Chapter 937 There is a valley in the east, which can save 10,000 people.

The elders of this tribe looked at Mo Xin and others who were approaching slowly not far away with surprise and curiosity. They were very vigilant and pointed their stone spears and bone spikes outside. However, those people riding giant beasts seemed not to see them. They did not hold weapons in their hands and continued to approach them.

When the distance between the two sides was only 50 meters, the general flag officer in silver armor raised his arm, stopped the team, and then said.

"Everyone stay alert, wait here first, I will go to negotiate first."

Then the general flag officer turned over and dismounted, led the horse and continued to approach slowly. He had a goose feather knife hanging on his waist, but he did not pull it out, and stood on the side of the horse while holding the horse, so he could turn over and mount the horse at any time. Even if the opponent suddenly threw a spear or shot an arrow at him, he could use the horse's body as a cover to avoid the fatal blow. As long as he avoided the first blow, with the cover of the team behind him, no one could kill him.

Such preparations can be said to be foolproof.

The people of that tribe saw that the general flag officer of the Han tribe actually got off the horse without holding a weapon in his hand, and they were even more confused.

This man took the initiative to get off the tall beast and came alone without holding a weapon. It was undoubtedly a gesture of friendship, and he did not look like an enemy.

"Stop, what are you doing?"

In the small tribe, the captain of the hunting team, Yan, who had just run back, raised his spear to the general flag officer. Although the general flag officer, Ye Ying, did not understand what he said, he could understand what he meant. He quickly stopped and said to them while gesturing.

"My friend, we have no ill intentions. It's just that it's noon now. We want to eat, but we don't have a fire. I saw that there was smoke from your cooking, so I came here to borrow a fire from you. I wonder if it's okay? We are willing to exchange some food and salt for it."

The so-called lack of fire was just an excuse to chat up. Their caravan had carbide lamps, and more than one. The carbide lamps had a flintlock ignition device, which could actually be used as a lighter.

The reason for saying this is just to find an excuse to get close to the other party, and then use food and white salt to arouse their interest. As long as they are not stupid, they will definitely agree. I don't believe they will not take the bait after taking the food and white salt from the Han tribe.

Yan, the hunting captain, didn't understand what Ye Ying was saying, but he could understand what he meant by gestures. Ye Ying first made a gesture of eating at his mouth, then pointed to the bonfire and smoke in the grove, then took out a piece of firewood to show that he wanted to borrow fire, and finally took off two small bags from the horse's back and threw them directly in front of Yan.

Yan poked the two bags with the spear in his hand, and then looked at Ye Ying.

Ye Ying nodded, gestured with the firewood in his hand and the bonfire in the woods, and tried to express his meaning to the other party.

Yan understood. He first took two steps over and picked up the two small cloth bags. He opened them and looked. One of the bags contained five palm-sized steamed breads and three smoked sausages. These were Ye Ying's own dry food. Every soldier in their team of twenty people had such dry food. The other bag contained a pound of white salt, which was also prepared for their team to march, but there was more in the team, not just these.

Yan took the two bags and pointed at the things in the bags to Ye Ying.

Ye Ying nodded, then made a gesture of eating, then pointed at the other party, indicating that he should eat, and then waved the firewood in his hand, indicating that he would borrow a fire.

This time Yan did not hesitate. Looking at the steamed bread in the bag, he did not know what it was. Anyway, it did not look like a naturally grown food. It should be made by these people themselves, but it smelled like food.

He tried to take a bite. The dry leavened bread was very hard and chewy, but the aroma of the flour was very strong. Flour is rich in starch. When chewed in the mouth, it can be converted into sugar by salivary enzymes, which becomes the energy needed by the human body. This is the role of staple food.

Yan took a bite of the bread and felt sweet. Although it was a bit hard, this thing should be edible after soaking in water, right? !

He looked at the three sausages again. He knew that they should be the intestines of animals, and then they were filled with something and smoked. He also took a bite of the sausage and found that it was actually chopped meat. However, the minced meat had been squeezed and smoked and had become one. In addition, some seasonings should have been put in the minced meat. It tasted salty and was very suitable for this bread.

After trying the two foods, he tasted the bag of snow-white salt again. He dipped a little in his mouth. The pure salty taste made his eyes light up and he knew that this was a good thing.

He smiled and nodded, then asked Ye Ying to throw the firewood over and he would light it for him.

Ye Ying was not in a hurry. He could not be in a hurry to attract people, especially when he was meeting a strange tribe for the first time. Now the two sides had just met and the other side was still very vigilant. He must not make any radical moves at this time to annoy the other side.

Ye Ying smiled and nodded. Yan on the opposite side did not leave directly. He grabbed two small cloth bags in his hands, and then handed the firewood thrown by Ye Ying to the people around him, asking others to light it, and then he still stood there and confronted Ye Ying. It can be seen how vigilant this guy is. A bag of food and a bag of white salt could not eliminate the other party's vigilance.

After a while, someone handed over the firewood with a bright flame. Yan took it personally, and then walked up to the opposite side of Ye Ying and handed him the lit firewood.

"Thank you, friend." Ye Ying took the firewood, then clasped his hands and thanked Yan, and turned around and went back to the convoy.

Yan was stunned for a moment, then he clasped his fists like Ye Ying, not understanding what the other party meant by the gesture.

However, he saw that the other party had left, so he stopped arguing and turned back to his tribe's temporary camp in the woods.

On the other side, a soldier asked curiously at the Han tribe's convoy, fifty or sixty meters outside the grove, "General Flag Officer, is this all right?"

"It doesn't matter whether it works or not. Anyway, the bait has been thrown out. Now it depends on whether the other party will take the bait. If the other party takes the bait, then it will be a success. If the other party doesn't take the bait, we will find another way. Anyway, this group of people will definitely not get away.

If they know what's good for them, then we will take them back and make them civilians. If they don't, we just need people to work on our construction site." Ye Ying said indifferently.

It is naturally a great achievement to be able to recruit civilians who are willing to join the tribe. If they capture slaves, it is of course also a great achievement, but slaves are not as valuable as civilians.

"What should we do now? Should we leave?" The soldier next to him asked again.

"Why leave? How can we communicate with them if we leave? Let's set up camp here. This place is right next to the river. Let's replenish water, wash the pot, light a fire, and cook. We'll cook next to them.

"Didn't we see a small group of wild goats just now? You two or three people, ride on horses and carry bows, shoot a few and bring them back. We will eat two ourselves, and give the rest to the other side. There are so many of them. The three goats we just hunted should not be enough for them, right? Hehe. "Ye Ying said with a chuckle.

The soldiers also understood what Ye Ying meant and started to chuckle. Three people who were good at riding and shooting volunteered to go hunting sheep. After saying hello to everyone, they turned around and left with their bows and arrows.

The rest of the people on the convoy really started to cook. They took a big iron pot from the car and went to the river to wash it. Others took the military shovel from the horse's back and dug a simple smokeless stove at a slightly higher place by the river. After digging, they threw the dry firewood they brought into the stove and lit it. They also came over with a pot of water, washed the rice, and put it in the pot to simmer the rice.

More than a dozen craftsmen also got off the car to help, and everyone really prepared meals next to the woods.

In the grove on the other side, the hunting team leader Yan handed the three wild goats he had just captured to the women of the tribe, asking them to skin them and cook for everyone. However, for this small tribe of six or seven hundred people, three sheep only had fifty or sixty kilograms of pure meat. If they were only giving them to six or seven hundred people, they would have to eat. It would be enough for people to cook a dish with the mutton.

But they had no staple food, so everyone could only fill their stomachs with meat, and these three sheep seemed a little too little.

Yan had planned to take the hunting team around to get some more food for everyone after the group of people who borrowed fire left. But when he looked back, he saw that the group of people had just lit a fire and started cooking a few dozen meters away from them.

This, this, it was impossible not to be on guard against such a group of strangers placed next to their tribe. Although the other party did not show any malicious intent, they had to be on guard. But if they were on guard, how could they go out hunting?

This made him anxious. There were still hundreds of people in the tribe waiting for food to fill their stomachs. They could not go out hunting. What should they do?

Yan had no choice but to tell the men in the hunting team to be alert to the convoy of the Han tribe next to them, and then he took the two bags of things that Ye Ying had given him and went to find the elders.

"Elder, look, those people riding on wild beasts just now used these foods to exchange for fire. I asked people to make fire for them, but they didn't leave. They started to make food right next to them. What should I do now? I want to take people to hunt a few more horned beasts, but they are right next to us, and I am worried. "

The elder had long gray hair. He took the two bags. This old guy was very experienced. He could tell at a glance that these things were extraordinary.

First of all, let's talk about the two cloth bags! Look at the fine stitching on them, and the material. They are not comparable to any animal skins at all. They should be hand-woven, and they are woven so finely.

More importantly, if such good things were in their tribe, they would definitely be materials for making clothes. How could the other party use such good hand-woven products to make pockets to hold food?!

He opened the bag again and looked at the food inside. He tasted the bag of white salt. The pure salty taste immediately told him what it was. It was just salt stone. He didn't know what method the other party used to make the salt stone so delicate.

The other bag contained bread and sausages. The elder looked at the gap on it and asked Yan.

"Have you eaten? "

Well, I took a bite of each. It's edible, no problem. This is meat. They crushed the meat and stuffed it into the intestines of animals and smoked it into this. I don't know what this is made of, but it's edible, and it's a little sweet." Yan pointed to the sausages and bread inside and said to the elder.

The elder took out the bread that had been bitten and looked at it carefully, but no matter how he looked at it, he couldn't tell what the bread was made of.

And there were five of these things in total. Putting them together with the meat, it seemed that they should be the staple food that the other party often eats, and they were also made into the same shape to carry with them, so this kind of food should be very popular in the other party's tribe, right?!

The elder broke off a small piece of bread with his hand and put it in his mouth to chew, savoring the unique sweet smell of flour. After a long time, he suddenly asked Yan.

"Yan, do you still remember why we have to migrate as a tribe? "

I remember, because Biao said that our Qiao family's population is increasing, and hunting in one place cannot support 10,000 people, so every time the population of the tribe increases to a certain level, a part of the population must be expelled and let them find a new home for themselves. That's how Biao was driven out." Yan said to the elder, recalling what happened back then.

This is the fact, survival of the fittest. When people's hunting skills reach a certain level and their lives are stable, the population will naturally grow without limit, but there are only so many prey in one place, which is limited after all. If the population increases and there are not enough prey, then everyone will starve.

In the face of such a situation, there are only two ways, either to keep splitting up and let some people move away from their original place of residence to find a new home with more prey.

Or to find a new way to survive, whether it is grazing and breeding, fishing with nets, or farming food, there is always a way that suits you. If not, then you can only be eliminated by nature. Hunting alone will never be able to support so many people.

And the Biao that the elders mentioned is the one who was eliminated by the tribe . After being expelled from the tribe, Yan found a new way.

I remember that it was last year when Biao returned to the tribe alone and brought everyone a message, 'There is grain at sunrise, which can live ten thousand people.'

In the distant land of sunrise, there is a large tribe. They grow a plant called grain, and people can feed tens of thousands of people by growing grain.

It's a pity that Biao was injured on the way back alone. After telling them the news, he died not long after.

This year, when the Qiao family expelled people, Yan's branch of several hundred people was expelled. Because they had received news from Biao before, they migrated thousands of miles eastward, hoping to find a place where grain could be grown.

Thinking of this, the elder pointed to the bread in his hand and said to Yan, "Yan, do you think this thing is made of grain?"

(End of this chapter)