The steaming hot large basins were brought up, and the meaty aroma immediately permeated the air.

“Please, please.” The officers warmly greeted everyone.

The officers seated around the large table formed by four tables pushed together all looked eagerly at the meat on the table, but no one made a move.

Chang Yuncheng, sitting in the center, smiled and reached out to pick up a piece of meat.

“Everyone has worked hard!” he said loudly.

“The general has worked hard,” everyone replied in unison.

Then with a rush, they all reached out to grab meat and began eating heartily.

Though it was past the first lunar month, the entire northern frontier was still bitterly cold, and the hot meat going down their throats immediately made all the officers break into a sweat.

“If only we had wine,” someone laughed.

Drinking alcohol was forbidden during military campaigns.

“Ah, when I came in, I saw a large cart of wine passing by…” someone couldn’t help but say.

They had thought it was a special reward from the commander.

As it turned out, on the dining table now there was only meat, soup, and plain water – not even a wine cup was to be seen.

“That’s all for the military physicians,” a nearby soldier serving food quickly explained when he heard.

Military physicians!

The officers at the table immediately brightened up.

Commander and Military General Chang Yuncheng had come to supervise the northern frontier campaign, bringing not only four thousand reinforcement troops but also a team of miraculous military physicians.

These physicians numbered only about twenty, yet their effectiveness was equivalent to a hundred physicians in their regular army.

This time everyone had come not only to regroup and report on the current battle situation, but mainly to borrow people – to borrow military physicians.

Sure enough, someone couldn’t wait to speak up despite still chewing meat.

“…Sir, my unit has suffered heavy casualties, with only ten military physicians – we simply cannot manage…” this officer said.

As soon as he finished speaking, more people rushed to voice their hardships.

The room became even livelier than when the meat and rice were served.

Chang Yuncheng merely smiled faintly, slowly drinking his meat soup.

What is that woman doing now?

Qi Yue put down the cotton swab in her hand. A’Ru smoothly took it from her, and she turned to look at Zhou Maochun, who was following closely behind her without taking a single step away.

“Father, there really is no special trick,” she said helplessly.

“Then how do you manage to do it?” Zhou Maochun said.

These days, Zhou Maochun seemed to only know how to say this one phrase.

Standing nearby, Qiao Minghua also looked at Qi Yue with burning eyes.

Qi Yue turned her head and glanced at the wounded soldier on the bed.

This was a severe bone injury case from someone who had fallen from the city wall.

“Arrange a second surgery for him,” Qi Yue said.

A nearby disciple quickly responded affirmatively and noted it down.

“Haven’t you all seen what we do? It’s just what we usually do,” Qi Yue continued to Zhou Maochun.

“Just that bandaging and applying medicine?” Zhou Maochun asked.

He naturally knew what Qi Yue had been teaching those disciples in Wei City. In his view, those were all the most ordinary skills, or rather, couldn’t even be called skills.

“Is it just your acting, Miss Qi?” Qiao Minghua also asked.

“It’s drill training,” Qi Yue emphasized.

She continued speaking while her feet never stopped moving, examining the wounded soldiers on the beds one by one.

“Yes, those seemingly simple skills. But battlefield wounds are also simple.” she continued, “Blades, spears, arrows, axes – skin, flesh, and bone injuries.”

“Miss Qi, that’s not the key point,” Qiao Minghua said.

Qi Yue looked at him.

“Your medicine,” Qiao Minghua looked at her with eager eyes. “What kind of medicine do you use?”

He pointed at these wounded soldiers.

“Why don’t they wail and writhe when being treated?”

“Why don’t the wounds of those who have been bandaged rot and develop high fever?”

“Why can the wounds you bandage stop bleeding immediately?”

Over these past few days of observation, everything he had seen amazed him – it was all different from what he had known before. The biggest difference was the absence of those tragic scenes.

The suffering these wounded soldiers endured during treatment should be no less than when they were injured.

Yet here, when that woman cut flesh and opened chests, there was actually no wailing.

“That’s right. Don’t they say that when you military physicians treat illness, it’s like slaughtering cattle and pigs?” Zhou Maochun also remembered and quickly asked.

Qi Yue stopped walking and looked at Qiao Minghua with a smile.

“Very good. It seems that after following me these past few days, Physician Qiao has observed quite clearly,” she laughed.

Qiao Minghua was stunned.

Qiao Minghua walked out of the wounded soldiers’ camp. The military physicians immediately surrounded him.

“How was it?”

“Did she explain how she does it?”

“Is she willing to tell us?”

These past few days, Qi Yue had been busy with her disciples, and regarding these military physicians like Qiao Minghua, she seemed to completely ignore them. She didn’t avoid or exclude them, but she never actively greeted them, let alone explained or taught them.

This made these military physicians feel very awkward.

“If she won’t teach, then she won’t teach. We couldn’t learn those methods of hers anyway.”

“Exactly. Look at the things they use – what they use in one day equals what we use in half a year.”

“That wine, all wine, jars and jars of it disappear in the blink of an eye…”

“And cotton – dear heavens, even wealthy families wouldn’t dare use it like that…”

“…For one wounded soldier, even a light injury, the cost is frightening…”

“We should be grateful if our superiors can provide full rations and pay, let alone these things – who can afford them?”

“…And every day they spray those herbal decoctions on the streets and in houses – that’s all money…”

Everyone discussed among themselves, with mixed feelings.

Qiao Minghua seemed not to hear, leaving the crowd and walking away.

Night gradually fell. This entire street had been converted into a wounded soldiers’ camp, with door plaques and lanterns hanging at the entrances. The air carried a different scent from elsewhere – a pungent medicinal smell, but without the familiar stench of blood and decay.

A team of civilian workers was passing by, pushing carts loaded with large wooden buckets. Two people held large ladles, scooping from the buckets and sprinkling the contents along the street.

Qiao Minghua stepped aside to let them pass, but still got splashed by some of the liquid.

This was the source of that pungent medicinal smell.

He watched the cart slowly pass by.

Three white-robed men approached, walking slowly.

“…Your night shift?”

“…Yes, there’s a wounded soldier with high fever – must be careful tonight…”

They conversed as they passed by Qiao Minghua.

Lights were lit in the houses, dim and flickering. Shadows were cast on the window frames, from light injuries to severe ones. The human silhouettes gradually decreased in number.

Qiao Minghua walked step by step, observing as he went, stopping in front of a window marked “Severe Injuries.”

Despite the cold weather, the windows here were still half-open, allowing a view inside where beds were densely arranged with wounded soldiers lying on them. A white-robed man was holding a lamp, leaning close to a wounded soldier, carefully observing the unconscious man’s face with a furrowed brow and focused expression. Soon he stood up and moved to the next patient.

Apart from occasional intermittent soft groans, there were no other sounds.

Qiao Minghua had walked to the end of the street. He turned back to look.

Peaceful and tranquil…

These words could actually be used to describe a wounded soldiers’ camp one day.

It was because there was hope that it could be so peaceful and tranquil.

He turned and strode away.

“Are you deliberately not teaching them?” A’Ru asked.

At this moment, they were also walking out of the wounded soldiers’ camp.

Qi Yue turned to look at her.

“Am I that kind of person?” she said with feigned hurt.

A’Ru couldn’t help but laugh.

“A’Ru, this matter isn’t easy to handle,” Qi Yue said, stepping forward. “We concentrated all our human resources, material resources, and financial resources to achieve today’s results.”

A’Ru nodded and followed her.

“Not everyone can achieve such conditions,” Qi Yue said. “I also cannot make it so that all military physicians and all troops can have the same configuration as mine.”

A’Ru remained silent and sighed softly.

If the expenses used these past few days were reported, it would probably frighten many people.

“What we’re doing is simple in one sense, because there are no special techniques. It’s immediate work that they could learn right away. But it’s also difficult, because it’s not something you can have immediately just by wanting it,” Qi Yue continued, looking at the street ahead. “So whether I speak or teach or not, there’s nothing much to explain. I’ve exerted all my strength to show them a hope – this is what I can do. And it’s the most meaningful.”

Also the most precious.

A’Ru looked at her and smiled.

Was there anything more precious in this world than hope?

Just like being trapped in darkness, but always having a lamp ahead, guiding, warming, and calling out.

Qi Yue quickened her pace. A’Ru was startled, then saw the man standing by the street. She smiled slightly and slowed her pace.

Chang Yuncheng watched the woman walking quickly toward him, and the smile at the corner of his mouth couldn’t help but spread. He extended his hand.

Qi Yue placed her hand in his large palm.

“Late night snack?” he asked.

Qi Yue shook their joined hands as she walked with him.

“Sure, what good food did you get?” she asked with a laugh.

“Nothing. Didn’t you say that even eating chaff and vegetables with me would be like delicacies?” Chang Yuncheng laughed. “So I prepared some chaff and vegetables.”

Qi Yue laughed heartily and hit him with her other hand.

The laughter spread through the cold night air, as the scattered stars in the sky illuminated these two figures walking side by side.

When the morning light first appeared, there were still undispersed stars dotting the sky.

The winter cold made the entire capital seem veiled in white gauze.

The urgent footsteps emerging from the palace gates scattered the morning mist. Watching the officials filing out with gloomy expressions, Dong Lin, passing by the palace gates, couldn’t help but tighten his robes.

“It seems the war situation ahead is not good,” he said in a low voice, while serving a cup of hot tea to a man in official robes reading a medical book. “Lord Cai, please try this tea.”

This person was none other than the current head of the Imperial Medical Academy, the fifth-rank Medical Director.

He gave a bland “hmm,” put down the book in his hand, took the tea and slowly sipped it, then nodded.

“Indeed it is. Last night’s urgent report stated that the eastern barbarians invaded with fifty thousand men, resulting in the loss of three passes. Gansu, Ningxia, and Xuanda suffered heavy losses. Though I haven’t witnessed it personally, from the documents sent back from the front, one can imagine that the border regions are still scenes of devastation,” he said with a sigh and worried expression.

Dong Lin sighed along with him.

“His Majesty must be furious?” he asked.

Lord Cai glanced at him, seeming to find such a stupid question quite distasteful.

“Sir, I have something to confess to you,” Dong Lin suddenly said, while pulling out a document from his sleeve and handing it over.

Lord Cai frowned.

“Did you boast again and kill someone?” he said blandly, reaching out to take it. “Lucky your master died early, otherwise you would have angered him to death…”

Dong Lin pretended not to hear.

Lord Cai lowered his head to casually glance at the document, his expression changed dramatically, and he suddenly sat up straight.

“What? Are you certain of this news?” he asked. “This is no joking matter!”

“Sir, because Lord Zhou is there, no one along the route dared to report it. This news was delivered at the risk of death by one of my former subordinates,” Dong Lin said quickly.

Lord Cai leaned back in his chair, holding the document with an expression of changing emotions.

Dong Lin knew what he was concerned about.

“Sir, what Lord Zhou has done this time is truly absurd. Other matters would be fine – His Majesty wouldn’t mind – but this involves military and political affairs, border fortifications. As a Medical Judge, not only did he fail to stop it, but he actually encouraged it. This truly disappoints His Majesty…” he said in a low voice.

That’s right. His Majesty’s moods were unpredictable, but one thing was certain – his authority could not be challenged, especially regarding military and political matters.

This Zhou Maochun, though acting absurdly, had always been clever, only discussing medical matters and never state affairs. That’s why His Majesty had been so indulgent with him. Who would have thought that this time he would actually…

Lord Cai couldn’t help but grip the document tighter.

Clearly just a Medical Judge, yet more influential than him, the Medical Director, to the point where everyone knew of the Medical Judge but not the Medical Director.

This old man had lived too long… He had been feeling like he could never outlast him.

Now the opportunity had finally come!

“How truly absurd!” Lord Cai suddenly slammed the document on the table. “Dong Lin, what exactly are your master’s disciples doing! You must immediately submit a memorial to His Majesty asking for forgiveness!”

Dong Lin bowed respectfully, his expression filled with self-reproach and panic.

“This subordinate is guilty! Ten thousand deaths cannot absolve me!” he said in a trembling voice.

Ten thousand deaths indeed! To encounter such a time when border losses were severe and His Majesty was furious!

You people have really caused big trouble this time!

Dong Lin couldn’t help but feel secretly delighted.