Chapter 78 Heavy Rain

On July 14, the Hua family caravan followed closely behind the Jia family caravan, driving quickly on the Linhu grassland.

The weather was good in the morning, but it started to drizzle at noon. Hua Kai saw his fifth uncle Hua Zichen running from a distance with a team of slaves. He had just chased a hundred-man horse bandit team. Seeing that they were pulling more than ten horses behind them, he had a good harvest this time.

These few days after leaving the rocky beach, they have been harassed by these small teams of horse bandits. Those horse bandits have been following the caravan about 200 meters away. When they see the caravan guards far away, they will come forward to attack the caravan carriages, slaves, and horses. It is very annoying.

Hua Kai asked his grandfather, fifth uncle, and Yu Jun to each lead a team of slaves, riding BMWs and chasing the horse bandits when they saw them.

Most of the horse bandits were just strong horses, and they were quickly caught up when they encountered the Hua family's BMWs. Most of these small horse teams only had one or two people in the Qidong realm, so how could they be the opponent of the Hua family. Every time Uncle Wu and his men went out, they could seize something, so the number of times the entire Guangxian merchant group was harassed began to decrease.

"Kai'er, your grandfather said that the weather is very wrong now. It looks like it's going to rain heavily. We have to find a good hillside quickly, otherwise it will be difficult to set up camp." Hua Zichen came to Hua Kai and said.

Although Hua Kai can't read the sky, it has been cloudy and rainy this day, and it is estimated that it will be difficult to clear up in the next few days. Finding a hillside to camp is to ensure that the camp is dry and the other is to ensure the safety of the camp. This is common sense for merchants.

Hua Kai just saw a small mound not far away and was about to go there. The Han family flag had already headed there, so Hua Kai had to lead the caravan to continue moving forward in the rain. After walking more than ten miles, he finally found another hill, but the distance was a little far. Seeing that the Jia family seemed unwilling to go there, Hua Kai led the Hua family caravan to the hill.

The grass became a little soft on rainy days, and it was very difficult for the caravan to walk. This was also an area where horse bandits were rampant. Several major tribes in Linhu grassland didn't care much about this place, so the caravan had to stop here for a few days.

Dragging their tired bodies, everyone in the caravan felt that it was not easy to travel. Some slaves began to build tents, and some slaves took the preserved dry cow dung from the carriages and prepared to make a fire. Hua Xing settled all the horses down to Hua Kai.

"I think this rain will last at least three to five days. We must find a water source, otherwise the water we brought will not be enough." Hua Xing said.

"This rain came at a really bad time. It is still 2,000 miles away from the Aohan tribe. It looks like it will be difficult to get there by the end of this month. All tents should be set up closer to be careful of being attacked by those horse bandits." Hua Kai saw that his main tent had been set up, so he went into the tent and took the fur handed over by a female slave and wiped the rain off his body and said.

"Well, we have sent people to watch around the car formation! If the rain lasts too long, it will be difficult to go home this year." Hua Xing said with a worried face.

The later you go home, the more difficulties you will encounter on the road. Along the way, horse bandits and mountain bandits like to attack the last and slowest caravans. Therefore, all caravans basically have to cross Hutuo Mountain by the end of September, otherwise it is better not to go home this year.

Hua Zichen and others commanded everyone to move the furs on the carriages into the tents. The furs are easily corroded by rain. Wei Baotou asked people to arrange the car formation as compactly as possible to avoid loopholes for the horse bandits to attack.

After everything was settled and everyone had lunch, Hua Xing took several family servants to find water sources.

Finding water sources on the grassland is a necessary skill for all caravans to survive, but the heavier the rain outside, the more difficult it is to find water. Hua Kai asked the slaves to put all the leather bags that can hold water outside the tent to collect rainwater. If Grandpa can't find a water source, these rainwater can more or less support.

In the afternoon, Uncle Wu started to organize all the slaves and have them give them political lessons. Although it was not very clever to force the slaves to be loyal to the family and the head of the family, the effect was still very good.

Hua Zichen is the strongest fighting force of the Hua family now, and he is also Hua Kai's uncle. Hua Kai intends to improve his prestige in the family.

The original main members of the Hua family were only 300 people. The village has accepted 300 new villagers this year. When the caravan returns, the population will increase by more than 400 people. The composition of the family members has become complicated all of a sudden.

When more than 400 new people arrive at Huajiabao, their role and prestige in the Hua family will definitely become greater and greater. If the Hua family wants to really send these 400 people into the family, Uncle Wu must play a role. After all, he and his grandfather cannot favor the new people too much.

Hua Kai checks the family panel in the main account.

Huajiabao: Not in the rank

Prosperity: 249

Combat power: 261

Agriculture: 87

Animal Husbandry: 128

Commerce: 116

Culture: 41

Comprehensive strength: 882

Allies: Ordos Tribe, Jia Family

Funds: 86 taels of gold, 1549 taels of silver, 93282 bone coins

Hostile forces: Hutuo Mountain, Guangxian Shen Family (ninth rank)

Luck value: 488

Portable space: 3 cubic meters

The family's various attributes are steadily increasing. In the past few days, every time the caravan defeated a small group of horse bandits, it could gain a few points of luck. It has been less than 20 days since the last time the alchemy was used to improve the level of the portable space, and the luck value has risen to 488 points.

It stands to reason that the family's luck value is better to upgrade the family's mental skills and martial arts. Martial arts represent a person's combat power, and mental skills affect his training speed. But Hua Kai feels that it is most important to continue to improve the family's combat power.

As the family's overall strength increases, it becomes easier to obtain luck points. The improvement of the family's combat power can quickly improve the family's overall strength and luck improvement speed. Looking at the 488 points of luck points, Hua Kai plans to forge weapons first, thinking that this is the most urgent matter at present.

The cheapest weapon in the [Weapon Shop] suitable for the Hua family's [Sky-Splitting Gun], the [Silver Bright Gun], is mainly forged with meteorite iron and silver, and there is also a small amount of gold and other materials Hua Kai has here.

It's just that the forging of the ordinary 2nd-level [Silver Bright Gun] requires 125 points of family luck points. Hua Kai entered the space to tailor weapons for the Fifth Uncle and Hua Fu Guandu's family, so that they can exert their full strength.

After forging the two [Silver Bright Guns], there are still 233 points of family luck points left, which is a safe number. Hua Kai checked the list of family members in the [Family Secret Realm Space], called all the people on the list into the main account one by one, and let them enter the [Asking the Sky Stone] secret realm.

Entering the [Asking Heaven Stone] secret realm every once in a while, everyone will know what their own problems are, so that everyone will not take detours in cultivation.

At night, grandpa came back from looking for water sources. They found a small river 30 miles south of the caravan station, so the family finally didn't have to worry about running out of water.

All the people in the Hua family caravan stayed in the tent for five consecutive days, and were not harassed by any horse bandits during the period, but Hua Kai was not happy at all.

The rain didn't seem to stop. The grass on the grassland had been soaked in water for so long that it had become very soft. It would be very difficult for the carriage to move. I don't know how many caravans will suffer from this heavy rain this year.

The number of reserve servants of the Hua family caravan has exceeded 200 people, and the number of slaves in the ten slave teams is getting smaller and smaller, especially the first slave team, which now has less than 10 people, and the number of slave teams 2, 6, and 8 is less than half of the peak period. Hua Kai plans to take this opportunity to rest and reorganize the caravan.

Because more and more people have comprehended the family's mental methods and martial arts recently, the official members of the caravan have reached 143. Excluding women and children who have no combat power, Hua Kai selected 50 members above the Kaiyuan realm to form the main cavalry team.

Then all the young and strong men of the reserve family servants were organized into the second cavalry team, with 50 people, and the remaining more than 100 people were responsible for the feeding of the caravan horses and the daily life of the caravan.

The loyalty of the remaining 200 slaves is now above 30 points. Among them, there are less than 100 women and children, all of whom are organized into one team, and the remaining more than 100 slaves are organized into two teams. In this way, the entire caravan was reduced to five teams, and the caravan's flexibility was greatly increased. Before returning to Huajiabao, Hua Kai did not plan to make any more changes.

Grandpa Hua Xing finally broke through to the 4th level of Qi training in the secret realm these days. With his talent, it is more difficult to break through again after entering the middle stage of Qi training.

Since the last battle between the Ordos tribe and the Wuzhui tribe, the fifth uncle has not moved since breaking through the 7th level of Qi training. Yu Jun is still at the 8th level of Qi training.

Seeing that the loyalty of all family members is growing, more than ten new members have loyalty exceeding 80 points. Hua Kai hopes that one of them will surpass 95 points as soon as possible, so that they can enter the [Family Secret Space] trial to improve their strength.

On the eighth day of being trapped in the rain on the Linhu grassland, the caravan had almost eaten all the food and grass. Because there were supplies on the road, the general caravan only brought about 10 days of food and grass at most, and the Hua family began to kill the captured horses to fill their stomachs.

The rain was a little lighter this morning. Hua Kai was sorting out the manuscript of "Three Kingdoms" in the main account, and saw Er Zhuang walking in all wet.

"Er Zhuang, did you come back from fetching water from the river?" Hua Kai asked.

"Master, I just saw a caravan of merchants rushing in the rain! Many people have caught colds in the rain these days. How long do we have to wait here?"

Er Zhuang also knew that the Hua family caravan would be more dangerous if they delayed any further, and said to Hua Kai anxiously.

Hua Kai left the main tent and looked around. In the distance, dozens of carriages were struggling in the rain. They were probably three caravans. They were afraid that they would not be able to go home this year, so they started to travel in the rain.

"I think it will rain for at least a few days. The wet grass is not suitable for the caravan to walk. They are so tired that they can only walk 30 miles a day. Let's wait and see." Hua Kai thought for a while and said.

In the evening, grandpa went home and told Hua Kai that many people in the caravan were getting worse and worse in the past few days. Even good people would get sick in such a bad weather.

And the dry cow dung brought by the caravan was almost gone, which was the most serious.

"Grandpa, there is still some cooked meat in the space, but it can't support 500 people for a meal. Don't we bring dried spirit cattle? Let's divide these cooked foods tomorrow morning, eat horse meat as usual at noon, and eat dried spirit beef in the evening!" Hua Kai thought for a while and whispered.

"This... How can this be? One pound of dried spiritual cattle is worth at least one gold coin, and it is rare in the whole Qi State..."

"Eat it! If you don't eat it, the caravan will collapse when the rain stops!"

One reason why dried spiritual cattle are so valuable is that there is still rich energy in the meat of wild beasts, which can promote the cultivation of ordinary people. Now let everyone eat some dried spiritual cattle, and all minor illnesses and difficulties can be cured.

The dried spiritual cattle of the Hua family weighs more than 4,000 pounds. Excluding some bones and meat, it can weigh about 3,000 pounds. It is enough for ordinary people to eat half a pound in one meal, so they can last at least more than ten days.