Chapter 188: Second Batch of Gains

Baoxi's plan for a sneak attack had no chance to be implemented, but he did not intend to give up just like that; instead, after the Baifeng Battalion set off, he dispatched a squad of Soldiers to follow behind their Boat, because the Baifeng Battalion's Boat was still being pulled by the Slaves they had traded for, so the travel speed was not fast, and they could easily keep up.

They followed sneakily for a long time, and not until they were out of the forest was it difficult to hide their tracks anymore; the Soldiers of the Baifeng Battalion also discovered they were being followed, but Baifeng had not yet given the signal to attack.

If this group of people was only following them to find the location of the Baifeng Battalion, then they could lure these people deeper before attacking; such a squad of a dozen or so people was not a major problem for them, but the fear was that they were an advance force, and if they were not just here to scout and track, but had a large force following behind, the Baifeng Battalion would be in some trouble.

Their Soldiers were not numerous, and although they were not afraid of being boarded on the Boat, the Slaves they had traded for would become living targets, and they might not gain any benefits after a whole trip of trading; furthermore, Baifeng had reason to believe that Baoxi would do this, as he never observed martial virtue, especially now that they were still on someone else's territory.

The reason Baoxi did not intend to attack Xuanyuan was that there was no profit to be made, and Xuanyuan was also a clearly known large tribe, whereas the Baifeng Battalion was merely a very wealthy medium or even small tribe relative to the Suiren Clan, and basically could not pose much of a threat, so he was not afraid of being retaliated against.

What's more, even if he were to attack these people of the Baifeng Battalion now, his gains would be very substantial; even if it were a gamble, the stakes were not high, but the prize was very rich.

However, Baifeng was just a bit too cautious; Baoxi had no intention at all of pursuing the Baifeng Battalion right now, because he knew they had no way to board those few Boats; the Soldiers he sent out were to track and scout the location of the Baifeng Battalion, and they were more skilled at fire attacks and frontal combat rather than water warfare, so attacking now did not have much of an advantage.

After traveling for two days, Baifeng discovered that those people still had no intention of attacking; he took out his Telescope to scout the distance and confirmed that there was no large force following behind, so Baifeng first ordered them to set up camp, making it look like they were going to eat lunch, but in reality, they had already set up the Strong Crossbows on the Boat, aiming at those tracking Suiren Clan Soldiers.

The people following behind had already figured out the Baifeng Battalion's daily routine and knew that it was indeed time for the Baifeng Battalion to eat; they also relaxed their vigilance, took out their Dry Rations and the prey they had caught on the road, and stopped not far away to start eating, though in order not to be discovered, they did not light a Torch and only ate raw food, including raw meat, which was not a very strange thing for them.

Originally, Baifeng and the others aimed with the Strong Crossbows for quite a while, but they discovered the range was not enough; if they started attacking them now, it would very likely alert the enemy, so they had to put the Strong Crossbows away and wait to sneak over at night to kill them.

At night, the people of the Baifeng Battalion had relatively better vision, and those few from the Suiren Clan, in order not to be exposed, insisted on not lighting a Torch and instead climbed into trees to spend the night.

All the Soldiers who came with the Baifeng Battalion this time went together, boarded small boats to sneak to the shore, held their Crossbows in their hands, and quietly found the trees where those people were hiding; without making any other noise, they just fired a volley at the trees, and only after they finished firing did the people of the Baifeng Battalion light a Torch to check the results; both on the trees and under them were people groaning, and now these people knew they had been discovered too late, and their injuries were already impossible to survive, so one by one they were waiting for the arrival of death.

Baifeng did not go soft either and directly finished these people off; afterwards, he searched the surroundings to ensure no one had escaped, threw the corpses by the river, used Grass woven into ropes to tie them firmly to stones, and then threw them to the bottom of the river to sink; if they were just thrown into the river like that, the corpses would likely float on the river in a few days, and then the people of the Suiren Clan would discover them; they dared not throw them in the wild either, for who could be sure the Suiren Clan wouldn't send more people to follow behind, as a forced march could definitely catch up to Baifeng and the others.

That night, the Slaves did not know what had happened, only hearing some screams in the distance, but because their vision was poor and they had no Torch, they knew nothing; plus, having traveled for a whole day, their physical strength was basically exhausted, and they were very sleepy, so even if they heard the sounds, they were too lazy to care; anyway, their safety was being watched by the people of the Baifeng Battalion, and even if they died, it didn't matter, as they were already Slaves and would surely be tortured to death after not working for long.

The people of the Baifeng Battalion naturally would not tell the Slaves anything, just acting as if nothing had happened, and after giving them the signal in the morning, they led them to continue the journey; now there were still three or four days left before they would reach the Baifeng Battalion.

After Baoxi sent those Soldiers to track, the rest of them all returned directly to the tribe, hoping only to receive good news from those Soldiers; in Winter, once the heavy Snow had fallen or the river was frozen, they would go to raid the Baifeng Battalion, and it would also be just in time to snatch back some food for the Winter for the tribesmen.

The gains Baifeng brought back this time were still quite good; the Shaman had the experience from last time, and since he was the one who went along this time, he arranged everything very quickly, though now the housing was no longer enough, so he had to temporarily arrange for people to build some more large dormitory-style houses for these newly arrived Slaves to live in.

Because the meat supply of the Baifeng Battalion was relatively low this year, plus the arrival of so many new people, ever since the day Baifeng made the arrangements, the matter of fishing had never stopped; every day, fish were transported back by the cartload, and salt was also hauled by the cartload; now the air throughout the entire tribal territory was permeated with the fishy stench of pickled Salted Fish.

This smell was a bit pungent for the people of the Baifeng Battalion, but fortunately, they were already used to it; however, for the newcomers, this smell was simply an incomparably attractive and wonderful scent, and the wealth of the Baifeng Battalion was completely unimaginable.

Things like Salted Fish were supreme treasures to them, especially the Salted Fish from the Baifeng Battalion that was packed with an extremely thick layer of salt, which had already become famous across the entire land; the Baifeng Battalion's Salted Fish was synonymous with good things.

Those Slaves brought back last time had already grown accustomed to the life and work of the Baifeng Battalion, and could even be said to have fallen in love with these days; they were arranged to go to various places to do different jobs, but most were sent to build city walls or plow the land.

The Baifeng Battalion had too much cultivated land, and starting the plowing in Spring was simply exhausting, but land could also be plowed in Autumn and Winter, which was not much different from plowing in Spring, and now was also a good season for reclaiming wasteland.