Volume 5: If you are poor, you should be alone Chapter 154 Good Mentor and Helpful Friend · Ayun
The soldiers returned to their overnight shelter, and no one mentioned the matter of the snow leopard cat tribe.
I picked up three bobcats before entering the east, and then I picked up more than a dozen cats after entering the east. However, the ones I picked up later were not as lucky as the bobcats. They were abandoned because they were injured or dying. Their bodies were more or less disabled. There was even a cat with damaged abdominal organs that died before it could recover from its wounds.
After a quick dinner, Yu sat in front of the cave where the team was hiding and kept watch, his brows furrowed increasingly tight.
Ayun always said, "Born in sorrow, die in comfort", "Those who love war will perish, those who forget war will be in danger." It's not that Yu cannot understand these words, but he can only "understand" them to a certain extent. It was not until now that Yu realized the weight of these words, and...what kind of mood he was in when Ayun earnestly exhorted everyone these words.
If one had not seen it with one's own eyes, who could believe that the Tiger Tribe, as the masters of the grassland royal court, would actually be so cruel to the grassland people?
Yu knew very well that if it weren't for the disabled cat tribe, disabled gray dwarf, and Ayi who lost his tribe members and arms brought back last year, it would prove that Ayun's worries were not just fantasy. Ayun's proposed plans of formally organizing soldiers and full-time training might have to wait for some time to be realized...
This made Yu feel quite ashamed at the moment. Ayun had always regarded him as the warrior leader of the tribe, but he did not believe in Ayun and support Ayun without hesitation until he saw the threat of the tiger tribe with his own eyes. He followed the crowd and followed the path arranged by Ayun. Why was he so short-sighted before? Obviously, Ayun's guidance and teaching to him were always on par with Hongye!
"Maybe Hongye is more suitable to be the warrior leader. Compared with her, my vision... and mind are far behind her." Yu was a little discouraged. He had discovered that his attitude towards doing things was not as good as Hongye's. Although he had never expressed it, he understood that at least his trust and reliance on Ayun was not as pure as Hongye's.
"Maybe... after I found out that Ayun had intentionally or unintentionally seized the most powerful voice in the tribe, I unconsciously developed a resistance."
When people discover their mistakes and feel guilty, their mental defenses will unconsciously be removed. Yu analyzed himself in regret and easily discovered his true thoughts in the deepest part of his heart, which were hidden too secretly and even he himself had somewhat overlooked. This made Yu smile bitterly while he realized it in his heart.
"What am I thinking about? Ah Yun has repeatedly explained countless times that being too self-righteous will expose one to flaws, but it was all in vain... How arrogant must I be to think that I have the qualifications to question Ah Yun's approach - just as Ah Yun said, the less you know about a certain field, the more likely you are to be blindly confident!"
Only those who are close enough to the mountains can know how majestic the mountains are.
Yu was not one of the smartest people in the tribe, and the distance between him and Ayun was enough for him to slowly realize the gap between himself and Ayun. Apart from anything else, unlike Ayun, who was able to see the threat of the Tiger Tribe from clues a few years ago and make preparations for the future, Yu now knew that he absolutely could not do it - not only himself, but also the grassroots chief he trusted wholeheartedly could not do it.
The strongest warrior of the Snow Wolf Clan lowered his head and sighed softly, but the sigh was instantly blown away by the night wind like fragile green smoke.
Looking blankly at Yu in the void, his expression gradually became firm after experiencing emotions such as shame, regret, struggle, and relief one by one.
Even I, who was very close to Ayun, could only now truly understand Ayun's good intentions. I believe there will be people who misunderstand Ayun due to misunderstanding or ignorance in the future.
If that happens, I will definitely stand firmly on Ayun's side.
Yu nodded heavily, planting this determination deeply in his heart.
The Snow Wolf warrior team waited for several days in the Tiger Clan camp closest to the York Mountains. They finally found a "live" cat and learned that there were no traces of snow wolves in the camp. Then they packed up and rushed to the next camp.
After searching four camps, luck finally stood on the side of the Snow Wolf Tribe this time...
After learning the whereabouts of the members of Ayi's tribe, Yu, Xiaohua and others patiently surveyed the surrounding terrain before leaving in a hurry - this time, Yu was determined to persuade as many Snow Wolf tribes living in the east as possible to follow the migration!
The Tiger Tribe knew how many Snow Wolf tribes there were in the east, and the situation of these tribes was undoubtedly more dangerous than that of the tribes in the center.
"By uniting all the forces that can be united, we will surely be able to defeat the powerful enemy."
Gradually, Yu began to comprehend and understand the deeper meaning of Ayun's seemingly inexplicable actions.
He was a person who was good at thinking silently and figuring out things on his own. When he realized that the slogans shouted by Ayun in the tribe were not just slogans, this silent man burst out with unprecedented subjective initiative in a very short period of time.
When the green on the grassland gradually turned golden with the autumn, the Snow Wolf warriors opened up a safe passage, and tribes migrated from east to west in an endless stream...
The joint venture MSG factory was built in more than two months with the help of A Yue's second engineering team and started processing work immediately. The processing of sea rice noodle rolls requires little technical content, and the MSG obtained from hydrolyzed kelp is more troublesome and inefficient, but it still has a yield. In the following months, the processing scope of the MSG factory was expanded to include the production of glutamic acid by fermenting wheat bran, rice bran and soybeans. Of course, the last item was purely to make up the numbers, and the output was simply terrible... Xiao Yun was reluctant to waste high-sugar rice, so he just took what he could produce.
The MSG produced with great effort under the conditions of relatively backward processing technology is worthy of the Snow Wolf Clan's investment. Once it was released, it was immediately praised by old friend Ananas Forest Elves and a group of adventurers. In addition, this stuff can still provide freshness even if it is diluted three thousand times, so Xiao Yun shamelessly set its price at a sky-high price of one silver coin for ten grams and one gold coin for one kilogram. Before finding cheaper and better processing raw materials (such as beets, high-protein soybeans), this stuff cannot be sold in large quantities and is destined to only be sold in the mid-to-high-end market, so don't even think about using this stuff to gain fame.
Ten grams of gold can only buy two kilograms of MSG, which is absolutely unaffordable for the lower class. The privileged class or those who have mines at home will not take this price seriously at all. Xiao Yun advertised his own business through the mouths of food hunters in "Travels of the Continent", and orders from the dignitaries of the human kingdom, forest elves, and dark elves were sent to him through various channels...
The most interesting thing is that even the nobles of the Orc Empire asked the Lamia Chamber of Commerce to come and buy goods. The Lamia Chamber of Commerce asked the new city lord of Valentine for help. The new city lord contacted Countess Laura Philip, who had a close relationship with the Snow Wolf Tribe. Xiao Yun's little disciple took advantage of the opportunity to make some extra money...
On one hand, they are making a fortune by cooperating with the sea tribe in the MSG industry. On the other hand, the population of the tribe is also greatly expanding thanks to the hard work of the warriors. It can be said to be a double happiness.
Primo completed the task assigned by Xiao Yun when the first snow of winter came. When the legendary traveler came against the wind and snow to meet his old friend Sean and his mentor and friend Xiao Yun, before entering the tribe, he was shocked by the large construction sites and the large groups of snow wolves working in the snow.
"Primo?" The grassroots chief, who had just sent off the workers who had gone back to their hometown for the winter and had returned to the tribe a few days ago, saw an old acquaintance, dropped his hoe, and greeted him enthusiastically, "Finally you're here. I haven't seen you for several months."
"Grassroots!" Primo and the Grassroots Chief hugged each other tightly and looked curiously at the busy construction site. "What are you doing? Are you still busy in such heavy snow?"
"We are expanding our living area, and the original houses are not enough. Now more than 30 people are squeezed into one room. It's too uncomfortable!" The grassroots chief complained, but his face was full of smiles and his tone was joyful. "Many tribes came this year, more than Ayun expected. This is the first time I see Ayun having a headache because of too many people! Hahahaha!"
"Ayun also makes mistakes sometimes?" Primo laughed.
"Yes!" The Grassroots Chief smiled and led Primo to the tribe. He walked a few steps and then stopped. "Huoyan, don't delay the construction of the young men here. Let's go back together."
The Fire Clan leader, who was struggling to move rocks, refused to admit that he was a burden, so he just pretended not to hear...
Lan Guo held back his laughter and winked at the Grassroots Chief to indicate that he would watch over Huo Yan. Only then did the Grassroots Chief give up with a smile.
"That's... the Fire Clan leader?" Primo was a little dazed.
"That's right, the biggest patriarch in our tribe." The grassroots patriarch nodded.
"..." Primo walked and looked back, constantly looking at the snow wolf who was trying hard to move the stone, with a look of surprise and doubt that could not be concealed...
Entering the square, the legendary traveler who came to the Fire Tribe for the first time twitched his lips for a long time in silence: "...You call this a tribe? Are you serious?"
"This is our tribe. How can we not take it seriously?" The grassroots chief didn't understand.
"...Okay." Primo swallowed his complaints... Mainly because he wasn't close enough to the grassroots chief to complain about him. If it was Sean here, he would have complained a lot - the smaller cities in the Kingdom of Kronin were no match for this place!
Last winter, all races in the tribe together had less than two thousand people. This year, the Snow Wolf tribe alone has increased by several thousand, and the total population has reached more than six thousand. After the house that A Yue had worked so hard to expand was divided up, the living space was still tight. Xiao Yun, who had a lot of personal belongings and they were all quite important, had no choice but to move to the mobile home.
When the Grassroots Chief led Primo over, Xiao Yun had two Snow Wolf cubs, one big and one small, hanging on each of his legs. He was using a wooden mop to wipe the milk that the Qingcao cub had spit on the ground. Sean was lowering his head to sort out the pages of a book that had been torn by the naughty cubs.
Primo: "..." The wise man of the tribe dragged the children by himself, no wonder even the tribe leader had to do hard labor...
"Primo is here... Wait, take off your shoes, don't dirty the floor I just cleaned." Xiao Yun hung the mop outside the windowsill, pushed the rolled-up carpet away with one hand, and with the other hand picked up the wolf cub who had been holding his calf and biting it and held it in his arm.
"Are you leading the team again?" Cao Gen walked into the house and casually greeted Sean, then pulled Moss (the second-oldest snow wolf cub in the tribe) who was holding Ayun's other leg over and patted his butt.
"I'm going to play with Yangmao." Xiao Yun replied, and sat down with the wolf cub in his arms. Then he took a cushion and threw it across the table for Primo to sit on. "Thank you for your hard work, Primo. How was the trip?"
Before Primo spoke, he looked at the other people in the room. Sean was one of his own, the grassroots chief was needless to say, but as for the other two Snow Wolf cubs... they were not old enough to understand what was said, and one of them was not even in human form!
Primo didn't say a word and went straight to the point: "If nothing unexpected happens... the Tiger King is eligible to attend the Frank Feast in the Northern Continent this year."
"Oh?" Sean looked over in surprise, "Will the Beast King allow this?"
These two old guys are determined to board Xiao Yun's ship. On the one hand, they want to see Xiao Yun's powerful words and be invincible, and on the other hand, they want to see those high-ranking bosses in the Northern Continent of Bloomfield get humiliated. Not to mention that Xiao Yun frankly admitted and showed his affection for the human race with practical actions, the fact that the Snow Wolf Clan's rise will inevitably affect the interests of those big guys in the Northern Continent is enough for these two old guys to spend the rest of their lives to join in the fun.
Primo's efforts in the past six months have not been in vain. Upon hearing this, he just smiled mysteriously and turned to look at Xiao Yun to see how he would answer.
"Not only does the Beast King allow it, he may also be the Tiger King's most powerful supporter." Xiao Yun pondered for a moment and said with a smile.
Primo was stunned, and Sean's hands shook and he almost threw away the scattered pages he had just sorted out.
"There is a truth that has been said many times... Friends and enemies are not eternal, but interests are eternal." Xiao Yun said calmly, "Fifteen years ago, the Beast King borrowed troops from the grassland. The Tiger King was very unceremonious and took away sixty elite warriors of Mao Mao's level from our Snow Wolf Tribe. Since then, senior military generals of the Orc Empire have appeared in the grassland royal court from time to time. This is the information given to us by the Snow Elves."
"The snow elves think that the imperial military is using the tiger tribe to engage in internal strife and compete with the Beast King for power... but I don't think so. The exile of the tiger tribe, cat tribe, and snow wolf tribe was something the Beast King had done more than two hundred years ago. After so many years, the Beast King has been unable to intervene in the grassland due to interference from many parties. Can't he deal with the warlords under his command?" Xiao Yun said sarcastically, "Ordinary orcs don't live as long as the demigod-level Beast King. Even if there were Beast Kings who didn't get along with him in the early days, they would have been exhausted by their lifespans... Toppling a heavyweight in power is a problem, but being a stumbling block for the successor is not a big deal!"
This kind of political routine is too easy for Chinese people who have been learning about ideology and politics since childhood to see through. To make an inappropriate analogy, if Prince Fusu overturned the First Emperor's throne, he might indeed be constrained by powerful officials such as Zhao Gao and Li Si at the beginning; but after Fusu outlived Zhao Gao and Li Si, the descendants of these powerful officials would be able to be beaten by Fusu in any way he wanted...
"So, the tiger tribe is actually standing with the Beast King?" Sean obviously thought this was too unbelievable. "This is too... unreasonable. Didn't the snow elves notice it even though they were watching so closely?"
Xiao Yun chuckled: "It is indeed difficult for the Tiger Tribe to hide the truth from the Snow Elves, but how difficult is it for the Beast King to do the same thing?"
"Uh..." Sean choked.
"Ayun, since you already knew it, why did you let me sneak into the Orc Empire to investigate?" Now it was Primo's turn to be confused.
"How could I have known this long ago? I'm not omniscient." Xiao Yun shook his head and said self-deprecatingly, "To put it bluntly, our Snow Wolf Clan is just a weakling who has no right to participate in the power game in the Northern Continent. Anyone can come and step on us... In order to avoid being accidentally stepped on by some big shot, of course I have to try my best to calculate all the possibilities. You went to the Orc Empire to lurk for a few months, and when you came back, you didn't mention the possibility of the Orc Empire splitting up, but instead said that the Tiger Clan was going to be awesome. So, apart from the wrong answer, the remaining results, no matter how unbelievable, can only be the only conclusion."
"You accepted it faster than me." Primo couldn't help but praise. When he first found out about this, his worldview was shattered. But Ayun, the person involved, was calmer than him.
"Who says the laws of this world will not be changed by my personal will? Instead of being incompetent and furious, I might as well accept the reality." Xiao Yun sighed, "Since the Tiger King is so resourceful... I can only hope that he has greater ambitions and will not look down on this small grassland."
When the Grassroots leader An Jing heard this, his expression changed and he asked nervously: "Ayun, what do you mean by this?"
"The Tiger Tribe wants to break free from being treated as the pawns of the disgusting Beast King and is willing to surrender to the enemy. Naturally, what they want cannot be just to maintain the status quo." Xiao Yun explained, "The Prairie King Court is the ruler of the grassland in name, but we all know what the actual situation is. If the Tiger Tribe is not willing to be the ruler of the grassland in name only..." Xiao Yun paused and sighed, "Then I guess we can only learn from the Tiger King's approach and surrender to the enemy."
The three adults in the house were all stunned...
The Grassroots Chief was truly stunned, while Sean and Primo were shocked by Xiao Yun's shamelessness...
But after thinking about it carefully, Ayun's weird train of thought was actually very correct, without any flaws; with the experience and knowledge of the two old men Sean and Primo, they could understand that it was not practical for the Snow Wolf Clan to compete with the current Tiger Clan for the position of grassland overlord, so their expressions were particularly complicated...
Seeing that the two old men who had picked up the items for free understood what was going on, Xiao Yun did not explain.
There really is no easy explanation for this - with the big guys watching, what does it matter if two weaklings fight to see who wins? Or in other words, is there any chance of a fight to see who wins?
To give the easiest to understand analogy, if South Korea or North Korea has the power to crush the other side in one wave, then can the issue of the unification of the peninsula be solved by bombarding the enemy's homeland with missiles?
Don't be funny... If South Korea loses, the US won't allow it; if North Korea loses, China won't allow it...
The Snow Wolf Clan is even more embarrassed than the Koreans, they don’t have a father behind them…
Another not-so-appropriate analogy is that in some countries on Earth that are in civil strife, it is not up to the government forces or the rebels to decide which side has the upper hand...
So, if the Tiger Tribe is brought into the "Game of Thrones" by the Beast King and really wants to become the actual master of the grassland, then it is obviously the safest way to surrender their knees, uh, pay protection fees. The population of the Tiger Tribe is comparable to that of the Snow Wolf Tribe, so it will take them several years to fight the Minotaur and deal with the Cat Tribe. Although it is not very kind to say this, it can buy a few years of buffer time, and the Snow Wolf Tribe still has a chance...
"There are always more solutions than problems. Besides, this is just a possibility." The two grandfathers did not need to be explained. The grassroots chiefs needed to be appeased. Xiao Yun said patiently, "The Frank Feast has not yet begun. Everything is still unknown... If the Tiger King's ambition is more than this, or the Beast King does not allow the Tiger King to be 'too small in ambition', then the situation may be completely different from what I guessed before."
"What does this mean?" The grassroots chief was uneasy and asked quickly.
"Suppose, I'm just assuming! Let's try to think about it from the perspective of the Beast King. What benefits can he get from accepting the Tiger King's surrender?" Xiao Yun counted on his fingers to analyze for the grassroots chief. "Is it just for face? Pretending to be magnanimous? The Beast King is a hero of his generation. Judging from his style of doing things and his mind, he doesn't seem like such a boring person. Not only did he accept the Tiger King's surrender, he was also willing to bring the Tiger Clan back to the main arena of the Northern Continent's power game. The former is fine, but the latter involves a lot and is not a trivial matter. The Beast King must have a greater purpose in doing this."
Primo seemed to be thinking about something, but Sean understood it immediately - people of different levels have enemies of different levels. For the Beast King, there was undoubtedly only one thing that gave this demigod the most headache: there were three demigods crowded in the northern continent of Bloomfield.
There are two demigods on the continent of Bradrick, occupying the north and south respectively, and they are in perfect harmony; but there are three demigods on the continent of Bloomfield, and they are all relatively close to each other - the Elf King who has never been defeated since he became famous, the Dwarf King who is recognized as the most promising and youngest, and the Beast King himself.
Below the three demigods, there is also the Queen of the Forest Elf and the Dark Elf Matron... No matter from which angle you look at it, the power structure at the top of the Northern Continent is extremely crowded, and this is when the sleeping Lich King has no name...
Xiao Yun's expression turned grim. "If I were the Beast King, how would I make good use of the Tiger Tribe's 'defection'? No matter how destitute they are, the Tiger Tribe is still a powerful race with the best individual combat power among all the races in the Northern Continent. They have their own value. Wouldn't it be a waste to just support the Tiger Tribe as an agent to take over the 'Cursed Land' with a bad geographical location?"
The grassroots chief's scalp suddenly felt a little numb, and he instinctively felt that Ayun was now quite... dangerous.
Sean's expression changed slightly. He felt a little uneasy about Xiao Yun's next words. Primo was completely stunned. He couldn't follow Ayun's train of thought...
"Since we know with our knees that the Tiger King's surrender has nothing to do with loyalty and is just an exchange of interests, then it would be a shame not to make full use of the large group of Tiger warriors..." Xiao Yun said calmly, "If I were the Beast King, I would not hesitate to use the loyal and unreliable Tigers as cannon fodder to consume old opponents, or deploy them against the Elf King or the Dwarf King; no matter whether the Tigers will be exhausted in the process, the enemy will inevitably bleed, and the enemy's bleeding is a profit for me."
Sean: “…”
Primo: “…”
Grassroots Chief: “…”
"The conclusion is, if I were the King of Beasts, I would not let the tiger tribe get away with just bullying the weaklings on the grassland... Why are you looking at me like that? I said it was just a hypothesis! A hypothesis!"
Primo looked at Sean silently (could he do such a thing?), Sean hesitated and looked away (...), so Primo looked at Xiao Yun with a look of extreme fear.
Xiao Yun was unhappy: "If you have something to say, just say it directly instead of making eyes at me!"
"No, no." Sean waved his hands and swallowed his saliva. "You are not the beast (enemy) emperor (human), which is good."
