Chapter 79: Harvest (Please Collect)

( ) Chapter 85 Harvest (Please Collect)

Seventeen Qingwolf Beasts are not ones that just anyone can tame; among the party, aside from Li Bucai, only Wu Zhuoyue can communicate with them. Under the control of music, he successfully tamed one and took it as a mount—the one named Shandian, whose running speed is first‑class; the Thunder that had fallen into the waterfall earlier, because of Wan'er's healing kindness, came voluntarily before her without a fight, and this Qingwolf Beast had the loudest howl among the eighteen; Li Bucai's beast is called Baiguang, a Head Wolf, whose natural combined abilities are strong.

……

After returning to the camp and resting for three days, the builders had finished constructing the storage cabinets, and the vast majority of the undead's injuries had fully healed. With the population suddenly swelling to over four hundred, the fish that had been caught were almost all eaten, and even the wild vegetables were scarce, so food grew increasingly scarce. The five thousand units of Lulu Meat could not be touched at all, because that meat was needed to trade for manpower that would aid the development of the Territory; it was time to capture those Hornless Oxen.

Li Bucai took Yue Ji, Wan'er, Rui Tong, Xianghong, and Yue Ji's six sisters, and led over a hundred undead. During these days, Rui Tong and Xianghong practiced diligently and finally, on the previous day, succeeded in taming a mount. For Yue Ji and Shan Ji and the other undead, the Qingwolf Beasts could not harm them, so they were naturally easy to tame. Of the eighteen Qingwolf Beasts, twelve have already found their owners.

Eleven wolf riders led a hundred soldiers and reached the mouth of Yin Valley in less than half a day. Li Bucai ordered Rui Tong to go ahead and scout; shortly after, she reported that the herd of Hornless Oxen was still in the valley, right on this side of the lake.

"Capture them all." Yue Ji rarely speaks, but these past days, because of her own people's consumption of a large amount of food, she felt a bit uneasy. Although Li Bucai is their clan leader, he is not entirely an undead, and she still feels somewhat unfamiliar with him.

Undead people previously did not know how to use fire and mostly satisfied hunger with fruit, so they rarely hunted beasts, only occasionally catching a few wild rabbits or similar small animals to eat raw. They also disliked the meat of Lulu Beasts, and as for Hornless Oxen, the taste of raw meat was rather poor, so they would not touch it. After arriving at Li Bucai's camp, all food was cooked; a single kind of meat could be prepared in many different flavors, and even meat they once never glanced at became a delicacy in their hands. So the Hornless Oxen likely won't be bad either.

Rui Tong said, "Better to capture only half and release the rest. Because the revered master once said when catching Lulu Beasts that if we catch them all, there will be none left to catch later."

"No, this time capture them all. If they are naturally docile and easy to subdue, try to capture them all alive; if they are wild and hard to tame, kill the adults for food and capture all the young alive to bring back for domestication."

The three phantom piglets that were brought back earlier are now being fed well. There are far too many expenses in the Territory, so to save funds the best method is to bring back as much wild stuff as possible for personal use. One should know that a piglet in Sky City costs 50 silver coins, and a calf that can be used for plowing is even pricier, reaching the hiring fee of a talented officer.

That does not mean these livestock are more valuable than people; the severe food shortage in Sky City is one factor. The other is that it is merely the initial price for labor, equivalent to a brokerage fee. They can still earn a large monthly stipend, whereas livestock lose value with each one sold and have no subsequent worth.

As for these Hornless Oxen, judging from the size of adult strong oxen, they can be fully domesticated as draft animals, and being hornless they are less likely to injure the girls. Capturing them all is not solely for these reasons; Li Bucai's Territory has abundant mountains and rivers but limited pasture. He plans to clear these oxen after eliminating the Goblins that have taken hold here, and later turn this valley into a horse‑raising ground.

The water plants here are lush, and the pasture is vast enough to sustain over a thousand fine horses. In ancient times, the Mongol iron cavalry relied on fine horses under the saddle for superb mobility across the Eurasian continent. Li Bucai knows well how crucial mobility is in war, and his undead troops are already impervious to blades and spears; if each were equipped with a fine horse, they would not even need Heavy Armor, further boosting mobility. It would be an excellent special cavalry unit, and once trained, they could play a huge role when battles reach a stalemate.

But at present manpower is insufficient, so these future special troops can only be used as hunters for now.

Li Bucai led everyone to a small hill to survey from a height. After carefully examining the terrain, he assigned thirty people each to Wan'er and Yue Ji, letting them each skirt the ox herd from opposite sides of the valley and block the lake's two banks.

When the two columns of troops set up obstacles and formed their ranks at the lake's edge, Rui Tong rushed back to Li Bucai. At his command, Li Bucai led forty people to form a straight line and, shouting, charged from the valley mouth into the valley.

The herd suddenly heard voices and immediately became agitated. Li Bucai rode at the front, moving at lightning speed, while the Qingwolf Beast under his saddle kept howling. The herd, already timid, heard the wolf's howl and fled like a torrent, rushing down the valley. A few were caught up by Li Bucai; Baiguang, the beast under his saddle, fixed its gaze on one, pursued the ox's tail, and just as it was about to catch up, its front paw stretched forward, tripping over the ox's hoof, knocking it down, then leapt up, clamped its jaws on the throat, easily snapping the marrow. Li Bucai's sword also pierced a nearby ox, and he continued the chase.

The herd reached the lake's edge, where both sides were already filled with thorns, leaving no path. They were forced toward the marsh; the larger ones, after only a few steps, sank all four legs into the mire and could not move. Continually, other oxen stepped on their bodies and were drawn further in, and after a few steps they were all trapped. In the end, fewer than three hundred experienced old oxen managed to run to the mountains on either side and safely escape the encirclement through the forest; the rest fell into the marsh, becoming lambs awaiting capture.

Li Bucai and his group gathered at the marsh's edge, took out long ropes, and each time they pulled a beast out, they tied it with the rope, hauling out over a hundred heads before the rope ran out. The oxen that had drowned were cut up on the spot, packed into bundles; after the bundles were full, Li assigned fifty people to Wan'er to drive the herd, bringing the meat in the bundles back to the camp. Li and his men then dealt with all the dead oxen, set up a temporary camp, and spent the night by the lake.

When Wan'er and her group drove the herd back to White Horse Ferry, it was already night. The builders had already erected a large cattle pen outside the stockade walls, where the oxen were all tethered. After a night's rest, they set off again early the next morning.

The pen's area was limited, and there were not enough hands to graze the oxen. Apart from the calves, the rest had to be killed entirely. For easier transport, some were slaughtered after being driven back, while others were cut up on the spot, with Rui Tong alone packing the meat and bringing it back.

It took three days in total, and finally all the oxen were dealt with. Of the six hundred oxen, excluding the calves, nearly five hundred remained; the hundred that had been driven back earlier for domestication were too wild to corral and had to be killed. This trip yielded almost 200,000 units of food.