For the first time, Ma Chao discovered that he still had something more worthy of desire than his military exploits, that is, his own heart, his original heart, and his pure heart. In this chaotic and turbulent Eastern Han Dynasty in the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, in order to survive and compete for hegemony, it was impossible to avoid adopting those despicable means after all.

After more than a month of fighting, Ma Chao summed up a frustrating rule, he must be more vicious than the enemy, the one who thinks is inferior, and the one who acts is more unscrupulous, in order to ensure that he can have a few chances of winning when facing the enemy who thinks of him. Ma Chao sighed, maintaining his innocence, in the 21st century in the peaceful years, it seems to be as easy as eating and drinking, but here it is as difficult as sailing against the current. Troubled times can drive people crazy, push a good person into hell and become a demon.

However, Ma Chao thought about it, and this can be regarded as the original intention established when he crossed, that is, he must calm the war and let the people of the world live a peaceful and prosperous life. If this is really the case, after the world is peaceful, there will be no one like him, who can easily change his heart at any time; There will be no more struggles, pains, and remorse like him; No one will be forced to become a person he hates in troubled times!

Thinking of this, the haze in Ma Chao's heart was swept away, replaced by a vision for the future and encouragement to himself, and his heart suddenly opened up. With these thoughts in mind, Ma Chao fell asleep groggily......

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The next day, what drove Ma Chao up from the bed was the shouts and trumpets of the camp. This is not an enemy attack, after all, Han Sui is already a lost dog. Ma Chao heard the shout, so he got up from the bed, and several special guards changed his clothes and armor.

The army is not as good as ordinary people, but fortunately, he broke through Han Sui's military camp last time and got a large number of military funds, including a bronze mirror used by Han Sui. Ma Chao sat in front of the bronze mirror, looking at his face in the mirror. Every day since the crossing, he has routinely looked at the familiar and unfamiliar faces of the people in the mirror in the morning. Because this can remind him that he is already a "Ma Chao".

But the evil consequences brought about by this are not without it, Ma Chao's own face in the later life, he can't remember. Ma Chao thought to himself, I'm afraid he is getting farther and farther away from the "original self" of the future generations. However, Ma Chao did not sigh too much, after all, the old does not go and the new does not come. The face of the later generations that can be called harmful to humans and animals and intolerable by heaven is gone, and now he has been exchanged for a face that is enough to make the male stars of later generations kneel and sing about conquest.

The high bridge of the nose, the thin lips that are just right, the touching dimples, the blurred and bright eyes, the thin and cold face, the sharp and thick sword eyebrows...... It can be seen that Ma Chao himself is a little caught in narcissism and can't extricate himself.

When he was full of emotion, the guards reminded him that his long hair had been tied up and a hairpin had been added. Next, it's morning food, that is, breakfast. Ma Chao's orderly diligently brought the morning food, and Ma Chao raised his eyes to see that it was millet porridge, that is, millet porridge, and sighed.

In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the staple food was still millet, not wheat. Whether corn is steamed into rice or porridge, the taste is far inferior to that of rice. However, corn is very alkali tolerant and drought tolerant, and in the Eastern Han Dynasty, where the land fertility is low, it is already the most productive food. Moreover, millet is far more shelf-stable than wheat and rice, such as the millet stored in the Sui Dynasty, which was not eaten by the middle of the Tang Dynasty. Then there is millet, which can be eaten by people and horses. Because Liangzhou is not as grassland as Qiangzhong (that is, the river Huang Qinghai in later generations), sometimes there will be a shortage of forage; Sometimes the war is protracted and fierce, or the war horse needs to run long distances, which consumes a lot of physical strength, and the millet, which is much higher in calories than forage, can also maintain the fat of the war horse. However, at that time, one war horse could eat the rations of five or six sergeants.

Ma Chao was a southerner in later generations and used to eating rice; Even if you go to college to study in the North, pasta is acceptable. But this millet alone, that is, millet, is difficult to accept. The Han Dynasty inherited the Qin system, so at this time, Ma Chao's army was also the same as the Qin army, all those who served in high-intensity work, such as scouts, meteor horses (that is, communication soldiers, heralds), etc., or when they were training, long-distance marches, and fierce battles with the enemy, each person could get one-third of the daily morning food and half a bucket at night; And not high-intensity tasks, such as standing guard, patrolling, feeding horses, etc., can eat two-thirds of the bucket millet a day.

Horses eat a large amount of food, eat one and a half buckets of millet every day, and implement a three-meal system every day. However, at this time, the military rations were not simply millet porridge, but were added to the millet porridge with chopped wild vegetables, beans and meat, supplemented with pickles and pickles. Ma Chao's porridge is filled with cabbage, mustard greens, wei, soybeans, pork liver and mutton, as well as pickles full of beans. For Ma Chao, it's okay to eat this for breakfast, but it's a little painful to eat this for lunch and dinner, and three meals a day.

After receiving the chopsticks handed over by the orderly, Ma Chao still ate it. Fortunately, his orderly skills were not bad, and the pickles were delicious, so he didn't feel much displeasure when he ate them.

However, Ma Chao still misses the food of later generations, let's just say the soybeans in this porridge, didn't the king of Huainan in the Western Han Dynasty invent tofu a long time ago? Why is it still not in the army? You must know that if you eat too many beans every day, it is very painful for Ma Chao to hold on and maintain the prestige of the commander of the three armed forces. Besides, when can this millet be replaced with wheat to make noodles and steamed buns? Noodles are available at this time, but they are not few; As for steamed buns, Zhuge Liang has not yet conquered Meng in the south, so he has not; As for dumplings, they have to wait for the emperor of the Song Dynasty to make Zhang happy; As for rice, it is available now, but it will go to the Yangtze River basin; As for stir-frying, it will have to wait until the people of the Song Dynasty invent the iron pot. All in all, most of the food in later generations was not available in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Although Ma Chao himself has adapted to the Eastern Han Dynasty, his appetite is still in the later generations, and the tear between the two makes Ma Chao very painful. However, Ma Chao saw that in addition to him, the people of the Eastern Han Dynasty seemed to be quite happy. The satisfied expressions of his soldiers when they ate corn were the same as the expressions he had when he went to the restaurant to eat his favorite Northeast dish.

Ma Chao thought that this might be because he ordered the soldiers to eat meat too. Thanks to Han Sui, he got no less than hundreds of thousands of cattle, sheep and pigs from his camp last time. So even now, the military rations can only last for a month, but there are still more than 400,000 heads of livestock left, so that half of Ma Chao's military camp is a cattle pen, a sheep pen, a pigsty, and some soldiers have to be assigned to herd sheep, cattle and pigs. In addition, it is inevitable that there will be war horses killed and seriously injured in previous wars, and Ma Chao did not waste them, all of them were used as military rations. In addition, people come to the cattle wine every day to reward the army, and Ma Chao can't refuse. Therefore, the food in Ma Chaojun's army is still very good, there are vegetables and meat, and everyone can eat until their stomachs are round.

After eating two large bowls with tears, two bean pickles, and half a plate of lamb skewers, Ma Chao was full. After ordering the remaining mutton skewers to be divided among the orderlies, Ma Chao walked out of the camp and began a whole day of military life.