Chapter 1415: The Road Ahead

The final result of the handling of the Jiang Cheng Tribe was also very simple, because those who were unwilling to surrender had already secretly run away on their own after Jiang Cheng headed to the mountain; those who were unwilling to surrender traveled together, for in their view, Jiang Cheng no longer had any drive, and following him meant there was no future, and even if the surrender negotiations had not been successful in the end, Jiang Cheng was no longer a qualified Tribal Chief to go elsewhere to establish a new tribe and just scrape by.

Naturally, there were more such people in the Jiang Ming Tribe; the people of the Jiang Cheng Tribe were all more willing to stay and wait for their Tribal Chief, regardless of what the final result might be.

And Jiang Cheng returning with a smile and a few unfamiliar Soldiers already indicated the result of this matter, and Jiang Cheng also announced the final result in front of everyone, as well as the conditions he had secured for them.

Yet not a single person cheered or jumped for joy; they were just a bit sorrowful, sighing but also feeling a sense of relief, at least knowing where they were going next; as for the claim that they would be fed until full, no one believed it, as it was estimated that only their Tribal Chief would be able to eat his fill.

Some of the wavering people in the Jiang Ming Tribe, after thinking about it, believed that they had no other choice, so they could only choose to join Huaxia.

However, Lu had made arrangements, not letting them return to the mountaintop, but instead having them pack up the things at the several tribal camps, get everything ready, and prepare to continue moving forward with the main army, because it was still early, and it was impossible to stop here.

As for the issue of food, Lu also had no way to let so many people eat their fill, so he could only let them be as self-sufficient as possible; if it really didn't work out, they could find a place to set up camp in place first, and wait for them to finish the war and bring them along when they returned.

For Jiang Cheng, as long as Huaxia did not require them to hand over their own food, that was already the greatest benefit; Lu even said that when their food was difficult to maintain, he would also provide some life-saving rations, which was enough to show the wealth and power of Huaxia.

Afterward, everyone remained at the Jiebing Tribe camp, and after a simple inspection, it was discovered that the two tribes still had over fourteen thousand people left; the proportion of women was less than half, as too many had died; listening to Jiang Cheng and the others, there were still many wounded who had been abandoned because they knew they could not survive, so they were not brought along.

Whether they were still alive now, they did not know; even the Company Commander now had no authority to deal with this situation, because if it were the abandoned wounded, according to Huaxia's capabilities, it was still possible to save a large portion of them, but saving them would require consuming a large amount of materials and medicinal herbs, and the Soldiers of the Huaxia and Xuanyuan tribes needed these more right now.

The Military Doctors were also unable to spare themselves right now; should those abandoned people not be saved? Unable to decide, he reported it upward; after tallying the current problems, the Company Commander sent a Soldier back first to report and see how these problems could be solved, while the rest of them remained to arrange the remaining issues.

The only ones who could finally return to the mountain together were Jiang Cheng and a few Leaders; although it was possible they would be leaving the mountain in these two days, they still had to pull this important figure, Jiang Cheng, into the team, as there were too many things that needed to be understood through him.

After Jiang Cheng returned, everyone held another meeting; Jiang Cheng, this defeated general, was also able to sit down and chat together because of his status and the need to win him over.

The content of this meeting was naturally about where to go from here and what kind of situation they would encounter ahead.

Without dispute, everyone chose to continue moving forward; there was still plenty of time left this year to continue fighting, and they would certainly be able to continue expanding their territory.

This was Xuanyuan's idea, because the land that was occupied would all be his own; for Huaxia, the larger the territory Xuanyuan occupied, the larger the territory that would eventually be divided and compensated to them, which was of course also of great benefit to Huaxia.

As for the compensation from the Jiang Cheng Tribe to the Xuanyuan Tribe, that was also simple: give the Xuanyuan Tribe a larger share of the spoils collected, but it was at this moment that Lu learned his Soldiers had acted on their own initiative to give away the clothes.

This made Lu furious, but Xuanyuan said they had done nothing wrong, and Lu had not disagreed; as for Huaxia doing less work, since there were few Huaxia people, it didn't matter.

Xuanyuan had given enough face, so Lu also had to give Xuanyuan face; besides giving a larger share, there was the cession of territory; regarding the choice between population and territory, Baifeng had given Lu a small booklet, telling him how to calculate in order to obtain the greatest benefit, and he followed the instructions on it, finally ceding territory that was a three-day journey to the Xuanyuan Tribe.

Of course, this territory of a three-day journey was counted as the territory of the Shennong Clan, not the territory of the Xuanyuan Tribe; the territory the Xuanyuan Tribe divided for Huaxia was much more valuable than this, so it could not be calculated that way.

After some calculations, Xuanyuan also felt that he was not at too much of a loss, so he naturally accepted this calculation method, and there was no longer any dispute over this matter; of course, he had also obtained Huaxia's Bomb, and although he had only found this one, it made him feel that he had earned a huge profit, and he did not need to haggle over anything else; a complete Bomb, in his hands, could be worth ten thousand men.

If it were the complete, clear materials and processes for making the Bomb, he would be willing to trade even if it cost him one hundred thousand men; after all, once the Bomb was made, the effect it could have was something one hundred thousand men might not be able to achieve.

Having already taken advantage of Huaxia, what did it matter if he yielded a little to Huaxia in other aspects? He and Limu had already changed their clothes and washed their hands, and Lu seemed to have completely forgotten about this matter, so all questions could be turned over, waiting only until they returned to the tribe to study it in detail.

Continuing forward was beyond doubt, and it had to be done as soon as possible, because the corpses had already begun to rot; not to mention the foul smell, in this season, flies and insects would rapidly breed on the corpses, which was extremely terrifying, not to mention that they would spread infectious diseases; furthermore, wild beasts were gradually gathering around, which was not a good thing, and the surrounding water sources might also be contaminated, so it was best to leave quickly.

As for what was ahead and what was there, one had to ask Jiang Cheng, and Jiang Cheng said quite frankly: "There are no more large tribes ahead; the population has almost been emptied out, and there are only some scattered small tribes; if the speed is fast enough, we can reach Changyang Mountain in less than thirty days; although the distance is far, because it is relatively flat, it is much faster than walking in the mountains."

But Jiang Cheng also explained in advance: "However, it is impossible to reach Changyang Mountain so simply; the people of the Jiebing Tribe have already gone back, and they will certainly run faster; as long as they tell Shennong about this, Shennong will definitely mobilize more tribes to come here and attack you."