Chapter 438: First Encounter [Taro] (Two chapters in one)
On the second day after Luo Chong made the arrangement, when the first light of dawn appeared on the horizon, the 20 male tribesmen led by Shu Da and the 50 people of the Sang clan, as well as two ox carts and several horses, left the city early and headed for the other side of the river.
According to the custom of going out, everyone must carry weapons, even if it is the most ordinary spear, but this group of people are going to work, and they did not expect to encounter enemies. At most, they just guarded against wild beasts, so they did not bring any weapons.
If they had to say that there were some, it would probably be the long-handled axes for cutting trees and the shovels for digging the soil. The rest were the longbows carried by the men led by Shu Da, as well as a small number of spears and Shu Da's own steel knives.
The group still walked on the previous "beast trails", which were often walked by animals in the forest. For example, the roads that the Li tribe warriors used when hunting before had long been obliterated by the new grass and trees in the past year.
The team did not walk all the way this time. Since they also brought two ox carts, they moved very slowly and most of the time was wasted on opening the road.
The original residence of the Li tribe was occupied by another migrating tribe. There were many people in this tribe, as many as four or five hundred people. They built a new residence in the abandoned residence of the original Li tribe.
Although the tents were still made of branches, they covered the outside with a layer of mud. In this way, the warmth and firmness of the house were greatly enhanced. However, this was not the most important thing. The important thing was that the tribe had learned to grow crops.
This was definitely an amazing achievement. As long as humans who mastered the planting technology could get food as long as there was no natural disaster, then development and growth were just around the corner.
This morning, it was another sunny day. The men of the tribe went out hunting as usual, and they were also responsible for patrolling the surrounding area. Exploration was necessary.
They had been here for less than half a year, and they were not very familiar with the surrounding situation. They only knew that there was a forest rich in nuts, close to water sources, and there was open space. They even found an abandoned residence, so they settled here.
The women of the tribe took wooden forks and spears to the river to try to catch some small animals, and then they would use forks to fork fish by the river, but these were not the staple food of their tribe. They still mainly used the crops they planted as food.
It was a crop with vines growing on the ground and tuberous rhizomes growing underground, and its main edible part was the rhizomes buried in the soil.
These rhizome fruits have brown skin and white inside, and some have some light brown dots. They look like dragon fruit, but they are not; each one is the size of an adult's fist, rich in starch, and can be cooked directly in the fire.
This kind of thing is generally not cut, because after cutting, the skin that touches the flesh will be irritated and itchy, and only by placing your hands next to the campfire and roasting them can you stop the itchy feeling.
The people of this tribe called this crop taro, so the name of their tribe was the taro tribe.
Taro is actually taro, similar to potatoes, and yam is also its relative. It has a long history of cultivation in China. It should have been widely known in the Zhou Dynasty and was regarded as an important food crop in the Spring and Autumn Period.
Luo Chong had eaten it once, but he didn't like it very much. However, there are still many people who like to eat it. This is mainly a matter of personal taste. In addition, taro is not a staple food in modern times, so it is not grown much. Luo Chong has little knowledge about this aspect in his mind, but even if he doesn't understand it, it is
better to have more food than less. Let's not talk about other things. Now this kind of vine plant is very popular in the Han tribe, because pigs especially like to eat this kind of plant. The Han tribe is not rich enough to feed pigs with corn, so at present, these vines can only be used as the main source of pig feed.
But all this is a later story. The taro tribe has been here for half a year and has been busy reclaiming land, planting taro, and building tribal settlements. Although they will send people out to hunt, they still escape the activity cycle of the primitive era, that is, they can only walk until noon at most and must return to the tribe before dark.
In addition, the Han tribe has not been here for a long time, so the two sides have never encountered each other, and the Han tribe has no way of knowing that there is taro here, but today, the opportunity to meet finally came.
By the next morning, Shu Da and his party were very close to the camp of the Yu tribe, but they had not set out yet. Instead, they gathered together to eat breakfast.
Two large iron pots buried in the ground were cooking salted pork porridge. The aroma of the porridge drifted far away in the woods, but it was this strange aroma that attracted the hunting team of the Yu tribe.
"Do you smell anything?" A small leader asked his team members.
"Hmm, it seems to be the smell of fire."
"I smelled it too, not only the smell of smoke, but also the smell of food, but I don't know what kind of food it is, it doesn't look like barbecue, but it smells very good."
"What the hell is that? You only know how to eat. Shouldn't you first pay attention to who lit the fire?
Everyone, pay attention, there may be someone cooking over there. We don't know if they are a friendly tribe, so be careful when you go over there. If the other party has no ill intentions, then we shouldn't take the initiative.
We have been here for more than half a year, but we haven't found any other tribes nearby, and we don't know if there are any salt stones here. The salt stones we brought when we migrated are almost gone, so this may be an opportunity. If the other party has salt stones, we can also find a way to exchange some." The leader of the team said to the dozen or so team members below.
"Yes, captain."
A group of men nodded to show that they understood, and then followed their captain carefully to the place where the smoke came from.
They were not far away. A dozen people were wearing leaf and animal skin suits, which were no different from jungle camouflage. After walking for more than ten minutes, the smell became more and more obvious. Some small voices also reached their ears, which made the hunting team of the Yu tribe more vigilant.
A group of people exchanged glances, and most of them stayed. Only two or three people continued to move forward carefully.
They were all excellent hunters. They usually drove and surrounded the prey in this way when hunting, and even approached the prey in secret. Therefore, several people seemed very confident and did not think that they would be discovered by the other party.
However, at this moment, there was a slight sound above their heads, and then a thin and short wooden spear flew down from the tree next to them. It passed calmly in front of the captain of the Yu tribe hunting team, and then nailed to the tree trunk next to it with a tremor. Then a sharp whistle resounded around.
"Oh no, it's bad, we've been discovered!"
The team leader said to himself, "Oh no!" How could he forget that those who can make fire and cook are not wild beasts, but their kind, people. People of their era are probably best at climbing trees. How could they forget to be careful?
The warning whistle sounded, and the Han tribe members who were cooking immediately became alert. The first to react were the people brought by Shu Da. They immediately picked up their bows and arrows and weapons and headed for the place where the sound came from.
"Who is it? Come out quickly, sentry on the tree, are they people or wild beasts? How many are there?" Someone from the Han tribe shouted immediately.
"It's people. There are three under the tree. They are not from our tribe. They are wearing animal skins. I have aimed at them. They are not moving around. It seems that they are trying to find the sentry. There should be someone behind them. Come and have a look. They are not running away. They should be looking for us." A voice came from the treetop next to the captain of the Taro tribe.
After hearing the report from the sentry, Shu Da also put down the bowl he was preparing to eat, and then led a group of warriors to the front. After the three people from the Yu tribe were discovered, they no longer hid, but simply stood out. Anyway, there were only three of them. Letting others stay behind in advance was originally to prevent the possibility of being discovered by everyone
. In this way, even if a fight really broke out, whether it was retreating or calling for support, more people would survive in the end. This is also the experience summed up by most tribes with blood lessons. Since there was no direct conflict between the two sides, the first meeting was quite friendly. Well, as long as no one was injured, it was considered friendly.
"Who are you and why did you sneak into our camp?"
Shu Da first asked the warriors to surround the three people, and then asked them with gestures.
"We, the tribe, are here, there are many people.
Who are you, are you a tribe nearby? What are you doing here, why haven't you been here before?" The captain of the Yu tribe also gestured back.
But the three of them were very surprised by the clothes of the people in front of them. They had never seen clothes before, and they didn't look like animal skins. The shoes on their feet were also very delicate, but they looked like they were made of animal skins.
The weapons in their hands were even more unfamiliar. They had long wooden handles, some with gray-white spearheads in front, and some with gray-black round flat pieces. They looked particularly thin and were definitely not made of stone or bone. They had never even seen that material before.
Especially the man who led the other side, he had a silver-white headdress on his head, which looked extraordinary. There seemed to be a mouse-like totem on it, which looked a bit funny. He also wore a feather crown like a human, and held a spear in his claws, which was very funny.
Hearing what the other side said, Shu Da's expression became a little strange. Their Black Rat Tribe had lived nearby for so many years, so how could they not know what tribes were around? There were no other tribes around except the Li Tribe and the Han Tribe, but now they were all Han Tribe members. How could he not know where this group of people came from?
However, seeing the other side's cautious look, and even warning him that their tribe was not far away, and there were a lot of people, and no matter how many there were, they could not outnumber the Han Tribe, the other side's words not only had no deterrent effect, but also made the Han Tribe warriors laugh.
"Our tribe is not far from here, just on the other side of the river. We came here to collect fruits from the forest over there. If you are really nearby, you should know that forest." Rat Da explained with gestures, and also tested the other party.
"You are on the other side of the river, so how did you get here? And how did you know that there are fruits in the forest over there?" The team leader of the Taro tribe continued to ask.
"This river is not very wide, it's not easy to get across, as for how we know about that forest, it's because we go there every year to collect fruits.
Oh, by the way, you didn't rebuild the camp we abandoned before, did you live in that abandoned camp now?" Rat Da suddenly remembered something, and confirmed with them with sudden realization.
“What?! That was abandoned by you before?! Is that the tribe you migrated from?
But if that’s the case, even if you gave up the forest on your own, I won’t let you pick fruits there. It belongs to our Yu tribe now. If you want the fruits there, you have to exchange them for something.
By the way, do you have salty stones? If you have salty stones, I can ask the chief to let you pick some fruits.”
The captain of the Yu tribe announced the ownership of the forest while taking out a small piece of translucent white stone from the animal skin skirt around his waist. This thing was very familiar to Rat Da. Isn’t it a natural salt mine that has not been processed? Are there other salt mines nearby?
"We do have this stuff, but ours is cleaner, it's called white salt. If you want to exchange it, you can ask your leader to talk to me. We have plenty of white salt in the Han tribe.
In addition, there is one thing I didn't make clear just now. The tribe before your residence was destroyed by us because they didn't let us pick fruits. Now most of the tribe members have joined our tribe.
So, no matter how big your tribe is or how many people there are, if you dare to stop us from entering the woods, haha, what a joke. If you have anything to ask your leader to tell me, you are not qualified.
Come, take this and bring it back to your leader. If you want white salt, come and tell me yourself." Shu Da waved to the soldiers beside him, and immediately a member of the Han tribe took out a small bag of white salt for marching and handed it to Shu Da, who then threw it to the captain of the Yu tribe.
The captain took the bag made of cloth, opened it and immediately saw a full bag of pure white small particles. After a quick look, he pinched out a little and tasted it without hesitation.
This was not because he was careless, but because the Han tribe had a clear advantage. More than 20 people surrounded the three of them. It was just a matter of a word to kill or shave them. Why would they use something poisonous to poison him? Besides, such a delicate and pure poison would probably not be easy to make. Would the other party make such a thing specifically to harm people?
Sure enough, the moment he took the white salt, he knew it was a good thing. The pure salty taste without any impurities was obviously much better than salty stone. This was the best of the salty stones!
(End of this chapter)
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