Chapter 1384: Sui

Since he could not extract any information, Xuanyuan naturally would not pursue and attack relentlessly. Moreover, he could guess that, given the situation in Huaxia, they certainly could not have brought their best weapons to use here; they must have been left behind in Huaxia City for defense.

They watched the people of the Jiebing Tribe continuously retreat. Although they had not left their line of sight, in terms of distance, it truly felt safe enough.

Not to mention using Strong Crossbows, even if Huaxia had brought their Catapults, it would be impossible to hit the current Jiebing Tribe; Jiebing was still too cautious.

After Shaoyin returned with the water-fetching team, he reported the process of the war and the final result in detail. He also mentioned that the hillside below them was covered in Traps; his guess had been correct, and the observation had been sufficiently careful.

The retreat of the Jiebing Tribe also provided them with favorable conditions. Originally, they had planned to sneak over at night to dismantle these Traps, but now that Jiebing was so far away, they were safe, and both Huaxia and the Xuanyuan Tribe were safe; there was absolutely no pressure in dismantling the Traps.

"Tribal Chief Xuanyuan, since Jiebing has moved so far away, shall we just go and dismantle the Traps directly?"

Xuanyuan had the same intention: "Does your Huaxia have any better, faster methods? If we look for the Traps one by one, I fear it will be quite troublesome, and there might be omissions."

Lu did not have any good methods for this either: "We can only stretch out a line and probe bit by bit. We will have everyone line up in a row to pass through the entire area we need to traverse, using sticks to probe. As long as we strive not to miss a single spot, that will do; there is no other way."

Xuanyuan thought this was reasonable; what other good methods could there be? Thus, he immediately arranged for Soldiers. Huaxia was no exception, also arranging one hundred men, carrying Weapons, to participate in the operation.

For an operation with almost no danger like this, Huaxia could not completely refuse and had to send Soldiers as well.

Soon, everyone gathered the team and, following Lu's command, conducted a carpet-style search. They used the long Weapons in their hands to probe bit by bit in front of them. As long as the feeling of the soil being poked down was not right, they would immediately squat down and use their Weapons to pry it open to look.

According to what those prisoners of war said, the Traps they set were the simplest pits. If one stepped on them, one would fall in, either injuring a foot or leg, or having the sharp spikes at the bottom pierce the foot. They had not set up any trigger-based Traps at all.

Trigger-based Traps were useless for humans because they were relatively obvious and their power was too small. Only small wild animals with fixed game trails, like pikas, might fall for them, and they could cause enough damage.

Large Traps were aimed at wild boars and deer, but they required places with dense vegetation. This place was almost entirely grassland with scattered bushes; there were no conditions to set up large Traps. There was no need to search those bushes either, because people were not stupid; they would definitely walk around the bushes and take the easy path. Those who set the Traps were also human and would only set Traps useful against humans.

Once those pits were pried open, the sharp spikes inside were removed, then the soil and Grass were filled back in and trampled solid. A pit that would injure someone was considered resolved. Everyone was clearing them at a distance of almost hand-in-hand, so it was impossible to have any omissions.

Xuanyuan and his men held their Telescopes, but they had not even seen when Jiebing had moved away. Now, they had not even seen clearly what he looked like.

Jiebing had also moved from the foremost Tent to a Tent in the middle position, letting his tribesmen crowd around him; only then could he feel a sense of security.

Before the Soldiers of the Jiang Surname Tribe he had called for arrived, a Soldier reported to him in a panic: "Tribal Chief! The people on the other side have started dismantling the pits! They discovered there are pits!"

Jiebing's face turned gloomy, and he said almost without thinking: "Bring me that Soldier who went to the other side!"

That messenger who had returned alive thought it had nothing to do with him anymore, but he did not expect to be called by the Tribal Chief again. The Tribal Chief did not even know his name, and he had never thought he would be so unlucky.

"Tribal Chief, you... you are looking for me?"

Jiebing suppressed his anger and asked: "Did you tell them about the Traps?"

The Soldier immediately broke out in a cold sweat: "Tribal Chief, no, no! I didn't say anything!!!"

Jiebing pointed his finger at the hillside: "Then why have they already started dismantling the Traps?!"

"First they discovered the men I had hidden so well on both sides, and now they have even discovered the Traps. Could it be that they have ten eyes each? How did they discover them? Wasn't it you who told them?"

The Soldier only felt he was incredibly wronged and immediately knelt down: "Tribal Chief! I really didn't say anything! I didn't tell them anything at all!!!"

Jiebing could not endure such betrayal. His arrangements had completely failed, and all his advantages were gone. Now, the only numerical advantage he had left seemed to have no confidence under the threat of Heavenly Thunder.

In a fit of rage, he used the "Sui" at his waist to hack at the Soldier's head. The Soldier fell to the ground in response. Jiebing was not satisfied; he forcefully pulled out the Sui stuck in the skull, hacked a few more times, and then aimed at his neck to cut the head off.

"Go! Cook him! Sacrifice him to the ancestors!"

The watching Soldiers were panicked in their hearts, but they could only obey. They took their friend's shattered head and body and dragged them to the bonfire. They had the shaman take out the Da Li, threw the Soldier's head inside, added water to cook it for the sacrifice, and chopped the body into pieces before throwing it into the fire.

As for "Sui," it was a tool used for harvesting. Grass Seed planted casually was harvested once a year, so one year was called "one Sui." Sui was also a Weapon used for killing, especially used in sacrificial rituals; therefore, sacrificing something was also called "Sui 【something】." What the Shang people liked most was "Sui Qiang"—hacking off the heads of a few Qiang people and cooking them as a sacrifice to the ancestors.

Sui was both a labor tool and a Weapon. The Yue represented power, the power of life and death. Sui, axe, Yue, and Ganjie all looked similar, but when broken down, there were many nuances.

Baifeng did not have that kind of background; he only knew that "Sui" represented a year, but he did not know why it was called Sui. Of course, he also did not know why a year was called a year. "Day" was related to the movement of the sun, and "month" was a word that only appeared after observing the movement of the moon.

In places far from the cultural center of the Shennong Clan, other tribes could only record years by the cold and heat. Only places near the cultural center, or tribes of the Shennong Clan, would record years by Sui.

Although their farming was very primitive, it was, after all, the earliest, and the corresponding culture naturally emerged the earliest. Other tribes also identified more with the Shennong Clan's way of speaking.