Volume 9: Home Chapter 284: A Way Out of Nothingness
Southwestern coast of the grassland.
About 300 kilometers northeast of the Snake Tribe's location, there is a vast body of water with extremely abundant grass and water. Several streams and mountain streams converge here, nourishing a swampy water town with a radius of dozens of miles, like an alien version of Liangshanpo.
The lush reeds were blown down by the cold wind from the north, and the rotten grass leaves and reed debris polluted the nearby waters, making them turbid and blurring the distance between the ground and the water. There were also large areas of aquatic plants that disguised the appearance of land and were connected to the surface protruding from the water. If an outsider accidentally stepped into them, he could get wet if he was lucky, but if he was unlucky, he would probably stay here forever with the water.
Harris, a snake walker wearing a suncloth suit for warmth and a colorful snakeskin armor outside, lay motionless in the fallen reeds, his cold and strange vertical pupils staring coldly at the strange orcs who were occupying the shore of the lake and resting by a fire hundreds of meters away.
Snakes are afraid of both heat and cold. At this time of autumn and winter, the temperature has dropped to zero degrees at night, and only a few degrees at most during the day. In previous years, Harris would have been squatting in the house on the kang to spend the winter comfortably; but this year the situation is different. The enemy has set foot on the land belonging to the grassland tribe. The snake tribe, who have been sweating and farming on this hot land for several years, naturally have to stand up to defend their homes.
The snake warriors, who were good at hiding, worked in pairs or alone, and spread out along the southeastern coast of the southwest border of the grassland to wait in a fixed spot. Harris, who had rich experience in being hired (working) in the human kingdom, had a unique vision and chose the most suitable area for hiding his whereabouts to wait in ambush, and he really hit the jackpot.
"They are all Black Bear warriors... Has the Beast King sent most of his forces to our side?"
Harris narrowed his eyes and carefully looked at the group of orcs resting at the edge of the water. He patiently observed the size of the bags carried by the orcs one by one and checked the specifications of their weapons and armor. A disdainful sneer appeared on the villain's face.
The largest bear species is the white bear, followed by the moon bear (brown bear), and then the black bear.
The Black Bear Clan does not have an advantage in size, but they have very light and agile speed, endurance close to that of Minotaur, and the unique strength of the bear clan. This allows the Black Bear Clan's warriors to have excellent fighting talents that can adapt to most combat venues. Even in an era without the Beast King, the Black Bear Clan is one of the few powerful fighting races among the Far Eastern orcs.
Harris had personal feelings towards this group of black bear warriors because when the snake tribe was driven away from Snake Island, the black bear tribe was the main fighting force - the white bears and moon bears had limited space to maneuver on the hot and humid Snake Island with overly lush vegetation, and only the black bear warriors were completely unaffected!
When facing the invading bear tribe on Snake Island, the snake tribe had almost no ability to fight back. In just a few days, they were driven out of their homeland where they had lived for countless years and were exiled. But now... seeing the invading black bear warriors again, Harris is not afraid at all!
The reason is simple, Snake Island is too small and has no strategic depth. The bear army can penetrate the heartland of the Snake tribe in a few days. However, it is different in the grassland. It will take at least a month for these invading bears to cross the grassland and reach the southwest!
The Black Bear Troops that Harris saw at this moment, not to mention carrying heavy armaments, even their luggage was very small... Obviously, in order to finish this battle before winter, these invaders who came from afar did not bring enough supplies and relied entirely on local supplies!
After taking lessons with the Snow Werewolves for so many years, it would be strange for Harris to be afraid of such a group of "isolated troops" without any logistical supplies, let alone reinforcements - the Fire Tribe, which had been silently preparing for war for a long time, began to focus on training logistics transportation capabilities many years ago!
Harris glared at the group of uninvited guests with hatred, then slowly backed away and disappeared into the reeds.
Half an hour later, Harris reappeared around the water and lurked beside the enemy.
Six hours later, enemy intelligence from the northeast of the Snake Tribe was delivered to the Southern District Command of the Fire Tribe's Temporary War Committee.
"We have no auxiliary troops, no logistics, no war supplies, and we have to collect supplies on the spot..." The grassroots chief said with a smile, "They don't regard this as a war at all. We are underestimated!"
"Isn't that good?" Chief Ali laughed, "The less prepared the enemy is, the better it is for us."
The South District Command is composed of the MSG factory, the Snake Department, and the sugar beet planting base. It patrols and deploys defenses in the southeastern coastal area of the southwest region. Now that the enemy's traces have been discovered, the South District Command will naturally have to respond accordingly.
"The water body in the east is very close to the Snake Tribe. Although the enemy needs time to replenish supplies on the spot and consume their marching expenses, they will be able to find the Snake Tribe's farm in three days at most. I think, why don't we take the initiative to attack and keep the enemy out?" Gregor, the chief elder of the Snake Tribe, had a bad look on his face after hearing the news. His hatred for the Black Bear Tribe was much deeper than Harris's, so he took the initiative to make suggestions.
"Of course we have to fight." The Grassroots Chief thought for a moment and said, "Harris roughly counted the number of bear invaders, and estimated that there are about 3,000 of them. Given the geographical environment and manpower of our southern region, it is unrealistic to annihilate or capture them all at once. If they break up into small groups and run around in all directions, it will be troublesome to deal with them later."
The northern area, which is under the charge of the Fire Tribe, the Cat Farm and the Hilly New District, has a large terrain change and many places to set traps and ambushes. The southern area does not have such geographical convenience... Apart from the forests, swamps and water bodies, there are only large plains. The large canyon at the estuary that can be used is in a relatively central area, and the grassroots chiefs dare not let the enemy in easily.
"Grassroots, you are too straightforward. Since we know they don't have enough supplies and no logistical support, why don't we do something about it?" Chief Ali stroked his chin and smiled evilly, "A team of two to three thousand people has to rely on hunting to raise food every day. Tsk tsk...are the prey on our grassland so easy to catch?"
The Grassroots Chief stared at him for two seconds and made a gesture of invitation: "Okay, you come."
In the past, the grassroots clan leaders would not be able to tolerate Ah Li's crooked behavior, but since they were united against the outside world, it didn't matter if Ah Li had bad intentions...
Chief A Li was not polite and took over the command of the southern area. He immediately summoned Xiao Hua, A Tian and other soldiers assigned to the southern area, and talked to the snake tribe's chief elder Gregor for a while. Then he sent out the troops on the same day...
the next day.
The large group of black bears that spent the night by the water set out early in the morning, sending out scouts along the way, one to scout the route, and the other to collect food.
The result is... After walking dozens of miles in the morning, the scouts didn't catch even a single rabbit...
This kind of situation was not uncommon during the journey. During the lunch break, General Black Bear asked the soldiers to take out the vermicelli in their bags and make do with it.
They continued to move eastward in the afternoon. In addition to sending out scouts to explore the way, General Black Bear also sent out several teams of soldiers to hunt in the surrounding areas.
At night, hundreds of scouts and hunters only managed to catch a ground spider that hid its nest very deep...
The spider legs were roasted and distributed to the non-commissioned officers. The soldiers who didn't get any could only scrape the vermicelli crumbs in their bags to fill their stomachs. Seeing that the soldiers were hungry and looked unhappy, General Black Bear encouraged them diligently: "We are not far from the Elf Port. We will soon reach the Snow Wolf Tribe! Not only is there a Snow Wolf factory, but there is also a large farm run by the Snake Tribe. There is everything. As long as we get there, everything will be ours!"
The Black Bear warriors cheered a few times to show their respect.
In a cave about two kilometers away from the Black Bear Troops’ temporary camp.
Harris slapped the red-banded snake Dominy on the scalp: "I told you there was an abandoned nest in the woods over there, why didn't you go over and drive it away?"
Dominic complained: "I went around and it was true. The ground spider dug its hole down there. I walked over it and didn't know it!"
"How dare you say that!"
"Forget it, Harris." Snow Wolf warrior Ayan stepped forward to mediate, holding Harris' shoulders and pulling him away. "It's just one ground spider to feed a few mouths. Let's be careful tonight and clean up the place so that they won't have anything to eat tomorrow."
Harris glared at Dominic, pointed out the men, and led the team to clear the area.
This idea of "fortifying the city, clearing the countryside, and then clearing the countryside again" is naturally the masterpiece of Chief Ali... Since the enemy expects to "get food" on the spot, let us not get anything!
It's not easy to tamper with flowing water sources, but isn't it easy to drive away edible beasts? Arranging a hundred people can drive away all the edible game on our route in advance. This easy "tiring the enemy" strategy is a waste!
On the third day, after another half-day of hungry trekking, the Black Bear Troops finally saw man-made creations after more than a month of long travel - a few lonely buildings standing among the large fields after harvest.
Several black bear scouts rushed into the building with shining eyes and searched it... Of course, there was not a single hair found. This was just a hut where the farmhands lived. The food had been harvested and the snake production team had retreated to spend the winter long ago. It was considered generous of the farmhands to leave some straw for making beds in the huts.
"We have reached the place of the snake tribe! These are the farmlands they have cultivated!" General Black Bear was not as shocked as the others. He encouraged the morale with spit flying, "Work harder, find their tribe, and rob them all!"
"Rob them all!" The black bear warriors, whose eyes were glowing green with hunger, responded .
General Black Bear knew that the soldiers had been hungry for a day and a night and that they needed a final push , so he did not let the troops stop to rest (mainly because the food they brought with them had been used up and they could not catch any wild animals). Instead, he led his troops forward aggressively along the path trampled out through the farmland.
More than a thousand meters away, Dominic, who was lying on the top of the mountain, saw that the group of bears actually moved northwest along the path. He was surprised and said, "Did they really follow that path? Isn't it strange that the path is very new?"
"We spent a whole day pushing carts to carve out that road. We burned the mud with fire to make it black, and then ran back and forth to leave layers of footprints. We also sprayed a layer of ash on it. If you don't look carefully, you can't tell that the road is actually very new." A Yan said with a little pride, "A Yun said that our A Li tribe leader is very careful. He sprinkled some beans and wheat grains on the grass beside the road. A Li tribe leader thought of this disguise. Don't worry!"
Generally speaking, the best way to "lure the enemy deep into our territory" is to send a small group of troops to test the exchange of fire, then pretend to be defeated and retreat, and lead the enemy to the preset battlefield; but considering that the black bear is very cunning and fast, if the team luring the enemy is not careful enough, it is likely to suffer heavy casualties, so the scheming chief A Li came up with the trick of "surviving from nothing"...
The black bear scout who was exploring the way ahead of the main force was indeed fooled. He found beans and wheat ears left on the roadside, so he thought that this was indeed the road the snake tribe used to transport food back, so he started running all the way.
Soon, the scout team arrived at the end of the road, outside a naturally formed canyon. Through the open canyon mouth, even with the poor eyesight of the black bear, they could see a large pile of boxes, sacks and other things inside, and people walking around.
"I got you!" The sergeant of the scout team breathed heavily and rushed into the canyon first.
"We've been waiting for you!" In the canyon, the Snow Wolf and Snake warriors who were lying in ambush on both sides of the riverbed and the canyon clenched their weapons.
