We will rest for ten miles, and we will have solid food for thirty miles.
Huaiyu rode Ye Zhaobai, and the march felt like an outing, with no pressure at all. It only lasted ten miles in one hour, which was basically the walking speed of ordinary people.
At around nine o'clock in the morning, after marching for thirty miles and taking about three hours, the whole army rested and ate solid food. This lunch was not cooked over a fire, but they had some snacks such as biscuits and wheat rice, and they had to rest for a while.
Another thirty miles to go.
The troops rested on both sides of the road, each seeking shade.
Lu Huairang disappeared for a while, and when he came back he actually brought back a roasted leg of lamb.
"You wake up early and have a long journey. Are you hungry?"
"Where did Lu Changshi get this roasted leg of lamb?" Huaiyu was extremely surprised. The roasted leg of lamb was still steaming. It was obviously freshly roasted.
Lu Huairang laughed, "It's easy."
"Did you roast it?" Huaiyu had some suspicion that it was Lu Huairang's Buqu who sat on the carriage and turned on the small stove to roast the leg of lamb for him during the march.
"No, guess again." He knew that Wu Huaiyu had never been on the battlefield or served in the army, so he deliberately let it slip.
"After the horses and mules in the army died or became disabled and useless, they were given to the merchants accompanying the army at extremely low prices. After they peeled off the skins and handed them over, the remaining horse meat was sold to the soldiers."
"Trader with the army?"
"It's so dark." Ma Zhou sighed.
"It smells so good." Xin Zhao praised.
The roast leg of lamb that Lu Huairang bought cost two bolts of silk. It was not expensive even when he was out on the march. After all, Huaiyu thought it was really delicious after eating it. It was much better than the stupid stew he had eaten in the military camp yesterday.
"Yes, but they are not ordinary traders, these people are military traders."
"Actually, those merchants who accompanied the army were allowed by the imperial court. Even those merchants actually had some backgrounds. They were generally servants of the generals, or they had paid filial piety to the generals and nobles, or even agreed to share dividends.
Those who have just obtained the qualification to join the army do not just follow casually and be regarded as joining the army."
Under the shade of the trees in the distance, the group of marching merchants were still selling haggis soup. They arrived here in advance to slaughter and cook the sheep. By now, the dozen or so sheep had almost been sold.
You can light a fire to cook in the morning and evening when conditions permit, but during the march at noon, you can only eat dry food such as wheat and rice. If you are marching in a hurry or fighting, you will not even bother to eat wheat rice.
The worst horse costs tens of thousands of dollars. If it is thrown or shot to death, then the military camp only takes the skin and the meat is sold to the merchants accompanying the army for a few hundred dollars. The merchants accompanying the army usually drain the entrails and other such things.
It was sold to the soldiers at a very cheap price, and then the horse meat was processed and supplied to the officers at a not cheap price.
Huaiyu thought he had heard it wrong. Now two bolts of silk were exchanged for two bushels of rice. The horse meat from a dead horse, skinned and gutted, would have weighed more than a hundred kilograms of meat. There was also a skeleton and sewer, and only two bushels of rice were exchanged.
About ten kilograms.
I even tasted the flavors of cumin, cumin, pepper and other spices.
Especially when he heard that most of the temporary accountants were actually the generals' voluntary recruits or subordinates, he suddenly realized.
The profits of military merchants are very high, and of course there are risks, but driven by high profits, there are still many people who want to be military merchants.
As he spoke, he pointed to the tree ahead. Under the big locust tree beside the official road, there was a group of people there. "Did you see that, those people have already been slaughtering lamb, roasting meat, frying sesame cakes and stewing mutton soup."
There are many businessmen accompanying the army, and he has already established a relationship with one of them and is very familiar with them.
"I have just made a reservation for the water basin mutton for the evening." Lu Huairang told Huaiyu with a smile while peeling the leg of lamb. After resting and marching for thirty miles, he will start setting up camp and go to the village. He will eat grilled food at noon and eat in the evening.
Stewed.
"For example, if a large army of ours is marching for a conquest, and horses, mules, etc. are killed or wounded, we usually ask the camp officials to find out the cause and write a notice, then the skins are put into the warehouse, and the meat is sold to the merchants accompanying the army at a cheap price. After the skin is peeled off a horse, you
Do you know how much it weighs, including the bones and meat? How much does it usually cost to sell it to merchants accompanying the army? It only takes two bolts of silk."
If the conditions at home are good, the soldiers may add some dried fruits or honey juice when processing the wheat rice to increase the flavor, and soak it in water when eating. This is called eating.
"It's really expensive." After Chen Xingze tasted the roasted leg of lamb with various spices including pepper, cumin, and fennel, he felt that the leg of lamb was precious.
"Trader?"
"There are no businessmen familiar with Lu Changshi's family to join the army?" Huaiyu asked.
Huaiyu called Ma Zhou, Wu Junwei, and Zhao Xin to eat together. He got up early and walked for three hours. Although it was quite relaxing to ride the horse all the time, he was really hungry. The leg of lamb tasted very fragrant and paired well with it.
The fragrant sesame pancakes really have the flavor of an outing.
It turns out that it is not unusual for the Tang Dynasty army to have merchants accompanying the army. It has even been a tradition since the Northern Dynasties. They would bring a lot of materials with the army and sell them to supply the army to make up for the lack of military supplies. At the same time, they would also purchase materials along the way to supply the army.
When the army captured something, these merchants who accompanied the army would usually buy the trophies.
However, wheat is not like rice. Even if it is cooked, it will still be very hard. If you chew wheat rice too often, your teeth will fall out early. However, the soldiers brought wheat rice with them on expeditions because wheat rice is easy to store after being cooked and dried, and it can be soaked in water.
It is edible and is a good dry food for marching. It can be stored for a long time without making a fire.
For example, the roasted lamb leg that Huairang just bought cost two horses of silk money. At this price, the military merchant could directly buy a skinned dead horse, a useless horse.
"In the army, there is a special temporary accounting room, which is responsible for the purchase of these merchants who are accompanying the army. Even the money of the soldiers accompanying the army, or the captured trophies, rewards, etc. must be stored in the temporary accounting room, and then the temporary accounting room
Then lend this public money to merchants accompanying the army to purchase supplies or purchase military trophies..."
At this time, ordinary soldiers could only chew rice and rice, but the officers could eat roasted lamb legs and even do business while marching.
This is the basic dry food for marching, so the imperial court stipulates that when soldiers go out on an expedition, they must prepare nine measures of wheat rice.
"Alang, everything is sold out." A butcher walked towards a young man under the tree. He was handsome with sword-shaped eyebrows and phoenix eyes. He was dressed in a white robe, with an eight-sided sword at his waist and a horned bow on his back. He was looking not far away.
There are several people under the locust tree on the roadside.
“It’s actually quite simple, you just need to pay some money.”
"Then I really can't guess."
Compared with the comfort of eating roasted leg of lamb in the shade of the trees, many soldiers were gnawing on Hu biscuits at this time, and even more were eating wheat rice directly. These wheat rice were directly ground into the wheat skin and cooked, and the taste was very rough.
, even a little hard to swallow, so the soldiers of the imperial army cooked it at home and dried it before going out to war, and turned it into glutinous rice cake.
Lu Huairang laughed but did not answer.
There is no interest for soldiers depositing money in their accounts. The accountant lends public funds to merchants accompanying the army, but still charges interest...
Huaiyu's eyes were opened to what he heard, Tang Jun's operation was really cool.
This was what Ma Zhou and Zhao Xin said almost at the same time. Ma Zhou thought this behavior was very dark, but Zhao Xin thought the roasted leg of lamb was delicious.
War is still a business.
"There's nothing surprising about this." Lu Huai asked a descendant of the Guanlong noble family who was familiar with these military affairs. He first spread dried lotus leaves on the ground, then used a knife to cut off the still hot roasted lamb leg, and greeted Huai
Eat jade.
They can even open banks in the army to lend money to soldiers.
The butcher followed his gaze and said, "That Prince Consort Lu is really generous. He just bought a leg of roast mutton with two pieces of silk, and he also made a reservation to prepare ten servings of mutton in a water basin for him in the evening."
The jade-faced man just stared there without answering. He looked away after a long time and said, "After you pack your things, rush to the camp thirty miles away and slaughter the sheep for cooking in advance."
