Outside the fifty-foot Black-Iron Dragon Walls, in East Gate Parking Lot B, the two thousand elite Iron-Wolf Heavy Riders were sitting in the shade of the parking awnings with their stomachs growling like a pack of dying wolves.
They had been marching through the scorching sun for four days on dry salted jerky and muddy water. Worse still, two hours ago, Marquis Pei Zhan and Young Master Pei Heng had walked into the cool, shady city and gone straight up to the Lord’s Keep—leaving the two thousand cavalrymen sitting outside next to their manure-bagged horses without even a cup of cold water!
“Captain Liu,” a scarred cavalry sergeant named Zhang whispered, licking his cracked, bleeding lips as he stared through the open iron bars of the East Gate at the bustling food stalls inside. “Did the Marquis forget about us? Look inside the gate—even the yellow-vested road laborers are eating big bowls of red-braised pork and drinking iced plum soup! Meanwhile, my waterskin went dry at noon, and my horse is trying to chew on the wooden hitching post!”
Captain Liu, who commanded the First Heavy Cavalry Squadron, swallowed a mouthful of dry spit and rubbed his hollow belly. “What can we do? You know the Marquis’s temper. Back in Iron-Wolf City, he already cut our monthly pay in half for three months because of the drought. My old mother and my two kids back home were eating elm-bark porridge when we marched out...”
Just as Captain Liu spoke—
RUMBLE-CLANK-CLANK!
The side service gate of the city wall swung open, and twenty massive, four-wheeled iron kitchen wagons rolled right into the center of Parking Lot B!
At the exact same time, ten miles further east at the edge of the muddy Dry-Gulch Basin—where the eight thousand starving infantry porters were still stuck waist-deep in Ao Ming’s yellow clay-mud—another fleet of ten Armored Scorpion Buses pulled up along the dry stone embankment towing giant steaming cauldrons!
Standing atop the lead kitchen wagon in Parking Lot B was fat Old Guo, flanked by Boom-Pot Sun wearing his brass alchemy goggles and thirty smiling kitchen apprentices holding huge wooden wind-fans!
“Brothers of the Iron-Wolf Army! Working hard in the hot sun!” Old Guo’s booming, cheerful voice echoed across the entire parking lot as he grabbed the heavy brass handles of the twenty six-foot-tall iron cauldrons. “Lord Pei Xuan heard that our hometown soldiers haven’t had a hot meal in four days! Lift the lids!”
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Twenty giant cauldron lids were lifted at the exact same instant!
And right beside the cauldrons, fifty tall bamboo steamer-baskets—each one stacked ten layers high—were thrown open!
“Turn on the wind-fans!” Boom-Pot Sun cackled gleefully, tossing a spoonful of his special [Rank 3 Five-Spice Appetite-Opening Powder] onto the charcoal braziers underneath the pots.
WHOOOOOOSH!
Thirty big wooden wind-fans spun at once, blowing a thick, rich, golden cloud of steam straight into the faces of the two thousand starving Iron-Wolf Heavy Riders!
What was inside those twenty cauldrons and fifty bamboo steamers? * Chunks of [Rank 2 Frost-Mane Mutton] the size of a man’s fist, stewed for six hours with [Meat-Belly Giant Potatoes], star anise, cinnamon bark, and bright red chili oil until the fat glistened like amber! * Five thousand snow-white [Golden-Blood Wheat Pork Buns], stuffed so full of juicy, scallion-scented minced pork and Dragon-Marrow soup that rich golden broth oozed right through the fluffy white skins! * And twenty barrels of ice-cold [Sweet-Spring Honey-Plum Soup], clinking with crystal ice cubes made by the Frost-Crystal Sandworm!
GURGLE—ROOOOOAAAR!
In Parking Lot B, two thousand stomachs roared so loudly at the same time that it sounded like a landslide!
Several young cavalrymen in the front row actually dropped to their knees, tears streaming down their dusty cheeks as their mouths watered so fast their chins were dripping wet!
“Wait—don’t touch it!” Captain Liu tried to bite his own tongue to stay awake, his hand shaking on his sword hilt. “There’s no free lunch in the world! If we eat Lord Pei Xuan’s food, what will the Marquis do to us?!”
Just then, fifty burly town guards wearing shining black scale-armor—and riding plump, glossy warhorses twice as strong as the Marquis’s mounts—trotted out of the city gate holding big porcelain bowls heaped high with mutton stew and three giant pork buns each!
At the front of the fifty town guards rode a muscular Rank 2 Mid squad leader with a wide grin on his face.
“Wait a second—isn’t that Big Bull Wang from our Third Border Battalion?!” Sergeant Zhang pointed in shock at the muscular squad leader. “Big Bull! Didn’t you go missing during the autumn sandstorm last year?! We thought you died in the desert!”
Big Bull Wang took a huge bite out of a fist-sized pork bun, letting golden meat juice run down his chin, and laughed loudly!
“Died in the desert? Brothers, coming to Red-Sand Oasis City was the best luck of my whole life!” Big Bull Wang patted his gleaming black-iron breastplate and pointed back through the open city gates toward the shady willow streets. “When I stumbled into Dry-Well Village half-dead last autumn, Lord Pei Xuan didn’t ask for a single copper coin! He gave me Sweet-Spring water, fed me three meat meals a day, and taught me the [Iron-Anvil Body Art] for free!”
Big Bull Wang flexed his right arm with a loud BOOM of Rank 2 Mid Bone-Tempering blood-heat, making all two thousand Iron-Wolf cavalrymen gasp in envy!
“Look at me now!” Big Bull Wang shouted so every single soldier in the parking lot could hear. “Back in the Iron-Wolf Army, I was a starving Rank 1 foot soldier getting whipped by Pei Heng’s sergeants for two silver taels a year! Here in Red-Sand Oasis City, I am a Rank 2 Mid Squad Leader! I get five silver taels of cash pay every single month, three full meat meals every day, a two-story stone house with heated floors and running tap-water, and my six-year-old son goes to General Tie Zhan’s Martial Academy for free!”
“Five silver taels a month?! Three meat meals a day?! And free Rank 2 martial manuals?!”
The entire two-thousand-man cavalry camp erupted like boiling oil!
“Wait, Big Bull!” Captain Liu stepped forward, his breathing ragged and his eyes bright red. “What about our families back in Iron-Wolf City? The Marquis holds our household registrations! If we stay here in Red-Sand City, won’t the Marquis punish our wives and old mothers back home?”
Right behind the soup wagons, a wooden folding table was slammed down onto the pavement with a crisp CLACK!
Abacus Su’s chief deputy clerk—a sharp-eyed young bookkeeper wearing round spectacles just like his master—stood up behind the table holding a megaphone and a stack of red transfer vouchers!
“Soldiers of Iron-Wolf City, listen up!” the deputy clerk announced through the megaphone. “Lord Pei Xuan and Chief Accountant Su have already thought of your families! Any soldier who registers as a citizen of Red-Sand Oasis City today gets: 1. Immediate All-You-Can-Eat Mutton Stew and Pork Buns right now! 2. A Five-Silver Cash Signing Bonus in your hand today! 3. Free Family Relocation Service: Tomorrow morning, General Tie Zhan’s Armored Scorpion Bus Express will ride straight back to the eastern border towns alongside the grain wagons to pick up your wives, parents, and children—and move them directly into our newly built West Willow Residential District with thirty catties of free Golden-Blood Wheat flour per family!”
Up on the high eastern balcony of the Lord’s Keep, Marquis Pei Zhan was peering through the brass telescope just as the clerk finished shouting that offer.
Through the crystal lens of the telescope, Marquis Pei Zhan watched Captain Liu—his most trusted ten-year cavalry captain—stare at his rusty Iron-Wolf badge for two seconds, then throw the badge onto the ground, grab a wooden registration brush with both hands, and shout at the top of his lungs:
“Give me the brush! I’m signing! Where do I put my thumbprint?! And give me four pork buns—two for me and two to save for my old mother!”
“Me too! I’m signing! For five silver a month and three meat meals a day, who the hell wants to starve for Marquis Pei Zhan and that toothless brat Pei Heng?!”
“Get in line! Don’t push! Old Guo said there’s enough mutton stew for everyone who signs!”
Inside the brass telescope lens, Marquis Pei Zhan watched in utter horror as one thousand eight hundred of his two thousand elite Iron-Wolf Heavy Riders—along with thousands of mud-covered foot soldiers who had just walked up the highway from Dry-Gulch Basin following Old Guo’s soup carts—threw down their Iron-Wolf banners and formed ten neat lines in front of the registration tables!
Every time a starving soldier pressed his red thumbprint onto the citizen contract and took his first big bite of a steaming Golden-Blood Pork Bun, a bright green number popped up over his head in Pei Xuan’s vision:
* [New Citizen-Soldier Zhang San — Loyalty: 35 -> 76/100! Thought: “Real pork! Real meat juice! The Marquis gave us moldy bran, while Lord Pei gives us spirit meat! I’ll guard Red-Sand City with my life!”] * [New Citizen Captain Liu — Loyalty: 40 -> 82/100! Thought: “Five silver in my pocket and a heated stone house for my old mother! Lord Pei is a living Bodhisattva!”]
Up on the Keep balcony, Marquis Pei Zhan’s hands shook so violently that he nearly ripped the brass telescope off its marble stand!
“Traitors! Rebellious dogs! All one thousand eight hundred of them sold their loyalty for a bowl of mutton stew and two pork buns?!”
Marquis Pei Zhan coughed loudly, and a mouthful of hot blood sprayed right onto the front of his yellow [SUPREME DEBTOR #9,999] vest!
“Father! Our army! Our horses!” Pei Heng looked over the balcony railing and burst into loud, lisping sobs. “Only two hundred old family retainers from the inner courtyard are left standing by the hitching posts! All the rest of our cavalrymen are already putting on Red-Sand City uniforms and helping Old Guo wash the soup pots!”
Pei Xuan took a slow sip of his green tea, set the porcelain cup down on the railing, and turned to look at his trembling, blood-coughing father.
“Tsk, tsk. Look at that, Marquis Pei,” Pei Xuan sighed with fake sympathy. “I told you a few minutes ago that by tomorrow morning, you wouldn’t have ten thousand mouths left to feed. Now you only have two hundred old guards left—though Iron-Wolf City back east still has a hundred thousand starving civilians waiting for grain.”
Pei Xuan held out his hand toward Abacus Su, who immediately stepped forward holding a freshly drafted [Grain Purchase & Debt Settlement Contract] and a red inkpad.
“So, Marquis Pei,” Pei Xuan smiled brightly. “Do you want to sign over the land deeds to your three western border towns right now in exchange for fifty carts of grain and taking off that yellow Debtor Vest—or would you and Pei Heng like to join the fish-gutting crew at Stall #14 until next winter?”
Down below the wall, right as Pei Xuan finished asking that question, another hilarious scene broke out at the registration tables in Parking Lot B.
Rear-Guard Commander Zhou—the officer whom Marquis Pei Zhan had left behind in Dry-Gulch Basin earlier that morning—came riding up on a mud-caked ox, waving two wooden soup bowls in his hands!
“Out of the way! Let me sign first!” Commander Zhou yelled, shoving his way to the front of Table #3 with yellow clay still dripping from his beard. “When our eight thousand foot soldiers got stuck in the mud basin this morning, the Marquis and Pei Heng didn’t even leave us a single canteen of water! It was Old Guo’s Scorpion Buses that threw us tow-ropes, pulled all five hundred ox-carts out of the mud, and gave every man a hot bowl of mutton stew! I’m registering my whole rear-guard regiment for Red-Sand City right now!”
“Wait for us, Commander Zhou!”
Behind Commander Zhou, eight thousand mud-splattered foot soldiers came jogging up the Ten-Lane Highway pulling the five hundred empty ox-carts—except they didn’t look tired or starving anymore! Every single foot soldier had a big steamed pork bun in his mouth and was pulling the carts at twice his normal speed because Old Guo had promised them a second bowl of stew with extra meat-potatoes at the city gate!
“Look! Even the five hundred ox-carts and the oxen are lining up at Abacus Su’s livestock registry!”
Up on the Keep balcony, Pei Heng stared down at the five hundred ox-carts being stamped with the Red-Sand Oasis City brand, and his knees buckled completely.
“Father... he didn’t just take our two thousand cavalrymen and our eight thousand foot soldiers...” Pei Heng whimpered, tears dripping off his swollen chin onto his yellow [VIP DEBTOR #8,888] vest. “He even took the five hundred empty ox-carts we brought to haul his grain!”
Pei Xuan chuckled and patted the marble railing.
“What can I say, Eldest Brother? Abacus Su told me yesterday that we were short five hundred carts and eight thousand workers for the southern canal project,” Pei Xuan said with a warm smile. “You and Father marched three hundred miles through the sun just to deliver them to my doorstep. Honestly, if you hadn’t tried to rob my city first, I would have given you a banner for ‘Most Generous Courier of the Year’!”
Right behind Pei Xuan, Abacus Su finished tallying the final numbers on his brass abacus with a triumphant CLACK!
“My Lord! The final tally from the East Gate Registration Desk just came through the speaking-tube!” Abacus Su announced proudly, his spectacles shining like two little suns. “Out of the ten thousand soldiers Marquis Pei Zhan brought into the Red-Sand Wastes this morning: - 1,800 Rank 1 Peak / Rank 2 Early Iron-Wolf Heavy Riders have signed permanent citizen-soldier contracts! - 8,000 Infantry Porters have signed three-year municipal canal-building & farming contracts! - 1,800 Warhorses and 500 Heavy Ox-Carts (plus 1,000 Oxen) have been officially entered into the Municipal Transport Fleet! Only two hundred old inner-manor retainers refused to sign because their wives work in Lady Wang’s courtyard!”
Pei Xuan nodded approvingly. “Nine thousand eight hundred new citizens, eighteen hundred warhorses, and five hundred ox-carts—all acquired at the cost of twenty cauldrons of mutton stew and five thousand pork buns. Old Guo’s kitchen truly is the deadliest army in the northwest!”
Hearing that ninety-eight percent of his entire army had been bought off with twenty pots of stew and a basket of pork buns, Marquis Pei Zhan swayed on his feet and had to grab the marble balcony pillar to keep from fainting on the spot!