In the end, Martial decided to postpone Rachel's reply for a day - it was too difficult and too dangerous to make a definitive decision - and before making a decision, he should first investigate whether the American mercenary's food rations were really as outrageous as the list he was given; When the situation is fraught with risk and uncertain, it is always safest to act cautiously. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

So he immediately stood up and took his leave. "Mr. Lieutenant Colonel, Miss McBride, it's too late, it's not a good time to negotiate, I'll come back tomorrow."

Then, with a hurried military salute to Yi Shui and Rachel, he left in a panic like a frightened rabbit.

He fled in the wilderness.

"That list worked." A triumphant smile spread across Rachel's face, "I'm sure he'll be able to ask our mercenaries for confirmation tomorrow." ”

"And he's bound to be even more frightened." Yi Shui smiled as well, but shook his head again, "He may never know what the problem is. ”

"If Captain Martial had had the same experience as us, he would have known." At the sight of the three plates of umeboshi stewed luncheon meat still on the table, the smile on Rachel's face immediately disappeared, replaced by unreserved disgust. Yi Shui keenly noticed the change in her expression, and immediately beckoned the servants to take all the plates.

Then he laughed. "I hope Mr. Captain has a good night's sleep."

However, Captain Martial had an extremely bad night: in the first half of the night, he had been suffering from insomnia, and could not fall asleep no matter how hard he tried; In the middle of the night, he had strange and terrible nightmares, falling asleep and waking up, until he finally gave up his sleep and sat down on the couch with a bottle of whiskey, drinking and waiting for the sun to rise, while the nightmare fragments kept flashing through his mind: two demons in hot pursuit, a group of humanoid monsters gnawing at his body, bills falling like snowflakes, and a rooster with a human head and a hideous face...... Finally, he saw his tombstone, surrounded by many familiar faces, all smiling and dancing with excitement.

Anthony woke up suddenly, then realized that he had fallen asleep again, and the second thing he realized was that a warm ray of sunlight was shining directly on his face.

It's dawn.

He let out a long breath, put down the empty bottle, staggered up from the couch, and walked to the mirror—inside was a wretched creature with unkempt hair, a haggard face, red eyes, and disheveled clothes. Anthony Martial has always been very attentive to his appearance, and such a look was absolutely unimaginable in the past, but now ......

"Very well," he reassured himself, "it's now easier to investigate, just put on a dirty suit, and you're a down-and-out person who has been in a bar all night, and the mercenaries won't notice that they're being investigated." ”

Anthony Martial's plan was very simple: disguise himself as a candidate to sign up with the mercenary in charge of recruiting new recruits, give a random name, and then pretend to inquire about his future treatment, and get the truth out of the mouths of those fools. It's easy to do, but it's also effective.

And now he can also do without some of the necessary camouflage procedures.

It's just wonderful. He comforted himself again, frowning and putting on a coat that had been prepared the night before, which had not been washed for a long time, and which smelled of strong sweat and was a mess, and then walked out of the room under the stunned gaze of the innkeeper and walked towards the nearest recruiting station.

It took the captain thirty minutes, and by the time he got there, three long enough queues of applicants had already formed - but Martial wasn't going to line up. First, he didn't have so much time to waste in line, and second, as a Westerner, he thought he should have a higher priority than the Chinese.

Obviously, this was the wrong idea, and two mercenaries blocked his way.

"Go back, line up!"

That's what the mercenary said, unfortunately, Martial couldn't understand English, and the conversation with Yi Shui and Rachel made him forget about it. Now he had to be embarrassed. "Excuse me, what did you say?"

"Go back, line up!" Not because the mercenaries understood French, but because they saw that the disgusting drunkard in front of them had no intention of retreating, they gave the order again; And they also fully considered the possibility that this guy couldn't understand English, so this time they also added gestures.

Seeing the direction of the mercenary's finger, Martial finally understood that they were asking him to line up, but he decided to continue playing dumb. "What did you say?" He asked, as he began to squeeze forward—and then fell back to his original position at a faster pace.

He saw that the two mercenaries had put their right hands on the batons hanging from their belts, and it was clear that they would not hesitate to give him a hard time if he was going to break in.

Two to one, and surrounded by forty other mercenaries, Martial had no choice but to retreat wisely. "Damn Yankees!" He cursed indignantly as he slowly walked to the end of one of the lines.

Then there was the long wait.

Signing up is obviously a hassle, at least more than Martial imagined, and it's not just a matter of just a name that can be over. Misconceptions led him to make wrong judgments and take wrong actions: the captain, who was severely sleep-deprived, stood for three full hours under the watchful eye of mercenaries, and even worse, he forgot to eat breakfast.

So, when it was finally his turn, Martial was almost crumbling, but from another point of view, it was a good thing, and everyone thought he was a wretched creature who was desperately down, not a captain in the French army, and no one gave him a second look.

The mercenary in charge of signing up only raised his eyelids. "Name?"

There was no answer. Again, Martial couldn't understand English, and certainly didn't understand Chinese, and after hesitating for the mercenary's second question, he cautiously asked, "Does anyone understand French?" ”

After being stunned for a moment, the mercenary finally made sure that he was not talking by name, then turned his head and asked loudly: "Who knows what this guy is talking about?" ”

The mercenaries in charge of maintaining order gathered around. Anthony immediately asked again. This time he was lucky, there happened to be a descendant of French immigrants in the squad, and another German immigrant from Alsace who could also understand a little French.

So things got easy, and the mercenaries started again. "Name?"

Anthony Martial made up a name at random.

"Age."

Of course, then there was a jumble of gender, ethnicity, place of birth, family members, and so on -- and now the captain finally understood why a simple sign-up would last so long. What was even more difficult for him was that he had to rack his brains to make up a resume, but in the end, he successfully completed it.

"Now you can leave," the mercenary announced, putting away the form, "and we'll let you know if we're ready to hire you and give you a simple physical fitness test to see if you're eligible for the company." ”

"It's a nuisance." Martial muttered and stepped aside to make way for the next applicant, but instead of leaving, he asked, "Can you tell me about your company's treatment?" ”

"What do you mean, salary?" The mercenary named Pierre, who was in charge of translating for him, asked.

"I'm more concerned about eating." The captain smiled deliberately awkwardly, "I heard that the employees of your company have five hundred and sixty grams of fresh meat a day, is that true?" ”

He was looking forward to Pierre's answer, yes or no, however, as soon as he heard his question, the faces of Pierre and the other mercenary from Alsace immediately turned strange, and their faces contorted, as if they had thought of something bad.

Anthony Martial thinks this is a good sign, and perhaps proves that the list he got yesterday is indeed a forged trap as he suspected. But he needed a more accurate answer.

"Is that so?" He took advantage of the victory and pursued.

"Theoretically...... That's true. Pierre replied slowly, exchanging a helpless look with his companion.

"Theoretically?" Anthony Martial rejoiced, "Actually, there was no execution? ”

After a moment's hesitation, the two mercenaries nodded together.

"So what's the actual situation?" The captain became agitated and eagerly asked questions, trying to find out what was going on.

"Actually......" a look of disgust flashed across Pierre's face, "...... Except for a few occasions, the company replaces fresh meat with spam luncheon meat...... Do you know Spam luncheon meat? ”

"Yes." The Captain was disappointed by the answer, as it confirmed the authenticity of the list, but then he thought about the delicious food he had tasted yesterday, and wondered why the two mercenaries looked like they had seen bed bugs. "I don't understand, why are you so upset."

"You'll know what that means when you join the company." But in the end, Pierre said, he couldn't help but complain, "Spam, Spam, every day it's Spam, fried Spam, boiled Spam, rice cake Spam, endless Spam...... I vowed never to touch that thing again after I left the company. ”

Martial's face had turned pale, and at the same time there was a hint of anger: such delicious food could not satisfy these American mercenaries, who demanded almost more than the rich young master.

Of course, it also made him decide that he had to change the terms no matter what, at any cost—even if he agreed to Rachel's ridiculous request.

Otherwise, he's going to be really finished.

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Supplement to yesterday's note: There is no food supply standard for the French Army, but the German Army in 1914 provided 375 grams of fresh meat or 200 grams of canned meat, and France, which has a similar standard of living, should also be within this range - by the way, the food supply standard for mercenaries in the book does not refer to the US Army but to the British Army in 1914, The meat supply is exactly the same (to be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )