Chapter 404: Receiving People

The villagers are currently hovering on the edge of death, so they don't harbor any extravagant hopes for a good quality of life; or rather, it doesn't matter much whether they die while sleeping at night or not—if they can open their eyes tomorrow morning, it's a gain.

The first group of deserters who held onto their rafts did not fall into the water, so they faced no issues with hypothermia or lost Weaponry. After finding a place that looked completely untouched by others, they set up camp and went out to hunt; only then did everyone feel they had a hope of survival. Next, they planned to make long-distance contact with Huaxia to see what kind of attitude Huaxia held toward them. After all, they had already killed two major Leaders of the Suiren Clan, which counted as a pledge of allegiance, so they should at least not be attacked.

Even if Huaxia was unwilling to accept them, they could still negotiate terms, such as borrowing a path through Huaxia to reach a more distant place where they could establish a new tribe to live. If that was refused, they had enough Soldiers to cause a certain amount of damage to Huaxia.

As for the last group of people who escaped, their current situation was quite miserable. Their teams had been scattered and were now far apart in several groups; the largest one consisted of no more than five hundred people. It wasn't that they didn't want to gather together, but because the river had carried them such long distances, they were separated.

By the time they reached the shore, they only knew how to flee for their own lives, so it was difficult to gather them together again now.

These several different teams of theirs all shared a similar fate, having spent a panicked night on completely unfamiliar land.

Early the next morning, the Huaxia Soldiers split into two teams: one team stayed in place to lie in ambush, while the other returned to contact those villagers, trying their best to persuade them and bring them to Huaxia.

The villagers also got up early in the morning and began their journey. Along the way, they stuffed anything edible into their mouths, and if they were thirsty, they shook dew off the bushes to drink. Everyone was basically walking without any purpose.

When the Huaxia Soldiers saw them, they stood out openly and did not hide themselves.

Upon seeing them, the villagers quickly gathered into a Regiment, staring at them vigilantly, but no one ran away. Because of their contact over the past few years, these people still had a very strong sense of trust in the Huaxia Soldiers; even though their village head had been killed yesterday, they were not completely repulsed by Huaxia now.

The Leader of the Huaxia Soldiers stepped forward and spoke: "You have already reached Huaxia territory. You must be the people from those border Villages. Can you tell us why you are here? Your village heads used their lives to save you; you shouldn't have to be pushed out to scout the path now, right?"

Upon hearing that the village head had used his life to save them, the crowd automatically ignored the words the Huaxia Soldier said afterward. The people in front hurriedly asked: "What do you mean by using his life to save us? Didn't you kill all those people? You even killed them right in front of us and threw their heads into the river."

The Huaxia group had long anticipated this situation, so they told them the whole story exactly as it happened.

After listening, the villagers remained silent for a long time.

The Huaxia Soldier then pressed further: "Then what is your situation? We can understand why you men came, but why have the women and children come too? And you don't even have a single Weapon. You shouldn't have been able to escape under those circumstances, right?"

Now that all the villagers had let down their guard, they told their tragic experiences to the Huaxia Soldiers, and the result was that both sides fell into a silence.

The Huaxia Soldiers had not expected that the Suiren Clan could be so cruel and tyrannical to this extent. It seemed that their upcoming war would be very difficult to fight, because judging from the current situation, the Suiren Clan would not consider how many people died at all, as long as they could achieve their goal.

So the Huaxia Soldier continued to ask: "Then what are you going to do now? You cannot return to the Suiren Clan, and our territory will not allow a new tribe to appear. Do you want to go to our Huaxia? Your villages have been a great help to us this time, and several villages have already gone to our city."

The villagers were very excited; for them, this was the best possible choice. The people in front even asked: "Are those the villages that were said to have been burned down? Have they already arrived in Huaxia?"

The Huaxia Soldier nodded and gave them a definite answer: "At that time, our Soldiers happened to be patrolling there. When they learned that the Suiren Clan was coming, they made up their minds to follow our Soldiers back to Huaxia. So, after they finished dealing with their belongings, they burned everything down. I don't know what the Suiren Clan said, but they probably claimed that our Baifeng killed everyone in the whole village and then burned it all down, right?"

"Yes, that is exactly what they said."

Everyone was speechless, but they couldn't say much more, so they said: "If you want to go to Huaxia, come over now. We will send you there first. If you don't want to stay in Huaxia, then get as far away from here as possible; after all, a war is about to start."

The villagers did not hesitate and quickly trotted over to the side of the Huaxia Soldiers. The Soldiers were not afraid of their large numbers because, in this massive group, the proportion of those with real combat capability was very small, and they didn't have a single Weapon in their hands.

Afterward, under the guidance of the Huaxia Soldiers, they hurried forward. On the way, they were still wondering why the Soldiers that the Suiren Clan said would follow behind were still nowhere to be seen. They should have been following behind these villagers, and since the villagers' movement speed was very slow, there was no reason for those Soldiers not to keep up.

But they kept scouting and could not find any signs, so they simply ignored them and accelerated their pace.

Although their mission was to lure the Suiren Clan's Soldiers to the Old City, there were so many changes now that it was not suitable for them to continue waiting. They would return to the city and send these people back first.

Their Small Team of a hundred people simply did not have enough Dry Rations to feed these people, and they could not fully guarantee their safety either.

But these people were also their military achievement. Population was very precious to Huaxia, and now that so many had come—a group with a very healthy age structure and gender ratio—they believed that their superiors would absolutely not punish them; it was even possible they might be given a commendation.

Once they reunited with the remaining Soldiers, everyone's pressure immediately lessened by a lot.