Chapter 692, Long-Term Strategy

Translator: Silavin

 

Sha Lan and Yan Hua stood on the spacious clearing, their expressions serious as they observed the soldiers.

 

These soldiers were training for the third time, and fortunately, not a single soldier had withdrawn.

 

Even though the training over the past two days had been extremely exhausting, they had all persevered.

 

Moreover, each person became more determined with every setback, none willing to admit defeat, as if they were competing with one another.

 

This scene was exactly what Yan Hua and Sha Lan were pleased to see. They wanted the soldiers to have great ambitions and the willingness to work hard.

 

Only people like that could truly become soldiers, and only people like this could protect the Tribe.

 

“Did you see that? The effort they put in is no less than ours.” Sha Lan remarked with pride.

 

She saw these people as if she were looking at herself. Back then, she had been just as diligent.

 

“Yeah. These soldiers will definitely be able to help the Tribe in the future.” Yan Hua also remarked with feeling.

 

These people’s diligence was evident to all. The training intensity over these three days had been very tough. Tough enough for Warriors to find it exhausting.

 

“Hah! Ha! Hah…”

 

Those soldiers were shouting with intense passion, because when exerting strength with all their might, it was comfortable to shout for some reason.

 

“Today’s training will be rather tiring. Do you think anyone will withdraw today?” Yan Hua suddenly asked.

 

Today’s main training focused on the legs. Strengthening leg muscles and endurance, which was an extremely painful training.

 

Leg training was the most uncomfortable part. Many people called leg training day devil’s day, and everyone avoided it like the plague.

 

This training was truly terrifying. Once they finished leg training, they would not be able to walk properly for eight or nine days.

 

That intensely sore feeling was simply too overwhelming, and precisely because of this, there was a possibility that some might withdraw.

 

“I don’t know about that. Looking at how they’ve trained before, they don’t seem like the type to withdraw.”

 

Sha Lan crossed her arms and continued. “But leg training is very tough, so it’s hard to say.”

 

She was not certain either. Today’s training was, after all, something that tormented one’s willpower, and those people were ordinary people after all. Whether they could persevere was unknown, though she very much wanted to see how things would play out.

 

“If these people can’t persevere, then the number of withdrawals will be quite large,” Yan Hua said.

 

Because as long as one person could not persevere and spoke up first, some of those still wavering would also follow suit.

 

This was also what Yan Hua hoped not to see.

 

“Yes, all those people will follow the trend and withdraw. No one wants to be the first,” Sha Lan nodded.

 

“I’ll watch over them. You go see if the Shaman needs any help,” Yan Hua waved her hand.

 

Sha Lan was the Shaman’s Shaman Priestess, so naturally she had quite a lot of things to keep busy with.

 

“Alright, I’ll first go tally the numbers of those birds that all flew back from the Sea Fish Tribe,” Sha Lan said softly.

 

The birds that Sha Lan mentioned were the ones previously intended to be used as carrier pigeons, and today they had all flown back one after another.

 

She needed to count them promptly, see which type of bird was most suitable as a carrier pigeon. The next step was to capture a large number of this type of bird for breeding.

 

“Go quickly. Once I’m finished here, I’ll come find you.” Yan Hua smiled slightly.

 

Sha Lan nodded and turned to leave. As she walked, she kept looking back, wanting to see how those soldiers’ training was going.

 

*Step step step…* Sha Lan came to the place where the birds were kept. That place was inside the Tribe. Originally, they had wanted to set it up next to the animal pen.

 

However, after thinking about it, both those places were outside the Tribe, and keeping carrier pigeons outside would be very unsafe.

 

For instance, carrier pigeons flying back from another place might land outside the Tribe and accidentally be caught by someone, making it very easy for intelligence to be leaked.

 

Sha Lan finished counting those birds and returned to the Yong’an Building, still holding a small notebook in her hand.

 

This small notebook was made from Wolf Tail Grass Paper, specifically for her to use in note various matters.

 

Of course, it was only used to register some data. Sha Lan and the others did not know that many characters yet.

 

However, they remembered things like numbers very quickly, so this notebook was perfect for registering such data.

 

“Shaman, all the birds flew back today,” Sha Lan said as soon as she entered.

 

Su Bai stopped his quill pen and looked up to ask. “How are the results? Which type of bird is most suitable?”

 

After such a long time of breeding, they could finally see the results.

 

“Among these birds, there are four types in total. The most suitable to serve as the carrier pigeon is the Pink Beak Silver Sparrow.”

 

Sha Lan passed the notebook over and continued. “Above are the return frequencies of various birds.”

 

Su Bai took the notebook and began leafing through it, asking. “The other several types of birds did not have high return frequencies?”

 

“Some did fly back, but the total numbers of those three types of birds combined don’t even match that of the Pink Beak Silver Sparrow.” Sha Lan explained.

 

“Not bad. It indeed is the best for conveying information.” Su Bai closed the notebook with satisfaction.

 

The data in the notebook was clear at a glance. The birds of other species had also flown back. However, they were very few. Out of one hundred raised, only seven or eight had flown back.

 

This was truly too dismal, but the Pink Beak Silver Sparrow was different. Its success rate for flying back reached 90%.

 

This success rate was truly too surprising. When the time came to convey information, they needed only to release several more birds to make up for the losses. That way, there would always be a few that could fly back.

 

[For now, we can only do this, and gradually improve the system later.]

 

“Shaman, why don’t you use your Shaman Technique to Tame these birds?” Sha Lan asked with confusion.

 

Sha Lan felt that if the Shaman Technique were used, these birds would be even more obedient, making round trips between two places no problem at all.

 

“It’s certainly possible to use Shaman Technique now, but what about later? When we rule more Tribes and our people become more numerous?” Su Bai paused and continued asking. “What should we do then? I can’t travel to such distant places all the time, nor do I have so much energy to cast Shaman Technique on these birds.”

 

He had thought of this point long ago, but he still wanted to rely on artificial breeding to make these birds suitable as carrier pigeons.

 

If the Tribes under his command increased in the future, he could let them independently breed carrier pigeons.

 

There would be no need to wait for everything to depend on his own Shaman Technique, that was not viable as a long-term strategy.

 

“So that’s how it is. I understand now,” Sha Lan nodded.

 

“Have people begin capturing large numbers of this type of bird and breed them.” Su Bai instructed.

 

“Yes,” Sha Lan immediately responded.