Chapter 1615: Puffing Out One's Cheeks to Look Fat

Baifeng and Xuanyuan both looked at the unusually large number of Shennong Clan Soldiers on the mountain and felt that something was not right; Xuanyuan even kept looking through a Telescope.

"Baifeng, do you think this is right? How is it different from what those women said? How could they have so many Soldiers?"

Baifeng also felt it was abnormal, because based on what those women, Slaves, and wounded Soldiers had said, the Shennong Clan's Soldiers—even including the Xingtian Tribe, those from Changyang Mountain, and other tribes—should not have been this numerous, as most of the Soldiers from other tribes had gone to fight elsewhere, and according to the timeline, it was impossible for them to have returned this early.

Even if they had transferred all the men and Soldiers from the surrounding tribes, they probably wouldn't have as many people as they were seeing now.

Baifeng also kept looking through his Telescope; he was even using the best one, with the longest focal length, but when he looked at the mountain, it was still very blurry, and the things he saw were even surrounded by rings of purple light. Baifeng couldn't see clearly and could only tell there were many people, so the two began to make reasonable guesses.

"Xuanyuan, I think they might be using women, Slaves, and the like to make up the numbers. Even if we give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they brought every man they could find, it probably wouldn't exceed seven or eight thousand. I roughly estimate there are over ten thousand people here; it's very wrong."

Xuanyuan felt that what Baifeng said made a lot of sense: "It really might be women and Slaves being used to make up the numbers. What for? Just to scare us?"

Baifeng nodded slightly: "Bluffing."

"What? What is that?"

Baifeng explained casually: "It means puffing out one's cheeks to look fat."

"Hahahahahaha!"

Everyone who heard this laughed. They hadn't expected Baifeng to say something so interesting; it was amusing but also very logical, and it was quite reasonable to use it to describe certain situations.

"Baifeng, how did you come up with such a phrase? It really is funny."

Baifeng didn't blush or skip a beat: "If you think about these things enough, you'll naturally be able to say them. You'll hear more of them in the future."

Xuanyuan laughed loudly again: "Good, good, Baifeng, I hope to hear more such phrases in the future. I truly love hearing things like this, hahahaha!"

The two stopped discussing the situation on Changyang Mountain too much and instead focused on settling everything here, setting up the camp first.

Because they were a bit far from the water source and didn't know where it was, they simply started digging a well on the spot. With many people, the work was easy, and since the terrain here was relatively low and the Dahe was nearby, the groundwater level was high; they didn't even have to dig many meters before they struck water.

They dug several such wells to provide water. Now that the water problem was solved and their food had been replenished not long ago, it could be said that they would have no problem even if they fought a war of attrition.

Looking at the relatively gentle mountain, Baifeng had other thoughts in his mind. If they were to charge head-on, they could make it up, but the casualties would certainly be quite high, so he had to think of a better way.

Looking at the surrounding trees, Baifeng decided to have people make some catapults on the battlefield to throw Bombs.

The principle of a catapult was not complicated. Although there were no professional Carpenters here, they had the tools, and the Soldiers were all quite strong, so Baifeng decided to start building the catapults right on the spot.

Whether Xuanyuan learned it or not didn't matter anymore, because there weren't many places where they could use catapults on the border with the Xuanyuan Tribe. Mainly, without Bombs, the power of the catapults couldn't be perfectly utilized; although stones could be used, if the Huaxia also had them, they could completely destroy their catapults from a long distance.

To Xuanyuan, Baifeng said that the thing he was going to build was called a Bomb-throwing Cart, which could throw relatively light things like Bombs far enough.

In this way, it might be able to slow down Xuanyuan's desire to tinker with catapults; after all, he was very good at weighing pros and cons, and he would definitely not waste time on things he deemed useless.

So, on the day they set up camp, Baifeng became an Artisan, personally directing the Huaxia Soldiers to take axes and chop down trees, then just roughly shaving them into shape. He didn't care about the quality; as long as it could be used and could throw the Bombs far enough, that was all that mattered.

They made three such catapults at once. Although the loading speed of the catapults was very slow, they could throw many at once. Several Explosive Packs could be loaded in at the same time, and when they flew out, they would change their respective flight trajectories and routes due to factors like wind resistance, finally scattering like flowers falling from Heaven, causing area damage, which had the same effect as several catapults attacking together.

While the catapults were being built, Xuanyuan was very self-aware and didn't watch. However, just because he didn't watch didn't mean others wouldn't. With so many people from the Xuanyuan Tribe, everyone would take a few glances, and for something with a structure that wasn't complex, they would certainly be able to replicate it successfully after returning.

Speaking of the Bomb, after the chaotic battle with Xingtian that night, they retreated, clearing the battlefield along the way, bringing back the wounded Soldiers and the important Weapons.

At night, visibility was poor, and the number of Huaxia Soldiers was small. Several Xuanyuan Tribe Soldiers huddled together, and the Huaxia Soldiers couldn't see what they were doing at all. So, under those circumstances, the Xuanyuan Tribe Soldiers managed to sneak away with many Explosive Packs along the way. This was, of course, a great thing for the Xuanyuan Tribe, because they suddenly had many more things to study, and the chances of imitating the Bomb in the future would be even greater.

They had already hidden the Bombs well. As long as they didn't take them out to show off, they would certainly not be discovered by the Huaxia people. If they were discovered, what awaited them would be compensation for breaking the agreement.

Xuanyuan was naturally not idle either, sending his Soldiers out to scout the surrounding environment to see if there were any suitable positions to attack from multiple directions and directly surround Changyang Mountain.

Baifeng had not yet sent out the Cavalry; it was too early to send troops now. After everything was ready, he would go and see what the situation was with those people on the mountain—what kind of play they were acting out, or if they really had that many Soldiers.

This was the final battle against the Shennong Clan. Baifeng was excited, and Xuanyuan was excited too. Such excellent land was about to become his territory; on this land, their Xuanyuan Tribe's wheat and Millet would soon grow, and the population of the Xuanyuan Tribe would soon see explosive growth.