Chapter 847: The Pigeons Were Stolen

They had not encountered any trouble for several days of marching, and the route was familiar; it was just that the days were getting shorter and shorter, leaving them less time to travel. In order to reach their destination as quickly as possible, Huaxia changed their daily schedule once again.

They would no longer eat at noon, just keep walking; they would eat a full meal in the morning and a full meal in the evening, and the long, long night was enough for them to recover their energy and strength. Those savages had already grown accustomed to such trekking and had no complaints, and with Huaxia providing them with enough salt for free, they felt their physical strength increase by another notch.

The only thing that was rather difficult for the Huaxia side was changing their own habits; once a habit was formed, it was somewhat difficult to change, but in order to return to Huaxia as soon as possible, they had to restrain themselves.

The only opportunity they had to rest during the journey was when they reached a water source to replenish their supply; only then could they rest briefly.

The Huaxia Soldiers would take water first, then the Huaxia cattle and horses, and only last were those savages, because Xiong believed these savages were definitely unclean and had worms in their bellies. However, these Huaxia cattle and horses were treasures, and as of yet, no existence of worms in their bellies had been discovered. To avoid being infected by the savages, the cattle and horses were placed before the people in the order of taking water.

However, those savages were very self-aware and would not be angered by this issue, nor did they feel that Huaxia looked down on them. After all, in this era, cattle and horses were simply more important than people; a dead cow was enough to trade for a great many people, not to mention live ones that were so obedient, able to carry cargo for people, and do work for people—how could they, these savages, compare?

The drop in temperature was not that obvious; in fact, once they entered the valley, the temperature was even higher. The most uncomfortable times were early morning and late evening; the warm weather during the day made everyone feel that snow was far away from them and there was no need to worry.

But Xiong knew very well how long this road was, and he had never set his mind at ease. Therefore, after walking for a few days, he decided to send a letter to Huaxia again, just like last time, to have Huaxia come to pick them up.

Xiong now felt that the previous plan was somewhat unreasonable, which was that these savages were truly too poor and had no food at all to survive the Winter. If he let them stay in the place he had selected and waited until Spring to send them food, he feared he would only see a pile of bones. Furthermore, they were loose tribes that were not used to unity, and when the food ran out, conflict would inevitably occur; fighting and killing would be one thing, but he feared they would raise a tribe of cannibals.

Therefore, in the letter, Xiong also requested that these thousand or so people be arranged outside the city just like the Slaves were treated last time, letting them do some odd jobs, providing them with food, and incidentally teaching them some skills.

There was no need to strictly require them as one would with training Slaves, but they needed to understand what they could do for Huaxia and how to do it. Transporting food from inside the city to outside was simple, and there was no fear that they could not be settled after entering the city.

Once Spring arrived, these savages would have recovered their health and learned some basic skills; after that, settling them in a completely barren place to reclaim and develop the territory would be the best choice.

The idea was conceived as such, but when Xiong finished writing the letter in the somewhat cramped Tent, placed it into a bamboo tube, and had a Soldier go to release the carrier pigeon, he was met with a very terrifying piece of news—there were far fewer carrier pigeons.

Upon hearing this, Xiong was shocked and hurriedly walked out of the Tent to check the cage where the pigeons were kept. Pigeons were not that delicate, so they were kept in a cage on the back of an ox throughout the journey. When resting like this, they would use animal skins to cover them slightly to keep the pigeons warm, while leaving space to avoid them being suffocated to death.

But throughout this journey, the pigeons had not had a single problem, and several batches had been released; there should have been more than ten left now. According to their rules for release, they could still be released twice, which was for requesting aid in emergency situations; the probability of a single one returning was too small.

However, upon arriving at the place where the pigeon cage was kept, the two cages had already been opened, and it looked as if they did not know how to open the cage door; it had been pulled open with brute force. The cage was made of bamboo, and only the cage door had an Iron latch.

With the messy footprints, scattered feathers, and the damaged cage door, Xiong and the others immediately understood that it had been stolen by someone. There were no tooth marks or the like, which meant it definitely was not stolen and eaten by wild beasts, and they also had hunting dogs, so small wild beasts would not dare to come.

Now only two cages remained, with seven pigeons inside. Xiong's face turned blue and black with extreme anger. This matter could not have been done by the Huaxia Soldiers; it could only be those savages, because the Huaxia Soldiers knew what these pigeons were used for and what they meant to them, but in the eyes of the savages, they were just meat.

It was morning now, and because the weather was too cold, although it was already bright, the frost was very thick and the road was too slippery, so Xiong had been wanting to drag it out until the frost melted before leaving these past few days, so it would be safer. It seemed those savages had stolen them during the night.

Xiong snorted coldly: "Send the letter out first, send them all; don't call those guys yet, bring Zhuifeng and Heihu over."

A Soldier immediately took action and called out the two dogs that were sleeping in the doghouse he had wrapped with animal skins. These two dogs were military dogs and also hunting dogs; their enemies were all kinds of wild beasts, and unless ordered, they would not actively attack people, whether they were Huaxia people or those savages, which was why they hadn't paid attention to those few savages.

And because the two dogs had always been tied up during gatherings and had not been taken out to play, and had been walking at the very front throughout the journey back, those savages following behind probably didn't even know that Huaxia had such two dogs.

Winter had arrived, and dogs were prone to feeling sleepy. When the Soldier went to call them, the snoring of the two dogs was thunderous, no less than that of a human. The Soldier just patted the doghouse, but the two of them still did not wake up.

The Soldier had no choice but to reach in and pat the two dogs on their backsides. Only then did they poke their curled-up heads out. Once they saw it was their familiar master, the two dogs didn't care about the cold and hurriedly got up and squeezed out, thinking it was time to take action.

The Soldier dotingly stroked the heads of the two dogs: "You two didn't keep a good watch last night; now you two have to work overtime. You must do the job beautifully, understand?"

The dogs could probably understand the tone; although they didn't know what it was about, they heard that there might be a task for them, so they excitedly circled around the Soldier, occasionally lifting their paws to pat the Soldier.