Chapter 139: Waiting for Spring

After Xiong put it on, he was unwilling to take it off. Previously, the tribesmen had also basically accepted that Xiong was the tribe's strongest Soldier. Perhaps Chi and Baifeng were stronger than Xiong, but since they had never clearly compared, no one knew; it was just that the majority supported Xiong. Now, this time could be considered as having thoroughly confirmed the title of the Xiong Tribe's strongest Soldier, and naturally, Xiong wanted to keep showing it off.

Having ended this whimsical competition and tested the effectiveness of the armor, Baifeng was very satisfied, so he gave them a day off. Once they had rested well, they would go back to continue training their team combat skills.

Baifeng, meanwhile, continued to supervise the production progress of all supplies in the tribe. After becoming proficient, the Crossbow entered a production-line style of work. Although there were not many Carpenters, they still chose to have each person make a few parts and then assemble them together. The specifications were all measured, which could also prevent the produced Crossbows from being substandard and unusable.

He had originally wanted to build some other powerful Weapons, but recalling the entire cold-weapon era, he had already built almost everything he could. He wanted to build chariots, but they had no horses; making cattle go to the battlefield was somewhat unrealistic.

Weapons also ushered in a small wave of improvements. The spear was replaced by the Halberd, a fusion of the Spear and the dagger-axe, which had more functions like stabbing and hacking than the spear. Long weapons were suitable for the Soldiers of the Vanguard Team. The reason the spear could become the king of weapons was not that it was easier to use than the Halberd—the Halberd was better than the spear—but the Halberd could be countered. Ever since the Gouxian appeared, the Halberd had withdrawn from large-scale military battlefields.

Days passed one by one, and it was getting closer and closer to spring. Baifeng's heart was also becoming increasingly restless; he had too many things he wanted to do this year.

The herd of cattle began to grow. The first calf of the Baifeng tribe had died in the mouths of a wolf pack, but now more than a dozen Xiaoniu had been born. They had safely passed through the most difficult time and were all growing their bodies rapidly.

Baifeng also consciously increased the number of tribesmen looking after the herd, while letting them have more contact with the Xiaoniu under the premise of ensuring safety, even if it meant using food to coax them. The tribe's leftover Sorghum, as well as Millet, wheat bran, and other grains that were eaten less, could be given to the Xiaoniu.

However, most of the Xiaoniu had not yet grown teeth and could not eat food, so these were first used to bribe the mother cows, letting them let down their guard so that humans could approach the young. Once the Xiaoniu could eat food, the targets of the enticement would change.

Baifeng wanted to domesticate the cattle to be able to plow the fields, but the current situation was not optimistic. At least this first generation of cattle would not be too successful. Under long-term observation, he had already picked out more than a dozen relatively docile cattle that were not afraid of people. These cattle would be tried as plow cattle when spring began. If they were not up to it, Baifeng would only be able to set his sights on the second generation of cattle.

Those chickens were the same, growing plump and strong. Now, even if their wing feathers were not clipped, they could not fly. The roosters' plumage was more gorgeous, and their physiques were larger. The hens had all become plump, but they just would not lay eggs. In later generations, any kind of chicken could manage an egg a day or an egg every three days, and specially bred laying hens had even higher egg production. Baifeng thought that although they were infinitely close to domestic chickens, they were still wild chickens themselves, and laying eggs should also have a specific breeding season.

So Baifeng reduced their food supply. If it weren't for the fact that it hadn't thawed yet, he would have just let them find food in the dirt. Given their current state, if he kept feeding them with grain, it would be a bit of a loss. After all, they couldn't lay eggs, and the meat had a limit to how much it could grow; if they ate too much, it would just turn into chicken manure.

The coldest time had passed, and the temperature was slowly rising. Baifeng did not know how this "Nine" was calculated, but based on his own physical sensation, it was at least the fifth nine now.

The snow on the ground in the tribe's activity area had long been swept clean, but the snow on the roofs had not. Throughout the whole Winter, it would melt and fall, and when it couldn't pile up anymore, it would slide down, but there was still nearly twenty centimeters of snow left.

In such clear weather now, with a cold but relatively moist wind blowing—it seemed to be the spring breeze—the temperature gradually rose. On this fine day, the snow suddenly began to melt. The snowmelt from the eaves fell with a splash, and if it weren't for the cloudless sky, it would really be a bit like a heavy rain.

Places under the eaves that were not paved with Brick and Cement had already been washed out into pits by the water, and then this gathered water flowed away toward the water channels. The accumulated snow next to the water channels in the distance was also melting; the top was being baked by the sun, and the bottom was being melted by the water. If one went out to look, the water rushing out of the water channel eyes was no less than during a rainstorm, especially so toward evening.

Baifeng did not feel that there was anything bad about it; he even thought that the faster the snow melted, the better, and the faster spring came, the better. The Baifeng tribe had prepared everything and was ready to go all out.

After being exposed to the sun for two consecutive days, the snow on the roofs of the Baifeng tribe had almost melted away, but the snow in other places was still thick. The snow accumulated throughout the entire Winter was over a meter thick; how could it melt away so quickly? Moreover, it would melt during the day and freeze into ice at night, making it quite troublesome to melt again.

The snow on the sunny slopes of the distant mountains was still white, but one could already see the tops of trees exposed. The shady slopes were still the same as before, without the slightest change.

This afternoon, Baifeng was patrolling the tribe as usual, especially watching the training of the Bow and Blade Team, but a rumbling sound coming from afar made Baifeng very uneasy, and the rumbling sound was getting closer and closer. This made Baifeng think of the day of the rainstorm he had spent alone in the Wasteland.

Baifeng's heart beat faster and faster. This rumbling sound was clearly a mountain flood; this was the fear that was etched in his mind and would not go away. Baifeng's hands shook a little, but he still ran onto the city wall and took the Telescope to observe. No matter how he thought about it, there shouldn't be a flood at this time, let alone that there were river channels for the flood to take, so it shouldn't be able to reach them here.

That was what Baifeng thought, but when he took out the Telescope and aimed it in the direction the sound was coming from, he was truly afraid. He could see that water was already flowing from the mountain valley toward the Wasteland where they were. Although it was only a narrow stream of water, it was the vanguard of the flood.

Other tribesmen also heard the sound, and one by one they stood up. Now the flood could already be seen with the naked eye, rushing out of the gorge in a mighty torrent, surging toward them.

Although Baifeng was afraid, he also knew that it would not pose a threat to them. First of all, not to mention that their city wall was so high, this Wasteland was also very wide; no matter how big the flood was, it would not be very deep.

When the flood reached their city wall, it no longer had any power. Although the water in the mountain valley was still roaring, which indicated that there was still a very large amount of floodwater behind, this water had just reached the base of their city wall, but the width was truly very terrifying.