Bang!
A muffled boom abruptly shattered the grassland's tranquility.
The left eye of a wild buffalo grazing by the riverbank suddenly burst into a vivid spray of blood. Its massive body instantly lost balance and crashed heavily to the ground.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Before the other buffalo could react, the same thunderous reports rose and fell in rapid succession.
One buffalo after another either died on the spot or went mad with pain from their wounds, charging wildly in every direction. The entire herd plunged into utter chaos.
Yet the hunters rode in from different directions on swift horses. Clouds of white smoke billowed from their muskets as they fired deadly lead balls, killing every surviving buffalo.
These wild buffalo were a specialty of the West Sea Great Grassland. Huge and powerfully built, an adult bull could weigh more than two thousand jin. With the force of its charge and its pair of sharp horns, even a black bear would flee in panic upon encountering one.
Because buffalo traveled in herds and were individually formidable, only a small number of clever, battle-hardened hunters dared hunt them. One careless mistake could cost them their lives.
Yet before a hunting party equipped with heavy muskets, these local tyrants of the grasslands became lambs awaiting the slaughter!
They wailed as they collapsed into pools of blood. Only a few cows and calves were deliberately spared by the hunters, fleeing into the distance in terror.
"Victory!"
Cheers of triumph erupted among the hunters.
Wang Chen smiled faintly and tossed his emptied long musket to the personal guard beside him.
To receive and settle the approaching tide of refugees, West Sea prefecture city, whose situation had only just stabilized, tightened its bowstring once more and began operating at extraordinary speed and efficiency.
On one hand,