Volume 8: The Sword Points to the Far East Chapter 263 Flood (Part 3)
Before Dana and the others could react, the snow wolf enthusiastically led them to the crowd that was busy moving supplies, and waved to everyone happily: "Don't worry about not being able to move all the supplies, our friends the snow elves from the grasslands are here to help too~!"
When the snow elves heard this, they felt something was wrong and turned to look at the snow werewolf.
This snow werewolf, whose face and body were covered in mud and stains and whose original appearance could not be , actually had the nerve to smile at them warmly.
This group of grassland people, who were busy moving supplies from other places and piling them at the foot of the mountain, and then moving them up the mountain like ants moving a mountain, were mainly cats, both big and small cats. At a glance, there were at least hundreds or even thousands of them.
There were snow wolves as well, but not many, including the one who was noisily greeting them, there were only four or five of them at most.
"That's great, thank you for coming to help." An older snow leopard was cleaning up cargo that had accidentally rolled off during transportation with several big cats, and looked over with gratitude when he heard this.
The other big cats were also very happy. Their tired faces looked over from all directions, revealing rows of clean teeth.
Dana & the Snow Elf Warriors: "..."
You can't refuse, right?
At this time, the snow werewolf who shamelessly expanded the snow elves' circle of friends had run back to a tractor that was dismantled to the point where only the front of the car was left. He squatted down, raised one side, and looked at the snow elves expectantly.
Except for the shameless dark elves, the other elves still have some dignity. The snow elves had no choice but to quietly take off their armor and bags and go forward to help...
As the "fighting race among the elves", the snow elves who run up and down the Samal Snow Mountain all year round have unparalleled strength and endurance. With the addition of this team, the heavy objects that were originally difficult to move by just a few snow wolves were moved to the high ground on the hillside before dark.
With great difficulty, they moved all the farm machinery, the most important property of the cat farm, up the mountain. The important parts were covered with waterproof tarpaulin and piled into a makeshift shed. Almost all the snow wolves and snow elves lay down in an instant - Dana and others had been traveling for several days in the wind and rain, and the snow wolves who had been busy during this time had a hard time too.
The rain was still falling, but it was much lighter than during the day. Lying on the cold muddy ground, rain and mud all over her body, her clothes all wet and sticking to her skin, she felt very uncomfortable. Dana took a breath and struggled to sit up, taking off her short-sleeved shirt that weighed several kilograms without caring about her image, leaving only the cotton strip tied around her chest.
The other snow elf warriors took off everything they could. Although the snow elves were more accustomed to low temperature environments, they could not stand wearing wet clothes and being exposed to the rain and cold wind.
The Snow Werewolves are more unrestrained, both men and women are left with only a pair of shorts...
Dana was so tired that her head was dizzy that she panted for a long time before she slowly remembered: They were clearly here to inform the Snow Wolf Tribe to move, how did they become laborers for the Cat Tribe? !
The snow elf lieutenant's mouth twitched, and he looked unfriendly at the snow werewolf who dragged them to help without saying a word.
But... before Lieutenant Dana could make a move, she saw a group of small cats running up, supporting each other and carefully carrying a basket covered with oilcloth.
"Everyone has worked hard, let's eat something!"
These small cats included lynxes, black-footed cats, and cheetahs. They were all soaked, but the baskets they were carrying were well protected. A black-footed cat, only as tall as Dana's waist, squatted down next to the snow elf, opened the oilcloth cover, and carefully took out a cylindrical pottery jar with a lid with his paws, and carefully handed it to Dana.
There was a faint sense of hot steam coming out from the edge of the lid, and a slight fragrance went straight into one's nose.
Dana suppressed her anger for the moment, took the jar, and felt the warmth in her hand.
After lifting the lid, I could vaguely see in the light that was not yet completely dark... This was a small pot of very fragrant pork bone soup. The oily, milky white soup was filled with strips of shredded meat and noodles, as well as some bean sprouts and green vegetable leaves.
Dana, who was already starving, was in no mood to be polite. She finished a can of shredded pork noodle soup weighing at least two kilograms in no time, without leaving a drop of soup or a single shred of vegetable.
"Have some more dessert to replenish your strength." The black-footed cat was carrying a basket containing two small jars with lids. Seeing that the snow elves were very supportive of the shredded pork noodle soup, he happily took out the smaller jars and distributed them.
When doing heavy physical work, the things you need to replenish besides water, salt and sugar are: it has always been the rule of the Fire Tribe that people who do heavy work have snacks. This rule has also been passed on to the cat tribe and is well preserved... Cats don't like condensed milk that is too sweet (some cats, like humans, are lactose intolerant), and they welcome snacks with moderate sweetness.
The dessert prepared for the snow elves is potato starch cooked with soy milk and goat's milk, wheat starch and fruit-flavored sago, with a spoonful of goat's milk cream on top.
The snow elves have tough personalities and have no resistance to desserts. The sweet and sour sauces and dairy desserts produced by the Fire Department are sold to the forest elves and them. After taking a mouthful of the milky and sweet soy milk and fruit-flavored sago, Dana's anger at being "fooled" was instantly calmed down.
There was not much time to make snacks during this busy time. The only ones who could get snacks were the snow wolves and snow elves who were carrying heavy objects, while the big cats got no share. The snow elves ate snacks happily, while the big cats who had just finished their noodle soup could only look on with envy.
The snow elves felt a little vain and a little embarrassed...
After replenishing her nutrition, Dana touched her warmed stomach and felt that there was no need to worry about the little tricks of the snow wolf man...
At this moment, the Snow Wolf Man who had dragged the Snow Elf to do hard labor with just two sentences jumped up. His face was covered with mud and water from the rain, and his hair was all stuck to his scalp and forehead. He looked a little funny, but what he said was not funny at all: "Let's work harder and move all the food in one go while we have the Snow Elf to help us!"
The big cats all tried their best to respond.
The kittens, who could only do logistics and carry light objects, responded and looked at the snow elves with gratitude.
Dana & the Snow Elf Warriors: "..."
If you don't help till the end, it won't end, right?
Dana and the others rushed into the Cat Farm No. 1.
When the site was selected for the cat farm, taking into account that the big cats were not as physically strong as the snow wolves, they picked a low-lying area that would save effort in water irrigation and where water could be brought in by simply digging a canal. This was an advantage in normal times, but it was bad luck when there was a flood, as Farm No. 1 became a swamp before the tributaries overflowed.
What's even worse is that there is no nearby high ground, so all personnel, food and supplies must be moved out and transferred to a hillside two kilometers away from the farm.
More than 3,000 of the tribe's strongest snow wolves were sent to repair the Grand Canal. The Fire Tribe had to mobilize the dwarves and goblins from the new hilly area to rescue farms and relocate factories. Dahe had no choice but to mobilize the cats from Farm No. 2 and Farm No. 3, and arranged 300 big cats to help. First, a large number of simple sheds were built on the mountain, and then the food and supplies were rescued and transported to higher places as much as possible. (Farm No. 2 and Farm No. 3 were also affected to varying degrees, but they were not the first to bear the brunt of the disaster like Farm No. 1.)
Dahe, who usually looks quite pleasing to the eye, looked completely different after only five or six days of being out of the mountains. His disheveled appearance made it hard to tell the Snow Wolf's high appearance even when they were face to face... at least the snow elves, who were being forced to help by Dahe, couldn't see it.
The grain packed in sacks soaked with rainwater and mud weighs at least two or three hundred kilograms. This weight is nothing for big cats, and the snow elves can certainly carry it. But if you carry such a heavy weight of grain up and down the mountain for at least dozens of times, and the pile of grain bags at the foot of the mountain is still not reduced, it will definitely be a frustrating thing.
"Where on earth did all this food come from?!" Dana once again dragged her tired body to the foot of the mountain. At a glance, she saw that there were still people carrying bags and piling them on the "mountain of food" waiting to be moved. Dana was shaking all over... half from tiredness, and half from anger.
"Mainly sweet potatoes and potatoes. The soybeans and wheat have been moved out some time ago." Chief Arthur, who was so exhausted that he could no longer stand up, sat beside the woman with weak hands and feet, gasping for breath, and barely mustered up the energy to respond to Dana.
"How many fields have you cats cultivated?!" Dana was too embarrassed to criticize the obviously older snow leopard and tried to control her anger.
"It's only about a few hundred thousand acres." Patriarch Arthur sighed.
Dana: “…”
You call this what it is?!
"Originally, the sweet potatoes and potatoes we harvested in the summer were supposed to be sent to the flour mill, but the flood came before we could deliver them... Now we can't send them even if we want to. The flour mill is close to the swamp and is also within the disaster area. We don't even have time to move the machines..." Chief Arthur said worriedly, "If we leave them in the water, all the hard work of everyone in the first half of the year will be wasted... Oh..."
You know, Farm No. 1 had just incorporated eight tribes from the central region, and was just in need of showing them the benefits of farming when this happened. Chief Arthur must have been very upset.
When Dana heard about the vermicelli factory, she remembered that the 300,000 kilograms of vermicelli purchased from the Fire Department every year by her own Ice and Snow King City were made of sweet potatoes...
The snow elves did not see the sinister intention of a certain demon cub to secretly affect other people's self-sufficiency rate in staple food. They were just used to not relying on other tribes for certain materials. The vermicelli imported from the Fire Tribe was only used as a supplementary food to change the taste, not as a staple food. They did not buy it in millions or tens of millions like the forest elves.
But vermicelli is in line with the snow elves' taste anyway , so Dana would occasionally make soup with a few ounces of vermicelli (potato flour)... Dana is willing to buy vermicelli that has a smooth and chewy texture.
"...Well, considering that the vermicelli sold to us by the grassland people is really cheap..." The snow elf lieutenant sighed in despair, walked forward resignedly, bent down, stretched out his arms, picked up a bag of sweet potatoes and threw it over his shoulders.
The flood was fierce. Although von Aldoni and the goblin Luke discovered the water level crisis in the upper reaches of the Earth River in time, they were still too rushed; especially the No. 1 Cat Farm, which was the hardest hit. It took only four or five days from the time Aldoni sent back the news to the time the entire farm became a swamp.
In such an emergency situation, all the grass that had not been harvested in time had to be abandoned, and the fields that had just been sown could not be taken care of at all. After temporarily selecting a few hillsides for refuge and building sheds to shelter from the rain, they quickly evacuated the old and young members, and dismantled and transported the most important farm machinery and food.
It was also thanks to the fact that after the No. 1 Cat Farm tasted the sweetness of planting, each tribe sold their own cattle and sheep to the Fire and Flame Tribe (it was more cost-effective to buy pork and rabbit meat from the Fire and Flame Tribe than to raise cattle and sheep to produce meat), otherwise it would not have been possible to move so smoothly...
On the eighth day after Aldoni returned to the tribe to issue an early warning, which was also the day after Dana and others were caught by the river as laborers and helped carry things at the cat farm, the water flowing to the southwest officially overflowed; the flood, carrying with it countless grass leaves, broken trees, animal carcasses, stones and mud, swept towards the land that the big cats had worked so hard to cultivate for three years.
The big cats, who had been moving their belongings for a whole day and night, were too tired to even sit still. They witnessed with their own eyes the sweeping flood that submerged the ground at the foot of the mountain in the blink of an eye and watched the familiar land turn into water. All their sleepiness and fatigue disappeared, and they shivered and trembled, feeling cold from the soles of their feet to the top of their heads.
Chief Arthur stared blankly in the direction of the farm. The farm was naturally invisible from such a distance. Even the vast fields that he could vaguely see before were now covered by muddy floods. His nose felt sore and he almost cried. But then he remembered that he was the person in charge of the farm and the backbone of the cat clan, so he sniffed and forced himself to hold back the tears.
Chief Arthur could hold it in. Chief Sunny Day, who was rare in not slacking off during the transfer of supplies and food and was as diligent as everyone else, couldn't hold it in.
This old fox in cat's skin, who had always been shrewdly calculating his own selfish interests when facing Xiao Yun, saw with his own eyes the farm he had run for three years disappear in the flood. He lost control of his emotions, squatted down, and cried with his head in his hands, crying like a howl.
Chief Sunny Sky’s crying was so unpleasant to hear… The big cats with tears in their eyes looked at him silently but held back their tears.
The rain was still falling, and even heavier than yesterday, but the sound of the rain was no match for the howling and roaring waves. The flood peak rushing down from upstream instantly covered the nearby woods and destroyed trees that were as thick as a man's embrace. The waves hit the mountainside, and the white corpses of wild animals were vaguely visible among the high waves.
After noticing that there was more and more water under his feet and a lot of debris mixed in, Dahe, who had completely turned into a mud man, immediately stopped Damao who was trying to return to the farm to rescue his personal belongings, gave up the remaining tens of thousands of pounds of sweet potatoes, and called everyone to squat on several higher hills. At this moment, seeing the flood that Ayun had described many times and that he had also seen with his own eyes when he was younger, Dahe, who was standing halfway up the mountain, felt his legs go weak and he sat down on the ground.
"It's finally here--" Dahe, who hadn't slept for several days, murmured. A strong feeling of tiredness and exhaustion came over him, and he lost consciousness as he lowered his head.
"Dahe?!" Chief Arthur was startled. He squatted down and reached out to pick up Dahe's head. He found that she was just asleep. He was immediately at a loss whether to laugh or cry.
After confirming that Aldoni was not exaggerating, Daha has been on high alert for a while. He even personally presided over the evacuation of all cats at the lowest-lying No. 1 cat farm, fearing that he would not move fast enough to preserve the precious labor force when the flood came. Now, 70% to 80% of the most important food supplies in the farm have been snatched away, and all the staff have been evacuated to the mountain before the flood came. The tense string in Daha's heart finally relaxed.
The snow elves are also on the same mountain.
These snow elves were not without anger in their hearts as they had been being used as coolies since they broke into this place yesterday, and were urged to work even when they were exhausted. But now, standing so close to the natural disaster of the cursed land, everyone's face, including Lieutenant Dana, turned pale.
The snow elves' tough character was forged by the brutal cold winds of the extremely cold lands, and was tempered by Miriam's escaped monsters year after year. They were born with an arrogance that was indifferent to life and death. However, the extremely cold wind and snow devoured people's hearts inch by inch, and the roaring flood destroyed everything in an instant. Even the most fearless and daring person would feel the power of this earth-shaking natural disaster up close and personal, and it would be impossible not to be afraid.
"Is this the test of the cursed land..." Lieutenant Dana shuddered as she slowly scanned the ruthless swamp that swallowed up all life on the surface in just half an hour.
In comparison, the upper reaches of the Earth River, which was so turbulent five days ago that they dared not cross the river directly, was as gentle as a kind old man.
The rain is still falling. Even though the flood has won a complete victory in this surface war, the crazy rain still seems unwilling to give up and continues to try to flood the world.
In the face of natural disasters, even the fearless snow elves felt... the awe that must be maintained towards nature.
Some people walked around and told everyone not to be in a daze and to find a place to rest and recover their strength. Others organized the cats who still had strength and used the materials brought up the mountain to continue building shelters and cooking food.
A large amount of rescued supplies and more than 2,000 people were squatting on several hilltops. The mountains in the cursed land were not high or big, so it was naturally quite crowded. In such an environment, even the most picky people could only take things as they come. The extremely sleepy snow elves did not care about huddling together. After being arranged into the rest shed, they huddled together with the cats and kittens and fell asleep listening to the sound of rain.
Although the environment was terrible and her body was sticky and uncomfortable, Lieutenant Dana was really too tired and slept until it was completely dark before waking up.
The sound of rain hitting the simple roof of the shed became quieter, but there were snoring sounds all around. Lieutenant Dana rubbed her forehead, supported by her arms and sat up. Her mind was still a little fuzzy, and she vaguely felt that her body was a little heavy.
When she looked down... well, there was a golden cat kitten with blond hair sleeping soundly on her belly, and a black-footed cat was very rudely pressing its cold-fearing belly across her thighs, using its paws to hold her arms as a pillow.
Lieutenant Dana: “…”
The shed that was hastily built was very simple, with only a layer of reed mat on the ground. In addition, the air was humid and the mat was not dry, so sleeping directly on the mat was certainly not as comfortable as sleeping on someone else's body.
Dana pushed the two cats off her body with a frown on her forehead, and her eyes accidentally caught a pile of "cat mountains" nearby. She quickly turned her head and stared at them with her mouth wide open.
This "mountain of cats"... is actually at least six or seven cats, big and small, sleeping huddled together on a snow werewolf.
The snow werewolf was sleeping with his legs spread out, with only his two legs sticking out.
Lieutenant Dana was stunned, then hurriedly got up and ran over, pushing aside the cats sleeping in various positions to look for the head of the snow wolf man...
Fortunately, the tragedy of being suffocated to death in sleep did not happen. Although the snow wolf who was crushed looked painful, he was still snoring bravely...
It was a false alarm. Lieutenant Dana sat back and wiped the sweat off her face, feeling very embarrassed...
Not long after Lieutenant Dana woke up, the rain that had been falling for several days stopped. After a rest, the people hurriedly looked for an open space to make a fire, collected everyone's wet clothes, washed and dried them, and distributed prepared clothes for everyone to wear temporarily.
When Xiao Yun discovered that there were no minotaurs living in the southwest corner, he knew that this place would flood sooner or later, and he made all the possible emergency plans. Even the central cat tribe that had just joined this year knew that surface water and groundwater could not be used during floods, and they could only collect rainwater. As soon as the rain stopped, Dahe took out the disinfectant powder he brought from the tribe and scattered it everywhere, and arranged for people to start a big stove to burn the roughly filtered rainwater (a simple filtering tool made of sand and gravel of varying coarseness was put into a wooden barrel with holes at the bottom), and everyone lined up to take a bath.
The clothes that the snow elves brought with them were already soaked, but since they were about the same size as the big cats, they were given dry clothes to wear. Lieutenant Dana, who had changed clothes, squeezed in between the big cats to eat a "midnight snack", and just as she was about to stretch her body, the rain started again.
Hiding in a newly built shed nearby, Lieutenant Dana was completely annoyed by the disastrous weather and said, "Why didn't I find rain so annoying before?"
Dahe, who was the last one in line to take a shower, lowered his head and went into the shed. He wiped his hair with a towel and sighed, "At this time of year in previous years, summer planting had just ended and everyone was happy to see rain, just like seeing spring rain. This year, it's not the same. As soon as the clouds in the sky got thick, I felt a headache even before it rained."
Lieutenant Dana heard the familiar voice and looked over with toothache... then her eyes widened.
Dahe also knew that it was not very kind of him to rush to see a doctor for treatment, so he smiled at her in a flattering way.
Dana: “…”
Never mind...just forgive him.
The Snow Elf Lieutenant thought so and looked away silently.
Two days after the lowest-lying Cat Farm No. 1 turned into a swamp, the Fire Tribe also faced a test.
When the Fire Tribe moved here, they did not choose a location that was too low. The huge flood that destroyed the Cat Tribe's No. 1 Farm and everything did not rush directly to the tribe, but passed by the northeast side of the tribe, which was relatively low in terrain.
But this does not mean that the Fire Tribe will be spared... A massive flood that swallowed up the sky and the earth passed by the northeast, and a small flood that flowed from a tributary changed the direction of the tributary; the tributary that originally flowed in the middle section closer to the forest was directly swept by the fierce water flow towards the small canal of the Fire Tribe.
This flood, which posed the greatest threat to the Huoyan Tribe, not only swallowed up more than 60,000 acres of farmland in the triangle area that had been painstakingly managed for several years, washed away dozens of water wheels along the small canal and tributaries, and submerged the riverside sand farms operated by the Dashui Production Team, but also turned the swampland that had been improved by the Huoyan Tribe for several years and was about to be completely transformed into a fruit forest back into a swamp.
The woolen mill, flour mill, cement factory and brick factory originally built near the swamp were all destroyed.
