HLnovel Chapter 231: Beast Mountain Sheltering from the Snow (1)
Chapter 231: Beast Mountain Sheltering from the Snow (1)
Wang Gang said: "I agree to take the herd of horses into the Beast Mountain. We have killed the wolf king, so we don't have to be afraid of a few lions and tigers. Besides, we may not encounter them in a heavy snow." He is the oldest of the ten people, but he is too honest and rarely speaks. However, once he speaks, few people will refute him.
Yingdan, Lin Zhen, Su Mishun and others quickly expressed their agreement.
After a while of discussion, everyone finally decided to hide in the leeward part of the Beast Mountain for a few days, and then take them out to eat grass after the heavy snow.
Everyone got to work as soon as they said it. They packed up their tents and belongings, tied up the remaining firewood and fodder, placed them on the backs of sturdy stallions, and drove the herd toward the Beast Mountain.
I originally thought that a herd of horses without a leader would be difficult to control, but fortunately there was a chestnut leader among the wild horses, and under its leadership, the other wild horses knew how to follow.
The snow kept falling, the sky and the ground were all white, and they had completely melted together. The snow on the grassland gradually became thicker. The north wind was howling, and the snow was flying in the face. Chu Xiaomu led the herding team and the horses to move towards the Beast Mountain with difficulty.
The camp was not too far from the Beast Mountain, but the wind was strong and the snow was dense. In addition, the herd was huge, and some of the horses were foals that were only three or four months old or even less than a month old. Therefore, they walked very slowly. The journey that would have taken about half an hour took almost two hours to arrive.
However, at this time, the rocks on the Beast Mountain were covered with white moss, and the trees were covered with white fur. The heavy snow was not less here. The people led the horses to search slowly along the foot of the mountain. It took almost an hour to find a leeward south slope that could accommodate more than a thousand horses. There was a long canyon below the slope, which extended obliquely into the depths of the dense forest.
The snow in the valley was thick, and only the south slope was barely enough for people and horses to rest. It took a long time to bring all the horses to the south slope, and it was almost dusk. Although there were still snowflakes falling on the south slope, it was much smaller than on the grassland or the north side of the slope, and there was no bitter cold wind, which made everyone happy.
What was even more unexpected was that the grass and trees on this hillside were lush, and although most of them had dried up due to the winter, they were actually more popular with the wild horses. Chu Xiaomu was also happy, thinking that he would not have to worry about fodder for the next few days. When the snow stopped and the sky cleared, he would return to the grassland and the horses would not lose weight.
Chu Xiaomu led Yingdan and Wangang to look after several leading horses to prevent them from leading the herd too deep into the forest. Lin Zhen, Zhang Hou and six others were busy digging fire pits and setting up tents. In order to take care of dozens of young foals, the fire pits had to be dug larger than usual. Zhou Weide and his brother Zhou Weiyi dug hard and sweated. He saw Zhang Hou instructing Su Mishun and Ling Weidou to build tents, while he himself sat under a big rock with his neck hunched and his hands clasped together. He couldn't help but get angry and cursed: "Everyone is working so hard, but some people are just sitting there being lazy. Do they still want to work?!"
Zhang Hou was stunned for a while before he realized that Zhou Weide was scolding him. He asked, "Brother Deer, why are you so angry?"
Zhou Weide shouted, "Are you pretending to be stupid? There are so many things going on, why do you just sit there and do nothing?!" His voice was already hoarse, and his words were even louder. The echo almost spread throughout the entire valley, startling the flocks of birds on the treetops on the opposite mountain and making them fly up and fly deep into the valley.
Zhang Hou said, "Didn't the captain say that the four of you will dig the fire pit, and the three of us will set up the tent. Everyone should do their own thing. This is called doing one's own job and not interfering with each other."
Zhou Weide spitted bitterly and cursed, "Fuck you, everyone has their own job and you haven't even lifted a finger. It's all Shunzi and Douzi who are doing it. I don't think you will be able to set up your tents by tomorrow morning!"
Zhang Hou said some nonsense, and suddenly he held his stomach and cried out, "No, no, my stomach hurts, I have to go to the bathroom quickly, you guys go ahead and do your work..." As he spoke, he held his stomach and ran into the secluded forest.
Zhou Weide knew that Zhang Hou loved to be lazy. When he encountered dirty and tiring work, he would say that his stomach or legs hurt, and nine times out of ten he would find excuses to avoid it. Seeing him running away again with the excuse of stomachache, he became even more angry and shouted loudly: "I don't want to do it anymore, I don't want to do it anymore... Everyone is working so hard, and he takes all the benefits..." After that, he threw the shovel in his hand far away. Seeing that Lin Zhen and his brother Zhou Weiyi were still digging, he walked over and took the shovels and pickaxes from them, and threw them down the hillside.
The other people looked at each other, not knowing what to do. Everyone knew that Zhou Wei De had a bad temper, so no one dared to persuade him at this moment.
When Chu Xiaomu heard the quarrel, he asked Yingdan and Wangang to look after the horses, and hurried over to see what was going on.
Seeing that the fire pit, which was originally required to be ten feet in radius, had only been dug less than half, Zhou Weide sat aside angrily, while Lin Zhen and Zhou Weiyi stood there in a daze, and the shovels and pickaxes in the hands of the three were nowhere to be found; only Wu Sheng still had a pickaxe in his hand, but he sat far away as if it had nothing to do with him.
When Chu Xiaomu asked, he found out that it was all caused by Zhang Hou's laziness. He couldn't help feeling angry, thinking that these people were born slaves. If they didn't have a tragic life experience or various shortcomings, they wouldn't have fallen into the situation of being slaves.
If they were not punished, I'm afraid this team of only ten people would disintegrate. After a little thought, he came up with an idea.
He calmly went down the slope to find a shovel and a pickaxe, and asked Su Mishun and Ling Weidou, who were setting up the tent, to take out their digging tools, and led everyone to dig the fire pit without saying a word. Zhou Weide was angry and pretended not to pay attention, but he couldn't help it and started digging with everyone.
Zhang Hou stayed in the dark for a long time. When he ran out, he saw Chu Xiaomu and others working hard to dig a hole. He pretended to search near the tent for a while and said, "I'm really sorry, everyone. We have lost our shovels and pickaxes. I want to help but I can't."
Chu Xiaomu said, "Brother Hou'er, you take a rest first. It's enough for a few of us to do this job."
Zhang Houzheng was so happy that he didn't have to do anything. He bowed and said, "In that case, thank you all for your hard work here. I'll see if there is any work elsewhere..." As he spoke, he went into the tent set up by Su Mishun and Ling Weidou.
Chu Xiaomu pulled him back and said, "Brother Hou'er, everyone is afraid of you. You'd better stay out of other people's tents, especially don't bully Shunzi and Douzi."