Chapter 74: Surprise Attack

While Baifeng waited for the enemy to come, the Zhique Tribe was also waiting, whether it was for a large tribe to come for revenge or for another war party of a dozen or so people to deliver themselves to their door.

Yet after waiting for several days without seeing a shadow, Heichang became even more certain that that tribe was just a small tribe of a hundred people; otherwise, they would have long since dispatched a large force to sweep them out and take revenge.

The advantage of the Zhique Tribe was that they were extremely skilled at using the Sling, which could be considered their main means of attack; furthermore, they were very vigilant, and if anyone came to take revenge and encircle them, they could always escape at the fastest speed.

Moreover, the few people they had captured were almost finished being eaten, and the tribesmen of the Zhique Tribe did not like eating fish meat that was so bony and fishy, so they kept pestering Heichang, asking him to order an attack on the tribe where those people were located.

Heichang also felt it was time to attack; having waited so long without daring to come for revenge, it must not be a very strong tribe, and perhaps the strongest Soldier and the Tribal Chief had already entered their stomachs, so that tribe should now be a group of dragons without a head.

Thus, this morning, Heichang crawled out of his small house, stretched comfortably, gripped the captured Iron Knife, called out to his tribesmen, and advanced toward the distance, intending to break another tribe today and eat well for half a year.

The people of the Zhique Tribe cheered and jumped for joy, their spirits high; they picked up their Weapons one after another, filled the animal skin bags at their waists with stones, and then, surrounding Heichang, pushed forward in the direction those people had fled a few days ago.

No matter how noisy they were when they set out, they kept quiet during the march; this was the primary condition for ensuring they were not discovered, and every time their surprise attack succeeded, it relied on this point of being sufficiently concealed.

The Baifeng tribe could not delay any longer, so in the morning, after repeatedly giving instructions—not to go deep into the forest, not to go too far away, not to act alone, not to go in the direction of the Old Camp, and so on—he let them set out with a heart full of worry.

There was no need to worry too much about the Fishing Team; after all, there should be no tribe capable of launching an attack in the water, and in this era, there probably wasn't a race living in the water like mermaids.

As long as they were extra vigilant on the way back and forth and ran if they saw things going wrong after throwing their things away, it would be fine; he also let them take some of the Bamboo Shields. In any case, Baifeng repeatedly emphasized to them that if they encountered enemies in the wild, running away when they couldn't win was not being a coward, but a sign of wisdom; only those who ran away in a real war were cowards, and he wouldn't need the enemy to do it—he would personally cut off the heads of those who fled.

He also opened the large logs blocking the gate of the pen for the herd of cattle, letting them go out to forage on their own, but the herd had already grown accustomed to life in the pen, and suddenly opening the gate made them a bit unaccustomed to it; one by one, they stayed far away from the gate and didn't dare to go out, and it was only when Xiaoniu took the lead that they dared to go out.

With people to feed them, high walls to surround and protect them, and abundant water sources with added salt, this life was much more comfortable than being in the wild; the herd felt that this life of staying in the pen and fattening up without needing to go out was extremely comfortable.

After the herd went out, he had the tribesmen clear out all the cow dung piled up in the cattle pen; it could be used for compost, or it could be dried and used as fuel to fill the heated brick beds in Winter, both of which were very good.

It was just that the output of several dozen cattle over a few days was a bit astonishing; fortunately, the tribesmen didn't care too much, and they all stood inside with bare legs, using wooden shovels to shovel the dung out bit by bit; these tasks kept a dozen people busy for half a day, and after finishing, the whole person was stinking.

They washed several times but there was still a faint smell, so they started to dislike this job themselves and stated that no matter what, they would never go to shovel cow dung again in the future.

Baifeng also felt that the structure of the cattle pen might not be very reasonable; the ground shouldn't be made flat, it should have some angle, so that at least the urine could flow down along the slope, the higher ground could maintain a certain degree of dryness, and a few water channels could be dug so that the cattle pen wouldn't accumulate too much water when it rained.

Taking advantage of the present, they could hurry up and do it; bringing more people, they repaired a not-too-obvious slope for the cattle pen and dug a few channels, which was enough to make do.

Inside the cattle pen, he also planned to make a row of sheds, which could provide them with shade in the summer and shelter from the rain in the rainy season; they didn't have the ability to cover the entire cattle pen, and there wasn't much need for it either.

Previously, the wood and Tiles had already been prepared, but it had been delayed by this enemy situation, so now they continued to work; although the ground of the cattle pen was soaked by cow dung and urine into a sticky mess and was very disgusting to dig, those tribesmen didn't have any resistance to it, as it was for the wealth of the tribe and to avoid going hungry in the future.

Xiong and Chi led a Hunter Team of over a hundred people and did not dare to disperse at all, but such a group of people gathered together easily startled the prey, so it was relatively difficult to catch them.

Along the way, they could only catch small things like wild rabbits; larger prey fled immediately upon hearing the commotion of their march.

However, even with so many people, some held bows and Spears to hunt, while others held Shields and Knives to guard the surroundings; once they discovered an enemy coming, they would immediately surround everyone with the Shields and look for an opportunity to escape.

By the time the sun reached the middle of the Heaven, they had not seen any enemies, but everyone still faced it with the greatest caution, eating in turns and not relaxing in the slightest.

The Zhique Tribe also hadn't seen any prey by noon, but they weren't discouraged; human tribes weren't that easy to find, and they ate some fish meat casually for lunch; only Heichang could eat the remaining human meat, and every time he took a bite, the tribesmen beside him would swallow their saliva once, their blood-red, protruding eyeballs filled with an incomparable desire to eat a bite of human meat.

Because the direction of the Zhique Tribe was slightly off, they hadn't seen the Baifeng tribe yet, and because none of them thought any tribe would place their camp on a plain without any cover, they simply skipped over that location.

After finishing their meals in turns and resting a bit to settle their food, both tribes began to continue searching, only one side was hunting, and the other side was also hunting.

Hui of the Baifeng tribe, hiding behind a stone, shot a deer; the deer's abdomen was pierced through, and after struggling a few times, it fell to the ground, wanting to turn over but unable to get up.

Seeing that there was a harvest, Hui immediately jumped over the stone wall where he was hiding to give the deer a finishing blow, but as soon as he went out, before he reached the side of the deer, several stones flew past his feet and beside him, scaring him into jumping on the spot and hurriedly dodging.

Fortunately, those few stones grazed past him and didn't hit him; the Soldier Lu, who was holding a Shield behind him, saw that someone was attacking, so he also hurriedly jumped out and held up the Shield to block in front of the two of them.

At the same time, more stones flew over; most of them hit the ground, but a few still hit the Bamboo Shield, and judging by the force transmitted from the Bamboo Shield, Lu felt that if they had really hit a person, it would definitely result in a broken head and bleeding.