Military Rations Hidden in the Grassland

After leaving the imperial dragon tent, Lai Hu'er walked away feeling a lingering sense of terror. A moment ago, in a fit of impulse, he had almost directly reported to Emperor Yang of Sui that Li Dong had snuck into the garrison camp and might have even made it to Liaodong.

The only reason he hadn't spoken up was that he still could not figure out whether Li Dong had met with a fatal mishap when the Sishui Fortress was ambushed. If Li Dong had not died in battle and was still alive and well, that would be wonderful.

Emperor Yang of Sui was currently missing him; to unearth him and hand him over would be a monumental achievement. Perhaps this matter would please the Emperor so greatly that the merit could offset the punishment and blame for the defeat at Sishui Fortress.

Li Dong's contribution was truly immense—it was worth an army of one hundred thousand men!

Lost in thought, he strolled aimlessly toward his own command tent. As he walked, he spotted Qin Qiong training a group of blacksmiths. Standing beside Qin Qiong was a young man with a fierce and imposing countenance. At first glance, the youth looked remarkably similar to Li Dong. Upon closer inspection, though their facial features were different, his height and bearing bore a striking resemblance.

Almost involuntarily, Lai Hu'er walked toward Li Dong.

"What is your name? Where are you from?" Lai Hu'er forced a dry smile upon his face, feigning a gentle and amiable tone as he questioned him.

"Reporting to the General, my surname is Dang, and my given name is Yuqian. I am from Q郡." Li Dong neither humble nor pushy, offered a bow and replied with a slight stoop.

"Dang Yuqian?" Lai Hu'er's initial reaction was identical to Fei Qingnu's; both were utterly baffled by the fake name Li Dong had chosen.

However, unlike Fei Qingnu, Lai Hu'er did not mock the terrible name, sensing instead something rather eerie about it. Could such a bizarre name be an alias? Could he actually be Li Dong? That build was certainly a dead ringer.

Seeing General Lai questioning Li Dong, Qin Qiong felt a jolt of alarm. Abandoning the blacksmiths, he hurried over and bowed to the General.

"Shubao, you are also from Q郡. Do you know this person?" General Lai asked, maintaining his cordial tone.

"Reporting to the General. He is simply a blacksmith. This surname is quite rare; there are only two or three households in all of Q郡. Because we are in the same trade, I know him. He is currently under my command, forging and repairing weaponry. Does the General have anything else to ask?" Highly alert, Qin Qiong rushed to smooth things over for Li Dong.

The surname Dang originated from the Dangxiang tribe of Western Xia during the period of confrontation between the Song and Liao dynasties, in a place then referred to as Turkic territory. With the great fusion of ethnic groups, some people with the surname Dang gradually assimilated into the Han ethnicity. Since the surname was uncommon, anyone encountering it for the first time would naturally feel surprised.

"Oh! Then it is nothing. I was just making a fuss over nothing!" Lai Hu'er chuckled self-deprecatingly, laughed it off, and finished with a chuckle.

Qin Qiong exchanged a subtle glance with Li Dong. Li Dong bowed to Lai Hu'er once more, then walked back alongside Qin Qiong to rejoin the training squad of blacksmiths.

Lai Hu'er shook his head, thinking to himself, *What is wrong with me? I'm getting all paranoid, being turned completely upside down by this young fellow Li Dong.* With that, he left and walked toward his tent.

After walking a few paces, Lai Hu'er suddenly stopped, turned to Qin Qiong, and said, "If you know where Li Dong is hiding, please pass along a message to him that His Majesty is currently searching everywhere for him. Could you trouble him to step forward early and shoulder the heavy responsibility of attacking Liaodong?"

Qin Qiong agreed, promising to relay the message to Lai Hu'er the moment any news arrived. Only then did Lai Hu'er stride directly into his grand tent.

After he left, Qin Qiong asked Li Dong, "Why did Fei Qingnu and General Lai undergo such a drastic change in attitude? Why are they both looking for you? Could it be that His Majesty already knows you are in the Liaodong garrison?"

Li Dong thought carefully, shook his head to dismiss Qin Qiong's theory, and said, "This is probably just another one of Lai Hu'er's tricks to torment me. Brother Shubao, you must not blindly believe what they say, nor can you reveal my true identity to anyone."

Qin Qiong nodded in agreement and went back to drilling that squad of blacksmiths.

While the training was underway, a tent was dismantled and shifted to a new location.

The training ground instantly felt a bit too small, leaving the dozen or so men with no choice but to shift toward the spot where the tent had just been removed before continuing their drill.

After training for a while, Li Dong suddenly felt his foot sink into something soft, as if he had stepped on a wrapped package. Hastily halting his stance, he crouched down and slowly parted the grass.

Hidden beneath the grass was a tiny underground pit, only about the size of two fists. A section of tattered cloth was exposed within the hole, wrapping around a small bundle of grain.

*What is the meaning of this? Is there so much grain that people can't even finish eating it? From Zhuo Commandery to Liaodong, a journey of thousands of li, was it easy to transport grain all the way here? How many corvée laborers died of exhaustion, how many horses ran their legs to the bone? Why are they squandering Heaven's precious gifts like this?*

"Who knows that the food on the plate, every single grain, is the result of hard toil!"

Li Dong rapidly calculated the origin of this grain in his mind. It must have been secretly buried by the garrison soldiers who had just dismantled that tent. Why would they do such a thing? What profound meaning could there be in burying the grain?

*Oh! I understand now!*

As if awakened from a long dream, a bright ray of intellectual insight flashed through Li Dong's mind. The garrison soldiers had buried the grain so that the planned military rations would fall short of what was needed for daily consumption. Once the military rations ran out, supplies would have to be requisitioned and sent from the Great Sui.

By this time, it was already June; by the time the military rations were transported here, it would be the Year of the Monkey and the Month of the Rooster. Distant water cannot quench near thirst, and distant water cannot put out a nearby fire.

With insufficient rations, Emperor Yang of Sui would have no choice but to order a retreat; he would certainly not stay here and stubbornly wait.

This was the prelude to the garrison soldiers' war-weariness! Their minds were already wandering, and they wanted to go home!

However, yesterday was only the very first battle against Goguryeo! Today was merely the second day of the war.

With morale this low, regardless of who led the army into battle, the only possible outcome was defeat!

Low morale was a terrifying thing. When soldiers put in a permafunctory effort and grew limp in the face of battle, let alone capturing cities and seizing territories, even self-preservation would become extremely difficult. Fleeing the moment they encountered the enemy—how could Lai Muzhang possibly avoid defeat? How could Yuwen Shu possibly avoid defeat?

*This won't do; continuing like this is too dangerous. I must find a way to prevent these things from happening.*

Yet, because his identity was forged, it wasn't convenient for him to speak out openly. This was truly driving him crazy.

Noticing that Li Dong had squatted down and was holding a bundle of grain in his hands, Qin Qiong walked over and asked what was going on.

To avoid worrying him, Li Dong did not tell him the truth, instead claiming that some garrison soldier must have placed the grain inside the tent and forgotten about it when the tent was relocated.

At this stage, Qin Qiong was still in the exploratory phase of leading troops into combat; he could not deduce the strict correlation between military rations and morale, nor could he analyze things as deeply and distantly as Li Dong did.

With a smile, he said, "Should we hand this grain over to General Lai? If the soldiers lost their rations and have nothing to eat, they'll go hungry, and they must be terribly anxious."

"No! You must never mention this matter to anyone!" Li Dong stood up, deadly serious, staring intently into Qin Qiong's eyes as he warned him. "Once this news leaks out, I fear it will trigger a storm of blood and gore. You must keep it strictly confidential and never tell a soul."

"It's just a bundle of grain, is it really that terrifying?" Qin Qiong kicked a stray pebble away with his foot, grumbling with dissatisfaction.

"You'd better focus on drilling those blacksmiths. We must capture Liaodong City in tomorrow's assault. Otherwise, our opportunities probably won't last much longer."

Seeing Li Dong suddenly turn so solemn, Qin Qiong seemed to anticipate the gravity of the situation as well. "Ah! I understand now! So that's how it is, this is terrifying!" Qin Qiong gasped in a low voice.