Transmigrating into a Turbulent Era as a Soldier, Starting with Marrying a Wife

After seeing Madam Xu off, Li Yuan then instructed the Chu sisters.

"I have something I want you two to arrange."

The sisters exchanged a glance, then solemnly said to Li Yuan:

"Please give your instructions, Husband."

Li Yuan pondered for a moment, then said to the two women:

"Go hire a few carriages, and using my waist token, take out all the stored grain from this grain shop and transport it all to East Village."

"Distribute the millet to the women and relatives of the soldier households in the village, giving three dou to each household."

"Keep two dou for the families to eat themselves, and fry one dou into cooked rice to serve as military rations for the soldier households' expedition."

"In addition, have all the female workers in the winery and workshop stop their current work."

"Organize them to bake all the wheat flour into wheat cakes, adding salt and baking them thicker and drier."

"Move quickly, and bake as many as you can."

"Then, pack ten cakes into each cloth bag and transport them all to the military fort's training ground before noon."

Chu Wanjun knew that her husband was preparing military rations for the East Village soldier households' expedition.

Without asking any more questions, she took Xiao Zhu to hire the carriages.

At this time, Cui Ping and the other three also arrived.

Li Yuan had them load the weapons that Madam Xu had just brought onto the carriages.

And followed him towards the large training ground outside the military fort.

By this time, it was already broad daylight.

Due to the urgency of the military situation, the military fort had been extremely busy from midnight until now.

Some personal soldiers were also transporting various supplies from the fort's warehouse to the training ground.

According to the requirements of the Great Liang military law, after receiving the military fort's conscription order, the soldier households of each village would gather at the military fort's large training ground under the leadership of their respective village leaders.

After the garrison officer verified the number of soldiers and their military equipment and rations, they would set out together.

At this time, the large training ground was still empty.

For the time being, no soldier households had arrived.

It was now Chen Shi in the morning, which was a little after seven o'clock.

Even if those soldier households received the conscription order in the middle of the night, the time required to prepare their armor and rations would not be short.

Li Yuan and the various Captains could only wait anxiously at the large training ground.

Fortunately, Xiao Xia brought Li Yuan breakfast: a pot of hot millet porridge, a bowl of soy-braised meat, and a few flatbreads.

First solving the problem of the soldier households' families eating.

Those scenes of poor soldier households kneeling on the ground everywhere to borrow grain before the expedition did not happen in East Village.

Xue Baichang mobilized the soldier households much faster.

Since they were soldier households, there was nothing to say about being sent out by the imperial court to fight in expeditions.

So, when the conscription order arrived, the men could only bid farewell to their wives and children, strap on their sabers, and carry their spears.

Under the leadership of the various squad leaders and village leaders in the village, they rushed to the military fort to gather.

Li Yuan looked over and saw that Xue Baichang was also wearing a worn short armor, walking at the front of the team.

Seeing Li Yuan waiting on the training ground, he quickly had his squad leaders reorganize the team.

He then quickly came to Li Yuan, cupping his fist in salute.

"Squad Leader Xue Dacheng, leading 85 soldier households from East Village, has arrived at the military fort, requesting the Captain to inspect them."

Li Yuan then returned a fist salute.

"You and I are both from East Village, it is necessary to support each other, Brother Xue, there is no need to be so polite."

Then he pointed to several loads of military equipment behind him and said:

"I want to select some elites from the East Village soldier households to serve as my personal soldiers, and give them better armor and weapons."

Xue Dacheng quickly cupped his fist in salute.

"Captain, please do as you see fit, I have no objections."

Li Yuan nodded.

Then he pointed and selected a dozen strong men from the soldier households.

Many of them had gone to the county town with Li Yuan to serve as caravan guards.

Including the four under his command.

Li Yuan had them all put on iron helmets, wear short armor, and exchange for better swords and spears.

To be used as his personal guards.

The excess weapons were also distributed, and the equipment of the East Village soldier households was completely renewed.

At this time, the soldier households from other villages also arrived one after another.

But looking around, these soldier households all had miserable expressions.

Li Yuan saw that many soldier households not only lacked weapons, but even the grain bags on their bodies were empty.

And East Village was much better.

Everyone's grain bag was carrying at least one dou of fried rice.

At a quarter past noon, East Village again transported a large number of baked wheat cakes by carriage.

Li Yuan immediately had Xue Baichang organize people to distribute them to the soldier households.

Many soldier households took the new grain bags, opened them, and saw that they were actually freshly baked pancakes, which made their mouths water.

According to Li Yuan's requirements, each pancake was a foot in size and as thick as an adult's palm.

Salt was added and they were baked fragrantly.

Many soldier households couldn't help but tear off a piece and taste it.

The wheat fragrance made the soldier households overjoyed.

However, their behavior of stealing food was quickly stopped by the squad leaders and village leaders.

These pancakes were baked thoroughly and could be stored for a long time.

These were military rations left for the soldier households to save their lives, and one pancake could last at least a day.

Eating them now would be a waste.

Seeing that the soldier households in East Village actually had fragrant pancakes to distribute to everyone.

The soldier households in other villages cast envious glances.

Many people swallowed saliva while looking at this side.

The other Captains, although they had some criticisms about Li Yuan's actions of distributing pancakes to his own soldier households on the training ground.

But the Great Liang's soldier households brought their own rations, and the Captains used their own private wealth to supplement the rations for their subordinates before the war, which was not only not inappropriate.

It should even be praised by the superiors.

Naturally, others could not say anything.

Of course, Li Yuan did not distribute all the pancakes, there were still dozens of bags of wheat cakes in his carriage.

These will be used as reserves for the East Village soldier households and will not be used easily.

At noon, a drum sounded in the military fort.

Surrounded by dozens of personal soldiers, the garrison officer Lin Wanshan rode a chestnut warhorse and slowly walked out of the fort.

Behind him, a personal guard held up a red zhang-long garrison flag, on which was written the words "Xihé Garrison [Lin]".

Lin Wanshan rode his horse to the platform of the training ground, and the personal soldiers behind him shouted loudly to the training ground.

"All Captains, step forward and quickly report the number of soldiers and horses under your command!"

The Captains all ran to Lin Garrison Officer and shouted the number of soldiers and horses they had gathered.

Li Yuan found that his 85 people from East Village were not the fewest.

That fellow Yuan Li only had fifty or so men under his command.

The total number of soldier households gathered at Xihé Fort was 453.

A Captain who failed to gather enough soldier households was ordered by Lin Wanshan to be beaten with military sticks.

Then, the Garrison Officer inspected the soldiers and horses of each village.

In fact, it was just the Garrison Officer riding a horse around the training ground to see if the soldiers' armor was complete and whether the rations they brought were sufficient.

Obviously, the results of the inspection were not optimistic.

Lin Wanshan frowned as he walked.

He knew that the soldier households were poor, but now it was somewhat shocking to actually see it.

Many soldier households looked pale, obviously still in a state of hunger.

Even more, some soldier households lacked complete armor and military equipment.

Li Wanshan understood that the military equipment issued by the military department should have been sold by the hungry soldier households in exchange for food.

This kind of thing was common among soldier households, but now that the expedition was imminent, it was not good to investigate on a large scale.

I can only endure it for now.