Traveling back to ancient times to determine the zodiac

"Yes. This is a great idea! Let's go now." Dong's eyes lit up and he praised loudly.

"Dong, don't be impatient, let's wait until dawn!" Qiu said with a smile.

"Cave Master, the cunning rabbit won't be able to escape this time. Haha——" Ping laughed happily when he saw this.

Zhiye laughed excitedly and said, "Even with my fifty-year hunting experience, this is the first time I've been played around by rabbits. Now the game is over."

After waiting for a long time until the east was white, Qiu said to the rabbit spirits: "You little rabbits, do you want to live or die? If you want to live, take us to find your rabbit king. If you want to die, I will give you an axe."

The rabbit spirits could also speak, and they trembled as they answered, "Dear human, great human, of course we want to live, and we are willing to take you to find the king."

"You guys know what's best for you. Go." Qiu shouted.

So, the crowd tied the rabbit spirits by their legs with ropes and let them lead the way. Qiu led the warriors with weapons in hand to follow. Not long after, the rabbit spirits led the crowd to the rat-catching hill again. When they reached the hill, they saw the rabbit spirits crawling into the hidden caves one by one.

Dong, Xiaoxing, Xi and Xia people suddenly realized why the rabbit chasing army disappeared here last time. It turned out that they hid in the cave.

"You little rabbits, go in and tell your king that he can't escape this time. Tell him to lead those rabbit soldiers out to die quickly." Dong loosened the rope and let the rabbit spirits go into the cave.

Qiu ordered everyone to surround the hill to prevent the rabbit kings and rabbit spirits from escaping quietly. After everything was arranged, Dong shouted at the entrance of the cave: "Listen, rabbit kings and rabbit spirits inside, you have been surrounded, come out quickly and die."

The rabbit king in the cave was seriously injured because his tail was cut off, and he was resting. Suddenly, the rabbit spirits that were released came to him and said in fear: "My king, no..., it's not good. Humans have captured us and led us to capture you, what should we do..., what should we do?"

The rabbit king was frightened when he heard this. Just as he was about to speak, Dong's threatening voice came from outside, almost making the rabbit king's heart burst. He turned around anxiously, like an ant on a hot pot, and kept muttering: "Nian Emperor, Nian Emperor, I have been found by humans and have no way to escape. Come and save me."

"My king, Emperor Nian is no match for humans. Do you still expect him to save us?" asked a black rabbit spirit with a bitter face.

"Yes, my king, Emperor Nian doesn't care whether we live or die. What should we do now?" another brown rabbit spirit shouted in despair.

"My king, you must not go out. Otherwise, you will be like those dead brothers, skinned, gutted, and made into roasted rabbit meat by humans." Another white rabbit spirit said tremblingly.

"Yes, my king. Once we are caught, we will be turned into barbecue and eaten by humans." The black rabbit spirit added.

"My king, let's just stay in the cave and see what humans can do to us?" the rabbits shouted.

"It's useless. Humans have definitely surrounded us. We're done for. We're dead now." The Rabbit King kept pulling his big ears and answered dejectedly.

Dong outside called out several times, but the Rabbit King just ignored him. Dong asked Qiu Dao: "Master, if the Rabbit King doesn't come out, what should we do?"

The man next to him quickly answered, "Let's dig this hill upside down and see where the rabbits can hide."

"This hill is so big. If we do that, how long will it take to catch it?" Xiaoxing shook his head in denial.

Everyone was scratching their heads, and Dong suddenly said loudly: "These rabbits are so cunning, I think we should set fire to this hill and burn them to death."

"Dong, this method can be tried." Qiu agreed and ordered: "Take some people back quickly and get some torches."

"Yes, Cave Master." Dong agreed, called a dozen people and hurried back to Tianju Cave.

Soon, Dong, Xi, Bei and others came back with torches, and Qiu ordered them to start a fire at the foot of the hill. It was April, and the weather was damp everywhere. The grass and trees were lush, so only some thick smoke was produced, and the fire could not be started at all. Dong said impatiently: "The grass and trees are too damp. Let's take some firewood and burn it at the entrance of the cave, and use the smoke to suffocate the rabbits to death."

"Yes, Brother Dong." Xi, Bei, Zhong and others agreed, and indeed brought firewood to block the holes. Suddenly, smoke and fire filled the air, and went straight into the cave. Dong clapped his hands and laughed, while shouting: "Damn it, listen to the rabbits inside, if you don't come out of the cave, I will suffocate you to death in the cave."

Smoke continued to pour in from the hole, making the rabbit king and the rabbit spirits in a mess. They coughed and shouted, "My king, what should we do? If this continues, we will be suffocated to death."

“But if we go out, we will definitely be beaten to death by humans.” The Rabbit King said dejectedly.

The smoke filled the air, making it difficult for the rabbits to breathe and causing tears in their eyes. The rabbit king was extremely anxious but could only endure it.

Dong ordered people outside to add more firewood, and the smoke became even bigger. The cave was filled with smoke. The rabbits cried until they ran out of tears and their throats were hoarse from coughing. The rabbit king finally couldn't stand it anymore and said, "My people and brothers, we have no choice but to follow the example of the rat king, the ox king and the tiger king and surrender to humans. Otherwise, we will be suffocated to death."

"My king, if you surrender, just spare your life. After all, serving Emperor Nian is the same as serving humans." The black rabbit spirit nodded in agreement.

"My king, we all listen to you." The rabbit spirits and rabbit soldiers had no objection at this time.

Then, the Rabbit King came to the entrance of the cave and pleaded loudly: "Respected humans, powerful humans, please stop setting fires. As long as you spare our lives, we are willing to rebel against Emperor Nian and surrender to you!"

"You cunning and hateful rabbit, you almost poisoned me to death. Humph, you want to surrender too? Let me tell you, no way. Today I will turn you into roasted rabbit meat to avenge my dead brother Guo." Dong refused angrily.

"Powerful humans, great humans, it was not our intention to attack you, but we were forced by Emperor Nian. Now we know how powerful humans are, and we are willing to pay tribute and serve you forever." The Rabbit King continued to beg helplessly.

"You bastards, if you surrender, what else can we do with you except eating your flesh?" Dong raised the stone axe and shouted harshly.

"Dong, stop for now." Qiu hurriedly stepped forward to stop Dong and said, "I said last time that if humans want to grow and become stronger, dominate the world, and surpass the Nian beast, they cannot do without the help of these beasts."

At this point, Qiu turned to the Rabbit King and said, "You Rabbit King, since you sincerely surrender and no longer do evil for Emperor Nian, I can promise you. This is also in accordance with the will of heaven and the people." Qiu accepted the surrender of the beasts again with extraordinary magnanimity.

"Human King, thank you for not killing me." The Rabbit King burst into tears of gratitude when he saw that he agreed to surrender.

"Cave Master, if we let the rabbit go like this, I'm afraid it will use poison gas to harm people." Dong said worriedly.

"Great humans, don't worry. My tail has been cut off, and I can no longer spray poison gas. Cough, cough——" The Rabbit King was choked and almost speechless.

"If that's the case, then I'll cut off the tails of all of you rabbits to prevent future troubles." Qiu said.

"Great human, if you spare our lives, we are willing to give up our tails." The rabbit spirits in the cave heard this and said in unison.

"Dong, order people to put out the fire quickly and let the Rabbit King and the others come out!" Qiu ordered.

As soon as Dong and the others put out the fire at the cave entrance, the Rabbit King rushed out of the cave impatiently. Everyone subconsciously stepped back and surrounded the Rabbit King and the rabbit spirits. At this time, the Rabbit King had his long ears drooping, his eyes were bloodshot from the smoke, and he was sticking up his short tail that had been cut off, looking very embarrassed.

Qiu then ordered his men to tie up the Rabbit King and take him back to be imprisoned with the Rat King. He then ordered everyone to cut off the tails of all the rabbit spirits and release them.

The rabbit spirits scattered as if they had been pardoned. From then on, all rabbits had red eyes and short tails.

Humans won a great victory and returned to Tianju Cave in great joy. As soon as they entered the cave, Qiu excitedly announced to Laozhu, Laozhang, Laosong and others in the cave: "All my people, I have good news for you: It turns out that the rabbit king and rabbit spirits are hiding in the cave of Zhuashugang. After we found the rabbit nest, we captured and subdued the rabbit king and rabbit spirits alive. Now the rabbit problem has been resolved and we are safe."

For a moment, everyone was delighted. Only the roots and leaves were dissatisfied: "We let so many rabbits run away in vain, and wasted so much roasted rabbit meat."

In the evening, as usual, a celebration meeting was held. When the moon rose, people gathered under the high platform again. The fire in the cave was blazing, illuminating it as bright as day. Qiu pulled Dong up to the high platform and stood in front of everyone. Qiu seemed very pleased. He stroked his white beard, looked around at everyone, and slowly said: "My fellow citizens and warriors, today, we finally captured the rabbit king and rabbit spirit who repeatedly sneaked into the cave to harm us. From now on, we don't have to worry about sneak attacks at night and can sleep peacefully. This time, Dong, Xi, Bei and others made great contributions to the capture of the rabbit king. Not only did they capture the rabbit spirit that entered the cave alive, they also came up with a smoke plan to force the rabbit king out of the cave and surrender. This time they have made a great contribution and it is worth celebrating."

At this point, Qiu led the way in applauding and congratulating Dong, and immediately, everyone in the audience followed suit. Dong was praised in public, which gave him a lot of face, and swept away the depression that Xiaoxing had suppressed. He smiled and waved at everyone, saying, "The rabbits are so bold and rampant. I vowed long ago that I would not return until I caught the Rabbit King. So no matter what, I would not give up. Finally, today I captured the Rabbit King and fulfilled my oath."

Qiu glanced at the whole place again and continued, "It is a relief that the Rabbit King was captured after the Tiger King and the Cat King. But we should not be complacent. We should also patrol every day to prevent the Nian Beast from sending other beasts to attack us. Did everyone remember this?"

"Remember, Cave Master!" everyone agreed loudly.

Xiao Xing suddenly remembered that among the twelve Chinese zodiac animals, there is rat, ox, tiger and rabbit. Isn't the dragon the next one? With a thought, he asked Qiu: "Master, is there a dragon in this world?"

"Xing, of course there are dragons in this world. Dragons usually lurk in the abyss, and sometimes they circle in the sky on rainy days. I remember once when it was raining heavily, I saw with my own eyes a dragon tumbling in the clouds and rain. Why are you asking this?" Qiu asked curiously.

Dragons did exist in ancient times. It seems that many legendary animals in the 21st century are not made up out of thin air, but have gradually become extinct as the human population increases. For example, tigers were common animals in ancient times. But in modern society, they have become endangered animals and can only be seen in zoos. Although humans have vigorously protected them, they still cannot escape the fate of extinction after N years and eventually become an ancient legend. Xing thought of this and replied worriedly: "Cave Master, the next beast king to attack may be the Dragon King and the Dragon Army."

"The Dragon King and the Dragon Army?" Qiu was suspicious and asked, "Xing, how did you know?"

"Well, I guessed." Xiaoxing didn't dare to tell the truth and covered it up again.

"Dragons, like fish, generally cannot live without water, so they are rarely seen. The dragon's body is as long as a snake, but it has four legs. Its head is as big as an ox, and it also has horns on its head, but they are like deer horns, not as sharp as buffalo horns. Although dragons are also carnivores, they are not as ferocious as tigers. If the Nian beast sends them to attack us, we will definitely find it difficult to deal with them in the water. But on land, we don't need to be too afraid." Qiu stroked his white beard and simply explained to everyone.