Chapter 285

Seeing everyone standing properly, Bear didn't say much more, turned around and left, but when he got to Chi's side, he gave Chi the whip and told him to supervise everyone, and if anyone moved, to whip them hard, and as for when to disband, it would depend on Chi's mood—if he wasn't so angry, disbanding anytime was fine.

Chi himself was also a leader, so naturally he had no fear or resistance to such matters, and since he didn't have much on his mind, he casually took the whip and returned to the training ground to supervise everyone.

The few soldiers Bear had singled out to go capture people secretly rejoiced, glad they had been called away, otherwise they would have had to stand under the scorching sun, not knowing how long they'd have to stand.

Seeing the limp deserter, he felt furious inside and couldn't help but kick him, and Bear had no objection.

The deserter had already fainted, especially after hearing that even his family wouldn't be spared, he couldn't catch his breath and collapsed unconscious on the ground.

Originally, they were just dragging him along the cement road, but a soldier behind said that dragging him like this would wear out his clothes, which was too wasteful.

Bear thought it made sense, so he directly ordered someone to strip off his clothes and throw them by the roadside, dragging the naked man along, and before long his skin was already rubbed raw, leaving a trail of blood.

Tribesmen and slaves passing by on the road, seeing this scene, were also somewhat panicked—such brutal scenes were rare in the Baifeng tribe; usually, slaves who committed unforgivable crimes were just beheaded, never tortured like this.

But they didn't dare to ask, because they saw the soldiers' grim faces and could guess this person had definitely committed a crime worse than beheading, though they didn't know what crime could be worse than beheading.

Bear and the others first arrived at this deserter's home—the tribe treated its people very well, this deserter lived in a spacious, bright house, and even had two wives.

Bear kicked the door open with one foot, without a word, he had the soldiers tie the two women's hands behind their backs with rope, ignoring their cries and scoldings, and even the children—no matter if they were only three or four years old—had ropes tied around their waists and were driven outward.

The woman who had been crying and scolding incessantly, upon seeing her husband lying limp on the ground with his lower limbs a bloody mess, was frightened into confusion, thinking Bear had killed the Tribal Chief and wanted her to become Tribal Chief, so she had all the soldiers arrested.

After arranging a few soldiers to take these people to the Tribal Chief first, Bear then led the others to rush to the remaining two deserters' homes.

Because when they were summoned, these two hadn't come, so Bear guessed they had probably fled into the wilderness, and knew they wouldn't dare return to the tribe after committing a crime, so he would still need to gather people to search for them later, but their families were still there, so they could be arrested first.

Arriving at the second deserter's home, they found the door tightly shut—Bear kicked it open with force, and they hadn't yet learned to use a stick to brace the door.

Bear glanced around and discovered that the deserter was actually hiding inside the house—this was a pleasant surprise for Bear, saving him the trouble.

Bear turned his head, and the soldiers behind immediately understood, quickly stepping forward to seize the deserter hiding in the corner of the kang, of course they first had to give him a combination punch until he cried for his parents.

He and his wife had all their clothes stripped off, to prevent them from being worn out later, then they were tied with rope and dragged away.

As they were dragged out, Bear began interrogating them—turns out they weren't as foolish as the previous deserter; they also knew fleeing absolutely had no good outcome, but they had nowhere else to go.

The two had fled together, boarded the same boat, and when their emotions calmed, they realized they were probably doomed, yet still clung to a sliver of luck, rowing the boat all the way downstream past the tribe, then simply abandoning it to let it float away.

They themselves went ashore, then cautiously entered the city using a password, and upon returning to the city, immediately ran back to their own home, locked the gate tightly, and refused to go out no matter what.

They were gambling—perhaps betting that the Tribal Chief had also fled, and would return alive without blaming them, or perhaps betting that the Tribal Chief had died in the wilderness, so the tribespeople wouldn't know they had become deserters.

But it was obvious they had guessed wrong.

Bear also learned that the last deserter was also at home, so he arranged for people to take that deserter's family away, while he himself led others to go capture the last one.

News in the tribe spread quickly—tribespeople encountered on the road were all discussing the tortured man, speculating what crime he had committed.

Bear feared the last person would get wind of it, so he hurriedly jogged over.

Sure enough, before he even arrived, he saw the deserter panicking and starting to run, even though his wife and children were outside the house wailing and chasing after him, he acted as if he hadn't heard.

Bear first ordered him to stop—the deserter merely paused, saw Bear leading a group of fully armed soldiers, and knew he couldn't stop, must run, so he turned around and started running again.

Bear directly took a bow and arrow from a nearby soldier, drew it to full strength, and shot—one arrow struck the deserter's buttocks, and he immediately fell to the ground, unable to move.

Bear was the tribe's top archer—this distance was still well within his confidence.

This time, without Bear giving an order, the soldiers quickly rushed over, seizing family members and capturing the deserter.

When the deserter was captured, his forehead was sweating from the pain of his wound, his face pale, and he kept groaning.

Bear directly grabbed the arrow embedded in the deserter's buttocks—because it had a barb, it took great force to pull out, and it came out with a large chunk of flesh, making several soldiers feel a numbness in their own buttocks, relieved they weren't deserters, and vowing never to become one.

With everyone captured, this could finally be wrapped up—Bear also breathed a sigh of relief.

When the three naked families knelt before Baifeng, Baifeng was still observing the heat of the pot stewing bear paws, which needed to be stewed until tender.

However, the two deserters kept bleeding, making Baifeng lose his appetite, so he had people grab a few handfuls of wood ash and throw it onto their wounds.

Minor wounds could be staunched, major wounds—well, staunch a little if possible, anyway, medical resources shouldn't be wasted on them.

These people had originally been Baifeng's comrades-in-arms, but from the moment they abandoned him to flee for their lives, taking the boat and dry rations with them, they had already become enemies—because of what they did, if Baifeng hadn't had luck and strength, they would now be skeletons.