Chapter 1479: Deceiving Shennong

After the two sides reached an agreement, Huaxia and the Xuanyuan Tribe withdrew directly, picking up Jiang Cheng's tribesmen along the way; it was still somewhat difficult for a group of them to find food in the wilderness on their own, but fortunately, they ate whatever they found and did not need to consider the issue of handing it over to the tribe.

Huaxia had contributed quite a lot this year; although they mainly used Bombs and did not deploy many people, Huaxia's merit was beyond doubt, a point the Xuanyuan Tribe also acknowledged.

All in all, both sides profited this year—Huaxia profited, and the Xuanyuan Tribe profited; this was the result a war should have, otherwise, like last year when Huaxia suffered losses, it would have been a policy failure.

Jiang Ke and Jiang Yuwang also made arrangements for their own tribesmen, letting those who should stay stay, and those who should return return; they brought back over a dozen of Huaxia's Iron weapons, which they had exchanged for at a great cost, and they also exchanged for two pieces of Leather Armor, as Huaxia would not trade away Iron Armor under any circumstances.

They wanted these things to prove that they had fought against Huaxia and the Xuanyuan Tribe; many of their own tribesmen had died and could not return, and most of the looted weapons were trash that did not need to be turned in—only such Ironware should be handed over to the Tribal Chief.

And everything did indeed proceed as they had imagined; as Winter approached, the two tribes returned and met Shennong with the still-usable weapons and Leather Armor.

With these items as evidence, Shennong believed their story, though they spoke very conservatively and did not take all the credit for themselves, otherwise it would have seemed too fake.

They said to Shennong, "When we arrived, Huaxia and the Xuanyuan Tribe had already been disrupted and wounded by Jiebing and the others, and their strength was far from as great as it was, so we were able to resist and inflict damage upon them.

Now that it is almost Winter, they have no stored grain, and coupled with insufficient manpower, they fled under the cover of night; we chased them for a few days, and after driving them far away, we returned—these are the Huaxia weapons we brought back."

Shennong was very satisfied with this: "Good! I have said it before, whoever can defeat them will gain all the people of the Jiebing Tribe; since your two tribes have succeeded, then the Jiebing Tribe, as well as the tribes of Jiang Cheng and Jiang Ming, all belong to you—you two go and divide them yourselves!"

"Thank you, Tribal Chief!" They were happy in their speech and showed happiness on their faces, but in reality, the two were not happy at all, because they both knew very well that if they had not "succeeded," it would have been their two tribes being carved up.

They had successfully delayed for this year, at least enough to get through a relatively stable Winter, but what should they do after Spring arrives? They should just flee; Huaxia and the Xuanyuan Tribe were already prepared to strike at Changyang Mountain.

"By the way, they keep talking about Heavenly Thunder; what exactly is that thing? Are they deceiving me?"

Regarding this, the two had long since prepared their rhetoric; Jiang Yuwang, being glib, lied to Shennong: "Tribal Chief, there is no such thing as Heavenly Thunder; the Heavenly Thunder they saw was actually stones and wood rolled down from the mountaintop by Huaxia and the Xuanyuan Tribe at night, and the sound was made by beating a giant Drum.

We all saw that drum, but they were afraid we would snatch it away, so they burned it."

Shennong felt it made sense, as it was much more credible than what the people of the Jiebing Tribe had said, but some details still did not match: "Then what about the firelight they spoke of? Many people have said the same thing."

A light sweat broke out on Jiang Yuwang's forehead: "Tribal Chief, they were ambushing Huaxia and the Xuanyuan Tribe at night, and it just happened to be raining that night; the loud Heavenly Thunder and firelight they heard and saw at night were real Heavenly Thunder from Heaven, but not the Heavenly Thunder summoned by Huaxia—that is completely different. We fought Huaxia during the day and also saw their Heavenly Thunder, but we did not see any firelight like they described."

As long as there was a reasonable explanation, Shennong could not be bothered to investigate carefully; if it came to those who could summon Heavenly Gods and communicate with Heavenly Gods, it could only be their Shennong Clan. The Shennong Clan was the most formidable and powerful tribe in the world, which other tribes could not compare to; Shennong himself had this confidence and was not worried in the slightest.

"Then do you think they will continue to come next year?"

Jiang Yuwang and Jiang Ke exchanged a glance before saying: "Tribal Chief, we think they will likely come again next year because they are very greedy; this year they were only driven away because they were beaten by us. If it is next year, they might prepare their manpower again and then come back."

A flash of anger appeared on Shennong's face: "Hmph! If they dare to come, then beat them again! Next year, your two tribes will continue to go over, take back the territory they occupied, and also take back all the tribes they seized for me—I don't want a single one to remain, do you understand?"

This actually suited the two of them perfectly; now they had sufficient reason to take all their tribesmen and leave this place in the Spring, then go to live elsewhere to avoid the Huaxia Xuanyuan Alliance's attack on the Shennong Clan—they did not want their own tribesmen to waste their lives in this place.

After another round of alternating between kindness and severity, Shennong let the two of them leave; as for those weapons and Leather Armor, they were naturally all accepted by Shennong.

Although the Shennong Clan had a high output of copper and elite Soldiers could all be equipped with Copper Weapons, this Iron was truly rare.

Last year, the tribes of Jiang Ming and Jiang Cheng brought back some, all of which were very good weapons; a pile of them was forged by Artisans into two axes, which were given to Xingtian—such a good Soldier as Xingtian deserved to use the best weapons.

It was a pity that because the Iron could never be melted, it was just hammered into shape after being heated until soft; it was sturdier and sharper than copper, but it was a pity that it was not as good-looking and had no patterns on it.

These ones from this year would not be re-forged; after a slight repair, they could be used directly. Shennong gave all these weapons to the personal guard Soldiers by his side who were responsible for protecting him; he also kept a better Changdao for himself, as the one he kept last year had too many notches and was not as good as this year's.

Good news had already come from Jiang Ke and Jiang Yuwang's side; now he was thinking about what kind of good news could come from Xingtian's side—it would surely be another great victory; Xingtian never lost, which was the reason Shennong favored Xingtian.