Under the cover of night, he retrieved the large amount of food and drink he had previously exchanged from his spatial storage, had it carried up, and personally led the way to deliver it to Zhuzi and the others.
Maotai, Huazi, and braised pig trotters.
Sausages, roast chicken, and drunken donkey.
Seeing the items personally delivered by their marquis, Zhuzi and Ma Chao felt that their year of suffering had not been in vain.
"Thank you, Marquis, for the reward!"
The two bowed together to Fang Er.
Fang Er waved his hand, pointed to the stools inside the tent, and said, "Sit down and talk."
After they sat down, Fang Er asked.
"What were the casualties today?"
"Reporting to the Marquis, seventeen of our brothers from Shenyang were lost."
"Those recruited from the Western Regions, not counting minor injuries, suffered two hundred severe injuries and over five hundred dead."
Mentioning this, Zhuzi and Ma Chao's expressions turned somber.
"Rest well, don't overthink it. We will send off those brothers tomorrow."
"Furthermore, Zhuzi, you know these medicines. Give them to the wounded soldiers, one pill daily. Do not drink alcohol within two days of taking the medicine."
Fang Er pointed to a glass jar and instructed Zhuzi.
With successive sacrifices of his subordinates, Fang Er had no choice but to accept the reality that war meant death.
All he could do was provide a better life for their families, allowing them to bask in the glory of their fallen heroes and raise the next generation to adulthood.
The soldiers of the three Turkic tribes who died were gathered together and burned.
The corpses of the warhorses, however, were preserved. These were food, although not particularly tasty.
As for the rumors that horse meat was poisonous, that was pure nonsense. Little did they know that in later generations, much of the donkey meat sold was actually horse meat.
After comforting Zhuzi and the others, Fang Er returned to his tent and prepared a pile of pickled chicken feet.
He removed all the outer packaging and placed them in a basin. Holding the basin in one hand and two bottles of Maotai in the other, he walked towards Li Shimin's tent.
He absolutely could not let Li Shimin see the packaging with the pickled chicken feet on it, otherwise, it might cause a major incident.
Li Shimin's tent was very lively.
The Battle of Dingxiang, the Battle of Heicheng, and the Battle of Tieshan.
At least 100,000 of Jieli's troops had been annihilated. He wondered what Jieli's reaction would be upon hearing this.
With Li Shimin in high spirits, he had summoned Li Jing and the others to play a game.
Therefore, when Fang Er arrived, he could hear the sounds of "Hong Zhong Fa Cai" from outside the tent. The tent seemed to be on fire, with smoke billowing out.
He lifted the tent flap and walked in. Two mahjong tables were set up, and Li Shimin, six dukes, and a leader of the Xuanjia Army were all busy smoking cigars.
He went up to Li Shimin and said, "Your Majesty, here are the chicken feet you wanted."
"Hmm, put them aside for now. Let me finish this hand first!"
"Jingde, don't move! It's the eight of wan, right? I'm calling it!"
Li Shimin, with a cigar in his mouth and his legs crossed, sat on a stool and casually threw out two eight of wan.
Chicken feet were nothing compared to the thrill of winning a hand.
Fang Er circled the two tables. Li Shimin was winning the most.
Well, when the leader plays cards, they generally don't lose, no matter when.
"Alas, brother, help your old brother see which card to play?"
Yuchi Jingde beckoned Fang Er and called out.
He leaned in to take a look. What the hell.
One of each from one to nine of wan, three characters, and a single red dragon, and the hand he had just drawn was also a red dragon.
This old fellow is really cunning. He's not going for a win, is he deliberately letting Li Shimin win?
Recalling the cards Li Shimin had in his hand earlier, Fang Er took out a six of wan from the cards and played it.
"Mahjong!"
Li Shimin pushed his tiles forward, extended his hand to Yuchi Jingde, and then looked at Fang Er with a displeased expression.
"Kid, why are you playing randomly? I was waiting for a self-drawn win, and now I've only won one piece by discarding onto you."
Fang Er was speechless. Was this considered getting a bargain and then complaining?
Yuchi Jingde secretly gave Fang Er a thumbs-up and then handed Li Shimin a cigar.
"Forget it, forget it, I won't play anymore. Bring me those chicken feet."
Li Shimin gathered the cigars in front of him, two large boxes in total.
Fang Er was worried for him, thinking he would never be able to finish smoking so much.
After Yuchi Jingde put away the mahjong tiles, he placed the chicken feet and Maotai on the table.
"Why is it this wine again? Do you still have that big iron pot? This isn't strong enough!"
Li Shimin was instantly displeased upon seeing the Maotai.
Fang Er: ..........
If you said that over a thousand years later, you'd probably get beaten to death, you know!
"Huazi, Tai Zi, those are top-notch. You don't think any of them are good? What do you want?"
"Your Majesty, just make do with it for now. Jieli might be here tomorrow. If you get too drunk, it wouldn't be appropriate, would it?"
Fang Er found a set of teacups in the tent, poured wine for everyone, and then stepped aside.
"Alright, you can go back and rest."
Li Shimin waved him away.
Fang Er couldn't wait to leave. This tent was unbearable, filled with a bunch of old smokers!
Returning to his own tent, he lay down on the military bed with his clothes on. He glanced at the military watch on his wrist.
"Huh? Unknowingly it's already the first of March?"
He quickly opened the system panel and, sure enough, it had been updated.
"Holy cow!" Fang Er instantly sprang up from the military bed like a carp.
Another full set of machine tools!
Especially the semi-automatic lathe that was shining with golden light. This thing could actually be unlocked to the open store!
Moreover, all the others were just one more step away from being fully unlocked!
He had to admit, at this moment, Fang Er really wanted to hug the system and kiss it. It was so lovable!
After exchanging everything, looking at the semi-automatic lathe in the open store, Fang Er chuckled.
ps: Second update.