After taking a bite of the gritty rice, Zai Chun had mixed feelings in his heart! When has the emperor ever suffered from this? The hardest thing in his life was training in Xiao Letian's recruit camp.
It was really hard and tiring at that time, standing in military posture, practicing goose steps, shooting, running, fighting... I sweated four or five times a day!
But putting the hardship aside, the food is so good that you don’t have to choose!
The Ryukyu New Army was world-famous for its good food, even the Prussian soldiers were envious of it. They had enough meat, eggs and fish every day, as well as vegetables and fruits to relieve fatigue. Zai Chun's appetite was developed there.
The head of state really doesn't feed his soldiers with gravel. Anyway, Zai Chun has never eaten any grain of sand!
He worked hard today to show his pro-military attitude, but he didn't expect that this was just the beginning. Then he won the prize with a piece of gravel in his second mouthful. The sound of the click was heard by Shen Baozhen next to him.
I couldn't bear the two mouthfuls of sand, so I just took a small mouthful of rice to show off, but I never expected that there would be a third or fourth reward later!
With just such a ball of rice the size of a child's fist, Zai Chun ate five bites of grit, and now he couldn't bear it anymore!
"Which bastard quartermaster purchased this rice? Why is there so much sand? Bastard!"
The emperor was furious. Shen Baozhen and other civil servants knelt down and shouted, "Your Majesty, please calm down and I will die!"
This scene is embarrassing. All civil servants have knelt down. Should the generals kneel down? Do soldiers kneel or not? But Long Live personally said that the New Army has abolished the kneeling ceremony!
Zai Chun saw that Xie Ting and others' knees were about to buckle and became angry. "My soldiers are not allowed to kowtow. All of us stand at attention!" The soldiers next to the fire all stood at attention in a standard military manner.
"I ask you, why is there so much sand in this rice? Do you eat this every day?"
Xie Ting was stunned. He was so frightened that he couldn't react. "Huh? Long live... Isn't it normal for there to be sand in the rice? Where can there be rice without sand?"
"How about I pick a few for Long Live Lord..."
Not only Xie Ting was confused, but other soldiers were also confused. They were all mountain people in poor valleys. If they could have white rice to eat, they would have burned incense and worshiped Buddha in their previous lives. They also had sweet potatoes as food all year round.
To be honest, these bitter soldiers have never eaten new rice without sand!
When Shen Baozhen saw these soldiers, he couldn't understand and quickly knelt forward to kowtow and said, "Long live the Lord to calm down, this matter is my fault! It has nothing to do with the quartermaster of the army..."
"Long Live Lord came in a hurry. The 30,000 troops gathered at Mawei and there was no time to transport rice grains. I asked my men to go to the private sector to buy them temporarily... There must be something wrong with my men!"
Take the blame. If Shen Baozhen doesn't take the blame now, then the quartermaster of the New Army will have to be killed!
Emperor Tongzhi spit out the stone residue in his mouth. His whole mouth was sore and numb. He took a few deep breaths, "I can't help you... Come here, pick two portions of my dishes and send them to your brothers..." "
"Go back and investigate this grain merchant who delivered rice! It's so outrageous..."
Emperor Tongzhi ate several mouthfuls of sand at the first stop of his inspection. Thanks to him traveling abroad and living among the people for several years, the emperor's bad temper had changed a lot in the past, otherwise he would have killed someone on the spot!
After leaving Xie Ting's bonfire, Emperor Tongzhi continued to check the soldiers' food despite everyone's persuasion. Because of the discovery just now, Zai Chun's attention was probably focused on the soldiers' rice pots.
The second bonfire was no longer sausage rice. Next to the steamed rice was a pot of broth. Three empty beef cans were thrown aside. The soldiers threw a lot of wild vegetables into it.
This makes sense. The beef and wild vegetable soup is served with white rice mixed with sand. The soldiers feel that this day has been extremely happy. Don't forget to drink wine!
But Zaichun counted and found that a class of ten people should be given ten kilograms of wine and five small wine jars with two kilograms each, but he only saw three.
"What's going on? Four kilograms of wine are missing? Check! Keep checking..."
Then walking down, basically every dinner party around the campfire showed some degree of shortage. A pound of wine per person was definitely not enough, the white rice was mixed with sand, and the meat was getting less and less.
Some were only given a few sausages, some were given two pieces of bacon, and some were dried salted fish that is common in coastal households!
Do you think this salted fish is meaty? It can be regarded as a meat dish, but it has been dried for a long time and there is definitely not enough oil and water. It does not reflect the mood of the emperor feasting on the soldiers at all.
Gradually, Zai Chun stopped talking. He seemed to have discovered a pattern, until he opened the tenth pot and finally found that there was no meat!
"No more? No meat, no eggs, no salted fish? Let me see what it is... haha, kelp tofu soup?"
"Hehehe... OK, OK, it's really good to eat tofu. Tofu is better than meat!"
Zai Chun finally understood what was going on. It turned out that he wanted to act for the soldiers, and the entire soldiers were also acting for him!
During this picnic of the entire 30,000-strong army, only the soldiers closest to their dining tent were given better food. The quality of food for the soldiers who were farther and farther away from them was getting worse and worse!
After understanding this, Zai Chun quickened his pace and walked deeper into the mountains. Countless soldiers stood up and saluted along the way, while the civil and military officials behind the emperor looked as pale as if they were dead.
Finally, something happened. Zai Chun walked a full three miles... Thirty thousand troops camped in one area. The area was really too big.
Zai Chun burst into tears when he arrived here. A squad of soldiers were eating sweet potato rice around a pot!
The white rice mixed with sand is cooked with sweet potatoes and some corn kernels, and in the bowl next to it is dark pickled vegetables, which are common olive vegetables in poor households in the Nanhai area!
"Just eat this? You just... give this to my soldiers! Just eat this?" Zai Chun grabbed the shovel from the soldier's hand, took a bite and stuffed it in his mouth. He almost choked to death without swallowing one mouthful.
"I...my 30,000 soldiers were raised by you to be beggars? Just eat this..."
"I will die!" Now Ma Ming and other generals could no longer stand, and they all knelt down after Shen Baozhen and others, and it was completely dark!
"What I want is not a kowtowing insect!" Zai Chun shouted, "What I want is a capable minister who can solve the problem! Are you? Can you solve the problem?"
"Get out of here, everyone. From now on, if anyone dares to lie to me, I will kill him from all nine tribes!"
Emperor Tongzhi, who was ashen-faced, sat down on a rock and looked at the trembling civil and military officials standing in front of him, "Tell me! If you tell the truth, I might let you go... Don't lie to me anymore at this time!"
"Thousands of miles away! I have been away from the Qing Dynasty for so long, am I going to encounter a lie just after returning home?"
By now, no one knew that the matter could not be concealed. Shen Baozhen walked up to Zai Chun as if he had pulled out a bone, "Your Majesty... do you want to hear the truth?"
"The truth is...this rice that is greedy for sand was not bought in the first place, but was owed by me on credit. I was not paid at all!"
"Those grain merchants in Fuzhou City all know that I am a poor man... and they also know that those who eat rice are big-headed soldiers. How can he give the best new rice?"
"Long live my Lord! There is no money... The new army of the Royal Forest has not seen money for a long time. The new army has been in arrears with wages for more than three months!"
