Chapter 179: The Failed Plan

In the end, not a single Slave was sent back; although their skills might be slightly inferior to theirs, having people to help out could, in any case, greatly reduce their workload.

Furthermore, regarding traditional skills of these savages such as weaving bamboo baskets and crates, some Slaves did even better than the people of the Baifeng Tribe, so they accepted these Slaves with great joy; in terms of status, they were the owners of these Slaves, not their colleagues or companions.

Previously, they were preparing for boat building and trade, so the autumn hunt that should have taken place long ago had been delayed until now; plus, the tribe had enough grain this year and was not lacking in food, so everyone's enthusiasm and urgency for the hunting activity that should have arrived were not as high as in previous years.

Baifeng estimated that this hunt would take three to five days to return from, because the trade with the Suiren Clan was still some time away, and there was plenty of time in between to complete this routine hunting activity.

With the experience of the previous two times, everyone was familiar with the process and had prepared their things; once everything was ready, they set off on the journey to the valley.

But when they arrived at the valley, everyone was a bit stunned; the wild cattle that should have filled the mountains and valleys were actually only in a few sparse herds. At first, they thought the main force had already moved far away to other places, but when they went down to observe, they found neither such footprints nor the expected amount of dung, which clearly indicated that there were only this many cattle in the valley now.

The group was stunned and felt a sense of disbelief; with only this many wild cattle, should they still hunt today? Even if they did, they probably wouldn't be able to harvest more than a few.

To investigate the truth, Baifeng led people deep into the valley, wanting to see what had happened and why such a massive herd of cattle was now reduced to just this little bit.

The further they went inside, the more shocked they became; the ground was scattered with cattle skeletons everywhere, some with the cowhide still intact, and it looked as if no wild beasts had even come to tear at them; most had been decomposed by various maggots.

Looking at such a terrifying number of deaths and carcasses that did not look like they had been hunted by wild beasts, Baifeng associated it with the terrible Snow disaster last Winter; he estimated that these cattle had all died in that heavy Snow, and the wild cattle that still existed now were just the few survivors.

The population here seemed to be on the verge of extinction, and to restore it to its previous state would probably take a few years; the hunting action that the Baifeng Tribe was just about to make a routine now had to be abandoned, and they could only wait a few years for the number and scale of the herd to form again to see if they could continue hunting.

This operation was basically going to return empty-handed; looking at those few small-scale herds, Baifeng could not bring himself to strike; if they hunted them now, the herd would take even longer to recover, and Baifeng understood the principle of not draining the pond to catch the fish.

However, it was not entirely without harvest; these cowhides were not very complete, but they could collect them to take back; although the quality was very poor and the people of the Baifeng Tribe looked down on them, they could be rewarded to some of the more diligent Slaves; although it could not lift their Slave status, it could give them some benefits in advance so they could see hope, and only in this way could they get everyone to strive with the minimum cost.

The failed hunting plan caused the Baifeng Tribe to lose a lot of food for the Winter; although there was still plenty of various planted grain, this year would likely be a rather plain one.

On the way back, the tribespeople were not too disappointed; they still had hundreds of cattle raised in their own cattle pens, and if it really came to a critical moment, they could be slaughtered for food; it was impossible to just keep raising them without killing them.

They didn't even plan to spend the night outside; the things carried on the Handcart were few and light, so the travel speed was quite fast, and shortly after nightfall, Baifeng and his group arrived at the tribe.

The Soldiers on duty on the city wall were quite surprised; usually, it would take several days to return, but this time they returned on the same day; however, looking at the tired and disappointed expressions of the tribespeople and the empty Handcart, he probably guessed something, so he didn't ask further and opened the city gate to let them go back to rest quickly.

The Soldiers didn't even return the items to the warehouse, just threw them in the square, and then went back to their rooms to sleep; Sui didn't even notice that Baifeng had returned.

Waking up in the morning and seeing Baifeng on the bed, Sui didn't even feel that anything was wrong and chatted as usual, until she finished washing up and then reacted: "Didn't you go hunting? Why are you here?"

Baifeng had to explain to her that there would be no Beef to eat this Winter; when they went, they found that there were no cattle to hunt in the valley, so they had to return overnight in a dejected manner.

Sui could only comfort Baifeng with words, saying that if they didn't catch anything, then so be it; they were not short of grain to eat, and not eating meat in Winter wouldn't cause them to starve to death.

But because they hadn't gone out to hunt other prey many times this year, the amount of meat in the Baifeng Tribe was now extremely small, with only some fish left to eat; Baifeng felt very annoyed at his strategic mistake this year, which would cause the tribespeople's protein and fat intake to decrease significantly throughout the Winter.

Other early-rising tribespeople saw the equipment thrown outside and were surprised; some stopped to ask for news everywhere, and only after seeing the Soldiers who went out together did they learn the truth; each of them was also a little disappointed, after all, Beef was much tastier than Grass Seed.

Regarding the failure of the entire grand strategy this time, Baifeng gathered all the tribespeople together in the morning for a short meeting, told the tribespeople about the difficulties the tribe would face this year, and also proposed a solution, which was to reopen the fishing path, go to both Dahu and the river to catch fish, and save some fish to replace the Beef.

This was also a matter of no choice; if the tribespeople wanted to gain some fat in Winter, then fat intake was necessary; if they couldn't provide Beef, they would catch more plump fish to supplement it, and fish were also much easier to catch than Beef.

That day, the people of the Fishing Team went on duty; they hadn't been to Dahu to catch fish for a long time; in fact, the tribespeople were also tired of eating fish, and no one ate the Salted Fish, which were still lying in the warehouse; these Salted Fish would likely be the food for the Slaves in Winter.

The Slaves were still living on the Sorghum and millet that the people of the Baifeng Tribe didn't eat, and occasionally they could have noodles mixed with buckwheat and white flour, which was a life they couldn't even ask for; they only felt that Baifeng kept his promise and could let them eat their fill, and as for whether it was delicious or how it differed from what the tribespeople ate, they would not consider it.