During breakfast, Xu Chen also asked people to throw some uneaten bones to these savages for food.
This move once again dispelled some of the hatred. After many women and children saw Xu Chen and others, they no longer struggled and screamed in hatred full of anger like yesterday. Instead, they timidly bowed their heads and even took the initiative to avoid them.
Of course, there is no gratitude. After killing so many of them and causing so many casualties, hatred cannot be eliminated so easily, but at least it can be seen that this hostility has begun to develop to the point where communication can be achieved.
In order to test the possibility of subjugation, after all the savages had finished eating the bones, Xu Chen asked people to find the older women among them, and then asked the Mongols to participate and began to communicate with some simple gestures.
Communication among completely different ethnic groups and levels of civilization was extremely difficult. Language was almost useless. He relied entirely on gestures. Xu Chen felt that he was not communicating with a group of humans, but with a group of monkeys.
However, monkeys are also considered primates and have certain intelligence. They can still understand some occasional movements and simple sounds, let alone real humans. Therefore, this complex and painful exchange lasted for a full two hours, during which Xu
In the morning, these savages were also treated to dried vine fruits, dried meat and aphrodisiac fruit tea.
Xu Chen's kind act finally led to a breakthrough in this difficult exchange.
These older women were no longer full of hatred and wary of everyone, but began to make gestures with each other. They even regarded Xu Chen as a trustworthy person and angrily pointed at a group of Mongolian people and accused them of their crimes.
.
A group of Mongolian people dared not speak out in anger, and were a little embarrassed.
Because before the exchange, Xu Chen asked the Mongolian people not to get angry and provoke conflicts no matter what happened. Therefore, a group of barbaric indigenous people pointed at their noses and screamed, and they could only hold their noses and admit it.
To be able to defeat this group of centuries-old enemies so easily this time, Xu Chen was the biggest helper.
No matter how things develop in the future, these savages will never pose a threat to the Mongols again.
Now we just have to see how Xu Chen deals with this barbarian tribe.
According to the thinking of the Mongolian people, it is best to kill them all and avoid seeing them in the future.
But it seems that Xu Chen doesn't want to do this, but these people are Xu Chen's prisoners, and they have no power to participate in the disposal, so they can only follow Xu Chen's arrangements.
"I...give you fire...you give us...salt..."
Xu Chen pointed to the burning bonfire and the salt brine area above the valley, and took out a piece of rock salt crystal to explain.
Several female savages seemed to understand, squatting together and talking to each other.
"You...go and discuss with the tribesmen. From now on, the Mongolian tribe will handle the salt here. Do not attack them, otherwise you will all die..."
Xu Chen pointed at the Mongols with a serious face, and then pointed at a pile of corpses dumped not far away and repeatedly made warning signs.
Several women nodded together in horror, then returned to a group of tribesmen and began to communicate babblingly.
Some of the group of indigenous savages screamed, some were angry, some were silent, and some were timid and simply hid behind their companions and shivered.
The conditions put forward by Xu Chen were both tempting and extremely insulting.
For barbarians who are simpler-minded than the savages of other tribes, they remember hatred more firmly.
But faced with the temptation of fire and the threat of death, huge differences occurred in the mentality of the tribe.
Naturally, they felt angry to give up their hatred against the Mongols, but if they didn't agree, they were afraid that they would all die today.
In particular, some women holding babies and young children kept screaming at some angry men, and some even rushed to scratch them.
Faced with the threat of death, the maternal nature of these primitive savages finally shines through.
Hatred can cultivate children's desire to fight since childhood, but for those newborn babies, they have nothing to do with this hatred. Motherhood is the most determined and abundant at this moment. They do not want their children to be killed by foreigners because of hatred.
die.
Besides, the conditions proposed by the other party are still very fair.
For them who are not short of salt, fire is the most urgently needed wealth at the moment.
With fire, the remaining people can survive this cold winter safely.
All the men had been killed or injured, leaving only a group of women and children, most of whom were still injured. If they continued to fight angrily, there would really be only a dead end.
Adults can endure it, but children will starve to death and freeze to death in large numbers.
But if the adults resist, will the children survive?
According to the past war traditions between tribes, this is impossible.
A group of indigenous savages quarreled and screamed for more than ten minutes and then slowly subsided.
A group of injured men were dejected and silent, while a few older women carefully moved to Xu Chen again, squatted on the ground, and made babbling gestures to indicate that the tribe was willing to accept Xu Chen's proposal.
"Very good!" Xu Chen finally let out a long breath.
Although this exchange and negotiation was very sad, it finally reached a relatively perfect ending.
Conquering a foreign tribe is very difficult.
Although he could not guarantee that this savage tribe would no longer be hostile to the Mongols and cause trouble, at least this exchange could be brought to a temporary end in a more humane way.
What's more, we don't know what will happen next.
As the strength of the Alliance tribe continues to expand, this group of indigenous people, most of whom are wounded, women and children, will be less and less looked down upon by him.
The only trouble is that they may rebel in the future and bring some hidden dangers to salt production.
But right now, he really needs more manpower to develop the salt mine.
Of course, leaving this tail is not without any benefit.
First, with the participation of this group of savages, it will be easier to continue to search for more salt mines southward in the future, and it will be more convenient to communicate with other indigenous tribes.
The second is that their existence will also put some pressure on the Mongolian people and will not form a situation of monopolizing the salt mines. If these savages rebel, the Mongolian people will have to seek his help, which will give him the opportunity to continuously intervene in the salt mines.
, so that the Mongolian people can always remain loyal.
…
After taking care of the indigenous tribes, Xu Chen was not in a hurry to leave.
The discovery of salt is of more practical significance to him now than conquering more tribes.
What's more, his purpose of going out this time was to find various useful resources.
Therefore, he decided to suspend his new exploration plan and stay to make proper arrangements for the development of the salt mine.
Since there are currently no tools for boiling salt, drying salt is almost the only method.
But if you want to dry the salt, you need a special drying place and a method of making clean salt brine.
In order to complete this salt-drying plan, he observed the brine area and nearby valleys and mountains for a long time, and designed a reasonably reasonable structure based on local conditions.
This valley is not big. The water comes from a mountain spring two miles above. There is water all year round, which provides a sufficient and abundant water source for making brine.
In addition, according to the nearby terrain, it is unlikely that there will be too many flash floods here in summer, because the mountains on both sides are not too high, and the slope is not very steep. They are mainly made of sandstone and soil, and the virgin forest has strong water-fixing ability. It is impossible here.
When there is a horrific flood caused by the convergence of tributaries like the Wulong River, even if heavy rain causes the stream to surge, it will usually recede quickly.
His conjecture was confirmed by the Mongolian and indigenous savages. After he asked, people from both tribes said that there is rarely large water in such valleys, and it usually disappears as quickly as it comes.
Therefore, as long as the design is reasonable, the drying area will not be greatly affected.
The first step is to find an area with staggered heights near the salt brine area, dig out three pits in a stepped manner, lay several layers of rock salt silt on the bottom, and then step on it repeatedly with your feet to form a salt pit that leaks very slowly.
Above the salt pit, dig ditches from the stream to bring stream water into the first salt pit. Then use rattan baskets to wash the excavated sediment containing a large amount of salt frost with water. After dissolving the salt inside, follow a gentle slope ditch.
Slowly flow and settle, allowing the brine to flow into the second salt pit below to continue clarification.
After the brine in the second salt pit is full, it is placed in the third and largest salt pit at the bottom to evaporate. When the concentration of the brine gradually increases, salt will precipitate after reaching a certain saturation level.
Finally, the precipitated salt is fished out in a rattan basket and drained before it can be stored and transported.
The three steps of rinsing, clarification, and evaporation are clear and orderly, and there is no brain-burning process. Xu Chen believes that these primitive savages can complete it with simple learning, which is far more convenient and safer than boiling salt with fire.
Although making salt in this way will be slower, all the tribes now have only a few thousand people combined, and they can't eat much salt in a year.
What's more, salt needs to be exchanged for wealth and will not be given for free. Before farming has been spread on a large scale and before food has become mainstream, the demand for salt among tribes will not be too great and will only be very slow.
growth status.
Right now it's just a matter of making adequate preparations for the future.
The scale of the salt drying field is not large, so it does not require too many manpower to build. Xu Chen divided everyone into three groups.
One group, mainly Mongolian, is responsible for building the salt drying field according to the plan;
One group is dominated by wind and is responsible for hunting;
The other group is the Gonghuo Captive Corps and some indigenous savage men and women, who are responsible for building wooden houses.
For the future development of the salt field, in addition to teaching these indigenous tribes how to use fire, it is also necessary to provide them with a safer and more comfortable living environment. In addition, the Mongolian people will also arrange for people to be stationed here all year round. There are no rock caves here, so accommodation must be provided.
and life issues.
However, the wooden houses here are much different from the wooden houses built by the Gonghuo Tribe for the Thunder Tribe. They just cut down some wooden sticks of different thicknesses and built a circle of simple log cabins in the woods, covered with leaves and thatch.
, forming a courtyard structure with a simple defensive function.
A relatively spacious pergola was also built in the open space in the middle of these cabins, and a simple fire pit was surrounded by stones, so that the fire in the fire pit could be preserved for a long time.