Chapter 121

"Leader, Yuan Cheng has woken up!"

As soon as Xia Hong walked out of the Camp Supply Office, he was informed that Yuan Cheng had woken up, so he hurriedly walked to the main hall.

Beside the iron smelting furnace in the main hall, Yuan Cheng had indeed woken up. Although he was still lying on his stomach and his face was very pale, the ulceration on his back had improved a lot, and judging by his mental state, he had obviously recovered quite well.

"Greetings, leader!"

Seeing Xia Hong walking over, everyone hurriedly bowed and gave way to him.

"Alright, don't move, just keep lying down and recuperate!"

Seeing Yuan Cheng struggling to get up, Xia Hong immediately stopped him. He looked at his back again and estimated that he should recover in a day or two, so he breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

"Next time you hunt, don't get so close to the prey. You were lucky this time, kid. I discovered in advance that Teng Jiao saliva can detoxify, otherwise, your life would not have been saved."

"I was too reckless this time. Yuan Cheng will definitely keep it in mind in the future!"

Yuan Cheng nodded heavily and agreed, a look of lingering fear appearing in his eyes.

The lesson this time was heavy. If he didn't learn his lesson, he would be harming his own life. He naturally understood which was lighter and which was heavier.

Seeing the lingering fear in his eyes, knowing that he had learned his lesson, Xia Hong didn't say anything more.

There are currently seven people in the Earth-Digging Realm in the camp, which is not many. Xia Hong feels heartache if any one of them is lost, not to mention that Yuan Cheng is an old man of Great Xia, who followed him all the way from the dirt slope to here, and they have deep feelings.

"Leader, why is your leather bag smoking?"

Hearing the reminder from behind, Xia Hong hurriedly turned his head to look at the leather bag hanging on his waist, and was stunned for a moment.

The leather bag was indeed emitting thin white smoke.

"Everyone scatter, everyone scatter quickly!"

Xia Hong realized something and shouted loudly, telling everyone to scatter.

The leather bag contained the Teng Jiao poison sac just brought from the Camp Supply Office.

Seeing that everyone had scattered, including Yuan Cheng on the ground being carried away, and no one was acting abnormally, Xia Hong breathed a sigh of relief. He looked at the leather bag that had been tightly covered again, his brows locked.

Wasn't the Teng Jiao poison sac wrapped in meat?

It didn't leak over there just now, so why is it leaking for no reason now?

After pondering for a moment, Xia Hong shifted his gaze to the iron smelting furnace. After a guess appeared on his face, he held the leather bag in his hand and slowly leaned toward the furnace.

Sss...

As the temperature of the leather bag rose, the Teng Jiao poison sac inside made a slight hissing sound, and wisps of white smoke rose slowly.

Xia Hong hurriedly took the leather bag back, and immediately understood.

When he was squatting to look at Yuan Cheng just now, the leather bag on his waist was very close to the iron smelting furnace, which accidentally caused the Teng Jiao poison sac inside to heat up, triggering the toxic mist.

"High temperature can trigger the toxic gas in the poison sac."

Xia Hong realized this, his expression suddenly stunned, and then a bright light rose in his eyes, and his expression suddenly became excited.

"Got it, hahahaha, got it!"

Xia Hong gripped the leather bag in his hand, his expression extremely excited.

"Someone go to the mine, notify Xia Chuan, Luo Yuan, and the other five to come to the blacksmith shop. I'll wait for them inside."

The hunt tonight took a very short time, and it was still early before dawn, so as soon as Xia Chuan, Luo Yuan, and the five returned, they ran to the mine to mine iron.

"Yes, leader!"

Seeing someone go to notify the five, Xia Hong didn't linger in the main hall and went to the blacksmith shop next door first.

As soon as he arrived at the blacksmith shop, Xia Hong was worried that the Teng Jiao poison sac would leak again, so he cautiously wrapped it in another layer of leather. After sitting on a chair and pondering for a moment, the five people, Xia Chuan and the others, walked in quickly from outside.

"Sit down first!"

The camp's timber is maintained in a state of overflow for a long time, and public areas such as the blacksmith shop, medicine refining room, and main hall have many wooden chairs.

Seeing the five people sitting on the chairs with curious faces, Xia Hong didn't keep them in suspense and told them everything about the Teng Jiao poison sac and saliva.

The Zhao Long brothers were fine. Although they had seen Gnawing Rats, they were not present when they were chased by the Gnawing Rat swarm and fled to the Teng Jiao's territory.

Xia Chuan and Luo Yuan, who were present at the time, heard about the poison sac and saliva, and after pondering for only a moment, their eyes immediately lit up.

The two looked up and met Xia Hong's eyes, and immediately understood why Xia Hong had summoned them.

"Leader, if I'm not mistaken, you want to use the Teng Jiao poison sac to deal with the Gnawing Rat swarm on the north slope of the mountain wall?"

Luo Yuan asked first. Seeing Xia Hong nod, he knew he wasn't wrong. His expression was excited at first, but after thinking about it, he shook his head.

"No, judging from the last experience, they are not afraid of the Teng Jiao, and they break into the toxic mist area without hesitation. Trying to use toxic mist to drive them away definitely won't work; moreover, Teng Jiao toxins are unlikely to kill Gnawing Rats, at most they will affect them and make their movements slow..."

When Luo Yuan said this, he looked up at Xia Hong and immediately realized that Xia Hong's original intention was not to drive them away.

"Big brother's meaning is to use the toxic mist to weaken the strength of the Gnawing Rats, and then we will go up together and slaughter that group of Gnawing Rats?"

Xia Chuan took over Luo Yuan's words, but after saying this, not only himself, but even Luo Yuan and the Zhao Long brothers had suspicious looks on their faces.

It should be impossible.

Three or four hundred Gnawing Rats, even if weakened by the toxic mist, are not something they can deal with. Let alone seven Earth-Digging Realm people, even if all the Woodcutting Realm people in the camp were brought along, they probably wouldn't be able to fight that group of Gnawing Rats.

"What if, plus this!"

Xia Hong naturally knew what the five were thinking. He walked slowly to the wall of the blacksmith shop, pulled out a bow and arrow, and showed it to the five.

At the first sight of the bow and arrow, the five were stunned.

But immediately after, after thinking for a moment, the eyes of the five suddenly lit up.

"The Gnawing Rats' defensive ability is not strong, bows and arrows are indeed useful!"

"Tried it last time, a bow of over ten thousand jin has huge lethality to them. If you shoot accurately, you can completely achieve a second kill; Woodcutting Realm second kills are not possible, but at least they can be seriously injured. If the quantity is large enough, hunting is not a problem."

"If you can release a large amount of Teng Jiao toxic mist to slow them down, the hit rate of bows and arrows will definitely be very high, so hunting them is really not difficult."

"Moreover, if you can find a good position, we don't even have to pay too much casualties. It's really possible!"

"The only difficulty is that the number of Gnawing Rats is too large. If you really want to deal with them, you need a large number of bows and arrows and Teng Jiao poison sacs."

Compared to Luo Yuan and the other four, Xia Chuan, who spoke last, obviously considered more comprehensively, almost hitting the nail on the head and stating the most difficult part.

Xia Hong nodded, his brows sinking slightly.

"Chuan is right. To deal with that group of Gnawing Rats, you need a large number of bows and arrows and Teng Jiao poison sacs. In fact, more than that, if possible, you need more Woodcutting Realm and Earth-Digging Realm people, but we don't have that much time..."

If possible, Xia Hong naturally didn't want to deal with the Gnawing Rat swarm now.

He could completely wait until the number of Earth-Digging Realm and Woodcutting Realm people in Great Xia was sufficient before solving the hidden danger of the Gnawing Rat swarm.

The problem is that the group of Gnawing Rats won't give him that much time.

At a distance of less than two kilometers, they might discover the valley at any time.

Not seizing the time to solve it actively is waiting for death.

Dong dong dong...

"Leader, the Teng Jiao spinal tendons have been sent!"

The knocking on the door sounded, interrupting the contemplation of the six people in the room.

"Come in."

Shi Ping pushed the door and walked in. Seeing that Xia Chuan and the five were there, he bowed to the five first, and then handed the bundle of Teng Jiao spinal tendons he was holding to Xia Hong.

"That Teng Jiao has been completely processed. In addition to that poison sac, there are 5 jin of viscous liquid, which should be the saliva the leader mentioned. It produced 2210 jin of meat, 38 meters of spinal tendons, and the bones have all been ground into powder and sealed."

Xia Hong nodded to show he knew, and then looked at the spinal tendons in his hand.

Teng Jiao spinal tendons have the three characteristics of elasticity, toughness, and durability. They are the best material for bowstrings. There were ready-made bows and arrows in the camp, and Xia Hong had studied them before, so he was no stranger to them.

"The eleven bows in the camp currently, although the bow bodies are all ten-forged iron, they are only equipped with double strings, and the pulling force is five thousand jin. In fact, it is no longer suitable for the Earth-Digging Realm, right?" When Xia Hong spoke, his eyes turned to the Zhao Long brothers.

Zhao Long nodded. The three brothers had a relatively high level of archery and a relatively deep understanding of bows and arrows. After pondering for a moment, he answered:

"That is indeed the case. During the rescue of the people in Chen Ye's camp and the process of hunting the Teng Jiao just now, I also had this feeling. With my current basic strength, if I use a bow with a pulling force of five thousand jin for a long time, I guess it won't take long before it breaks. Double strings are indeed not enough."

Woodcutting Realm humans have a basic strength of over five thousand jin, so ordinary bows and arrows cannot be used by them normally, let alone Earth-Digging Realm humans with a basic strength of over ten thousand jin.

Longbows are generally divided into two parts: the bow body and the bowstring.

The iron in this world is different from the previous life. Although its strength is high, it still has a certain degree of toughness and elasticity, so the material of the bow body must be iron.

There is no need to try wood at all, it can't even be used for arrows. Xia Hong had tried it according to the experience of his previous life. The arrowhead was iron and the arrow body was wood. The result was that the arrow was too light. After shooting, not only was the attack power greatly reduced, but even the accuracy was a mess.

And the bowstring is the Teng Jiao's spinal tendon. Generally, bows used by the Woodcutting Realm are double-stringed, which means two strings. If you want to increase the pulling force, you must add another one, and the materials used will naturally be more.

"Don't worry about the bows for the Earth-Digging Realm for now. A bow with a pulling force of five thousand jin is enough to deal with the Gnawing Rat swarm. Now the number of Woodcutting Realm people in the camp is sufficient. The main task now is to rush to make a batch of bows and arrows in the shortest time; secondly, it is to improve the archery level of all Woodcutting Realm people in the camp!"

Hearing Xia Hong's words, the five nodded.

"There are currently 152 Woodcutting Realm people in the camp. In the short term, there should be people breaking through to the Earth-Digging Realm, but the number will definitely not be large."

=9+Shu_Ba

Hearing the number of Woodcutting Realm people, Xia Hong nodded slightly, feeling satisfied.

At the beginning of the construction of the wooden cabin, there were already 140 Woodcutting Realm people in the camp.

But since then, 18 people have been lost when the collection team and the logging team went out at night.

Calculated this way, from the completion of the new house to today, it has been about a month, and the number of people who have newly broken through to the Woodcutting Realm is still as high as 30.

"An iron-tire bow with a pulling force of five thousand jin consumes at least three hundred and fifty jin of iron ore. The amount of iron used for an arrow is not large, just five jin, but a bow must be equipped with at least fifty arrows. Calculated this way, making a full set of bows and arrows requires at least six hundred jin of iron ore, which is not much different from the amount used for a broadsword!"

After Xia Hong calculated, he continued: "To be safe, to deal with the Gnawing Rat swarm, it is best for all the Woodcutting Realm people in the camp to go. Calculated this way, we must at least rush to make more than one hundred sets of iron-tire bows."

Making a set of bows and arrows requires six hundred jin of iron ore.

One hundred sets, that is sixty thousand jin of iron ore.

The six people present got this number in their minds, and their brows wrinkled slightly.

Although this number is very large, it is actually not impossible to do.

There are currently seven Earth-Digging Realm people in the camp, two of whom use Gnawing Rat chisels, with a daily mining volume of eight hundred, and the other five use ordinary sheep-horn chisels, with a daily output of five hundred, which adds up to one thousand three hundred.

Sixty thousand jin of iron ore will take about a month and a half to mine.

The reason why everyone frowned was time.

Mining alone takes a month and a half, what about forging?

The Woodcutting Realm has no forging ability, so these hundred or so iron-tire bows must also be forged by the seven of them.

Moreover, the camp's hunting activities cannot stop, and it is impossible for the seven of them to spend all their time on mining and bow making.

"This time is too long, it definitely won't work, so during this period, we must find a way to go there and take the risk to kill a few more Gnawing Rats. If everyone can have a Gnawing Rat chisel, the mining speed will be much faster!"

Hearing this, Xia Chuan and the five immediately lit up and nodded.

If all seven could be equipped with Gnawing Rat chisels, the daily iron ore mining volume would be nearly three thousand. In this way, sixty thousand jin would only take twenty-odd days, and the speed would be doubled.

"In addition, we need to hunt more Teng Jiao back. We need to prepare more poison sacs and saliva. In addition, the Teng Jiao spinal tendons for making bows are not enough."

A swarm of three or four hundred Gnawing Rats naturally needs more poison sacs;

Saliva is for detoxifying our own people, so we need to prepare more;

Spinal tendons are even more critical. Bows used by the Woodcutting Realm need to be equipped with double strings. Making one requires two meters of spinal tendons. The length of this Teng Jiao hunted tonight is quite good. There are thirty-eight meters of spinal tendons in total. Excluding loss, it can roughly make nineteen bows.

But they need to make more than one hundred, which requires at least one hundred and sixty meters. Calculated, they need to hunt at least five more Teng Jiao.

"The cold beast meat reserve is currently very sufficient. For the next month, the hunting team does not need to go out. After Yuan Cheng's injury heals, I will take you six out to hunt five more Teng Jiao. For the rest of the time, you six will be with me, mining with all your strength."

"Yes, leader!"

Since the decision was made, Xia Hong no longer procrastinated and began to deploy.

"By the way, Chuan, you go and notify Shi Qing now. During this period, everyone in the camp, as long as they are in the Woodcutting Realm, must spend half their time practicing archery with him every night, and let him teach well.

Bows and arrows are not enough for now, so notify Mu Dong and let the craftsman workshop rush to make a batch of wooden ones first, so they can practice. When the bows and arrows are made, there will be no time for them to practice."

"Yes, leader!"

Xia Chuan nodded and left, going downstairs to notify Shi Qing.

Looking at the remaining Luo Yuan and the four, Xia Hong said directly:

"No time to lose, you four continue to the mine, I will stay here to make bows. When tomorrow night falls, we will go to the north slope of the mountain wall to see if we can find an opportunity to hunt a few more Gnawing Rats."

The four also nodded and turned to go downstairs to the mine.

"120 points of iron resources are only enough to make four bows. There should be a little bit on the mine side. Let's make the bows in batches first, and we'll talk about arrows later."

Xia Hong directly took out the iron ore, put it into the furnace to melt, and started the tedious and boring process of bow making.

In fact, the efficiency of forging weapons in the Great Xia camp is very, very high.

According to Luo Ming's statement at the time, an ordinary ten-forged broadsword requires at least two Earth-Digging Realm people to cooperate with each other, spending three to five days.

And the Great Xia camp with grinding stones, one Earth-Digging Realm person can forge a ten-forged weapon weighing about seven hundred jin in one night.

The iron-tire bow only weighs three hundred jin. The Great Xia camp can forge two in one night. This efficiency is already higher than imaginable.

But thinking about making one hundred, Xia Hong still felt it was too slow.

"Don't rush, don't rush, use up the iron ore on hand first, and then focus on mining with the other six. With enough iron ore, seven Earth-Digging Realm people together, the bow-making speed can speed up."

During the process of melting iron ore into liquid, Xia Hong was not idle either. He took the cold beast meat prepared on the side and began to practice against time.

After Xia Chuan notified Shi Qing, he also went directly to the mine and, together with Luo Yuan and the four, raced against time to collect iron ore.

Shi Qing received the notification, immediately called his son Shi Ping, and went to find Bai Dongying and Cheng Feng separately, telling them Xia Hong's order.

"The collection team, the logging team, and the hunting team, all Woodcutting Realm people in the camp must spend half their time practicing archery every night!"

Although Cheng Feng and Bai Dongying didn't understand, they confirmed it was Xia Hong's order, so they immediately followed suit and notified all members of the collection team and the logging team.

The other nine members of the hunting team, as well as the craftsman workshop, confirmed that all Woodcutting Realm people in the camp knew about it, and then Shi Ping went to the mine to report to Xia Chuan.

Xia Chuan, who was mining, didn't look back, thought for a moment, and said directly:

"Also tell them that from now on, there will be an archery competition every ten days. The top three will be rewarded with 10 contribution points; the fourth to tenth place will be rewarded with 5 points."

"Yes, my lord."

Shi Ping was stunned, and then his face was full of joy. After nodding, he hurriedly left happily to notify others.

Xia Chuan naturally understood why he was so happy. Although Shi Ping only had the strength of the Woodcutting Realm, his archery level inherited from his father, Shi Qing, was quite good.

The top three are not certain, but he can definitely enter the top ten, which is why he was so happy.

"Brilliant, with contribution points to get, they will definitely practice even harder."

"Chuan, no wonder the leader asked you to be the Camp Supply Officer, amazing!"

After Shi Ping left, Luo Yuan and the four who were mining on the side couldn't help but give Xia Chuan a thumbs up.

It is said that even if there is no competition, these Woodcutting Realm people in the camp will definitely practice seriously, after all, they will be useful when going out in the future.

But with this competition, they will undoubtedly practice more seriously.

The speed of improvement in the overall archery level of the camp will definitely be faster.

Facing the praise of the four, Xia Chuan's expression remained normal, and he said in a deep voice: "The faster their archery level improves, the greater the camp's chance of winning when facing the Gnawing Rat swarm. In the end, they are all practicing for themselves, and contribution points are just the icing on the cake!"

Luo Yuan and the four heard this, their expressions became slightly solemn, and they nodded.

"Hurry up and mine, the leader is still waiting."

"Okay!"

The five raised their respective tools again and began to accelerate mining.

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(End of this chapter)