Chapter 5 Receiving Food
There were more than ten places where the spoils were counted, and there were hundreds of people lined up in each place.

Lu Yuan walked to the place where his team received food.

There was just a table, a few people, and some supplies nearby.

The sergeant in charge of counting next to the table was wearing complete leather armor. While counting the spoils handed in by the soldiers, he nodded and bowed to a man next to him who was wearing even heavier chain mail. After finishing the counting, he kept asking for the other's opinion.

Only after the other party nodded did he let the soldier next to him distribute the things to the person who came to hand in the spoils.

The road was long and we waited in line until the sun began to set and the sunset dyed the clouds red.

From the cave, curls of smoke wafted out with a hint of meat aroma.

When he smelled the food, Lu Yuan’s stomach started to growl.

When they were almost at the end of the road, the man in chain mail said to the sergeant who was counting the items impatiently:
"Hurry up, the meal is ready, and I have to have dinner and drinks with the brigade commander."

The sergeant apologized repeatedly, then shouted at Lu Yuan:
"Hey, that skinny guy, take out the things quickly. You've delayed Captain Zhao's meal. Be careful not to break your bones."

Lu Yuan didn't say much. He took a step forward and took out the two bloody ears from his pocket.

When the two ears were taken out, the man in leather armor and even the man in chain mail looked straight at him.

This made Lu Yuan confused for a moment.

Is there something wrong with the way the ear is cut?
Why are these people looking at me like that?

Lu Yuan looked carefully at the two ears in his hand, made sure they were cut off intact, and placed them on the table for counting.

The sergeant picked up the pair of ears and examined them carefully.

After confirming that this was not a random ear cut off to get the job done, he looked at the other person in surprise.

He knew this person, who had just joined them the day before yesterday and was assigned to their group, the next squad.

Today is the opponent's first battle.

Those who have just joined the army are not eligible for food.

The man was already skin and bones, and had been hungry for more than a day. When he was going down the mountain, he walked very unsteadily.

Now, he actually cut off a pair of ears?

He wouldn't be that surprised if he got an ear.

But getting a pair would prove that the other side had killed an officer and soldier alone.

Or an ear snatched from someone else.

Those officers and soldiers were real soldiers of the imperial court and were assigned to Qingping Town.

Each of them is not only well-equipped and strong, but also has extremely rich combat experience, which is far beyond the reach of these newly joined rookies.

Even for veteran soldiers, three or even four are needed to fight.

The opponent's ears were probably cut off by him after fighting with the soldier when the soldier was seriously injured.

The most important thing is that he still kept his ear.

This is enough to show that the other party has some ability.

There are twenty people in a squad, and there are five small teams.

A team of four people is responsible for killing one officer or soldier.

If the other party could cut off the ear by himself, then the people in the team with him should all be dead.

If people from other teams saw him getting the spoils alone, they would definitely want to snatch them away.

The brigade commander would not care about such matters.

After all, these were just refugees recruited locally, not his personal soldiers. The personal soldiers had all gone to the county town to steal food.

There are countless such refugees. We can do whatever they want with them as long as they are not killed at will. We will not care.

The sergeant was indeed a little surprised that this man was able to bring back the spoils.

He glanced at the tattered leather armor on the other person and said nothing.

This man should have taken the weapons and armor from the officers and soldiers, but they would not take them.

They had leather armor and some ordinary quality iron tools, and even better quality fine iron.

They don't like things that are damaged like this.

He glanced at Captain Zhao beside him. Captain Zhao had already withdrawn his gaze from Lu Yuan and casually said to the sergeant who was doing the inventory:
"give him.".

The sergeant took out his pen and pointed the tip of the pen at the bamboo slip and asked:
"what name.".

However, for miscellaneous soldiers, you generally don’t need to ask their names; at most they will be given a number.

However, if the other party has made a contribution, then a record must be left here.

"It's a long way."

Lu Yuan gave his name.

It seems that no one here knows the original name of this body, or perhaps in this chaotic world, the original body has no name.

That's perfect, he doesn't need to change his name, otherwise he would have to rack his brains to remember it.

The sergeant wrote on the bamboo slip and shouted:
"The road is long, take five taels of rice!"

At the same time, a soldier picked up a rice scoop, scooped a small scoop of rice from a bag, weighed it a few times, and poured it to Lu Yuan.

Lu Yuan stretched out a piece of rag as a pocket and caught the white rice, his face showing excitement.

He smelled the meat and vegetables coming from the cave behind these people and was extremely hungry.

He definitely couldn't eat the meat in there, but what he got was real rice.

Later he will eat some raw food while making a fire and cooking!
Until the rice was completely poured into his hands.

Lu Yuan's expression changed.

He weighed it with his hand for a few times, and said with a somewhat unpleasant expression:
"Sir, this... this is not enough, right?"

His previous life was not lived in vain. When cooking, he knew exactly how many people to serve and how much rice to use.

Moreover, he was extremely hungry and extremely sensitive to weight.

He weighed the rice and realized that it was less than four ounces!

It's more than one or two taels less!

How could he endure this?
Even if it's half a pound, it's actually not enough to eat.

With just over one or two ounces of rice, he can eat it raw while cooking!

There was so much missing that he had to ask questions to see if the other party had made a mistake.

As soon as he said this, several eyes were directed at him.

Lu Yuan faced all these gazes, bowed slightly, lowered his head, and looked extremely respectful.

The Zhao sergeant wearing chain mail looked at Lu Yuan coldly and uttered a few words:

"You don't know the rules!"

The sergeant slammed the table and shouted:

"What's not enough?" He said, looking at Lu Yuan with cold eyes:
"With your small body, you keep thinking about eating all day long, be careful not to eat too much and die!"

This kid is so ungrateful.

The brigade commander was responsible for distributing the rations to the leaders of each troop, and then to the two hundred soldiers under the troop, according to their military merits.

But this huge power has been handed over to the leaders, so how could they keep their hands clean?
All the soldiers were the same. They reported one catty of rice, but were only given six or seven taels.

Of the money that was withheld, the sergeant took the lion's share, while the sergeant took a smaller portion.

This is already the consensus of the entire brigade.

As for such things, the brigade commander turned a blind eye and ignored them completely, which was tantamount to tacitly accepting them.

After all, although this brigade has 2,000 people, the real personal soldiers, including these sergeants and corporals, are only more than 300 people.

These people are from the same village as the brigade commander. They form a real interest group. They are loyal to the brigade commander and will protect his interests.

The brigade commander also has to rely on these people to maintain his position. If he doesn't give them more food, how can they be loyal to him?
This ungrateful thing in front of me actually dares to shout here.

If the brigade commander in the cave behind heard it and the matter of these few taels was weighed, it might not necessarily lead to any consequences, but Captain Zhao would definitely lose face.

So he stood up and angrily scolded the ungrateful newcomer.

(End of this chapter)