Volume 9: Home Chapter 305 "Victory Meeting"
In a world where the construction of railways, roads, communications and transportation is moving closer to zero, traveling is a very painful thing.
The ancients on Earth had a folk proverb that "It's good to stay at home for a thousand days, but it's hard to go out for a day." This world is similar. Even in the most densely populated human kingdom, only the larger cities have dirt roads paved with yellow mud and gravel that can be used by horse-drawn carriages. Well, that's all there is, don't count on anything else.
If it's a remote place, it means leaving home and entering the wilderness...
Otherwise, how could the express delivery (slow delivery + long and short distance escort) business opened by the Centaurs in Kronin be so prosperous? Not to mention the common people, the ordinary middle class and even the small nobles, if they wanted to go to the next city to watch a performance or attend a wedding celebration, they would have to prepare at least half a month in advance and spend a small amount of money.
Of course, this world is not without more convenient means of transportation, but the cost is too high... If you want to have snacks in Guangzhou in the morning and stroll to Guizhou to eat mutton noodles in the evening like the people on Earth, you must be extremely rich to do it - even if you only charge for the materials, it will cost hundreds of gold coins to activate the teleportation array!
This is the case with all densely populated human kingdoms, not to mention the sparsely populated Far East. Outside of densely populated areas, there is the original primitive world, and any supplies along the way can only be obtained by hunting and gathering. Not to mention sending troops to attack other places, even if you just visit another tribe’s territory, you have to prepare food and daily necessities for ten days or half a month.
In June, the Moon Bear army was defeated. In July, the Beast King's spies received accurate information at the Elf Port and sent it back to the Far East that month. In August, the messenger of the Black Bear Tribe arrived at the territories of the four tribes and asked them to send troops. At the same time, the news came from the Senate of the Empire: The Beast King asked the Elephant Tribe to send troops, but the Elephant Tribe refused, so the pressure of sending troops was transferred to the four tribes.
The Tea Bear and Lion tribe did not play with the Elephant tribe, but there was a serious suspicion that they were flirting with them. The Winged tribe and the Fox tribe were clearly on board the Elephant tribe's ship. This rumor from the Senate House of Elders revealed a sense of provocation and intimidation among the tribes - even if they were to play with the Elephant tribe, the Elephant tribe might not be willing to shelter these small tribes!
The elephant tribe's attitude towards this was ambiguous. They neither openly opposed nor took any action.
The attitude of the elephant tribe did not seem to matter to the four tribes. No one disobeyed the order and they all began to prepare for the expedition honestly. They did not prepare until October, when the crops in the fields were almost harvested, before they set out in a lively manner...
During this period, Black Bear's messengers did come to urge them, but every time they came, they saw the four tribes seriously preparing for war, and the patriarchs and elders of the four tribes either asked for money and food in a roundabout way or directly, forcing the messengers along the way to flee.
The Beast King, who had no intention of paying, naturally could not force the four tribes to send troops quickly.
When the four tribes went out to fight, they each sent envoys to the imperial capital to announce that their armies had already set out and to inquire when the military supervisors and food and fodder would arrive. So the Beast King simply did not even send a military supervisor...
Halfway through October, the armies of the Tea Bear, Lion, and Fox tribes arrived at the Helsinki Wasteland, the territory of the Wing Tribe, one after another, and joined forces with the Wing Tribe army.
The coalition forces of the four tribes, numbering more than 10,000 people, entered the York Mountains that month.
In November, the coalition forces of the four tribes, which had been traveling through the York Mountains for more than 20 days, deeply felt the severe coldness of the northern continent before entering the cursed land.
To the west of the York Mountains, in the endless pine forest, several lions, shivering with cold and with drooping ears, walked weakly forward on the snow, poking here and there with sticks, branches and other things in their hands. After making sure they could move forward, one of the lions turned around and trotted back.
Well... the Winged Tribe were originally the scouts for the army, but after crossing the main peak of the York Mountains, it was not fair to ask these bird people who lived in the warm Far East continent to explore the way in the cold wind and the ice and snow in the wind ...
About five hundred meters behind the scouts, the ones walking in front of the staggering army were all cold-resistant tea bears, and many of them were carrying people on their backs - the dying Winged People needed to lie on their backs and rely on their body temperature to keep warm. Anyway, the Winged People were light in weight, and the tea bears had long been accustomed to carrying loads over mountains and across ridges to grow tea, so it was not a problem for them to carry them on their backs to hurry on their way.
Elder Kuku, who was personally "leading the troops to the battle", saw the scout coming back to report the news and raised his arm: "Rex, is it safe ahead... Hey!"
Rex hugged the plump and round Elder Kuku, wrapped his arms around Elder Kuku's neck, and put his frozen white hands on the back of Elder Kuku's neck, hanging on him very naturally: "It's, it's okay, it's safe, and you can walk."
"Get off me!" Elder Kuku was angry and amused, and used his arms to tear Rex off. "You lion tribe are not the wing tribe, so don't come to me all day long for no reason."
"Even if you're not a Winged Tribe member, you're afraid of the cold!" Rex put the warmed paw into his arms, "Elder Kuku, how long do we have to walk? I'm freezing and exhausted!"
"You're still a long way from dying!" Elder Kuku pushed him away unhappily. "If you feel cold, just transform. You can resist it better than human form."
"No, you want me to carry things as soon as I transform." Rex followed the group with his hands in his pockets, and crouched behind Elder Kuku in a sneaky way, asking him to block the wind for him.
Although Elder Kuku was uncomfortable, he could do nothing about it and could only endure it; but the general in charge of leading the army on the Lion Clan side could not endure it. Not long after Rex had been slacking off, a lioness rushed over from behind and kicked him away...
Then the lioness didn't waste any energy to spray Rex. She said hello to Elder Kuku and dragged him to explore the way ahead...
"The Lion Tribe, tsk tsk." Elder Kuku shook his head. It was a good thing that their Tea Bear didn't have such people, otherwise he didn't know how worried he would be.
After traveling for a whole morning, the wind and snow subsided a little at noon, and the Lion Clan who were exploring the way also found a hillside that was not too steep to accommodate the army to rest. The leaders of the four tribes saw that it was almost ready, so they shouted to everyone to stop to rest, eat something, and then continue on their journey.
The pine branches picked up from the snow were burning with a crackling sound. After the snow water was melted, the tea bear in charge of cooking took out the hard gray bread, chopped it into pieces with a machete, and threw it into the fire to cook together with portable dry food such as dried vegetables, dried radishes, and dried meat.
The lions who were forced to act as scouts dug up several nests of hibernating snakes and wild boars along the way, and also found some dried fruits stored by some unknown animal (as the saying goes, a greedy cat has a sharp nose). They gave them all to the tea bear to process and throw into the pot to make a stew.
The ingredients were not very particular, but after adding the thirteen-spice chili powder produced by the grassland people and the wonderful juice provided by the lion tribe, the aroma coming out of the pot was still very tempting. The Winged Tribe members, who were all carried on the road by the Tea Bear, became more energetic after smelling the smell, and they supported themselves and sat up, waiting for their meals to be divided.
The four tribes brought as much food as possible before setting out, but they had not expected it to be so cold and the consumption would be so great after crossing the York Mountains. There was not much left by now and they had to eat sparingly. The weak Winged Tribe and the relatively slender Fox Tribe consciously reduced their food intake and gave the food to the Tea Bears, who were carrying the most weight, and... the Lion Tribe, who were forced to act as scouts and help carry some supplies.
Elder Kuku gulped down most of the bowl of stew, licked his lips, stood up and walked to a sickly Winged Tribe member, without saying a word, poured the remaining snake meat and wild boar meat at the bottom of the bowl into the other's bowl, then walked to the side and grabbed the snow on the stone to wipe the bowl.
Like Elder Kuku, many tea bears also gave food to the Winged Tribe who were suffering from the frostbite. After all, they were an allied force that set out together, and they could not bear to see the Winged Tribe die on the way.
On the other hand, the style of the lion tribe is hard to describe...
"It's not enough!" Rex licked the bottom of the bowl clean, ran to the pot and found that there was no soup left. He was so angry that he wanted to smash the bowl. "We are asked to explore the way and carry things, but we are not allowed to eat enough. Is this the life for human beings? I am so hungry!"
This time the female lioness general who led the army did not kick him. Instead, she said in a friendly manner, "The conditions are difficult now. It's the same for everyone. You are not the only one who is hungry. It will be fine when we get there. The Snow Wolf people have as much food as the mountains, and they know how to cook. Whatever they cook is delicious, and you can eat as much as you want. Didn't the Snow Wolf people come to your house two years ago? Rex, do you still remember what the food they cook is like?"
"I remember!" Rex's mouth was watering. "It was delicious, but it was a pity that Yang Mao left after living there for two days, so I didn't make more meals."
"How delicious is it, Rex?" The male lions nearby, who were also dissatisfied with the food, looked at him with shining eyes.
Rex had forgotten what he was angry about before, and proudly promoted Yang Mao's cooking skills, which he considered "superb", for the Nth time...
More and more male lions gathered around Rex to listen to his bragging...
General Lioness chuckled and calmly lowered her head to chew the dried radish.
Elder Xiu’s husband is really useful!
The tea bears watching: "..."
"This is the nth time that General Gloria has treated them like this?" A tea bear whispered to his companions.
"I don't remember." The companion shook his head, looking troubled, "It's so easy to be fooled every time. It's really... We actually had so many headaches for these guys in the past. It's really..."
After eating and drinking, they continued on their journey. The good-tempered tea bears consciously carried the coalition army's bags that they could carry. Those who felt a little weak carried the bags of the Winged Tribe which were lighter than the bags. The Fox Tribe, which was not very strong among the Orcs, could not do this, so they only carried the supplies they could, such as an iron pot, a tent, etc.
As for the lion tribe... except for the 100 warriors who were responsible for the safety of the large group, all the other lions were called together and used the method of drawing long and short branches to decide who would be the scout, who would carry the luggage, and who would be the one to fish in the water...
There is no other way. If we use other distribution methods, there will always be people who will not accept it and will rebel...
These "invaders" who had traveled thousands of miles and struggled for several days finally saw the vast plain covered with ice and snow.
They saw the grassland, and the snow werewolves who were squatting in the abandoned tiger tribe’s stronghold and watching the west side of the York Mountains also saw them.
"Here they come, finally here!" Xiaohua saw a group of people staggering down the mountain through the binoculars, and immediately greeted her companions in surprise. Soon, a large group of snow wolves ran out of this stronghold which had been slightly renovated by the tiger tribe a few years after being abandoned by the tiger tribe.
"It's the snow werewolves! It's the snow werewolves!" The lion tribe who were exploring the way saw the people running down the mountain with white wolf ears on their heads, and they were so excited that tears filled their eyes.
The "invaders" who had traveled arduously for more than a month, and the "prairie defenders" who had been waiting boredly at the foot of the York Mountains for almost two months, finally met in victory...
