Chapter 947 Decapitate!

Compared to his elder brother, Tan Dayong, who could don armor and ride a horse to assemble and prepare at the military camp, the younger brothers, Tan Eryong and Tan Xiaoyong, weren't so lucky.

Actually, Father Tan was truly a "person of importance" in Jin'an Fort. Even he himself marveled at how he had finally lived like a real person these past few years.

But this old farmer, born a field slave, his only accomplishment in this life was probably in farming. As for anything else, his limitations were truly too great.

As one of the "Four Officials" of Jin'an Fort, even if he was a technical bureaucrat without administrative power, he still had some influence.

For example, in the fervor of everyone wanting to become a Standard Household (biao hu), Father Tan, already a Standard Household, only had his eldest son answer the call of a Standard Household soldier at the minimum standard. He made no arrangements at all for his second and youngest sons.

Was he being selfless and dedicated?

Not really.

After all, within the Standard Households, fathers and sons, brothers serving as soldiers was far too common. Father Tan could not only receive the Standard Household's rations, benefits, and quotas, but his own agricultural official position could also receive a salary, in addition to the output from the fields allocated and contracted to his family.

These three income streams were stable beyond compare, and he could absolutely afford to equip his second and youngest sons with armor, swords, and horses.

He could even invite Zhang, the Commandant of Jin'an Fort, for a drink. His two younger sons would quickly catch up and strive to be included in the muster roll each time, so that when the real war came, they could have the same qualifications to become regular soldiers as their elder brother.

But unfortunately,

Father Tan simply didn't think of it; he just didn't have the brains for it.

The fathers of other Standard Households would teach horsemanship and martial arts to their sons before they even came of age, getting them used to riding and archery early on. As soon as they reached adulthood, they would immediately take their children to register in the Standard Household army.

They were mostly veteran soldiers, the first to reap the benefits, and they knew well the advantages of being a Standard Household.

But once the Standard Household system was divided among families, the descendants would no longer have it. Approvals would be very strict, and it would only be passed down to the descendant who had become a Standard Household soldier and fought in battle, meaning the other sons wouldn't receive the benefits.

Back then, on the battlefield, Zheng Zhi had used the Sword Saint to do things for him, promising that Jindong would no longer collect head taxes.

Although this was just a pretext, even the Sword Saint knew that Zheng intended to abolish this tax anyway, so the Sword Saint never took credit for it.

In the eyes of Blind Man and Fourth Sister-in-law, the head tax was a terrible tax, essentially draining the pond to catch the fish.

It would not only cause a large number of people to hide their existence, but would also directly lead to the formation of the custom of "drowning infants."

The head tax was gone, but the household tax remained, because the majority of the people in Jindong had their household registration tied to the land.

Therefore, according to the laws of the Prince's Mansion, if there was only one son in the family, there was no need to split the family.

But if there were other sons in the family, when they reached a certain age, if they were not disabled, they had to split the family and open a separate household, cultivate new land, and inherit the responsibility of paying taxes at the same time.

Therefore, the Standard Household veterans urgently hoped that their special treatment could continue and spread.

Those families that weren't Standard Households spent the whole year staring jealously at the treatment of the Standard Households in the garrison, their mouths watering. Given the slightest opportunity, they would immediately have their sons join if they were able.

Only Father Tan,

Muddled and ignorant, missed the best opportunity.

This caused Tan Eryong and Tan Xiaoyong to travel southeast continuously, extremely tired and overworked.

Auxiliary soldiers and laborers were moved wherever they were needed. They were the largest group on the battlefield, yet seemingly the one with the lowest presence.

After resting for a day, they began to build the camp.

It was from the centurion's mouth that they learned that their two brothers were following the team and were about to reach Zhennan Pass.

The two brothers had stayed in Xuehai Pass when they were young. After they arrived at Jin'an Fort, the elder brother would go out when assembling, and the father would go to Fengxin City for meetings from time to time, but the two brothers had basically never left the territory of Jin'an Fort again.

Zhennan Pass...

Unfortunately, the brothers didn't have the opportunity to go south to see the splendor of that majestic pass, as they were immediately consumed by heavy labor.

Auxiliary soldiers, auxiliary soldiers, meaning they assisted.

When regular soldiers needed reinforcements and cooperation, auxiliary soldiers would go.

When laborers needed labor and cooperation, auxiliary soldiers would still go.

Fortunately, although Father Tan was muddled in planning his sons' future, the family was relatively wealthy, and the two younger sons ate well and grew strong. After overcoming the initial hardships, they quickly adapted.

The camp was set up, though it was a bit crude.

The squad leader said that a proper military camp was much more rigorous and sturdy than this, but that was usually done by the regular soldiers themselves, while the auxiliary soldiers could only assist.

On this day,

The Tan brothers' team was dispatched to a fort. From a distance, the fort looked no different from Jin'an Fort, but upon closer inspection, they discovered that it actually had city walls.

Inside the city, granaries towered high.

The brothers, who were originally farmers, were dumbfounded.

Tan Xiaoyong even exclaimed in amazement:

"Heavens, how much grain must be stored in here?"

The Tan family was now considered a farming family, and they also had a small granary at home, containing the joy of a good harvest and confidence in the future.

But that kind of small-farmer happiness,

When facing this one, no, these huge and magnificent granaries, could only be awestruck.

The brothers had memories of going hungry as children, and they had a reverence for food in their bones, but this reverence was too indescribable.

At this moment, teams were constantly transporting grain into the fort, and at the same time, grain was constantly being transported out.

The original logistics location of Zhennan Pass, and even the logistics transit point for the first phase of the entire campaign, was here.

"What are you spacing out for? Come on, don't fall behind!"

"Yes."

The Tan brothers were ordered to follow the officer inside.

Inside, there was a large area filled with manpower-pulled carts and many animal-powered carts.

Tan Eryong and Tan Xiaoyong, Eryong looped the rope over his shoulder and started pulling, while Xiaoyong helped maintain balance and push from behind.

The team, fully loaded with grain, returned to the empty camp they had previously built.

Transporting grain was truly physical labor. After transporting it in, the officer let everyone rest.

The Tan brothers returned to their tent, where military doctors began distributing herbal juice and gauze.

There were ranks in the army. Combat soldiers could be allocated the best wound medicine and other items, while laborers and auxiliary soldiers could only use second-rate herbal juice. Today, while transporting grain, many people, lacking experience, had abrasions and blood marks on their hands, shoulders, and other places, which had to be treated.

Xiaoyong helped his second brother apply the herbal medicine.

Under the stimulation of the herbal juice, Eryong would grit his teeth and gasp for breath from time to time, but he still couldn't help but exclaim:

"My God, so much grain, our family couldn't eat it all in ten lifetimes!"

"Hehe." Xiaoyong laughed along, "Second brother, so much grain, how many soldiers can this supply?"

"You'll have to ask elder brother, I can't estimate it." Eryong was well aware of his own limitations, "But if elder brother knows there's so much grain here, he should feel more secure in his heart while fighting in the front."

Xiaoyong agreed, "Yeah, just like father said, with grain, we don't have to panic no matter what happens."

…

After resting for one night, early the next morning, the camp began to bustle. The main thing they were doing was cooking meals and steaming buns.

There were no dedicated cooks here, but among the auxiliary and labor camps, it was rare to find someone who couldn't cook. Most importantly... it didn't need to be cooked particularly deliciously or delicately.

Some were kneading dough, some were boiling water, some were placing things in the steamer, busy as could be.

During this period, they would naturally steal some to eat themselves, especially the "filled" buns created by the Prince, which were the most popular.

However, even the officers turned a blind eye to this kind of "stealing," as long as you didn't hide it.

After all, according to Jindong's military customs, when the teams gathered, they had to have a big meal.

The next time they could have a big meal was during a bloody battle.

In the afternoon,

Troops came from the north, and the food here was already prepared.

"Huh, are those savages?"

Tan Xiaoyong, with his sharp eyes, called out first.

"This should be what elder brother said, the savage auxiliary soldiers that the Prince conscripted from the Snow Plains." Tan Eryong said.

Jindong also had savages, and every military fort had them, but the largest gathering point of savages was in Fancheng.

Among the savages, there were also Standard Households, but more were ordinary commoners.

Generally speaking, savages were the lowest in the composition ranking of everyone, and it was common for them to be bullied and discriminated against.

The Prince's Mansion was well aware of this, but did not deliberately ask the officials below to care for and love the savages more, only requiring them to be equal in the law.

And the savage commoners also understood their position, and when worshipping and going to the market, they also knew enough to line up at the end. After several years of integration, now that they were constantly seeing each other, the worst incidents of mass targeting of savages had not occurred as in the beginning.

In addition, everyone was "neighbors", always running into each other, so they were too lazy to continue making things difficult.

The village opera in the forts also often performed some operas about savages, in which the plight and helplessness of ordinary savage commoners facing natural disasters and the exploitation of savage tribal chieftains and nobles were expressed in order to gain the sympathy of other commoners.

After all, before the Prince arrived in Jindong to create this "utopia", the vast majority of the people here lived the same wandering and miserable lives.

In the operas, the Prince appeared, rescued these miserable and enslaved savage commoners, and gave them food to eat and fields to cultivate, which was very fitting and consistent.

This was not considered excessive embellishment and modification, after all, the savage army that entered the pass to burn, kill, and loot back then was basically wiped out after the Prince cut off their retreat from Xuehai Pass.

Most of the remaining prisoners were also consumed in the repairs of Xuehai Pass, with their corpses piled high.

The savages in Jindong now, some were plundered, and some migrated in on their own. In short, they were all actively absorbed by Jindong to supplement the labor force.

But the savages who appeared at this time were riding horses and carrying bows and arrows. Although few of them had armor, and the swords and bows and arrows looked somewhat dilapidated, the primitive savage aura was still too strong, making people feel uncomfortable.

At least, Tan Eryong and Tan Xiaoyong felt that way.

After all, the savage commoners in their fort also went to school and did not keep savage hairstyles. Their clothes and attire were all in the Yan style or the Xia style.

An Yan army commandant in the camp went forward to negotiate, and soon after, the savage auxiliary soldiers began to enter the camp. They were like a pack of hungry wolves, coming over at the scent of the aroma.

One bowl of meat soup and two filled steamed buns per person were definitely not enough to fill them up. The rest was filled with nang bread, as it was impossible to supply fine white flour without limit.

"Come on, steamed buns, don't rush, line up, line up."

"You, two, you, also two."

Tan Eryong and Tan Xiaoyong were assigned to the position of distributing steamed buns.

When the steamed buns in the steamer in front of them were gone, the brothers brought them up from behind.

"Damn it, I'm starving to death."

"Yes, yes, Young Master."

Tan Eryong was a little surprised. He had heard these savages speaking in their "bird language" when distributing the steamed buns earlier, but it was rare to encounter someone who spoke Xia language so fluently.

This savage also wore armor, and it was the standard armor of the Jindong army. Some of the savages around him were also wearing armor. This equipment could be described as extremely luxurious for savage auxiliary soldiers.

"Here, your two." Tan Xiaoyong handed over two steamed buns.

"Two are not enough."

This armored savage threw the two steamed buns in his hand back onto the steamer, then reached out and picked up the entire steamer, saying to his confidants:

"Let's go, let's eat slowly. Let me tell you, only the filled steamed buns in Jin are really tasty. I like to send people to Xuehai Pass to buy them and eat them."

Tan Eryong and Tan Xiaoyong hurriedly stepped forward to stop him.

Tan Xiaoyong shouted:

"You can only take two per person. You're taking too many, you're taking too many!"

The armored savage smiled when he heard this:

"Hey, the Prince is a generous man. What does it matter if I eat a few more of the Prince's steamed buns? Get out of the way. Grandpa is hungry and doesn't have time to argue with you."

"An officer has ordered, two steamed buns per person!"

"To hell with you, what do you think you are, daring to order me around? Do you know who I am?"

A confidant next to him hurriedly introduced:

"Open your eyes wide and take a good look. This is the Young Master of our Hailand Tribe!"

Tan Eryong immediately said: "It doesn't matter who it is, this is military law and must be obeyed."

"I'm hungry. What's the point of talking nonsense with you here!"

The armored savage directly kicked Tan Eryong to the ground.

Seeing his second brother being beaten, Tan Xiaoyong immediately pounced on him:

"You dare to hit someone, you dare to hit someone!"

Several confidants of the armored savage worked together to lift Tan Xiaoyong up and throw him out face down with a "thump."

The commotion here suddenly disturbed many people nearby.

Hailand snorted disdainfully and walked out with the steamer in his arms, not taking it seriously at all.

He had the confidence.

His father was the first savage tribe to pledge allegiance to the Prince and was deeply trusted by the Prince's Mansion.

His two elder brothers had both served as personal guards for the Prince. The eldest brother had now returned to the tribe, and the second brother was working in Fengxin City.

The savage auxiliary soldiers outside the pass were generally integrated by the Hailand Tribe and then restrained to enter the pass and obey the Prince's military orders. A while ago, his father fell ill, and his eldest brother had to take care of tribal affairs, so he was responsible for leading this first batch of auxiliary soldiers in.

In short, what was it to Hailand to eat a few steamed buns? Was that even a matter?

"Tch, you ignorant thing,"

…

"I thought you would miss it. The Prince really loves you."

"Brother, what are you saying? Doesn't Father love you? If Father didn't love you, you wouldn't be able to get away with causing trouble in Wei River like that. Anyone else would have been dismissed and punished."

"Hahaha, to be honest with you, little brother, I was just certain that our Prince wouldn't bear to spank me, that's why I dared to indulge myself like this, haha."

Chen Xianba was wearing golden armor. This set of armor was granted by the late Emperor when the Prince was conferred the title of Marquis, and now it had been transferred to Chen Xianba by the Prince.

And the young man in silver armor next to Chen Xianba was none other than Tian Tian.

"By the way, brother, when will the Prince arrive?"

"It should be a few more days. Father has to handle some affairs in Fengxin City before he can safely set out on the expedition, so he sent me here first to establish the headquarters."

"Okay, when the Prince arrives, you go and tell the Prince to transfer you to my army to be my deputy general. Brother guarantees that I can lead you to a thorough and satisfying slaughter."

"Father has his own arrangements."

"The Prince loves you, you go and beg him. There's no reason he wouldn't agree. Just say that you haven't seen me in a long time and want to spend more time with me."

Tian Tian shook his head and said, "Brother, I think that if I actively ask Father about this, it's very likely that Father will transfer you back to the headquarters to be a personal guard so that you can be with me all the time. Brother, would you like that?"

"This…"

The two were talking as they walked.

At this moment, the noise in front caught their attention.

"What's going on?" Chen Xianba asked with a frown.

The most taboo thing in the military was noise and fighting, because sometimes, with a little carelessness, a small misunderstanding could lead to a mutiny.

At this moment, a soldier stepped forward and reported the whole story.

…

The current situation was that, due to the Tan brothers being beaten, the food was no longer being distributed to the auxiliary soldiers, and they were gathering together, while Hailand also had a group of confidants around him, and the two sides had begun to push and shove.

Hailand was still eating steamed buns, not taking it seriously at all.

Just then,

A silver-armored young general rushed straight into the crowd, lunged forward, directly knocking away two confidants on Hailand's side, and then reached out, grabbed Hailand's neck, and threw him to the ground.

"Bang!"

Hailand fell face first into the mud, and at the same time heard the sound of someone drawing a knife above him.

"Violating military law, refusing to correct yourself after being taught, actively causing trouble, and attacking comrades, the death penalty!"

Tian Tian's voice carried a hint of sternness. With the blessing of qi and blood, the sound waves became higher and traveled further. For a moment, the surrounding area, which was originally noisy and jostling, froze.

Hailand's confidants, who were originally planning to snatch their young master back, suddenly discovered that there were many Yan army regular soldiers around them, and they instantly did not dare to move.

When Hailand, who was being pressed to the ground, heard that this person was actually going to "kill" him,

He instantly lost his previous composure,

And immediately shouted;

"You can't kill me, my father is the leader of the Hailand Tribe, I am the son of the leader of the Hailand Tribe!!!"

"Pfft!"

The knife,

Without the slightest hesitation,

Smeared across Hailand's neck,

And because his hair was being pulled, his head was raised, and after the blade passed, the wound directly spurted blood forward, splashing high;

Hailand's eyes were full of horror and disbelief,

He really didn't expect that one day he would lose his life for eating a few more steamed buns…

"I,

Am the son of the Regent Prince."