Chapter 607: Missing Food and Water, and Yeluba's Pretext

Hatred for the traitor, a craving for wealth, and the fear of death caused this thought to accumulate continuously in Yeluba's mind, and it soon occupied his entire head.

He paced back and forth restlessly, anticipating how he should issue orders later so that the entire situation would develop in the direction he desired.

Soon, as his eyeballs darted left and right, a rough method was determined by him.

"Find some rope, hey, I have some right here!" After saying this, Yeluba had two confidants take out two bundles of packed rope from a wooden chest in his room.

"Sir, there are also two bags of coins here, should we take them?" The confidant flatteringly picked up the money bags from the chest and asked while holding them with both hands.

"Idiot! Why take this stuff? We're still coming back! Forget it, take them; it'll be good to use them to boost the soldiers' morale later. I once saw the Priests of the Church of the God of Wealth do this on a battlefield."

After the rope and money bags were prepared, he himself drank his fill of water using a bucket specifically for drinking, and only then did he lead his men outside.

When he led his confidants to hide in the wooden hut, the soldiers still in a standoff outside the hut were not without complaints about this.

"Those dogs must have gone into the hut to rest! Damn it!"

"Hmph, I bet there's water in the hut. That bastard Yeluba only ever cares about his own comfort and that of his confidants; the rest of us are just an afterthought."

Once finished, a soldier who truly could not stand the scorching sun overhead used the advantage of standing at the edge of the defensive formation to quickly break away from the ranks and run toward the nearest soldier tent.

"Hey, hey, hey! What are you doing?" A Squad Leader responsible for combat command called out to the man, but the soldier didn't even pay him any mind.

As soon as he entered the tent, this soldier was immediately attacked by a Mao Mao Warrior who had been hiding there beforehand, avoiding everyone's line of sight. But this soldier was already prepared for combat; with a 'clang', his Shield blocked the incoming Dagger, and with a forceful push, he shoved the lightweight Mao Mao Warrior away.

He didn't pursue the opponent, instead grabbing a bag of dry Bread and a Water bottle from the ground before exiting the tent.

When this soldier exited the tent, his Shield remained facing the pushed-away Mao Mao Warrior, displaying his skilled Duanbing.

And when this man successfully retrieved food and water from the adjacent soldier tent and retreated, the Squad Leader who had called out to him earlier did not criticize him, but instead flatteringly asked him for some Bread and a sip of water.

"Haili! Please share a little with me, you brave kid, your brain really turns fast!"

The young soldier named Haili broke off a piece of Bread and put it into his mouth, then picked up the Water bottle and took several large gulps of water.

Then he passed the Bread and Water bottle to the companion beside him; there was no need to say anything, everyone understood the meaning.

The soldier in the same battle formation stepped back slightly, then loosened his grip on his Soldier Shield, broke off a piece of Bread, and put it into his mouth in small bites: "Mmm, it's mushroom-flavored Bread. I wonder who made it? None of us have that kind of skill; it's probably that farm woman among the villagers. It's actually quite tasty. Gulp, gulp..."

After eating a few bites of Bread, this soldier picked up the Water bottle again to take two large gulps of water, then passed the Bread and Water bottle to the Squad Leader who was leaning in with a thick-skinned expression.

The Squad Leader of this group quickly broke off a piece of Bread, took two sips of water first to moisten his throat, and then ate the Bread: "Sure enough, it's mushroom-flavored, truly delicious..."

After finishing, he took the initiative to pass the Bread and water to the other soldiers in the battle formation.

This group had eaten and drunk, but the other soldiers present were all hungry and thirsty one by one! Everyone hadn't eaten since early morning because they had gathered out of curiosity over someone being killed last night; as a result, one thing led to another, and it grew larger and larger, turning from the capture of the murderer who stole money into a confrontation between two factions of soldiers, followed immediately by the sudden rebellion and slaughter by the Beast race, and then the standoff.

Many people hadn't eaten since early morning, and some hadn't even had a single drop of water.

"No, I can't take it anymore. Who's in a group with me to go to that tent over there to get food and water? If that doesn't work, at least bring the Water bottle over so I can drink a little water!"

A soldier whose throat was parched and could no longer endure it spoke up to ask for help.

"Let's go! I'm thirsty as hell too!"

"Count me in!"

The Squad Leader responsible for this group didn't say anything, just gave them a push to let them act as quickly as possible.

Once the three men rushed out of the ranks, the Squad Leader immediately had the soldiers on both sides fill the gap.

Upon seeing the gap in the Human soldiers' formation, the opposing Mao Mao Warriors stirred slightly, seemingly about to launch an attack, but following a 'meow' roar from a certain leader, the stirred Mao Mao Warriors quieted down again.

They only used their tails to lash out, firing a volley of hard Stone, but they were all blocked by the Human soldiers who maintained their formation neatly.

The small Stone hit the Soldier Shields and the Plate Armor worn by the soldiers with a pattering sound, creating impact noises and even friction sparks.

After glancing at the stability of the Human soldiers' formation, the Mao Mao leader fell silent.

The toughest part about Human troops is exactly this; a race like the long-haired cat Beast, which has no advantage in height or weight, finds it very difficult to confront Humans head-on in a frontal battle.

"Don't think only you have ranged means! Archers! Fire!" In the rear of the soldiers, the Adjutant Piluo drew his Cavalry Sword and waved it; following his command, the soldiers standing in the rear holding Soldier Bows immediately drew their bows and fired.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

The range and power of the bows and arrows on the Human side were far more formidable than the Mao Mao's tail-whipping Stone; amidst the chaotic arrows, more than one Mao Mao Warrior was hit, but due to the Mao Mao's agile reactions, the arrows aimed at their torsos mostly only hit their limbs.

The injuries were not very serious, and the current standoff also made it impossible for the Human side to go to other nearby soldier tents to retrieve stored arrows.

After all, this battle happened suddenly, and the Mao Mao rebellion exceeded the Human soldiers' expectations, so not only were their food and water kept in their own tents, but most soldiers who possessed Soldier Bows also kept their additional arrows stored in their tents. Being able to carry a Soldier Bow and a quiver of arrows while getting up early to eat was already something many of them had planned to do just to practice archery after eating.

Otherwise, they weren't specialized archers; who would carry a bow and arrows around?

"%%! %￥%!" (Don't be chaotic, the Humans don't have many arrows.)

In the Mao Mao ranks, a certain leader shouted loudly, quickly pacifying the slightly chaotic group, and had the injured Mao Mao Warriors step back, replacing them with other uninjured warriors from the teams that were constantly gathering supplies from the camp.

As for the injured Mao Mao Warriors, they used a sticky sauce made from crushed insects, applying it to their wounds after pulling out the arrows.

And for some Mao Maos with larger wounds, other Mao Maos carrying large ant heads used the large pincers on the ant heads to clamp the wounds shut to stop the bleeding, then applied the Viscera juice of insects for hemostasis and treatment.

This method might not be hygienic, but it was certainly effective; these were all survival skills accumulated by the Mao Maos from living in the mountain forests for a long time.

The Viscera sauce of the unknown insect seemed to have a mild toxin and the ability to cause dizziness; the Mao Mao Warriors who applied it after being injured soon stopped screaming and fell into a daze, sleeping on the spot.

And sleep was beneficial for wound recovery; after all, moving around would likely cause the barely-stopped wounds to tear open.

As soon as Yeluba came out with his confidants, he saw the treatment scene of the Mao Maos in the distance. He gave a light huff and glanced at Piluo, who had just ordered the archers to fire back. What came out of his mouth was not comfort, but a question: "Who told you to fire arrows just now? Don't you know our arrow supply is precious right now? A small amount of arrows must be saved to be released in battle to achieve the maximum lethality."

Piluo squinted at Yeluba; he hadn't expected that even when facing an external enemy, this guy would still want to engage in infighting. Was now the time for infighting?

"What are you looking at? You should look more at the situation of the alien Beast opposite. Look, you ordered the arrows to be fired, did it have any effect? Not one died, and those injured have had enough time to treat themselves. With the tenacious vitality of those hateful fur-balls, I reckon they'll be jumping around again in a few days."

Yeluba spoke at length, barely managing to belittle the Adjutant Piluo, but he didn't say these things without a purpose; he was laying the groundwork for what he would say next: "This is no way to go on. They are numerous; they can completely have one part stand off against us while the other part goes into the camp to gather various resources. Like food and drinking water. And we are guarding here, guarding my dilapidated hut, which has no useful supplies inside. This is no way to go on."

The surrounding soldiers were all attracted by Yeluba's words. At this moment, the three soldiers who had rushed out earlier had successively looted two soldier tents and returned fully loaded with food and water.

But while it was said they returned fully loaded, the food and water they found were only enough for everyone to barely hold on; the mushroom-flavored Bread was only half a palm-sized piece per person, and it was gone in two bites, making no difference from having none.

And the drinking water was even less sufficient; the soldiers who drank first took a few extra gulps, resulting in at least half of the soldiers not getting a single sip of water, and the few Water bottles they risked their lives to retrieve were drunk dry.

They had no choice; they were thirsty as hell, so they had to urinate into the Water bottles and barely drink that little bit themselves to alleviate the problem of their throats being on fire.

"This is no way to go on!" Yeluba continued to say loudly after everyone had barely eaten something and drunk water or urine.

Everyone knew this was no way to go on, but everyone had no other way; confronting the alien Beast in an all-out battle, the opponent's numbers were far greater than theirs, and although it might cause heavy casualties to the alien Beast, everyone would definitely be dead.

When passing through the dangerous Southern Mountains, everyone had witnessed the combat power of the Mao Maos, so they were clear about what the outcome for everyone would be once a battle started with these numbers.

"Does anyone have any ideas? If anyone has an idea, speak up?" Yeluba asked loudly, seemingly seeking a solution openly, but in reality, he knew these illiterate Soldiers had no effective ideas at all. In the end, he would still have to make the decision.

"How about it? If it won't work, I have an idea here," Yeluba said hesitantly.

He raised his hand and pointed to the wooden house not far away where Knight Hartna lived, which no Mao Mao Warrior approached; because the house emitted the stench of rotting wounds, the keen-nosed Mao Mao did not come near it at all.

Surviving in the mountains and forests requires, among other things, not getting close to rotting things, and staying away from rotting companions as early as possible.

Therefore, even though quite some time had passed from the morning until now in the afternoon, Knight Hartna's residence had not been disturbed by the Mao Mao.

"In this difficult predicament, we might have to swallow our pride and beg for Knight Hartna's help..." Yeluba spoke of the difficulty, but in his heart, he was laughing wildly.

Adjutant Piluo suddenly raised his head to look at Yeluba and questioned, "What are you saying? How dare you say such a thing? Knight Hartna's wounds are already like that! You are actually setting your sights on him? Are you even human? Could it be that you were transformed from a devil or a Demon?"

Yeluba pretended to frown: "You are truly vicious; we have no other choice, do we? Either we fight these alien races until every one of us is dead, or we can try to retreat and see if those alien Beast who are good at hunting in the mountains and forests will take us all down at a lower cost?"

He spread his hands: "So, at this time, we can only beg Knight Hartna. After all, his life alone versus the lives of so many of us, including you—can the weight of these lives be the same?"

Many Soldiers were actually still unclear as to why finding Knight Hartna, who was seriously injured and could die at any moment, would save everyone or change the current unfavorable situation.

Seeing the confused look of the surrounding Soldiers, a trace of a smile appeared on the corner of Yeluba's mouth, and he said: "Oh, everyone is not quite clear yet, right? Our Knight Hartna still has one last bottle of 【Courage Potion】 on him. With this magical Potion, the seemingly seriously injured Knight can fight bravely again for a short time and give his enemies a taste of his power!"

When he said this, he touched his throat somewhat awkwardly: "If it were before, I confess, I would be afraid that our Knight Hartna would use this power on me, like cutting off my head with a sword. But it is different now; the survival of everyone depends on Knight Hartna. Piluo, do you have a different opinion on this matter?"

Piluo certainly disagreed; he was Knight Hartna's Adjutant, attendant, relative, and a companion who had grown up with him, even willing to die for Knight Hartna. But his reason told him that at this very moment, if he did not want everyone to be killed by the long-haired lynx Beast, he had to seek help from Knight Hartna.

But he still wanted to struggle a little: "Perhaps, perhaps we can talk to the other side. I want to understand why they were always fine before—although they often caused trouble, why did they rebel today? Knowing why they rebelled, perhaps there is still a turning point in the relationship between the two sides."

Yeluba laughed disdainfully, pointed to the corpses of Human Soldiers on the ground in front who had been stripped naked after being killed by the alien Beast, and then pointed to the Mao Mao Warriors that Piluo himself had ordered to be shot and wounded: "At this time, I'm afraid you are joking."

Then Yeluba's expression changed, and he said fiercely: "Weren't these hateful alien Beast brought here by you and Knight Hartna? Don't you know how petty they are? They usually like to find trouble, and when bullied, they cause even more trouble. Now that they have rebelled and both sides are killing each other, do you think you can persuade them with just your mouth? Can you persuade all of us?"

"What about the dead companions? What about those hateful alien races who are looting everyone's property? I know, aren't you just trying to protect your master? It doesn't matter if we ordinary Soldiers die; anyway, as long as our great Knight Hartna can return home alive, he can easily conscript more farmers from the villages to join his ranks."

"Because we all know that as long as the grain tax in the territory is increased by ten percent, at least five percent of the farmers will not be able to pay the grain tax. At that time, they will either have to borrow money or send people to fight for the lord."

"Using blood, using lives to pay for the unpaid grain tax."

When Yeluba said this, some of the surrounding Soldiers lowered their heads in silence. In fact, before the conscription last year, Knight Hartna had indeed significantly increased the grain tax in the territory and even added a new war tax.

Families in the territory who could not pay the full taxes that year had to send at least one person per household to participate in the war, using their own young people to replace the taxes they could not pay.

Most people, of course, were unwilling to pay taxes; they would rather send people.

Thus, many of the Soldiers in Knight Hartna's territory came to be this way.

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