Zheng Fan heard him and looked over, indeed finding what Liang Cheng had mentioned.
Whether it was the North Border Army or the Jingnan Army, the bags hanging on their horses were bulging.
Parched flour, not a unique military ration of Green Willow Fortress, truly demonstrated the wisdom of ancient people. However, they were often limited by available conditions. Especially in wartime, soldiers’ rations were a significant burden; eating well and nutritiously was an immense luxury.
It was considered quite decent treatment if soldiers could even get half-full.
Just a few months ago, the garrison soldiers of Qian State were still living in desperate circumstances, facing hunger and cold.
It must be Hui Wenzu’s doing. He actually managed to prevent any word from leaking out, Blind Bei speculated.
To produce so many field rations for a large army in such a short time required an enormous amount of food and manpower. In the entire Yinlang County, only Hui Wenzu had the capacity to achieve this.
This was no small feat. Even with sufficient food, mobilizing a large workforce was necessary, and yet, not a whisper of it had leaked out.
One could argue this was because Ji Chengjue’s caravan personnel were amateurs at gathering such intelligence, but one also had to admit that Hui Wenzu had handled this matter beautifully.
That fat man was indeed capable and resourceful.
Suddenly, Zheng Fan understood something: why Hui Wenzu had insisted on mobilizing the five great generals and their forces for a major engagement some time ago. Perhaps Hui Wenzu already knew that if he didn’t make a move soon, his position as a high-ranking military official, practically a semi-autonomous governor, would be difficult to secure.
Because, once the Earl of North Border’s Army and the Jingnan Army joined the war, what use would their rat army be?
At this moment, a low roar from a Pi Beast echoed.
Zheng Fan shifted his gaze and saw Lord Jingnan, clad in gilded armor, seated on his Pi Beast. To Lord Jingnan’s left, Li Liangting, the Earl of North Border, dressed in Black Armor, wore an equally grave expression.
The Pi Beast beneath the Earl of North Border was a full size larger than Lord Jingnan’s mount. Each time its four hooves struck the frozen earth, they left clear, deep imprints.
The white vapor snorted from its nostrils made one feel that a hand placed too close would surely be scalded.
When the two Lords appeared, the surrounding commoners, the Nanwang City garrison tasked with maintaining order, and all civil and military officials present immediately knelt.
Thunderous cries of obeisance arose:
"Greetings to Lord Jingnan!"
"Greetings to the Earl of North Border!"
"Victory to the Lords! Victory to Yan!"
"Victory to the Lords! Victory to Yan!"
Everyone shouted at the top of their lungs. The winter wind was biting, yet the faces of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians around—men and women, old and young—were flushed with excitement.
The shouts were not perfectly synchronized, coming in waves, but the sheer uproar and momentum were overwhelmingly shocking.
Previously, in the military camps outside Yin City, Zheng Fan had only sensed the enthusiasm of the Yan people.
But at this moment, Zheng Fan suddenly felt he understood the Yan people as a group. He was a transmigrator, a foreigner who had lived in this country for only a year, yet it seemed he now truly grasped the deep-rooted Yan ethos of ’rejoicing at the news of war,’ an ethos that had not been erased.
This was a martial nation, fighting and resisting since its very foundation.
Suddenly, from the vanguard to the rearguard, soldiers of both the Earl of North Border’s Army and the Jingnan Army raised their weapons in unison,
The sheer force of it was truly like a monstrous, surging wave!
Even Zheng Fan couldn’t help but feel his heart pound, completely swept up by the atmosphere.
If any other general were setting out, even a tenth of this spectacle would have terrified them into immediately kneeling and shouting "Long live the Emperor!" for fear of arousing imperial suspicion.
But at this moment, both the Earl of North Border and Lord Jingnan advanced in silence, their demeanor utterly composed.
Suddenly, a group of children ran out from the crowd.
Each of these children held a willow branch.
It so happened that Li Fusheng’s troops were passing by. They made no attempt to stop them, allowing the group of young children to run gleefully into the midst of the army, clutching their willow branches.
"Let them come!" the Earl of North Border ordered. The surrounding knights naturally did not obstruct them. Thɪs chapter is updated by novel✶fire.net
After these more than a dozen children ran up to the two Lords, they immediately knelt. Then, most of them burst into loud tears.
They were frightened... Indeed, even an adult suddenly coming before the two Lords and their two ferocious Pi Beasts would likely be scared stiff, let alone a group of children.
Yet one child stood firm. He raised the willow branch in his hand and shouted, "’A century of national hatred, a debt the vast sea cannot erase! My Lords, please break a willow branch!’"
"’Isn’t that the Wolf Cub?’" A Ming remarked, watching from a distance.
Zheng Fan’s first contingent of Barbarian soldiers had come from this Wolf Cub’s tribe.
Initially, Liang Cheng had carried him to Mei Village on his shoulders.
Because he was still so young, he naturally couldn’t join the army.
This was undoubtedly Zheng Fan’s arrangement, made in cooperation with Li Fusheng. In Zheng Fan’s original world, it was standard procedure for a few of the best-looking and most spirited elementary school students, often made up for the occasion, to present flowers to visiting leaders.