A robust young man with slightly dark skin was pushing a manure cart piled high with horse dung toward the barracks' exit.
Chen Mo had eaten quite a lot over the past month. With his share of the profits from secretly selling horse dung, he could buy some meat every few days.
As a result, he was visibly much stronger than when he had first started shoveling dung. The two-hundred-odd-pound one-wheeled manure cart moved forward and backward with ease in his hands, without making him strain in the slightest.
"Come on, let's go. If we move quickly today, we might still make it to the market." Chen Mo called to Ding Bao, who was pushing the other manure cart.
Shoveling and delivering dung was grueling work, so ever since Chen Mo had become capable of pushing a manure cart, the three of them had begun taking turns resting.
The soldiers guarding the gate had long since grown accustomed to them. Covering their noses, they waved for them to hurry up and leave.
After pushing the carts for more than ten li, they saw an old man in hemp clothes by the roadside. He held a weighing rod in one hand and carried a basket on his back.
The man was a dung collector. The horse dung they had been secretly selling during this period all went to him.
"Old man, could you hurry it up?" Chen Mo stopped the cart and, seeing the old man's leisurely movements, could not help urging him on.
The old man nodded in agreement, but his movements did not become much faster.
"Forty-four jin and seven liang. I'll count it as forty-five jin for you. How about fifty copper coins?" The old man raised the weighing rod, examined it carefully, and only then spoke.
"Deal." Chen Mo nodded in satisfaction, having no objections to the price.
Although they could have earned more by walking another dozen li and selling the dung directly to farmers, the risk of being discovered would then have been far too great.
The whole point of trading with this man was that it was safe and trouble-free.
The old man could not possibly betray them, either. With a steady source of horse dung, he was able to earn quite a bit more each month.
After taking the copper coins the old man handed him, Chen Mo counted them once in front of him before putting them into his money pouch.
After the transaction, both sides nodded to one another. Chen Mo continued pushing the cart along the main road.
"Mo-ge, when General Sun chooses his personal guards, do you think we'll be able to get in?" Ding Bao took the initiative to strike up a conversation with Chen Mo as he pushed the cart.
Ever since Chen Mo had given them the idea a month ago to confess the dung-selling matter to He Ma Guan themselves, the two of them had not become utterly devoted to him, but they respected him considerably more and wanted to hear his opinion about everything.
As for the personal guards, Chen Mo had only decided to tell Ding Bao after discussing it with Ma Cai.
The two of them could not necessarily keep hiding it from him forever.
If Ding Bao learned later that they had kept him in the dark, it would only damage the harmony between them all.
Ma Cai had connections, but Chen Mo did not. If Ma Cai was selected as a personal guard and left, Chen Mo would still have to continue getting along with Ding Bao.
"Who knows? There's no set procedure for this. Let's just do a good job feeding the horses." Chen Mo answered casually.
The Mortal Transformation Pearl in his abdomen had already accumulated nearly seventy percent of the necessary qi and blood. At present, he only hoped that the personal-guard selection would be delayed a little longer.
Although he did not know the specific requirements for selecting personal guards, as long as he could complete the first Mortal Transformation and increase his strength, he ought to be chosen.
The two of them pushed the carts off the main road, passed through a country path, and arrived before a military camp.
Though this place was called a military camp, it actually looked more like a manor.
The three hundred mu of land belonging to the commandant's household was all farmed by the soldiers stationed here.
The harvest naturally all belonged to the commandant. For the soldiers working the fields, being able to get enough food to fill their bellies already counted as decent treatment. There was not much difference between this and selling themselves into slavery.
They dumped the two cartloads of horse dung beside the dung heap, then pushed the carts away.
After walking another three or four li, they arrived at a market that was nearly closing for the day.
They spent one copper coin to have someone watch the little carts for them, then began wandering around.
Chen Mo had a clear goal: eat meat.
He bought a jin-plus dead-dough flatbread and wrapped more than half a jin of sauced meat inside it. Chen Mo ate more than half in only three or five bites.
Shoveling dung and feeding horses was already exhausting work. On top of that, he had to replenish the qi and blood consumed by the Mortal Transformation Pearl, so Chen Mo's appetite was far greater than an ordinary person's.
He took out copper coins from his robe and paid the vendor. While eating the remaining half of the rolled flatbread, he also bought a jin of white sugar and half a jin of pig's head meat for He Ma Guan.
He had already instructed the vendor to prepare these before they came, and had given himself the money in advance.
After buying everything, he retrieved the one-wheeled cart. A short while later, Ding Bao finally returned, his face flushed red.
"Let's go." Chen Mo was not surprised in the slightest. He knew Ding Bao had gone to the little wine stall again.
By the time the two of them returned to the camp, the sun was already leaning westward.
When they reached the shed where steamed corn buns were made, Chen Mo lifted the lid of the pot. Inside were thirteen or fourteen still-steaming buns.
These horse rations were not eaten secretly by him alone. Everyone ate them, though no one else ate as many as he did.
Chen Mo first ate two to pad his stomach, intending to save the rest for a midnight snack.
The kitchen would be serving dinner later, and eating too much now would be a bad idea.
For every meal, these horse handlers received five coarse-grain corn buns and a large bowl of vegetables. The other soldiers received only three.
As for the commandant's several personal guards, not only could they eat refined grain every day and avoid the camp's rough, miscellaneous labor, but someone even washed their clothes for them, and they received a monthly stipend.
They also got one day of leave every ten days, half a jin of wine, and one jin of meat.
That was merely the treatment given to the commandant's personal guards. It was easy to imagine that General Sun's personal guards would receive even better treatment.
"Mo-ge." Ma Cai returned from the kitchen carrying food. Seeing him, he hurriedly called out.
"What is it?" Chen Mo asked as he wiped the table.
"Did you see the notice posted in the camp? In another month, General Sun will be recruiting personal guards from our camp." Ma Cai's rough face was filled with excitement.
He had joined the army precisely to wait for this opportunity. Now, he had finally gotten his chance.
"Did it say how they'll be selected?" Chen Mo pressed.
There was still a month left. As long as nothing unexpected happened, he would certainly be able to accumulate enough qi and blood to undergo his first Mortal Transformation.
"It didn't say, but I'd guess there's an eighty percent chance they'll have us lift stones to compare strength." Ma Cai's tone was firm.
To select personal guards from a group of big soldiers who had only done odd jobs and had barely trained at all, it was impossible that they would test military skills such as horsemanship and archery.
They should simply test their strength and see what sort of physical foundation they had. As long as their foundation was good enough, everything else could be trained slowly.
"We'll see when the time comes. I wonder if at least one of us brothers can be selected." Chen Mo replied.
A month from now was neither far nor near. For now, the most important thing was to eat his fill and accumulate more qi and blood.
"I feel like I can do it." Ma Cai smiled confidently. He had dared to join the army because he was definitely robust, and of the three, he was also the strongest.
Chen Mo smiled but said no more. He speared four corn buns with his chopsticks, took the white sugar and pig's head meat he had bought, and went to deliver them to He Ma Guan.
"Master He." Chen Mo pushed open the door and entered the barracks room.
He Ma Guan was tidying the brushes used to groom the horses. Warhorses had to be brushed frequently, every few days or after being ridden.
Most of the time, no water was needed. The brush was enough to scrub away the dust and mud.
Grooming horses was also a strenuous task that required experience. Warhorses were fierce by nature, and among the horse handlers, only Master He could brush them.
"This is the meat and sugar. I also brought you the corn buns for dinner."
Chen Mo placed each of the things he had been asked to buy on the table, then took three copper coins from his robe.
"The pig's head meat was cheaper by the end, so there are three copper coins left."
After explaining where the money had come from, he took out another twenty-six copper coins and placed them on the table.
"The dung sold for fifty copper coins. This share is yours."
He Ma Guan glanced over the copper coins on the table and could not help smiling.
It was not as though he had never asked others to buy things for him before. It was just that they either occasionally made mistakes or forgot to buy something, or else gave him short weight.
Only Chen Mo had never shorted him by even the slightest amount. He would not even pocket a single copper coin when the price of the goods changed.
"You've heard that General Sun is recruiting personal guards, haven't you?" He Ma Guan slowly gathered the copper coins from the table and asked.
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