Chapter 691: Counterattack the Base Camp (Seeking votes and subscriptions)
Just as Luo Chong was thinking about how to increase the steel consumption industry, the time had entered October of the first year of the Han tribe's Jianyuan. This was the last month of autumn, and the cold winter was about to come. However, Youye was still in the north and had no intention of returning.
In an unknown valley thousands of kilometers northeast of the Han tribe, a large flag with the word "Han" was fluttering in the wind. This was the temporary camp set up by Youye, but at this time the camp was a busy scene.
It was a flat land in the valley. After being cleaned up, many low adobe houses were built. The densely packed houses were located in an orderly manner, looking like the residential area in the Han tribe city. Although these houses had no courtyards and looked very simple, most of them had thatched roofs, but they were arranged neatly.
There were many houses, about a thousand, and they were still increasing.
In this "suspected" large settlement, many people were nervously collecting supplies for the winter.
The crew led by Youye were also here. Some of the crew members led women and half-grown children to harvest corn planted on the hillside. It was grown from the reserve food carried on Youye's sailboat. The broken corn was put into rattan baskets and then carried back to the camp on a shoulder pole. The remaining corn stalks were harvested and sent back to the camp for storage, to be used as fuel or livestock feed in winter.
The special animal pens in the camp housed some captured wild argali and unknown deer, and even more than a dozen wild donkeys with blue-gray hair, which were mainly used to pull carts.
The carts were built by the craftsmen on the ship, and the adobe house construction technology was also brought by Youye. Farming and breeding were all brought from the Han tribe. There was a miniature of the Han tribe everywhere, but the people living here were called "survivors" by Youye.
These were all tribes that had been attacked by cannibals. Some of them were captured, and some escaped. They were all remnants of the original tribe, so they were called survivors.
Some were even rescued by Youye and his men from the cannibals, or were found and settled here. In more than half a year, the number of people rescued and kidnapped has reached 4,000 to 5,000, and the number is still increasing.
In the afternoon, the men came back, either carrying the prey they caught or carrying a bundle of firewood on branches. In short, no one came back empty-handed.
These people carried longbows on their backs, spears in their hands, stone axes on their waists, and four or five arrows each. They all carried weapons and went out hunting and chopping wood every day, and also performed patrol tasks. However, compared with their previous lives, their lives are much better now. With the help of the Han tribe, they have learned many new skills, archery is just one of them, and the most important thing is to learn to set traps, which can help them save a lot of time hunting.
Sometimes, if they found a cannibal hunting team, Youye would gather people to rescue them. Everyone had bows and arrows, and with the advantages of sneak attacks and numbers, they could always win against small hunting teams. Otherwise, they would not have collected so many "refugees" in just half a year.
After the men returned with the prey, there were special people to slaughter them, using the iron knives brought by Youye and his men. The ironware here was too scarce, and most of them were the personal equipment brought by the crew members themselves. There were only two iron pots, which were always used by Youye and his men.
Fortunately, the versatile crew members taught these people how to make pottery, which allowed thousands of people to use pots and pans.
Salt, there is also salt here, which is a salt pond discovered by Youye in another place. In fact, it is a saline-alkali land with some water. They took some salty soil back and filtered and evaporated it themselves. The output is not large, but it can maintain the daily consumption of the camp.
Even the elderly and children were not idle. They planted or collected wild hemp, vines and other things, then retting the hemp to take the skin and twist it into ropes, bowstrings, or used to weave nets. Nets can be used to make traps to catch prey, and can also be used to catch live prey. The wild sheep and donkeys in the camp were obtained in this way. The vines and other things were used to weave baskets or chicken coops.
There was no loom here, and the carpenter on the ship didn't know how to make that thing, so there were no sacks here, and basically only baskets could be used to carry things.
The chickens were also caught pheasants, mainly to collect some feathers for making arrows. There were not as many resources as the Han tribe, so it was quite troublesome to make arrows. The arrowheads used were mostly made of animal bones.
The camp was busy until dark. A lot of bonfires were lit, and smoke rose from every household. The only two-masted sailboat in the camp also returned. Everyone cheered and hurriedly carried baskets to greet it. No need to ask, it must be a full boat of fish.
This boat is still under the command of Youye himself. He goes out fishing every day and looks for similar "survivors". He stays out for several days. Every time he comes back, he either brings some strangers or a boat full of fish.
Of course, scouting the base camp of the cannibals is also one of their tasks. After all, there is no reason for Youye to gather so many "survivors". The reason why he can fool so many people is that he promised to help them rescue their tribesmen and protect them. Anyway, this is also one of the goals of the Han tribe. It doesn't matter if he agrees, as long as he can bring these people back to the Han tribe in the future.
This time is no exception. Youye commanded the crew to dock at the simple dock. More than a dozen tribe leaders of the survivors immediately brought people up. They began to unload the fish and replace new fishing nets. Several tribe leaders of the survivors also found that the tribesmen who went out with them did not come back, and they immediately asked nervously.
"Master You, where are the children we went out with? Why haven't they come back?"
"Master You, did we run into those cannibalistic aliens again?"
You Ye came ashore with a torch in his hand, looking a little tired, and said to the chiefs who surrounded him.
"No, don't worry, chiefs. They are all fine. We just found the remnants of a small tribe of more than 200 people outside. The sailboat can't bring them all back in one go, so I left some people and food there to watch over them.
After unloading the fish on the boat, we will go out again. It will take three or four trips to bring everyone back. Masters, don't slack off. It's better to build more houses before it snows, otherwise people will freeze to death in winter."
"So that's the case. That's good. It's good that nothing's wrong. Master You has worked so hard."
"How many more houses do we need to prepare? There are still dozens of empty houses now, which should be enough."
"With more people, we need to store more food. If not, I will bring people to bring back the herd of bison tomorrow. The hunting team has been watching for several days. I will bring more people with me when the time comes."
A group of clan leaders said noisily again.
"Prepare more houses. There will always be more and more of us in the future. Prepare more to be prepared.
You can arrange the hunting. Tell the hunting team to be careful and don't let any big losses happen. It's not easy for everyone to survive." Youye immediately assigned them tasks.
This is how the camp is currently managed. Although the initiator of the settlement is Youye of the Han tribe, and it is nominally the front-line counterattack base organized by the Han tribe, Youye cannot manage all the daily affairs after all, so he assigned the daily work of managing the camp to the clan leaders of the survivors. They are also willing to do these things, and Youye is also happy to relax. He still drives his boat outside every day.
After unloading all the fish on the boat, Youye set out again. He even had dinner on the boat. He had to hurry up to get the people back. He would definitely not be able to go back this winter. He had finally gathered these people together. He couldn't leave them here just because he went back temporarily. If that happened, the Han tribe would lose their credibility in their hearts.
The people in the camp enjoyed the rare dinner time in the evening. The tribe leader in charge of hunting began to select people to join the large-scale hunting activity tomorrow. After the women finished their meal, they lit a bonfire by the river and began to process the fish. The fish had to be slaughtered and salted, and the fish bladders had to be kept, which was a precious source of viscose.
Although the people in the camp had a hard life, they were happy in their hearts because they had hope for such a life. The living standards were getting better and better, and there were more and more people in the camp. Humans are social animals. They will feel safe only when they are with more of their own kind.
As far as the current camp is concerned, there are more than a thousand adult males who can participate in hunting and guarding the camp. This is definitely not a small number. With so many warriors here, their fear of the cannibals can be reduced a little. At least they don't have to live in fear all day long. This is one of the reasons why they are willing to come here.
Another point is that by joining this camp, they have the opportunity to find their former tribesmen. This is the dream of many people in the camp, but they know that they have no chance of winning by themselves. However, with more people joining, this hope is greater. Although so far, Youye has never taken them to the cannibal's lair to do anything, but only occasionally sneak attacks on scattered cannibal hunting teams, but this has given them hope. At least through a few victories in battle, they can eliminate their fear of the enemy, and they will have the opportunity to do bigger things in the future.
After dinner, the men began to prepare hunting tools, ropes, large nets, torches, spears, bows and arrows, and then began to divide into groups to explain their respective tasks for tomorrow.
The women also sat in front of the fire pit in the house, sewing animal skin clothes for the winter by the firelight of the stove, and at the same time fantasized about the day when they would join the Han tribe in the future. The Han tribe could weave cloth and dye it into beautiful colors. The clothes worn by You Changshi and his people were all very beautiful. I would wear such clothes in the future, probably, I would. I didn't know if my captured brother was still alive, and how he was doing now.
Thinking of this, many people became worried. While they were looking forward to a better life in the future, they were also worried about the safety of their former relatives.
At night, gusts of cold wind blew, and the weather was getting colder day by day. The tribe leader in charge of the defense of the camp also began to arrange the patrol and guard plan for the remaining personnel tomorrow. Many men had to go out hunting with him, so he had to tell some half-grown children to join the patrol team and let them patrol while they went out to chop wood.
The reason why this place is called the front-line counterattack base camp is not a joke, because the river valley that Youye found is indeed very close to the cannibal's nest, so close that it only takes two days to reach it by boat, otherwise he can't often go there to scout the situation.
Being close means that danger may occur at any time, so defense in the valley is also necessary. These survivors have lost too much, and they cannot suffer any more losses.
The hunting team went out early the next morning, and no one came back at night. The people in the camp couldn't help but worry. On the third day, Youye came back and sent 60 people back on a sailboat. Then he heard the tribe leaders talk about the hunting team and asked Youye to help find them. Youye agreed.
Then for three consecutive days, the hunting team did not come back, and Youye disappeared. The people in the camp began to panic. That was the majority of adult men in their camp, and they could not
afford On the seventh day, there was finally news, but it was not the large army that came back, but only a few messengers sent by the hunting team.
According to the messenger, the herd of bison that the hunting team had targeted had already run away. They followed the trail of the bison all the way to the "Yanze" and then surrounded and killed all the hundreds of bison. It happened that Youye also found them at that time. The bison were too big and too many, so the hunting team could not bring them back at once, so Youye asked them to slaughter them on the spot, and then get some salt from the local area to marinate the beef. After everything was processed, they would be shipped back in batches by boat.
It was normal for them to be out for so long after going back and forth for such a long distance. After hearing this explanation, everyone in the camp breathed a sigh of relief, but before they could let go of their worries, the turning point mentioned by the messenger came.
"We found a white ghost hunting team (cannibal warriors with white totems painted on their bodies) resting near the salt lake. They have captured a lot of prisoners and are collecting salt dried on the ground in the other direction of the salt lake. They haven't discovered us yet. You Changshi said that we can find an opportunity to kill them. Everyone is waiting there now.
There are about 300 white ghosts on the other side. We have more than 800 people and more than 600 bows and arrows. We have a great chance of winning. If we succeed this time, we can rescue hundreds of people. You Changshi asked me to come back and tell you to prepare more houses and food."
"Ah? Did you encounter those white ghosts again? How are you? Is there any danger?"
"It should be fine. Most of our hunting team is there. There are so many longbows. I don't think it will be a big problem. Let's prepare to receive the survivors as You Changshi said."
"I hope our warriors can win this battle. Also, we can't let those white ghosts find our current camp. It's best to kill them all, these damn white ghosts."
The clan leaders in the camp began to worry again.
(End of this chapter)
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