After Tian Mingwu brought Tian An's ten carriages to join the army, he arranged for a few reliable soldiers to take over the carriages and sent the servants back.
The servants who delivered the supplies were led by Deng Yuan. Before leaving, Deng Yuan called Tian Mingwu aside, took out a few silver bills from his pocket and handed them to him.
"This is what the young lady told me to give to you before she left. She was afraid you wouldn't want it, so she asked me to bring it out, saying that if it came in handy, it would give you some extra money."
"This child said she had it herself and kept it for herself, but you brought it out for her." Tian Mingwu said with disdain, but his eyes narrowed into a line with a smile.
My daughter is indeed a caring little cotton-padded jacket! She has thought of everything for him.
After assembling the troops, Tian Mingwu gave the order and the army set off immediately.
Because time was of the essence, they set out straight to noon without a single rest. If it weren't for the cold weather and the fear that the soldiers could not hold on, Tian Mingwu would have wanted to continue on his journey until nightfall.
"Rest for 25 minutes and distribute dry food."
Yes, they ate dry food at noon, and they were reluctant to waste even the time of boiling water for instant noodles.
Tian Mingwu did not eat the soft bread that Tian An had prepared for him, but ate the coarse grain steamed buns distributed uniformly with the soldiers. While eating, he walked back to check on the soldiers' situation.
Suddenly he stopped in front of a young soldier who was huddled beside a carriage wheel, his cheeks red from the cold and his hands covered with frostbite holding a steamed bun.
The young soldier felt extremely guilty when he saw him stop in front of him. Before Tian Mingwu could say anything, he knelt down on the snow and said, "General, I..."
Tian Mingwu frowned at him shivering from the cold and asked, "Where's your winter clothes? Why are you so cold?"
The little soldier was so scared that he couldn't speak clearly, "Winter, winter, winter clothes, winter clothes..."
Tian Mingwu saw him hesitating and thought there was bullying going on in the team, someone had stolen his winter coat, or some other dirty trick.
Seeing that Tian Mingwu's face was getting uglier and uglier, another young soldier next to him was afraid that the young soldier would be severely punished, so he took the risk of being implicated and knelt in front of Tian Mingwu.
"General, my name is Li Shi, and his name is Li Ji. We are from the same village. He left his winter clothes to his elderly mother at home.
It was wrong for Li Ji to deal with the winter clothes privately, but please, General, be lenient with him because of his filial piety!"
Tian Mingwu paused, as if he had not expected such a result. He turned to look at the young soldier and said, "Li Ji, what Li Shi said is true."
Li Ji trembled and begged for mercy, "General, what Li Shi said is true, please spare my life!"
The other soldiers were all paying attention to this side. Seeing this, they all pleaded, "General, Li Ji's family is really in trouble. He has no choice but to think of buying winter clothes."
"Yes, General. He was a new recruit who was recruited last month. I used all my first pay to buy food and sent it back to my mother for the winter."
"But the money I used to buy food wasn't enough to buy winter clothes for my mother, so I left the winter clothes for her."
"Please, General, be lenient with me!"
Li Ji must have been a good person in the army. Half of the soldiers in the team were pleading for him.
"Please, General, be lenient with me!"
Tian Mingwu looked at the soldiers kneeling on the ground one by one, his face becoming even uglier. He shouted, "Get up! What are you all kneeling for?"
"Don't you see that the ground is covered in snow and water?"
"It's so cold, and your pants are wet. If you get sick, are you going to fight with the disaster victims for medicine? Hurry up, get out of here!"
The kneeling soldiers were a little confused and looked at each other.
Qin Wen smiled and shook his head, then stepped forward to explain, "The general won't punish him. You all should hurry up and get up. The ground is soaked with snow. If your knees get frozen and you're delayed on your journey, that would be a real disaster!"
Upon hearing this, the soldiers quickly stood up and assured in unison, "General, don't worry, we will definitely not delay the team."
Tian Mingwu looked at Li Ji with a stern face, "I hope what you said today is true. If I find out later that it is not so, I will not forgive you."
Li Ji was about to kneel down to make his intentions known, but Tian Mingwu stopped him and said, "Alright, go with Chen Cheng to the carriage to get a sweater and put it on first. Don't delay your journey."
Li Ji thought he would be punished, but unexpectedly it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. He was stunned for a moment and wanted to kneel down to express his gratitude, but Chen Cheng grabbed him and took him away.
"Still dawdling! It's already break time if you dawdle any longer."
After Li Ji followed Chen Cheng away, Qin Wen waved his hand and let everyone disperse. "Hurry up and eat and rest. When the time is up, continue on your journey. The next time you rest will be in the evening."
After Tian Mingwu finished eating the coarse flour steamed bun in his hand, he took out his thermos and poured a small cup of hot water from it and drank it. Only then did his stomach feel better.
He looked at the soldiers whose lips were cracked from the cold, and then looked at the thermos in his hand.
Tian Mingwu handed the thermos to Qin Wen without hesitation, "Give it to each of them and give them a sip!"
Qin Wen turned around and looked at the soldiers behind him. Instead of taking Tian Mingwu's thermos, he took out his own thermos from his backpack.
"The general keeps his own drink and the subordinates can use it."
Tian Mingwu frowned and stuffed the thermos cup into his arms. "How many people can drink from your bottle? Go get Chen Cheng's too."
After thinking for a moment, he reminded, "Give it to the weak first. If everyone is so weak, how can we help with disaster relief when the time comes?"
After Chen Cheng took Li Ji to get sweaters and changed, he went to help Qin Wen distribute hot water to the soldiers.
Li Ji went to Tian Mingwu alone and said, "Thank you for not punishing me, and for giving me the clothes. I will always remember your kindness and will repay you in the future."
Tian Mingwu glanced at him and snorted coldly, "I don't need you to repay me, just complete the task for me."
She caught a glimpse of his hands, which were as red and swollen as steamed buns. She frowned and took out a tube of hand cream from the inner pocket of her cloak and threw it to him.
"Take good care of your hand. How can you work when it's swollen like that? Don't be lazy behind people's backs."
Li Ji received the hand cream and hurriedly thanked Tian Mingwu, "Li Ji is not lazy, thank you, General."
Tian Mingwu waved his hands impatiently and said, "Go back and get some rest. We're about to set off." He was so hesitant at such a young age.
Soon, two quarters of an hour passed, and Tian Mingwu gave the order again, "Let's go."
After this journey, it was already night, and there was no light in the sky. Tian Mingwu then gave the order, "Set up camp and boil water."
Then he asked Chen Cheng to take people to the carriage to get instant noodles. The weather was too cold and the soldiers had to eat something hot, otherwise they might not be able to sleep at night.
When the tent was set up, the instant noodles were also served. Qin Wen made Tian Mingwu's instant noodles by adding a large bowl of boiling water. After the instant noodles were soaked, they looked full.
Tian Mingwu was so hungry that after finishing his noodles he took out a coarse flour steamed bun and ate it with the noodle soup to feel full.
Not only did he eat it himself, he also asked Qin Wen to quickly give each person another steamed bun.
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