Chapter 66: Winter of the Year of Jiyi (17)

  The winter provisions at Mount Baiyun, although sufficient to last until spring, were being depleted rapidly due to the consumption of dried meat and fish. To address this, Feng Dao set a high exchange rate for dried meat and fish in terms of work points, making it difficult for ordinary people to afford, in order to ensure supplies for the front-line soldiers. Feng Dao also organized the villagers to catch fish through ice fishing on the Xuanwu River and hunt wild beasts in the mountains, but the supplemented quantities were far from meeting the consumed quantities. Especially after Mount Baiyun was hit by heavy snowfall, it became even more difficult to track down wild beasts.

  For other troops, the lack of meat supply was not a big problem, as long as they had food to eat. However, the reality of the White Wolf Mountain military camp's lack of meat was causing Li Chengzhong a lot of distress, because he couldn't effectively implement the physical training program in his training plan. The importance of physical fitness was not fully recognized in the military at that time, but Li Chengzhong was very clear about its significance in combat. He had envisioned using cross-country running, loaded running, and mountain road running to train the soldiers of the vanguard camp to have endurance in battle. But how could soldiers who relied on grains to sustain themselves day and night have the nutrition and physical strength to undergo such training?

  Li Chengzhong initially conducted morning mountain road cross-country running training, but only persisted for three days before being unable to continue. After the morning run, the soldiers generally felt dizzy and lightheaded, and in addition to being unable to train in the morning, the afternoon training was also ineffective. Therefore, Li Chengzhong had no choice but to stop this kind of training, as conducting physical training without adequate nutrition was simply self-torture.

  This situation continued until the end of the second year of Guangxu. Since the Shang Dynasty, people had the activity of worshiping gods and ancestors at the end of the year, which later took on a few meanings of driving out demons and evil spirits, and also added to the expectation of passing through the long cold winter and welcoming the warm spring sowing season. Therefore, with the gradual arrival of New Year's Eve, the White Wolf Mountain military camp began its preparations for New Year's Day.

  The people voluntarily worked harder, taking out almost all their spare time to earn work points, and exchanging them for more food and cloth in the warehouse with the work points they had accumulated before. This also led to a rapid consumption of grain and dried meat in the warehouse. Zhang Laojiang led the craftsmen to cut down some bamboo poles in the back mountain, and then scraped off saltpeter from the cave walls and toilets to make gunpowder, adding some carbon powder, and filling it into hollow bamboo poles to make firecrackers. Feng Dao also used his spare time to paint some door paintings and write many peach symbols, but since there were no peach trees in White Wolf Mountain, he had to use other tree species as substitutes, writing auspicious phrases on wooden boards cut from the mountain, to serve as "peach symbols".

  The villagers' enthusiastic preparations gradually affected the front camp soldiers, and everyone counted down the days, even being absent-minded during training. Li Chengzhong simply announced that on New Year's Eve, a bonfire party would be held in the military camp, and the military and civilians would have fun together. Seeing the soldiers' warm welcome, Li Chengzhong was excited and promised to extend the holiday until the third day of the new year, during which all food for the villagers and soldiers would be provided by the military camp, exempt from labor!

  Li Chengzhong made a gesture of washing his hands, pushing the matter of the bonfire gathering to Feng Dao for preparation. It was easy for him at home, but when Feng Dao came over, he realized how unreliable this promise was.

  "Qing Jie has a big temper, and from New Year's Eve, we have been on holiday for four days!" Feng Dao said with a dark face.

  "Everyone has been tense for a whole winter, it's time to relax, after all, it's about balancing work and rest." Li Chengzhong didn't think he had done anything wrong.

  "How much grain and meat will be consumed during the Lantern Festival? Four days of rest, no one in the military camp does anything, no fishing, no hunting, no picking wild vegetables in the mountains. The food in the warehouse will be consumed eight or nine times more than usual! And how to distribute it? Take one person as an example, usually earning work points can exchange for five or six points of fullness, what level should be distributed during the New Year to be considered appropriate? I'm afraid that when the time comes, a good intention will be met with complaints and criticism from the people!" Feng Dao directly pointed out the key issue.

  "For this..." In response to Feng Dao's inquiry, Li Chengzhong was speechless, but he didn't want to change his decision. Apart from the issue of prestige, he always felt that giving a few days off was indeed necessary. However, the question raised by Feng Dao was indeed very realistic, which also gave Li Chengzhong a headache.

  "This time it's just like this, but next time the declaration should be more careful." Feng Dao also knew that Li Chengzhong's order was impossible to take back once announced. If it were really taken back, the morale of the army would fall to what extent. Therefore, he could only reluctantly accept reality and hope that through his words, Li Chengzhong would consider more carefully when making decisions in the future.

  Li Chengzhong's face was hard, but he also knew that Feng Dao's words were reasonable. In fact, the root of all problems lay in the tight food supply at the White Wolf Mountain military camp. Li Chengzhong thought for a moment and decided to take some time to return to Pingzhou again, to see if he could persuade Zhou Zhiyu to lead a large army to escort the military supplies into the mountains once more. However, he also understood that this idea was difficult to implement, as it would be hard for Zhou Zhiyu to lead the army out of the pass again in the icy and snowy weather.

  The change in the situation came from a simple outdoor training session. This was the fifth training session for the newly appointed instructor, Ge Li, with the Scout Team, and also the first full-team outdoor training session. In two more days, it would be New Year's Eve, so this was also the last archery training session for the Light Division's Scout Team in the second year of Guanghua.

  According to Lier's concept, horseback riding training can only be truly practiced in actual combat outdoors. After several rounds of training within the mountain stronghold, he set his sights on the grasslands outside White Wolf Mountain. What is referred to as "actual combat" is not actually real combat, but rather preparing for a hunting expedition on the grasslands. During this hunt, they need to avoid being tracked by Khitan scouts and learn to kill animals that come out to forage on the grasslands, as well as learn how to spend the night on the icy and snowy grasslands. Li Chengzhong referred to this training as "experiential" teaching and repeatedly instructed the scouting team to strictly follow the instructor's teachings during training, especially Team Officer Wang Dalang, who was not allowed to act arbitrarily or disobey the instructor. Of course, he also secretly reminded Wang Dalang to be on guard against Instructor Lier sneaking away.

  The scouting party came out of the mountain from a small path at the back, this small road was not familiar to the Khitan people, and their focus was on the mountain pass in front. But even so, he carefully checked everything around him along the way. He told everyone in slightly stiff Chinese how to conserve horse power, how long they needed to dismount and rest, and what the maximum distance was for urging horses to gallop quickly...

  He personally demonstrated and instructed the scouts one by one on how to judge the distance of the enemy's patrol from the horse dung left on the ground, how to infer the number and equipment of the enemy based on the number and depth of hoof prints, and he also pointed out to everyone how to lie down in the grass to listen for distant movements...

  By nightfall, he instructed everyone to circle the horses and try to block out as much of the firelight as possible. He told them how to get the horses to lie down and have people lean against each other for warmth to get through the cold night...

  He didn't sneak away as Li Chengzhong said, "It's very likely that he will secretly escape". This Khitan had a major characteristic of the grassland Han people - keeping promises and being trustworthy. Since he promised to stay and train the front camp soldiers, he took this promise more seriously than anything else, and worked diligently throughout the entire outdoor training process, without ever considering escaping. Therefore, Wang Dalang's careful surveillance became useless, and he also earnestly commanded the scouting team to complete each of Xie Rui's training requirements. The two sides had no conflicts or disputes during the training process, everything went very smoothly.

  The real dispute is not in training, but at noon on the second day.

  It turned out that the scout discovered wolf tracks, and by observing the paw prints, there were about seven or eight wolves in this pack. Judging from the wolf dung, the wolf pack was in a state of hunger and should be out foraging for food. The scouting team then followed the wild wolves under the leadership of the scout.

  The wolf pack went northeast, and the scout team ultimately failed to catch up with the wolf pack, but followed the wolf's trail and discovered a Khitan camp. The camp was not large, with dozens of large animal hide tents scattered on the grassland within a radius of several miles, and some Han people slaves captured by the Khitans could be seen cutting grass in the distance. Next to each large tent was a simple fence made of branches, and inside each fence were herds of cattle, sheep, and horses.

  The scouts lurking in the distance immediately turned red-eyed, and Wang Dalang wanted to lead his men to charge up. His order was forcibly stopped by Jie Li, and the two had a dispute. The dispute ended with Jie Li's stiff sentence "Now is the training period, all training requirements and actions must listen to me", and the result of the argument was that Wang Dalang obeyed Jie Li's command, and the scouts returned to Baima Mountain.

  The reason for the withdrawal on the surface is "the enemy situation is unclear". According to his explanation, this is a winter camp where the Qidan tribe raises livestock. In normal circumstances, there should be many Qidan warriors guarding it. No one knows how many Qidan warriors are in the tent. With twenty untrained scouts attacking the camp, it's a very dangerous thing. In fact, behind the scenes, no matter what reason, Xie Li really didn't want to attack this camp. Although he has now become an instructor for the Han army on White Wolf Mountain, he only teaches Han soldiers in training and doesn't have to consider the issue of fighting against his own people. But to help the Han people fight against the Qidan people on the battlefield, he really can't get past that hurdle in his heart.

  All the way back, neither Jie Li nor Wang Dalang said another word to each other. Jie Li was filled with guilt and didn't dare face Wang Dalang; Wang Dalang was resentful and got angrier the more he looked at Jie Li. He decided that as soon as they returned to White Wolf Mountain, he would report the entire incident to Li Chengzhong, adding viciously: "If one is not of our kind, their heart must be different!"