Chapter 38 – Horses
Translator: Mr Voltaire
Editor: Modlawls123
Those 600 soldiers did not include the soldiers at the bottom of the large crack or the soldiers who were in charge of defending the village. In total, Zhao Fu’s overall forces numbered around 720. However, even though their numbers had been greatly boosted, it was still far from enough to deal with 5,000 Orcs.
Zhao Fu gave the 300 new soldiers to Bai Qi to be trained for a few days, while he took some soldiers to continue exploring the Forest of Horrors.
Over the past few days, Zhao Fu explored 20 kilometers around the Great Qin Village and did not find any villages. However, he did find some small iron mines but no other resources. This made Zhao Fu feel somewhat disappointed. After regrouping at the Great Qin Village, he took his 600 soldiers and started to head outside of the 20-kilometer radius around the Great Qin Village.
Little Grey followed along and sniffed the ground. It had not found anything over the past few days, and the pressure on it was quite heavy.
“Awoo…”
Little Grey suddenly detected something and howled, waiting for Zhao Fu’s command. After Zhao Fu gave the signal, it immediately rushed towards the smell.
Zhao Fu and his people followed behind it.
After running for a while, Zhao Fu felt quite pleased because he started to see horse tracks on the ground. From the very beginning, Zhao Fu had been looking for horses, and he had finally found some traces of them.
Zhao Fu excitedly ran behind Little Grey, and he finally found 10 or so horses on a grassy plain. The horses were tall and powerfully-built, and their hair was completely black. However, their eyes were slightly green, making them look quite strange.
After observing them, Zhao Fu received some information about the horses.
[Black Forest Horse]: Description: A type of horse that lives in forests and has good physical power. It is skilled at passing over obstacles.
After reading the Black Forest Horse’s description, Zhao Fu felt that they were well suited to become warhorses. He thought about the method he had used to capture the Azure Oxen but realized that it wouldn’t work.
First of all, these 10 or so horses were treasures. Moreover, their legs were not as strong as the oxen’s legs, and if they were frightened, they would run incredibly quickly. As such, if they used the same method, it was possible that the horses would be crippled.
After thinking for a long time, Zhao Fu decided to go with the traditional method. He made lassos out of rope to throw around the horses’ necks. This was often done in the real world and would not cause much harm to the horses.
However, catching horses through this method required great skill. Since the 10 or so Black Forest Horses hadn’t discovered them yet, Zhao Fu chose 10 or so of his soldiers to practice for a bit.
Right now, they could only rely on these 10 or so people. If too many people went, it was likely that they would be discovered. Animals were not to be looked down upon.
After 10 minutes of practice, the soldiers gripped their ropes and slowly crawled towards the horses. The plan went quite smoothly, but when it came to throwing the lassos, things did not go too well. The Black Forest Horses were too alert, and they were only able to capture 8 of them while they missed 7.
Now that the horses had been frightened, they immediately started running incredibly quickly. Even the lassoed horses started to run, and because of how strong they were, they started to drag the soldiers along. Luckily, the soldiers who hadn’t lassoed horses helped them. However, it still took two soldiers to slow down a Black Forest Horse, and they were still being dragged along.
Zhao Fu immediately ordered more soldiers to go and help. He rode on Little Grey, who was now about as big as a tiger and could carry Zhao Fu on its back as it ran.
Now that he had finally encountered horses, Zhao Fu did not want to let any get away.
Zhao Fu sat on Little Grey’s back and hugged its body. Little Grey was very fast and had a sensitive nose, so it quickly chased after the Black Forest Horses.
After a while, Zhao Fu told Little Grey to stop because he heard many horses ahead. This gave Zhao Fu a pleasant surprise, and he silently crept up to have a look.
There was a grassy plain around 6 kilometers in diameter that had around 300 or so Black Forest Horses within it. What Zhao Fu was interested in was a stage made of brick that had a horse-shaped statue. Clearly, it was a Den.
Zhao Fu immediately rode Little Grey back and brought all his soldiers here. When Bai Qi saw so many Black Forest Horses, he cheerfully exclaimed, “It’s time for the Great Qin to have Cavalry!”
Zhang Dahu also laughed cheerfully, “I want to have my own warhorse!”
However, Zhang Dahu’s voice was quite loud, and he almost scared the horses. Everyone glared at him and he awkwardly scratched his head, gesturing that he would be careful in the future.
Liu Mei also excitedly came over and said, “I also want my own horse!”
After discovering so many Black Forest Horses, everyone felt extremely excited. The question they now faced was how to catch the Black Forest Horses. Even though Zhao Fu had many soldiers, they couldn’t just charge over.
If they charged, the Black Forest Horses would attack as a group, and Zhao Fu’s soldiers would be forced to fight back. Zhao Fu did not want to kill any of the Black Forest Horses.
Moreover, 300 Black Forest Horses were not the same as 300 Grey Wolves. If such a massive group of horses rushed at them, it would be quite dangerous, and there would be many injuries and casualties on Zhao Fu’s side.
Zhao Fu looked around and saw a Black Forest Horse that was twice as big as the normal Black Forest Horses. It was jet-black and looked incredibly powerful, and it had a small horn that was a few centimeters long on its head. It was the Black Forest Horse King.
For most herd-type animals, as long as one could control the leader, it would be equivalent to controlling the entire herd. However, since the Black Forest Horse King was among the other horses, Zhao Fu couldn’t do anything to it.
Perhaps they could find a way to lure it out. Zhao Fu thought about it and finally looked over at Little Grey. He stroked its head, and Little Grey naively did not sense what Zhao Fu was thinking and comfortably rubbed its head against his hand.
Zhao Fu smiled as he said, “Little Grey! How about you go and challenge the Black Forest Horse King to provoke into fighting you King against King. After that, lure it out.”
Little Grey immediately took a few steps away from Zhao Fu and looked quite reluctant. As the Grey Wolf King, Little Grey was quite powerful, but there was no way that it could face 300 Black Forest Horses. That was simply suicidal, and it wasn’t willing to do such a thing.
Zhao Fu lightly smiled, took out a small medicine bottle, and drew out two Little Spirit Pills. Zhao Fu walked over and fed them to Little Grey, and he stroked its head and said, “Don’t worry; if it’s dangerous, you can just retreat. I won’t let you get injured.”
After consuming the two Little Spirit Pills and hearing Zhao Fu’s words, Little Grey thought for a moment before reluctantly agreeing. It leapt up and ran towards the horses from another direction.
“Awoooo!!”
Little Grey’s howl could be heard from over one kilometer away, and Little Grey gave off the domineering airs of a king as it walked towards the horses.