A bucket of instant noodles wasn't much for them, but the taste was delicious. They unknowingly finished all the soup and noodles and still wanted more.
"This thing is made very cleverly, no wonder it's from the High God!" General Ulric said with admiration in his eyes, feeling even more respect.
At this moment, General Yves suddenly spoke, "Didn't they say that after receiving the High God's blessing, we have to repay the vow?"
General Ulric remembered, "Right, right!"
"Commander, we were supposed to offer pigs, ducks, cattle, and sheep to the High God, but now with the city and countryside so difficult, maybe some rich families can, but I think it's a bit light. Tomorrow we plan to go up the mountain to hunt, let's see what game we can catch! Also, the gold, silver, and jewels we offered before seemed to please the High God well. I can go to the storage and pick some more to offer?"
General Ulric could decide on other things, but these spoils of war were all kept in General Yves' storage. No one could use them without his permission.
They had been fighting for years, and war brought death but also wealth. They were used to seeing gold and silver, especially after this southern campaign. Chu territory was very rich.
Gold and silver weren't rare for them.
If they could exchange it for food, they wouldn't worry about food shortages later.
Following General Yves' hint, General Ulric immediately went to prepare the offerings.
General Yves looked at the things in the yard with a strange, deep expression.
Howell felt that the commander seemed to have some plan but wasn't sure.
"Commander, should we still arrange the usual supplies to the military camp?" Howell asked General Yves.
This time, General Yves didn't send everything.
"Put it in the storage first," General Yves said.
The camp had 800 stones of grain taken from the rich, enough for about ten days. So, not all food needed to go there.
General Ulric went to assign tasks to the rich families in the city. The offerings needed were four chickens, ducks, cattle, and sheep each.
No matter if the city was dry or not, he knew these rich merchants had huge estates. These tasks were impossible for common people but easy for the rich.
Still, everyone complained bitterly, pretending to suffer.
General Ulric ignored them, only gave a deadline, and then led troops to hunt in the mountains.
They split into twenty groups, each with fifty men.
After a day and night, these 1,000 men finally came out of the mountains.
The city people locked their doors tightly. The noise in the mountains during this time was loud, and no one dared to go out, praying the soldiers wouldn't come into the city to take from them.
General Ulric's hunting results were quite good. This trip was mainly to reward his soldiers who hadn't eaten meat in a long time.
He hoped to catch game and give them something tasty.
The results were impressive: two large black bears, one small black bear, six wild boars, ten roe deer, seventeen wolves, and about seventy wild chickens and ducks.
Also, the military doctors went with them to gather herbs. Protected by soldiers, the doctors all went into the mountains.
They found valuable herbs like five lingzhi mushrooms and three ginseng roots, all at least twenty years old.
They found many other herbs too. Because of the weather, it was hard to hunt near the edges, and villagers had picked almost all the grass. So General Ulric took the troops deeper into the mountains, where more herbs grew.
They even found a water source. General Ulric arranged guards to protect it and sent people to bring water back to camp immediately.
This trip was truly fruitful.
General Ulric chose one black bear, two wild boars, and two roe deer for the offerings.
After consulting some high monks and shamans, they said precious herbs could also be offerings.
So General Ulric asked the doctors for one ginseng and two lingzhi mushrooms.
General Ulric brought the prepared offerings to see General Yves. As soon as he entered the courtyard, he was shocked by what he saw.
He had only been gone for one day, yet the courtyard was covered again.
Ulric hurried forward to check—it was all kinds of fruits spread out.
"What is this?"
He touched one, and a thorn on a durian pricked his hand.
Luckily, his skin was tough, so he quickly pulled his hand back without pain.
Howell heard the servant report that Ulric had returned and immediately came over.
When Howell arrived, he heard General Yves telling Ulric to prepare for the ritual.
Ulric nodded in response.
Everything was ready, even the priests and shamans had been brought over.
The ritual was held in General Yves' courtyard.
All the fruits from the inner courtyard had been moved to the outer courtyard.
When Howell came, he saw servants carrying basket after basket of fruits outside.
In the middle of the inner courtyard, many square tables were set up, with a robe tied to the front of each table.
The offerings Ulric brought were placed on the tables one after another.
Finally, six boxes of gold, silver, and jewels from the warehouse were placed on the tables.
The last step was for the priests and shamans to chant and perform the ceremony.
Before starting, General Yves said, "Wait, since we are thanking the gods, should we write a letter?"
He thought for a moment and said, "Let's put the letter on top of those gold and jewels!"
The moon was full, and night had quietly fallen.
...
Sophia had been busy for several days and was very tired. Only the roasted pig and whole lamb were left to prepare.
They still had to wait one more day, so Sophia wasn't in a hurry to get up.
But the pigs at home still needed feeding.
She resigned herself to getting up to wash and prepare food for the pigs.
Luckily, she fed them well. The first five piglets had grown meat again and looked rounder. The second batch of ten piglets were much livelier but still needed a few more days before the barriers could be removed, or maybe not removed at all.
After settling the pigs, Sophia cleaned up and then drove out.
She had been too busy these days to go out, so she needed to quickly take Professor Zhou's check to the bank to cash it.
Six million had already been transferred, and the check still had over one hundred million left to cash.
She ate a simple breakfast on the road—soy milk with fried dough sticks and a tea egg, spending only six yuan.
Sophia kept a low profile, not like someone worth over a hundred million.
She headed straight to the city bank. If she went to the town bank, once she showed the check, the whole village would know there was a rich person from their village the next day.
Sophia was already special in her village, attracting attention everywhere.
She only wanted to quietly make money.
Lost in thought, she soon arrived in the city.