Chapter 1498: Chapter 1415: Hungry Soldiers

The Qin Country soldiers, lined up in a long queue, were receiving their food, but there was almost nothing left to eat at the place providing their supplies.

The cooks were embarrassed too. They were tasked with making porridge for these hungry soldiers, but even with a lot of water added, there still wasn’t enough rice.

Each soldier could only have a spoonful of what was barely distinguishable from plain water, so-called rice porridge, paired with a rock-hard biscuit and some unknown leafy greens gathered nearby, making up their lunch.

Even under such hardship, they could only eat two meals a day because the Qin Country’s food supplies were running thin.

Two consecutive years of war had affected Qin Country’s grain production, and last year’s harvest from the Shu Territory had all been transported to the front lines, left at places like Xiajian, Dongqing, and Xishan.

In a sense, those supplies could be considered enemy support: they became spoils of the Great Tang Empire and were distributed to the starving people of the Chu and Shu Territories.

Now, as the cold spring arrived, it’s Qin Country’s turn to experience the hardship of the lean season, unable to provide enough food for the soldiers.

The remaining Qin Army troops in the Shu Territory could still rob civilians to barely survive, but the Qin Army near the Great West Pass in the north could only resign themselves to fate.

There was no choice; the food within Qin Country was almost depleted. How could there be anything extra to continue supporting the front line? Those soldiers who had been conscripted had been scattered everywhere and were now gathered in one place; how could they be so easily fed?

“How is this enough to eat? Marching dozens of miles a day, how can such pitiful food suffice? Give us more, please? Just a little bit more, I beg you,” pleaded an elderly soldier, looking around age fifty, by the pot of porridge.

He was truly starving; there hadn’t been much to eat here for days, with only one meal a day, later split into two servings of thin porridge, causing everyone to bitterly complain.

“Yeah, it’s been days with just this much food each day. We’re risking our lives for the country, and they won’t even provide us a full meal?” a young soldier behind the old one grumbled in dissatisfaction.

Many had heard how quickly troops were dying on the front line, and even the wounded returning couldn’t keep their mouths shut.

The brutality of the Tang People was no longer a secret among the new recruits. Everyone had come here ready to die for their country, yet they couldn’t even get a bite to eat before reaching the front lines.

“Don’t make things hard for us. We can’t do anything… We just get this much rice from above, so all we can do is make this much porridge,” the head of the cooking unit, responsible for distributing food, said helplessly, spreading his hands in a laughable cry of frustration.

He didn’t dare to withhold rations; it’s not like the officers above gave more. Looking at the porridge, as thin as hot water, this head of the cooking unit had no solution either.

“Are you stealing food?” someone in the distance, frustrated with hunger, began to shout. He’d been subsisting on mere bits of biscuits and porridge for days, already starving to despair, and he was immediately incensed seeing the food queue stall.

No one knew if it was a misunderstanding or someone misheard, but the line suddenly erupted with shouts: “What? Just this little food and they dare steal it? Beat them to death!”

“Beat them to death!” The outraged queue quickly descended into chaos. The guards on duty were flustered; they’ve never seen such a scene before.

Those standing guard only had rifles now since all the submachine guns had already been sent to the front lines.

By the time several nearby soldiers took down their slung rifles and chambered rounds to suppress these crazed people, everyone was already fighting.

“Stop! Stop!” some panicked Qin Country soldiers yelled loudly, but they dared not do anything to the army already tearing each other apart — heaven forbid if they got caught up and accidentally got beaten to death too.

Finally, word reached the officer’s tents; whether they heard the shouting themselves or someone reported it, a few officers hurried over.

The arriving officers drew their pistols and fired shots into the air, yet they found the situation seemed even more out of control now.

“They fired! Denying us food and killing us!” some soldiers, delirious with hunger, shouted with bloodied eyes, rushing towards the direction of the gunshots.

“Kill them! Kill them!” Soldiers, unclear on the situation and with empty stomachs, had little care left and charged forward. The crowd grew more chaotic, completely out of control by now.

The officers were startled and hurriedly commanded the idle guards beside them to open fire. The guards raised their rifles and shot into the crowd, causing a brief panic among them.

But soon, the soldiers, driven mad by hunger, became even more frenzied. For these soldiers, starving for days, death by any means was still death, so why not try to seize some food?

The furious crowd instantly swallowed the officers and guards who fired, while over at the porridge stall, the few in the cooking unit had already been beaten to death by the surging mob.

The head of the cooking unit, when beaten, spat out porridge mixed with blood, making those around even angrier.

These cooking unit members indeed secretly ate a few more bites. They were hungry too and, naturally, used their position to fill themselves first…

On ordinary days, it might not have been a problem, but now it became damning evidence. However much the head pleaded, surrounded and continuously beaten, it was useless.

Initially, he begged for mercy, then could only wail, and finally, he couldn’t even make a sound — in fact, by the end, when his body was discovered, it was little more than minced meat.

The officers who fired their pistols were also beaten to pulp after running out of bullets, and those Qin Army soldiers ordered to shoot were all killed in this turmoil.

The now bloodthirsty Qin Army soldiers rushed straight into the granary within their barracks, hoping to have a full meal and then figure out what next.

But upon discovering there was virtually no food inside the granary, they quickly calmed down.

Despair spread among the soldiers, and then they realized they had killed their officers and duty soldiers, with dozens of them dying in the brawl too.

The problem remained unsolved, as they still had no food. And now, a new issue arose: who would they go to for food?