In the Sifang tribe, Yu ran into the cave and hurriedly reported: "King, Kuzhu and Mang are missing."

Ji Zhan suddenly sat up straight: "What's going on?"

"No, I don't know." Yu wiped the sweat from his forehead.

The weather was getting hotter and hotter. It hadn't rained in ages, and the wild animals were moving deeper into the mountains, becoming increasingly difficult to hunt. The tribe was deeply worried.

"Didn't you say to just ignore them? So we only checked on them after a few dozen days. But when we sent people over a few days ago, they came back saying that the people from the two small tribes were gone. And it looked like they'd been gone for a while."

Ji Zhan's face looked very ugly.

When the people of these two tribes fled, the four tribes did not send troops to chase them because they were busy with internal fighting and no one had time to care about them.

Later, Ji Zhan came to the throne and became the new king, but the internal situation was still unstable and he did not dare to start a war rashly.

After finally getting the tribe back in order, the snowy season arrived and the tribe was short of food. Capturing those hundreds of people and feeding them would only increase the burden on the tribe.

As time went by, the matter was delayed.

Ji Zhan would not abandon these people. Fortunately, they did not dare to flee far, so they settled down a few days away from the tribe and split into two small tribes. As long as everything in the Sifang tribe returned to normal, it would only take a few minutes to capture the people of the two small tribes, so Ji Zhan did not rush.

I didn't expect this to happen.

"Check for me where they went." He hammered the seat hard.

"What happens after you find out?" Yu asked.

Ji Zhan narrowed his eyes and said, "If necessary, we will take action and bring them all back."

Although he had killed many of his half-brothers and ascended to the throne, the tribe still had its own internal struggles. The elders, stewards, and guards all had their own agendas.

The tribe was short of material resources, and he couldn't offer much to win over the people. There were not many people available in the tribe, and he couldn't move anyone.

At this time, if he started a war, he could send out all those who disobeyed him to fight. Among the civilians and slaves he captured, he could select some obedient ones to join the guard team to increase his control over the tribe. This would be a good idea.

Once he has taken control of all the tribes in the four directions, it will be time to fleece the Jiangyuan tribe.

The Jiangyuan tribe also suffered heavy casualties from floods and epidemics, leaving fewer than a thousand people. Therefore, they remained subordinate to the Sifang tribe. When the Sifang tribe fell on hard times, they had to demand compensation from them. If the people of the Sifang tribe didn't appreciate what was best for them, they would be reduced to slavery.

Yu obeyed the order and left.

Because Mang and Kuzhu were familiar with the resources near the Sifang Tribe, and had weapons provided by the Long Tribe, they were not afraid of the Sifang Tribe causing them trouble.

After discussing with them, Qiao Yu still sent them to hunt and gather near their area.

So the people from Yu faction searched around there for a while and then met Mang and his group.

…

In the Dragon Tribe, Qiao Yu was looking at the linen woven on the loom with his eyes shining.

The Sifang tribe had a loom, which was why she was not in a hurry even though she didn't know how to make one.

She originally thought that the Dragon Tribe was no worse than the Sifang Tribe now. Even if she could not annex the Sifang Tribe, she could still get the textile machine through trade in the future.

Who knew that Mang and his men could build a textile loom? Under their guidance, the carpentry team quickly built the loom.

Moreover, because the Dragon Tribe's carpentry team had more sophisticated tools, they were able to build looms that were even better than those of the Sifang Tribe. Furthermore, the yarn spun by their spinning wheels was finer and stronger, and the resulting cloth was infinitely better than that of the Sifang Tribe.

In addition, the Mang and Kuzhu brigades also brought edible plants known to the Sifang tribe, Jiangyuan tribe and other tribes, greatly increasing the variety of edible plants in the Long tribe.

In addition to these, they brought Qiao Yu the biggest surprise, which was iron ore.

The Sifang tribe had a large population, and after discovering the copper mine near their tribe, they sent people everywhere to look for other mines. Finally, they found an iron mine with a low copper content.

Iron ore has a high melting point and is the waste they discard when refining bronze. The copper content of that mine is relatively low, completely incomparable to the mine at their gate, so the Sifang tribe has no intention of mining that mine.

After Mang and his companions arrived at the Dragon Tribe, they realized that what they threw away as garbage was something better than copper ore.

But even if they knew, it would be useless. They didn't know how to use charcoal and blowers, so the furnace temperature couldn't be raised. Even if they knew that the weapons given to them by the Dragon Tribe were made of iron, they didn't know how to make weapons with iron ore.

When they first arrived, they wanted to make a contribution, so when someone asked them about various minerals, sweet potatoes, chestnuts, etc., they immediately told them what they knew.

Qiao Yu then acquired an open-pit iron mine four days' journey from the tribe. After recently acquiring the iron, the ironwork team forged a large number of weapons and tools.

In addition to the big surprise of the iron mine, Mang and others also brought a piece of news to Qiao Yu, that is, twelve days away from the Sifang tribe, there is a large tribe, the Hai tribe, with a population similar to that of the Sifang tribe.

The leader of the Sifang tribe changed his title to king and treated captives as slaves, which were all learned from the Hai tribe; and the currency circulated between the Sifang tribe and the Jiangyuan tribe, coins, was also obtained from the Hai tribe in exchange for supplies.

For this reason, Qiao Yu not only forgave the debt owed by Mang and his team for weapons, but also gave them a batch of dried meat and sweet potatoes as a reward.

That day, Hui came in to report that Mang wanted to see him.

Because Hui is smart, Qiao Yu brought him to his side to do errands and odd jobs.

"Let him in."

After a while, Mang was brought in.

"Chief, people from the four tribes have come to us and have been asking about us," Mang said. "I followed your instructions and told them about our tribe. I also told them we wanted to trade with them."

"Oh?" Qiao Yu perked up. "Did they say anything else?"

Mang nodded. "Those people used to have a pretty good relationship with us. They said they cared about us and wouldn't tell the tribal leaders about what happened to us, so we could rest assured. They also said that since our tribe was so kind, if they were unhappy in the other tribes, they could come to us."

After a pause, he continued, "But I don't think they really want to join us. Instead, they want to find out about our tribe's situation."

Qiao Yu waved his hand and said, "Just tell them the true situation of our tribe. But don't mention the ironware."

"Don't worry, we didn't mention a word about this." Mang said quickly.