Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 70 Hunting
Looking at the group of female riders behind Princess Chen Liu, Su Ze naturally couldn't retreat at this time. He nodded and said:

"Then I will dare to compete with His Highness."

Princess Chenliu rode forward and came in front of Su Ze. She suddenly changed her tone and said:

"Since we are going to compete, we need to have stakes."

"If I win, I want that eagle slave."

Princess Chenliu pointed at the "deaf-mute eagle trainer" and said with a smile.

Su Ze felt a little uncomfortable. He held his breath and asked, "What if my subordinates won?"

Princess Chenliu pointed at Luzhu and said, "I'll give her to you!"

"drive!"

After saying this, without waiting for Su Ze to answer, Princess Chenliu raised her whip and galloped forward.

The female riders behind her reacted and rode their horses to catch up.

Only Luzhu stood there in a daze. She glanced at Su Ze and hurriedly rode her horse to catch up with Princess Chenliu.

"Crazy woman."

Su Ze murmured, and he turned to Su Chao and said, "Let's start hunting too!"
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Su Ze did not go in the direction where the large army was fighting, but drove his horse to a small depression.

Although Su Chao was not good at hunting, he had seen pigs run even if he had not eaten pork. His brother Su Liang had taught him many hunting techniques.

For example, deer generally like to stay in dense forests with shelter, or near streams with water sources. In such depressions with neither shelter nor water sources, only stray deer will stop there, and it is impossible to encounter a large herd of deer.

Su Chao looked at the falcon flying in the sky, and then saw Su Ze take out a strange object from his arms and put it on his eyes, and then he rushed towards the depression without hesitation. He wanted to dissuade him, but Su Ze had already galloped over.

But after passing a bush, Su Chao's vision suddenly became clear. When he saw a herd of deer walking in the depression, his eyes almost popped out of his head in surprise.

Su Ze dismounted from his horse and lay down beside a rock. The [deaf-mute falconer] blew a whistle, and the falcon in the sky began to circle above the depression.

Su Ze pointed to a gap in the depression in the distance and said, "Ling Chuo, you take your men to block there, and when the deer start to move, you shoot arrows from there. Just shoot the fastest deer."

Su Chao nodded, and he and his two followers went around to the location Su Ze mentioned. Then the [deaf and mute falconer] blew the whistle again.

When the whistle sounded, the falcon soaring in the sky let out a long cry, and the deer below became agitated.

Su Ze had already mounted his horse. Holding a horse bow, he rushed down the gentle slope of the depression side by side with the riding slave Su Da.

The cry of eagles and the neighing of horses instantly broke the tranquility of the depression. Su Ze followed the stirrup archery method taught by Su Lin. He first took a stance and then carefully examined the target. He rushed to the side of a stag and then let go and shot the arrow.

This rather large stag was shot directly in the belly by an arrow. The huge kinetic energy of the close-range shooting from horseback nailed it to the ground, and it fainted without even making a sound.

Su Lin behind Su Ze did not dismount to harvest the prey, but took out a lasso and put it on the neck of the shot stag on horseback, then dragged the stag to catch up with Su Ze. Su Ze succeeded in one shot, and his confidence increased greatly. He searched for the target again and rushed forward again.

Every time, Su Ze aimed at the strongest deer in the herd, the so-called leader deer. The deer herd originally followed the leader deer. After Su Ze killed two leader deer in succession, the entire herd was in complete chaos.

The herd of deer began to rush frantically towards the gap blocked by Su Chao!
Su Chao grabbed the bow nervously. He had never seen such a scene before, but he kept Su Ze's order in mind and raised the bow and arrow at the stag that was leading the charge.

Su Cho shot from a dismounted position, and the frightened deer rushed straight towards him. Although Su Cho was a novice in hunting, his arrow accurately hit the deer's chest.

When the leading stag suddenly fell, the herd of deer that had been rushing towards the gap in an orderly manner became even more panicked and split into several groups to break out in other directions.

Su Chao drew the bow again, and still following Su Ze's order, he only shot the leading stag.

Deer are social animals. When encountering danger, the weaker deer will watch the stronger deer and run away together. The strongest deer in the entire herd is the head deer shot by Su Ze.

When all the stronger male deer in the herd were shot, the herd became completely out of control and began to run around in the depression.

Su Ze rode back and forth on horseback, shooting a deer every time he drew his bow. Su Cho blocked the exit of the depression and shot at the leading deer that rushed out.

Su Chao's hunting dogs had already pounced forward and were biting the deer that was injured by the arrow.

Su Ze's falcon is even more ferocious. It specifically targets stronger male deer, swooping down from the sky to knock down its target, or pecks out its prey's eyes with its sharp claws and beak. If it encounters a weaker female deer, it can use its sharp claws to grab the prey in mid-air and then throw it down from mid-air. Every time the falcon makes a long cry, a deer falls down.

In fact, the depression was not high on all sides, and there was not just one gap blocked by Su Chao. It was just that the deer herd had no leader and fled in panic, and they could not find a way out of the depression.

These panicked deer were hunted one by one by Su Ze. When the deer finally found a way out and fled out of the depression in groups, the ground was already littered with deer corpses.

Su Chao had never seen such a scene before. He had heard his brother Su Liang talk about hunting before. They would chase a deer for a long time and try to shoot arrows countless times. If they failed to hit the vital parts of the deer, they would send hunting dogs to chase it for several miles. They would not get anything until the deer's blood was drained and it fell to the ground.

Many times, after hunting for half a day, catching a deer is considered a good result.

But Su Ze was lucky. The six of them and two beasts hunted so many strong stags. The harvest from this short period of time was enough for Su Ze to stand out from the crowd of selected forwards.

"Brother Su, all these spoils belong to you."

Su Ze smiled and said, "Ling Chuo, you don't have to be so polite. These are enough."

The riding slave Su Da was cutting off the deer heads, because the prey was so large that he only needed to take the antlers and deer heads back as tokens of loyalty.

The [deaf-mute falconer] took out an [exquisite dagger] and executed a sturdy stag that was still struggling. He dug out the deer's heart with the dagger, cut it into strips and fed it to the falcon on the arm guard.

"Then Brother Su, shall we go back?"

In Su Cho's opinion, these trophies were enough for Su Ze to face the finalist King Qinghe in person, so there was no need for him to continue running around in the hunting ground under the sun.

But Su Ze obviously didn't think so. He waited until Su Da finished cleaning up, then got on his horse again and said:
"It's a beautiful spring day, a great time for hunting. How can we leave now? Go!"

(End of this chapter)