Chapter 434: No Harvest

Upon hearing this, the soldiers of the Suiren Clan revealed expressions of joy on their faces; they had been searching for so long, and they never expected to meet in such a manner.

Thus, they immediately assumed an even more humble posture and moved further away from their weapons to express that they had no intention of attacking. The leader among them spoke to Luzhi, who was clearly the Leader: "We were originally soldiers of the Suiren Clan, but because our leaders were too cruel, killing and torturing us at will, we killed them and fled. We have now left the Suiren Clan, and we have been searching for Huaxia all this time, hoping to join Huaxia!"

Luzhi was somewhat skeptical: "You killed your own leaders? But why is the Suiren Clan still attacking us? Don't you know that the main force of the Suiren Clan was just driven back by us?"

The deserter found it hard to believe: "The Suiren Clan sent thirty thousand men this time. Although we killed the two leaders who arrived first along with their personal guards, there were still so many soldiers. Did you... really win that quickly?"

Regarding the affairs of the Suiren Clan, Luzhi was not clear, so he had no way to judge whether what these people said was true or false. Over these years, due to the gradual annexation by large tribes, the wild people were no longer the same as before. In the past, wild people would not lie because they did not know the meaning of lying and did not understand why one would speak falsely. But now it was different; the atmosphere had become increasingly poor, and everyone had started to lie.

Although Luzhi had no way to judge, there were people within their Huaxia who could. The villagers who had fled over at that time had already been settled; they were not treated as Slaves but were given the status of ordinary Citizens. However, this was limited to maintaining their livelihood; if they wanted a better life, they had to strive for it themselves. They were also the basis for judging whether these people were telling the truth or lies.

Luzhi then asked: "You say you killed your leaders, so what are the names of those leaders of yours?"

The leader of the deserters hurriedly replied: "One is called Lanzai, and the other is called Gongxia!"

At this moment, a soldier who had participated in the bait operation hurriedly squeezed to Luzhi's side and whispered to him: "Little General, I know this person Lanzai. He is indeed their leader; he was the one who forced those villagers to scout the path back then."

Luzhi suddenly understood. He also knew of Lanzai's cruelty; after all, the people in their Ministry of War all knew about the matter concerning those villagers. If these people rebelled because of Lanzai's cruelty, it was not impossible.

Thus, Luzhi said to those people: "Since you want to join our Huaxia, then come over. Do not bring your Weapons. As for whether we will accept you, that depends on the opinion of our King. However, I can guarantee that as long as you have no other intentions against Huaxia, your lives can be completely guaranteed."

The deserters had no objections and, one by one, consciously walked toward Luzhi's team. It was just that when passing by the hounds, they still dodged far away to go around them. Although there were soldiers holding the leashes, they were still somewhat afraid of the baring teeth and snarling appearance.

After inexplicably receiving so many people, Luzhi was also at a loss for a moment because this was not his goal at all. But even if he let the hounds search again, they seemed unable to find any more targets. With no other choice, Luzhi had to take these people back to report; at least it was not without any harvest. He just didn't know what the situation was with the Adjutant.

When Luzhi and the Adjutant met halfway, both were looking forward to the other having found the target, but as soon as Luzhi saw that the opposite side was empty, he knew that this operation had been a failure.

The Adjutant, however, was somewhat surprised to see so many people from the Suiren Clan in Luzhi's team: "Officer, wasn't it said that there were only a few people? Why did you capture... so many people here?"

The Adjutant looked at so many people and was too lazy to count them, only beginning to doubt the authenticity of the intelligence.

Luzhi sighed: "These people are not the target at all. It's a long story... hey, to make a long story short... forget it, I won't say it. You'll know when we get back. Let's get on the road now; we have to sleep in the wilderness again tonight."

The Adjutant was already used to this erratic thinking of Luzhi's, so he could only follow Luzhi's ideas. Neither team had found the target, so they could only use a large force to guard these non-threatening people of the Suiren Clan.

It was unclear whether it was because too many people had been killed these past two days or if the season was just meant to be this way, but the temperature at night dropped extremely fast, and frost had already appeared. Although they were not his own tribesmen, Huaxia still gave food and firewood to those people of the Suiren Clan. There were no extra Tents; they were all carried by a few people per unit, and the quantity was limited and fixed, so those people of the Suiren Clan could only sleep in the open.

However, they had no complaints at all. From the moment they ate the food of Huaxia, they no longer cared about anything. What did it matter if they slept in the wild? Wasn't it just enduring the cold and the damp? It wasn't as if they hadn't experienced it before; most of the year was like this. Fortunately, they actually got to eat something today.

In the morning, the wind actually started to blow. As soon as Luzhi stepped out of the Tent, he shivered, jumped in place a few times, and warmed himself by the fire before he felt slightly more comfortable.

Seeing the humans come out, the hounds began to bark in unison. This was not the usual routine, and everyone felt it was a bit strange, especially since they were barking almost in the same direction, occasionally looking back at their masters.

Luzhi's first reaction was that the hounds had found the target, but upon seeing the shivering people of the Suiren Clan, his expectations diminished significantly.

He walked in front of those people of the Suiren Clan and asked straightforwardly: "Suiren Clan, besides you, have others also deserted?"

The leader among them shook his head repeatedly, but then said in an uncertain tone: "We fled before the Tribal Chief arrived at the location, so I don't know about what happened later. However, we had many people who were sent by Lanzai to scout the path. I guess they should have joined Huaxia too."

Luzhi did not deny it, nor did he ask him any more questions, but looking at the state of the hounds, he felt that there must be more to be gained in that direction. Thus, he made a prompt decision to leave behind more than three hundred people to escort these people back to Huaxia; after all, they were only half a day's journey from Huaxia now.

As for himself, he took the remaining soldiers and the hounds and began to run wildly along the path taken by the hounds.