Chapter 742: The Second Clash Between Two Tribes

The eldest senior brother was worried about Han Cheng’s safety and wanted to accompany Han Cheng to scout the enemy personally, or even go in his place.

Han Cheng did not agree to let the eldest senior brother replace him. Things learned through others’ mouths were never as clear as what one could see with their own eyes.

There were many details he wanted to obtain, as well as some things he wanted to understand that couldn’t be gotten secondhand.

Han Cheng also didn’t agree to let the eldest senior brother accompany him.

After all, once he left, the eldest senior brother was the one who could best keep the team in order.

If both of them were absent from the team, trouble was bound to occur.

As for his safety, Han Cheng wasn’t overly worried, because people like Shang and Mao were all veterans at traveling in the wild. Having them along gave Han Cheng a strong sense of security.

Besides, he was only going to take a look at the terrain around the Half-Farming tribe, not getting too close.

After seeing Han Cheng and the others off, the eldest senior brother, worried about the safety of the Divine Child, vented some of his anxious unrest on two slaves from the Half-Farming tribe.

He didn’t let others do it; he found two ropes himself and tied their hands and feet tightly.

Still feeling it wasn’t enough, he found two hard fruits, stuffed one into each of their mouths, and tied them with hemp cloth.

Seeing the two terrified Half-Farming tribe captives, tied up like giant silkworms and staring at him in fear, the eldest senior brother immediately felt much calmer.

Binding these two wasn’t purely to vent his anxiety. There was a more important reason: they were now extremely close to the Half-Farming tribe territory, and it was necessary to prevent these two from suddenly turning traitor, slipping away unnoticed to warn the tribe.

With war approaching, many things had to be considered — not even the slightest carelessness was allowed…

The Half-Farming tribe appeared very quiet beneath the heavy snow, blending in with the surrounding mountains, trees, grass, and strange rocks.

The low, round grass huts looked even shorter and bulkier under the snow, almost merging with the snow on the ground.

From afar, they looked like giant mushrooms poking out of the earth after rain.

The only difference was that faint wisps of smoke were drifting out from these “mushrooms.”

This was the smoke from people inside lighting fires to keep warm.

Next to the house where the female priestess lived, the Half-Farming tribe chief sat by a fire, stretching out his hands and feet to warm them.

His stomach occasionally growled loudly.

He was very hungry, but all he could do was endure.

Because the food stored by the tribe this year was not plentiful, they needed to ration it — even he couldn’t overeat.

After all, it wasn’t hunting season in winter; getting a bit hungry wasn’t a big problem.

After a while, the very hungry chief suddenly thought of the mysterious Green Sparrow tribe.

That tribe wasn’t mighty, yet the female priestess forbade him from going over to investigate again.

If it were up to him, he would have led many people to attack that tribe, and his tribe wouldn’t just have precious pottery and delicious salt — their food supplies would have increased a lot too.

Why would they need to stay cooped up inside, starving like this?

The Half-Farming tribe chief, who had always considered the female priestess wise, now thought she was not wise at all on this matter.

Moreover, it was precisely because the female priestess didn’t listen to him before — allowing only six people to follow the submissive sheep tribe members to investigate the secrets of the sheep tribe and Green Sparrow tribe — that those six people still hadn’t returned.

If he had followed his plan, leading many people under the guidance of the sheep tribe’s submissives, they might have brought back a significant haul — and those six strong men would not have gone missing…

Thinking this, the chief poked a small stick into a burning coal to make it burn more fully.

It seemed that once the weather warmed and the snow melted, he would lead his tribe out on a trip.

To that mysterious Green Sparrow tribe.

This time, no matter what, he would no longer listen to the female priestess…

Holding the burning stick, the Half-Farming chief firmly thought to himself…

“One, two, three… twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-one.”

Just as the chief imagined ruthlessly conquering the mysterious Half-Farming tribe, the tribe was visited by some uninvited guests.

The very people he imagined dominating were cautiously spying on the outskirts of their tribe.

Han Cheng peeked out from behind a big bare tree, quietly counting the low and bulky houses in the quiet Half-Farming tribe settlement.

He counted a total of 31 such houses. If each housed eight people, the tribe numbered 248.

If ten people per house, more than 300.

Han Cheng even thought ten people per house might be an underestimate.

Just as you can’t imagine how many people can fit in a Wuling Hongguang minivan, primitive settlements could be densely packed in ways that were hard to guess.

No matter how you counted, the tribe had a considerable number of people, at least over 200.

After counting the houses, Han Cheng’s gaze searched the tribe further.

When he saw the makeshift donkey pen made from some logs, mud, and grass between several houses, Han Cheng couldn’t help but smile.

Due to the angle and distance, he couldn’t see how many donkeys were inside, but he roughly estimated at least 30.

That many donkeys were indeed something to be happy about.

After that, Han Cheng turned his gaze away and began observing the terrain around the Half-Farming tribe.

The tribe was built on the southern slope near the bottom of a large earth mound. The surrounding terrain was relatively gentle, but about 100 meters uphill, the slope grew steep, making it difficult to climb or cross in such heavy snow.

About a mile or two from the tribe was a winding stream, now covered in ice and snow. Across the stream, about 20–30 meters away, was a relatively high ridge.

Han Cheng, Shang, Mao, and others were right there.

With these two ridges present, when the tribe was attacked tomorrow, the escape routes would be severely limited.

Making a mental note of all this, Han Cheng already had a concrete plan for the upcoming battle…

As dusk settled, small snow huts appeared quietly in the little mountain hollow.

Inside the snow huts, fires burned warmly.

Those who were energetic before, after eating and drinking enough, and being in such a warm place, soon fell into a deep sleep.

But the eldest senior brother wasn’t sleepy. He often poked his head out of the snow hut to look far off, anxious because the Divine Child still hadn’t returned.

“Woof woof…”

A dog patrolling the outskirts barked, and the eldest senior brother’s heart tightened. He immediately picked up his weapon, body tense.

Then his body relaxed again.

Because he heard a familiar low voice scolding the dog, which immediately quieted down.

Soon, several figures appeared in the moonlight…

Inside the snow hut, Han Cheng tapped his feet on the stones by the fire while slowly sipping hot soup with both hands.

White steam rose from his fur socks and the soup bowl, drifting around inside the snow hut, creating a cozy atmosphere.

Han Cheng paid no attention to these but just kept drinking the hot soup.

After finishing most of the bowl, he finally felt much warmer.

Shang, Mao, and others who returned with him looked much the same.

After half a bowl, Han Cheng slowed his sipping and began telling the eldest senior brother and others about what he saw today.

After sending the full Shang to sleep, Han Cheng asked Mao to call over some tribal leaders and arrange some matters. After a busy period, things finally calmed down here.

This quiet lasted until the latter half of the night, when it was broken again. Some people quietly left the snow huts.

There were quite a few — about thirty or forty.

They stayed here for a moment, then quietly stepped onto the snow and left, heading toward the Half-Farming tribe…

The weather cleared, and the silver moon hung high in the night sky, casting a radiant glow.

The white snow reflected the silvery moonlight, illuminating the surroundings brightly.

Shang led a team to the place where they had been earlier that evening, glanced distantly at the blurry Half-Farming tribe, then led his people eastward.

The area where the Half-Farming tribe was located could be roughly called a small river valley, running roughly east-west.

To the east, about two miles from the tribe, a ridge running north-south extended from the ridge the tribe backed onto, stopping near the edge of a small creek.

This ridge caused the otherwise wide eastbound valley floor to narrow sharply here, leaving less than thirty meters between it and the east-west ridge to the south.

Here, Shang led some Green Sparrow tribe people who were busily working.

With shovels swinging, many pits soon appeared in the snow.

For the Green Sparrow tribe people, already skilled at digging, making pits in loose snow was very easy.

After digging, the pits were covered with branches and dry grass, then a net, covered with snow.

Setting traps like this was not difficult at all.

While some were doing this, others on the eastern side of the trap zone set up two nets in succession, three meters apart.

These nets were vertical, like nets set in a river.

They were also very long, completely blocking the 20–30 meter wide valley entrance.

Due to the thick snow, most of these nets were buried and hard to notice.

Time passed as they worked busily.

When the moon disappeared and dawn brightened the sky, Shang used a broom-like branch to sweep snow off the last trap a few times, erasing as many traces as possible.

After finishing, Shang and the others split into several groups, hiding on both sides of the traps.

While pulling out some food from their pockets and slowly nibbling to fill their hunger, they all watched the traps excitedly and expectantly. Some even touched the ropes they carried eagerly.

Shang’s gaze turned toward the snow huts, wondering if the Divine Child had gotten up yet…

Han Cheng and the others were, of course, already up. They had been awakened at dawn, and the assigned people had prepared food.

Some had not slept well the night before, but most had rested quite well.

Thinking that today they would attack the Half-Farming tribe, everyone was as excited as if they had been injected with adrenaline.

After eating quickly, the group headed toward the Half-Farming tribe…

They skirted the ridge in front of the tribe and arrived at the western side of the valley, about three miles from the tribe.

On Han Cheng’s orders, the group stopped to form ranks.

Eighty Green Sparrow tribe people with large shields, long halberds, and bows were in the center.

The 210 external tribe people were split evenly on both sides.

Some held bronze halberds temporarily lent by the Green Sparrow tribe; most still wielded their various weapons.

Notably, after traveling together this whole way, these people could maintain a simple formation now.

Though far from matching Green Sparrow tribe warriors, they were much better than before.

This was partly due to their admiration of the Green Sparrow warriors’ orderly ranks, and partly due to Han Cheng’s training.

“Forward!”

Han Cheng drew his simple bronze sword, pointed toward the Half-Farming tribe, and the group moved as ordered.

They did not beat the drum, wanting to get closer to the tribe first since the Half-Farming tribe still hadn’t noticed them…

Two slaves from the sheep tribe crawled out from an extremely low, almost snow-covered hut.

Though it was winter, as slaves, they couldn’t sleep late, as they had to feed the hateful livestock.

If they woke late, they’d be beaten by these cruel people.

After stretching, the two slaves turned to get some dry grass but suddenly froze, eyes bulging as if they’d pop out.

What had they seen?!

People!

So many people!

Like an open net, these people were stepping on the snow and gradually surrounding them in a half-circle.

These armed men were very close to the tribe, so close that the slaves could see frost on their hair and eyebrows.

What were all these people coming for?!

Shock and fear filled their hearts.

At that moment, a blood-red sun leapt up from the east, its light shining down.

It shone on the bronze halberds and the fluttering Green Sparrow flags, making them sparkle brilliantly!

They were Green Sparrow tribe people!

They came to attack the evil tribe!

The two dazed sheep tribe slaves’ eyes burst with an incredible light.

“Dong!”

Beneath the fluttering Green Sparrow banner, Han Cheng swung the drumstick down with great force, and a muffled thunder-like roar exploded!