Chapter 47: The Melancholy of the Headhunting Rabbit Queen
When the time-traveling rabbit master Ivan was immersed in a feast of pleasure in the royal tent, and was being "worked hard" by a group of estrus bunny girls, and was about to be squeezed into "medicine residue", his white and rich beauty My dear wife, candle thorn The chief of the tribe, and of course Queen Tiurei who is currently the co-owner of all Headhunting Rabbits, is wearing a luxurious purple woolen cloak and riding a maroon pony, patrolling the current settlement of the bunny girls.
In general, even with the help of the Infinite Space Samsara Team, which thwarted the crusade of the empire's eldest prince Soshar, Tiurei's tribe is still living in poverty and embarrassment. The previous cities and towns that had been built with painstaking efforts by generations of ancestors had already been completely burned down by the Imperial Crusade, and they would not be able to be rebuilt for a while. At present, the so-called settlement of the Candlethorn Tribe is nothing more than a shabby tent city. No matter whether they are Headhunter Rabbit nobles or commoners, they can only huddle in simple tents with air leakage from all directions, hugging each other around the firepit or stove and shivering.
There are also quite a few of the poorest bunny girls who can't even afford a tent, so they have to use their wild talents as rabbits to dig caves in the ground with their paws to avoid the severe cold and frost and snow of the grassland in winter, and then live in the caves A straw shed was randomly built at the exit to block the wind.
Among such tattered and messy tents and shacks, Queen Tiurei's luxurious golden tent stands out and is particularly eye-catching.
However, Queen Tiurei has no qualms about this: whether it is the queen's golden tent in the distance made of double-layered cowhide, or the luxurious cloak she is wearing now, they were all from the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Crusade Army. The trophies seized from the First Prince Shar... Since they are royal items for the imperial royal family, no human chamber of commerce is willing to take over these items, so they cannot be sold at all, so naturally they have to keep them for their own use.
Besides, no matter what, as the king of a country, you still have to have the necessary pomp. Queen Tiurei's palace has been destroyed in the war. If she can't even get a luxurious royal tent, and even a queen like her has to live in a cave, I'm afraid it will be even more looked down upon.
After checking around and confirming that no one's tent seemed to have been collapsed by the snow today, Queen Tiurei came to the only solid stone house in the entire Candlethorn Tribe settlement - which contained 10,000 of the clan's tents. A large storehouse of food and fuel for the winter.
Then, after flipping through the account books handed over by the warehouse manager, Queen Tiure, who had been neglecting political affairs recently because of her pregnancy, couldn't help but lament: "...Oh, this year has been a serious deficit again...if it continues like this , I’m afraid they will eat grass next year!”
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Generally speaking, the Headhunting Rabbit tribe on the Falmat continent should be regarded as a semi-agricultural and semi-nomadic people in a matrilineal clan society. But regardless of farming, nomadism, hunting, mining or warfare, these bunny-eared girls are actually doing very badly - farming is not as good as humans, herding is not as good as orcs, and hunting is not as good as elves. In addition, although rabbit-eared girls are as good at digging holes as rabbits, they basically don't know how to smelt. Therefore, even if they dig out ore, they must find dwarves or humans to jointly develop the ore veins and endure their tapping and exploitation in order to barely make a profit. Get a small amount of hard-earned money.
In small-scale armed conflicts, the fierce and bloodthirsty female headhunting rabbit warriors are certainly formidable. However, this is just the courage of an ordinary man. Once an armed conflict rises to the level of a large-scale war, the headhunting rabbits who are scattered, lack discipline, and have poor organization will quickly expose their weakness of being unable to succeed: the entire headhunting rabbit group on the grassland has always been a group of tribes, attacking each other. It goes on and on, there is no unity and unity at all. Queen Tiurei was never the common leader of all the headhunting rabbits on the grassland, she was just the queen of the largest Candlethorn tribe. Now, because the rest of the Headhunting Rabbit tribes on the grassland have been wiped out by the Imperial Crusade Army and the human slave-catching team, and only the Queen's own tribe is left, theoretical unification has been achieved at the expense of the grassland. The number of headhunting rabbits on board was reduced sharply to just over 10,000 during the war.
So, since the Headhunting Rabbits are actually such a half-baked ethnic group with a loose and backward social system, low productivity levels, and little success in all aspects, how did they become the overlords of the vast prairie, and even let this prairie be called What about "Headhunting Rabbit Grassland"?
The reason is simple. When the tiger is chasing you, you don't need to run faster than the tiger. As long as you run faster than your companions, you can survive to the end.
——Before the headhunting rabbits dominated the grassland, these violent bunny girls had other competitors on this grassland, such as tiger men, lion men, werewolves, dog tribes, cats and barbarian nomads, etc., because they once attacked the south The human kingdoms had posed serious threats, and as a result, they had become the key targets of the empire one by one. In the past few hundred years, they had all been destroyed one after another in retaliatory and bloody conquests by the imperial expeditionary forces.
Then, just like what happened on the earth, even if the empire as an agricultural civilization defeated the nomads on the grasslands, it would not be able to establish a stable rule for a long time on the grasslands where it is difficult to grow crops. Furthermore, considering the vast population of Falmat continent, Due to the current situation of sparseness, after each successful expedition to the prairie, the imperial rulers could only kidnap members of the defeated tribes and use them as slaves, while leaving the empty grasslands and abandoning them.
As a result, the headhunting rabbit, who was beaten to pieces in front of werewolves, tigers, lions and barbarians and had to hide in Tibet, has been ignored by the human regime because he has not posed a threat to humans for a long time. It actually gradually became the last independent ethnic group on the prairie. Therefore, as the former strong men on the grassland were destroyed one by one by the human army, the Headhunter Rabbit, who was once in a desperate situation and could only survive, naturally turned over and filled the living space left by the disappearance of its old opponents. It was very enjoyable. A period of golden years when "there were no tigers in the grasslands and rabbits were kings"...until they once again attracted the empire's attention and became the empire's key targets.
It can be seen that although the current decline of the Headhunting Rabbit is due to the empire's conquests, the previous prosperity of the Headhunting Rabbit also relied on the empire's killings.
Just like the passenger pigeon that once inhabited North America, this bird, which was originally not very numerous, soon disappeared as white colonists landed in North America and massacred the Indians with bullets and viruses, causing the indigenous hunters and gatherers to disappear rapidly. , there were no longer any natural enemies to hunt passenger pigeons, or compete with them for acorns for food. As a result, the number of passenger pigeons in North America increased more than a thousand times in a short period of time, and even became the largest number in the world in the 18th century. One of the most abundant birds. Passenger pigeons once accounted for a quarter of all North American bird species. Passenger pigeons fly in huge colonies, up to a mile wide and several miles long, which can be said to block out the sun and can strip a large forest of nuts in a few days.
But then, as the number of white colonists increased and they continued to expand westward, they hunted passenger pigeons for meat, and cut down and destroyed the forests that provided food for the passenger pigeons. As a result, the number at its peak was as high as 5 billion. The North American passenger pigeon declined sharply in a short period of time, becoming an endangered species by the end of the 19th century, and was eventually completely extinct in the early 20th century, leaving humans stunned.
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Closer to home, in the previous brutal conquests by the empire, the Headhunting Rabbit tribe on the grassland suffered a devastating blow. By the time the Infinite Space Samsara Team intervened in the name of "God's Envoy", the Headhunting Rabbit was actually at the end of its rope, almost to the point where it had only its last breath left.
Next, although relying on the fierce power of the infinite space reincarnation, the remaining female headhunting rabbit warriors easily wiped out the imperial crusade that penetrated into the grassland, and even captured the imperial prince Soshar, forcing the imperial Senate to apologize and pay for their crimes. The money to redeem people was a big sigh of relief. However, the tribesmen who have been killed and kidnapped, and the cities that have been burned and destroyed can never come back. The dwarf craftsmen who once cooperated with Headhunter Rabbit to develop mines and make money were also massacred and kidnapped by the imperial soldiers, leaving only a devastated and barren land.
The house leaked and it rained all night, finally forcing the empire to withdraw its troops. Last winter there was a severe white plague on the grassland. Under the attack of heavy snow and cold current, there were not many cattle, sheep and camels left in the pen of the Headhunting Rabbit tribe. , nearly half of them froze to death, and many old and weak tribesmen also unfortunately froze to death or were crushed to death by heavy snow. By the time the spring fails this year, the Headhunting Rabbit clan has almost no income and has to rely on the empire's defeat indemnity to purchase food. After being squeezed by profiteers by raising prices, the huge sum of money that originally seemed to be a lot soon became depleted.
"...There is no more cured meat. If you want to eat meat, you can only slaughter animals. There is only enough wheat and barley for another month. The lowest quality rye will be used up by next spring. In the public treasury of the clan There are still a total of twenty-nine Swinney gold coins, one hundred and eighty-five Singer gold coins, and a small amount of Dina silver coins and low-quality copper coins. With the prices offered by those profiteers, I am afraid that everyone will not be able to buy much food by then. They have to eat grass to survive..."
Delilah, who is now responsible for managing the public accounts of the Headhunting Rabbit Tribe, reported to Queen Tiurei with a mournful face--Unlike a pure-blood bunny-eared girl like the Queen, Delilah was born to a human male and a Headhunting female. The civilian half-breed rabbit, although he has a pretty good mind because he often interacts with foreign caravans, and his personal force is considered to be the best among civilians, but according to his status, he is definitely not qualified to be in charge of warehouses.
However, after experiencing the catastrophe of the empire's crusade, the entire Headhunting Rabbit aristocracy was in shambles and there was not much left. Queen Tiurei's account had no one available for a while, especially the lack of a secretary with good brains and good at numbers. and accountant, so I had no choice but to promote Delila to take over first.
In the Falmat continent, Swinney gold coins are the most valuable currency. The gold content of a Swinney gold coin is about 60 grams, but the minting volume is very rare and rarely appears on the market. People who get this high-quality gold coin usually collect it and are reluctant to use it. If it hadn't been for capturing the eldest prince of the empire this time and extorting a ransom from the royal treasury, it would have been difficult for the Headhunting Rabbit tribe to obtain this rare item.
The gold coins with the largest circulation in the Falmat mainland market are the Singer gold coins minted by the empire. It is smaller than the Swinney gold coin and contains about ten grams of gold. As for the large coins used by ordinary people in their daily lives, they are mainly Dina silver coins. The salary of imperial soldiers is another type of Soldan silver coin. Strictly speaking, it should be regarded as a kind of military ticket. Each soldier's daily salary is exactly one Soldan.
There are also some inferior small silver coins and copper coins below, because there are so many countries and cities that have issued coins on the Falmat continent, and the exchange rates between them are extremely confusing. In different regions and at different times, Price comparisons vary widely, making it difficult to generalize.
Of course, no matter how the price comparisons and actual purchasing power of these messy currencies fluctuate, just relying on such a small amount of money will definitely be a drop in the bucket for the more than 10,000 "rabbits" of the entire headhunting rabbit tribe - although Compared with the many "rabbits" that the Headhunting Rabbit Grassland had in its heyday before the war, the more than 10,000 "rabbits" in this settlement now are already the last remaining species... …
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"...The number of livestock that was reduced due to the white disaster last year has not recovered yet. The remaining cattle, sheep and camels cannot be slaughtered anymore!"
Seeing this, another noble bunny girl who was accompanying him quickly intervened and said, "...otherwise, these limited grains will be given priority to pregnant women and warriors. As for the old and weak members of the clan, as well as those who have not received errands, , let them survive for a while by eating grass!”
——Unlike human nomads, headhunting rabbits are livestock themselves and can barely survive by eating grass. But if this happens, she will not be able to absorb enough nutrients for a long time, causing the bunny girl's body to become extremely weak. Not to mention fighting enemies and beasts, she even lacks physical strength for normal work. As for the pregnant bunny girl, due to the body's self-protection mechanism, she will definitely miscarry due to lack of nutrition...
"...My lords, this won't work! Don't forget, it's winter now when everything is withered! Where can we get the grass in the ground for us to chew on? It will take several months until the spring grass sprouts! Tribesmen The hay stored is used to feed livestock.”
Delilah, the warehouse manager, heard this and immediately retorted, "...if the animals starved to death after eating hay, wouldn't it be worth the loss? Moreover, this winter is also very cold, and it will be difficult for people who are not strong enough to survive. If only If we eat hay, we don’t know how many people will die in the entire tribe!”
After hearing this, the headhunting female nobles who gathered around Queen Tiurei could not help but frown slightly, but they could not think of any more suitable solution - the wise men and elders in the tribe had already been basically killed or injured in the war. After all, the rest are some "violent hares" with strong muscles and simple minds. It's okay for them to raise their daggers and war hammers to fight the enemy, but it's too difficult for them to come up with an idea.
"...Otherwise, let Sir Ivan's breeding and breeding operations stop for a while, and don't add more pregnant women. Moreover, I think Sir Ivan is really tired these days, and I'm afraid he needs to rest. It will only take a few days." After thinking hard for a long time, a bunny girl came up. This proposal says that compared to normal conditions, a pregnant headhunter bunny girl needs to consume more food, and as the only "male rabbit" in the group, Ivan is almost squeezed to the limit of juice, no matter what food is given to him No matter how great the supplements are, the effect they can achieve is getting worse and worse.
"... This is okay... but I'm afraid it won't save much food consumption... Alas, after so long of hard work, only a total of more than 200 sisters have become pregnant, leaving dear Ivan alone to be responsible for the reproduction of our entire tribe. , is it really a bit too forced? ”
Queen Tiurei nodded, then rubbed her temples and muttered - although Ivan has become her husband, she doesn't mind if Ivan has a baby with other headhunting rabbit women. Because Headhunter Rabbit, who lives in a matrilineal clan society and values girls over boys, does not actually have the concept of marriage in the true sense. In the eyes of Queen Tiurei, the actual status of Ivan, the rare "divine male rabbit", is probably similar to that of her exclusive pet. Since it is your own pet, it is normal and even something worthy of showing off for your good friends to play with to deepen their relationship.
Unless Ivan dares to cheat outside the tribe and have sex with women of other races, in that case, Queen Tiurei will feel betrayed. Among the more than 10,000 female rabbits in the Headhunting Rabbit Tribe, it is reasonable for Ivan to have sex with any one he wants.
Despite this, Mr. Rabbit Ivan's "hard work" in the past few months has still yielded very limited results - although the headhunting rabbit has a short pregnancy period and can give birth to babies in three months, and can basically give birth to multiples, but the rabbit girl It is not easy for us to conceive. First of all, unlike humans who can be in heat and conceive at any time throughout the year, bunny girls can only get pregnant during their heat period. Mating at other times is just a pure game. No matter what you do, you will not be able to conceive a child. Secondly, even during the estrus period of headhunting rabbits, only a small number of rabbits with good nutrition and very healthy body can conceive children. Therefore, the overall fertility rate of headhunting rabbits is not exaggerated. On the contrary, the mortality rate is Quite terrifying.
——If the bunny girl could really live as easily as the wild rabbit, the headhunting rabbit would have dominated the Falmat continent by virtue of its population advantage.
"...Then...if we don't hold another blood sacrifice, I believe that the old and weak in the clan will be willing to make sacrifices for the continuation of the clan..."
Next, in order to solve the tribe's predicament, a muscular bunny girl warrior tentatively made a suggestion, but was immediately angrily scolded by Queen Tiurei: "...Absolutely not! The Lord God has clearly warned that our tribe Blood sacrifices must be stopped forever before there is a possibility of revival!”
——Like any primitive tribe in the barbaric and ignorant era, blood sacrifices are also popular in the Headhunting Rabbit tribe, which is regarded as a generous gift to the gods. There are cruel rituals of disemboweling foreign captives, as well as life-and-death duels between warriors of the Headhunting Rabbit tribe: the reasons for the duels are complex and diverse, and may be for power, or for spouses or reputation. Even mothers, daughters and sisters are sometimes at odds with each other.
Of course, this is a blood sacrifice under normal circumstances, no different from the killing of prisoners to sacrifice flags and duels by martial arts in ancient countries on earth. But there is another kind of blood sacrifice, which is when the entire group encounters a survival crisis and has to sacrifice some members - when the headhunting rabbit encounters severe famine, some old and weak members usually stand up and volunteer to become sacrifices to the gods. meat livestock in order to save food rations for the tribe... Just like in some impoverished mountain villages in ancient Japan, due to chronic food shortages, once the elderly reached the age of seventy, they would be carried to the mountains by their children to die in order to worship the mountain gods. Same.
However, since the "God Envoy" (the Infinite Space Reincarnation Team) who defeated the Imperial Crusade Army learned about this, they have firmly demanded that the remaining Headhunting Rabbits abandon this bad habit. According to them, the Headhunting Rabbit has already ruled such a vast grassland, and survival resources are no longer a problem under normal circumstances. The only thing missing is the population to defend this land, and cannot compete with the empire for consumption... In this case, the Headhunting Rabbit And why do you want to commit suicide and use blood sacrifices to eliminate the already very short population of your own tribe to make room for the imperial invaders who are bound to come again?
Regarding these words, Queen Tiurei of the Headhunting Rabbit also quite agrees - the once prosperous group of Headhunting Rabbits on the grassland now only has more than 10,000 people left. What about massacre? Especially after the cruel test of war, there are almost no real old people among the Headhunters. The so-called old and weak who survived today are actually a group of middle-aged women. Although your fertility and physical strength have declined as you get older, you can still get pregnant and have children and reproduce as long as your nutritional conditions keep up.
However, everyone knows the truth, but the difficulties before us are really difficult. Seeing that every idea was rejected, not only did the ladies of the Headhunting Rabbit have a headache, but even Her Majesty Queen Tiurei became increasingly melancholy and irritable. She couldn't help but think wildly and whispered secretly: "... Speaking of which, I don’t know whether the two divine envoys sacrificed Mr. Si, have you arrived at Mount Arnus now, and how is the matter going... It is said that we can find humans from another world to help solve the plight of our tribe, but no matter how you think about it, it is too whimsical. Go! ”
——With Queen Tiurei’s knowledge, of course she only knew that the empire once sent troops to other worlds through the “Gate” on the top of Arnus Hill, and captured a lot of captives... In this case, those empire expeditions behind the “Gate” How can the army provide any help to the Headhunting Rabbit when his generals are defeated?
What's more, the Arnus Hills are far away from the Headhunting Rabbit Grassland, almost at the two ends of the Falmat continent. Even if people from other worlds were willing to provide some assistance to the Headhunting Rabbit, it would probably be difficult to cross the core hinterland of the entire empire and transport it to the Headhunting Rabbit grassland in the northeast of the mainland, right?
However, at this moment, a female headhunting rabbit warrior shouted loudly and rushed over, interrupting Queen Tiurei's reverie: "...Report to Your Majesty Tiurei! Good news! Good news! Two priests My lord has returned from Mount Arnus! They also brought messengers from humans from another world!”
As a result, the expressions of all the Headhunting Rabbit noble female warriors suddenly changed: "...What? They actually succeeded?!"
※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※ ※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※PS : The last chapter has finally been released. The recent review process is much stricter than when I first opened this book. I don’t dare to complain about it for the time being.