Chapter 138: The Strongest Soldier

Baifeng squinted his eyes and gave a slight smile at Xiong, who was holding his son and basking in the sun. Unexpectedly, Xiong felt a bit embarrassed upon seeing this, feeling that it was shameful for a Soldier to hold a cub out in the sun. However, his wife did not pay much attention to the child, and since he felt the sun was just right, he had carried the child out, not expecting to be seen by the Tribal Chief.

Baifeng spoke: "There is nothing shameful about this. You are holding your son, perhaps the most powerful Soldier of the Baifeng tribe in the future; it is only right that you care for him diligently. If you were holding a woman here to bask in the sun, then you should feel ashamed, and I would not let you off."

After hearing this, Xiong gave a sheepish smile, turned around, and carried the child away to stroll in a deserted area. Baifeng continued to lie there with his eyes closed. Not long after, Baifeng heard footsteps; it must have been Xiong returning with the child.

Immediately after, several crisp and loud sounds came from his room. He did not know what was happening, but it sounded like blows landing on a person. Baifeng's gossiping heart stirred, and he squinted his eyes to watch. Before long, he saw Xiong's wife walk out, one hand rubbing her buttocks and the other supporting the child.

So it was a family matter. Does this count as domestic violence? In this era, it probably does not, and it did not look like there was any serious harm. It was likely that Xiong's wife had neglected the child and was punished by Xiong.

Time passed quietly. After that heavy Snow, it would Snow every few days, though only in normal amounts, which had no impact on the tribe. It was just that the Snow on the distant mountains kept piling up thicker; the previous layer had not melted much before the new one was piled on top.

After the Elephant skin was tanned, Baifeng went to test it. It was very thick and also quite soft, unlike Boar skin, which was stiff. Baifeng looked on with envy, wanting to make a set of Elephant Armor for himself as well.

But alas, materials were limited, and he already had a set of half-Iron, half-Leather Armor, so it was unnecessary. Furthermore, Elephant skin might not necessarily have the strength of Iron Armor, so these were all left for the members of the Bow and Blade Team to use.

The members of the Vanguard Team did not have the opportunity to be allocated Elephant skin, because there was not even enough for the Bow and Blade Team. The thickest Elephant skin was split into three layers so that everyone could have a set of armor.

It was impossible for the few Zhinu to handle the workload, so everyone made their own armor. Baifeng and the few Zhinu supervised the entire process from the side. Their armor was relatively simple; there was no need to weave Iron Armor Plates, they only needed to cut the Elephant skin to size, punch holes, and tie it to their bodies. It was called armor, but the design was more like a bulletproof vest; only the skirt armor on the lower body was in the style of armor.

Within a few days, everyone's armor was finished. They were all made according to their own physiques, so they were quite form-fitting. The armor of Xiong, Hui, Chi, and Yishang was more special because Baifeng had added an Iron Heart Guard and some Iron Armor Plates to the edges for them, and the design was also more aesthetically pleasing; this was a special treatment for the strong.

Although Lu was favored by Baifeng, he did not receive Elephant skin armor. If he needed to run, this kind of armor would instead become a restriction. If one day he could grow stronger and be able to pull a Strong Bow to become a member of the Bow and Blade Team, naturally there would be new armor made for him.

After putting on the new armor, they naturally had to go out and test it. The sparring used Wooden Blades. Previously, they would have fixed partners for practice, but now Baifeng directly picked people at random to form teams to hack at each other. First, several groups fought one-on-one, with no holding back, using the blade techniques they had summarized, or rather, their own understood moves; as long as they could win, it was fine.

This sparring session attracted all the tribesmen. To let everyone see, they simply let everyone go up to the city wall, and the people participating in the confrontation practiced under the wall so that the people above could see clearly.

The few heavyweights naturally appeared last, also to avoid putting pressure on the other Soldiers. Baifeng picked people at random, and then at his command, they each launched attacks against their opponents within the range.

There were no fancy postures; they could decide the winner in just a few moves of hacking, parrying, blocking, and then backhand hacking. However, because they were wearing armor, they did not feel much, and they did not know how serious an injury would be if they were hacked like this on a battlefield.

To make the confrontation more intuitive, Baifeng had people find some Lime. Once it touched the blade, as long as it hit a person, there would be a white mark on the armor, making it clear who was strong and who was weak.

The fighting below was intense, and the people above were also emotionally stirred. Every time there was a brilliant moment, they would cheer loudly, which made the participants start to give their all, resulting in many Wooden Blades breaking during the confrontation.

Those still waiting to participate in the confrontation were also impatient to get on the field. Seeing this situation, Baifeng immediately decided to hold a competition: two-on-two confrontations, with the winner advancing. Baifeng acted as the chief referee, and all tribesmen were referees. The specific basis was the blade marks on the armor; after three confrontations, whoever had more blade marks on their body was eliminated. Then they would fight level by level, and the final winner would be the most powerful Soldier of the Baifeng tribe.

This title was too grand, so everyone ignored all caution and attacked the head, neck, and various vital points. One Soldier was directly struck on the head by a Wooden Blade and almost fainted.

Although doing this on the battlefield was best, it was not suitable for the current sparring drill. Thus, a temporary rule was added: no hacking the neck or head; other areas were fine.

In the end, the champion of the individual group was unsurprisingly Xiong. Some tribesmen on the city wall were unconvinced by the other Soldiers and wanted to go down to spar, feeling that they had wasted that set of armor.

Baifeng did not object and let them challenge those who were eliminated first. Neither side wore armor. If they succeeded in the challenge, they would borrow a form-fitting set of armor to continue fighting. If they won two consecutive matches, they would be directly admitted into the Soldier Regiment; the Bow and Blade Team was still not an option, because the use of the bow was also very important.

However, the members of the Bow and Blade Team were not trained for nothing; their strength alone was not something ordinary tribesmen could compare to. Those who were eliminated early were feeling frustrated, and when someone looked down on them and came to challenge them, they did not hold back and responded with full force. In the end, they did not let a single person pass.

The individual matches were over, and Baifeng still wanted to see the team battles to see how their coordination was. Thus, they started to compete in groups of three. The team formation was also random; one was not allowed to think their teammates were not good enough. In drills, you had no choice, and on the battlefield, you also had no choice. Whoever took three hits was considered dead and had to voluntarily withdraw.

In the team competition, the record of Xiong's group was at the front but not the first, because individual martial prowess was ultimately no match for a team. However, Baifeng also saw here that everyone's coordination was not very good; some were even just fighting their own battles.

Thus, Baifeng adjusted the focus of future training, which was to practice mutual coordination. And this competition, which was originally intended to test the quality of the armor and the results of the training, also ended. The conclusion was that the armor was still very effective; after getting used to it, it did not affect combat, and Wooden Blades hitting it did not feel like anything. If it were Stone Weapons, it probably would not even break the skin.

Xiong became the most powerful Soldier of the tribe. Baifeng would not fight him for this title; he had the identity of Tribal Chief, which was enough, and he also had to let his subordinates have some gains and pursuits.

Xiong already had a house, a wife, Weapons, and grain, so there was nothing else to reward him with. He had to give him an honor he could show off. Should he issue medals? That seemed possible, but making them on the spot was troublesome.

Baifeng remembered the "neck ornaments" worn around the necks of those wrestlers; it was both an ornament that could be worn out and could reflect the honor obtained. Most importantly, it was easy to make.

Thus, Baifeng found some Hemp Cloth that had already been dyed, though currently there was only black and blue, as he had not found dyes of other colors yet. He used Iron wire to make a circular collar, wrapped the cloth around it, and put it on Xiong. Those who won the team competition also had them.

Baifeng said that this competition would be fixed every year from now on, and the events would increase in the future, such as Archery, racing, and weightlifting. The winner would receive this Award Ring, and for every win, they would wrap a strip on it; this was the representation of a person's honor.

Xiong was very happy, happier than when he received rewards of grain or women. Honor was too important for a Soldier, and the cheers of the tribesmen also made him intoxicated.