These three horse herds roam the vast riverbank that stretches for dozens of miles between the Ba and Wu ethnic groups all year round, gathering and dispersing. They mostly forage on the riverbank in spring and autumn, and in summer and winter they all go to nearby valleys or forested hillsides to live.
Exploring the movements of the wild horses has begun since the beginning of autumn, but as winter gets closer, these wild horses have gradually migrated into the mountains and forests, spending less and less time near the river beaches.
However, after several months of monitoring, the activity range and movements of these horses have become quite clear.
About twenty horses near the Ba tribe recently appeared in a forest about five miles downstream. The surrounding terrain is open and the slopes are gentle, making it very difficult to capture them.
The two medium and large horse groups close to the Uzu should be a combination of seven or eight different families. Sometimes they are together and sometimes they are scattered. The situation is the most chaotic during the estrus period. The male horses of several groups bite and fight with each other, and the mares and calves.
The horses follow them and run around, but in autumn and winter, the mating season has passed, and most of them gather together again, forming a large and loose group that comes and goes together.
Today, these two huge groups, with a combined total of hundreds of wild horses, operate near a small valley two or three miles downstream from the entrance of the Uzu Valley.
Because the climate in the valley is relatively warm and humid in autumn and winter, there are many green plants, moss, ferns and other plants in the woods that can provide food.
According to the current investigation, the huge herd of horses near the valley is the best target.
However, the environment in that place was unfamiliar and complicated. Xu Chen didn't know the local situation at all. If he acted rashly, he would end up fetching water from a bamboo basket. Therefore, he carefully inquired about the terrain and surrounding environment of the current range of the horses' activities.
Fortunately, because the area where the horses live happens to be the core area where the Uzbek people go hunting all year round, this brings a good opportunity to hunt wild horses.
Although horses are herbivores, they are not at the bottom of the natural food chain, but at a very high position.
This is due to their extraordinary running speed and keen sense of adaptability.
Herbivorous animals such as elephants, rhinos, giraffes, and bison can easily face large predators because of their strong bodies. But horses are different. They just rely on running fast and do not feed any prey at all.
opportunity to get closer.
Because of the natural asymmetry in speed, humans rarely hunt wild horses, which makes wild horses not very afraid of humans.
But not being afraid does not mean that wild horses are not vigilant.
In fact, wild horses are very vigilant. Once they find that a hunter is too close and within the attack range, the leading horse will issue a warning and quickly lead the group away.
Wild horses, like wild donkeys, are naturally danger alarms for other wild animals.
As long as the horses move, other animals accustomed to group life, such as bison, wild deer, and wild sheep, will also run with them.
Because of this, hunters will actively avoid horses most of the time when hunting, so as not to disturb other wild animals, which also gives the wild horses a larger living space.
Outside the mouth of the Uzu Valley, there is a large-scale impact river beach that is rare in the surrounding area for hundreds of miles. It is a natural and good place for foraging and activities. Therefore, even if there is a powerful human tribe like the Uzu nearby, the wild horses still have enough to survive.
Space, the population is expanding day by day.
The original herd of wild horses in the Ba valley and the group of wild horses not far downstream were most likely branched off from the wild horse population near the Wu tribe.
A group of people communicated for half an hour, and Xu Chen almost had a relatively complete plan. At this time, the roasted lamb was almost cooked, exuding a strong barbecue smell with the unique spicy flavor of pepper, permeating the entire compound.
.
A group of people were already hungry, so they tore off the barbecue with their hands and started to eat.
After a gust of wind and lingering clouds, Xu Chen asked Gu Heju to bring out a jar of newly brewed vine fruit wine.
A large group of men immediately let out excited cries and howls, throwing away the barbecue and scrambling to grab the wine bowls.
After a few sips of fruit wine, the atmosphere became a little uncontrollable. He started laughing and bragging loudly and unscrupulously, saying that he would catch a few wild horses with his bare hands tomorrow.
The men were eating meat, drinking, and living wildly in the yard.
In the fire pond room, Mother Ba and a group of female clan leaders surrounded the twin little witches and were eating, drinking, talking and laughing.
A group of middle-aged and elderly women, most of whom have gray hair and wear coarse linen skirts, look like a group of old aunts in the mountains.
The two little witches were still underage, delicate and childish. They wore exquisite embroidered dresses and cloaks, and neatly braided braids. They sat upright and told a group of patriarchs about the inheritance of the great witches.
This group of old and young women, no matter their age, clothing or demeanor, are in great contrast.
As the only exception, the young woman who was allowed to participate in this witch and clan leader-level food symposium was Ye.
Perhaps it was because Mu Ba wanted to train her to slowly learn to participate in the management of the tribe, and to gain more knowledge by communicating with these patriarch-level people.
Or maybe it's because of the special relationship between her and Xu Chen that she needs to improve her status in the ethnic group and tribe.
Anyway, Ye was mixed in with the two witches and a large group of middle-aged and elderly women, and seemed a little out of place.
These clan leaders were all experienced old men, and they probably all guessed that Ye was already an adult, and they all knew about the unusually close relationship between Ye and Xu Chen, so they occasionally deliberately joked and asked about the marriage, in the crowd.
While laughing, the little female savage blushed and felt uncomfortable all over.
Listening to the laughter coming from inside.
Especially my grandma’s unique and super loud voice.
When Xu Chen was drinking and eating meat, he would occasionally turn his head to look at the fire pit room, and then his face could not help but twitch.
This situation always reminds him of the familiar scene in the village when a large group of aunts and uncles gathered together to chat when he was a child.
The eastern family is long and the western family is short, the southern family is rich and the northern family is poor. Which family's daughter wants to get married, which family's men are good at eating and lazy, which family's women steal men...
Whether it has been tens of thousands or thousands of years, women's gene for gossip has never changed. As time goes by, the inheritance becomes deeper, and now this group of primitive people has begun to show signs.
He remembered it wasn't like this before.
When they first crossed over, Muba and Amu were full of majesty as parents in the tribe. They were busy and hardworking every day, with worried faces and unsmiling faces. They had never had such lively chats.
But in the past year or so, they have evolved very fast, and the signs of becoming rural aunts and grandmothers have become more and more obvious.
Perhaps the source of the Bagua fire is eating too much.
It is obvious that a woman's desire to speak is directly proportional to her quality of life.
A huge full moon slowly rose into the deep blue night sky.
Sparse stars twinkled in the sky.
The late autumn night was slightly cold, the bonfire was burning in the whistling night wind, and the flames swayed with the wind, but it did not affect this grand bonfire dinner at all.
Whether it was the tribal men and women singing and dancing on the river beach, or the hunter leaders and tribal chiefs eating meat, drinking and chatting in the compound, they were all immersed in the incomparable joy and excitement. In the formerly quiet valley, laughter and laughter echoed everywhere.
Regardless of the number and size of the participating tribes, or the hosting and planning of the hunting competition, the first witchcraft conference held by the Ba people was definitely the most lively and successful one.
The results of today's competition have been tallied and spread widely. A total of hundreds of large and small beasts were killed, including more than forty wild wolves. In addition, more than ten large and small beasts were successfully captured alive.
This is an unprecedented harvest.
The hunting competition far exceeded any previous Witch Lords Conference.
Especially the battle with a large group of wild wolves made everyone excited, especially the hunters of all races who participated in the hunting competition. They talked endlessly about it, even describing the scene in the dense forest at that time.
A scene of a heroic battle with the elusive wolf pack in the weeds and thorns.
The other side of the river has always been the territory of this group of wild wolves, so they are very familiar with every place on the river beach, but for a group of hunters who have just crossed the river, it is definitely a complex and unfamiliar environment.
Therefore, after they chased the wolves into the barren riverbank, the wolves took advantage of the familiar environment to adopt a division and encirclement attack mode against the hunters, causing the more than ten hunting teams to gradually fall into a situation of fighting on their own.
Although the hunting team was well prepared and experienced in dealing with wild wolves, more than ten people were injured in the end.
But the price paid by wild wolves is even greater. After all, the bipedal apes have always been the most cunning and intelligent group of predators. In particular, hunting tools have made rapid progress in the past two years, with the extensive use of bows and arrows and rattan shields and armor.
The sharp claws and claws that the ferocious wild wolves are proud of have also lost their use.
In this chaotic chase and battle, the advantages of human tools were fully utilized, especially the extensive use of bows and arrows, which caused the most fatal damage to the wild wolves.
Almost most of the wild wolves that were killed were killed after being wounded by bows and arrows.
Both in terms of speed and attack power, bows and arrows far exceeded the wild wolf's prediction of human attack capabilities.
Stones and spears cannot be used on a large scale in an environment with dense weeds, but bows and arrows can attack from both distance and distance. Even if they are only three to five meters apart, bows and arrows still have powerful reactions and lethality.
This time, almost all members of the Ba nationality team were equipped with bows and arrows, and almost all the six-ethnic alliances were equipped with several archers. Only the Gonghuo Alliance did not have access to the manufacturing methods of bows and arrows, so they still used primitive spears, but they
They also began to be partially equipped with rattan shields and short spears.
The advancement of weapons brings more powerful offensive capabilities.
Although the tactic of using the familiar environment to divide and encircle the wild wolves worked, in the face of carefully selected and trained well-armed humans, they hardly took advantage of them. Although they also caused some damage to humans, in the end they failed.
They all paid for it with their lives.
After nearly an hour of fighting, the wild wolves left behind more than forty corpses, and many others were injured and escaped. Faced with such horrific casualties, the wolf king knew that the end was over, and finally had to summon his companions to escape from this food-rich land.
's home.
This thrilling battle allowed these wild wolves to deeply understand the terror of the two-legged upright apes. From now on, they will remember the faces of these humans deeply.
And this primitive wilderness, a strange area that no human has ever set foot on, has become a human territory for the first time.
Today's competition provides ample meat for the dinner, and everyone can eat it with open belly.
This is the greatest charm of the annual Witch Lords Conference.