Chapter 24

Lu Yu, Tai Li, and the others rushed to the vicinity of the Black Water tribe, where they joined their tribesmen who were in charge of observing the enemy.

Lu Yu asked, "How is it?"

The spy said what he had observed today, "I found their leader's house, which is the biggest wooden house there. That man didn't come out much today, there were only some people who were sent in to deliver food."

Lu Yu nodded, "Continue."

The Matai said again, "And today they sent several groups of people to hunt. Not only that, I also heard someone saying that their slaves should gather more wild fruits and cut more trees, it seemed that they were eagerly storing these things..."

Lu Yu paused and asked, "Do you know why?"

The Matai shook his head. "The man didn't say it."

Lu Yu instinctively felt that there was something amiss.

Shan Pu looked at the frowning and contemplative witch, waved his hand, then said with a grin, "Don't worry about them, we will solve them all together, just see what else can they do."

Lu Yu was taken aback for a moment and smiled, "Yes."

Everyone checked their equipment and rushed to their enemy and gradually saw the camp of the Black Water tribe.

"What are those people doing?" Shan Pu suddenly pointed in a certain direction and whispered.

Lu Yu looked in the direction he was pointing, and saw a group people in rags kneeling on the ground, with some wild fruits in front of them, while a few people holding whips walked towards them.

The spy said, "These are the slaves of the Black Water tribe. The tribe treats their slaves very harshly and viciously. Every day they are given tasks to deliver a lot of food. If they can't deliver it, they will whip them, it also the same for the elderly and children."

Shan Pu said angrily, "This is too much!"

Shan Pu knew what did "slave" mean, but he had always lived in a united and friendly Matai tribe. Where could he see this?

Seeing those people lashed the slave with a whip, Shan Pu turned his head and said indignantly to Tai Li, "King, we are here to attack anyway, let's help them on the way."

Tai Li nodded.

Shan Pu's eyes lit up, then patted Le Shui's shoulder next to him, "Let's exchange our weapons! I want to try your deerskin gloves."

Le Shui silently took off his gloves and gave it to him.

Shan Pu took the gloves and put it on his hand, then threw the stone dagger from his waist to Le Shui. He proceeded to run to the Black Water tribe. "King, I'm going first!"

After that, he charged like a gust of wind.

Tai Li said to the rest of his people, "We're ready to go."

He turned his head to look at Lu Yu, and with a serious expression said, "Don't move from here, wait for us to solve it, then I'll come to pick you up."

Lu Yu nodded, "I know, I know. Go ahead, Shan Pu is alone."

After the Matai people left, Lu Yu took out his homemade straw coat, and hid carefully behind the trees, observing the situation ahead.

Although this was the base camp of the Black Water tribe, he was not too worried. Last time, the situation was not benefiting the Matai people, but now they had prepared for a raid.

As expected, Shan Pu was succeeded in grabbing the whip. He was confronted by five people, but he could face them with ease. However, he didn't get too entangled. After beating one of them twice, he broke away from the battle and joined the other Matai, then they rushed to the leader's house together.

During this time, some of the Black Water tribesmen already found out that someone was invading, they shouted to warn about the enemy attack, and then rushed towards them.

Well, were not these people the one who fled from their battle last time.

Lu Yu calmly thought, if they really were those groups of people, but still rushed up like this after watching the Matai "throwing discus" game, it would be very heroic of them.

Although Tai Li and his team were fast, unfortunately there was a team of fighters patrolling in front of the leader's wooden house and stopped them from entering.

Tai Li and most of them were left to fight, while Shan Pu and Le Shui, avoided the crowd and continued to rush to the leader's house.

When he ran to the door, Jiao Feng heard some movements from the outside.

Before Jiao Feng could react, his hands were caught. He yelled in pain as someone stabbed his back violently. Suddenly his throat was blocked, a layer of sweat started to appear on his body.

Why were these people here?!

Before he could decide whether to beg for mercy or try to escape, he already cleanly solved by Le Shui with a dagger. He didn't even have time to call for help.

This was also what Lu Yu had told them in advance. Never procrastinate when solving the enemy, no need to say anything, just do it. Don't learn from some novel's protagonists that would let go of the villains.

After Jiao Feng was killed, the Black Water tribe warriors were at a disadvantage as soon as they collided with Tai Li's group. Seeing that the situation was wrong, they turned around and fled.

Tai Li did not let his tribesmen stopping those people, but instead he ordered them to stop the slaves who wanted to run along with their women and children.

The slaves shivered, "Please forgive us..."

Tai Li didn't speak and turned to pick up Lu Yu.

Standing in front of the wooden house, Lu Yu glanced at Tai Li next to him. After getting the affirmation from his eyes, he cleared his throat and shouted, "Everyone don't panic. We won't hurt you."

"Who are you?"

"We are from the Matai tribe, because these people attacked us not long ago, we come here to fight them back..." Lu Yu briefly explained the cause and effect of this situation.

He had a clear voice and a gentle look. At this time, he could stabilize the people's hearts. The restless slaves gradually calmed down.

Some people couldn't help but said, "Can you let us go?" The warriors and leaders of the Black Water tribe had been killed, so it was impossible for them to stay here.

Lu Yu nodded, "Of course, you can go at any time, but if you think that it was too dangerous outside, I still have a proposal here, so you can listen to it first."

Then, Lu Yu told them about what he had discussed with Tai Li last night.

After the village was upgraded to a primary war fortress, the materials needed not only increased by many other types, but the quantity also increased significantly. With their current manpower, Lu Yu didn't know when would they have enough materials for the next upgrade.

So Lu Yu thought of using external forces.

Where they could find someone, Lu Yu already thought about it. The only one who had contact with them was the Black Water tribe...

They had to fight anyway, if possible, it was better to dig some people over.

But these people were just outsiders after all, so he didn't want to let them live in the village directly.

So he thought of another way. Just set up a camp for them behind the village, and then "collect the protection fees".

"You can choose whether to leave or not. But, if you agree with my proposal, we will provide you with protection. When the beasts come, we will help you to resist, but at the same time, you also have to help us collect materials." Lu Yu explained.

Shu Tai asked curiously, "What kind of material?"

Lu Yu, "It's just some simple stones, branches, or something, I will talk about it in detail later. In addition, your harvest is your own, you don't have to hand it to us. If you want to eat meat, you can also trade the materials you found for it."

The people who paid attention seriously still could not believe it. How could there be a tribe who would help them to fight against the wild beasts, as long as they gave them stones and branches that could be found everywhere? He also said that these things could be exchanged for meat?

He must have lied to them, there could not be such a good tribe.

In fact, there were better conditions for these people, but Lu Yu decided not to say it for the time being.

According to his ideas, if these people were not evil, then they could get along with each other. He could also teach them how to search for food.

The reasons why these primitive people always had insufficient food were, first the beasts were difficult to hunt, and the other reason was they didn't know what could be eaten. There even some people who became too hungry and ate poisonous fruits in the jungle, then die, so they no longer dared to eat those plants at will too.

Lu Yu could teach them how to collect edible wild vegetables and fruits, he could also teach them how to catch fish. For now, maybe these people thought that fish were too fishy and unpalatable, just like the Matai people before, but there was Lu Yu here that could make sure that they would want to eat it.

Lu Yu was actually a little helpless.

Although the Matai people were powerful, they were still too few in number.

If they could mutually benefit by helping these people, coupled with the development of the gathering and fishery knowledges, then, behind the Matai people, there would be a solid backing. Their small village would also rapidly and continuously being upgraded, and eventually become an invincible war fortress!

Thinking of some pictures of war fortresses he had seen in modern times, Lu Yu couldn't hide his excitement. He cleared his throat and asked as calmly as possible, "So, who wants to join?"

The air was silent.

"I'm joining!" Shu Tai jumped up and raised his arms, his eyes were shining brightly.

His grandfather quickly pulled him, "Xiao Tai..."

Shu Tai lowered his arm and looked at his grandpa seriously, "Grandpa, even if it is fake, they can't be worse than the Black Water tribe, and with these people's abilities, if they really want to treat us badly, no need to speak so much, they could just go straight for it. "

That's right!

The slaves around him heard his words and reacted.

Now that the Black Water tribe was not here, where else could they go, it was better to take a look. Maybe, maybe what this person saying was true...

A small flame of hope and expectation ignited in the hearts of the slaves, no longer hesitating.

"I'll go!"

"I am coming too!"

"Please bring me!"

...

Lu Yu, "Let's go!"

Raw word count: 2714