Chapter 58 Hunting in the Northern Suburbs
When Black Bear returned along the same route and was about to reach the city of Xi County, he saw a city two or three miles north of the highway.

The scale of this city is similar to that of Xi County. At first glance, a rough estimate of the width of the southern city wall is nearly two miles.

He looked a few more times and saw that the county town had become a ruin, but seven or eight miles away, the Baiyu City, which was also close to the Chidao, had actually been preserved.

The village elder who came to the camp early this morning to investigate the situation was from Baiyu City.

The Dan River Basin is the birthplace of the Chu State, so Baiyu City is the ancestral land of the Chu State.

The city was named Baiyu because the residents were good at making bows and hunting, and they collected too many white feathers for making arrows.

During the pre-Qin period, the original inhabitants of the city were the Houyi tribe, who used the bow as their totem.

Later he took She as his surname, and then changed it to Xie.

Therefore, most of the current residents of Baiyu City use Xie as their surname.

After just a brief observation, the black bear returned to the camp.

Migration was going on in the camp, and boats were not enough of a shield in the wild.

What's more, troops have to be divided to cooperate with Liu Bei's Northern Expedition, which will lead to a brief period of defensive weakness.

Therefore, the city of Xi County could be used as a temporary resting place. The houses in the city collapsed and burned down, but the main part of the city wall was still there.

Thanks to the turbulent times, forests grew inside and outside the city, making it easy to get materials for building thatched huts.

Black Bear was no exception. When he returned, construction of his thatched cottage had already begun.

The land in the city was leveled and the ruins were slightly cleared.

Use an egg-thick tree trunk as the skeleton, and then layer upon layer of grass bundles on top.

Before noon, a wide thatched hut with a diameter of five or six steps was built.

He is the only one who has an independent living room, while everyone else has to make do with what they have.

At dusk, with the help of horses, the cabin was finally emptied.

The armor and weapons were distributed and the women cooked dinner.

The men assigned to the battalion were generally in high spirits. The traditional fleet living environment was broken and they were chatting with their new teammates.

Doctor Li Feng squatted by the campfire and massaged the lumbar spine of a young man who had fallen and injured himself. Li Feng didn't know much, but Black Bear let him do it.

This young man broke his lumbar spine and was on the verge of paralysis. He looked so sad that he had no desire to live.

This kind of injury can be recovered by resting for a few days or lying still.

Under Li Feng's vigorous massage, the unfortunate guy could only bite the wood and endure it.

Li Feng was so tired that he was panting. When he was resting, Xuan Liang came over and sat beside him. He took out a peach and handed it to the wounded man who was also panting: "General Qu gave it to you to heal your wounds. Eat it quickly and give me the peach pit so that I can go back and report."

The wounded man showed a look of joy. He took the blood peach and started to eat it in big bites, fearing that someone would snatch it away.

Li Feng watched eagerly, and the wounded man also noticed Li Feng's gaze. After hesitating for a long time, he finally finished eating. With a guilty look on his face, he closed his eyes and faced the other side to rest, not daring to look at Li Feng.

Seeing this, Li Feng said, "I am following the instructions of the commander and want to practice the teachings of the founder of the apricot forest. When we enter Guanzhong, you will find three apricot seedlings for me."

"Okay, thank you Doctor Li for saving me."

On the city walls, armored soldiers have begun patrolling.

The city gates on all four sides were dilapidated and unusable, so they were blocked by two layers of antler fences inside and outside, and night guards were set up with ten people in each shift.

Black Bear led Liu Ye to inspect the four gates and only returned to the camp after making sure that the sentry posts and mobile sentries were operating normally.

Everything will be on track. After wandering for another two months, we will reach Guanzhong and start building a real home.

At the campfire, Xu Lin, who was on night duty, said, "Today, when we were cutting wood in the northern suburbs, we saw a herd of deer, at least thirty or forty of them. The commander wanted to train knights, and if we could hunt the deer, we could train our riding skills and get meat and leather."

No one expected to train a cavalry in just a few months. It would be good enough if they could travel on horseback.

Black Bear didn't expect the cavalry to have any combat effectiveness, and the same went for the other trained infantry.

Now is not the time for the newly formed troops to play a role, including Gan Ning's troops.

If we send troops directly to participate in the fighting, we will lose even if we win the battle now.

Only by going to Guanzhong will any battle be meaningful.

So the next battle of cooperating with Liu Bei was actually just for training troops and to test his own command ability.

Xu Lin also didn't understand cavalry training, let alone cavalry tactics training.

Black Bear doesn’t understand either. This technology is too valuable and it will be difficult to pass it on to the world.

But Black Bear knows how to fly with great force. Since he wants to practice armored cavalry, why bother with combat skills?
Just run over them. Just train the knights' charge formation and obedience like the infantry.

It does not require much skill to severely injure and crush the enemy's fighting will and then pursue and annihilate the remaining defeated soldiers. This is the hunting instinct of living things.

Black Bear didn't think he had any talent for command, but he believed in Lu Bu, who was at the level of a god-level general.

Not to mention Lu Bu, a hunting dog with sufficient qualifications can also achieve miraculous effects if it is strengthened to the level of a god general.

After Xu Lin finished speaking, Xuan Liang also said: "We should stock up on meat and leather. The north is cold, so we need to stock up on leather to help the army and civilians survive the winter. Salt is easily available in Jingzhou, and the weather has been hot recently, so making dried meat will also be helpful for the war."

Seeing that no one objected or proposed the idea, Black Bear said, "Then we will divide three teams to go hunting in the northern suburbs tomorrow. I will lead the knights to search and drive away the beasts, and the other two teams of infantry will guard the intersections and assist in hunting and killing."

Currently, there is only one knight century that is fully staffed, and the remaining centuries have a large shortage of troops. Each century needs to be reinforced by about 75 soldiers.

The meeting ended and Black Bear returned to his hut.

There was a dim oil lamp in the thatched cottage. When he arrived, the mosquito net had been hung up in the cottage. Zhen Mi was listening with her ears perked up to listen to the movement of mosquitoes. If there were any, she would catch and rub them without mercy.

Black Bear came in and hung up the straw curtain. Zhen Mi came to greet him with a happy face: "My dear?"

"What are you so happy about?"

As Black Bear spoke, five pounds of fresh mint appeared in his right hand and he scattered it on the edge of the thatched hut. After the mint, another five pounds of mugwort appeared.

The smell of the undried grass in the hut was instantly replaced by the rich smell of mint.

Zhen Mi took out a sleeveless vest with a double-breasted front: "As you ordered, this sleeveless vest is ready."

Black Bear was about to take off his leather armor, but he immediately opened his arms and put on the dark blue and black patterned vest. Armor has a strong slimming effect, and after putting on this vest, his shoulders immediately looked much straighter.

The size of the vest is not that strict, as long as it fits you roughly.

"Thank you for your hard work. Tomorrow you will take out the cloth and lead the women to make more vests. Make 500 first."

Black Bear took off his vest and leather armor, and was about to make a move when Zhen Mi smiled and said, "My dear, I am unable to serve you these few days."

The oil lamp was dim and her smile was bright.

She finally didn't have to worry anymore, and the thorns between them were gone.

"Then have a good rest. I have to go hunting deer in the northern suburbs tomorrow."

Black Bear was not surprised. The tense environment before had put too much pressure on her. After entering Jingzhou, the environment became relaxed and she just returned to normal.

It’s just a pity that after a successful hunt tomorrow, I won’t be able to eat venison.

The qi and blood are already surging, and eating venison is like adding fuel to the fire.

He wanted to rest early, but Zhen Mi was in a good mood and hadn't had enough fun.

After blowing out the oil lamp, it was Zhen Mi's turn to make physical advances, which was very impolite.

He was no match for the black bear in fists and feet, but he refused to admit defeat and in anger he relied on his sharp teeth and tongue to launch a sneak attack, actually biting through a layer of the bear's skin.

After a few quiet frolics, they fell asleep.

The next day, when Black Bear woke up and opened his eyes, he saw Zhen Mi who had gotten up early and was embroidering patterns on a vest.

Seeing Black Bear turning over, Zhen Mi asked curiously, "Why is this short coat called a vest? In my opinion, this coat looks like the Chinese character 'Bi', so it should be called a bifu, or a biyi, or a bijia."

"There are two reasons."

Black Bear yawned and patiently explained, "The black armor is too tight. It's hard to tell the color of the uniform and the identity when wearing it. Also, black armor is the easiest to get hot. I don't have time to paint or dye it, so I have to make plain vests to distribute to the knights, to cover the black armor, so that when wearing the armor in midsummer in June, it can delay heat stroke."

"What about the other reason?"

"The knights' armor is shorter than that of the infantry. In order to facilitate riding, the knights' upper body armor is slightly shorter, focusing on protecting the chest, back, torso and legs. The two-leg armor worn by light cavalry is even shorter. The shape and size of our vest can just cover the two-leg armor used by cavalry."

"It saves fabric and is clearly different from the loose uniforms of other armies."

Take a glance at the vest, this thing can be effective in many cases, not only to reduce the heat absorption of the armor; it can also cover the gaps in the armor. The cost of embroidering the number on the vest is lower. In winter, there is an extra layer of windproof outside the armor, which can effectively keep warm.

There are also special and practical clothing that can effectively distinguish between friends and foes and enhance collective recognition and cohesion.

There is no need to go into detail, but there is no shortage of smart people in the world.

When Black Bear designed the vest, the back area was planned and text symbols would be embroidered to indicate the military rank and number; anti-counterfeiting mythical animal totems would also be embroidered.

For the time being, it will be difficult for the enemy to crack this thing.

The embroidery patterns can only be seen clearly and identified when you get close. Even if the enemy is wearing a similar vest and observes closely, he will not have time to embroider or imitate it.

After breakfast, Black Bear gathered his team and headed out of the county into the mountains.

More than a hundred riders followed, many of whom were not good riders, but when they looked back and heard the neighing of horses and the smoke and dust, they couldn't help but feel more courageous.

In order to save horsepower, the team did not move very fast.

Black Bear simply abandoned the group and rode his dry horse into the ravine to explore the road conditions and the direction of the mountain.

The dried horses were strong and could walk through the ravines and gullies as if they were walking on flat ground. Before the large group of knights entered the mountainous area, the black bear had already stopped his horse on the top of a mountain more than ten miles away.

He walked around the top of the mountain and looked around, and saw that the surrounding ravines and mountains were lush and green, but there were no deer in sight.

But what I saw was a group of arrogant wild boars rolling happily in a mud pit beside a stream. Before the sun really rose, the wild boars had made the stream muddy.

After a rough count, there were about fifty or sixty of them, including four or five strong wild boars, a dozen or so slightly smaller ones, and the rest were cubs.

He summoned the genius general Lu Bu, returned the Yin Gan horse to the other party, and rode the Yin Gan horse himself.

As Lü Bu rode his horse and raised his halberd, he looked down at the growing mud pit at the foot of the mountain. He heard Black Bear say, "I have a feeling that my poor cavalry team can't stop the charge of these wild boars. If we're unlucky, a few of them will fall to death, a few will be trampled to death by horses, and a few infantrymen will be killed by wild boars."

Lu Bu did not react at all, but just carefully observed the herd of wild boars at the foot of the mountain.

"The wild boars know how to charge, but my cavalry doesn't. They can't even ride horses or shoot arrows. It's so pitiful."

There was no one else around, so Black Bear said casually, "How about this, you go and kill the big guy. Otherwise, if so many people approach, the wild boars will be scared away."

Also wanting to find out the maximum range of the divine general's activities, Black Bear commanded Lu Bu to go around the back of the mountain ridge and approach, and sent four Taoist soldiers to block the animal path deep in the ravine.

The wild boar's trail was obvious, as it had simply rushed and trampled its way through the bushes.

The position of the black bear was easy to identify. The cavalry team that entered the mountain walked along the winding mountain ridgeline to get closer to the black bear. The two accompanying infantry teams exercised their autonomy and initiative, with one team guarding the ditch entrance here and the other team blocking the ditch entrance on the other side of the ridgeline.

The two infantry teams were seriously understaffed, with only a skeleton staff of squad leaders and more than twenty people in each team.

On the ridgeline, the cavalry was marching cautiously.

In the ravine beside him, he saw Lu Bu in a white robe charging with a halberd in his hand. The suddenly frightened wild boars split into two, and the wild boar grandfathers, wild boar grandmothers, wild boar fathers and mothers rushed towards Lu Bu with their heads covered.

The rest of Peppa and George ran in the other direction.

Even the great general Lu Bu had to leap over the Wild Boar Grandpa's head on his horse.

The wild boars were ferocious and stubborn, and the five big ones turned around and charged back, and Lu Bu also turned back to fight back.

They continued to avoid each other in the second round. When the third round began, the distance between them was even closer, and the Wild Boar Charge failed to effectively speed up.

Unfortunately, contrary to the black bear's expectations, Lu Bu continued to dodge and consume the wild boar's energy.

The cavalry on the ridgeline were in a dilemma, lacking the courage and skill to ride down the steep slope.

When the black bear saw this, and then looked at the wild boars charging bravely with their heads covered, he couldn't help but frown.

With unlimited physical strength and wearing iron armor, a group of wild boars launched a charge... with only dozens of them, what were they afraid of the elite cavalry from Guanlong?
Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, what is this?
You are a heavily-armored tiger cavalry. Do you dare to confront and consume the wild boars?

Looking at the second-level Yin Gan horse under his seat, a feeling of blood loss arises spontaneously.

(End of this chapter)