Chapter 225: The Slaves of the Suiren Clan

Among the collected supplies, there were also the deer they had tracked and searched for along the way, but that herd of deer was very large, and here there were only about a dozen or so that had been slaughtered and half-smoked.

Moreover, the Suiren Clan did not really know how to process meat; they did not understand how to cut it at the joints or divide it according to the cut, so the meat prepared this way could not have different cooking methods chosen based on the different parts, and the people of the Suiren Clan just relied on brute force to hack it apart.

Not only did they not know how to divide the meat, they did not even separate the tendons; deer tendons are good material for making bowstrings, but they were hacked through at will by them, and since they had already been smoked, they were useless even if pulled out.

Baifeng and his men were cursing both out loud and in their hearts, but there was nothing they could do, so it had to be this way; furthermore, in order to let the animals that had already suffered from the disaster continue to reproduce, they could not continue to hunt them, as a Snow disaster had left their local ecology unable to recover for two years.

Because the meat had already been smoked, and their return journey would take several days, they had no choice but to set up camp first and continue processing this meat before they could return, otherwise it would rot on the road.

Of course, so many of them could finish eating it, but for the sake of letting everyone in the tribe eat their fill and eat well, it was naturally impossible for the Baifeng Tribe to let them eat all this meat.

What they ate was the Dry Rations they had brought out, and if they wanted to eat meat, it was all up to their own ability to hunt in the forest; if they caught a large one, then they were doing well, but they could not excessively hunt large animals, and if they encountered a lone one, they still had to let it go.

However, they killed wild rabbits and pheasants at will; they reproduced too quickly, and they had not suffered much damage during the Snow disaster, but instead, because of the reduction in competitors and natural predators, there was vaguely a situation of overpopulation, and coupled with the lush Grass and water in the second year, it gave them even more opportunities to reproduce rapidly.

One rabbit a day was enough for a Soldier to eat his fill, because they did not have much physical labor now, but the number of rabbits they could catch, as well as the number of rabbits they encountered along the way, truly made Baifeng feel a bit afraid.

They had not paid attention on the way here because they were in a hurry, but now they discovered that they could startle a rabbit almost every ten meters or so; the density was terrifyingly high.

It was just early spring now, and it seemed it had not yet reached the point of affecting the ecology, but it was hard to say once they had another litter.

Of course, Baifeng was not worried at all about the restorative ability of Nature in this era; such a large number of rabbits would surely soon attract wolves and foxes that had fled far away, thereby reaching a balance point.

However, this also required time, perhaps half a year or a year, after all, the reproduction speed of carnivores is slower than that of herbivores.

Baifeng was not worried about the collapse of the food chain; what he feared was that a rabbit plague would affect their farmland, because there was little Grass on the saline-alkali plains, and coupled with the obstruction of the city walls and the hunting by the tribesmen, the number of rabbits around them was not very high.

But there would still be competition among the rabbits, and once these places could no longer satisfy their survival, they would definitely be forced toward the Baifeng Tribe, and by then, the farmland might be destroyed.

This was what Baifeng was considering now; perhaps he was just worrying for nothing, but given the current number of rabbits, he had to be on guard, and there was also the possibility that the rabbits could destroy their city walls.

After returning to the tribe, the reinforcement of the city walls, the observation of rabbit activity, and various rabbit-catching tools and Traps would all have to be prepared in advance.

They stayed for three consecutive days to smoke the surface of the venison, and only dared to set off once they were sure it would not spoil in the short term; moreover, they had caught many other prey during this period, and the number of rabbits was countless. The rabbit meat, which had no flavor to begin with, was also relatively tough and got stuck in their teeth, and they had not brought any seasonings, so for three days in a row, no one was willing to eat it. The Dry Rations they brought became a hot commodity instead, and at the thought that there were still four or five days on the road where they would probably have to eat rabbit meat, everyone felt a toothache and nausea.

It was only because everyone had gotten used to a good life that they started to be picky; otherwise, in their previous life of not knowing if they would have the next meal, they would have had no right to be picky about what to eat, nor any right to say they were sick of eating meat.

Baifeng wrote a letter when the war ended and sent it back to the tribe via a pigeon; he believed that the Shaman and Yu would be able to read that letter completely. The specific content was about what problems they had encountered, but they had already been completely solved, and the things to be done next were arranged clearly, which was just to tell them not to worry, especially Sui, who had started worrying about Baifeng again after having a child.

After they set off, they were hunting rabbits all along the way, and the number was so high that it made them a bit afraid; even if Baifeng did not say anything, they also sensed that this might be a bit abnormal, but none of them asked. Anyway, if they could catch rabbits, there would be meat to eat, and so many rabbit skins could make many rabbit-skin hats and rabbit-skin gloves.

When they returned to the tribe, the spoils they brought back made the tribesmen cheer, because this seemed to be their first victory after taking the initiative to attack, not to mention that there were so many harvests.

Those Slaves of the Suiren Clan were the most eye-catching; even though they had been captured, some people were still stubborn, saying that they were Soldiers of the Suiren Clan and it was absolutely impossible for them to become your Slaves, and that their Tribal Chief would come to save them, and so on.

The people of the Baifeng Tribe did not believe it at all; the Soldiers who managed the Slaves already had experience, and many of these experiences even came from the Slaves describing how the Suiren Clan treated them, which was how the Soldiers of the Baifeng Tribe learned things.

As for the other Slaves in the Nuliqu, they were very excited; most of them stared at the people of the Suiren Clan with a strange look, and some who were bold and not afraid of punishment cheered directly. The people of the Baifeng Tribe only punished them symbolically and did not hit them very hard, as if they were just putting on a show for someone.

The arrangement of these Slaves was also different; among them, those who were injured were arranged into a cramped and narrow small storeroom, because Baifeng felt that their physical condition might not allow them to survive being beaten until dawn.

As for those who were not injured and were full of vigor, they were randomly inserted into the rooms that had already formed small groups; everyone knew that these new Slaves would certainly not have an easy time going in, and only hoped that they could come out alive.

All the Slaves held deep grudges against the people of the Suiren Clan, because it was because of the Suiren Clan that they had become Slaves, so at night, the rooms were filled with screams, and the Baifeng Tribe Soldiers on night watch just laughed and let them be. The Tribal Chief had even specifically instructed that if they were beaten to death, then so be it, to let the old Slaves release their resentment, which was also conducive to their continued management of these Slaves.