Chapter 1198: Why Die

"Regimental Commander Shaoyin, tell me, someone like him, does this count as a sacrifice? Can he be awarded for merit? This, after all, was a death to protect our Strong Crossbows."

The Soldiers could not bear for their comrade to have died so miserably; at the very least, they wanted his death to be worth something. No matter what, it had to count as a sacrifice; that way, his reputation would sound better, and his family would be able to receive compensation.

Shaoyin and the others rubbed the blood-mud off their hands with dry soil. Regarding the Soldier's inquiry, Shaoyin was also somewhat moved: "It should be possible. After all, we are still on our expedition."

The King has said, as long as it is not a death that occurred while fleeing, we all count it as a sacrifice, and all have merit.

Look at him, he died to protect our Strong Crossbows. Although this Strong Crossbow is broken, the other one, if not for him, might also have been destroyed by the elephants, right?"

"Yes, yes, yes, that is exactly it. If not for him, that Strong Crossbow might also have been destroyed by the elephants."

Everyone was a comrade-in-arms, and they all had feelings. Their good brother had died, and they did not cry; that was already a sign that they were able to suppress their emotions well.

Now that the leader had already provided a basic definition for this matter, they certainly would not sing a different tune. As long as it could make things better for their brother, that was enough. Everyone understood this tacitly, and what Shaoyin said also made a lot of sense; the facts could indeed be interpreted that way.

"His body cannot be brought back. Let's cremate it; bringing back the ashes is enough. Since he died to guard this Strong Crossbow, let the wood of this Strong Crossbow be burned along with him.

Dismantle all the metal parts, and burn the rest along with the other wood."

After the Soldiers agreed, they immediately began to act, quickly dismantling the Strong Crossbow that had been crushed to pieces, removing every single metal component.

"Regimental Commander, I see this part here is still intact. Should we keep it?"

Shaoyin also went over to take a look. He did not recognize what part it was, nor could he name it, but it looked truly complete—it was wood, but luckily it had not been crushed.

"Keep it, keep it. Bring it back to Huaxia; at least the Ministry of Works will have one less part to make."

The dozen or so people from Huaxia were busy holding a funeral for their companion. The Soldiers of the Xuanyuan Tribe saw it, but they did not find it appropriate to go over. After all, they were not their own people, and the concepts of death between Huaxia and themselves seemed to be different; there was no need to go over to offer advice or comfort.

At this time, all the elephants were dead and no longer moving. After Shaoyin gave some instructions, he went to look at the elephants again; after all, this was their task for today.

"Brother, have you ever butchered these elephants? They are so big, how should we go about killing them, and what about the internal organs?"

Shaoyin found the person leading the hunters of the Xuanyuan Tribe and raised his questions regarding the butchering of the elephants.

The hunter stroked his not-very-sharp Bronze Sword and said: "It is the same as with other wild beasts; butcher them as you would any other. It is just that they have too much blood; by the time we are done, the ground will be covered in blood-mud, which is not easy to deal with.

Also, we must guard against those wild beasts. With such a strong smell of blood, I reckon they can smell it from who knows how far away.

Look overhead, there are already so many eagles and vultures; they are all here to snatch the meat."

Shaoyin looked up and sure enough, saw many large birds circling incessantly. Some were even preparing to fly down. They would not fight the predators for fresh meat; they would only wait for the strongest predators to finish eating and be full before eating what was left. They were scavengers and never picky eaters; if they could pick up ready-made food, why go hunting themselves?

Of course, one must also guard against other wild beasts, especially bears. Bears in this season are making final preparations for Winter hibernation, eating almost anything they can find. No matter how small the piece of meat, or even if it is just berries, they must eat it all clean.

Bears are omnivores by nature and eat everything; their diet is very broad. Such a strong smell of blood will definitely attract all the wild beasts nearby to come and investigate.

However, as long as the precautions are in place, the beasts that come will only be new prey, not competitors. If it were just one or two people, they would have panicked by now, cut off a few pieces of meat, and run, leaving the rest to the other beasts.

But now, the fully armed, victorious humans were just surrounding the carcasses, looking at where it would be most appropriate to start with the Knife.

"Start from the belly, just a cut here on the belly, and then throw the internal organs away!"

"No, how can we throw away the internal organs? That is the best meat; it must be kept. Right here, at this spot, start cutting."

Everyone was discussing it. The people of the Xuanyuan Tribe and Huaxia had no barriers at all and expressed their own opinions. After all, many of them had no experience in hunting elephants, let alone successful experience.

"Save the blood, collect all this blood, and then scald it in boiling water. Oh my, it is so tender, especially delicious."

The people of the Xuanyuan Tribe were shocked: "Oh my brother, you people of Huaxia really know how to eat. You don't even throw away the blood. Have you really eaten it before? Can this blood really be eaten?"

The Huaxia Soldiers were very confident: "It can definitely be eaten. In Huaxia, we eat sheep blood and pig blood, especially duck blood; it is the most tender and delicious.

This elephant blood, I see it, it must also be edible. Let's find something to store it in. Is there a bamboo forest nearby? How about we go cut some bamboo?"

"I haven't seen a bamboo forest, we don't have that. Why not go back and get some? We have plenty of things in our team; we can definitely store it."

"That's right, shall we go back and get some?"

The people of the Xuanyuan Tribe thought for a moment, but still shook their heads: "Forget it, forget it. We'll pass. Why don't you go get it? You Huaxia people know how to eat it; you Huaxia people eat it, we won't."

The Huaxia Soldiers immediately exclaimed: "You are really being wasteful. Such good stuff, and you actually won't eat it.

Alright then, we Huaxia people will take it, we will eat it. When you get a craving later, I might not give you any."

The Soldiers of the Xuanyuan Tribe said without hesitation: "No problem, we definitely won't eat your blood. We will eat the meat and gnaw on the bones. I can't even imagine how thick the thigh bone of this elephant must be. Will it be thicker than me?

I reckon the bone marrow inside one thigh bone would be enough for the dozen of us to eat, right?"

"Who knows? Let's wait until we cut it off to see. You guys be careful first, don't get any soil into my blood; if you do, it won't be edible."