As soon as these words were spoken, Lu Dayou's hand trembled so much he nearly dropped his bowl.
Fifty thousand taels of silver for shipping, just to deliver this atrocious dark cuisine?
He lowered his head and took a sip of the soup. The taste was overwhelmingly salty and sickeningly sweet.
But for some reason, Lu Dayou felt he had never tasted anything so delicious in his entire life.
Perhaps it was simply because it was so expensive.
"Good."
"What a Xu Qinghuan."
Lu Dayou raised his head and looked south, toward Jiangning, as the wind and snow fell upon his messy, thick beard.
"Gulping down this bowl of soup,"
"it tastes entirely of silver."
Suddenly, Lu Dayou raised his bowl toward the southern night sky and let out a loud roar.
"Brothers!"
"All of you, remember this!"
"The ones who saved our lives tonight weren't those high and mighty lords in the imperial court!"
"It was the County Princess Xu of the Xu family in Jiangning!"
"It was she who spent a massive fortune to send us this life-saving elixir!"
Thousands of soldiers raised their bowls in unison. At that moment, that overwhelmingly pungent taste transformed into an earth-shattering roar.
"Thank you, County Princess Xu, for the meal!"
Their voices pierced through the snowstorm, echoing across the vast, empty wasteland of the northern frontier. Even the usually arrogant north wind seemed to be forced back a bit by this surge of heat.
Xu Zhan stood to the side, watching this scene, and rubbed his tingling nose.
He muttered silently in his heart, "Sister."
"You played way too big a hand this time."
"So much money, so much thought..."
"If your brother doesn't earn an official title for you after this, I will work like a horse for you for the rest of my life, counting money for you forever!"
Meanwhile, in Jiangning, at the Lingering Garden.
"Achoo!"
Xu Qinghuan let out a violent sneeze, almost throwing the ledger out of her hands. She rubbed her nose, her face full of suspicion.
"Who is cursing me?"
"It must be my second brother!"
"Counting the days, that batch of laced meat bricks should have arrived by now."
A sinister smile appeared on Xu Qinghuan's lips as an image formed in her mind.
Her second brother rolling in the snow clutching his stomach, suffering from diarrhea while cursing her for being a prodigal daughter, and perhaps even vomiting and having loose bowels from eating quicklime.
Then the imperial court would be furious, an imperial edict would be issued, and they would be exiled three thousand miles away.
The scene was too beautiful; Xu Qinghuan couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"Hehehe..."
"Li Sheng!"
Xu Qinghuan, in a fantastic mood, called out toward the door.
"Here!"
Li Sheng ran in, sporting two dark circles under his eyes.
"Go, order another batch of clay pots for me."
"Since the first batch has already arrived, it's time to arrange the second batch."
...
At the Northern Frontier Camp, the cold wind remained bone-chilling.
In the open space outside the central command tent.
The thousands of Great Qian soldiers who had just finished drinking the "Xu Family Special Meat Soup" did not fall straight asleep like they usually did after a full meal.
On the contrary, they couldn't sleep at all right now.
"Huff... huff..."
It was unclear who started panting heavily first, but soon after, the entire camp was filled with the sound of heavy breathing, like pulling bellows.
A young soldier tore open his already tattered collar, revealing his bony chest, his face completely flushed as he spun around in circles in the snow.
"Hot! Why is it so hot!"
"What kind of fairy medicine was put in this soup? Why do I feel like there's a fire burning in my stomach?"
Another veteran soldier was even more exaggerated. He directly grabbed a handful of snow and slapped it onto his forehead. Accompanied by a soft sizzling sound, the snowflakes actually showed signs of melting.
He wiped his nose and stared blankly at the glaring crimson on the back of his hand.
"Bleeding... I'm bleeding! Is my body too weak to handle this nourishment, and now I'm going to bleed from all seven orifices and die?"
"Is this top-tier Nu'er Hong wine really this potent?"
Inside the central command tent, Lu Dayou's situation was not much better.
Lu Dayou roughly wiped away the two streams of nosebleed flowing from his nostrils with his sleeve and slammed his palm onto the commander's desk.
"Bullshit! What weak body unable to handle nourishment!"
"This is called internal heat! The fairy medicine bestowed by County Princess Xu is too strong, and our bodies are too frail to digest it all at once!"
Xu Zhan stood to the side, still chewing on a piece of unswallowed meat tendon, equally covered in sweat.
Inside his armor felt like a sauna, and even the breath he exhaled carried a strong scent of liquor and lard.
"My Lord, with the brothers in this state, if we don't find something for them to do, they might just gnaw the camp's barricades raw."
Xu Zhan swallowed the meat tendon, a beastly glint of ferocity flashing in his eyes.
"I say, why don't we take this opportunity?"
Xu Zhan reached out and pointed at the topographical map of the northern frontier hanging on the wooden frame, his finger pressing heavily on a red-circled spot.
"Attack!"
"Ten miles away from us is the barbarians' vanguard camp."
"Those sons of bitches, relying on having two thousand more men than us, with strong soldiers and sturdy horses, have been showing off outside our camp gates quite a bit these past few days."
Xu Zhan licked his oily lips, his voice laced with madness.
"Logically speaking, with such a massive snowstorm and us having been cut off from rations for three days, they must think we've already frozen into ice sculptures and starved into ghosts."
"At this moment, their defenses are absolutely at their most lax!"
Lu Dayou's breathing quickened, and his nosebleed threatened to flow down again.
As a fierce general who had experienced hundreds of battles, he immediately understood Xu Zhan's meaning.
Lu Dayou thought for a quarter of an hour, and then.
"Hahaha, good lad! I've long found those mutton-eating barbarians an eyesore!"
"Since County Princess Xu sent us these courage-boosting military rations from thousands of miles away, wouldn't we be letting down her good intentions if we didn't send the barbarians a little 'return gift'?"
"Pass down my military orders!"
Lu Dayou grabbed the ghost-head broadsword from the rack and strode out of the tent, his murderous aura scattering the flying snow at the tent flap.
The soldiers outside were already fully equipped and ready to go.
Although they weren't steaming as exaggeratedly as before, everyone's face bore a long-lost ruddy glow. With the high-calorie meat bricks in their stomachs, that warm current was like a dead tree greeting spring, dispelling the extreme cold that had entrenched itself in their bones for days.
"Entire army, assemble!"
"Take off your armor! Travel light! Bring only swords and crossbows!"
"County Princess Xu took care of our stomachs, so we must go demand some interest from the barbarians!"
"Tonight, we're going into the barbarian camp to restock!"
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
There were no hysterical roars, only three thousand pairs of eyes shining terrifyingly bright in the dark night.
It was the green glint of starving wolves seeing meat.
Their stamina had recovered by seventy percent, and that was enough. For these seasoned veterans who had struggled back from the brink of death, having the strength to grip a sword meant the King of Hell had handed them a soul-reaping warrant.
The snowstorm grew heavier, and the howling north wind became their best cover.
Three thousand soldiers of the Great Qian vanguard camp were like a silent black dragon, rapidly snaking across the snowfield.
Normally in this kind of weather, walking just two miles would freeze one's hands and feet numb.
But tonight was different.
Goudan tightened the torn leather armor on his body, feeling the "furnace" in his stomach still constantly radiating heat, and his footsteps were astonishingly fast.
"Boss, these meat bricks are truly miraculous."
Goudan puffed out white breath and whispered, "I feel like I could run all the way back to my hometown in one breath right now."
Xu Zhan walked at the very front, carrying a horse-cleaving sword in his hand, his gaze fixed dead ahead into the darkness.
"Save your strength to chop off a few more heads later." Xu Zhan licked his chapped lips, a bloodthirsty smile curling the corners of his mouth. "We'll be paying for this meal with barbarian blood!"
