Xu Chen didn't make it through the raft, but he still paddled the small catamaran fishing boats that are common in rural areas. A bamboo pole can support it in the river.
Xu Chen drove two people off the raft and felt that the raft suddenly became much lighter. Then he gently pushed the dock with a wooden pole, and the raft slowly floated toward the center along with the bumpy river water.
"Wow~"
Hundreds of people on the shore almost screamed in surprise at the same time.
The few savages standing on the raft all staggered and howled in fear. There was even a guy who stood too close to the edge and fell directly into the water, and then hurriedly climbed up amidst the laughter.
Return to the shore and continue to shake the water.
The location of the dock was a backwater bay area selected by Xu Chen's guidance at the time. It was more than ten meters away from the main river. The water flow was relatively slow, which was just suitable for practicing here.
Xu Chen used wooden poles to support the raft and went back and forth near the pier several times. He gradually found a feeling of punting, and his movements gradually became smoother. He would do a few times on the left side, a few times on the right side, and a few times on the right side.
Support it from the front, and then move to the back to support it.
Anyway, under his back and forth control, the raft will move in the direction he wants.
Many people on the shore gradually saw some clues, and some even felt that they had understood it.
The twin little witches looked at the boy in shorts rowing with admiration. Their eyes were full of little stars, and they could no longer tolerate the other group of bare-butt wild men.
As for the group of tribesmen led by Lei, they were even more shocked to see Xu Chen. They all had their mouths wide open and were so carried away.
"You guys should try it too, remember to move steadily and don't fall!"
Xu Chen asked people on the shore to throw up a few more long wooden poles, and asked each of the men on the raft to get one, and then guided them to learn to punt.
This trip to the Gonghuo Clan was not only to complete the subsequent conquest mission, but also to be regarded as a rare spring outing.
The most important thing is that after this time, he will most likely not take this route next time he goes to the Gonghuo Clan, so he needs to teach the Ji Clan and Cang Clan how to use the river to communicate with the tribes downstream as soon as possible.
Before sharp and strong metal tools were developed, rafts should have become an important means of transportation for these primitive tribes for a long time.
To truly build a strong river boat is not only a matter of tools, but also involves shipbuilding technology that he has never been exposed to.
Even on small river boats that are common in rural areas, he has only seen them rowed, but he has never seen anyone do it with his own eyes.
Shipbuilding is a separate carpentry skill, which is completely different from the most common carpentry such as furniture. It is passed down from generation to generation and is an ancestral craft certified by the imperial court. Many things are kept secret.
Therefore, even if he has tools, it is not easy to make a boat. Right now, he is the best carpenter among mankind, but he can only chop a rough concave and convex tenon with a stone ax. As for boat building, that belongs to
Advanced advanced skills need to be upgraded from sawing wood to making furniture.
If you want to successfully advance to the shipbuilding class, you must successfully activate bronze technology.
Bronze, there is only copper now...
Alas, what a fucking dog era!
Xu Chen stood on the raft, feeling the icy cold river water constantly wet his insteps, and couldn't help but let out a long sigh.
After going to the Gonghuo Clan this time, he planned to go down the Jicang River to observe the situation near the entrance of the river.
As long as you are familiar with the environment and find a suitable docking location, build a raft among the Ba and Wu tribes and sail down the river, you can probably reach the Gonghuo tribe in less than a day.
In other words, at that time, whether starting from the Ji Cang Clan or the Ba Wu Clan, both parties can arrive at the Gonghuo Clan within one day, which will greatly save transportation time.
Of course, if you go there quickly, you may not be able to go back as quickly. When the time comes, whether you are boating or walking, you need to make plans based on the actual situation.
But at least this can save half the time of coming and going.
At present, there are horses on land and rafts on water. As long as these two are developed, within ten years, he believes that he can find out the general situation of this large river basin and find a suitable place to build a city and claim kingship.
…
Another day later.
Five rafts were connected to form a long raft. Under the control of a group of naked savages, they set off from the Cangzu Pier and went down the clear and rapid Jicang River, disappearing suddenly amid the sound of ghosts crying and wolves howling.
These rafts have been further modified. They are not only larger and stronger, but also have a lot of ropes around them. If you encounter severe bumps, you can grab the ropes to stabilize your body. Even if you fall into the water, you can throw the ropes for rescue.
And Xu Chen also underestimated the courage and adventurous spirit of these primitive savages.
Ever since they became familiar with the raft, there seemed to be no fear in their hearts.
Everyone is rushing to take a raft rafting ride.
But in the end, Xu Chen carefully selected thirty people, most of whom were from the Ji and Cang tribes.
Because these two tribes are most familiar with the Jicang River and know where the rocks are most numerous, the river is narrowest and most dangerous dozens of miles downstream, and they have lived by this river since they were children. They hunt on both sides of the river all year round, and the water quality is relatively good.
.
Sufficient training is impossible. We spent a whole day yesterday to familiarize this group of people with simple operations of the raft, and most of them can fiddle with it a few times on the flat areas.
There is also a saying that if there are too many boatmen, the boat will easily capsize. If a group of people are rowing together with wooden poles, you can imagine how chaotic it will be.
Fortunately, these hunters have undergone several months of simple military training and have good discipline. Therefore, Xu Chen, the raft team this time, still formed according to the usual training methods. A training officer from the Cang tribe was in charge, and one raft was arranged for each raft.
Long, after training for half a day according to the usual training method, and after capsizing and falling into the water countless times, he finally looked like something.
However, there is definitely a huge difference between training and actual combat.
This section of the river near the Cang tribe is relatively flat. On the lower reaches, near the golden mouth of the Yinlong Gorge, the nearby river channels are complicated and the water flows rapidly, and there are many large rocks in the river. That is when courage and luck are truly tested.
As for the fact that strength does not exist, Xu Chen did not consider this.
During the training, I knew that he named this raft Flip Fast.
He was more hoping that these savages would be good enough to swim and get up if they fell over.
After all, it is as fast as a raft to flip over, and it is also faster to climb up.
"Set off!"
Seeing the five rafts disappearing on the curved river beach downstream like a long dragon hitting the water, Xu Chen also gave the order to set off.
"Woo~wu~wu~~"
The melodious horn sound sounded.
"Woo~wu~wu~~"
The trumpeters of the six ethnic groups also blew the bark horns one after another, and the six well-trained teams lined up neatly and set off downstream along the river beach.
The Qinglong Banner and the Wang Banner are in front, and the flags of the six ethnic groups are in the back.
Six horses, large and small, each carrying a person on their backs, were galloping among the team.
Lei led his tribe and several technicians who were proficient in building houses and farming, and followed the team at the end.
The flags are hunting in the wind, and the trumpets are sounding one after another.
Under the beckoning and shouting of the Cang women, children, old and young, the long procession gradually moved away, and finally slowly disappeared among the green river canyons filled with wild flowers downstream.
From the Cang people to the Qia people, the distance is more than fifty miles, along the east bank of the Jicang River to the southwest, winding through a large arc, passing through the Yinlong Gorge and seven or eight small streams and valleys.
The road is not difficult, just a little far, and it takes a whole day to walk.
When the two tribes used to communicate, they would need to rest in the other's tribe for a night before returning.
However, given that the relationship between the two major tribal alliances is not very good, such exchanges are not frequent.
There are only over a hundred people in the Qia tribe, which can only be considered a small and medium-sized tribe, with adult males around fifty. Therefore, even if they are not friendly with the Cang tribe, given the strength of the Cang tribe's medium-sized tribe, they usually do not dare to provoke much, and the Cang tribe
Because they are wary of the strength of the Gonghuo Clan, which is not too far away from the Qia Clan, and do not dare to bully the Qia Clan, the two tribes usually live in peace with each other. Apart from occasional minor frictions, they basically get along peacefully.
But since the Cang people obtained pottery from the Ba people, this kind of contact has gradually become more frequent.
The Cang people have a certain business acumen, so they traded the pottery and linen they exchanged from the Ba people to the Qia people at twice the price. The Qia people also added two animal skins and sold them to the Gonghuo people.
Primitive tribes are short of wealth, and this kind of reselling and plundering wealth at high prices is destined to be unsustainable for a long time. Not only the Qia tribe cannot bear the high prices, but the Gonghuo tribe is even more furious.
The pottery is exquisite, beautiful and practical. Not only is it expensive, but it is also easy to break. I finally replaced a few pieces of pottery, but like a treasure, it broke and only a small pot remained before it was warmed.
The Gonghuo tribe went to question the Qia tribe for compensation, but the Qia tribe had no choice but to rob it.
As a result, the first large-scale friction and use of force between the two tribes broke out, and then the Gonghuo tribe, who coveted pottery and linen, also joined in, eventually leading to the first large-scale battle between the two alliance tribes in decades.
A large number of men from both ethnic groups are still stranded in the Six-ethnic Alliance as coolies undergoing labor reform.
The beginning of spring is also the time of drought, when food is extremely scarce.
A group of women, children, and children of the Qia tribe managed to save money on food and clothing to compensate the Cang tribe. After surviving the cold winter, they were hungry every day in the spring.
If there are not enough men, women will fill in the gaps.
The tribe did not have enough strong hunters to hunt, and in order not to starve, all the women and children of the Qia tribe went into battle to search for food.
Wild vegetables, thorn sprouts, fish and shrimps, turtles, snakes, insects, etc., as long as they are edible, will not be spared, especially a group of children, just like a group of wild children of the Ba tribe when Xu Chen just crossed over, they are not around all day long
Looking for food is on the way to find food.
On this day, the spring sun is warm and the birds are singing and the flowers are fragrant.
A few half-grown teenagers and a group of naked children aged five, six, seven or eight were fishing for fish, shrimps and clams in the shallow water of the river beach near the habitat. Suddenly, they saw a huge thing coming down the river in the middle of the upstream river, and it could
I heard shouts of yo hoo hoo hoo hoo.
"Wow!"
A group of children were stunned for a moment.
After a brief observation, they dispersed in a hurry, discarding the rattan baskets, broken fishing nets, and discarding the strings of fish and shrimps, and ran away to the river bank crying and howling.
"Wow, come to Chaga!"
On the raft in the river, I watched the naked children running on the river bank from a distance. A group of wild men with similar naked butts and wet bodies also cheered at the same time.
Fast, too fast. The sun had just risen from the Cang tribe, and now it was only two wooden poles high, and it had already arrived at the Qia tribe.
On weekdays, it takes at least nearly a day to walk along the river beach.
"嘢嚯~~"
"Quick, hold on~"
"Pu Ga Pu Ga~"
"I want to turn over the quack!"
As soon as they saw their destination, the thirty boatmen suddenly became confused. They forgot all the discipline orders and leaders. Dozens of wooden poles were waved, and the long raft looked like a giant centipede with long legs.
Just like that, the river was twisting and swaying back and forth. Amidst the violent shaking and bumps, people began to fall into the water amidst the screams and roars.
It's like driving a car. On the highway, even a fool can drive by holding on to the steering wheel until it turns dark.
But what newbies fear most is turning on the side road and parking on the side of the road.
What's more, the situation in the water is more complicated and difficult to control than on land.
So dozens of boatmen exerted their strength in a chaotic manner, and the wooden poles were braced randomly. The movement direction and trajectory of the rafts were immediately confused. Under the huge inertial impact, the five rafts connected together finally lost their direction and control completely.
It began to collide, spin, and overturn in the rushing river water. The people above also fell into the water, and the sound of ghosts crying and wolf howling resounded throughout the river.
Fortunately, this is not the first time these savages have fallen into the water.
In fact, the raft had capsized several times along the way, but it didn't fall neatly into the water over such a large area.
In addition, the water flow here is relatively gentle, which is much better than the extremely narrow and rapid river beach more than ten miles upstream where the situation would be overturned directly by hitting the big rocks.
After a group of savages shouted and fluttered in the water, they simply started to push the raft to swim to the shore. In addition, a few more skilled savages operated the wooden poles to control the direction. After nearly half an hour of noisy, the long raft finally came closer.
Then he was dragged to the river beach by a group of people working together.
"Wow, I'll turn around..."
"I'll turn around too!"
A group of savages were lying naked on the river beach, resting, looking at the sun in the sky, and they all felt like the world was spinning.
After staying on the raft for a long time, stepping on the shore felt very unreal.
"嘢嚯~嘢嚯嚯嚯..."
From the foot of the mountain in the distance, the shouts of savages could be heard one after another.
"Gather, Cha Lai Ga!"
The leader of the Cang tribe stood up with a roar.
A group of savages lying on the river beach immediately got up and yelled, picked up poles and started to line up.