Chapter 636: Escorting the Captives

When Yinyang was pushed into the ranks, her gaze remained locked on his position; when they began to move forward, she kept squeezing toward Yinyang's position, but there were too many people and the path was too narrow, making the formation very crowded, and since she dared not make any large movements, her progress was extremely slow.

It was not that Cangyun was doing this for love or anything of the sort—there was no such thing as love in this era—she simply needed someone to protect her. In the past, the three of them had relied on each other to survive, and it was the same on the road while wandering. After the Yanhu Tribe was established, she chose to follow the stronger Zhu, but now that Zhu was dead, she needed Yinyang to protect her. Although under these current circumstances, protection was out of the question, she just needed to rely on someone stronger than herself to feel a bit more secure.

At high noon, Luo ordered everyone to stop because the people of Huaxia needed to cook and eat, and then he let the Soldiers take a short nap; after all, during the night watch, everyone's sleep time throughout the night was not long, and if they kept traveling, they would be very tired and needed to maintain a certain level of physical strength.

The people of the Yanhu Tribe still had no food to eat, and Luo did not know how long it had been since they had eaten anything, but thinking about how long they had been wandering and how little food they had consumed, the fact that they could still survive such a long journey to this day showed that their ability to endure hunger was absolutely very strong; another half-day without food would not kill them, as long as they could hold out until nightfall.

This time, they had even brought along the stored grain of the Yanhu Tribe. They had roughly taken inventory, and if they went by the lowest standard—the lowest standard for savages, meaning even just the level of one bowl of meat soup per person—the stored grain was enough for them to eat for two days; adding the intercepted supplies on the road and the two Musk Oxen that Yinyang and the others had caught, they could hold out for another day.

By that time, they would have already traveled almost half the distance to Lema City, and there were also the Soldiers who had gone ahead to request reinforcements, so they should be able to hold out until the reinforcements arrived; they could still hunt and carry out some resupplying on the road.

In an emergency, a portion of their food could also be distributed to these captives, because they had originally planned to stay in Xiao Town for three to four days, but after this incident occurred, they had returned after staying for only one day, so the extra food from their own planned surplus could be used as food for these captives.

Their food allocation could be said to be based on three meals a day at the highest standard; if distributed to the captives, the amount for one person per day could feed at least ten people, and the extra amount for several days was enough to last until the reinforcements arrived, so Luo was not worried about this problem.

The fragrance of Huaxia's food reached the noses of the captives; they had never smelled such a pleasant scent, to the point that their stomachs began to rumble one after another, as if playing a symphony, but the Huaxia Soldiers could only ignore it, as the plan could not be changed at will.

Additionally, because the number of eating utensils was limited, they ate in shifts: one group cooked, one group slept, and one group watched the people, rotating in this manner; in about two hours, everything could be finished. Although it was not pleasant for the group of Soldiers who were sleeping to do so on an empty stomach, they did not need to endure this lifestyle for long, and in the end, they were still living more comfortably than the captives.

During this gap when the guard was relatively loose, Cangyun inched forward bit by bit and finally arrived at Yinyang's side. She touched Yinyang with her hand, and Yinyang turned his head in confusion; seeing Cangyun, he felt both pleasantly surprised and relieved, but the two did not dare to speak, only leaning tightly against each other.

After the Huaxia Soldiers finished their rest, a loud whistle sounded, telling everyone that it was time to continue the journey. The Yanhu Tribe captives, who had been squatting for too long, felt it was somewhat difficult to stand up now, but they still helped each other up; this was the most difficult step, and once they started walking, they would get used to it and would no longer feel the pain.

The four people who went to deliver the message also maintained a regular schedule; they still cooked at noon, mainly because the horses also needed to rest, and they had to let the horses eat some Grass on the road. They knew exactly where the water sources were along the way and had to take slight detours to water the horses.

Although a true "eight-hundred-li urgent" dispatch involved changing horses but not riders—where even if a horse died of exhaustion, the person could not stop—Huaxia did not have those conditions now; even a lame horse was very precious and could not be abandoned unless absolutely necessary. For the Cavalry of Huaxia, horses were equivalent to the advanced fighter jets of the later generations' air force for their pilots.

That evening, after the Huaxia group finished eating, they had the captives who were carrying their own pottery pots and pottery bowls step out to boil soup using the allocated food. The Huaxia Soldiers only performed a supervisory role, which also counted as keeping watch.

It was fortunate that the original Jiangshui Tribe was a large tribe; when they were wandering, they had brought along everything they could carry, so the quantity of various utensils was not small, at least not to the point where hundreds of people had to wait for one pot.

However, there were not enough bowls, so the Huaxia Artisans used the Bamboo Tubes they had found, cutting them open with saws to use as bowls for the captives, and they even divided them into roughly the same lengths so they would not cause trouble over the distribution of food.

The entire process lasted for several hours, continuing from dusk until the moon hung high in the sky before it ended. The captives, having had some thin, watery food in their stomachs, were finally able to sleep. Having traveled at high intensity for a day without eating much, and given that their bodies were already very thin and weak, they were now exhausted to the point of collapse and only wanted to sleep, not thinking about anything else.

The workload of the Huaxia Soldiers was also much lower because all the captives were already lying down and asleep; they only needed to watch if anyone suddenly stood up, in which case they would have to consider whether they were trying to cause trouble or escape.

At the same time, before going to sleep, the Soldiers instructed the captives to tidy up the Bamboo Tubes that had been distributed to them, as they would still use them to eat tomorrow. They would encounter a water source along the way, and they would need them to drink water, and could even use them to carry some water on the road.

Because they had not found that much bamboo, and the Artisans did not have enough time to saw them one by one, many people were using the same one. The Artisans only said that if they encountered suitable bamboo again, they could saw some more out, otherwise they would just have to make do; in any case, once they arrived in Huaxia, these things would no longer be needed.

The four Soldiers delivering the message took turns keeping watch, rather than rotating in pairs; the horses were very vigilant at night and could also play a role in prevention, so one person was enough.