The Person Who Left the Deepest Impression

Chapter 34: The Most Memorable Person

Li Dingguo led his team of fifteen young Martial Artists forward. He noticed that the flow of people on the streets was less than before the Rebel Army captured the county town.

The ordinary people hurrying by along the way showed no sign of panic on their faces; instead, they seemed much more composed.

The biggest change in Dingbian City now was the absence of wealthy young masters in fine clothes and on spirited horses, and the lack of arrogant officials and gang members who used to run rampant.

These types of people had basically been cleared out by the Rebel Army.

Some who saw the writing on the wall had long since fled the county town, or were honestly lying low at home, avoiding the trouble.

Most of the shops along the streets in the market were closed.

But there were also some shops open for business, and quite a few people were going in to buy things.

The shops that were tightly shut were basically those that had been confiscated by the Rebel Army soldiers.

Most of those were properties belonging to local gentry and officials.

Those still open for business were mostly the traveling merchants, the kind who did business across the country.

Generally speaking, no Rebel Army would easily offend them; instead, they would try their best to maintain good relations.

The Rebel Army needed a large amount of various resources, and the vast sums of money obtained from raiding homes had no good way to be spent. The vast majority of their various supplies needed to rely on these traveling merchants to be purchased quickly.

On the main street, small teams of ordinary Rebel Army soldiers occasionally walked by. Seeing Li Dingguo and the other youths dressed in Martial Artist attire, they quickly made way.

The Eight Great Kings, Zhang Xianzhong, had made such a big move recently, spending countless resources and energy to train a Beggar Camp. In the future, they would definitely be given important tasks and become the backbone of the Rebel Army soldiers.

All the soldiers in the city who had joined the Rebel Army were already aware of these matters, so of course they wouldn't rashly offend these young Martial Artists.

To put it bluntly, among the several thousand Rebel Army soldiers the Eight Great Kings had recruited in total, the vast majority were no match for the youths of this Beggar Camp, which was entirely composed of Martial Artists.

It wasn't that Zhang Xianzhong didn't want to train more adult Martial Artist soldiers, nor was it that he couldn't recruit people; it was that there weren't enough cultivation resources.

This problem not only plagued the Rebel Armies in various places, but also the officials, gentry, powerful clans, and even the imperial court were deeply troubled by it.

Nothing else, the resources used by Martial Artists for cultivation were too precious, and as the spiritual energy between heaven and earth gradually decreased, the number of various Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, Spirit Grass, and Spirit Roots in the world became increasingly scarce.

Even the difficulty of artificially cultivating various Spirit Grass and Spirit Roots for sustainable development was increasing. Under normal circumstances, it was very difficult to train Martial Artists in large quantities.

Among all the armies of the imperial court, the majority of the military households and soldiers were ordinary people, and the proportion of Martial Artists was less than thirty percent.

These types of ordinary soldiers could only be used as logistical personnel and were unable to truly go to the battlefield to fight against enemies, Demons and Monsters.

The ratio of Martial Soldiers to ordinary soldiers in Zhang Xianzhong's newly formed Rebel Army was even worse.

Martial Soldiers only accounted for about ten percent of the Rebel Army's personnel, and the remaining soldiers were composed of the Rebel Army's family members and logistical soldiers.

The fighting strength of this Rebel Army was entirely supported by these Martial Soldiers.

Those ordinary logistical soldiers were useless in combat and didn't even qualify as cannon fodder on the battlefield.

This was the biggest difference between this vast world and the Great Ming Empire in Li Dingguo's previous life's history.

They walked quickly for about a quarter of an hour and arrived at the market located in the eastern part of the city.

The streets on both sides were very wide, and the area in the middle was somewhat similar to a plaza in his previous life, about thirty to forty zhang in size.

Crossroads intersected through the middle of the large plaza, and the road surface was paved with bluestone slabs.

On both sides of each main road at the intersection, markets were formed by the common people setting up stalls.

In the market that Li Dingguo and the others saw now, there weren't many people setting up stalls.

In the large open area to the southeast of the market, a large porridge shed had been set up, and some logistical soldiers of the Rebel Army were responsible for distributing porridge for disaster relief.

In this regard, Zhang Xianzhong, who had great ambitions, did much better than the officials.

At least the displaced people, beggars, and other unfortunate souls who came to receive relief were orderly under the guidance and command of dozens of Rebel Army logistical soldiers, obediently lining up.

Li Dingguo had heard a few days ago that this kind of relief and porridge distribution had started the day after the Eight Great Kings, Zhang Xianzhong, captured the county town.

And it continued non-stop from morning to evening every day.

Because he had captured a county town and looted and confiscated the properties of the wealthy households and officials within it, Zhang Xianzhong was not lacking in money, food, and supplies now.

Anyway, most of these supplies and food couldn't be taken away when the Rebel Army retreated and fled, so it was better to use them to help the people and win their support.

In fact, in the history of the late Great Ming Empire in Li Dingguo's previous life, Zhang Xianzhong was also the Rebel Army leader who most liked to open granaries, distribute food, and help the vast number of suffering people, without exception.

Even in later generations, in many places where Zhang Xianzhong's army had been, there were still temples built spontaneously by the people of that time for him, and incense was still offered.

After the Later Jin Tartars took advantage of the weakness and seized the land of China, they controlled the literati of the world and spared no effort to smear and slander the Eight Great Kings, Zhang Xianzhong, attributing the horrific massacres they carried out repeatedly to Zhang Xianzhong.

The only thing that could be criticized about Zhang Xianzhong was that after winning countless battles, he was too fond of killing all the enemies and then setting fire to their residences, which led to the destruction of countless ancient buildings in one fire after another.

But this was a common problem among Rebel Armies throughout history, not just Zhang Xianzhong.

Or rather, every Rebel Army that rose up and was dedicated to changing dynasties had done this for thousands of years of Chinese civilization, without exception.

"Boss, look, it's Little Bean Sprout and them!"

"Those who were eliminated from the Martial Artist selection earlier are also lining up in front of the porridge shed to get porridge."

"Look at Little Bean Sprout and them, they look much better than before!"...

Just as he looked towards the porridge shed, the orphaned youths around Li Dingguo immediately noticed something, and they all exclaimed in surprise.

"Little Bean Sprout?"

As Li Dingguo watched the skinny, dark-skinned little girl emerge from the crowd, holding a bowl of thin gruel, scene after scene of their time together flashed involuntarily through his mind.

The most vivid memory was the time Li Dingguo got a high fever after eating spoiled food he'd begged for on the streets. It was this small, frail figure who cried and took care of him day and night.

At that time, he almost didn't make it.

Fortunately, he had good natural physical talent, with strong recovery and resistance, and ultimately pulled through without serious incident, escaping a brush with death.

This little girl, who didn't have a name of her own and was called Little Bean Sprout by everyone, was a year older than Li Dingguo.

Little Bean Sprout wasn't tall, and she was dark and thin, looking so fragile that it seemed a strong gust of wind could blow her away.

"Little Bean Sprout!"

The deepest memory left by his previous self surged out uncontrollably at this moment. Li Dingguo called out her name and strode towards her