"Since we're almost at the riverbank, there's no need to rush. After several days of marching, the soldiers are exhausted. Rest where you are first, eat the military rations, then inspect your attire and see if there are any oversights."
Listening to Liu Hong's report, Qiu Yan nodded, issued his orders, then dismounted and walked to a patch of grass by the roadside, where he sat cross-legged.
Behind him, the many soldiers spread out, yet the distances and positions between them all followed a pattern. They looked loose and scattered, but every pair corresponded to one another, guarding each other's flanks. At the slightest change, they could respond immediately.
Clop! Clop! Clop!
There were warhorses in this force as well. Once the riders dismounted, they all sat down according to their training, held their breath and calmed their minds, adjusted their breathing rhythm, then took military rations from their arms and bit into them.
At once, a rich fragrance filled the air.
Nearby, several heavily guarded men watched the others devour their rations with faces full of envy.
These military rations were made into cakes, using crops grown from seeds cultivated by Qiu Yan as their ingredients, then prepared through special stir-frying methods and reinforced with the Kitchen God's Divine Power. While intact, they showed little unusual about them, but once bitten open, one could see an aura of qi and blood wafting out from within.
Such military food was not truly difficult to make, but ordinary armies could never provide it, because its simplicity of production rested upon other prerequisites—
First, there had to be the special crops cultivated by Qiu Yan, and there also had to be the Kitchen God's completely unreserved Divine Power reinforcement. Those two conditions alone were not easy to fulfill in present-day Great Rui.