Xu Chen collected various plant specimens along the way, especially the sour and spicy thorn wild fruits and citrus. He also collected several large bags, and asked Pu and A, two personal tools, to tie them up on the horse and prepare them.
Bring back.
In fact, the more types of plants he saw, the more excited Xu Chen became.
If we come in winter and spring, we will definitely not be able to discover many things.
Now that everything is ripe in autumn, it is harvest time.
In the process of collecting, he also constantly taught the accompanying guards and hunters to pay attention to these useful plants, so that they can bring some back to the tribe for sowing and planting, especially spicy fruits, which can be delivered to the tribe like pepper.
Royal City transactions are even tax deductible.
This news actually made many hunters of the Yugong clan very excited. During the process of exploring and marching, they also collected a lot each.
Three days passed in the blink of an eye, and a team of nearly 300 people traveled over mountains and ridges for nearly a hundred miles through a maze-like primitive forest that blocked out the sky.
"Your Majesty the Witch King, the hunters scouting ahead reported that the area around here is already an area where barbarians are active!"
At dusk on the third day, a group of people arrived near a hill running from west to east. When Xu Chen ordered to find a place to camp and rest, Lei came back with several hunters and officers from the Yu Gong clan to report.
The surrounding hunters and forbidden troops all gathered around excitedly, and they all expressed their willingness to go out and look for traces of the barbarians.
However, Xu Chen rejected everyone's request after looking at the sky, and asked Lei to restrain the leading troops of the Yu Gong clan and the Xiu clan, and send out a team of ten people for about half a mile to conduct a sentinel inspection first. If no barbarians were found,
The activity trail returns to the campsite.
After Lei took the order to leave, Xu Chen asked Long to command the forbidden troops to set up camp and make a fire and prepare dinner.
According to the living habits of all primitive tribes, they generally do not go out after the sun goes down, and they basically never leave their residence, not even to far away.
Especially in this dark and humid virgin forest with towering giant trees.
The evening wind was howling at the moment, and the roars and even sounds of fighting could be heard from all directions. There were all kinds of strange cries nearby, which made people's scalp numb.
If the barbarians came out at this time, they would probably go into the toilet with a lantern, just looking for death.
Soon it was dusk, and hundreds of people found a slightly open location to camp near the territory where the barbarians used to conduct daily activities. They lit more than a dozen bonfires and began to cook food and water. At the same time, they skinned all the wild beasts and birds that the imperial army had hunted along the way.
After plucking, roasting or boiling, they started talking and laughing loudly around the campfire, eating and resting.
The three-day march was uneventful. We were on the road almost all the time and nothing happened.
The most dangerous thing is meeting a tiger on the road.
However, this danger is not for Xu Chen and others, but for Tiger.
When they saw this tiger, whether it was the Yu Gong clan exploring the way in front, the hunter team in the center, or a group of new and excited forbidden soldiers who were traveling for the first time, they were all gearing up and shouting to surround him and ask for it.
*Maogong Gaga.
So the tiger, which had just appeared and roared, was completely frightened and ran away with its tail between its legs...
Obviously this tiger is not stupid. Facing hundreds of erect apes, it feels the fear of death.
Xu Chen surveyed the terrain along the way and collected biological specimens such as plant seeds and medicinal materials. He had the mentality of traveling around the mountains and rivers, and the initial nervousness and excitement of all the hunters and the Forbidden Army gradually became relaxed and calm.
There is actually no need to be too nervous when dealing with these barbarians.
According to reports from officers and hunters of the Xiu Tribe and Yu Gong Tribe, the number of barbarians gathered nearby should not be large. The most they contacted and encountered was no more than thirty people.
The group of barbarians that came to harass the Mongols that we met at the beginning included more than twenty people, which was almost all the strong men of the tribe.
The last time the Yu Gong clan's troops invaded the territory, it was almost a disaster for the barbarians, so they would definitely come out in full force. The thirty people were probably all their young and strong males.
At present, Xu Chen has brought more than three
An elite hunter of a hundred people, even if the opponent is a powerful group of 300 people, it is enough to crush it. What's more, in this environment, it is impossible for the barbarians to multiply and gather such a large group.
According to Xu Chen's speculation, the total number of men, women, old and young in the other tribe is at most about a hundred.
Because the population structure of a mature and stable tribe is that two-thirds of the population is young and middle-aged men and women, and the remaining one-third is the elderly, weak, and children. If the structure is not like this, problems may arise, and eventually through some cruel methods
, and finally reach this equilibrium state.
Because food determines the structure of the tribe, the more abundant the food, the more old, weak, and children will survive. On the contrary, there will be more young and middle-aged people. When the young and middle-aged people begin to feel the threat caused by food poverty, then a large number of old people will survive.
If it is weak, it will disappear completely and children will die in large numbers.
When food is extremely expensive and scarce, the elderly, the weak and children often become the food.
It’s just that with the progress and development of human civilization, this kind of cruel fratricidal survival killing will become less and less, and this contradiction will be transferred outward, that is, wars between tribes often occur in winter and spring.
, everyone just wants to have a full stomach, and it is always easier to accept eating others than eating oneself.
If they couldn't win against such a primitive barbarian tribe with only a hundred people who still lived in caves and tree caves and fought with sticks, bones, sticks and stones, Xu Chen felt that he, the Witch King, could just urinate and drown himself.
.
However, it was easy to relax. While Xu Chen was eating, he summoned a group of tribal officers such as Lei and Long, as well as some hunters from the Yugong and Xiu tribes who had been here to carefully discuss tomorrow's mission arrangements.
According to tradition, since this is the activity territory of the barbarians, the barbarians' residences must not be too far apart. If an area is strictly defined, it should be within a radius of no more than twenty miles.
Xu Chen and others came from the northwest. Based on the situation analysis reported by the Xiu tribe hunters, we can further narrow down the area where the barbarians live. It should be within a radius of twenty miles in the southeast, south, and southwest directions.
Of course, this range is still very huge. Calculated based on the area of a circle, it covers hundreds of square kilometers...
To find a small gopher-like tribe of more than a hundred people in such a huge primeval jungle with intertwined mountains, crisscrossing rivers and giant trees, and with the current team of three hundred people, it is not much different from finding a needle in a haystack.
If three hundred people dispersed into this forest, there would be a high probability that the water would not even rise. Too concentrated would definitely take a lot of time, and too dispersed would definitely be very dangerous.
Xu Chen asked Pu and Jia to open the map and compare it with the tribal distribution map on the south bank of Wulong River to think carefully.
A group of officers and hunters also gathered around to watch.
"Your Majesty the Witch King, if the barbarians don't show up, it won't be easy to find him!" Lei pinched his unshaven chin with a very serious expression.
He followed Xu Chen on a long trip, and even personally led an expedition against the Moteng tribe. He was relatively clear-headed about this kind of military operation without accurate targets, and was not like the ordinary hunter group who just shouted in excitement.
Long stood beside him, looking at the crude map and nodding his head, "Yes, the area where the barbarians are hiding is very large and complicated. It seems that we need to arrange for teams to disperse to investigate!"
Although Xu Chen looked indifferent and was not in a hurry on the way here, he was actually a little helpless inside.
Before setting off from the royal city, he speculated that it would take a lot of time and energy to quickly find the barbarians and salt mines, and the information about Mo Lake obtained from the Yu Gong clan and the Xiu clan did not have much guiding significance for this war.
Because the location of the two conflicts with the barbarians was not fixed, and even the direction was different.
The Xiu tribe encountered the barbarians a few miles southeast of their current location, which meant that they were still some distance away from where they were first discovered.
The second time the Yu Gong clan alliance came to look for salt mines, they encountered barbarians nearby. After several conflicts between the two sides within a radius of only dozens of miles, several scattered teams of the coalition forces
After being attacked one after another, both sides suffered casualties. After seven or eight days of back and forth, the Yu Gong clan coalition forces had to temporarily retreat.
Although there are not many barbarians, they are familiar with survival in dense forests. They can climb and jump like the wind. Driven by a strong sense of territory, they attack very fiercely and retreat at the first touch. They are unwilling to engage in head-on combat with the Yu Gong clan coalition forces.
The retreat direction was also not fixed, which resulted in the Yugong clan being completely unable to determine where the other party lived. More than ten people were killed or injured without even smelling the smell of the salt mine.
Of course, if Xu Chen hadn't ordered Yu Gongwitch to withdraw, the war might have continued, and eventually they might have found the barbarian's lair and salt mine, but that might have cost them even more.
Because the timing of Yu Gong's clan sending troops was so bad, it happened to be in the middle of summer, with continuous heavy rain, high temperature and humidity, and the venomous snakes and beasts in the virgin forest were almost impossible to guard against. Injuries, diseases, poisoning, food, eating, drinking, sleeping, etc. were all extremely inconvenient.
Will cause greater additional casualties.
Although autumn is now coming, the climate is crisp and dry, and various wild fruits and food are relatively abundant. However, facing the vast sea-like virgin forest, Xu Chen also feels a little overwhelmed. If he cannot quickly find the barbarian nests and salt mines, it will take too long.
The consequences of growing up are unbearable.
[To be honest, I have been using @@ recently to read and catch up on updates, change sources, and read aloud with many sounds, and it can be used on both Android and Apple.]
After all, this is also a lone expedition, and we are still facing barbarians who are highly hostile and unable to communicate normally.
If you want to win a quick battle, you must determine the location of the barbarians as quickly as possible.
"Do you have any good methods to find the barbarians?"
Xu Chen drew a circle near the salt mine with his finger, turned around and asked Lei Helong and other officers.