Chapter 803: The Gathering's Thief

The tall horses of Huaxia came to a stop, and the people following behind gradually stopped as well; they had now found a suitable place to set up camp, only for other tribes to have arrived there first.

Seeing this situation, the Tribal Chiefs of several tribes stood up in unison and gathered together; they were already familiar with one another, and given the current stance, their tribes could only unite to confront this powerful new tribe. Although they could not resort to violence, they had to display their own imposing manner.

At this moment, everyone dismounted from the backs of the oxen, with only a few Cavalry spreading out to serve as a guard and protective force; Xiong straightened his armor and strode forward.

The Tribal Chiefs also realized that Xiong was the Leader of this tribe, so they hurriedly stepped forward. Before they even met, one of the Tribal Chiefs said loudly, "This place has already been occupied by our tribes; you should go find somewhere else. Even at a gathering, we must follow the rules."

Xiong did not speak, but a Soldier behind him had already brought over several bags. Just as the two sides met and the Tribal Chiefs were brewing their rhetoric, wanting to appear tough, they were immediately handed a small bag.

"This is a gathering, and we also follow the rules. Each tribe will be given a bag of salt; you will move away from here now and find somewhere else to set up camp. We, Huaxia, want this place, and this salt shall be considered a trade for this spot," the Soldier said in an overbearing manner.

The Tribal Chiefs hurriedly opened the bags and saw the snow-white salt grains. This made them curious as to whether it was truly salt, for they could only eat rock salt; in times of greatest scarcity, let alone boiling water with salt-bearing stones, they would even scrape up and boil the alkali from saline-alkali land.

The best salt they had ever seen was small, earthy-yellow Salt Blocks, and even that kind of salt was expensive; small tribes like theirs could not afford it at all. Now, could something that looked like Snow be salt?

Several of them dipped their fingers in and put them into their mouths. Their fingers were already salty, and combined with such pure refined salt, their eyes immediately lit up. They swallowed repeatedly, their mouths filled with a massive amount of salt, without feeling the slightest bit of bitter saltiness.

Now, none of them had any desire to argue. Even if they traded away all the goods they had brought this time, it would be impossible to exchange for so much high-quality salt. This was simply salt falling from Heaven; could such a good thing really happen just by occupying a good spot?

"Good, good, good, we will move immediately, we will move immediately." The Tribal Chiefs bowed repeatedly with some sycophancy. Without consulting the other Tribal Chiefs, they clutched their salt bags and rushed toward their own camps, shouting as they ran: "Quickly dismantle the camp, we are changing locations."

The other tribes watching from the sidelines, ready to enjoy the spectacle, were now so envious their eyes were red. One by one, they pounded their own thighs, wondering why they hadn't occupied this place themselves, and why Huaxia hadn't taken a fancy to their camps. They had inexplicably lost out on a large bag of salt; the Tribal Chiefs of the tribes that witnessed this would likely wake up in the middle of the night for the next year to slap themselves in the face.

Those tribes moved very quickly. Their camps were just rotten wooden sheds to begin with; they took what was essential, pulled down the animal skins, and that counted as moving. As for the wood they left behind, Huaxia could just use it to start a fire.

The flat ground was now empty, with no one from the other tribes left. Then, under the gaze of the surrounding savages, Xiong gave an order. All the Soldiers immediately began to dismantle the tents from the backs of the oxen, then searched for suitable positions, spread out animal skins, and quickly pitched the tents.

Some Soldiers took axes to cut wood in the distance; some dug pits in the ground, some chopped firewood, and other Soldiers held Weapons and patrolled the surroundings.

Although everyone tacitly agreed that there would be no fighting or robbing at the gathering, there were far too many instances of petty theft. Generally speaking, however, as long as one was caught, they could be killed on the spot, and it would be to no avail even if the Tribal Chief of the thief's tribe came.

A tribe like Huaxia, which had massive amounts of supplies but relatively few people, would become a target for others. With the obstruction of the tall oxen's bodies, some people had already begun to harbor thoughts; the bold ones were even thinking that they could steal their oxen at night and immediately flee the area, which would be much faster and more profitable than slowly trading here.

The Soldiers, who knew the human nature of this era well, could not relax their eyes for a moment. Several Cavalry also kept riding their horses around their herd of oxen. Only after the camp was set up and the wooden stakes for tethering the oxen were driven in could they get some leisure, but this work would be hard to finish for a while, as they had quite a lot of oxen.

The onlookers gradually began to disperse, and people coming from many different directions also gradually moved toward the surroundings in a chaotic manner. Those with ulterior motives intentionally began to squeeze toward the direction of Huaxia's herd.

The Soldier riding the horse saw it clearly, but he did not alert the enemy. It was best to catch someone red-handed in such matters, and only by dealing with it severely could there be enough of a deterrent to scare the others away.

Just as the hand of a thin, weak savage was inserted into a bag hanging on an ox's belly, the Cavalry had not yet moved, but a Soldier behind him immediately rushed forward in a few steps. With one strike of his Knife, he severed the thief's arm; at that moment, the thief's hand was still hanging on the Huaxia bag.

The thief's screams immediately summoned the dispersed crowd back. They were more shocked by the sharpness of the Huaxia Weapon; what kind of Weapon could sever a person's arm with a single strike? When they used an axe, they would only break a person's arm or tear a large gash in the flesh.

No one sympathized with the thief, because that hand was the evidence of the crime. The people of the tribe to which the thief belonged would not come out to plead for mercy; they would not think that a person without an arm could survive, and even if they did survive, they would be of no use, so there was no need to go looking for this trouble.

The Huaxia Soldier did not need to ask any questions, nor did he need to interrogate a criminal or ask about accomplices. He only felt that this thief had startled their oxen, which was not good; the herd was now somewhat agitated and even began to moo.

So, without a word, he dragged the thief up from the ground and stood him in a good position. The thief was still in the fear of losing his arm, and he could not feel the pain because it had come too suddenly. He was screaming when he felt a gust of wind pass by his neck, and his head fell to the ground.

The blood spraying from the neck flew quite a distance, splashing the onlookers all over. The Soldier was also covered in blood; he felt a bit of disgust, thinking it was too dirty, and he would have to wash up properly when he had a moment.