Bo Gang was handed over to the Northern Allied Forces for detention.
To prevent him from going berserk, besides withholding food and water, surgery would be performed to remove half of his subcutaneous fat.
For the human body, subcutaneous fat is the storage for energy. This surgery was akin to removing a person's battery.
This type of removal surgery caused damage to the human body comparable to amputation, inevitably leading to a significant loss of Bo Gang's strength.
...
Xiao Hu
The owner of Dili Fresh Produce and the person in charge here.
Upon hearing of Bo Gang's capture, he rushed to greet them: "You're finally back. The front lines are in complete chaos, and we're severely short-handed."
Hurricane asked: "After we left, did anyone else arrive?"
"One of the Northern Ten Talents, Wolf Butcher, and his Wolf Valley Valiant Soldiers.
"The ninth-ranked on the Black List, Knight King, and his Black Blade Knights.
"And the sixth-ranked on the Black List, Silverback Gorilla—Ah Shou, who is rumored to have climbed from the Pea Vine to some place in the Cloud Country.
"Additionally, there's news that the top-ranked on the Black List has returned from the Road of Hunger and will soon be here to provide support."
The three from the Black List were shocked.
"The top-ranked is coming?"
"We haven't heard from him in over three years."
Zhang Wei's attention was on the Road of Hunger.
He recalled that when Sponge and Starfish left, they had also mentioned heading to a place called the Road of Hunger.
It was said that at the final stop, there was a beautiful wonderland, like a paradise.
Looking at the pile of ingredients in the plaza, Zhang Wei asked: "What's going on with all this?"
Xiao Hu sighed: "The front lines rescued the cooks, but they are short on ingredients. There are mountains of food here, but we can't transport it to the front."
Zhang Wei took the list.
Corn: 445,000 tons
Flour: 335,000 tons
Vegetable Oil: 9,000 tons
Granulated Sugar, Rock Sugar, Dried Sugar: 15,000 tons
Salt, Pepper, Fine Salt: 11,000 tons
Honey, Dried Fruits, Nuts, Candied Fruits: 150,000 tons
Medicinal Wine, Yellow Wine? Sake: 150,000 tons
Animal Fat: 65,000 tons
Beans: 350,000 tons.
Frozen Poultry: 430,000 tons
Frozen Livestock: 525,000 tons
...
...
Total accumulated supplies: 2,325,000 tons!
This number seemed astonishing, but divided equally among the 200,000 allied troops in the north, each person would have just over ten tons of food.
These supplies were no ordinary goods, possessing capture levels of 1 to 3.
Their nutritional content was about 3 to 5 times that of ordinary food.
However, soldiers on the front lines experienced intense physical exertion daily, and consuming tens of kilograms a day was normal.
If the extra needs of the wounded were not considered, these supplies would be enough for the front-line troops for 8 months!
Xiao Hu stated: "Under these war conditions, the number of wounded on the front lines will inevitably surge. Those wounded are bottomless pits that will consume the allied forces' reserves in a very short time."
"Time is extremely tight!"
To heal their injuries, the wounded ate 5 to 10 times more than ordinary soldiers. If their nutrition was sufficient, they could return to the battlefield quickly.
Qingcheng wondered: "Since they knew intense combat was imminent, why didn't they bring more?"
"This..."
"They couldn't bring that much!"
"Bringing too much would make the army sluggish."
After a moment of thought, Zhang Wei explained: "A skilled commander does not conscript repeatedly or stock provisions for more than three years; supplies are requisitioned from the state and foraged from the enemy, thus the army's food is sufficient."
Xiao Hu was greatly alarmed.
"Sir, your words are… excellent! Truly excellent!"
"I never expected that besides your exquisite cooking skills, you also understand military strategy!"
"That's precisely the point!"
Qingcheng looked bewildered.
Human Skin Doll and Hurricane had similar expressions.
Why was the conversation between these two so hard to understand?
Zhang Wei said humbly: "How could I understand such things? It's just what's written in books, and I've memorized it."
This passage was from the renowned Sun Tzu's Art of War!
On Blue Star, it was a revered military classic, praised both in ancient and modern times, domestically and internationally!
The general idea was that an excellent general should not conscript troops or transport supplies repeatedly; all provisions should be acquired from the enemy.
It was under this philosophy that… a great nation was rebuilt from ashes.
...
Therefore, a wise general must provision from the enemy. Foraging one peck from the enemy is equivalent to twenty pecks of our own; one stone of their straw is equivalent to twenty stones of ours.
...
After explaining the meaning, Zhang Wei was also puzzled: "I heard the troops were attacking and capturing territory on the front lines; weren't there any spoils of war? How is the offensive so difficult? Has the Cloud Country implemented a scorched-earth policy?"
"Great Chef, you might not know, but the Cloud Country..."
"It's too poor!"
Xiao Hu said with frustration: "According to reports from the front, the spoils from the Cloud Country are almost all radishes, cabbage, and scallions… even rice and flour are scarce."
"Our soldiers can't get any oily food!"
"Every time before going into battle, they can only gnaw on a few radishes…"
"Those things only help with digestion, letting out a couple of farts and they're gone! They don't fill you up at all!"
"Eating a hundred pounds of cabbage and cucumbers a day, and still being hungry..."
Zhang Wei stated: "I once infiltrated the Cloud Country, and they had meat dishes. It shouldn't be that exaggerated."
"You dealt with the high-ranking officials, right?"
"More or less."
Whether it was Tam, Claude, Sponge and Starfish, or Octopus, they were all beings of extremely high social status.
Speaking of which, Zhang Wei had never truly investigated the living conditions of the common people in the Cloud Country.
Xiao Hu sighed: "The common people of the Cloud Country cannot afford meat!"
"They can't even see it!"
"The only way our soldiers can obtain meat is from the lizard and toad mounts of the enemy forces, but they taste terrible, and their effect on healing injuries is negligible."
Zhang Wei continued to ask: "What went wrong with the transport units? Were the supply lines not secured?"
"Harassment."
"The air raids from the Cloud Country are extremely powerful."
"Not only do they come and go without a trace, but they also directly destroy the foundations, causing a large number of supplies to fall into the clouds."
"We've lost a lot of supplies because of this, and we're afraid to dispatch transport units freely now."
Destroying the foundations of the Cloud Country…
Decisive!
Completely disregarding the Cloud Country's ecosystem, solely focused on defeating the Northern Allied Forces!
"Can't the routes be changed?"
Xiao Hu continued: "The troops on the front lines are large eaters, requiring vast quantities of supplies, making it almost impossible to avoid enemy reconnaissance."
Zhang Wei said: "Draw a map of the locations of the troops requiring supplies and give it to me."
"You mean..."
"Leave the matter of transporting supplies to me."
Xiao Hu was pleasantly surprised: "That's exactly what we were hoping for! With the four of you escorting the supplies, we'll surely be able to defeat the harassing Cloud Country troops!"
"Human strength has its limits. How many carriages do you think you can manage?"
Human Skin Doll said: "Twenty, I'm not good at this."
Qingcheng frowned and said the same number as Human Skin Doll.
Hurricane crossed his arms and said arrogantly: "I'll take ten times that, just barely! Two hundred!"
The others looked at Zhang Wei.
But Zhang Wei shook his head: "No, you misunderstand me. Not a single one is needed!"