Destruction is always easier than construction, especially the destruction of nature. The destructive power that humanity has displayed is astonishing. A lush tropical rainforest was stripped bare in just five days, as if a giant hand had wiped a piece away from the forest. Or like a child who has bitten a hole in a biscuit, it looks somewhat incongruous.
The monkeys blocked the passage, but Qin Mu and his group unexpectedly retreated. By the time they found their trail and dispatched reinforcements, it had taken them five days, two or three days later than Qin Mu and his group had anticipated. Of course! For them, this was a good thing, giving them a few more days to prepare.
"I thought these guys weren't coming!" Yuchi Baoqing said dismissively.
"Ahem! I overestimated them; we didn't calculate things according to their way of thinking. But that's a good thing," Qin Mu said.
There are no trees within 200 meters of the camp, so there's no need to worry about monkey attacks. Furthermore, the camp has taken this time to build arrow towers, further strengthening its defenses.
"Are these guys crazy?" Sun Hu exclaimed in surprise during the conversation. It turned out that the monkey tribe hadn't rested upon arrival and immediately launched an attack. It wouldn't be fair to say they were brainless; at least these guys knew to attack the flanks first.
A large number of monkeys nimbly climbed the hillside at great speed, demonstrating that they were much more skilled at mountain marching than Qin Mu and his group, as they could move using both their hands and feet.
There were traps waiting for them on the hillside, but the monkeys had anticipated the losses, so they didn't care and continued charging upwards.
"Oh! Oh! Oh!" The monkeys shouted excitedly as they were about to reach their target. This was their means of communication in the dense forest, and they used this sound as a signal to launch an attack during hunts.
Under the pitying gazes of Feng Zhiyu and Liu Renshi, a large number of rolling logs and rocks were pushed down the hillside, making a huge "boom!" sound.
The monkeys were dumbfounded. Living in the rainforest, they were used to traps and poisonous insects, and they fought with bows and arrows and javelins. They had never seen rolling logs or thunderstones before, since those things were useless in the dense forest.
The enormous tree, with the force of an avalanche, plunged down. The monkeys felt their hearts pound with fear, cried out in alarm, their faces turned deathly pale, dropped their weapons, and hurriedly ran down the mountain.
On the hillside, how could a person outrun falling rocks? Even if they pushed their companions or jumped desperately, it was no use. The rolling logs and rocks fell like the sky collapsing and the earth splitting apart, with tremendous force. Groups of monkeys were crushed to death or injured and rolled down the hillside.
Not to mention the monkeys, even Qin Mu was stunned. He never expected that pushing logs and rocks down a slope of only 200 meters could create such a huge spectacle.
The last log came to a stop, and the world seemed to fall silent, save for the screams of agony. The monkeys were stunned, never expecting their first attack to end so badly. Those monkeys who had narrowly escaped the rolling logs and stones collapsed to the ground on the hillside, their legs too weak to get up.
"Boom boom boom!" A tree rolled down the hillside. It had been stuck, but now that the small shrubs had broken off, it continued rolling downhill.
"Ah! Ahh!" The monkeys who had just collapsed to the ground leaped up and ran frantically down the mountain, tumbling and crawling as they went—that was a true depiction of their actions. Even those who were injured but not dead managed to get up.
"A bird startled by the twang of a bow!" Qin Mu thought to himself.
"Victory! Victory! Victory!" Unlike the monkeys, Qin Mu and his group erupted in excited cheers. They had witnessed the monkeys' attack firsthand; the combined forces on both sides numbered no less than ten thousand, and the single attack had inflicted casualties of at least half, though many were injuries sustained from falls. They understood that these monkeys would be crippled even if they returned. They were terrified; whether they could fight again was another matter, but they certainly wouldn't dare climb mountains anymore.
"We can rest today!" Yuchi Baoqing said, pouting. Seeing the monkeys retreating, he knew their morale was completely gone.
"Pass on the order! Everyone except those on duty, rest." Qin Mu said, squinting at the departing monkeys.
"You mean...?" Han Chen's eyes lit up as he looked at Qin Mu.
"Why not?" Qin Mu grinned.
"How about we try poisoning it for fun? I've collected quite a few along the way," Han Chen asked.
"No need this time, let's talk about it when there are more people," Qin Mu said, shaking his head.
The monkeys retreated and set up camp. To their relief, Qin Mu and his group made no further moves.
…………
At night, around midnight, the insects that had been chirping all night had already fallen asleep. The monkeys on guard had their heads down and did not see the many dark figures emerging from the forest.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!..."
"Kill them!"
The sound of war drums and shouts of battle broke the silence of the night.
The monkeys beside the campfire jumped up in a panic, quickly assessed the situation, and ran towards the back of the camp.
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!" Wooden javelins rained down from the sky, startling the monkey tribe who were still confused and bewildered.
"Ahhh!" The screams terrified the others even more.
"The enemy is coming!"
"We've been ambushed!"
"Those vicious bastards!"
"run!"
This was the thought of most monkeys, and the fleeing monkeys spurred their companions who still wanted to resist.
The camp fears noisy sirens most, and the monkey tribe is no exception. In the darkness, no one knows how many enemies there are, let alone where they are. Their only thought is to flee to where they feel safe. Upon seeing a figure ahead, they will instinctively attack.
The commotion didn't harm the enemy the most; it actually hurt their own people. Qin Mu and his men had only given it a slight push. They had only intended to test the waters, given that the monkey tribe had sent tens of thousands. Now that the commotion had occurred, it would be a waste not to seize the opportunity to pursue and kill them.
Qin Mu and his men were all quite experienced in warfare, so they methodically stormed into the monkey camp. They mainly attacked groups of monkeys, shouting battle cries all the while.
With only a little over a thousand men, they managed to throw the forty to fifty thousand monkeys into chaos. This was mainly because the monkeys had been terrified during the day and didn't know how many enemies were approaching or how far away they were, so chaos was inevitable. Moreover, once the camp stirred, screams echoed all around, which was even more frightening in the darkness.
"Run!" became their only thought; everything that stood in their way was an enemy.
They ran on and on until the shouts of battle faded or subsided, then they stopped. In the darkness, with no companions, they could only continue toward the place they believed would be safe.
They were trembling with fear until dawn, when they finally relaxed and gathered with their companions, awaiting orders from their superiors.
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