After Being Abducted by the General

chapter 45

Yuan Li's decision to slaughter pigs spread like wildfire throughout the army.

Upon hearing the news, the generals shamelessly wanted to get involved. Led by Yang Zhongfa, they found Yuan Li and eagerly approached him, rubbing their hands together, discussing whether the soldiers in the army could help Yuan Li.

Of course, the soldiers didn't expect any rewards. But if they could receive some pork as a token of appreciation after helping, that would be even better.

Yuan Li could immediately see through the intentions of these cunning foxes. He found it amusing and nodded generously, agreeing, "Two thousand pigs are no small number. I couldn't ask for anything better than having the soldiers in the army willing to help me slaughter the pigs. Rest assured, the soldiers won't go without pork."

The generals were overjoyed and nodded repeatedly. "Young Master Yuan, you can rest assured. We don't need much. Whatever you give is enough. Just the smell of meat would make the common soldiers happy. Of course, even if you don't provide anything, we would still be willing to work for you."

Yuan Li couldn't help but laugh. "There's no need for all of you to be so polite. After all, slaughtering two thousand pigs is not an easy task. But I have to ask first, out of the twenty thousand soldiers stationed in Jixian, how many of them know how to slaughter pigs?"

Yang Zhongfa and the others exchanged glances. They bid farewell to Yuan Li for the moment and hurriedly went to the army to find people who knew how to slaughter pigs. After searching, they managed to find around seventy to eighty individuals out of the twenty thousand soldiers who knew how to do it.

Among these seventy to eighty people, there were a dozen or so who had only witnessed others slaughter pigs and had a rough idea of where to make the cuts but hadn't done it themselves.

They felt embarrassed and awkwardly said, "Apologies, Young Master Yuan. After searching through our soldiers, these are the only people we could find who can help you slaughter pigs."

If they could only help with such a small task, even if Yuan Li was willing to give them meat, they wouldn't have the face to accept it.

"It's fine," Yuan Li could already anticipate this outcome.

The soldiers came from poor backgrounds and had low status. They might not even have the opportunity to eat meat in their entire lives, let alone slaughter pigs.

After some thought, Yuan Li smiled and said, "While they may not be able to slaughter pigs, there are many other tasks they can do. Slaughtering pigs involves scalding off the hair, washing the pigs, bleeding them, and cutting the hooves. A struggling pig requires considerable strength, at least two or three people to hold it down. Let our soldiers handle the task of scalding the pigs with hot water. It's a laborious job that requires many people."

The generals' eyes lit up, and they nodded repeatedly. "That's a great idea!"

Even if it was tiring, as long as the soldiers knew they would be able to eat pork after slaughtering the pigs, they would be ecstatic and wholeheartedly engage in the task.

In ancient times, pig slaughtering had to be done on an auspicious day. Yuan Li checked the almanac and scheduled the pig slaughter for five days later.

After discussing with Chu Hechao and getting their advice, the generals led the soldiers up the mountain to chop firewood in preparation for scalding the pigs on the day of the slaughter.

Just as the generals had speculated, when the soldiers learned that they would be assisting in pig slaughtering and receive pork as compensation, they became excited and couldn't sleep. They eagerly awaited the day of the slaughter and showed great enthusiasm when accompanying the generals to chop firewood.