Volume 4: How big is the heart, how vast is the earth Chapter 103 Qualifications for Survival (Part 3)
A ferocious beast lowered its head and glanced at the little mouse moving around it during a nap. Even if it was just a quick glance, it was enough to scare the tiny mouse into having a stress response.
What does it feel like to be in an absolutely weak and precarious situation?
Xiao Yun had never experienced this before. He had only learned about it in modern history and seen it in contemporary news.
Now... after traveling through time, Xiao Yun experienced it himself.
His hair stood on end and his skin was covered with goose bumps. These physiological reactions were out of control. However, emotionally, Xiao Yun's reason was still able to control the overall situation... This was not an unimaginable situation. It could even be said that it was expected and reasonable.
As the saying goes, even if you haven't eaten pork, you have seen pigs run. The Galaxy incident in the 1990s, the Taiwan Strait crisis, the Yugoslav Embassy incident, and the Wang Wei incident, which one of them was not a strong country riding on the head of a weak country to shit and urinate, and still complaining that you, a human toilet, are not clean enough?
If the younger brothers in the oil-producing regions hadn't been disobedient and hadn't been causing trouble, perhaps a proxy war would have already started in the Far East of the Asian continent...
Xiao Yun was a junior high school student at that time. His elder sister was using the computer at home. If he wanted to play games, he could only play Subor. Even so, he often heard his sister mention the possibility of war. Before 9/11, the shadow of war had never left the heads of the Chinese people. This was under the premise that the elders were pretending to be grandsons, even though some of the people were so angry that they pointed at their noses and scolded them.
Therefore, after Xiao Yun slowly figured out the situation around the grassland, he was mentally prepared. Between the strong and the weak, pity or destruction, support or suppression, the initiative has never been in the hands of the weak; all the weak can do is to prolong the peacetime as much as possible, seize every opportunity for development and progress, and strive to hold more bargaining chips before irreconcilable conflicts break out.
Otherwise, he ate too much and found ways to lick the elves... Is he cheap?
By tricking Carlisle into becoming his disciple, Xiao Yun was making a backup plan for him to take his people and flee to the southern continent in case it didn't work out. Keeping the people was the most important thing, and losing people and land was not the most unacceptable consequence. That's why he tried so hard to give Carlisle advice and help His Royal Highness win the hearts of the people and build a team... In a word, he was not so mean as to use his own interests to subsidize others, and his "master-disciple relationship" with Prince Carlisle was not so deep and pure that it was not involved in interests... What a joke! Prince Carlisle had been with him for less than two months! It's impossible for him to be attracted to a human male. It's all for the sake of finding a way out for the tribe!
Pinching his thigh to hold back the irrational thoughts that surged in his mind, Xiao Yun tried hard to think of a solution. The option of having fun and then dying would not appear in the options of the pragmatic people. He wanted his people to survive, and he had to do his best to gain development space for the tribe if he had a choice. This was countless times more important than the so-called face.
"The patrol team should not leave the tribe too far for the time being. I will not interfere with the patrol personnel in the future. You can arrange it by yourself, Maomao. Before confirming that similar crises will not occur again, soldiers like A Yan will stay in the engineering team to work." Xiao Yun let out a long breath and turned to look at Yu, "Maomao, what do you think?"
"So...what about transportation?"
"There's still a month or so left, so let's not think too far ahead." Xiao Yun frowned and thought for a moment, "Maomao, what do you think of this incident? You also think it's very strange that creatures from the demon world appeared in the grassland, right? So what do you think?"
Yu was silent for a long time this time, and Xiao Yun also waited patiently for a long time.
"Ayun, we only deal with the Minotaur and the Cat Tribe...other than that there are the human fleet and...the elves." Yu said with some difficulty, "I...I was wondering, have we offended the elves in some way?"
Xiao Yun looked at him with appreciation. Although he was a little indecisive, there was no problem with Yu's intelligence: "It is possible. Then which side of the elves do you think it is? Snow elves or forest elves?"
"The snow elves came more than three months ago, and the two warriors left just over ten days ago." Yu smiled bitterly.
"Yes... The snow elves are quick and decisive. If they really have some ideas about us, or want to test the strength of our warriors, they should have taken action long ago." Xiao Yun sighed, his eyes darkened, "The conclusion is as obvious as a black stone placed on a white stone. Only a blind man cannot see the truth..."
Yu wanted to speak but stopped. Xiao Yun waited for a long time but he still hesitated to speak. Xiao Yun simply spoke up himself: "Are you trying to say that it is not safe for the transport team to go to the Elf Wharf again?"
Yu nodded.
Xiao Yun smiled, but his smile was a little bleak. "That's what it says in theory, but... since the other party is 'willing' to hide from us, it means that the person who did it is still unwilling to put this matter on the table. Therefore, we can only pretend that we don't know. Even if we vaguely guess what's going on, we must pretend that we don't know. We should trade when we need to trade, and transport when we need to transport. We should live in peace on the surface until the day when we can no longer live like this."
Yu opened his mouth in shock and looked at Xiao Yun in disbelief.
"Maomao, the right to survive has always belonged to the strong, just like we eat wild boars, but not wild boars eat us, just like the dark elves enslaved goblins and gray dwarves, and the tiger tribe enslaved cats and centaurs... Don't wild boars want to survive? Don't goblins, gray dwarves, and centaurs want to be free? But the enemy is too strong, what can we do?"
Xiao Yun smiled again: "You feel angry and confused, and so do I. We never provoked the elves. Instead, we treated them well every time an elf came. Why would they attack us like this and hurt our people?"
"To put it bluntly, we, the Snow Wolf Clan, and the tribes on the grassland, have no ability to resist. No matter which elf tribe is on the other side, if they don't like us, they can just wave their hands and we'll get out. So it doesn't matter whether they provoke us or not. Our thoughts and feelings are not important to the elves."
"I - I don't want to accept it." Yu's face turned blood red, and his facial features were distorted as if he wanted to roar out loud to vent, but was desperately suppressing it.
"I don't want to either. We feel the same way." Xiao Yun said calmly, "If we don't want to be eaten and want to live freely, we can only try every possible way and seize every opportunity to become stronger. In four years, we have grown from a few dozen people to hundreds of people now. This is the process of becoming stronger. None of us wants to accept grievances, but in order to have more peaceful times to become stronger, we must accept grievances."
"Especially... us, Maomao." Xiao Yun looked directly into Yu's eyes and said earnestly, "People who have the ability to lead others have a greater responsibility and obligation to face anything that no one is willing to accept. We, you and me, as well as Hongye, the grassroots chief, and others, we are not qualified to be willful - especially when our tribe is still so weak."
Yu stared at Xiao Yun for a long time. The anger that had almost suffocated him gradually dissipated. His shoulders slumped, he bit his lip, and finally he could only lower his head.
Xiao Yun exhaled lightly and continued, "Now that we have passed this psychological threshold, let's examine this incident again... Maomao, you didn't smell any strangers at the scene, nor did you find any strangers. This means that the person who attacked you this time didn't want you to know who 'TA' was, and didn't intend to kill you all... If it's the latter, then the other party doesn't need to hide his whereabouts."
Yu nodded sullenly.
"Since they don't aim to kill our warriors, then what is their intention? In other words, what have we done to make the forest elves fear us? Compared to the harmonious period last year, what is the difference between our tribe and us?"
"Thinking about it this way, the only reason is that our tribe has gained more people, with the population skyrocketing from over a hundred to over seven hundred. After thinking about it, it seems that this is the only reason." Xiao Yun narrowed his eyes slightly. "When Sergeant Selina and others from the Snow Elves came to the tribe, I tried my best to convey to Sergeant Selina the wish of our grassland tribe to develop peacefully. Judging from Sergeant Selina's reaction at the time and the calm reaction of the Snow Elves later, this development route can win the approval of the Snow Elves. Even if they don't support it, they won't oppose it either."
"When Hailin and Kai came to visit, I also clearly expressed our grassland tribe's hope for peaceful development. Kai is fine, but we know Hailin quite well. I believe he should be able to convey our tribe's intentions to Ananas City... Then why did they still attract temptation? After thinking about it, the only problem is that Hailin and Kai, the two elf warriors, are not trusted by the upper elves in terms of their identities and status."
"Let's go back to the starting point. The other party's intention for this attack is just my guess for now. I don't have any solid evidence. Although we, the Snow Wolf Clan, are not aware of it, to outsiders, the existence of the lost 'inheritance' of the Snow Wolf Clan is a threat in itself."
Xiao Yun gritted his teeth a bit when he said this. He himself didn't really care about the so-called lost inheritance. In his opinion, only those who had nothing to do and were bored would be obsessed with the "lost"; so what if the Snow Wolf Clan's inheritance could cultivate the strongest army on the continent? Isn't the point that the inheritance has been lost? If he could get the lost thing back by talking about it every day, then he would definitely talk about it more devoutly than anyone else!
Not worrying about things that don't pay off is a common virtue among the Chinese and the Snow Wolf Tribe! Anyway, Xiao Yun had never heard anyone talk about this in the tribe, but he still knew about it from outsiders!
After thinking this through, it was not difficult for Xiao Yun to understand why a great magician of the forest elves would come and mess with their warriors. The sixty elite warriors of the Snow Wolf Clan who had no inheritance advanced all the way to the city of the Elf King Ice and Snow. They had now gathered hundreds of snow wolves to live together. If they still had the inheritance in their hands, could the forest elves living next door feel at ease?
Although Xiao Yun gathered not only the Snow Wolf Clan, but also the Cat Clan, Gray Dwarfs and Goblins, and also shouted the slogan of great unity of the grassland people, but can such a political slogan really fool the forest elves? Are all the longevity species stupid birds? Is it realistic?
Xiao Yun was grateful that the forest elves had a low standard for just sneaking in to test the situation and not thinking of capturing a few soldiers to torture them. If it were a human, they would definitely do such a thing. Apart from other things, there were not many martyrs who were arrested and tortured to death during the revolution. If others didn't know, how could the Chinese not know?
"Inheritance..." Yu couldn't help but smile bitterly, "When I was a cub, I heard the elders of the tribe mention that his father's father was very powerful, but that was a long time ago. So the forest elves suspect that we have found the inheritance? They want to harm us just for this?"
"Maomao, let's keep this matter to ourselves for now. I will also inform Hongye later." Xiao Yun sighed again, "The right to survive belongs to the strong. Before we are strong enough, all our patience is valuable... We didn't get the inheritance back, we are very weak. At this stage, showing weakness is our way of survival."
Yu's facial features were almost twisted together. He hugged his knees, looked down, and nodded uncomfortably in agreement.
"You don't have to be so upset. Again, why would the other party want to hide their tracks and sneak over to test us? Our grassland tribe is not even as big as an elf village, so why would such a powerful forest elf magician have to hide his head and show his tail?" Xiao Yun stretched out his arm and put his arm on Yu's shoulder. "Obviously, this test behavior is not public, or it is only public in a small range. It is not accepted by all Ananas elves. It is very likely that it is just the willful behavior of a few individuals. A large tribe of tens of thousands of people, an elf city of thousands of people, and we can't allow a few racist scoundrels who look down on other races to exist in it? There is a Leopard Xia in the cat tribe!"
Yu had listened to the previous words silently, but the last metaphor made Yu laugh and cry. He stared at Xiao Yun with an awkward expression.
"You don't have to look at me like that. When I assigned the cat tribe to you to partner with, I didn't give you Qingyan and Rosemary. I gave you Xia instead. Do you want it?"
Yu was confused: "Uh..."
"So that's it." Xiao Yun patted Yu's shoulder as if he was thinking the same thing as our heroes.
“…” Yu was speechless.
"Hey, why are you still here?" Hongye had been taking care of the wounded for a long time. When she came out of the activity room, she was shocked to see Xiao Yun and Yu squatting in the corner next to her.
"I asked Maomao about what happened today." Xiao Yun turned his head and said.
"Hmm..." Hongye showed a conflicted expression as if she wanted to say something but stopped herself. She looked at Yu and then at Xiao Yun.
"Come, come and sit down, and listen to our analysis." Xiao Yun waved.
Ten minutes later, Hongye, who was sitting next to the wall, showed an expression as if she had eaten shit. She looked reluctant, annoyed, and conflicted, but she couldn't say anything to question it.
Xiao Yun was talking until his mouth was dry. He fished out the water bottle from his waist bag, uncorked it, and gulped down half a bottle of boiled water. He burped and said, "This is the situation, and this is the only way to deal with it... Weakness is the original sin, and the weak are not qualified to talk about the right to survive or the qualification to survive. So even if we know what the situation is, we can't show it on the surface. We can't be angry, furious, or lose our temper. We have to swallow our anger and blood, and smile on our faces, and maintain the illusion of harmonious, friendly and equal trade between the two sides."
"Is it frustrating? Of course it is! I really want to find a way to interrogate Crest and the Elf Queen, asking them whether they take us seriously as a trading partner, and ask them to punish the bastard who hurt Ashu and Mumu——"
Xiao Yun paused and said self-deprecatingly: "But doing so is just asking for humiliation...To the point of asking others whether you are more important than someone else is to put yourself in a position where you are being priced, and to belittle yourself and embarrass yourself. What's more, we don't have the position or capital to do so."
Yu, who had been silent for a long time, moved and whispered, "This is really not good, Ayun... This feeling is so uncomfortable."
"Whoever doesn't feel uncomfortable is a bastard." Xiao Yun nodded, stood up and walked a few steps forward, throwing the water bottle out fiercely. The bottle drew a parabola and fell not far ahead. With the sound of shattering, glass fragments covered the ground.
Xiao Yun turned to look at the two warriors, his facial features twisted: "We need to become stronger, Maomao, Hongye, so strong that we don't have to worry about others trying to test us at will!"
"Yeah!" Hongye stood up and slapped Xiao Yun on the chest.
Yu also stood up and hugged Xiao Yun's shoulders and shook him.
Xiao Yun would not accuse the forest elves of hypocrisy, because hypocrisy is the unspoken rule that is tacitly accepted when adults interact with each other.
All people, no, all intelligent individuals, have three or more faces at the same time. Take for example the Thralls and goblins that Xiao Yun used as political slogans for propaganda shows. Do they really believe from the bottom of their hearts that all races living on the grassland should live in peace and everyone is equal? Not true.
The equality that Xiao Yun recognizes is only based on labor. As long as one has the labor and can contribute to the collective, there is equality in Xiao Yun's eyes. Ma Ma will not be arrogant and disobey the teachings and the collective. In Xiao Yun's eyes, there is only equality in slogans... For example, the marginalized cat tribe leader Leopard Xia.
Since he is a black pig himself, Xiao Yun naturally would not be so stupid as to bear a grudge against the forest elves for being bad people... He is not in WW which gives him enough peaceful space to engage in verbal political show. If he doesn't use his brain in this place, he will lose his life.
But this incident also alerted Xiao Yun. He knew very well that no matter how well you behaved, you could not prevent others from having ideas about you. However, he was confident that he could handle the snow elves, and that the forest elves, with whom he was already familiar, would not be a problem. If he had a clear mind and found a way to let Hailin and Kai bring people with higher status and say in Ananas City to "inspect", instead of boldly asking Hailin to "convey" him, then perhaps Ashu and Mumu would not have been seriously injured.
Let two ordinary warriors influence the thoughts of the Ananas elves' top leaders. Did Xiao Yun have his brain chewed by Balk or pinched by a door to be so wild? !
So Xiao Yun resisted the urge to vent his anger on Yu, because according to the cause of the incident, if he had the time to do something useless, he would have to vent his anger on himself first...
After calming down Yu and Hongye, Xiao Yun turned around and continued to focus on the progress of spring sowing in the tribe as if nothing had happened. However, in his heart, a seed called "ambition", or "ideal", was quietly being sown.
As a modern professional who is content with a small fortune, although he will work hard to climb up for money during work, he only makes money to make his life more comfortable and his wealth more free. Naturally, Xiao Yun is not a person with a special desire for adventure or a desire to play the game of hegemony. What's the point of living so hard! Life is for enjoyment, not for being hard on yourself!
When he was a regional manager, apart from necessary social engagements, he spent his free time comfortably at home browsing his phone, playing figurines and playing games. This attitude towards life that is worthy of himself is not as good as drinking like a dog every day!
After coming to a different world and becoming a grasslander, Xiao Yun's attitude towards life did not change much. He forced the furry creatures to work because there was nothing ready-made to enjoy in this broken place, and he had to lay the foundation for enjoyment first. The most obvious point was that he kept shouting about the great unity of the grassland people, the community of shared destiny of the grassland people, and the self-reliance and prosperity of the grassland people, but he never considered chasing the tiger tribe in the east and the forest elves in the west, beating the elf king above and the dark elf mistress below, so as to achieve the goal of becoming the king and dominating the world - wouldn't it be nice to pull the Snow Wolf tribe that had developed and was willing to come over from the southwestern border and start farming? Why did he have to be that Long Aotian? Is there anything wrong with that?
However, the cruel reality gave Xiao Yun a blow... His posture of kneeling and licking the forest elves was quite upright, and he even considered whether it would be profitable for the second-hand dealers when doing business. What was the result? I don't know which senior executive came to see if they had found the inheritance, and Ah Shu and Mu Mu had two more blood holes on their bodies.
The tribesman he cared about was not even as good as a rag in the eyes of others. Xiao Yun tried to comfort Yu and Hongye and put down their anger, but the anger in his heart was burning more and more fiercely.
Impotent rage is meaningless, but not without value. At this moment, the annoyance and unwillingness in his heart turned into nutrients for the growth of the seed that had just been planted deep in his heart.
The process of transforming from a pragmatic person who is content with wealth since childhood to an idealist will be painful and difficult. But for a man who has developed the habit of making hand-made figures since childhood, who has the patience to build an Orgrimmar model with Lego bricks, and who simultaneously plays Sword III and Path of Exile and still squeezes out time to fight on the front lines in Arad Wagrand, the three thousand roads before him all lead to Rome. It just depends on which road he takes!
Xiao Yun was confident about this - he had to take this path anyway, whether he had confidence or not. So instead of being in a constant state of panic, afraid that the sky would fall and crush him to death, it would be better to calm down and accumulate strength, and let the slowly growing strength become his confidence.
In four years, the tribe completed its first population leap. When the top leaders of Ananas City had doubts, they did not choose to go to their doorstep to slap them in the face. Instead, they took secret probing measures. This was at least a recognition , a recognition of the Snow Wolf Tribe's first step forward... If they did not turn against you in person, it at least showed that you still had value. If you did not even have this little value, Xiao Yun could directly gather his people and run away, and the entire tribe could go overseas to work as laborers to contribute to Prince Carlisle's revolutionary cause.
