Traveling back to ancient times to determine the zodiac

The rat king was so frightened in the cave that his soul flew away, his body was broken with fear, and his whole body was shaking. He didn't dare to answer even though everyone called him, let alone go out.

Dong, Xi, Xiaoxing and Xia stepped forward together and pulled the Rat King's tail out with all their strength, shouting, "Rat thief, come out to us!"

After much effort, they finally pulled the Rat King out of the cave. The Rat King hurriedly bowed to everyone and begged for mercy: "Squeak - Spare my life, please spare my life! We came to steal grain in order to complete the offering to Emperor Nian. We had no choice but to do so. Now that I know how powerful you are, I am willing to lead the rats to surrender to you, but I only ask you not to kill me!"

"Haha!" Qiu looked at the Rat King begging for mercy and sneered again: "Just now, didn't you boast about how powerful the Nian Emperor was and arrogantly asked us humans to surrender to him? But what was the result? The Nian Beast was defeated by us and fled. Now that you have been caught by us, you still want to spare your life?"

"Great humans, powerful humans, it is me who is short-sighted and petty, unable to recognize how powerful humans are. As long as you are willing to spare my life, I am willing to rebel against Emperor Nian, surrender to humans, and forever recognize humans as the emperor of the world." The Rat King gave up everything to save his life.

"Hmph! You are such a rude guy. Even if you surrender, what's the point of keeping you? If we beat you to death, we can still enjoy roasted rat meat for two days!" Dong raised the wooden stick and was about to hit him.

"Squeak - no, don't hit me. As long as you are willing to spare my life, I can offer you grains just like I offer to the Emperor Nian." The Rat King said tremblingly.

"We can collect food ourselves, so we don't need you to offer us food. You'd better prepare to die!" Dong said coldly and was about to fight again.

"Wait! Don't kill it yet!" Qiu hurriedly stopped Dong.

"Cave Master, this rat demon has stolen our food several times, and called on the Nian Beast to annihilate us, causing serious injuries to Uncle Chuan, Uncle Gui, Brother Mu, Gu, Tu and others. It is truly a heinous crime and deserves death. Why should we keep it alive?" Dong reluctantly put down the wooden stick.

Qiu stroked his white beard, waved his hand toward the east, and asked the Rat King, "You thief, what are the five grains you just mentioned?"

"The five grains are actually five kinds of grains, namely: wheat, millet, sorghum, beans, and rice. These five types of grains are the staple food of us mice and our favorite grains, so they are collectively called the five grains." The mouse explained quickly.

"What kind of food is rice? Is it delicious?" It turned out that people only knew about the collection of the first four types of food, and this was the first time they had heard of rice. Qiu felt both fresh and curious.

"Rice is an aquatic herb with yellow seeds and jade-white flesh inside. It is very delicious and can keep you full. We all like to eat it." The Rat King replied.

"Cave Master, the rat thief is right. Rice is indeed a staple food." Xiaoxing couldn't help but interrupt when he heard it.

"Xing, how do you know? Have you ever seen and eaten rice?" Qiu looked at Xiaoxing in confusion and asked.

"Cave Master, this is what I dreamed about?" Xiaoxing knew that he had let the cat out of the bag again, so he lied again.

Qiu did not ask further questions. He pondered for a moment, stroked his white beard and announced: "Rat King, as long as you help us find rice, I will accept your surrender and do not need your offerings. But from now on, you must not do anything bad for the Nian beast, otherwise, you will be killed without mercy."

"Thank you for sparing my life. Humans are so kind. I promise to obey humans from now on and serve them till death." The mouse was spared without even being hit by a stick. It was so grateful that it almost cried.

"Dong, Xia, take the Rat King back!" Qiu ordered.

"Cave Master, are you just going to let it go like this? This is too easy for this rat thief." Dong Hexia and everyone else were very puzzled.

"Dong, fellow warriors, the old saying goes: Forgive others when you can. Have you ever thought about this? If we humans want to grow and develop, we must have sufficient food. If we rely solely on hunting, it will be far from enough for us. And the food on the ground is inexhaustible and endless. Therefore, we must take various grains as the staple food and hunting as the supplementary food, so that we will not starve and can grow and develop. Now that the Rat King has confessed his guilt, killing it is just a meal of meat. It has provided us with new food, which is a great achievement worthy of celebration. Why shouldn't we forgive it?" Qiu's far-sighted thoughts made everyone nod their heads.

Dong tied up the Rat King with a rope and took him back to the battlefield. The war between humans and rats continued. Nearly half of the tens of thousands of rats were wiped out, and the ground was covered with rat corpses. The Rat King was heartbroken when he saw this tragic scene. He screamed a few times at the rats that were still fighting, and immediately, the rats suddenly withdrew from the battlefield and retreated like a tide.

The people who were beating the rats didn't know why, so they chased after them and continued beating them. Qiu stepped forward and ordered everyone, "Sang, Tong, Yang, Liu, everyone, stop beating them! The Rat King has rebelled against Emperor Nian and surrendered to us humans. We have turned enemies into friends."

"What? Turning enemies into friends with the mice?" Everyone was extremely surprised.

Qiu then repeated to everyone his explanation of how he subdued the Rat King.

Ping nodded and said, "Master, although the little mouse thief is hateful, he poses no threat to us. It is not important to kill him or not."

Zhiye raised his hands to show his approval and said, "The cave master's move is really far-sighted and wise. In my fifty-year-old hunting experience, I have never eaten rice. With the new food in the future, we don't have to worry about not being able to catch prey."

Sang, Yang and others also nodded in agreement, expressing their understanding and support.

Seeing that no one objected, Qiu ordered the Rat King, "Rat King, please bring the rice to me."

The Rat King then ordered the remaining hundreds of rat spirits: "Squeak, my people, I was captured by humans. In order to survive, I rebelled against Emperor Nian and surrendered to humans. Now I will transfer the food that was offered to Emperor Nian to humans. You should go to our rat nest and the land of grains and bring all the stored rice to offer to humans. I want to thank humans for not killing me."

"Yes, my king." After receiving the order, the rat spirits immediately went back with the mice to carry the food.

After the battle was won, Qiu hurriedly ordered his men to carry Mu, Gui, Gu, Tu, and Chuan back to the cave. He also ordered his men to clean up the battlefield and bring back the dead rats. He also ordered Dong, Xi, and the lower-ranking warriors to take the Rat King and find a cave to imprison him.

Everyone was busy until late at night, and the rat spirits and mice really brought over a hundred kilograms of rice ears as a tribute.

Qiu looked at the golden color of the rice. After removing the husk, the rice inside was as fine as jade. He took some and cooked it. It tasted sweet and was indeed a good food for a meal. Qiu was overjoyed and quickly ordered people to put it away. He said to Ping and Zhi and others, "Ping, Zhi, you won't know until you try it. Once you try it, you will never forget it. This rice is sweeter than other foods. We can grow more in the future, and we will never have to worry about food again."

"Cave Master, you are right, but we have rice seeds but we don't know how to plant them?" Ping said with a frown.

"Cave Master, Uncle Ping, I know how to plant it. I will teach you." Xiaoxing said hurriedly after hearing this.

"Xing, you can grow rice? That's impossible?" Qiu almost dropped his jaw when he heard it.

Others also looked at Xiaoxing in disbelief. After all, this was unprecedented.

"Cave Master, this is rice. We first need to clear a paddy field, then sow rice seeds and grow seedlings. After the seedlings have grown for a month, they will be transplanted in rows in the paddy field. Then we will cultivate and weed, and wait for the rice to mature. Finally, we will harvest the rice, dry it and store it." Xiaoxing explained the rice planting method in one breath.

Qiu Heping, Zhi and others looked at each other with suspicion, but they couldn't interrupt. Chen stepped forward and asked, "Xing, this method is what you learned in the future world, right?"

"Chen, you are right. These are all what I dreamed about." Xiaoxing scratched his head embarrassedly.

"Xing, since you know how to grow rice, I'll give the task of growing that kind of rice to you!" Qiu stroked his white beard and said to Xiaoxing.

"I will follow the cave master's orders!" Xiao Xing promised, "I will definitely grow a lot of rice for everyone to eat."

"Good!" Qiu couldn't help but applaud, and others followed suit.

After everyone had discussed and decided, they started to have dinner.

The Rat King was forgiven by humans for giving away rice. From then on, he lived with humans for generations. Wherever there were people, there were rats. It is said that humans also appreciated the rats' contribution to rice, so when they harvested rice, they often deliberately left some in the fields to repay the rats.

After a day of fighting, people defeated the Nian beast, subdued the rats, and obtained rice. It was a great victory. After dinner, Qiu notified everyone to hold a celebration meeting.

As usual, torches were lit up in the cave, making the surroundings bright. Qiu climbed up the high platform, stroked his white beard, and said to all the people with a joyful smile: "My fellow citizens and warriors, today, the Rat King led the Nian Beast and the Horse King, Chicken King, Dog King, Pig King and other beast kings to invade us, intending to force us to pay tribute. The Nian Beast is invulnerable to swords and guns, and is extremely powerful. It seriously injured five warriors. At the critical moment, Xing shot an arrow to blind one of the Nian Beast's eyes. The Nian Beast was defeated and fled because of the injury. Then the Dog King and the Pig King also fled in embarrassment under our siege. The remaining Rat King was unable to escape and was captured alive by us. In order to save his life, the Rat King kowtowed and surrendered. Although the Rat Thief is hateful, he was spared because he offered us rice. In this battle today, we still won a great victory!"

"Wow--" When the audience heard this, there was thunderous applause and people kept clapping and cheering.

When the applause died down, Qiu continued, "My fellow citizens and warriors, as the old saying goes: Strength lies in numbers, and firewood burns high. Today's victory is the result of everyone's bravery, tenacity, unity, and joint resistance. Next, I would like to commend the two who have made the most outstanding contributions in this battle. They are Dong Hexing. Please invite them to the stage now."

Dong heard this and quickly climbed onto the platform, followed by Xiaoxing.

Qiu patted Dong and Xing on the shoulders and continued, "The Rat King was defeated and fled. Fortunately, Dong found and captured it in time, which made the Rat King surrender and give away rice. His contribution was great. Xing shot the eyes of the Nian Beast with an arrow and stabbed the pig king's butt with a spear, making full use of their weaknesses and defeating them. Let's applaud these two warriors and hope that they will continue to work hard and make new contributions to us in the future."

Everyone in the audience applauded and cheered, celebrating the joy of victory. Dong became a hero because he captured the Rat King, and regained people's respect and face, sweeping away the gloom of the past few days. He stood on the high platform, showing a smug smile, and told people the details of how he captured the Rat King.

Xiaoxing didn't want to brag about his achievements, so he quietly stepped down from the platform and walked outside the cave. The cave was bustling with activity, but outside it was deserted. Xiaoxing looked up at the full moon, and suddenly, a silver bell-like laughter sounded behind him. Xiaoxing looked back and saw that it was Hong'er.

"Brother Xing, why don't you tell your story in the cave? Why did you come out?" Hong'er asked curiously.

"Hong'er, actually, for a hunter, this is not worth bragging about or showing off at all." Xiaoxing smiled calmly.