"I think we should leave too," said another. "We stayed in the big tribe because life here is better than in a small one, right? But staying here now is a dead end."
The Sifang tribe was formed by the fusion and annexation of various smaller tribes. They did not practice slavery from the beginning, so the people of the smaller tribes became civilians after being annexed.
In the past, large tribes had advantages, and everyone was willing to be annexed and stay here. But now the four tribes have become a hell, and they are forced to hand over their prey to feed the group of rulers. Naturally, they want to stay away.
The leader, Mang, gritted his teeth and said, "Let's go."
"Do you want to call out to others?" someone asked.
"Call them," Mang said. "Call everyone who's not sick. If they want to go, they can go. If they don't want to go, don't force them. Don't give them time to tell on us. Tonight, when it's getting dark, everyone should go and call them. Once it's completely dark, we'll leave."
He then instructed one of them, Li, "You and Wuyun go and trade shifts with others tonight."
The king's guards had originally been assigned to guard the city gates from the four tribes, but some of them fell ill and died, leaving them short of numbers, so the tribe had to select some of their healthy members to fill in.
Li and Wuyun were now part of the guard. They also planned to leave with Mang. With them guarding the city gate, they could leave without alerting anyone else.
The confidant that Ji Zhan had originally sent to instigate and monitor this group of people had already left because the epidemic here was getting worse and worse and he was worried about being infected.
After the people guarding the city were replaced, Mang and others left silently. It was not until the next morning when others came to replace Li and Wuyun that they discovered this situation.
Mang and his companions took away all the families who were not ill, except for the bachelors whose wives and children had died of illness. In total, more than 300 people left.
After the guard went to check, he immediately reported the situation.
Ji You's health had been poor to begin with. He had been suffering from frequent headaches and fevers since the recent rainstorms, and he had recently fallen ill again. After examining him, the witch doctor discovered that his symptoms were very similar to those of the common people who had been suffering from the epidemic before.
Now, even if his sons wanted to please him, they didn't dare to get close to him.
The sixth prince, Ji Li, was born into the Jiangyuan tribe. With the support of the Jiangyuan tribe, he was given more honor than the other princes from birth, which also fostered his arrogance.
When Ji You fell, Ji Li naturally took his place and took over the affairs of the tribe.
When he heard that more than 300 people had escaped from the tribe, he immediately became furious and said to his men, "Send people after them, bring them back, and brand them as slaves."
"This..." The subordinate lowered his head in embarrassment.
The king's tribe had a thousand guards. These were divided into several ranks, with the highest rank consisting of 300 men. They took turns guarding the king's side, while the others took turns guarding the tribal gates and other locations. They only obeyed the king's orders and could not be controlled by anyone else.
Each prince had only fifty personal guards at his disposal.
At this moment, Ji Li wanted to send people to chase Mang, but he could not command the king's guards, and his own guards were so few in number that they could not defeat Mang and others even if they chased them.
Although some of the one thousand people were secretly loyal to the Sixth Prince, they should not obey the Sixth Prince openly.
When the fifth prince Ji Chong saw the appearance of Ji Li's men, he couldn't help but sneer inwardly.
The king's guards, the elders of the tribe, and the various officials, and other princes have also infiltrated. Over the years, everyone has quietly arranged for their own people to be selected.
The arrogant Jili always thought that the king had died and he would be the new king of the tribe. Little did he know that he was the least likely to take the throne; as for which of the other princes would take the throne, there would still be a struggle.
"What's the current situation at the Jiangyuan tribe?" Ji Chong returned to his residence and asked his subordinates.
"The epidemic there is even worse than in our tribe. Almost half the people have died. The leader there is also in a state of panic."
Ji Zhong thought for a moment and said, "Send a message over there, saying that hundreds of us here don't want to be infected and have escaped."
The subordinate's eyes lit up, he looked at Ji Chong, and then understood what he meant and went to carry out the order.
So the escape of Mang and others came to nothing amid the Sixth Prince's confusion and the Fifth Prince's ridicule and trouble-making.
The tribe had already lost a third of its population to the disease, leaving the entire tribe in a state of panic. The escape of Mang and the others was like a drop of water in a frying pan, causing even more anxiety among those still living among the sick, who feared they might collapse at any moment.
The tribe then made two more escapes. One was discovered in time, some of the people were killed, and some were enslaved; the other was successful.
What caused the death of the seriously ill Ji You was the mass escape of slaves before the arrival of the snow season.
The Sifang tribe had 600 slaves, who performed the heaviest labor, ate the worst food, and lived in the worst conditions. After the outbreak of the epidemic, the amount of dried meat collected by the tribe decreased, and the daily food they received was even less. Many slaves died not from illness or exhaustion, but from starvation.
Half of them died from the plague. Because the disease was so severe, the guards were unwilling to go near them, giving them an opportunity. Three hundred slaves took advantage of the opportunity to escape.
After Ji You's death, several princes in the tribe fought for the throne and a chaotic fight broke out. After a group of people died and another group escaped, the fourth prince Ji Zhan successfully ascended the throne.
At this time, there were only two thousand people left in the Sifang tribe.
…
The weather was getting warmer. Shanzhuo leaned on his cane, looked at the sun in the sky, and sighed to Lu: "I didn't expect Yu to be right. This day, it really is going to be a drought."
There have been few snowfalls throughout the entire snow season, and even the rainiest spring, there has been no rain at all until now. When it finally feels like it's going to rain, the dark clouds hang around for a while before dispersing.
"Fortunately, we have accumulated a lot of ice." Lu said thankfully.
When the snowy season arrives, the river is filled with water. When the water freezes, they chip away at the ice and dump it into the newly dug reservoir. Where there's water beneath the ice, they catch fish, dry them, and store them.
While others hibernate during the snowy season, the men in their tribe work for half the winter.
Fortunately, these efforts were not in vain. Now that the weather is getting warmer, the river is melting, and the melted water, mixed with ice, is slowly flowing into the reservoir, filling it up. The dam they built has also blocked a lot of river water.
So even though it didn't rain, everyone planted various crops under Qiao Yu's command and used water from the river to irrigate the fields, allowing crops such as sweet potatoes to sprout successfully and grow vines.
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