1890 King of Southeast Asia

October 17th, plateau, about 200 kilometers northeast of Sunlight City.

Zhao Erfeng was holding a tin can and sipping soup.

"General, I have found out the news. This place is only three or four hundred miles away from Sunlight City. It can be reached in three days by horseback." The guard walked to Zhao Erfeng.

Zhao Erfeng had a geomancy map on him, but it was said to be a geomancy map. The painting was relatively abstract. It was okay to use it to determine the direction, but it was not very accurate to determine the distance.

Therefore, it was generally based on finding out the news.

"Most of the residents here are loyal to China. They are quite tolerant of us. We will try our best to supply the army with whatever we have."

"But after all, the city is small and the people are few. The army cannot stay here for too long, so as not to cause them too much burden."

Zhao Erfeng nodded and said, took out a piece of mutton jerky, threw it into the can, and put it on the fire to cook.

More than 40 days, according to the original plan, they should have reached Sunlight City, but now they are here.

Along the way, they followed the trail. A few days ago, the scenery was beautiful along the way, but when they entered the forest area, everything changed.

First, the weather was not good. It started to rain lightly. It rained lightly for three consecutive days, and the temperature dropped to below zero at night.

The people were prepared, nothing happened, and the horses were well taken care of, but the sheep could not withstand it and most of them were sick.

As a last resort, Zhao Erfeng ordered the slaughter of all sick sheep and made them into jerky, which took a day.

Then, the army drove the sheep to the steep area. Because the sheep did not eat well and traveled quickly, they lost weight seriously and gradually began to get sick.

Zhao Erfeng wanted to take advantage of the good weather and travel quickly. He didn't have much time to take care of these sheep, so he slaughtered some of them, and after a full meal, he let the rest go.

Who knew that after advancing for a full two thousand miles, he only met five families. On the thirty-fifth day, the food was eaten up, but there was still no human habitation.

What was even more troublesome was that they got lost and found out after traveling more than 200 miles that during this period, all the food except horses and medicines had been eaten.

After advancing for another day, just when Zhao Erfeng was about to order the horses to be killed, they finally encountered people, not a small family, but a small tribe.

I don’t know whether it was because of the tens of thousands of soldiers with green eyes or because they were really loyal to the court, the tribe warmly entertained Zhao Erfeng and his men.

They used all the sheep of the tribe except the breeding sheep, including lambs.

In one meal, Zhao Erfeng’s army ate half of their property - a thousand sheep.

Of course, they actually not only raised sheep, but also cattle and yaks.

However, this thing is not only meat, but also an indispensable tool for people in the plateau. Zhao Erfeng would not move it unless necessary.

There was food before, so he didn’t move it. Now there are enough sheep to eat, so there is no need to move it.

Zhao Erfeng took all the sheep and only gave them money, because he had nothing else to give, but money has limited effect on the plateau.

Considering that they might starve to death, Zhao Erfeng took them along, with only about one or two hundred people.

The remaining sheep were made into mutton jerky, including the breeding sheep. Zhao Erfeng promised that he would find the strongest and fattest breeding sheep for him after arriving in Sunlight City.

The tribal leader was easy to talk to. He held a large amount of banknotes, held back tears, and followed the army with his family all the way to Jiali.

The people of Jiali warmly entertained Zhao Erfeng. This is a city with a large population nearby, enough for the army to rest and recuperate, at least for the time being, there is no need to worry about starvation.

"The road is still difficult to travel!"

"Send someone on a fast horse to the riverside and tell them to organize and dispatch a batch of food as soon as possible, otherwise the plateau will definitely rebel."

Zhao Erfeng fiddled with the mutton and felt that it was almost done, so he started to eat it.

The mutton was not specially processed, but simply smoked into jerky, and only salt was added to the soup as a seasoning, which smelled a bit.

Even so, Zhao Erfeng still ate it in a few bites.

He had been eating like this for a while, and he was used to it. For those soldiers, every day was meat, just like the New Year.

The only flaw was that the mutton was lean and had little fat, so it was not strong enough to eat.

"We have wasted a lot of time on the way, and we can't wait any longer." Zhao Erfeng finished the last vegetable and wiped his mouth.

"Are we going to move camp? Some brothers' injuries haven't healed yet." The guards reminded softly.

Not all people had a smooth journey. Many people got sick or had difficulty adapting to the local climate, and some were injured.

After all, the mountain roads were rugged, and if you were not careful, you would get injured. At the least, you would get bumped or twisted, and at the worst...

Anyway, there were already hundreds of injured and sick people in Zhao Erfeng's wounded camp.

Bringing them with you would not only be a burden, but they might also be unable to return because of fatigue and other reasons.

"The wounded soldiers' camp will stay in Jiali, and we will leave them some money to take good care of them."

"They didn't die on the way to the charge, but fell here instead. They can't even get any honor. How pathetic." Zhao Erfeng shook his head.

Many people who died on the road didn't even know where their bodies went. According to the pension mechanism during the Qing Empire period, they could only get the minimum pension of thirty taels.

Of course, the system is here, and whether it can actually be paid and how much it can be paid depends on whether your superiors are evil.

The original text comes from Tower \u0026 Reading Novels~\u0026

Looking at it this way, it's actually not bad. The Qing Empire is one of the few dynasties whose central government does not owe military pay very much, but it is generally backward and the officials are corrupt, so most of the military pay paid was withheld.

The combat effectiveness of the Qing Empire army is maintained by high salaries. When it cannot control its officers and cannot pay the military salaries, the combat effectiveness collapses.

"Send the order to rest for one night and move the camp tomorrow. This place is only 400 miles away from Riguang City. We will talk about rest after arriving at Riguang City." Zhao Erfeng said indifferently.

…………

"Living Buddha, the British envoy, Mr. Charlie is here, and he brought an officer with him." The envoy knelt on the ground humbly and said to the 13th Dalai Lama.

"Quick, please invite him in." The 13th Dalai Lama was meditating, and he opened his eyes and said.

After a while, a British gentleman in a tuxedo, holding a civilized cane and wearing a civilized hat came in, followed by a lieutenant colonel officer.

"Dear Living Buddha, this is our British Empire's head, Lieutenant Colonel Will." Charlie introduced very gentlemanly.

"Mr. Living Buddha, it's nice to meet you. You can call me Captain Will, or Lieutenant Colonel." Will also saluted slightly and said with a little arrogance.

"Captain Will? Mr. Charlie, have the soldiers sent by the British to help me arrived? The latest news is that the Han army has arrived in Jiali and is not far from Sunlight City." The 13th Dalai Lama asked expectantly.

"Yes, the 16th Rifle Regiment of the British Indian Army of the British Empire, that is, the army of Lieutenant Colonel Will, is only 20 kilometers away from Sunlight City and will arrive in Sunlight City tomorrow."

"The British Empire will defend you from all possible attacks, of course, the premise is that we must do justice."

"This involves some necessary procedures, such as... the plateau is still under the rule of China in terms of legal basis, we can't... do you understand?" Charlie said with a wink.

"I understand, of course I understand. I have prepared the edict, and you can issue it when you arrive in Sunlight City." The 13th Dalai Lama nodded.

"Of course, this is not enough, London needs a reasonable reason." Charlie took out a stack of papers.

"These are necessary procedures for the British Empire to legitimately help you and your people. When we drive away the Chinese, these will become invalid."

"Now, I need your consent..."