Chapter 22 Stirrups With just biscuits, it might be possible to sweep across the world.

Chapter 22: Stirrups Just by relying on biscuits, they might be able to sweep the world.

The next morning, Zhou Jinling set out with the laborers at the crack of dawn.

Jin Mingtang and the others rode all the horses away, but the carts were left behind.

Originally, Zhou Jinling had planned to have people pull the carts, but because Guan Hu had captured ten horses yesterday, these carts now had horses to pull them.

Xiao Tao was sitting in one of the carts with a few children. When she saw Zhou Jinling coming over, she asked, "Mr. Zhou, who were those people Guan Hu captured yesterday?"

Zhou Jinling dared not neglect the maidservant of the fairy maiden and quickly replied, "They were interrogated and it turned out they are from the Qian family, sent to find out about General Jin and the Lady."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Tao said, "As expected, they are from the Qian family. The people from the Qian Family Head's household are all bad sorts!"

Zhou Jinling's eyes flickered, and he smiled as he chatted with Xiao Tao, trying to find out more about the Lady's past.

Zhou Jinling was not young; he could easily be Xiao Tao's father, and his face looked very kind and gentle.

Xiao Tao really liked Zhou Jinling, so she told him many things about Jin Yanqiu's past.

Xiao Tao had always thought Jin Yanqiu was perfect in every way, and now she firmly believed Jin Yanqiu was a deity, couldn't help exaggerating a little: "Our Lady is no ordinary person! She learns everything at a glance and knows so much. Before, when the plague broke out outside Luoyang, we were all terrified, but our Lady was not flustered at all. She taught us how to protect against the plague, and in the end, not a single person on our estate got sick!"

Xiao Tao spoke of that incident with immense relief.

That plague had not been too severe; only one or two out of every ten people who caught it died, but there were over a hundred people in their estate. If someone had contracted it and it spread, a dozen or more could have died.

After telling this, Xiao Tao went on to talk about other things, such as how Jin Yanqiu taught them to fertilize, cultivate seedlings, and sow seeds...

The more Zhou Jinling heard, the more he believed Jin Yanqiu was sent by Heaven to help the suffering.

He was hitting it off so well with Xiao Tao that he almost wanted to take her as his sworn sister on the spot, when Guan Hu came over: "Mr. Zhou, can I have some more of those sandwich biscuits you gave me yesterday?"

Zhou Jinling was annoyed at being interrupted and said impatiently, "Those are meant as rewards. If you want more, don’t cause trouble."

Guan Hu cast a reluctant glance at the cart loaded with sandwich biscuits, then quickly walked over to the few troublemakers who liked to follow him and started whispering among themselves.

Soon, they moved to the front of the column.

"When we catch a few more people, we’ll get sandwich biscuits!"

"Those biscuits are really tasty. Making them must be very troublesome. How do they get them so round?"

"Must be a mold!"

...

Suddenly, Guan Hu spoke: "Quiet! There are people ahead!"

They had run into people again?

These men were overjoyed.

Guan Hu went ahead alone to scout and returned shortly. He then told the troublemakers to take grass ropes and find places to ambush them. As for him...

He picked up his large stone hammer and charged forward.

This time, there were fewer people, only five.

They were all on horseback, broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, obviously trained martial artists—much tougher than the previous lot.

But Guan Hu was not afraid!

When a skinny young man rushed out of the forest, the five big men didn't take him seriously. The one in front thrust a spear forward, trying to impale Guan Hu.

But Guan Hu swung his hammer, bashing the spear aside, and then with another swing, he smashed a horse to death.

The rider fell off, and while the others were enraged and moved to attack, Guan Hu ran ahead.

These men suspected an ambush, so two of them went after him while the others stayed put.

Indeed, there was an ambush there, but the other spots were not safe either!

Guan Hu teamed up with a dozen fearless troublemakers from the laborers and subdued this group just like they had dealt with the Qian family's third steward before.

After tying the five men securely, Guan Hu and his men gathered to discuss the next step.

"Brother Guan, there are five of them here. What if we take them one by one to Zhou Jinling? Then we can get the reward five times!"

Guan Hu was tempted but figured it wouldn’t work: "Zhou Jinling will surely find out. Let’s just send them all at once, but this time, if he doesn’t give me more reward, I’m not giving him the horses. We caught these horses—they’re ours!"

He didn’t know how to ride, but he really wanted those horses!

Having agreed, the group returned with the men and horses.

Zhou Jinling was shocked to see Guan Hu had caught more people.

Guan Hu said, "Zhou Jinling, these guys are dressed differently from Jin Mingtang and his men, and they were sneaking around. They can’t be up to any good! I’ve done meritorious service again!"

Seeing how thick these men's waists were, Zhou Jinling knew they were certainly not from the Zhenbei Army.

Guan Hu had indeed made a contribution, but Zhou Jinling was still a bit displeased: "Guan Hu, don’t call General Jin by his name directly! And why’d you have to kill another horse? Do you know how valuable horses are?"

Ten laborers aren't worth a single horse, and Guan Hu had already killed two!

Guan Hu replied, "If I hadn’t killed the horse, they’d have gotten away! And I brought back people again—you gotta give me a reward, and a bigger one this time!"

Zhou Jinling had always thought Guan Hu was no ordinary guy, and now he was even more certain.

Guan Hu was so brave; he had to help the Lady win Guan Hu over!

This time, Zhou Jinling was extra generous. He gave Guan Hu a whole basket of sandwich biscuits and half a basket each to the men who had helped him catch them.

He also promised Guan Hu that when they ate the horse meat later, he’d give Guan Hu a whole leg all to himself.

Seeing Guan Hu overjoyed, Zhou Jinling mentioned Jin Yanqiu: "The Lady has even better food. Do a good job from now on, and you’ll get some."

Guan Hu’s eyes lit up.

Clutching the basket of sandwich biscuits tightly, he went to find his brother and handed Guan Pingan a few biscuits, and began to dream aloud: "Brother, once we get to the camp, I’m joining the army. When I earn merits, I’ll trade them all for tasty food!"

Guan Pingan smiled and agreed, then took a bite of the biscuit and couldn’t help squinting with pleasure.

The sandwich biscuits were really delicious!

As they traveled, the soldiers at the camp were getting ready for winter, with cartloads of firewood and dry grass being brought in.

Jin Yanqiu noticed that some of the dry grass the soldiers had collected looked like Ula grass, but there were other types too.

After being brought in, the grass wasn’t used right away. Soldiers who couldn’t fight would sort through it and separate it by type.

They also select some of the dry grass to weave into straw sandals.

Jin Yanqiu strolled slowly through the military camp, in a good mood.

When she first arrived, the camp had been lifeless, but now the people here had life in their faces.

When they saw her and learned who she was, their faces became especially animated.

“Lady!”

“Greetings, Lady!”

“Thank you, Lady!”

...

These people thanked her one after another, and many knelt and kowtowed to Jin Yanqiu.

Jin Yanqiu was not entirely accustomed to others kowtowing to her, but since she was already pretending to be a divine being, she would have to get used to it sooner or later.

She smiled and greeted them, took a stroll outside, and then returned to her quarters.

As soon as she went back, she heard Jin Mingtang raging: “I give 'em such good food, and they still betray me!”

“Father, what’s wrong?” Jin Yanqiu asked.

Jin Mingtang said, “I posted men on the road to Yuyang City and caught several traitors sneaking off to report to Lu Deyong.”

Lu Deyong was living in Yuyang City.

So that’s it… Jin Yanqiu said, “Father, don’t be angry. It's normal for someone that rich to bribe a few people.”

Jin Mingtang sighed: “True... Forget it. Lu Deyong can’t cause much trouble; we don't need to worry about him.”

Lu Deyong was just a pawn of the Qian family. If we killed him, the Qian family could quickly find some Zhang Deyong or Zhao Deyong to replace him, so Jin Mingtang had no intention of killing him.

Putting the matter aside for now, Jin Mingtang said to Jin Yanqiu, “Qiuer, those stirrups you mentioned—I plan to have some made.”

Hearing this, Jin Yanqiu looked at her father in surprise.

Jin Mingtang said, “Now that we've got grain, I want to form the most elite cavalry. This has been my lifelong dream!”

“Father, I'm sure you'll succeed,” Jin Yanqiu said.

Speaking of stirrups… Soon after Jin Yanqiu transmigrated to this era, she noticed that the stirrups here were very different from those in later dynasties.

The Da Qi already had stirrups, but only one, used to help mount the horse, not to support the rider while riding.

As a result, cavalry in this era could only fight one-handed, which greatly reduced their combat effectiveness.

Noticing this, Jin Yanqiu recalled a video from her previous life. It was about what would happen if Li Erfeng (Li Shimin) transmigrated into Adou. The video mentioned that double stirrups already existed, but not during the Three Kingdoms period.

Stirrups were a driving force behind the rise of cavalry, greatly enhancing their combat power. The Tang Dynasty's cavalry would be a crushing force on a Three Kingdoms battlefield.

If her father's cavalry had stirrups to help them, their combat effectiveness would increase dramatically! Jin Yanqiu had mentioned double stirrups to Jin Mingtang when he first returned to Luoyang.

But Jin Mingtang had never equipped his cavalry with double stirrups.

The Zhenbei Army had few horses and only a small cavalry force.

Equipping them with stirrups would indeed boost their combat power, but if their cavalry fell in battle, the enemy would learn about the stirrups immediately.

Then the Hu cavalry would become even more formidable, and the Zhenbei Army wouldn't stand a chance.

For ten years, Jin Mingtang had never even considered equipping his cavalry with double stirrups, but now he wanted to build a powerful cavalry force.

After all, he now had enough grain to buy horses and support a cavalry.

“Qiuer, if we follow what you said before—forming light cavalry and heavy cavalry, and equipping them all with armor and stirrups—we can sweep across the land!” Jin Mingtang said excitedly.

But his excitement didn't last long before he snapped back to reality: “Wait, if we’re not facing the Hu, we might not even need cavalry. If I throw biscuits at the enemy during a battle, they'll be completely helpless!”

Jin Yanqiu imagined the scene Jin Mingtang described.

The Da Qi army was mostly infantry.

The Zhenbei Army was already considered elite. Many generals’ soldiers had received little training. When chaos came, the fighting skills of soldiers everywhere would decline even further.

Many peasants were conscripted and sent straight to the battlefield.

They often didn’t even have weapons—a hoe was a luxury.

When two armies engaged, these untrained soldiers were often thrown to the front as cannon fodder.

If they threw a large number of biscuits among these people, they would surely stop and scramble to pick them up.

If they also had someone shout that those who surrendered would get all the biscuits they wanted…

These people might get so excited that they would directly turn against their own side and serve as vanguard for their army.

Well, they might not even need cavalry. They could conquer the world with biscuits alone.