Chapter 354: Preparing to Tear Off the Mask

Just like that, Huaxia had its first Veterinary Station, and Changzhi got his wish to become a veterinarian, though the work was far less relaxed than he had imagined. He had originally only thought that taking good care of two horses would be enough, but Baifeng assumed Changzhi loved this line of work, so he opened a separate training squad for him to learn veterinary techniques; naturally, this was mainly for delivering calves, such as pulling out a calf.

They basically let the cows give birth naturally, without needing too much human intervention, but with so many cows, they would always encounter one or two cases of breech births every year; although the mother cow generally wouldn't have any problems, the calf would die due to lack of oxygen.

Ever since he learned the technique Baifeng taught—reaching an arm inside, tying a rope to the calf's legs, and pulling it out—Changzhi had doubted his life for a few days, but he was soon distracted by the various troubles of the pasture.

In the past, if livestock were sick, they were left alone, but now that there was a veterinarian, they naturally had to make use of him, so Changzhi began a life that differed greatly from his expectations, and this kind of life was basically the norm for the rest of his days.

With the addition of two adult horses to the Horse Farm, the moods of the six foals became more stable, and the two adult horses were now very close to people, treating them as their own herd, which set an example for the foals; everything was developing in a good direction.

Spring had completely arrived, and the Grass was gradually showing its head; although it was very short, the horses' large incisors could still eat it. The Scientific Expedition Team gradually reduced the feeding of the horse herd, but the herd was still accustomed to drinking water here at the Scientific Expedition Team, as there was salt after all.

The Urban Area was already reducing the transport of fodder; the fact that the grass had grown was one thing, but the main reason was that spring plowing was imminent, and they needed to concentrate their transport capacity and manpower on the farmland.

The Scientific Expedition Team's mission was becoming increasingly urgent; they now didn't know if the horse herd would still rely on them if they completely stopped providing feed and fodder.

The Horse Pen was almost finished, lacking only the final gate; fortunately, the horse herd still came to the Horse Pen to rest at night for the time being.

However, what made them somewhat panicked was that the horse herd's daily range of movement was getting larger and larger, and they were walking further and further away, showing a strong tendency to leave this place completely. They felt it was becoming difficult to grasp the movements of the horse herd; the grass would only grow longer and more lush, which meant the herd's reliance on them would become smaller and smaller.

The temperature at night was also rising, and the wind no longer had much influence on them, so the necessity of resting behind the wooden house to avoid the wind and enjoy the incidental security was also almost gone.

The people of the Scientific Expedition Team could not make such a big decision, but the situation was getting worse by the day, so they sent a request for help via the increasingly infrequent transport convoys, asking whether they should use violent means to capture them; if necessary, they could provide some technical support.

The waiting time was very long; they had already made the gate but had not installed it yet, because installing it directly now would be too big a change and easily make the horse herd alert. The current horse herd had returned to its cold and aloof appearance, ignoring them, which was a completely different state from the Winter.

This night, only a portion of the horses returned to the Horse Pen, while the others wandered outside, occasionally grazing on grass, with no intention of entering the pen, looking very leisurely and carefree.

The Scientific Expedition Team was even more panicked; they hadn't made any changes to the Horse Pen, so the horses shouldn't have sensed danger. This could only mean that a portion of the horses had returned to their previous state, feeling that they no longer needed the protection of the Horse Pen. This was a very dangerous signal; if ten horses didn't come today, it might be half the horses tomorrow, and the day after, they might all leave.

However, the members of the Scientific Expedition Team were not confident about how many horses they could catch; their last resort was to spare no cost and capture them by injuring the horses—at worst, they would just treat the wounds later.

There was still no news from the Urban Area, and the people of the Scientific Expedition Team couldn't wait; they had already begun preparing their Weapon. They held one last meeting, deciding to aim for the horses' rumps and legs as much as possible, not using too much force, just enough to make them lose their mobility; they must absolutely not shoot straight through like they did when shooting wild beasts.

All Archers received the order and said they were confident; as for the administrative staff and those not equipped with a Bow and Arrow, they were to prepare ropes—once one was knocked down, they would rush up and tie it up.

Just as they were discussing the details, the long-awaited convoy finally arrived, and along with it came the trained Catchers. Long-term practice and experimentation with the Lasso Technique on cattle gave them plenty of confidence.

The team of thirty Catchers each had a Lasso Technique tool in hand, with spares on the carts; this time, they didn't bring any fodder at all, because the time to tear off the mask had arrived.

The people of the Scientific Expedition Team explained their plan, and Mu, who had come to provide overall command this time, thought it had its merits. It would be best to catch the entire herd in one net; if there were any that resisted too strongly or were too fast for them to lasso, they would use the plan of injuring the horses. It didn't matter if they were shot dead; they could just be eaten as meat. There was definitely more than just this one horse herd on this territory of theirs, and if they went a little further, there would be even more horses, so there was no need to feel bad.

Everyone confirmed their positioning and decided to act early tomorrow morning. Tonight, after the horses circled back, they would install the gate; in the morning, they would release the horses one by one, catching them as they came out. For those not in the pen, they would first try to see if they could lasso them; if they couldn't, they would shoot.

At night, things went as they had expected; only half entered the pen. They had counted the entire herd, and there were currently one hundred and thirteen horses; only seventy-something entered the pen, just a little over half.

At night, after the horse herd was completely asleep, several strong men carried the very sturdy wooden gate they had made and placed it into the prepared installation position with the least amount of noise, finally packing the dirt tight in the holes, checking it, and confirming there were no problems before leaving.

The horses outside discovered the sneaky humans and, after they left, went over to take a look. Dirt, wood—nothing had changed, so they wandered off again, leisurely and carefree.

Everyone let out a long sigh of relief and then hurried to rest; they had to catch the horses outside before the herd reacted tomorrow.

At the first light of dawn the next day, their biological clocks reminded them it was time to get up and tidy up. Everyone just splashed some water on their faces to wake themselves up, then packed their equipment and pushed open the door.

On the open ground outside the door, a row of large wooden stakes had been planted, used for tethering horses; they might not be able to take the horses back today, and the plan might not proceed as smoothly as expected without any accidents.