Chapter 171: Going Against the Current

Shi agreed without a word, then crawled over to rest his forehead on Baifeng's footwear; although their tribe had not yet faced any crisis, this was purely due to good luck.

For a tribe of their size, and having to take all their property away from their dwelling just for one gathering, it was only a matter of time before they were swallowed by Nature or other tribes just to ensure everyone's safety; what was wrong with latching onto the Baifeng tribe now?

What's more, it wasn't even as a Slave; if they couldn't survive, what did it matter to be a Slave of the Baifeng tribe? He had seen it himself—even what the Baifeng tribe's Slaves ate was almost the same as the common people of other tribes.

Baifeng did not go to count the people anymore; they had to set off early while it was still early in the day. The return journey would be much slower, estimated to take seven or eight days, after all, there were so many Slaves.

Seeing that there were over a dozen children and several infants among the Shi Tribe people, Baifeng let the children board the Boat first, including the women carrying infants; he even saw two pregnant women with large bellies, and they boarded as well.

After emptying one Boat of Sorghum, there was more space, and it was no problem for them to sit down.

Baifeng had the Slaves tie a rope around their respective waists, then connect them to a long rope; this long rope was tied to the hull of the Boat, which had a curved prow to break the waves, even though there were no waves in this river for them to break at all.

With fifty Slaves to a group, all the Slaves were tied up just like that, and the two Large Ships had nearly two thousand Slaves acting as trackers, which was much less troublesome than Baifeng and his men rowing; furthermore, although these boats were considered large for this era, they were actually just small boats, and in the not-so-rapid river, these Slaves could pull them without much effort at all.

The Free Persons who had been exchanged followed the Slaves empty-handed, a few of them watching a squad of Slaves, not giving the Slaves any chance to rebel, even though the Slaves didn't have such thoughts at all; it was just that for the Free Persons, this was working for their own tribe, and they couldn't just eat for free.

A few Soldiers steered the Boat, while the others took turns resting; those on duty held Crossbows and watched the banks and the surroundings, and as soon as there was the slightest disturbance, they would immediately pull the Banjiji without the slightest hesitation—their own safety was what mattered most.

By noon, they had already traveled quite a distance; the weight of the Boat, when distributed among so many Slaves, was actually nothing, almost no different from their usual walking, and the Baifeng tribe had provided two full meals last night and this morning, giving them enough strength.

The Slaves and the newly accepted Free Persons ate on the bank, while Baifeng and the Soldiers ate on the Boat, and they ate white rice as well as fresh, carefully cooked fish; to save time, the people on the bank only had Sorghum porridge to eat, but the salt was plentiful, which made them feel it was exceptionally delicious.

The children and several women on the Boat also enjoyed the same treatment as Baifeng and the others, which left them pleasantly surprised; they had never eaten food that was so soft and had such rich flavors, so they looked forward to their future life even more.

At noon, they were given another period of rest, because working immediately after eating was a burden on the body; no matter how low their status, Slaves were still people, and Baifeng couldn't be that heartless.

As soon as the rest time was over, they set off immediately, and at night, they were given a certain amount of time to fish to supplement their meat intake.

Moreover, night was also the most dangerous time; only if there were enough fires would the wild beasts perhaps not dare to come, but if the visibility was poor and everyone was asleep, some Slaves' minds would become active.

The first day was calm and uneventful; the guards counted the Slaves in their respective teams and said no one was missing, but most people couldn't count and just felt that since there were still so many people, no one had escaped, and Baifeng was too lazy to waste time counting people—it didn't matter if one or two ran away.

To better observe the situation on the bank, the Large Ships were kept relatively close to the bank, just a distance of ten meters or so; the Soldiers had sufficient nutrition, so their night vision was quite good, and with the firelight shining, every move of the Slaves was actually in the eyes of the Soldiers.

Baifeng was sleeping soundly when he was gently shaken awake by a tribesman; their movements were very small, and the Soldier pointed to the bank, signaling Baifeng to look over.

Baifeng turned over, crawled a few times, and poked his head out of the boat canopy to see about twenty or thirty Slaves on the opposite bank acting suspiciously, huddled together, as if they were untying each other's ropes; the people around them were sleeping very soundly, including the few Free Persons who were supposed to be taking turns on night watch.

Baifeng sighed that his old tribesmen were more reliable; these newcomers really thought they had come to enjoy themselves, but Baifeng didn't intend to deal with it for the moment and told the others not to make a sound.

There were no fires on the Boat at night, so the people on the bank couldn't see what the people on the Boat were doing at all; the dozen or so people including Baifeng who hadn't slept all aimed their Crossbows at those Slaves, just waiting for the Slaves to start acting.

The Slaves seemed to have untied all the ropes, then huddled together to discuss something in low voices, and subsequently stood up and walked toward the sleeping Free Persons, perhaps having taken a fancy to the Weapon in that person's hand, after all, they had nothing in their own hands.

After picking and choosing on the ground for a long time, they had a dispute over whether to use stones or sticks, but they didn't dare to make too much noise; in the end, they chose stones, and they had a disagreement over who should do it—no one dared to be the first to act, and Baifeng and the others even saw one person sneak away and enter the forest.

This group of Slaves wanted Weapons but were afraid of waking the others, so they didn't dare to act one by one, which made Baifeng anxious; if they didn't act soon, Baifeng's sleep time would be insufficient.

So Baifeng decided to end this farce quickly; he was the first to press the Banjiji and "accurately" shot a Slave who was huddled with the others; that Slave couldn't help but scream, and the other Slaves were so frightened by this sudden change that they didn't know what to do.

Baifeng blew the Whistle, and everyone fired together, including the Soldiers on the adjacent boat; they hadn't received notice from Baifeng and the others, but they had also discovered the abnormality of the Slaves, and Baifeng was very satisfied with this—the reason they would consider the issue of Baifeng's orders was because they also believed that the Soldiers on the other boat had already discovered the Slaves' movements.

If the Slaves had started to flee directly, he believed they would have attacked immediately without considering Baifeng's affairs.

Most of the Slaves were hit by an Arrow, and the other Slaves who hadn't run and the sleeping Free Persons were awakened by the screams; the Slaves didn't know what had happened and began to panic and stir, and the Free Persons could only barely maintain order.

The few Slaves who still had the ability to move finally reacted and began to flee, but Baifeng and the others had already reloaded their Crossbows and fired again.

A few who couldn't escape fell to the ground, and the Free Persons on night watch hurried to pursue them; as for those who were hit by an Arrow and were still running, there was no need to worry—they wouldn't be able to run very far in that state.