Chapter 724 I’m also not sure why the Pyro Company captured your khan
When Ha.s.san led the group back to the tribe, even though he had only been away for less than 10 days, he felt that it looked completely different again.
Before this, their tribe was so small he could see everything with just a glance. But now, the tents that had been set up here were spread out far and wide. It was truly quite a spectacular sight.
In just a few weeks, Yan Liuyuan had annexed about seven tribes of various sizes and completed a rare and rapid expansion. But before Ha.s.san could ride back into the territory of the tribe, he saw two people running over in a hurry. “Ha.s.san, hurry back. Something has happened at the royal tent.”
Ha.s.san’s legs tightened around the horse’s flanks as he led the men behind him into the tribe. The so-called royal tent was where Yan Liuyuan was situated.
Since someone said that something had happened at the royal tent, Yan Liuyuan might be in danger.
The price of expanding too quickly was that the internal stability of the tribe would be difficult to ensure. This was because many of the tribes that had just been annexed might not truly be convinced by them, nor were they as loyal to Yan Liuyuan as Ha.s.san was.
As Ha.s.san rode his horse towards the royal tent, he was surprised to find many people standing at the side looking on in silence.
“Raise your guns.” Ha.s.san said coldly, “Let’s make a deep impression on these people!”
With that, the hundreds of men raised their guns and fired them into the sky.
The loud gunshots frightened the cows and goats of the various tribes and sent them scurrying in all directions. Meanwhile, the herdsmen of those tribes had looks of fear on their faces.
They did not know where Ha.s.san had gotten such sophisticated weapons from. All they knew was that these weapons were enough to intimidate them.
While Ha.s.san and the others were firing their weapons, all of the nomads in the tribal camp fell silent. There was only the cracking of gunshots and the screeching of livestock. This was a sign of submission in the face of strength.
The gra.s.slands were a place where people wors.h.i.+pped the strong. If you were strong enough, everyone would acknowledge you from the bottom of their hearts.
Some of the children wanted to pick up the sh.e.l.ls on the ground that Ha.s.san and the others had discharged from firing their weapons. But they were held back by their parents as they were afraid that Ha.s.san would kill them as a warning to the others.
Ha.s.san arrived at the front of the royal tent and was surprised to find that the leaders of the various tribes were already standing outside it. One of them glanced at Ha.s.san before continuing to shout at the royal tent, “As a battle-hardened warrior and also the chief of the Alat tribe, I’m here to challenge you today to see if you’re qualified to be our khan. Don’t use those guns that you’ve gotten from the Central Plains people or use the wolves to scare me. A man should trust in his own strength, not something that emboldens them from the outside!”
This was the difference between the nomads and the people of the Central Plains. If this were the Central Plains, with Yan Liuyuan having a 1,000 wolves at his command and also possessing those sophisticated weapons that no one else had, who would possibly dare to challenge him?
In the eyes of the Central Plains people, that would be pure foolishness.
But here in the gra.s.slands, this chief of the Alat tribe was seen as extremely courageous by everyone.
Moreover, if the chief of the Alat tribe were to win in the challenge, they would start looking down on Yan Liuyuan from the bottom of their hearts.
Even Ha.s.san did not know what to do when faced with this issue. Logically speaking, Yan Liuyuan would have to accept the challenge, but due to his loyalty to Yan Liuyuan, Ha.s.san could not bear to see others provoking Yan Liuyuan like this. “Alat tribe, if you want a challenge, let me, Ha.s.san, take you on.” The leader of the Alat tribe sneered, “You’re not the one I’m challenging!”
Yan Liuyuan’s voice came from the royal tent. Curious, he asked, “What I don’t understand is that even if you do defeat me, I still own the guns, and the wolves won’t leave my side, so what are you really after? You can’t take away my authority, so isn’t this challenge essentially meaningless?”
The leader of the Alat tribe said ruthlessly, “You colluded with the people of the Central Plains and disrupted the rules of the gra.s.slands. I, Alat Baghatur, won’t stand for
it!”
“When did I collude with the Central Plains people?” Yan Liuyuan said calmly.
“Where did you get those guns from? And why did those Central Plains people capture our khan?!” Alat Baghatur asked loudly.
Yan Liuyuan said melancholically, “I’m also not sure why the Pyro Company has captured your khan.”
When the Pyro Company’s people arrived at their tribe, Yan Liuyuan was prepared to attack them. However, he realized they were only asking for directions. Their target was actually the largest tribe in the gra.s.slands.
At the beginning, Yan Liuyuan did not know what the Pyro Company’s people were up to. But later on, he heard the ruthless people from the Pyro Company had actually captured that large tribe’s khan.
This left Yan Liuyuan dumbfounded for two days as he could not figure out what the Pyro Company was up to.
He knew the Pyro Company liked to capture supernatural beings to extract their DNA, but why did they come all the way to the gra.s.slands to do that?
Furthermore, this act by the Pyro Company had unknowingly helped Yan Liuyuan greatly. Yan Liuyuan was in a confrontation with this large tribe earlier. It was said that their khan was also a supernatural being. If the Pyro Company had not appeared, this large tribe would have been the biggest obstacle in Yan Liuyuan’s plan to unify the gra.s.slands.
Of course, Yan Liuyuan was not afraid of that either. It would have just made it very troublesome for him to achieve his goal.
But now, that stumbling block had been cleared away by the Pyro Company.
Actually, even Yan Liuyuan himself got the feeling that it was him who hired the Pyro Company to do that.
For some reason, ever since he had the thought of unifying the gra.s.slands, it was as though the Heavens were on his side. When he asked Ha.s.san to handle the deal with Su Lei, he managed to bring back a batch of firearms by the second transaction. He wanted to eradicate that large tribe, but it ended up being taken apart even faster than he had expected. Right now, that large tribe was divided into three factions. The one that Yan Liuyuan had consolidated into his tribe was ostracized by the other two factions. After several battles, they had lost all of them and could only pledge allegiance to Yan Liuyuan.
But after reaching this point, Alat Baghatur, who had gained a foothold among the nomads, remained unconvinced by Yan Liuyuan. That was why he wanted to challenge Yan Liuyuan today.
They had not seen the wolves while they were here, so they were even starting to wonder if the wolves were real.
But at this moment, exclamations of surprise rang out outside the tribe. A large number of tribe members started running into the campsite. When Alat Baghatur turned around, he saw the entire tribal camp was surrounded by countless wolves.
The Wolf King, whose body was covered in snow-white fur, walked into the tribe alone. It did not hurt anyone, but its formless dignity caused everyone to take a step or two back.
Finally, the Wolf King laid in front of the royal tent and started resting as though nothing had happened.
Yan Liuyuan walked out of the royal tent and stroked the Wolf King’s neck with a smile. The Wolf King closed its eyes in comfort and rested.
This was the first time the people of the various tribes had seen the wolf pack and the Wolf King since pledging allegiance to Yan Liuyuan. For a moment, they were so shocked they could not even speak.
Yan Liuyuan looked at Alat Baghatur and said with a smile, “You must be thinking that I look very weak, so you want to make me lose my dignity by challenging me. However, you’ve made the wrong decision. I’ll accept your challenge. But let me ask you again: Have you fully thought about the consequences?”
Alat Baghatur’s face turned red with boiling anger. He stayed silent for a dozen seconds before saying, “I’ve thought it through!”