Steel, gunpowder, and spellcasters

Chapter 348 The Hunt (Part 4)

[Dusk, a valley on the west bank of the River Styx]
After repeatedly confirming that no one was following him, Pierre asked hesitantly, "Are you sure this is the place?"

Winters halted his horse and looked around, trying to recall the retreat route after breaching Teldun's camp. But the desolate wilderness all looked pretty much the same, and he was somewhat uncertain.

If you can't figure it out, don't think about it. Winters laughed and said, "It should be this... Never mind, let's dig a few shovelfuls first!"

After a long journey, the Iron Peak County delegation has arrived deep in the wilderness—the heart of the Red River region—the confluence of rivers.

The group even camped outside Bianli City last night.

Returning to the old site inevitably evokes feelings of emotion in those who experienced the Battle of the Great Wilderness.

Vahika seized the opportunity to tell the new recruits about the Battle of Bianli with a mix of pride and regret, but he also lavishly praised Blood Wolf and, incidentally, himself.

Bianli, the palace of the White Lion and a symbol of the Red River tribe, has been rebuilt.

The eastern triangular fortress, which Winters himself blew up, has been repaired, leaving only the striking color difference between the old and new walls as a silent reminder of how brutal the siege was.

According to the little lion, the white lion spends half his time adjudicating affairs and receiving envoys in Bianli.

If his schedule hadn't been delayed, Winters should have met with the White Lion in Bianli.

However, the white lion was not in the city at the moment. The little lion asked and learned that the main tent had left Bianli three days ago for the hunting grounds.

Upon learning that the main tent had already been set up camp, the little lion was so anxious that he almost burst into tears. He then scolded Winters again: "The departure of the main tent means that the hunting grounds are about to be surrounded. If we don't hurry, we really won't make it!"

Winters fully expressed his understanding of the lion cub's anxiety.

The next day, he took a detour.

Winters wasn't deliberately teasing the little lion; he just wanted to check the location of the buried gold along the way.

In the evening, while the others were busy unloading the trucks and setting up camp, Winters, under the pretext of hunting, left the camp with only Pierre and Charles.

The three men went upstream, first finding the ruins of the bridgehead, then continuing their search along the route they had taken that night, eventually arriving at this seemingly "suspicious" place.
Reaching the bottom of the valley, Charles exclaimed in astonishment, "Such a large wasteland, even if you, Pierre, and I dug it all out by tomorrow, we still wouldn't be able to finish! Should I go back and call some more people?"

Winters dismounted and took a shovel from his saddlebag: "It's marked."

“Markings?” Charles was taken aback. “Didn’t Lieutenant Colonel Jessica say that leaving marks would lead to detection, so we shouldn’t leave any?”

Winters and Pierre locked eyes, and the latter shrugged.

Examining the entrances and exits of the valley, Winters roughly deduced the route the carriage had taken: "The markings on the ground might have given us away, so Captain Mason and I came up with a plan. After hiding the golden statue, we buried three more wooden stakes next to it... probably just half a foot below the soil."

So the three of them lined up in a row in a flat valley where a carriage could pass, and kept turning over the soil with shovels.

"I wonder how Hailan is doing now," Xia Er said, huffing and puffing. "I also wonder how Tiefeng County is doing now."

Winters casually asked, "How long have we been away from Iron Peak County?"

"About two and a half months?" Charles calculated for a while, then complained softly, "Brother, how much longer do we have to go?"

"Soon, we should be able to catch up with the White Lion in a few more days."

“Actually…actually, many people don’t understand,” Charles said hesitantly, “why did we travel all this way to participate in the Hed’s hunt?”

Winters thought for a moment, then instead of answering directly, asked the other person beside him, "What do you think, Pierre?"

Pierre, recovering from a serious illness, was already drenched in sweat after wielding a shovel for only a short while. He wiped his sweat and asked, "Would you like to hear the truth or a lie?"

"Where did you learn this?" Winters laughed in exasperation.

Pierre chuckled and answered frankly, "Last time we encountered the Red River Tribe, it was a life-or-death struggle, but this time we've become their honored guests. To be honest, I find it hard to accept."

Winters stopped what he was doing: "Do others think the same way?"

“Many of my comrades think this way,” Pierre said seriously. “Especially your subordinates who were just brought out from Jiangbei Province and did not experience the establishment of the Wolf Town Army, they don’t understand it at all.”

Winters gazed at the setting sun and fell silent.

Every member of the delegation was personally selected by Winters, and in a sense, they were Winters' most trusted and valued subordinates.

If the members of the mission all think this way, then the attitudes of others are even more obvious.

“Your Excellency,” Pierre broke the silence, “Although I don’t trust the Hed people, I trust you. I believe you have good reasons for choosing to make peace with the Red River tribe. I believe others think the same way. So you don’t need to worry.”

Winters sighed: "I should explain..."

“If you feel there’s no need to explain,” Pierre said emphatically, “then there’s no need to explain.”

After a moment's thought, Winters had made up his mind.

Winters let out a long breath and solemnly promised Pierre and Charles, "When the time is right, I will explain it to everyone in detail... Everyone has the right to know what they are fighting for."

Pierre wanted to say something more, but he swallowed it back. In the end, he only said one sentence: "You just need to give the order."

“Alright.” Winters’s lips curled into a slight smile. “I have an order to give right now.”

"What order?" Charles asked, puzzled.

"Keep turning the soil!"

Shovel after shovel, the three of them turned over the soil in the valley like a carpet until the bright moon hung high in the sky.

Just as Winters began to uncontrollably question his own memory, he heard Charles exclaim once again, "Here it is!"

Because Charles had mistaken stones for wooden stakes several times before, Winters and Pierre reacted indifferently: "Stones again?"

"No!" Charles cried out in a shrill voice, "Wood! It's a wooden stake!"

"let me see!"

This time there was no mistake; it was definitely a wooden stake.

Winters placed one foot on a stake and drew a circle with his stride as the radius and the stake as the center: "Flip it again! There must be two other stakes in the circle."

Encouraged by the good news, Charles and Pierre worked quickly and found the other two stakes in no time.

At this moment, Winters was finally able to confirm that he was standing not only on mud and rocks, but also on two tons of gold.

Charles shouted excitedly, "I'll go back and get someone right now!"

Pierre could not hide his joy.

Having found the gold, Winters' heartbeat actually calmed down.

“No!” Winters called out to Charles, and after a moment of contemplation, ordered, “Put the soil back in.”

Charles stared in astonishment, his eyes wide: "Why? We brought the crane here, wasn't it to dig out the golden statue?"

Pierre was also puzzled: "Most of the able-bodied men of the Red River tribe have gone to participate in the hunt. If we want to dig up the golden man unnoticed, there is no better time than now."

"You two," Winters chuckled, then scolded them helplessly, "all you think about is how to dig it out! Don't you ever think about how to bring it back?"

"Didn't we bring a furnace and bellows?" Charles replied matter-of-factly, "Dig it out! Melt it! Load it onto the trucks and haul it away!"

“If you melt it down, it’ll just be gold,” Winters explained with a smile. “Before I reach an agreement with the White Lion, the Golden Man is far more valuable than gold.”

……

……

[Wilderness, Hunting Grounds]
The three-month-long hunt is about to come to a grand conclusion, and even an observer like Winters can't help but feel excited and thrilled.

Tens of thousands of hunters who had scattered to the four corners of the earth have now gathered together again, and the sparsely populated wilderness has suddenly become noisy.

All the hunting teams were doing the same thing—driving their prey into the final hunting ground.

The closer to the end, the more difficult it becomes to drive away the beasts.

The hunting parties, which were originally scattered across the country, are now within each other's sight.

Whenever they spot other hunting parties nearby, the hunters of the Badlands tribe become extremely cautious.

The distance is just too close!

The hunter must move the prey without startling it.

Some hunting teams hunt cattle and sheep, while others hunt wild beasts; an encounter between them would be a disaster.

Panic among the prey can be contagious; if hunting parties get too close together, it can trigger a chain reaction of collapses.

Therefore, Koshhachi preferred to remain inactive rather than join other hunting teams.

Perhaps sensing the impending doom, the antelopes cried out and hesitated, unwilling to move forward.

The hunters of the Badlands tribe had to resort to more drastic measures. They mobilized all of them, pulling ropes to surround the prey from three sides, constantly shouting, banging metal objects, and even whipping the antelope herd to force them to move.

It wasn't until he witnessed the final act of the Red River tribe's hunt that Winters truly understood what the little lion had said beforehand—"The final hunting ground was set up from the very beginning."

The White Lion chose a highland called [Green Hill] as the final stage.

Standing on Qingqiu, looking out over the surrounding fields, all that can be seen is a vast, empty plain. Within a radius of dozens of miles, only Qingqiu stands alone.

On the hilltop, a magnificent palace tent with white lions and golden decorations fluttered in the wind.

The hunters proceeded cautiously toward Qingqiu until the golden canopy of the Chihe tribe's palace came into view, at which point they were finally able to stop.

The final leg of the hunt is complete!

The hunters drove stakes into their positions, strung ropes between the stakes, and hung felt and feathers on the ropes.

Wooden stakes, ropes, and felt formed a wall, preventing wild animals from escaping; feathers fluttered in the wind, frightening the animals away.

The felt walls erected by hundreds of hunting teams are connected to each other.

Finally, a giant hunting circle with Qingqiu as its center and a radius of about an inch rose from the wilderness.

[Note: One eye's distance is approximately five kilometers, which is the farthest distance the human eye can see.]
From the River Styx in the east to the Aral Sea in the west, from the Jin River in the south to Yin Mountain in the north, wild beasts are driven into the final hunting ground from all eight directions in the west.

The density of wild animals in the hunting grounds has reached an unimaginable level; the cries of herbivores are incessant, and the roars of carnivores rise and fall.

Just as the shaman Hed sang: "Hunting the cunning beasts, I lead the way for the Khan; let the wild beasts of the wilderness, thigh to thigh; let the wild beasts of the cliffs, belly to belly." "Look!" Winters pointed to Qingqiu, his eyes gleaming: "The stage is set, now we'll see if the performance is spectacular enough!"

Anna smiled and asked, "Then... who is the actor?"

“Anyway, it’s not me.” Winters laughed heartily. “I’m just here to be a spectator.”

Those who accompanied Winters on his mission to the Red River tribe were also greatly impressed. Even old Sergei, who had the utmost contempt for the barbarians of Hed, was now deeply shocked.

"Good heavens!" Old Sergei exclaimed in surprise, his face turning fierce. "What extraordinary figure has emerged from those barbarians this time?! Why are they making such a big fuss?!"

Witnessing the Chihe tribe's grand final hunt, the older generation was shocked, while the younger generation inexplicably felt a sour sense of humiliation—but it's not entirely their fault, as competitiveness is in the nature of young people.

"So what if we have a big formation? We almost got hacked to pieces by the blood wolves, didn't we?" Vasika was at the age where he loved to talk back to me. He immediately raised a big flag and deliberately shouted loudly, "Centurion, when we get back to Iron Peak County, let's have a hunt! A bigger one!"

Upon hearing this, a chorus of voices of agreement rang out from within the delegation.

Old Sergei instinctively wanted to give his son a good scolding. However, Vasya's banner was too high, and the old man swallowed back the curses he was about to utter, only giving his son a fierce glare.

Winters looked around at his men and saw many of them nodding vigorously, their faces showing eagerness to try.

“Okay,” Winters said to Vahika. “You’ll be in charge of chasing away the wild animals.”

"Alright!" Vashika, oblivious to the trap in those words, stood tall and beamed with pride, as if he had been honored.

Pierre sighed softly.

"Don't you dislike hunting?" Anna asked softly.

“Yes, that’s right.” Winters smiled and whispered in his ear, “I was lying to him.”

The Badlands tribe was among the last to arrive at the hunting grounds. By the time they could see Qingqiu, the hunting enclosure was already completed.

Therefore, Koshhachi only needed to temporarily open a gap in the felt wall so that his men could drive the prey into the hunting area, which saved him some effort in building the felt wall.

Winters could clearly see that the Badlands hunters' tense faces relaxed the moment the prey entered the enclosure.

"So all you have to do now is wait for the hunt to officially begin?" Winters asked Koshhachi with a smile.

“No.” Koshhachi shook his head: “We must guard the felt wall and prevent the prey from breaking out of the enclosure.”

However, the burly Hedman finally revealed a relieved, weary smile: "But the harvest is not far away."

A magnificent chestnut horse galloped towards them, and the lion cub on its back shouted excitedly from afar, "Montagne! You've finally caught up!"

Three days ago, the little lion, angered by Winters's deliberate detour, angrily headed towards the hunting grounds on his own. The two have now been reunited after a short separation.

“Goodbye.” Winters looked at Koshhach and extended his hand.

Koshhachi paused for a moment, then extended his hand as well.

The two looked at each other, clasped hands, and then released them.

……

“If anyone asks, just say you’re a caravan from Palatul.” The little lion led the way, constantly turning back to explain, “It’s not that the Red River tribe can’t protect you… it’s just that there are too many miscellaneous tribes, and we’re afraid some might have ill intentions…”

The final "shooting" of the hunt involved not only hunters from various tribes, but also ordinary members of the Chihe tribe, as well as leaders and envoys from other tribes.

The hunting grounds were surrounded by Hed's yurts, making Winters and his companions feel quite out of place.

So the white lion and the cub specially prepared a separate camp for Winters.

"...Also, it's best not to let your people wander around freely." The little lion instructed somewhat embarrassedly, "You can tell me what you need, and the Red River Tribe will provide it to you as much as possible."

“Don’t feel sorry, safety comes first, the Red River tribe has made more than enough arrangements.” Winters patted the little lion on the shoulder: “However… we will have to fetch the water ourselves, so we will inevitably have to go in and out of the camp a few times.”

The little lion smiled and said, "My brother specifically instructed me to arrange a campsite for you near a water source. Look, it's just ahead."

Looking in the direction indicated by the little lion: twelve small felt tents clustered around one large felt tent, a total of thirteen felt tents neatly situated on a small earthen slope near a stream.

Even by Winters' standards, the location of this campsite has no obvious flaws. It is close to the stream for easy access to water, and its elevated position prevents outsiders from spying on it.

As for the terrain not being dangerous enough... Qingqiu is surrounded by plains, so there is no natural defense.

Moreover, Winters and his party were surrounded by tens of thousands of Heds; if something really went wrong, no amount of "danger" would be of any use.

Gazing at the thirteen felt tents, Winters' heart skipped a beat. He pulled the little lion closer: "Um..."

The little lion, puzzled, asked, "What? What do you want to ask?"

Winters remained silent for a long time, then finally shook his head and said with a smile, "It's nothing... When can I see the White Lion?"

“Now is fine.” The little lion shrugged. “But don’t you need to rest first?”

“No need.” Winters took a deep breath. “The sooner we see the White Lion, the better.”

……

[The camp of the Iron Peak County delegation]
Since the host, Zhou Daodi, has provided accommodations, there's no need for the guests to pitch tents. After all, thick, spacious felt tents are much more comfortable than marching tents.

While the others were unloading the vehicles and starting fires, Anna curiously walked into the largest felt tent in the center of the camp.

The floor of the felt tent was covered with soft suede, and gauze curtains divided the spacious interior into left, center, and right sections.

In the center of the tent was a half-person-high iron stove with a stew pot on it, from which came the soft crackling of burning firewood.

Because of this radiating heat iron stove, the inside and outside of the felt tent were like two different worlds.

Outside is a desolate wilderness in the dead of winter with howling winds, while inside is a warm and cozy paradise.

Anna touched the fur spread on the ground, then quickly took off her heavy boots and carefully walked onto it barefoot.

The soft touch from her toes made her unconsciously exhale softly.

The stew pot was bubbling away. Anna carefully lifted the lid, and the aroma of mutton rose with the steam, spreading all around.

Anna instinctively stepped back and turned her head due to the intense heat and steam hitting her face.

The next moment, Anna could hardly believe her eyes.

Because she saw a bathtub.

A wooden bathtub large enough to accommodate an adult.

Anna took a deep breath, exhaled, and inhaled again. After calming herself down, she walked towards the bathtub while praying.

It was as if the gods had heard her prayers—the bathtub had already been thoughtfully filled with water.

Anna reached out and touched the water—and it was warm.

An unprecedented sense of happiness overwhelmed Anna, and she could hardly control her urge to cheer and jump for joy.

Anna carefully scooped up a handful of warm water, sat there for a moment, and then, for some reason, suddenly began to sob softly.

But she quickly stopped sobbing, wiped away her tears, and returned to her usual self.

She sat by the bathtub, propping her cheeks up with her hands, gazing at the water as if pondering how to best use the precious warm water.

After thinking for a moment, Anna shook her head, her cheeks slightly flushed. She checked the water temperature one last time, stood up, and prepared to see what else was prepared on the other side of the tent.

As Anna was leaving, she inadvertently noticed a set of clothes neatly arranged on the square table next to the bathtub.

Anna picked up the clothes—a brand new hunting outfit.

……

[In the center of Qingqiu, the palace and tent complex of the Chihe tribe]
Standing far away, all one can see on Qingqiu is a magnificent golden palace tent.

The palace tent was not actually a single structure, but rather a temporary complex consisting of more than ten felt tents of varying sizes.

Accompanied by a lion cub, Winters entered the palace complex of the Red River tribe without being questioned.

The people of the Chihe tribe were making final preparations for tomorrow's hunt, checking horses, testing bows, sharpening arrows... Armored warriors with various feathers were running around, and servants were constantly running out of one felt tent and then disappearing into another.

Winters watched with great interest as the Red River tribe bustled about, following the little lion toward the most magnificent and largest palace tent.

Suddenly, Winters stopped in his tracks without any warning.

He turned to look behind him, but there was nothing there; he looked around again, but there was still nothing there.

He walked on.

Inside an inconspicuous felt tent ten paces away, Erlun's heart was pounding in his chest.

The old woman beside Erlun asked in a hoarse voice, "[Herd] is he?"

The old woman was so old that her age was impossible to discern; she had almost lost all her teeth, and the wrinkles on her face resembled deep ravines eroded by the wind. Her hair and clothes were adorned with all sorts of animal skeletons, including birds and beasts.

What is most chilling is the old woman's eye sockets—what was originally there has been gouged out, leaving two empty, dark, bottomless abysses.

“[Hede] It’s him.” Erlun embraced the old woman, sobbing bitterly, “[Hede] What should I do? Old mother…”

The old woman also hugged Erlun, gently patting Erlun's back with her withered hands.

With the old woman's comforting words, Erlun gradually stopped crying.

Through the thick felt tent, the old woman stared intently at Winters's back.

Her eyes were completely empty, but she struggled to straighten her back, panting heavily, and stared intently at Winters until he was out of sight.

“[Herd’s words] I once saw the future of the White Lion through the mist, and because of that future, I returned the name of the White Lion to the White Lion.” The old woman murmured in a hoarse voice, “[Herd’s words] But I can’t see the future of that man, I can’t see anything… I can only smell the flames, the blood, and the tears… They’re all on him…”

On the other side, the little lion lifted the gold and silver decorated curtain, and Winters stepped into the palace tent of the Red River tribe.

The white lion stood up and nodded in greeting.

[Repayment (false)!!!]
[The information about the Red River tribe's hunting expeditions is not my fabrication or "original creation," but rather based on the content related to hunting, encirclement, and winter hunting in "The History of the World Conquerors."]
[...They spent one or two months, or three months, establishing a hunting circle, slowly and gradually driving the wild animals ahead, cautiously lest one escape...During these two or three months, they drove the animals day and night as if herding a flock of sheep, then sent messengers to the Khan, reporting the prey's numbers, their location, and the source of the disturbance, etc. Finally, when the hunting circle shrank to only two or three palisades in diameter (11-17 kilometers), they tied the ropes together and covered it with felt; the army stopped around the circle, standing shoulder to shoulder...]
[Yelü Chucai's "Accompanying the Emperor on a Winter Hunt" can also provide some reference: "The Emperor's winter hunt is like a military campaign, with a single wave of the white banner forming a long encirclement. The long encirclement stretches for thousands of miles, causing hibernating dragons to tremble and mountain gods to tremble. The long encirclement is arranged like a circular formation, with clouds gathering for thousands of miles and advancing like fish in a line. Thousands of wild horses mingle with mountain goats, and red bears, white deer, and blue roe deer run about.]

A valiant warrior bends his bow to slay a wondrous beast, and drives away tigers and leopards to chase away greedy wolves. Only the weary traveler in the Imperial Secretariat lowers his felt curtain and recites the Book of Changes.
[Besides winter hunting, there is also spring falconry. For nomadic tribes, hunting is both a productive activity and a military exercise.]
[Thank you to all the readers for your collections, reading, subscriptions, recommendations, monthly tickets, rewards, and comments. Thank you everyone!]
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(End of this chapter)