Chapter 765: Ten Years of Green Sparrow, The First Battle of Early Spring
Warm sunlight poured down from the sky, melting the ice and snow, awakening all life. The air carried a lazy scent; taking a deep sniff, it was filled with the breath of spring.
After the ice and snow melted, Copper Mountain looked even cleaner. Under the sunlight, it shimmered with a greenish metallic glow, gorgeous.
At the foot of Copper Mountain, in a courtyard built purely of stone near the west side, people were busy. Several furnaces burned fire, and white smoke occasionally billowed up.
With the rising white smoke, pots of copper ingots appeared.
On Copper Mountain itself, people carried hammers and chisels, striking ore with clanging sounds.
They then shoveled the broken ore into baskets, carrying them with shoulder poles to the cliff’s edge, dumping them down.
The ore bounced and slid along the cliff, gathering below into a small mound.
Those doing this mining work were mainly slaves from the tribe.
At this moment, none of them thought about slacking off or running away while working.
Before coming here, they had already endured trudging through snow in the large tribe to gather many stones.
Having gone through such a trial, digging ore no longer felt especially hard or tiring.
Moreover, they remembered well the impressive commendation ceremony held that day.
Having something to look forward to, their tolerance for hardship also increased.
Besides this, there was another reason: on their first day here, Third Senior Brother, carrying a long bow, took them to another mine tunnel to see Meng, a runaway slave who was barely human anymore, and carefully told them Meng’s story and the punishment he received.
Meng, almost unrecognizable as human, left a deep impression on everyone, making them vividly understand the consequences of desertion.
Outside the Copper Mountain residential area, near a small creek, Third Senior Brother was holding a plow handle, plowing the field.
In front of the plow, the animal pulling it was not a deer from the tribe, but a beast called a “donkey” by the Divine Child, brought over with the new slaves.
These animals were much larger and stronger than ordinary deer, and were very suitable for pulling plows.
However, these animals were not yet accustomed to plowing and needed to be led by a person in front.
Sometimes, even when led, the animal would try to flip the harness and refuse to work.
But this did not trouble Third Senior Brother.
While holding the plow, he also held a whip in his hand; whenever a donkey flipped the harness, he would whip it without hesitation.
After some time, the donkeys flipped the harness less and less.
After plowing for a while, Third Senior Brother took a short rest.
Looking into the distance, he saw about a dozen slaves carrying mattocks and copper shovels, somewhat unskilled, breaking new ground.
These were newly transferred slaves from the semi-farming tribe.
Before the battle last year, Third Senior Brother hadn’t known about it.
It was only after the dust had settled and he returned to the tribe for the New Year that he heard the news.
Upon learning this, he felt very regretful.
Then he asked many people in the tribe carefully about the details of the battle.
Before asking, he felt some regret; after asking, he felt even more regret.
So many people voluntarily left the tribe to attack the semi-farming tribe — just thinking about it was exciting.
Not to mention, in this battle, the Divine Child had used wisdom to set an ambush in advance, capturing everyone in one fell swoop!
Just imagining this battle was enough to know how spectacular it must have been.
And he himself hadn’t participated — how could he not feel regretful?
After a brief rest, Third Senior Brother called on another person to continue plowing.
When leaving the tribe, the Divine Child had said that this year they must produce more copper and more grain, and for this, thirty adult slaves had been specially allocated to Copper Mountain.
Under such circumstances, how could Third Senior Brother not farm diligently?
The world was vast, with countless things happening every day.
While Third Senior Brother was plowing and feeling regret for not joining the last battle, a war was brewing far north as the ice and snow melted.
With the warming air, the conflict was rapidly fermenting and expanding.
The Grass Tribe’s leader was consumed by fear because, immediately after the ice melted, the evil and powerful Black Stone Tribe returned.
Although unwilling, the Grass Tribe leader still offered some of their gathered food.
What angered and terrified her was that after taking the food, the Black Stone Tribe didn’t stop. Thıs text ıs hosted at 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝⁂𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚⁂𝔫𝔢𝔱
They demanded that she bring an equal number of adults from her tribe — matching the number of sticks the Black Stone Tribe gave her — along with food for the journey, to the Black Stone Tribe at the next full moon!
After the Black Stone Tribe left, the Grass Tribe leader began comparing the sticks one-to-one with the adults in her tribe.
One stick corresponded to one person.
After distributing all the sticks, she realized there were very few adults left in her tribe without a stick in hand!
This made the Grass Tribe leader both shocked and angry.
Because, according to the Black Stone Tribe’s demand, most adults in her tribe would soon be taken to the Black Stone Tribe.
This round trip would significantly impact the tribe’s ability to gather food.
If she weren’t angry, it would be strange!
But there was no choice — the Black Stone Tribe was far too powerful for her tribe to resist.
So when the moon gradually became full, she took some food and led people on the road toward the Black Stone Tribe.
Along the way, she also had people search for food.
When she arrived at the Black Stone Tribe, the Grass Tribe leader was again shocked to see many people gathered outside the Black Stone Tribe’s caves — at least as many tribes as she could count on her fingers.
And these tribes, like hers, had come with adults only.
After her shock came confusion; she did not understand what the Black Stone Tribe intended to do.
The Black Stone Tribe people said nothing, only told them to wait.
When the moon became full the next day, two more tribes arrived.
The Black Stone Tribe then armed these people and led them to a specific location.
After two days’ journey, the Grass Tribe leader finally understood — the Black Stone Tribe was taking them to attack another tribe!