Allure of a Country Maiden
Chapter 618 - 616

Chapter 618: 616

Di Shaowei grumbled, "Girl, a handsome, talented and martially skilled man like me, it’s utterly ridiculous to carry a little kitten around all day! No, I should risk my life, move forward courageously, uncompromising and unbeaten, and master a full-grown tiger! No need for you to choose for me, I shall choose it myself! That one will do!"

Di Shaowei pointed at the tiger sitting elegantly on the ground, licking its fur-coated body.

The tiger seemed to sense something, glanced at Di Shaowei with contempt, then continued to lick its fur.

Di Shaowei’s pride was damaged, "Girl, did it just look down on me?"

Xiao’er earnestly nodded, "I think so, but you really chose well. It’s the head of these hundred tigers!"

Head of the tigers? Such a tiger was worthy of him! Di Shaowei immediately agreed, "I want it! Why not? Being despised only intensifies my desire to conquer! The head is even better, after all, if I tame it, wouldn’t all these tigers be mine?"

"In principle, yes!" Xiao’er agreed, although in reality, all the tigers obeyed her because she was the owner of this space.

"Girl, with you saying that, I want a full-grown tiger even more! I don’t desire a little kitten! There’s no challenge in that! You must not think me unable to tame even a single tiger, that’s why you gave me a little cat!"

"Brother Di, you’ve misunderstood. I can’t give you these tigers, as I believe you’re the type to rear tigers from a young age. I’ve raised these tigers since their infancy following a military training model! They’re ready for battle! Imagine how majestic it would be for you to rear a troop of tigers fit for battle!" Xiao’er cunningly persuaded. Out of necessity though. If she hadn’t portrayed the situation as highly challenging and appealing, Di Shaowei might not have had the patience to nurture tiger cubs.

Di Shaowei thought, rearing tigers to form an army? What a peculiar idea, one that only this girl would come up with! Yet, the idea was indeed appealing to him!

"Why only one?"

Xiao’er rolled her eyes at him, "You think tiger cubs are like chicks or ducklings, littered everywhere on the streets? If I don’t just give you one but a bunch, what if you end up killing them all?"

Di Shaowei reasoned, "It seems logical but,"

"Girl, how long did you spend raising these tigers?"

He also wanted to ask her where she raised these tigers. He felt that this girl had too many secret weapons.

"Two to three years!" Xiao’er, who had kept track of the tigers’ physical development in her space, responded. Basic knowledge told her that tigers could be independent from their mothers after two years; reaching sexual maturity between three and four years, with males maturing a year later, so a tiger could be considered an adult at the age of two or three.

Since the tigers didn’t have wrinkles on their faces, Di Shaowei was clueless as to their exact ages. Xiao’er thus found it easy to convince him.

"Just over two years will do?" Upon hearing this, Di Shaowei was indeed thrilled!

"Yes, just two years. Brother Di, think about it, training a troop in this duration, the results are clear! Not elite soldiers, but a fearsome tiger army! Although we can’t expect one tiger to fight off ten men, it’s reasonable to expect five. Tame, domestic cub-reared tigers are also safer than wild adult ones, reducing the chances of aggression significantly, makes sense, right?"

Di Shaowei nodded, "You’ve made a good point! But girl, where am I to find so many tiger cubs?"

Just as she said, tigers were not chickens, geese, or ducks, readily available at markets!

Young tiger cubs were harder to find than adult tigers!

He couldn’t even fathom where this girl could have found so many tigers to rear.

Behind Di Shaowei, a soldier couldn’t help but say, "General, if you don’t want to raise tiger cubs, let me do it! I want to raise them!"

"Yes, me too, I also want to raise them!" Several other soldiers chimed in.

Di Shaowei turned around to command, "Shut up! When did I ever say that I did not want to raise them!"

"Girl, I’ll take them! It’s only two years of rearing! If I can train a battalion in two years, that is worth it."

"Brother Di, how many tigers do you want to raise?"

"Are you saying I can raise as many as I want?"

"Of course." Xiao’er nodded. As long as he could afford it, she could provide him with as many as he desired without condition.

"Then, two hundred cub it is!"

Xiao’er nodded again, "No problem, I will deliver them in a month. Before raising tigers, Brother Di, you should also consider raising pigs!"

"Why should I raise pigs?" Di Shaowei did not understand the connection.

"If you don’t raise pigs, what are you going to feed the tigers? Surely you don’t expect that raising tigers doesn’t involve feeding them?"

Sniggering, the soldiers behind Di Shaowei laughed.

"General, rearing tigers is just like rearing cattle and sheep, just let them out to graze!"

"Yes, tigers love grass most. Every day, simply let them out to graze in the wild!"

Di Shaowei turned around to glare at them, "Are you all too idle? You dare make fun of me! Get to work now, one more chuckle and I will pick the first one and feed him to the tigers."

The soldiers lowered their heads, picked themselves up, and hurriedly went off to save people. In reality there was not much rescue work to be done, as the collapse had occurred at night and not many people were inside.

Having finished reprimanding his soldiers, Di Shaowei turned to Xiao’er, "Girl, how much meat do you feed these tigers every day?"

"Let me calculate. An adult tiger can eat 20 to 80 pounds of meat per day. Let’s take an average and assume that each tiger eats 40 pounds a day. I have a hundred tigers, so that requires 4,000 pounds of meat per day."

Gasps sounded synchronously from everyone present!

4,000 pounds of meat! Based on an average full-grown pig weighing 200 pounds, this meant feeding twenty pigs a day!

Good heavens! Twenty pigs equate to the daily meat consumption of an entire town! And this would be during good times when citizens could actually spare some silver to buy meat!

If the times were tough, with little to no silver being saved, the people couldn’t bear to purchase even a chunk of meat!

The host of Rui’an County was quite the local tyrant! Just how many pigs had her family reared to raise this pack of tigers?

Di Shaowei was astounded; twenty pigs a day?! That meant 7,300 pigs in a year! Where was he to raise so many? Pigs take a year to grow! Raising the tigers this way would exhaust all his assets!