Chapter 467: Lobbying (1)

Chen Shui thought over and over but could not find a good solution, so he decided to flee first and worry about the rest later; and Xiong, just as he had guessed, had easily conquered the Second Tribe.

Following his previous method, Xiong sent another team of Soldiers to escort the captives from the Second Tribe, but because the first team had not yet returned and the second had already left, the number of Huaxia Soldiers was reduced by nearly half. In order to continue winning with an overwhelming posture in the coming battles and to reduce unnecessary casualties, Xiong decided to wait in place for a few days until the first team returned with the captives before continuing the attack, while also giving the Soldiers a chance to catch their breath.

However, their Dry Rations were running low, and they still had to send word for the Huaxia Logistics Team to replenish them; this trip would also take some time.

Chen Shui ran for two consecutive days before reaching the vicinity of the next tribe. This time, he did not dare to advance rashly. Having survived the journey by eating tree bark or digging up the winter stores of squirrels, he was now exhausted. The dual fatigue of body and mind made his brain even more rigid, and he had absolutely no good ideas.

So, he stealthily set various small Traps around the perimeter of that tribe to hunt.

What he felt was even luckier was that while setting his Traps, he discovered Traps set by others, and on one was a rabbit that had already been strangled; for him, this was an unexpected joy.

However, he did not forget to clean up the scene; after all, the person who set these Traps would come to check them at any time, and if they discovered their prey had been stolen, it would definitely alert them.

The best approach was to take the prey and restore the Trap to its original state; no one would specifically look at a Trap that had not been triggered, but if a Trap and its prey were both missing, they would instead squat down to carefully investigate the reason.

Chen Shui waited until there was not the slightest movement around before slipping down from the tree, hiding in a very large hollow tree trunk he had found, lighting a campfire, and eating the most comfortable meal he had had in days.

After eating his fill and lying down to rest for a while, Chen Shui finally felt that every part of his body could function normally, including his brain.

Assessing the current situation, Huaxia was attacking the newly established tribes around them with unstoppable force, and two had already been wiped out. There were only four tribes in this land, and he and the other Tribal Chiefs had previously all been Leaders, so they were relatively familiar with each other. The remaining two tribes were the stronger ones here, but their combined numbers were only over six thousand people.

All the Soldiers combined were not enough to fight Huaxia. If he had been in time to lobby the previous tribe, he might have been able to make Huaxia wary, but now it was too late.

The only method Chen Shui could think of was to defect to one of the tribes, complete a change in his status from a Tribal Chief to an ordinary Soldier or a small Leader of another tribe, and when Huaxia attacked, hide further back. As long as he was not killed in the first wave of attacks, he could seize the opportunity to surrender.

Without the status of a Tribal Chief, Huaxia would disdain to specifically kill a small soldier and would only take him back to Huaxia as a Slave; at least he could save his life. That Huaxia lacked people was no secret among the upper echelons of the Suiren Clan, otherwise, Huaxia would not have been so keen on the Slave trade.

Before climbing the tree to rest, he first closed his eyes and listened carefully in the dim environment to see if he could hear any movement from Huaxia, but all that reached his ears were the miserable cries of owls, which made him feel much more at ease.

The next day, Chen Shui dawdled his way into the Third Tribe. When their tribesmen saw Chen Shui, they immediately surrounded him with Weapons, but seeing he was alone, they did not attack immediately, though it drew a large crowd of onlookers.

One person found Chen Shui familiar, so he squeezed into the circle, looked him up and down carefully, and then said with a sudden realization: "Oh, aren't you Chen Shui? Why did you run to our tribe?"

Chen Shui did not feel embarrassed at being recognized while in such a sorry state; instead, he felt a bit fortunate. Only in this way could he have a chance to successfully join the Third Tribe; otherwise, he might have been stabbed to death with a Spear before even seeing the Tribal Chief of the Third Tribe.

Chen Shui said with a sorrowful expression: "Alas, our tribe is in big trouble, and there is really no other way, so I came to your tribe, hoping you can take me to see your Tribal Chief. I have very important matters to tell him."

The others did not stop him, nor did they dare to, as there had always been a gap in status between them from the past until now, so they could only take him to see the Tribal Chief.

When Chen Shui saw the Tribal Chief of the Third Tribe, he kept his posture very low, completely lacking the manner of when they were equals in the past.

Seeing Chen Shui like this, the Tribal Chief of the Third Tribe, while somewhat gloating, was also a bit curious, because this might affect his own tribe, so he asked him: "Chen Shui, what happened to you? How long have we been out here? The future is still long, yet you..."

Chen Shui said very sadly: "Alas, choosing this territory was probably a mistake. We completely underestimated the threat of Huaxia. Our tribe was conquered by Huaxia just a few days ago. You didn't see how tragic the battle was; it was mainly because Huaxia's Weapons were too good. My Soldiers were almost all killed, and in the end, they risked their lives to send me out.

I thought about hurrying to find you, preferably to unite and resist Huaxia, so I ran toward the Second Tribe, but just as I arrived, before I could even notify them, Huaxia was already attacking them ahead of me. I saw it was too late, so I ran here again."

Hearing this, the Tribal Chief of the Third Tribe was both shocked and angry. He hurriedly stood up and ran out of the Tent, wanting to see if Chen Shui had brought the Huaxia people with him, but fortunately, it was very quiet outside.

Seeing that he might have been misunderstood, Chen Shui hurriedly explained: "Don't worry, I am not leading the way for Huaxia. My own tribe was slaughtered by Huaxia, so how could I possibly help them? It's just that Huaxia's offensive is too fierce, and they seem to have already mastered the intelligence of our tribes. By the way, in the past few days, have there been any Soldiers in your tribe who have gone missing for no reason?"

The Tribal Chief of the Third Tribe did not completely trust Chen Shui, but he had no evidence. The question Chen Shui asked also made his heart tighten, because a few days ago, more than twenty Soldiers from their tribe had indeed gone missing. Because so many people went missing at once, it had made him a bit nervous, but until just now, nothing else had happened.

Now he also roughly guessed what Chen Shui meant, but still asked: "What do you mean?"

Chen Shui gave him a definite answer: "That's right, our tribe was the same. First, more than a dozen Soldiers went missing for no reason, and then one evening, the Huaxia people suddenly surrounded our tribe and launched an attack without any warning."