Chapter 286: Don't Want to Stand

Baifeng cast a cold glance at them, then ignored them further, turning his attention directly to his bear paws. The hunter comrades and partners who had once been closer to them also chose to ignore them because of their cowardly flight.

The deserters were either kneeling or lying prone, trembling incessantly on the ground, while the eyes of Xiong were filled with loathing.

Several women were also trembling, their foreheads already touching the ground, but because of fear and their hands being tied behind their backs, they could no longer straighten up.

As for the few children, there was no need for binding; even if they stood up, Xiong could not bring himself to kick them down, because children, when it came down to it, had done nothing wrong. They hadn't even established a worldview yet; now they only knew their fathers seemed to be in great pain, their mothers were terrified, and they themselves were crying incessantly.

Regarding the family members, Baifeng did not know what the Tribal Chief's opinion was. The Baifeng tribe was still very short of people, and children were very important to the tribe. Under Baifeng's teaching over these years, they understood that children were not a burden to a tribe, but the future of a tribe.

If these women died, they died; it was no big deal, but how should the children be handled?

Baifeng had originally intended to wait until the bear paws were cooked before dealing with these people, but their crying made Baifeng truly annoyed, so he waved his hand, letting Xiong take all these people to the plaza first, and then summoned everyone—everyone, including tribesmen, Free Persons, and Slaves.

As the deserters were dragged away, Baifeng's ears became much quieter. The few kitchen-helper Soldiers did not say a word, as if this matter had nothing to do with them; perhaps being abandoned by their former good friends had broken their hearts.

When it came down to it, Baifeng had not yet decided how to dispose of these people. In any case, deserters absolutely had to be killed, but should he just chop their heads off directly? It had deterrent power, but death was still too common for people of this era, so the deterrent power was not very great.

As for those cruel punishments, Baifeng knew many, but whether to use them—Baifeng's heart was also struggling; now his anger was no longer as intense as it had been at the beginning.

As for the family members, Baifeng had already decided how to dispose of them: the women would first be punished, a type of punishment that would not endanger their lives, and then they would be demoted to Slaves, never to rise again.

The children were still young, but they still could not be forgiven; they would continue to be led by their mothers, and when they reached the age to work, they would be the same as Slaves.

Their descendants would never be allowed to study, never be allowed to change their class, and would always be Slaves. If they truly possessed outstanding talent, they could be given important tasks, but their status and class could no longer be changed.

As for the punishments, Baifeng was considering what to use; their punishments were truly too lacking. Aside from a dark room and whipping, there was nothing else.

Baifeng recalled those war-resistance films; perhaps it was disrespectful to those heroes to say it this way, but the enemies' punishments were indeed cruel enough.

Baifeng recalled a little and selected a few types of punishments that were painful enough, terrifying enough, and would not cause death.

The bear paws were still far from being cooked; Baifeng poked them with a chopstick, and it couldn't even pierce the skin. Listening to the movement in the distance, it seemed everyone was gathering.

So Baifeng stood up, patted the dust off his hands, and said, "Let's go first. It's time to deal with those few deserters. You should also watch at the scene; this is also an explanation to you few Soldiers who fought bravely."

Afterward, Baifeng called Sui and Chinv down to watch the pot. Although the cruel scene that was about to unfold was nothing to them—they had seen many dead people and had seen many scenes of killing—Baifeng still wanted to try his best to create a peaceful and stable living environment for them.

When they arrived at the plaza, everyone had already stood in formation according to their positions. Only some people were absent because they had to do work that could not be left undone; Baifeng had no opinion on this—it was their duty, which was normal.

The people from the Military Department stood neatly, without moving. Baifeng even wondered why these people were so obedient today and stood so well.

Walking over to take a look, many people had welts swollen on their faces and hands, and some were even bleeding.

Seeing Chi walking around with a whip, Baifeng could roughly guess some things. A Soldier saw Baifeng coming over and just wanted to move to report to the Tribal Chief, because he felt that Chi and Xiong's methods were truly too excessive.

As a result, just as he shifted his feet and hadn't yet had time to speak, Chi, whose hearing was exceptionally sharp, strode over, scaring the Soldier into quickly pulling his leg back.

Even so, he was still whipped fiercely on the thigh by Chi, very accurately, without accidentally injuring anyone else.

The person who was hit couldn't help but let out an "ouch." Chi, who was about to turn around, turned his head directly and whipped him across the face, causing the skin on his face to split open immediately, and blood kept flowing down.

Chi thought that if he did this, he would be obedient, so he lifted his legs and left. He didn't expect that the Soldier would run directly out of the group of Soldiers, clutching the wound on his face and wanting to find Baifeng to complain.

Originally, Baifeng's mood had calmed down, but seeing the Soldier in such a state, the anger in his heart gradually burned again.

Before the Soldier could run to Baifeng, he was kicked down by Xiong. Chi, who had rushed over quickly, also swung his whip and lashed him until Baifeng saw blood beginning to seep from his body, at which point he stopped Chi and Xiong.

Baifeng didn't even want to squat down; he just stared at the Soldier who was slumped on the ground and asked, "You ran out of the formation for no reason; is there something you want to say?"

The Soldier sobbed and propped himself up to sit, his body trembling incessantly, and said with a crying voice, "Tribal Chief! Xiong and Chi, those two, relying on their status, beat and scolded us for no reason. You look at just now, they hit me like this, and they hit me right in front of you!"

Baifeng already knew that this person was of no use anymore; he had been spoiled by the tribe. If he went to the battlefield, he would definitely be a deserter, so he asked, "Xiong and Chi, why did they hit you? You tell me."

In the group of Soldiers to the side, some people also poked their heads out, looking forward to seeing how the Tribal Chief would resolve this. They were also very dissatisfied with Xiong and Chi's methods.

The Soldier seemed to have finally found someone who could make decisions and hurriedly said, "They wanted us to stand and not move, not allowed to speak. As long as we moved even a little, they would hit us!"

Baifeng asked back, "Then wouldn't it be fine if you just stood properly? Why did you have to move?"

The Soldier hadn't reacted yet and just felt it was inexplicable, while some smart people in the Soldier group had already understood the meaning in the Tribal Chief's words, so they hurriedly retracted their heads and stood properly and meticulously.

"Because I think it's unnecessary. We could clearly go rest, but they insisted on making us stand, and even scratching an itch wasn't allowed."

"Do you mean you don't want to stand?" Baifeng gave him one last chance.

In the end, the Soldier still didn't understand Baifeng's meaning.

"Yes, there's no need for it."