Chapter 062: Implementing Stern Measures

Extracting the still-living livestock from the artificial river required significant time and effort, but Luo Chong remained vigilant about the lurking wolf pack in the forest. Concerned about a potential sneak attack, he decided to mollify the wolves by dragging two dead boars to the forest edge, offering a peace gesture of sorts. It wasn't a permanent solution, but a temporary compromise to buy time. All Luo Chong needed was one day to secure the livestock; afterward, he wouldn't mind another round with the wolf pack if necessary.

After a strenuous hour, all scattered animal carcasses had been hauled inside the walls. As it was already deep into the night and a full moon illuminated the surroundings, the weary tribespeople finally had a chance to relax. Luo Chong organized shifts for keeping watch and ordered some women to butcher a boar, providing a much-needed hearty meal of roast meat and unlimited broth for everyone. They had worked hard throughout the night, fighting and toiling, and now, with their bellies full, they faced more tasks at dawn.

At the forest's edge, the wolf pack uneasily consumed the food Luo Chong had left, while inside the Han tribe's walls, the people enjoyed their tasty midnight feast. Having endured a diet of dried meat and soup for three months, the fresh roast was a welcome change. As they feasted, the men boasted about their exploits against the wolves, discussing the rewards they'd earn.

After the meal and as dawn approached, Luo Chong divided the seventy adults into four groups. One group of ten was assigned to stand guard and patrol the walls. Another twenty were tasked with repairing the walls and pens. The remaining forty, equipped with tools, followed Luo Chong outside the enclosure.

They carried copper shovels for digging, ropes for tying, hand saws for cutting through bone, and two copper rods Luo Chong had bent into hooks. First, they built an inclined ramp on the north side of the river, narrow enough to allow only one animal at a time, ensuring that once on the ramp, the animals could not turn around or escape.

For nearly three hours, they constructed wooden barriers with sturdy, four-meter-long poles, half-buried in the ground, with the tops secured by horizontal beams forming a corridor leading from the ramp to the pen. Once this setup was complete, Luo Chong brought over a basket of charcoal and bricks to build a temporary forge, where he heated the copper hooks until they glowed red.

With the preparations in place, Luo Chong signaled for the operations to begin. Using a bundle of hay as bait, they lured the first animal, an alpaca, up the ramp. The creature, more bewildered than resistant, was quickly trapped between the poles and secured with ropes by six men, who then led it, unresisting, into the enclosure.

The second animal, a bull, charged up the ramp in a frenzy and slammed into a barrier at the top. Luo Chong didn't give it a chance to recover or retaliate. He immobilized it with poles and ropes secured to its massive horns, pulling it taut to restrict its head movements.

As Luo Chong approached the restrained bull with the red-hot copper hook, the animal's panic was palpable. Its breaths came out in visible puffs of steam in the cold air, and its eyes widened in fear. With a swift movement, Luo Chong pierced the septum between the bull's nostrils with the heated hook, eliciting a deafening bellow of pain that echoed through the area. The smell of seared flesh filled the air, a harsh reminder of the brutal necessities of domestication.

This method, though crude and seemingly cruel, was a practical application of ancient techniques under the circumstances. Without modern veterinary tools or antibiotics, high-temperature cauterization served as Luo Chong's best option for preventing infection during the cold season, which minimized bacterial activity.

The day's work continued with Luo Chong systematically applying nose rings to the captured cattle, a method proven over centuries to be effective in handling large, aggressive animals. Each beast, once subdued and marked, was led into the newly fortified enclosure, where it joined the growing herd of the Han tribe's livestock.

As the sun climbed higher and the people of the Han tribe labored under Luo Chong's direction, a new order began to establish itself within the walls. Despite the harshness of their methods, the necessity of securing and expanding their resources was a stark reality they could not ignore. This was survival at its most primal, dictated by the laws of nature and the demands of a harsh, unforgiving landscape.