Chapter 79. Spring and Autumn, Warring States Period (16) Military Food Reserves

     The first round of the test has concluded, with a total of 623 people eliminated. This is nearly half the number compared to the 1500 to 2000 people eliminated during previous spring recruitments

     Among them, 77 eliminated people were reserve personnel, and the remaining 374 reserve personnel continued to the next project.

     Ye Mo sat back in her deputy seat, and after a brief exchange with Meng Sheng, she said to the densely packed soldiers in the horse farm: “The warriors in the seventh horizontal and ninth vertical of Area A, the warriors in the thirteenth horizontal and third vertical of Area C, the warriors in the first horizontal and tenth vertical of Area E,…”

     Mathematics in this era has been developed for many years and is not weak. Whether it is divination or the Book of Changes, mathematics is indispensable, but the people, especially serfs and horse slaves, have poor counting ability.

     Therefore, there are special guards to help guide.

     “Slave Zhang San/Li Si/Zhao Liu/Qian Qi, meet the young lady.”

     “Get up.”

     Ye Mo cooperated very well and asked the four agents about the first project. Zhang San used the example of working in the fields to vividly describe how to complete the training task scientifically.

     Since the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, there have been four recruitments every year. The first project of the recruitment is all weighted training. Some people asked or paid for experience, but no one has ever thought of sharing the secret.

     Military events are secrets, and soldiers will not spread the tricks everywhere. The witch doctors understand these secrets, but the recruitment project is far away from them, so they will not remind them specifically.

     The officials also understood that the high number of people who passed the test this year was not because the project was simpler. Those who passed the test still met their recruitment level. It was just that there were more smart and kind people this year, so they suppressed the doubts in their hearts.

     Ye Mo praised: “You are both wise and brave, reward!”

     “Thank you, young lady.” Zhang San, Li Si, Zhao Liu, Qian Qi said.

     Meng Sheng still remembers that his disciple once went to a farm and discovered a talented person who had invented a sowing tool, the plow.

      Now it seems that it is really good. He asked Li Si a few questions and gave him a good weapon as a thank you for what he did for the farmers in the world.

     The reserve soldiers knew that the survivors were acting, but even the big guys had to follow the basic rules in the dungeon. Their arrogance at the beginning was really no different from sending heads.

     Then, Ye Mo called out the top 30 people, asked their names one by one, praised them a few words, gave more rewards, and wished them good performance in the next competition.

     After the first project, all 591 eliminated people left the horse farm.

     Ye Mo asked the guards to read a list based on the performance of the first project just now. The list included 90% of the serfs and horse slaves, and notified them that they had a task later.

     Only 10% of the people left.

     Among the 10% who left, there were 50 reserve soldiers. They returned to the farm under the leadership of the steward and the farmers. It was the end of the spring plowing season, and the serfs had a heavy task, so they could not waste time.

     When they thought of the dark and gloomy work in the farm, half of the reservists felt dizzy and regretted not insisting just now, but they had already chosen their own future and had to go on even if they had to kneel.

     Or die.

     According to the emotional detection, many of these reservists must have developed hostility towards the other survivors, especially Mi Wenjing.

     In the eyes of some people, the survivor Mi Wenjing could easily join the army with a wave of her hand, but they deliberately looked down on them and watched them play monkey tricks.

     Ye Mo didn’t care much about their opinions, but she was too kind. Even if they were malicious, she wished them to work steadily on the farm for 60 days!

…

     At 12:15, it was lunch time.

     The soldiers who usually only ate two meals a day were given enough rations to fill their stomachs. There were no vegetables, but there was a sparse vegetable soup. There was plenty of boiled meat, and it was a whole fresh deer, which was cut into portions and shared.

     The soldiers had about the same thing, and the ruling class probably had three or five more dishes and fifty or eight more kinds of meat than they did.

     After lunch, after a short rest, Meng Sheng announced the start of the second test. 

     The time for the second spring recruitment test for military personnel is from the end of the noon hour today until sunset, all day tomorrow and the day after, and from the time of the dragon hour^[1]辰时: The dragon hour [approximately 7 AM] to the first quarter of the noon hour three days from now. To summarize, it’s from noon today until noon three days from now, excluding nights, for a total of three days.

     The content of the second project is hunting on the south mountain. Hunting is the top priority of spring search, summer seedlings, autumn hunting and winter hunting every year, and it is also the test with the most casualties every year.

     The horse farm mountains are not as simple as farm mountains. There are wild beasts on the mountain, so every soldier has to carry medicine bags, miasma pills, maps, bows and arrows, etc.

     Those who join the army are allowed to form a team of no more than ten people to set off. There are also multiple outposts in the mountains. Those who join the army can put the prey at the outposts. After 1:00 p.m. tomorrow, the army will be recruited according to the prey count.

     For fairness, the calculation of prey will also include quality.

     For example, one tiger is equal to three brown bears or black bears, one bear is equal to two wild boars, one adult wild boar is equal to one hundred goats, and one goat is equal to one hundred pheasants.

     In principle, when hunting, you cannot kill each other, you cannot kill prey cubs, or kill pregnant animals without reason. Cubs and pregnant prey are not counted. A long time ago, our ancestors have passed on the hunting wisdom from generation to generation.

     Ye Mo did not change other rules, but added a new task to the process that had just been assigned to the hundred people – timely handling of the prey that had been shot.

     As we all know, no war can be waged without provisions. People must first eat their fill before they can have the strength to fight.

     In ancient times, cultivation relied on spiritual energy. There were all sorts of miraculous plants in the world, such as the legendary Zhuyu, a divine plant that could satisfy hunger. Shamans could summon wind and rain, so agriculture was a complete mess.

     It was not until the Western Zhou Dynasty that it began to improve.

     Ye Mo had previously discussed this with the farm managers. Currently, even providing the people with two meals a day is difficult. The grain in Yangcheng Jun’s granary could only supply the army for a month, not including the newly recruited soldiers and the people of Yangcheng.

     Of course, this is unacceptable

     The breeding is only provided to the Chuyang City Mansion. Except for the war horses and oxen that cannot be killed, the stock is even less.

     Ye Mo can’t find any sweet potatoes, potatoes, and corn seeds from overseas immediately. Even if she finds them, she can’t harvest them in just two months. So far, the best solution is meat.

     The spring hunting in front of her is a very good opportunity to store food.

     Like the planting industry, in an era with such high military power, people can’t even eat enough, and the storage capacity of meat is also a problem.

     Ye Mo has heard of ways to store food.

     For example, smoking, pickling, jerking, dehydrating, etc., but she doesn’t know how to do it specifically. She smoked and pickled bacon and sausage during the Chinese New Year, but not from pigs to bacon.

     The agents are also versatile. Wang Qi is a gourmet and part-time chef. They have summarized a set of methods for storing food.

     The most common method is salting.

     But this method is ranked last by Ye Mo and Zhang San. Although Chuyang City is prosperous, it is an inland city after all. Even if Chu State is in the south and has intersections with coastal cities such as Zhejiang and Shanghai, it is too far away from Chuyang City.

     Without the sea or salt lake, no matter how advanced the salt-making method is, it can’t be done. Salt is still a scarce resource. Now salting meat, not to mention officials, the people think that the leaders have problems.

     Finally, the method chosen by Ye Mo and Zhang San after discussion is mainly to dehydrate by sun-bathing. When the moisture content of food is greater than 10%, the food will grow mold; when the moisture content is only 5% or less, it basically will not grow mold.

     The second is smoking.

     Smoking can not only remove moisture from the meat, but also add a protective shell on the outside of the meat. All kinds of smoked dried meat can be stored for several months if properly processed, which may be longer than sun-baked meat.

     However, these processing methods require high requirements and a large number of manpower.

     For this, Ye Mo worked hard and took on the rest of the work.

     After becoming familiar with the formation, she designed air-drying and dehydration equipment, vacuum high-temperature baking equipment, meat strips, dried meat floss, and even dehydrated wild vegetables, and then put them in a cool and sterile grain storage formation.

     So far, the vacuum high-temperature baking equipment has been produced, and the dehydration equipment involves the combination of the wind-wood formation and the fire-temperature formation. After the second project today is completed, it will be designed and produced.

     Of course, grilling a mountain of meat requires some advance preparation.

     The task of the serfs left behind is the preliminary preparation, such as skinning and hair removal, excess fat separation, and visceral cleaning. These preparations are very critical and need to be done in time.

     Hearing such a task requirement, not to mention the remuneration, the meals provided by the spring recruitment with meat, vegetables and beans, compared to working in the fields on the farm, at least they can eat and drink enough, of course they are willing.

     Ye Mo gave another order, asking the two female agents Sun Ba from the farm to lead the others to direct this matter at various locations in the mountains. Why not eat the meat? Of course, because in the future, they might only be able to eat meat when defending the city.

     Because the imported food is very important, there must be a team of inspectors for on-site inspections.

…

     Watching the soldiers leave, more people stood on the horse farm, including peasant soldiers, soldiers, guards, etc. from Chuyang City, who will also join the hunting competition four times a year.

     However, their hunting range is not limited, the north and the east are all fine, other small hills are also fine, and they can even go to the mountains outside Huquan Creek, where there will be sparsely set up points.

     The competition time is also three days in total, and they are the main force for storing future meat.

     Meng Sheng and Ye Mo each said some inspiring words, and the soldiers set off with high morale.

     The officials could leave at this time, leaving only the generals to guard, but Ye Mo chose to stay to inspect the spring recruitment.

     Meng Sheng knew her purpose, glanced at the sword on her waist, did not object, asked her to pay attention to safety, and told the hundred guards behind her to follow closely and not let the young lady get into danger.

     Even though the guards knew that the young lady’s martial arts value was higher than theirs, they answered in a resounding manner.

     Ye Mo also borrowed Xue Ji from Senior Brother Xu Ruo and guaranteed that she would return safely.

     Xu Ruo had been troubled by his hyperactive daughter for a long time, and saw that she was eager to make a move from beginning to end. He was still relatively confident in her strength and agreed, but told her to listen to the young lady and asked Junior Sister Wen Jing to keep a close watch on her.

     Wang Xue 囧: “…”

     Ye Mo clapped her hands, and the horse slaves brought more than a hundred war horses, each of which was equipped with a brand new harness, and the reins and bits were also adjusted accordingly.

     The leader was the red Akhal-Teke she had ridden yesterday. As if sensing something, it let out a long sigh, revealing its great spirit.

     While everyone was still astonished that the young lady had chosen a horse over a carriage, Ye Mo walked over and patted the Akhal-Teke on the head. Then, with a light leap, she mounted the horse, gripped the reins, and glanced towards the Mohist disciples.

     Wang Xue, who had been waiting for a long time, received her signal, bowed to Meng Sheng and Xu Ruo, and then exerted force on her right foot, jumped up, and landed steadily on a snow-white horse next to Ye Mo.

     The two smiled in tacit understanding.

     “Go!” ×2.