Chapter 220: Incoming Soldiers

Baifeng originally wanted to reach out and grab those few pigeons to take them down and see what exactly was written, but as soon as Baifeng approached, they would flap their wings and fly up to avoid him; it was clear they did not trust him.

Baifeng had no choice but to call over Changxu, who was off in the distance coaxing other birds, and have him untie the bamboo tubes from the pigeons so he could see what was written inside.

Sure enough, as soon as Changxu beckoned, the pigeons flew onto his arm, and he held them in one hand and gently pulled the string, causing the bamboo tube to fall off; it just looked like the string had been tied a bit too tightly, as the pigeons' legs looked injured, which made Changxu feel very pained.

He untied the bamboo tubes from all three pigeons and handed them to Baifeng, then took the three pigeons away himself to look at their injuries; however, seeing that they could stand on his arm, there should be nothing seriously wrong, and it seemed he would have to tell those Soldiers later that they must treat the pigeons well in the future and not treat them like ordinary birds, as this one instance was enough to prove the importance of the pigeons to their tribe, and perhaps in the future, the pigeons could become their comrades-in-arms and save their lives.

Baifeng slowly removed the stopper from the bamboo tube and took out the slip of paper; after opening it, he saw it was written with a charcoal pencil, and because the adhesion was not strong, the black powder had fallen off all over the paper, making it look dirty, and the characters were not very clear either.

However, Baifeng did not care, as it was not important information anyway, but the issue of writing materials would have to be solved in the future; if they were transmitting important information, just smudging a single character could very likely lead to serious consequences.

Baifeng looked it over carefully from the beginning, and because this Soldier's handwriting was very ugly, there were still some obstacles to reading it, not to mention that Baifeng had already seen some things drawn on it.

"Walked for five days, we arrived at 'a few trees' wood, by the Dahe, on our territory, saw 'a pile of fire' people, their people are many, one hundred people, fishing, bird-hunting, we are few, incoming soldiers."

This muddled passage left Baifeng scratching his head; after rubbing his non-existent bald spot, Baifeng opened the other two bamboo tubes, wanting to see if the contents inside were different, and although he had long ago arranged that the contents of the three should be identical, Baifeng felt this note was definitely not written randomly, as if it were trying to express something important, but he truly had not yet understood it.

He opened the other two notes, and the content written was exactly the same; Baifeng thought bit by bit, these few trees drawn might mean forest, but the two characters for forest were easy to write, and he had even specifically taught them: one is called wood, many is called grove, and even more is called forest, which is just stacking the wood, nothing hard to write, so the two characters for forest were the most complex characters these tribesmen had learned first.

He could write and understand that, so these few trees should represent some specific trees, but there were many trees in their territory with representative and special significance, and Baifeng did not know which one he was talking about.

The "by the Dahe" mentioned later narrowed the scope a bit; there were few trees by the Dahe that had significance, and adding that it was within their territory, it was basically settled, especially since he had drawn three trees; Baifeng deduced that it should be when they intended to go and attack and annex those tribes last spring, but ended up not finding anyone, so at the furthest point they reached, they found three relatively thick trees and carved three characters on them with a Knife: Baifeng Tribe.

Baifeng was not afraid of his carvings being discovered by other tribes, because even if they discovered them, they would not know what was written; the reason for writing those characters was that Baifeng believed that to define their territory, there had to be an obvious mark, and if there were disputes with other tribes in the future, this thing could also count as proof, and regardless of whether it was useful or not, it was at least more decent than using stones to circle an area.

A "pile of fire" appeared in the drawing later, and Baifeng did not know what it meant, but it also said "people," many people, and the number did not match their Baifeng Tribe; Baifeng estimated that the pile of fire should refer to a certain tribe, and regarding anything related to fire, Baifeng immediately thought of the Suiren Clan, as they certainly would not know how to write the character for "Suiren," but the most important thing about the Suiren Clan was fire, and adding that many people, it was likely the Suiren Clan without a doubt.

With this, Baifeng managed to recognize and guess the whole passage, feeling he understood it: that many people from the Suiren Clan had appeared in their tribal territory; as for the fishing and bird-hunting, Baifeng estimated that it was the work of the Suiren Clan, because those hunters who went out had large animals as their targets, not these small things; as for the two characters "incoming soldiers," Baifeng estimated they were asking for reinforcements.

From here to the location they mentioned, it would take five days, while the pigeons only needed half a day; their safety should be fine for now, but it was hard to say if it were any later.

Thinking that he would rather misread it than take a chance, Baifeng quickly threw down the bamboo tubes and went to assemble the Soldiers; if they set off now and marched quickly, they should be able to arrive in a little over three days, because unlike hunters who still had to search for prey, their marching speed would definitely be fast.

This time, more than half of the Bow and Blade Team were still in the tribe, because they had left a dozen people to watch the house, and the others who went hunting were all nearby and would return home once they had a harvest, or return home overnight to rest and set off again during the day, so the total number was still quite large.

Baifeng did not dawdle with them, telling them to quickly put on their armor, bring their Weapon, and prepare to set off, as there might be a war waiting for them.

Upon hearing this, not only were they not afraid, but they were somewhat excited, and they went to pack their equipment with great speed, as they had not experienced a single real battle since they were made.

Of course, this small number of people was still not enough, so two hundred ordinary Soldiers were also brought along; their Weapon were all very refined, and with their good physiques, they were ordinary Soldiers with no highlights in the Baifeng Tribe, but they would be the most important Soldiers in other tribes.

Following that was the arrangement of logistics work; they could not leave without bringing anything, and the people responsible for logistics also had good physical fitness, it was just that they could not shoot an Arrow, and their level with the Knife and Sword was also poor.

They used a Basket to carry the rations for all the Soldiers, as well as some utensils; previously, for convenience, the Baifeng Tribe had also made some Wheelbarrow, but because there were many places where a Handcart could not go, and even a Wheelbarrow might not be able to pass, the Basket was the most important.

With a troop of nearly three hundred Soldiers and a logistics team of nearly fifty people, it did not take them much time to pack up, and after Baifeng gave a greeting, he personally led the men to the place they mentioned.

Of course, when Baifeng left, he also brought a few pigeons, trusting that Yu would be able to fully understand his writing.