellent, and every hook and stroke had a lot to look at.

Fang Hedong greeted Little Wei Yuan to sit down and exchanged names.

Fang Hedong came from a small sect in this county called Bai Feng Academy, thirty-eight years old this year, and spent more than twenty years of hard work to forge a Dao foundation. Bai Feng Academy only had the academy master who barely cultivated a Dharma Form, and the remaining seven or eight Dao foundations had no hope of further progress, a typical small sect. If it were not for the fact that Bianning County was located on the border, invaded by alien races from time to time, with few people, and no one willing to come, it would not have been Bai Feng Academy's turn to be this fourth-rank sect.

Seeing Fang Hedong, Little Wei Yuan truly felt the foundation of the Grand Void Palace. Human-rank Dao foundations in the Grand Void Palace were almost extinct, Earth-rank ones were called garbage by some, and only Heaven-rank ones could be highly regarded by the sect, and to be valued by the sect, one had to at least start with a rare Heaven-rank like Yan Ming.

Bai Feng Academy only had the academy master as an Earth-rank Dao foundation, and the rest were all Human-rank. Seeing that the younger generation was not promising, once the academy master returned to heaven, they would be kicked out of the fourth-rank sect.

Little Wei Yuan himself had cultivated hard for ten years without achieving a Dao foundation, steadily at the bottom of the Grand Void Palace. This Fang Hedong spent more than twenty years building a Human-rank Dao foundation, and actually belonged to the upper-middle level in Bai Feng Academy. However, in terms of combat power, Little Wei Yuan had once defeated the Earth-rank Xu Du when his tendons and muscles were forged, and after Blood Merging was forged, he could steadily defeat a Human-rank Dao foundation holding a magic treasure. And Little Wei Yuan at this time, unless Xu Du could wear Bao Yun's full set of equipment, would not survive a single encounter.

After exchanging names, someone brought a cup and a bowl. Fang Hedong said: "Junior Brother Wei came from afar, I think you must be hungry. We really don't have anything presentable here, so just make do."

The cup contained water, and it was not clear, there were dregs at the bottom of the cup, and the water was still yellow. The bowl contained brown rice, with a few pieces of wild vegetables on it, which were steamed together with the rice.

At this time, a scolding sounded outside the house: "We walked for dozens of li, thinking that we could eat a good meal when we came down, and then you gave us this thing? Even dogs won't eat it!"

Little Wei Yuan's figure flashed and he was already outside the ancestral hall, and saw a garrison soldier in his early twenties, with a reckless posture, raising a wooden bowl and about to throw it to the ground.

Before Little Wei Yuan could move, an old garrison soldier with half-white hair grabbed the man's wrist. The young garrison soldier only felt that his hand was like being clamped by an iron hoop, and his bones were clicking as he moved. He felt pain and screamed repeatedly: "Ouch! What are you doing, my bones are broken!"

The old soldier snorted and said: "This is Mr. Fang's place, and everything in your bowl is saved from Mr. Fang's own mouth! If a grain of rice falls, you have to pick it up and eat it for me!"

The young garrison soldier did not dare to say more, sat back on the steps sullenly, and muttered to himself: "I'm new here, and I didn't know it was Mr. Fang here..."

Fang Hedong also came out of the ancestral hall and greeted several old garrison soldiers. Several old soldiers were originally like ruffians, but in front of him, they all stood straight, actually having a bit of murderous aura. Little Wei Yuan did not expect that Fang Hedong could have such high prestige among these ruffian-like garrison soldiers.

The two returned to the ancestral hall, and Fang Hedong smiled bitterly: "To tell you the truth, my food should have been cut off several days ago. These few days, I can only distribute half of the normal rations, and I have barely supported it until now."

Little Wei Yuan had already seen the hardship here, but did not expect that it had reached the point of cutting off food. Western Jin was not hit by disaster, how could the food be cut off on the front line?

Fang Hedong asked with hope: "Junior Brother Wei came here, is there any news about military pay?"

"Military pay?" Little Wei Yuan was stunned again.

Before this trip, the palace had long explained that all the military pay and food for the soldiers were the responsibility of Western Jin. Of course, those who brought their own personal guards and family servants had to pay out of their own pockets. So Little Wei Yuan did not ask when he went to collect soldiers, and Wang Delu did not mention military pay at all.

"Have you never been paid? Are those people outside not civilian braves?" Little Wei Yuan wondered.

When entering the village, Little Wei Yuan noticed that most of the people in Shayang Village were men, and only a few strong women and old people did some logistics chores. According to the Western Jin military system, men between twelve and fifty-five were within the scope of conscription, and only those over sixty were considered old. And these people had more or less traces of cultivation on their bodies, although the cultivation time was not long, the best one only forged two layers of tendons and muscles, but they were already different from ordinary people. Ordinary farmers would not forge their bodies.

Civilian braves farm during the day, and are paid half pay according to the border army standard after conscription. According to the Great Tang military system, border armies are regular armies, which are different from garrison soldiers in the county. So the half pay that civilian braves get is roughly equivalent to eighty percent of the garrison soldiers.

Wang Delu said he would add extra civilian braves to Little Wei Yuan, and Little Wei Yuan thought it was the three hundred people in the village. He was very satisfied when he saw that they all had traces of body forging, but listening to Fang Hedong's meaning, they had not received military pay yet.

It is wartime now, and this is the front line of resisting the enemy. It stands to reason that the imperial court should have allocated military pay and food long ago. Daring to have no food or pay during wartime, lightly speaking, it is mutiny, and heavily speaking, it is wanting to change the dynasty.

Seeing Little Wei Yuan's expression, Fang Hedong understood and sighed: "Actually, I heard rumors that the imperial court's military pay has been allocated to the county, totaling two hundred thousand taels. I originally thought that Junior Brother Wei arrived and could bring the military pay by the way, but I didn't expect... Alas! It's a pity that these brothers outside have followed me for three months, fought seven or eight battles regardless of life and death, thirty-seven people died in battle, but they haven't received a cent of military pay, and I don't know what year or month the pension will be."

"Mr. Fang, don't worry, I brought some military supplies this time."

Little Wei Yuan remembered the three boxes of military supplies he carried on his back, which could solve the urgent need. He moved the three boxes to the center of the room and opened them one by one.

Each military supply box was an iron box one foot square, looking not big, but actually each box weighed a hundred catties. After opening, he saw that the two boxes were filled with neatly arranged dried meat. These dried meats were special military rations of the Grand Void Palace, each only the size of a finger, which turned into meat soup after soaking in water, and one could not be hungry for a day after drinking it. Even a strong man who had successfully forged his body only needed two pieces of dried meat to manage a day.

Another box contained water purification pills and various medicines for removing plague and treating external injuries. A large vat of water only needed one water purification pill to be drunk raw without taboo. If it was a water well, only three water purification pills were needed to provide clean water for a day.

Two boxes of military rations and one box of medicine, the configuration was quite reasonable, enough to support a hundred-man army to fight for half a month. It was just that Little Wei Yuan suddenly thought of a problem. The Grand Void Palace said on one hand that all military rations and pay were solved by the local government, and on the other hand, issued three boxes of military supplies to everyone, and stipulated that they must be carried to the designated defense zone and could not be abandoned halfway. It seemed that the True Persons above had foresight about what they would encounter.

Fang Hedong's hands shook when he saw the three boxes of military supplies. He grabbed Little Wei Yuan's arms and said repeatedly: "Sending charcoal in the snow! Sending charcoal in the snow!"

Later, the eyes of the man in his thirties turned red, and a few tears fell ungratefully.

Little Wei Yuan hurriedly comforted him and helped Fang Hedong sit down. Fang Hedong wiped away his tears with his sleeves and sighed: "Let Junior Brother see a joke, it's really that these few months have been too difficult."

After calming down his emotions slightly, Fang Hedong asked hesitantly: "I know these are military rations and should not be used for other purposes. But these brothers outside have fought for months without seeing a cent of food or pay, and some of their families have already had old people starve to death. If possible, can you distribute some to their families?"

"Of course!" Little Wei Yuan agreed without hesitation.

Fang Hedong suddenly stood up, bowed to Little Wei Yuan, and said: "I thank Brother Wei on behalf of the fellow villagers!" His body trembled, and he wanted to kneel down.

Little Wei Yuan hurriedly helped him up, comforted him repeatedly, and it took a great effort to let this man in his thirties calm his emotions.

(End of chapter)