A Massive Herd of Yellow Sheep

The next morning, after finishing his morning exercise, Victor set off with his men.

Luda originally wanted to go to Blue Lake with Victor, but Victor stopped her.

"Your most important task now is to start preparing for the reclamation work. Fortunately, the snow hasn't frozen yet. After some simple clearing, you can sow another batch of winter wheat while there's still time."

"I understand, sir. I will prepare well, and I wish you a safe journey."

After Victor said that, Luda didn't insist anymore, nor did she mention sending someone to escort Victor.

After all, Victor's small unit already had more than 500 elite Cavalry, and even if all the able-bodied men under his command were selected, they would not be able to match this unit.

Victor led his troops northward. The winter grasslands were vast and boundless, a blanket of white as far as the eye could see. Fortunately, the weather was clear, and they could determine their direction by the position of the Sun.

After advancing due north for some time, several scouts who had gone ahead to scout returned.

Victor was a little curious. These patrol riders on the perimeter were supposed to be conducting reconnaissance 20 kilometers away from the main force. How come they returned so soon after leaving the main force?

When Victor saw the Rangers running over, he reached up and pulled down his sunglasses.

Snow blindness is the biggest danger when walking on the snowfield. Fortunately, the Barbarians have already developed a solution. There are several places in the Northlands Wasteland with readily available mica mines. The Barbarians used black mica sheets to make simple sunglasses to deal with snow blindness.

The riders ran up to Victor and said, "Sir, we've spotted a herd of gazelles."

Victor found it a bit strange. Gazelles were everywhere on this grassland. When Victor first came to the Two Rivers Territory, he even used the hunting of gazelles for military exercises.

After that, it became a practice, and even now, the various detachments in the Two Rivers Territory still organize similar hunts for training.

Seeing Victor's strange expression, another ranger added, "What a huge herd of gazelles, my lord! I've never seen so many gazelles before!"

Victor was even more puzzled after hearing this. Herds of gazelles can indeed be very large, sometimes numbering in the thousands. However, among the Ranger Cavalry in front of him were some Barbarians. Even they were surprised. Could it be that this herd of gazelles was really that large?

"Your Excellency, that herd of gazelles is enormous, at least 100,000!"

At this point, the first Ranger Cavalry added, but someone quickly retorted, "No, I think it's at least two hundred thousand!"

"I estimate there are over 500,000, after all, we haven't even seen the boundary of this herd of gazelles!"

As a result, the Ranger Cavalry got into an argument.

The guards standing nearby found it incredible, since everyone had seen and even caught gazelles, but no one had ever seen a herd of hundreds of thousands of gazelles like the ones they were talking about!

They listened to the riders' argument with great excitement, and some even looked at Victor expectantly, perhaps hoping that the Viscount would take them to see it.

Victor was also curious. Seeing the increasingly lively scene around them, he decided to temporarily change the route and lead the team to take a look.

"Alright, enough arguing. Let's change our route and take me to see what's going on!"

Soon, the entire group, guided by the rangers, headed northwest. After only a quarter of an hour, Victor could see a brownish-yellow mass moving across the distant snowfield, completely covering it and obscuring its boundaries.

Victor considered that his team was too large and that getting too close might disturb the sheep, so he temporarily divided his forces.

The Light Cavalry detachment remained in place, while Victor led his guards to scout ahead with the Ranger Cavalry.

Victor followed the horsemen forward, getting closer and closer to the flock of sheep. He was increasingly surprised. According to his estimate, the flock he could see in front of him alone numbered in the tens of thousands, covering more than ten square kilometers of snowfield, not to mention the flocks that were not visible in the distance.

According to Victor, this was simply impossible; it was a violation of the laws of nature.

No place could possibly support such a large flock of sheep; wherever they went, the damage to the grassland ecosystem would be devastating.

Sure enough, as Victor got closer to the flock, he discovered that the snow around the sheep had been turned over, and the sheep were frantically eating the dry grass under the snow, pulling it up by the roots and eating it clean.

The sheep graze as they move forward, the melted snow water from their body heat mixing with the turned-up soil, leaving patches of black stains on the snow.

This huge flock of sheep was not afraid of people at all; they simply moved away slowly as Victor's group approached.

Several guards tried to shoot arrows at the lone sheep, but the other sheep didn't care at all.

The soldiers quickly retrieved the sheep that had been shot. Victor examined them closely and found that the gazelles looked no different from others and appeared to be healthy, except that they looked a little thin, probably because of the winter.

The soldiers looked at Victor with excitement. Knowing what they were thinking, Victor nodded, indicating that they were free to act as they pleased.

Victor then sent word to the Cavalry behind him to come and hunt gazelles together.

Soon the soldiers began hunting in groups of three or five, and seeing more and more of their kind being shot, the gazelle herd began to react.

The gazelles started bleating and ran in the opposite direction from Victor and his group, but the flock was too large and too numerous for them to move.

Victor also noticed that a pack of wolves, at least a hundred, were following behind the herd of gazelles. These wolves completely ignored Victor and his companions.

They were all chubby and looked very full.

Soon the Cavalry from the rear also arrived and joined the hunt, which yielded a bountiful catch.