After all, they shared the same language and ancestry. Once absorbed, they would soon become one people. Such things were hardly uncommon in the Black Rock Mountains.
Farther away, though, it was a different story. Rumor had it that the Ancestral Gods there favored Blood Sacrifice... Once defeated and taken prisoner, people often ended up as offerings.
Tang Changsheng led his Warriors to the Flower-Foot Stockade and took the entire Tribal Stockade without much trouble.
In fact, when the elderly, women, and children of the Flower-Foot Stockade saw the Hongdong Barbarians coming instead of their own Warriors returning, they understood what had happened. They offered no resistance, letting the Hongdong Warriors take control with ease.
Everything went even more smoothly than Tang Changsheng's most optimistic expectations!
With that done, Tang Changsheng withdrew behind the scenes once more. Having a father in the prime of his life was not always a bad thing. At least he could hand off these tedious affairs instead of dealing with them himself.
After absorbing the Flower-Foot Barbarians, Tang Changsheng had more than two hundred Warriors under his command and a population of over eight hundred. He now commanded a modest force.
The Red Trial had no specific objective. It was simply a matter of slipping behind enemy lines to scout and sabotage. It bore a certain resemblance to modern special operations...
For Tang Changsheng, however, what mattered now was lying low while quietly building his strength and waiting for his chance!
After taking the Flower-Foot Barbarians' Tribal Stockade, the first thing Tang Changsheng did was visit their Ancestral Cave.
The Shaman Barbarians were also called Tribal Stockade Barbarians because they liked living in caves. Both the Hongdong Barbarians and the Flower-Foot Barbarians had a cave within their stockades.
Tang Changsheng now stood inside the Flower-Foot