Chapter 526: The Honor of the Soldiers

Chibing also took his own side-knife and walked over; the Soldiers in the trees all began to climb down one after another, though their hands were still trembling a bit at this moment.

Everyone was exclaiming at the size of this bear, which could be said to be larger than one could imagine. Chibing stepped forward and poked the giant bear's head with his scabbard; its eyeballs had lost all luster, and its mouth was wide open, looking very frightening.

Someone who liked to meddle tried to lift the bear's paw, but because of the position the bear was lying in, he tried it but couldn't lift it, so he called over a comrade; he lay down from the bear's feet, aligning his own feet with the bear's, and then had the Soldier place his feet against his own head to see how long the bear was.

But the two of them combined were not as long as the bear's body; everyone was now watching with great interest, no longer afraid—no matter how big or fierce the bear was, hadn't they killed it?

Chibing's mood had also improved by now, no longer tense, and he smilingly told everyone to cut the Arrows and then remove them from the bear's head; as for that smaller bear, no one cared at all, although its size was not small either, and everyone guessed it might be this giant bear's mate.

After pulling out the Arrows, everyone worked together to flip the giant bear over, letting its belly face Heaven; now looking at the bear paw was very easy. Chibing picked up the bear paw to compare it with himself, but his face was completely covered by the pitch-black bear palm, and with the very long claws, the entire bear paw was as big as his head plus his chest.

It could be said that if this bear slapped down, let alone Chibing, even someone with a large build like Chi would have their head smashed by a single slap.

Chibing put down the bear claw with mixed feelings; the others were still tirelessly comparing themselves to the giant bear's body. A single front leg was basically as long as a Soldier. A bear this big could eat a person as easily as they ate roasted soybeans.

Everyone had played enough, and the sky had basically turned dark. Although the smell of blood was very strong, combined with the huge noise from just before, there shouldn't be many things blind enough to come over, but just in case, they still organized the Advanced level of defense.

Several huge bonfires were lit, illuminating the camp brightly. Originally, everyone wanted to follow their usual habit and skin and dismantle the bear directly, but Chibing felt that it was a pity to just divide such a big bear; they should keep the whole body to let everyone see it, and anyway, bear meat didn't taste good. This could also increase the courage of the countrymen and Soldiers, letting everyone know that there was no beast that Huaxia could not deal with, and it would also let all the Soldiers save face and gain some honor.

The Soldiers, who had no worries about food or drink, were naturally very willing. If this bear were dragged back, how much glory would they have on their faces? They simply kept the mother bear as well, dragging both back together, with the small one serving as an embellishment.

Throughout the rest of the night, movements of beasts could be heard in the surrounding jungle, and bright, flickering eyes could also be seen peeking. The Soldiers felt a bit annoyed, and since there were still plenty of Bombs, they lit one directly and threw it into the forest. The huge sound immediately made the surroundings clean, and no more beasts came.

However, the next day when they were dismantling those Traps, they still found some beast footprints on them. Because they had considered the bear's weight, they had made the covering on the Traps quite sturdy; although it couldn't support a person's weight, most beasts could walk on it freely, even wolves were no problem.

The Soldiers resting in Lema City, according to the agreement, would set off early today to come and relieve these Lema City Soldiers, so the people in the camp did not set off and were still waiting; after all, the camp had to have people left behind.

So everyone simply tried to think of a way to bring the bear back, because the ox carts were very small; let alone the giant bear, even the mother bear couldn't fit. Since there was no one from the Ministry of Works here, a group of Soldiers began to rack their brains to the limit.

Trying to put two carts together to load it didn't work either. Finally, they decided to simply use wood to make a wooden raft and drag the bear on it. Everyone thought it was indeed feasible, so they found the ropes used for dragging trees and felling/hauling tree trunks from the warehouse, picked some wood that wasn't too thick, and quickly tied it together. The crowd worked together to push the bear onto the wooden raft, then tied ropes to the front to drag it; it moved forward very smoothly, it just took a lot of manpower.

But for everyone's honor, what was a little bit of effort? They were already imagining the cheers and exclamations of everyone after returning to Lema City.

At noon, the Soldiers who had been jogging all the way successfully arrived at the camp. They had hoped that the bear hadn't come last night so they would have a chance to do it themselves, but as soon as they arrived, they were shocked by the huge bear carcass lying on the ground.

Everyone even forgot discipline, crowding toward the bear one by one, not caring at all about the fishy stench on the bear's body. The weather was very hot now, and the bear's carcass was beginning to rot at an extremely fast speed, with flies circling like the wind.

At this moment, they realized something was wrong. In order to ensure that the bear carcass could be paraded around Lema City and Huaxia City smoothly, they opened the warehouse without hesitation, took out whole bags of salt, and began to sprinkle it, hoping to slow down the rate of decay.

After these Soldiers repeated the actions of the Soldiers from last night, they suddenly realized that this should have been their own credit. So, one by one, they looked up to Heaven and roared, howling about how unlucky they were, while the companions who had stayed behind to guard were the ones who enjoyed this honor.

Chibing did not blame them for their slackness and disregard for discipline; he waited until they had finished looking before smiling and telling them to assemble. Seeing that everyone had gathered, he said to them: "This time, we need one hundred people to stay here to guard again, and the others still have to go back to wait to escort the tenant farmers over. As for who goes? The Soldiers who participated in the battle last night must go; let them rest, and for the rest, let your platoon leaders come and draw lots!"

Now everyone was uneasy again, staring at their platoon leaders with burning eyes; if they drew the lot to stay behind, they would want to eat them. The platoon leaders also felt the enthusiastic gazes of everyone and confidently stated that they would definitely draw the lot to return.

In the end, the teams that drew the lot to return cheered and celebrated, while the teams that stayed behind were dejected. Chibing smiled and comforted them, saying: "Don't be discouraged! There might be other beasts here; anyway, most of the Weapons and Explosives have been left for you. Even if an elephant comes, I believe you can take it down. Perhaps you can give us a surprise!"

Everyone knew Chibing was joking, but it eased the atmosphere. Just as they were preparing to set off, a Soldier hurriedly reminded: "This rope will definitely be worn through on the road. We should bring more rope to replace it, otherwise, if it breaks on the road, we'll have no way."