Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 108 102. No food?

It was the morning of the second day after the Wu army arrived at Dongting Lake and set up camp.

The soldiers of Wu army came to the stove in their camp one after another, preparing to eat.

Wang Mazi didn't know whether it was the wild vegetables or the mushrooms that were the problem last night. In any case, he vomited for a long time last night and vomited up all his dinner, so he was particularly hungry this morning.

When we arrived at the camp, the aroma of rice was everywhere. After all, rice is produced in abundance in the south, so the soldiers were mostly supplied with rice and related products.

Hungry Wang Mazi picked up a ceramic bowl and chopsticks, ready to have a hearty meal. Isn't it for this bite of food that soldiers eat?

It was not until Wang Mazi lifted the lid of the cooking pot, which looked like a military pot, that he was dumbfounded.

If not the fragrant rice, at least porridge, right? But what appeared in front of Wang Mazi was a pot of... hot water?
The reason why it is called hot water is that except for a few grains of rice floating occasionally in the pot, the rest is all water; and the reason for the slight hesitation is also because of the rice, this thing cannot be called hot water, perhaps it would be more appropriate to call it hot soup.

"No, what's going on?"

Wang Mazi looked at the soup in the bowl with some disbelief. Not only him, but also the other Wu army soldiers who were preparing to eat with him were somewhat unbelievable.

"Master Liu, what's that over there?"

Wang Mazi stood up and walked towards a soldier next door who he had a good relationship with. The soldier was called "Old Taoist" because he believed in the Taiping Sect when he was young and worked as a Taoist priest. Later, he returned to secular life, but he could not change his habit of talking about superstition.

Taoist Liu shook his head, also looking constipated.

Wang Mazi moved closer to Liu Laodao and saw clearly the food in their bowl. It was almost exactly the same as his own, just a few grains of rice sprinkled in boiled water.

"What the hell! We didn't say anything when it turned into porridge a few days ago, but today it's just hot water, right? Damn it!"

Wang Mazi could no longer bear it and started to curse. The food in the army had been declining sharply since the past few days, from all kinds of rice at the beginning, to porridge later, and then to porridge, and today it turned into hot water. Who could stand this?
With Wang Mazi taking the lead, many soldiers also stood up and began to loudly denounce the recent problems with the food. For a while, the noise was deafening, and the military marquises and lieutenants of various departments had to come forward to appease the angry soldiers.

Unfortunately, these officers were clueless about anything, so instead of resolving the conflict, it became more and more intense, with the risk of mutiny looming.

"What's going on? Why are you making noise here without eating?"

A loud shout was heard, and everyone looked over and saw that it was General Ding Feng, who commanded the troops. Ding Feng usually treated the soldiers kindly and often considered the soldiers, so he had great prestige among the soldiers.

Seeing General Ding coming, everyone suddenly felt like they had found a backbone. They gathered in front of Ding Feng and reported everything that had just happened.

Ding Feng walked into the crowd and took a look at the turbid soup in the bowls of several cooks. He couldn't help but get furious.

"Where is the grain officer? Get him out here!"

Ding Feng poured the water in a bucket directly onto the ground and shouted loudly towards the camp.

"Your subordinate... Your subordinate is here..."

After a few seconds, a middle-aged man squeezed out of the crowd and came in front of Ding Feng.

"Tell me what this is! Why don't you give the soldiers food to cook?"

Ding Feng pointed at the water on the ground and the things still in the bucket and asked the grain officer loudly with a serious look, like an eagle searching for prey.

"This... I really have no other choice but to do this..."

The grain officer knelt down on the spot and cried to Ding Feng, saying that he had no other choice.

"Nonsense! Our army has never been short of food since we came from Jiangxia. How can we say that we have no solution?" Ding Feng directly rebuked the grain officer. This army was the last desperate struggle of the Eastern Wu. How could there be a shortage of food? Ding Feng and many other soldiers' first reaction was that the grain officer was lying.

"I did not lie... General Ding, a few days ago, Captain Zhou, who is in charge of transporting grain, told me that the grain road in the rear was blocked, so our army had no grain until the next batch of grain arrived in seven days. I had no choice but to reduce the standard of food for each meal. Today is the sixth day, and there is indeed no grain left. These are the last rice."

Ding Feng naturally would not listen to one side of the story, so he led his soldiers to the tent where the grain was stored. He saw that the food had indeed been eaten up and the tent was empty.

"Please wait for a moment. I will personally ask the grain transport officer for you! Brothers, please bear with me for a while. I will be back soon!"

After Ding Feng confirmed that the grain officer was not to blame, he hurried away with several captains. The soldiers believed that General Ding Feng would definitely seek justice for them, so they just finished the breakfast.

In Xu Sheng's tent, Ding Feng was reporting something to Xu Sheng in a low voice. Xu Sheng nodded and waved his hand to ask the guards to call Captain Zhou, who was in charge of transporting grain, to come in.

"General, what do you want me to do?"

Captain Zhou pushed the tent open and came in, bowing and saluting, not knowing what was going on.

"Captain Zhou, it's not me who's looking for you. It's General Ding who's looking for you. Please explain it to him."

Xu Sheng glanced at Captain Zhou with an indescribable expression, and Captain Zhou glanced at Ding Feng who was standing next to him.

"I wonder what General Ding wants?"

Captain Zhou disagreed and simply clasped his fists and looked at Ding Feng.

"No need to argue with me here, just follow me and confront me!"

Ding Feng was extremely angry at this time. He directly pulled Captain Zhou out and dragged him straight to his own camp.

"Grain officer! Grain officer! Come out!"

At this time, the soldiers were still gathering in groups of three or four drinking hot water. When they heard that Ding Feng had returned, they couldn't help but look around to see what had happened.

The grain officer hurriedly ran to Ding Feng. He knew that General Ding would probably look for him again, so he simply did not return to the tent.

"Grain officer! But this Captain Zhou said that the grain route was not smooth in the past few days, and there is no grain to be delivered in the past few days?"

Ding Feng pulled Captain Zhou over and stood in the middle of the camp.

"Yes... yes, it was this Commander Zhou who told me so."

The grain officer and Captain Zhou were naturally familiar with each other, and he confirmed that it was him at a glance.

"Captain Zhou, why is it that when I went to other generals' camps just now, I saw that there was enough food, but why is it that only here I have a blocked supply route and no food to deliver?"

Ding Feng stared at Captain Zhou with sharp eyes.

Captain Zhou glanced at the grain officer and the countless pairs of eyes waiting for his reply without caring, yawned, and replied lazily:

"I thought it was something important. It turned out that my clerk miscalculated the numbers. Since General Ding has no food in his account, I will send some food to you later."

After saying that, Captain Zhou actually ignored Ding Feng, turned around and left on his own, leaving the soldiers in the camp whispering to each other.

(End of this chapter)