Chapter 569: The Gate of the Jiedian, the Coming and Going Mao Mao, the Collapsing Soldiers, and Bad Ideas

As it neared midnight, several hunting parties of alien beastmen that had set out hours ago had already begun to return.

They carried quite a few birds from the mountain forests they had hunted along the way; it was hard to see clearly in the dark, but there were actually birds with feathers of every color. These Mao Mao were in fact very skilled at this, especially the Long-haired Lynx Beastman Tribe, which did not have a fixed residence here; the birds in this area did not yet have much vigilance and would not flap their wings and fly away at the slightest sign of trouble.

Therefore, by using their tails to strike stones and pieces of wood, the Mao Mao could easily knock down and capture these birds one after another, even in the pitch-black forest.

Some Mao Mao were even covered in small birds; the thin vines found everywhere in the forest might not make sturdy ropes, but they served well enough as simple ropes for the Mao Mao to temporarily bind the birds.

They gathered outside the only gate of the Jiedian, chattering and meowing, letting the soldiers on constant patrol discover them so they could open the gate.

The soldiers responsible for night patrol did not mind, but the soldiers who were called up in the middle of the night by these patrols to put in the effort of pulling open the gate were all filled with dissatisfaction.

"Are they ever going to finish? Didn't they already go out hunting during the day? Why do they have to come back in the middle of the night? Can't they just wait until dawn?"

"These damn little things, I think they're doing this just to mess with us; every time they come in or out, we have to honestly open the gate for them."

"Cunning and hateful fur-balls! Can't someone tell them not to come back in the middle of the night?"

But no one paid attention to this person's complaints; everyone knew that these alien beastmen were not low in strength, and being backward and primitive, they simply could not be communicated with. Besides, when they had previously crossed the Southern Mountains, these alien beastmen only listened to Knight Hartna and his Adjutant; others, including the Soldier Captain Yeluba, could not communicate with these rude and unreasonable little things at all.

One attempt at communication and they would bristle, and once they bristled, they would gather all their people to surround the soldiers.

When they first crossed the Southern Mountains, there were quite a lot of them, but ever since they left dozens of people at Changmai Village, there were now only seventy-some Defeated Soldiers in the Jiedian, and in terms of numbers, they were far inferior to the alien beastmen.

Naturally, in the confrontations that followed their stir-making, they could not best the other side and could only let these alien beastmen run wild in the Jiedian.

Some wanted to beg Knight Hartna or the Adjutant Piluo to step out and talk to these alien beastmen, but having betrayed the Knight, they could no longer just go and ask.

"What are you blathering about? Let's get to work; open the gate for them sooner so we can go back to sleep sooner. Seriously, I don't know what's going on, why hasn't a single woman from the village come out tonight?"

A middle-aged soldier rubbed his red nose and scanned the Jiedian by the moonlight, but all the soldiers' tents were quiet, not looking like anyone was busy.

"Maybe you scared them all away? You always like to beat them when you do that stuff; maybe these women didn't dare come out today? Haha, tell me, how are you going to compensate everyone for the loss?"

The red-nosed soldier rubbed his nose and snorted disdainfully: "Compensate my ass. Believe it or not, when their bellies are growling with hunger, they'll come out on their own. You and I just need to shake the bags of grain in our hands, and those people will follow you into the tent themselves."

The soldiers joked, telling dirty jokes to relieve the sleepiness of being called up in the middle of the night. Soon, they pulled the ropes together and opened the wooden gate that moved up and down.

The Mao Mao had long been impatient and surged in; the strange cries of the birds that were not yet dead, the Mao Mao's giggling and chattering in their alien language, and the soldiers' curses made this night no longer peaceful.

As the Mao Mao passed the soldiers who opened the gate, they even deliberately squeezed some of the living birds hard, making them let out intense screams at the soldiers. The soldiers glared in anger, but the Mao Mao just giggled, lined up, and trotted lightly into the even darker Mine.

"Forget it, what's the point of getting angry at these aliens who can't count without their claws?"

"Exactly, I heard that the Captain seems to have drawn up a plan; these annoying alien beastmen will be dealt with."

"Ha, then I'll have to listen closely to the screams of these alien beastmen when the time comes; it's guaranteed to make me quite happy."

The soldiers comforted each other, but just as they lowered the wooden gate and prepared to crawl back to their tents to continue sleeping.

Outside the Jiedian, outside the towering gate, the shouts of the returning Mao Mao were heard once again.

Some Mao Mao who had learned Human Common Language were actually shouting to open the gate in strange, distorted human speech.

It would have been better if they didn't speak human language; learning half-baked Human Common Language instead gave off a strange sense of eeriness, especially for these Defeated Soldiers who had just walked through the Southern Mountains, making it even more terrifying and causing them to recall some terrible memories they did not wish to remember.

"Damn it! Shut up!!"

"These hateful guys, just shouting to get in would be enough, why did they have to learn human speech?"

"Ugh..." Some soldiers even felt so uncomfortable from recalling terrible memories that they began to dry-heave.

The soldiers responsible for patrolling on the wall waved their torches again, signaling the soldiers responsible for opening and closing the gate to hurry up.

"What's the rush!"

"Coming, coming!! Stop rushing!"

"I really regret it; if I had known, I wouldn't have chosen the job of opening and closing the gate. I thought this job would only require opening it once or twice a day, but it turns out I have to be rushed to work in the middle of the night."

The soldiers cursed and grumbled, having no choice but to return to the inside of the gate, pull the thick ropes, and exert force together, stepping backward slowly to pull the heavy wooden gate upward.

The Mao Mao outside the gate surged in again, also carrying and holding many birds and small animals from the forest they had hunted. The midnight hunt made many Mao Mao very excited, because this place was close to the edge of the mountain forest, and there were actually no monsters or beasts of any significance, so naturally, for the Mao Mao, it was a situation where they could easily walk sideways.

Many Mao Mao were discussing whether they should move their tribe here in the future; not only could they easily obtain prey here, but they could also dig for Mineral Ore, and it was close to human territory, making it very convenient to trade or steal metal tools from humans in the future.

But these Mao Mao Warriors had no say in the tribe; only the leaders and the tribe's Witch Doctors and Wizards had the power to make major decisions.

Ordinary Mao Mao Warriors only needed to follow orders.

These Mao Mao chatted among themselves about moving the tribe in their own language, completely ignoring the soldiers who opened the gate for them, which actually made the soldiers breathe a sigh of relief; if they had played pranks on them like the previous group, wouldn't they have been driven mad with anger?

But the thing that would truly drive these soldiers mad was yet to come!

They thought their work for the night was done, but just as they all crawled into their tents to rest again, the shouts from the soldiers patrolling on the wall came again.

"Come quickly, another wave of alien beastmen needs to come in! Those opening the gate, all of you get out here quickly, don't dawdle, or these alien beastmen will look for trouble again!"

But just as the soldier on the wall finished shouting, a Defeated Soldier from a nearby tent rushed out angrily: "I think you're the one looking for trouble for us!"

But the soldier on the wall didn't buy it at all: "Anyway, I've called you. If you don't come to open the gate and the alien beastmen cause trouble, and then the Captain punishes you, that's none of my business. You handle it yourselves..."

After saying this, the patrolling soldier walked away with his companion, making the soldiers responsible for opening the gate gnash their teeth in anger: "Shameless thing!"

"Must find a chance to kill him."

"Sigh, killing him is too much; just find a chance to break his leg. When we leave here later, I'd like to see what he does with a broken leg."

While saying harsh words, these Defeated Soldiers gathered angrily and slowly opened the gate.

The Mao Mao, who had long been impatient, made a huge racket at the soldiers as soon as they entered. Although they wouldn't really attack, these bold Mao Mao Warriors didn't know where they pulled out some plump beetles and threw them directly onto a soldier's face.

The soldier was immediately enraged, but just as he was about to lash out, he was held back by the others around him.

"Forget it, forget it."

"Don't get angry at these fur-balls that aren't much smarter than my dog."

"These uncivilized barbarian aliens, just ignore them."

"It's just a bug, don't mind them."

With this distraction, the soldiers responsible for opening the gate actually persuaded themselves while trying to persuade their companion.

The Mao Mao walked triumphantly into the Mine, covered in their harvest. Behind them, several soldiers cursed: "I don't know why they get so much prey; can they even finish eating it?"

"I'm sick of eating Wheat Porridge; I really want to taste some meat."

"Give up on that. This afternoon, someone tried to get a deer leg or two from these alien beastmen, and the result was that those alien beastmen all surged out at once and surrounded the guys who opened their mouths."

Because these Defeated Soldiers had all traveled through the Southern Mountains with the Mao Mao, they all understood the combat strength of these alien Beast, which was even slightly stronger than their own.

Especially in small-scale combat, the more agile and savage long-haired lynx Beast were clearly more formidable than these Defeated Soldiers.

Of course, if the numbers reached a hundred, their side would be much stronger than the alien Beast who charged in blindly, thanks to their organization, Shields, and battle formations.

But they didn't have a hundred people in the Jiedian right now, and that was the problem.

When it grew dark, the three Hunting parties that had gone out finally returned to the Mine in the Jiedian; these Defeated Soldiers breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that they could finally get some proper rest and sleep.

But they had thought too much.

Before they had even walked back to their Tents, a new wave of Hunting parties surged out from the Mine.

These empty-handed Mao Mao had clearly already dropped off the prey they had been carrying earlier, and were now surging out with light steps, high in spirits, preparing to take advantage of the darkness to go out Hunting once more before dawn!

"Why are they coming again?"

"Are they crazy?"

"Who's going to ask? What kind of madness has gotten into these little fur-balls today? Why must they go out Hunting at night? And so frequently?"

But the Soldiers looked at one another, and still, no one dared to risk angering the alien Beast to go up and ask.

They had no choice but to return dejectedly to the inside of the gate, pick up the still-warm, thick Rope, and pull together once more to lift the heavy wooden gate.

The Mao Mao trotted out of the Jiedian in high spirits, as if they were heading out to work.

Just as the Soldiers were about to slowly ease their strength and let the gate fall back down, a young Soldier suddenly spoke up: "Do you think we might have to do this another two times later?"

All the Soldiers looked at each other with varying expressions, but they basically all acknowledged that this possibility existed, and it was a high one.

"So, what do we do?" Some Soldiers looked at the young Soldier who had asked the question; just giving the problem wasn't enough, one had to provide a solution at the same time.

"Uh, I have an idea, I don't know if it will work." This young Soldier was a bit worried, and after saying half of it, he took back the words that were about to come out.

At this moment, they slowly lowered the wooden gate, threw the thick ropes onto the ground one after another, and no one walked toward their own Tents anymore; they just squatted on the ground, looking at one another.

No one spoke, but a stifling atmosphere still spread among their small group.

After waiting for a while, they grew impatient; the red-nosed middle-aged Soldier stood up while muttering under his breath, but just as he was about to walk toward his Tent, whoosh—another group of alien Beast walked out of the Mine, chatting and laughing.

"Those %%% things! I'm definitely going to get a pair of fur Boots from these aliens in the future!" After cursing fiercely, the red-nosed middle-aged Soldier walked back, pointed at the young Soldier who had spoken earlier, and said loudly: "Stop being silent, and stop being shy. Whatever %% idea you have, just say it quickly. Anyway, as long as it can change this current state, I support it with both hands and feet!"

Nearby, other Soldiers also picked up the ropes from the ground and said gloomily: "Don't forget, they go out to hunt, but they still have to come back. Maybe it'll be exactly at the %% crack of dawn!"

"I %, I don't want to be eating and have to put down my meal to come open the gate for them! Speak up, Shop Assistant, whatever idea you have, bring it out!"

Encouraged by their companions with mixed-in crude curses, the young Soldier finally spoke: "How about we find something to fix the ropes to the ground? We'll just leave the Jiedian gate wide open; anyway, in the middle of the night, the Captain won't see. When morning comes and those fur-balls roll back to the Jiedian, we'll take the opportunity to lower it then? They'll have been busy all night, they'll have to go back to rest during the day, right?"

"You really are a little clever ghost!"

A Soldier replied, though it was unclear if it was praise or sarcasm.

But when the Mao Mao arrived at the gate noisily and the Soldiers pulled the gate open once more, no one said anything; the last Soldier in the line quickly returned to his Tent, dug out the wooden ground pegs used to secure the Tent, and starting from his last position, hammered and fixed the thick ropes to the ground using two pegs per set.

He couldn't find a wooden mallet for a moment, so he used the counterweight ball at the end of his personal Soldier Sword as a hammer, hammering and tapping to fix the ground pegs in place.

Afterward, this Soldier came to the front row and silently lent a hand. The Soldier in the second-to-last position, imitating the Soldier in front, also brought over a set of ground pegs and reinforced this thick rope that pulled the gate to the ground.

Every Soldier fetched a set of two ground pegs from their own Tents and reinforced the gate rope to the ground.

After they were all done, all the Soldiers looked at each other, smiled, and then guiltily glanced at the wide-open Jiedian gate.

Originally, they had wanted to send someone to guard here; after all, their task was to open and close the gate, and now that they were leaving the gate wide open, they felt quite guilty and still felt it would be better to leave someone behind.

But in the end, no one wanted to stay here; after all, there were Soldiers patrolling the Jiedian walls, and those patrolling Soldiers hadn't had a very good attitude earlier. Therefore, they left one after another, and surprisingly, they all ran back to their own Tents and fell fast asleep.

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