One group dug pits to bury people, while another group cleaned up the battlefield.
After finishing the job, he patted his butt and left.
The attack only took an hour.
More than half of it was wasted on dealing with post-war issues.
It was not until noon the next day that someone noticed that something had happened to the tribe. According to the royal court's garrison system, in order to ensure that each tribe was "safe and sound", the garrisons of two adjacent tribes had to exchange information every ten days.
If a tribe rebelled, the king's court would not only hold the garrison of that tribe accountable, but also the garrisons of related tribes. However, the king's court had become more and more powerful in recent years, and even the Shiwu tribe, which had always liked to fight alone and had no concept of organization and discipline, began to behave themselves, because following the king's court would give them enough food to eat and they would get subsidies for hunting in Longwu County in the south.
Why not do something that can bring you benefits
The next day was originally a day for routine exchanges.
But until noon, no information came, and his messenger did not reply. Could something have happened
No wonder I'm so suspicious.
Small tribes are willing to follow the king because of the many benefits, but this large-scale, long-established tribe is different. They always feel that they are at a disadvantage and are more likely to cause chaos. Just as he was about to prepare his troops to go and take a look, the messenger came back.
"Report—"
It was approaching dusk.
The messenger looked flustered and brought back bad news.
Still very bad news.
Their neighboring tribe was completely wiped out!
There were only ruins left at the scene, and a giant grave mound with freshly turned soil. The leader of the garrison here had a dreamy expression on his face, as if asking, "Am I dreaming and not awake yet?"
The messenger repeated it twice, and he had to believe it even if he didn't want to.
"Who did it?"
This question undoubtedly embarrassed the messenger.
Don’t ask, if you ask I will just say “I don’t know”.
"Gather all the men and go check it out immediately!"
This man immediately called a hundred people to go over together, and told the rest to enter a state of combat readiness, not to sleep all night, and to strengthen night patrols, for fear that the same misfortune would befall them.
When we arrived, it was already dark.
But the burnt smell in the air still lingered.
The leader of the garrison held up a torch and ordered his men to conduct a thorough investigation.
The subordinates couldn't help but speculate.
"Which gang of thugs did this?"
There are also bandits among the Ten Crows. Most of them are dissatisfied with the rule of the royal court or have lost their tribal pastures and territories due to failure in the struggle and are forced to wander. In order to survive, they often launch sneak attacks on other tribes to obtain survival resources, and their actions are extremely cruel and bloody.
It is a malignant tumor hated by everyone in Shiwu!
The garrison leader shook his head: "Probably not."
It couldn't be the work of bandits.
It’s nothing, the scene is just too clean.
There was no trace of the enemy left behind. The tribe that was attacked didn’t even have the chance to send out people to report the news and ask for help. This shows how many people the thugs were and how strong they were. They were able to wipe out a large tribe without making a sound…
Can a stray dog wandering in the wilderness do it
If they can do it, they won't be lost dogs anymore, and there is a 90% probability that they can be eliminated as suspects.
The subordinate speculated and asked, "Is it an enemy?"
Tribes often fought over issues of interest. Previously, two tribes started a war involving tens of thousands of people because the sheep of one tribe ate the grass of the other tribe. The two sides had deep resentment, so they started fighting.
This situation is common in Shiwu.
Of course, since the royal court unified all tribes, such conflicts would generally be judged by people sent by the royal court, but not every tribe would obey.
The garrison leader shook his head again: "Impossible."
The perpetrators of this atrocity must be a well-trained force that acted decisively and efficiently, and had the conditions...
I can't think of a specific goal for the time being.
He asked, "Have you found out the direction the criminals retreated?"
I did find it.
But after chasing for a while, they found that the traces were broken, which should have been carefully cleaned by the bandits. The garrison leader could only return in anger and ordered people to dig up the buried graves, hoping to find clues on the bodies. Although the bodies were buried underground and had already started to rot, they had not yet rotted, and the wounds were clear. Most ordinary people were killed in one blow, while the warriors had more wounds.
In addition, there is another strange discovery.
Without exception, all young and strong men had their right ears cut off.
The garrison leader asked, "Where are the women?"
The subordinate said, "It's in good condition."
Although some of the bodies were burned beyond recognition, they were mostly intact. The elderly were not touched, except for the adult male whose right ear was cut off.
It's hard to say that this kind of behavior is not a malicious provocation by the enemy!
There were hundreds of bodies lying on the ground.
The garrison leader's face darkened slightly and he waved at the people.
The soldiers immediately threw the bodies they had dug out back into the pit, not even bothering to cover them with soil again.
"How about the tribe's property?"
The subordinate checked carefully: "A little bit of the grain storage in the tribe was stolen, but no gold or silver was found, but everything else is there."
In Shiwu, people live in tribes, and enjoying the protection of the tribe comes at a price. Every household must hand over a portion of the harvested grain to the tribe's granary. This portion of grain will be used in special difficult times, but it will be given priority to the warriors of the tribe to ensure that they are well fed first and maintain a strong physique so that they can better hunt and maintain the safety of the tribe.
Due to the influence of the terrain, climate and customs, Shiwu is not good at farming. The grain output is small and is a precious resource. In comparison, gold and silver are not that valuable in Shiwu. All the gold and silver were lost, but not much grain was lost...
The garrison leader thought for a moment.
"Looking at this situation, the enemy is not large."
If the scale was large, the food would have been moved away long ago, and if it couldn't be moved away, it would have been burned. In the Shiwu where food was generally scarce, food was more popular than gold and silver. Since this gang of violent bandits was not large in scale, the per capita strength should be very high, and all members should be elite.
Otherwise, how can we take down a tribe of more than 4,000 people
After realizing this, the garrison leader immediately wrote down the news and his own speculations and sent them to his superiors, but he had some concerns in his heart. The person who was able to form such a well-trained elite force must have a great background...
"I hope it has nothing to do with any noble in the royal court..." the garrison leader muttered secretly in his heart.
There have been similar incidents before.
For example, if a tribe has a salt mine in its territory or pasture, they can make a fortune by mining it. When the nobles in the royal court hear about it, they will rob it and order people to secretly destroy the small tribe, and then take the salt for themselves... You have to know that Shiwu is located in the marginal inland, and with its backward technology, nearly 70% of the salt is obtained every year by looting or private transactions with unscrupulous merchants from other countries. The survivors dare not speak out.
The garrison leader was afraid that the same thing would happen this time.
"Ahem—"
Shen·Unscrupulous Noble·Tang, who was being criticized, sneezed loudly, and then continued to count the gold and silver.
Eyes shining.
"Otherwise, how can we say that killing people and setting fires can win gold belts..."
Looking at the gold and silver nuggets...
Shen Tang's hands were shaking.
My heart is trembling!
Uh-huh, um-huh, it’s all um-huh!
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