Traveling back to ancient times to determine the zodiac

The rabbit army came quickly. The rabbit king saw the humans holding knives, axes, sticks and clubs, and stopped advancing timidly.

Dong, Xi and the others looked at the leading Rabbit King, who was even bigger than the Rat King and weighed more than 100 kilograms. He had dark grey fur all over his body and a long tail about five or six feet long.

"Hey!" Dong pointed at the Rabbit King with his stone axe and shouted, "Damn you, you little rabbits, are you sent by the Nian beast to attack us humans again?"

"Yes, he was sent by Emperor Nian. Oh, no, no." The Rabbit King was frightened and quickly denied his purpose.

"If you were not sent by the Nian Beast, then why are you here?

"Human, we are just passing by, passing by." The Rabbit King replied with a bow.

"Passing by?" Dong laughed when he heard it, and then said sternly: "You bastards, do you think we are three-year-old children who are so easy to fool? Humph! I think you are tired of living, so you lead such a large group of rabbit soldiers here to die."

"Isn't living impatient?" The Rabbit King shook his head and waved his hands, saying, "Although I have lived for more than two thousand years, I have never been impatient, and I don't want to die. It is because Emperor Nian is determined to subdue you humans that he sent us to persuade you to surrender."

"Just you? Humph! We have defeated those fierce bulls and tigers in the past. What right do you have to make us surrender?" Dong said and then he laughed again.

"Brother Dong, stop talking nonsense with them. Let's kill the Rabbit King right now. Firstly, we can get food, and secondly, it will be a great contribution to the cave." Xi couldn't bear it any longer, so he wanted to start a war with the rabbits.

"Yes, Brother Dong, let's get started. We'll have roasted rabbits to eat tonight." The brothers, Roots and Leaves, looked at these fat and big-eared rabbits and drooled.

Dong nodded, and then shouted again: "You ungrateful rabbits, if you retreat back to the Nian beast, we will let it go. If you still want to attack us, you will be roasted rabbits!"

The rabbit king was now in a desperate situation, with no way to retreat. Even though he knew he could not win, he had no choice but to go ahead. He arched his body, raised his tail and pretended to charge, shouting, "My people, things have come to this point. We have no choice but to attack! Charge!"

All of a sudden, all the rabbits rushed over like a tide. Dong saw that the rabbits had already attacked, so he waved his stone axe and shouted, "Damn it, brothers, follow me and destroy the rabbits."

Dong and twenty other people rushed into the rabbits, hacking with axes and knives, beating with sticks and clubs, and it was like a sudden rain hitting withered flowers, a large number of them fell down. The rabbit king knew that something was wrong, and he didn't care about the rabbits and ran away. Dong saw the rabbit king running away, and thought to himself: In the past, it was Xiaoxing who offered advice and made contributions to defeat the beast army. Why not take this opportunity to capture the rabbit king this time, and re-establish his prestige in front of everyone and add more glory. Thinking of this, Dong chased after the rabbit king regardless of everything.

The rabbit king rushed left and right, and suddenly ran under a big tree. Dong followed closely, and was about to catch up, but he was tripped by a tree root and fell headfirst on the rabbit king's butt. The rabbit king was terrified and quickly sprayed poison gas, which hit Dong's head perfectly, and Dong was immediately poisoned and fainted.

Although the rabbit king can poison people, it does not eat meat. It stepped forward and kicked the unconscious Dong, saying proudly: "Humph! I'll poison you to death, you idiot. I'll teach you to underestimate us rabbits."

After saying that, he looked up at the battlefield and saw that the rabbit army was defeated and many were killed and wounded. So he quickly returned to the battle formation and shouted to the rabbit spirits: "My people, we can't beat humans, retreat quickly!"

So the rabbits gave up the attack, turned around and ran away. Xi, Bei, Zhong and others chased them, so the rabbit king ordered hundreds of rabbit spirits to raise their tails and spray poison gas at the same time. People followed closely, and the poison gas was so strong that they all fell to the ground and fainted.

The rabbit king led the rabbit army all the way back and stopped at the mouse-catching hill. It was already evening, and the rabbit king wiped the cold sweat from his nose and said, "Let's dig a hole and set up camp on this hill, and fight again tomorrow."

Digging holes is the specialty of rabbits. After a short while, they have dug holes all over the hill, with the rabbit king hiding safely in the middle.

At this time, the rooster flew over, called out the rabbit king and asked about the battle situation. The rabbit king replied with lingering fear: "I was really scared just now, and my heart is still beating. Those humans were holding knives, axes, sticks and clubs, and they were extremely fierce. They killed many of my rabbit soldiers at the beginning. Seeing this scene, I was scared and ran away. A person behind chased me, and I don’t know why he suddenly fell down and was knocked unconscious by the poison gas I sprayed. Then I ordered everyone to run away, but those people still chased us, so we sprayed poison gas together and poisoned them, and then we fled to this hill."

"Brother Rabbit, you have poisoned so many people in your first battle. It's really cause for celebration!" said the rooster with admiration.

"What is there to celebrate? We had no choice at the time, not to mention that so many of our rabbit soldiers died." The Rabbit King said depressedly, with his long ears drooping.

"But no matter what, you have won the first battle. Come on, brother Rabbit, the victory may belong to you."

"Alas, I don't even dare to fight humans anymore, so what's the point of talking about victory?"

The rooster looked at the frowning rabbit king and realized that he was always timid, so he offered a suggestion: "Since you are afraid to fight humans, why don't you do as the dog-headed military advisor said and sneak into the Tianju Cave at night and poison them all to death while they are asleep. This is the only solution."

The Rabbit King thought for a while, then nodded helplessly and said, "It seems that this is the only way."

It was getting dark, so the rooster flew back to the ancient pine forest. The rabbit king led his rabbit spirits and rabbit soldiers into the cave to rest.

Then Xiaoxing and Chen and a group of people rushed back to Tianju Cave to report to Qiu that Dong and others were determined to fight with the rabbits. Qiu was shocked and complained to Dong: "How could Dong be so reckless? Although rabbits are not a big threat to humans, what if there is danger?"

After saying this, Qiu ordered his men to guard the cave entrance tightly while he led hundreds of young hunters to meet up with Dong and Xi.

When everyone rushed to the battlefield, it was still too late. Except for the hundreds of rabbit corpses that were killed, the rest of the rabbits had already evacuated, and the people in the east, west, north, etc. were nowhere to be seen. Qiu secretly said that it was not good, and hurriedly ordered everyone to search quickly. So everyone shouted and chased along the road. After searching for less than half a mile, the sharp-eyed Chen shouted: "Cave Master, they are in trouble. I don't know why they all fell to the ground!"

Upon hearing this, Qiu hurried to the scene of the accident and found Xi, Bei, Zhong, tree roots, leaves, etc. lying on the ground. All of them were motionless, with black faces and purple lips, and they were severely poisoned.

"West, North, Middle, Leaves, what's wrong with you? Wake up!" Qiu shouted, shaking them, trying to wake them up. But no matter how they called, they still didn't respond.

"Reporting to the cave master, Dong has been found. He is also unconscious under a tree over there." Xiaoxing hurriedly reported to Qiu as soon as he found Dong.

"Oh my God! What is going on? Why did they faint? Are rabbits that powerful?" I asked curiously.

"I guess they were poisoned. Rabbits can spray poison gas, which is a defensive instinct. But the rabbit's poison gas generally does not cause such consequences to humans, which is strange." Qiu stroked his white beard, also very confused.

"Master, this is nothing strange." Zhi looked at the dead rabbit corpses and said, "Based on my hunting experience of more than fifty years, these rabbit spirits are not only large, but also numerous, so the poison gas they spray is of course strong."

"Cave Master, let's not talk about that for now. We have to find a way to wake them up as soon as possible." Xiaoxing said anxiously.

"Yes, Cave Master, saving people is the most important thing." Everyone became anxious.

"Let's carry them back to the cave first," Qiu ordered.

"Yes." Everyone agreed, and then hurriedly carried Dong, Xi, Bei, Zhong... and all fifty people back to Tianju Cave. Dong's wife Li saw her husband unconscious and burst into tears, constantly scolding him: "Dong, you always like to show off and rush to the front. Now you are carried back. Dong, you must not die! Wuwu——"

"Li, Dong is not dead yet, why are you crying?" Qiu was annoyed when he saw Li crying, and hurriedly told her, "Hurry up and get some water."

Li stopped crying, took a ladle and quickly went to get some water, and then handed it to Qiu. Qiu took a sip of water, sprayed it on Dong's head, and then pressed his philtrum several times. After a while, Dong woke up slowly, groaning: "Ouch, ouch, my head hurts!"

"Okay, Dong is awake!" Qiu and everyone else breathed a sigh of relief. Li finally smiled when she saw her husband had recovered.

Following the same method, Qiu revived all the unconscious people one by one.

"Damn the Rabbit King and the Rabbit Spirit, their poison gas is so strong. Ouch, it almost poisoned us to death." Xi, Bei, Zhong, Shugen, Yezi and others shouted.

"This is all Dong Ge's fault. He did not listen to the advice and rashly chased the rabbits, which led to this situation." He went down to Qiu and reported.

"Dong, why didn't you listen to Xiaoxing and come back to the cave?" Qiu pointed at Dong and scolded him, "You took the initiative to lead us to fight the rabbit army and almost made us lose our lives. Do you know your mistake?"

Dong lowered his head and said in annoyance: "Master, I was eager to capture the Rabbit King and underestimated the ability of the rabbits. I know I was wrong! I won't dare to do it again next time!"

Qiu glared at him angrily, then announced to everyone: "My fellow warriors, now the Rabbit King and the Rabbit Army are coming to attack us again under the order of the Nian Beast. Although rabbits are not as ferocious as buffaloes and tigers, their tails can spray poisonous gas, just like weasels. This is their self-defense instinct. Therefore, everyone should be vigilant, guard the cave carefully, and be ready for battle at any time. If you find anything, you must first report to this master and follow my instructions!"

"Yes, Cave Master!" Everyone agreed loudly.

It was getting dark, so everyone skinned the dead rabbits, took out the meat, and roasted it over the fire to make dinner. After dinner, except for the old bamboo, old camphor and old pine who stayed behind to guard the cave entrance, the rest went to rest.

The next day, Qiu told everyone, "Although the Rabbit Army was defeated and fled yesterday, they may still make a comeback. Therefore, everyone should be prepared and do not take the risk of starting a war or pursuing them."

After giving instructions, he ordered Xiaoxing and Dong to lead a team of 100 people to patrol everywhere. Xiaoxing, Dong and others received the order, hung bows and arrows on their waists, and set off with various weapons in hand. Everyone patrolled to the place where they encountered the rabbits yesterday, but did not find any traces of rabbits. Everyone continued to patrol forward to the front of the rat catching post, but still did not see a single rabbit.

"It's so strange, why did the rabbit army disappear? Did they really go back to the Nian beast?" Dong looked confused.

"I think the Rabbit Army couldn't defeat us and there was no point in them staying here, so they fled back to report to the Nian Beast." Xi touched his head and guessed.

"It's such a pity that the rabbit soldiers escaped back like this!" said the tree root.

"Shu Gen, we should be happy that the Rabbit Army has returned. Why are you feeling sorry for them?" Everyone looked at him in confusion.

"Once the rabbit goes back, we won't be able to eat the delicious roasted rabbit meat, so it's a pity." Shugen missed the taste of the roasted rabbit meat last night and couldn't help drooling.

"Brother Shugen is right. We haven't gone out hunting for two months since the Nian beast came. We are really craving for meat." Leaf followed.

"Tsk." Xia glared at Leaf and asked, "Brother Leaf, is it more important to eat rabbit meat or to save your life?"

"Hehe..." Leaf touched his head and replied, "Of course saving your life is more important."

"Stop making trouble. I guess the Rabbit Army has not gone back. They are most likely in hiding. We'd better be careful." Xiaoxing frowned and raised an objection.

"Yes. I also think that the Rabbit Army will not be willing to turn away like this. After all, this is only the first battle." Chen agreed with Xiaoxing's opinion.

"Since the rabbit army didn't come back, why didn't they come to attack?" Dong retorted.

"Maybe they are resting and preparing for the next attack." Xiaoxing explained.

"The Rabbit Army was defeated in one blow, and they still want to attack us. This is simply impossible." Dong felt that this statement was ridiculous.

"The rabbit king and rabbit spirit only suffered a few hundred casualties. No matter how bad the situation is, they will not give up."

"Xing, rabbits not only have no attack power, but are also timid. It is more reasonable for them to run away." Dong argued again.