Chapter 653: Return

Chapter 653: Chapter 653: Return

Everything was just as Zhang Qian had said. On the fifth day after Cheng Jinhou led the troops eighty li past Stone Gate to build the new military camp, Shen Hao received an order from the Daoxing Chief’s Office.

The order was simple: Shen Hao was to set out immediately upon receiving it and return to Wu Lake Central Army.

Unlike when he first arrived, Shen Hao felt extremely relaxed during his journey back. Even when anxious cavalry squads occasionally dashed past, he did not become tense.

After experiencing a real, hard-fought battle, his nerves had naturally become tougher. Getting jumpy was not the reaction of an old soldier like Shen Hao, who prided himself on his composure.

Before leaving Stone Gate, Shen Hao wrote down all his ideas about forming a unified structure between the rescue squad and physicians, ideas he had managed to scrape together from his own mind.

Simply put, the rescue squad would be responsible for extracting wounded from the frontline. This would enable timely treatment, and would also eliminate the need to withdraw frontline warriors to escort the wounded, benefiting the battle line as well. Of course, when pulling the wounded down, they would be assessed and given basic first aid.

Physicians would no longer need to jump up and down in the frontline battle array. Instead, fixed treatment stations would be set up, gathering physicians within a certain range to receive injured soldiers brought by the rescue squad. Unified treatment, unified care. This would increase the speed of medical aid and provide a better environment for recovery.

Moreover, with fixed treatment locations, large quantities of healing medicines and supplies could be prepared in advance, avoiding the previous predicament where physicians on the frontlines quickly exhausted the medicine in their storage bags while treating wounded soldiers.

There were other suggestions too. For instance, it would be even better if physicians could develop a set of rescue tools and emergency elixirs, which would further enhance the rescue squad’s capabilities.

In fact, Shen Hao could think of some details but lacked the ability to resolve them. For example, he knew that most deaths from external injuries were caused by excessive blood loss, and apart from timely hemostasis, the most crucial thing was timely blood transfusion. In another world, there were developed blood bank systems that maximized survival. But such things were impossible here, and at the very least, Shen Hao had no idea how to proceed. How would one even classify blood types? That was enough to stump him entirely.

So Shen Hao could only propose a rough blueprint; the specifics and refinement would have to be worked out by the physicians and rescue squads themselves.

But even just a rough outline, Pan Shigui’s eyes lit up when he got his hands on it, exclaiming "Good" three times, and personally escorting Shen Hao to the camp gate before his departure. It was a show of utmost honor.

Returning along the Jianchuan path, passing the former Upper Military Camp, Shen Hao paused for a long time, deeply moved. Now that the army had advanced, the area had been converted into a large warehouse by the rear supply battalion. Although there were still many stationed troops, the grim atmosphere of the past was gone.

He passed the former Upper Military Camp, stopped at Fish Stone Military Station for rest, and finally returned all the way to Wu Lake.

This journey took nearly two months. As the year drew to a close, Wu Lake had changed greatly since Shen Hao last left. Just the scale of the military camp was nearly twice as large as what Shen Hao remembered. This showed that the garrison and supplies around Wu Lake were now entirely unlike what they had been when Shen Hao departed.

"Lord Shen!"

Just past the third checkpoint on the Wu Lake side, Shen Hao saw several riders galloping towards him from afar.

The newcomers were two deputies of the Inspector, Zhang Ye and Li Jiang, as well as several Hundred Households Officers from the Inspector’s staff. Additionally, there was a familiar face: Alchemist Chen Zifang.

The call from afar just now had in fact come from Chen Zifang. Zhang Ye and Li Jiang dared not shout in Shen Hao’s presence; when their horses were within twenty paces of him, they promptly dismounted and jogged up to him, bowing respectfully.

"Welcome back to the camp, milord!"

Compared to Chen Zifang, Li Jiang and Zhang Ye had been separated from Shen Hao for much longer. Now that they reunited, their immediate reaction was: Why has Lord Shen’s Evil Qi grown even heavier? And his Cultivation seems to have risen as well—there’s a faint sense of pressure emanating from him.

Shen Hao waved his hand, murmured an assent, then greeted Chen Zifang and walked alongside him.

"Heh, Lord Shen, you’re finally back. Anything happen at Stone Gate?"

"Everything is normal there, just some trivial matters delayed me for a few days. How long have you been back, Alchemist Chen?"

Chen Zifang was very warm towards Shen Hao. He knew he owed Shen Hao a favor for the battle in Jianchuan, and now wished to grow closer, both to thank him and because he realized Shen Hao was not nearly as fierce as the rumors claimed, but instead a man worthy of deep friendship. So, upon hearing Shen Hao was returning, he joined the Inspector’s group in welcoming him.

"I came back the day before yesterday. I heard you established a rescue squad at Stone Gate—not only did Commander Pan Shigui praise it effusively, but even Marshal Zuo, after seeing the general outline that was sent, marked it down as a major achievement. Unfortunately, I don’t have clearance to view your plan. Could you tell me about it? How does it differ from our current battlefield treatment methods?"

Shen Hao didn’t stand on ceremony, confidently and in detail describing his ideas about the rescue squad and physicians. Along the way, Chen Zifang was constantly astonished.

"Lord Shen, I truly admire you! To conceive of such ingenious solutions so readily! Even without testing, I know that once this rescue squad is implemented throughout the entire army, our war casualties can drop by at least twenty percent! Add to that your plan to unify battlefield medical care to significantly improve treatment speed and outcomes—casualty reduction could drop by another ten or twenty percent. This is absolutely a tremendous merit!"

Shen Hao hadn’t thought much about it when he first put the idea forward—he knew there would be merit in it, but only after Zhang Qian, Gan Lin, and others analyzed it did he realize, as Chen Zifang said, that he had inadvertently earned another major achievement.

It has always been said that war, at its core, is about who can endure, who can afford losses. Now, thanks to Shen Hao’s method, Jingjiu Dynasty could reduce casualties by one or two tenths, which was in essence a direct boost to their odds by that much. Of course, winning isn’t calculated so simplistically, but the support this offered was immense.

After entering Wu Lake, having just verified his identity, before Shen Hao could head towards the Inspector’s camp, a messenger from Zuo Yuliang arrived first, saying Marshal Zuo wanted to see him.

Shen Hao did not dare delay. He dismounted and went to the Central Army Tent, where, after his name was announced, he again met Zuo Yuliang.

"Greetings, Commander-in-Chief!"

"You’ve arrived? Sit and talk."

"Thank you, Commander-in-Chief!"

Zuo Yuliang walked over from the map in the tent and took a seat, motioning a guard to pour Shen Hao a cup of tea. Then he smiled and asked, "Have you considered officially transferring into our military to take up a real position?"