The World Online

Chapter 117: Suspicion

When they got to Friendship river, the navy and the Meng Chong warships were already there, awaiting their arrival.

Due to the abundant rewards, the warships had to make a dozen trips back and forth to transfer the rewards across the river. As it was just a simple mission for the navy, the navy commander Pei Donglai did not show up. The navy immediately returned back to Beihai Town as soon as they helped the last cavalry cross the river.

In order to avoid suspicion from the Tian Feng tribe, Ouyang Shuo ordered the cavalry unit to return back to the camp immediately after they crossed the river. The same went for the warhorses seized in the battle. The warhorses couldn't be dispatched to the cavalry unit now or it would only be sheer self-exposure. Since there was not enough Mingguang armor, riding or not riding the warhorse wasn't really an issue now.

The 100 Qingfu stallions were transferred by the Transportation Division to the horse breeding field in Ji Feng Valley, whereas the 304 Qingfu warhorses and the thousands of sheep were kept in Shanhai Town's pastures on the west side of the town. The pasture, after a few upgrades, now occupied a land area up to 50 square kilometers. This pasture was divided into a few areas for the pigs, sheep, and now the horses. Out of convenience, the pasture was named West City pasture by Ouyang Shuo.

About operation "Dawn", as everything about the operation was executed secretly, it did not causes any chain reactions amongst the people of Shanhai Town. Everything was going on as usual because of this reason.

However, this massacre caused a great uproar amongst the other nomadic tribes.

_Shen Juan Lake, Tian Qi tribe Warchief's Tent._

"Khan, the scouts have brought news about the Tian Lian tribe located in the southwest. The tribe was burnt to ashes in one night, and there were no survivors. All of their 800 people were slaughtered." said a muscular and bearded middle-aged man. He is the first member of the 3 generals in the Tian Qi tribe, known as Lion of the Grassland, Lhakhshen.

The Tian Qi tribe had 30,000 tribal people with 12,000 of them being soldiers. Among the 12,000 soldiers, 2000 of them were the elite of the elites and they were the elite guards for the Khan. They were placed under the lead of the 2nd member of the 3 generals in the tribe, and also one of the Khan's most trusted generals, known as Wolf of the Grassland, Boraktyna.

The rest of the 10,000 soldiers were separated into 2 divisions, which was the eastern division and western division, consisting of 5000 soldiers each. They were responsible for the defense of the eastern and western parts of the tribe. The eastern division was placed under the command of Lhakhshen, whereas the western division was placed under the command of the last member of the 3 generals of the tribe, known as the Black Tiger of the Grassland, Daiqin.

The tribe that was annihilated by Shanhai Town belonged under the jurisdiction of the western division. Therefore, as soon as Lakhshen received the news that Tian Lian Tribe was wiped out, he quickly reported it to his Khan, Mengke, as quickly as he could.

Mengke was a man who was reaching his fifties, and was considered to be a man of the elder age group in the savanna. His previous handsome face was now full of wrinkles, and his thick and curly hair was turning white. All of these things were indicating that this man was really getting old now. Despite all of this, no one had ever dared to be disrespectful to Mengke. This was because it was not only because of his majestic aura, but also the respect deep in their hearts.

Mengke inherited his father's position of the Khan and took over the scepter and crown passed down to him when he was 14 years old. When he took over his father's position, a strong vassal called Gru took advantage of Mengke's young age and treated him as a puppet. The tyrant used Mengke's name to control the entire tribe.