Chapter 460: The Whereabouts of Xuanyuan

Shaoyin is now entirely focused on how to separate the foals, but no matter how he thinks about it, the only way is to let the horses out one by one and then catch the foals; there is no other way.

But before taking action, the horse pen must be modified first, otherwise, the current horse pen cannot be used.

Shaoyin and the farm manager make plans together, and finally, they will report the plan to the higher-ups so they can communicate with the Ministry of Works to help them build it; otherwise, if they had to nail it together board by board by themselves, who knows how long it would take.

Their redesign of the horse pen is to build a long, narrow passage outside the pen gate, the kind that only allows one horse to pass through at a time, and to add several doors in the middle of the passage that can be closed at any time or dropped from top to bottom to separate the horses in front and behind.

Finally, they drew the design, and the farm manager handed it to Mu. After Mu finished reading it, he felt the feasibility was very high, so he contacted the people from the Ministry of Works directly. Because this matter is of great importance, the Ministry of Works was also very attentive; where iron wire could be used, they never used rope, where wooden stakes could be used, they didn't use wooden sticks, and the holes for burying the posts were dug very deep.

Regarding the placement of the foals, after much thought, it was decided to leave it to Changzhi. The few horses Changzhi raised have completely become tame horses; people riding them is no problem at all. The foals have already grown up, but the pity is that the quantity is too small.

Mu thought about placing the foals with Changzhi; for one, the foals' size and strength are not too great, and their threat to people is not very high, so even if they were to attack someone, the tragic situation from last time would not happen again.

Secondly, horses are herd animals, and the behavior of young livestock can still be influenced by adult horses. Now that there are already well-tamed adult horses as examples, I believe that at least a large portion of these foals can be led by those horses to have a tame personality.

The modification of the horse pen is proceeding in an orderly manner, and the people from the Ministry of Revenue have already boarded a large ship, sailing smoothly with the wind and flowing down the river, arriving at the territory of the Xuanyuan Tribe in just a few days.

As for why they could recognize it at a glance without ever having been here before, it is because small boats were parked in rows along the riverbank, and one could tell at a glance that they belonged to the Xuanyuan Tribe.

After the Huaxia large ship docked, it quickly attracted the attention of the Xuanyuan Tribe soldiers. They did not know why Huaxia had suddenly come over, but they still upheld a friendly attitude and went over to inquire.

The people from the Ministry of Revenue also stated their purpose immediately. After learning that Huaxia had come to trade, the people of the Xuanyuan Tribe let down their guard, but their eyes kept scanning the Huaxia large ship. They had once inexplicably found a Huaxia boat on the shore, and after dismantling it, they imitated it to build a boat of their own. Now that a boat they had no ability to build themselves was parked right before their eyes, they certainly had to take a good look; what if they could figure something out?

If it were just a simple trade of slaves, they could naturally find any minor leader to notify, and then whether to trade could be determined; after all, trading slaves with Huaxia has always been a very strict matter and almost never succeeds. But the Huaxia people wanted thousands of slaves from the start, which made the Xuanyuan Tribe people a bit numb.

They looked at each other, not knowing what to do. After all, the Tribal Chief had already left, and without their backbone, they had become timid in their actions.

But Huaxia directly brought out iron, and in a very large quantity, which surprised the people of the Xuanyuan Tribe. Just as they controlled the flow of population to Huaxia, Huaxia also did not allow ironware to flow to the Xuanyuan Tribe, but this time Huaxia took the initiative to break this rule, making these people of the Xuanyuan Tribe even less sure.

They stopped overthinking and decided to contact the highest leadership of the Xuanyuan Clan at present. Dahong, Changxian, Cangjie, and others gathered together. They were very envious of the ironware brought by Huaxia, but they also felt there was something fishy; Huaxia shouldn't suddenly pull this stunt.

The few of them kept thinking, and everyone believed that Huaxia had experienced a great war and their population had dropped sharply, so they had to bring out ironware to trade for people; otherwise, Huaxia would be in danger.

Leizu was listening on the side, but she believed that this was not Huaxia's true intention. She walked slowly to the side of the group and said quite bluntly: "I think Huaxia is using this method to scout for information about our Xuanyuan Tribe, especially to scout for the situation of Xuanyuan."

The few were puzzled and asked why.

Leizu knew everything about Baifeng and Xuanyuan, so she quickly associated it with the key point. She explained: "Xuanyuan had told Baifeng about Guangchengzi before, but Baifeng said that Guangchengzi was a person from their Huaxia, and the things he learned himself also came from Guangchengzi. You know that, right?"

The few nodded: "Of course, but didn't the Tribal Chief already ask Zhishou? Zhishou said it was fake; he doesn't know this person named Baifeng at all, let alone Huaxia."

Leizu nodded and continued to pace slowly: "Yes, since that is the case, the reason Baifeng still says so is nothing more than not wanting us to find Guangchengzi. Regardless of whether Baifeng knows who Guangchengzi is or whether he wants to find Guangchengzi, what we can definitely know is that he does not want Xuanyuan to meet Guangchengzi. This visit is to scout; if they let them know that Xuanyuan is not in the tribe, they will definitely go to pursue Xuanyuan."

At this moment, the others also immediately understood the reason. Dahong was the most agitated and stood up hurriedly, somewhat anxiously: "What should we do now? Huaxia is waiting outside. If we don't see them, they will definitely guess there is a problem. But if we do see them, the Tribal Chief is not here, and we cannot find someone else to impersonate the Tribal Chief. What should we do?"

Everyone was worried, but Leizu said very calmly: "We definitely cannot hide it, but we can stall, right? Find a reason to stall them and keep them here for a few days. By the time they go back and report to Huaxia, even if they want to pursue, they won't be able to catch up to Xuanyuan and the others."

Everyone thought that made sense, so Changxian volunteered to go meet the Huaxia people first to stall them. As for the reason... isn't the Shennong Clan attacking the Lieshan Clan now? Just say the Tribal Chief is leading people to clear out the Lieshan Clan.

When the Huaxia people saw that it was not Xuanyuan who came out, they had already completely confirmed that Xuanyuan was not in their tribe at all, so they released the pigeon directly to pass the message back first.

After Dahong met the Huaxia people, he stated his reason. Huaxia did not know that the Shennong Clan was at war with the Lieshan Clan, and they had no way to verify this matter, so they simply didn't bother to verify it and just assumed what Dahong said was true; anyway, it had no impact on Huaxia.

However, since Xuanyuan was not here, the Huaxia Ministry of Revenue looked troubled and asked who else could make decisions for this trade, as they could not wait for Xuanyuan to return.

Seeing that Huaxia indeed had the intention to trade, and adhering to the hard truth of not wanting to suffer a loss, Dahong hurriedly found Leizu and asked her whether this trade should proceed.

Once Leizu heard that this trade was indeed very suitable and a necessary trade, it was just that Huaxia appeared to be the more anxious party, so they naturally had the opportunity to stall. Huaxia needed slaves, but slaves also take a long time to gather, don't they?