The long winter is finally passing, and the snow outside can be clearly seen to be melting.
However, it is common for the snow accumulated throughout the winter to be one meter deep on the uninhabited ground outside the tribe, and even deeper in some low-lying areas.
It will take a lot of time for such thick snow to completely melt, not to mention that the temperature is only slightly higher during the short few hours at noon. The daylight in winter is already short, so if you want to wait for the snow to melt, No matter how dry the ground is, it usually takes several months.
Although there is not much snow in the tribe, when the temperature rises, the ground becomes muddy. The water on the ground either comes from freezing in winter, or from the snow on the roof.
What the tribe is doing now is to remove the snow from the roof, otherwise it will be left to drip and it will be inconvenient to move around in the tribe.
Fortunately, this year we have absorbed the lessons from previous years, and the most critical lines have been paved with bricks. At least there will be no problem walking in the tribe for a short period of time.
Without such a road, it would be very troublesome to eat every day. If you wear shoes, the soles of your feet will be muddy when you walk all the way. When you enter the house, it will make the house a mess. Without shoes, it is much cleaner, although you can enter the house. In the past, you could wash yourself in the basin at the door, but it was still very uncomfortable to walk such a distance barefoot in winter. Now it is at least a lot more convenient for everyone to go to and from the main house. As for other times, they can only suffer a little bit.
But even this is much better than before. Although the prisoners did not have a path paved with bricks, their range of activities was relatively small after all. Song Xuan also asked them to pave a path with straw, as long as there was no mud on their feet. .
After the snow in the tribe melts and the ground dries out, you can move around as much as you want. The temperature in the yard will be much higher. Song Xuan is also planning to ask everyone to move some straw back. After all the snow on the roof is removed, Just keep it burning for a few days.
This problem should be solved soon by then. Although the tribe is much larger, there are also many people, so the work can still be done very quickly. Shi Ban also worked overtime to make several ladders for everyone, so that Come on, it's much more convenient to go to the house.
It only took everyone one day to clear almost all the snow on the roof, and even transported most of the snow off. However, the roof is made of thatch or straw after all, so there will definitely be some residue. This little bit of snow will melt very quickly. After all, the surroundings of the house are not only affected by the outside temperature, but also by the heat inside the house. Even if it is thicker, a lot of it will be radiated out.
However, the tribe that everyone finally managed to clean up was brought back to the pre-liberation state by a light snowfall. It took a few days for the tribe to be almost done.
Although most of the rice fields were still covered with snow, Song Xuan still asked the prisoners to clean up a small area. This area was naturally used to debug the new plow. Since it was basically done as before, it was just plowing. The shovel and details have been improved a bit, and everyone got used to it quickly.
Considering the situation in the tribe, it might be very busy after spring this year. Song Xuan thought that after the ice on the river melted, he would send Shi Mao to take people to several tribes. The consumption of salt in the tribe was not too much, at least. It was lower than Song Xuan's expectation, of course, this is also related to the very economical use in winter.
Originally, some were given to the captives, but the captives basically drank gruel throughout the winter. Even if they occasionally added salt to the soup, there was not much salt. In addition, the tribe did not eat much. Now the tribe The remaining salt inside can barely complete an exchange with several other tribes.
As for the tribe's people who would go to the valley to refine some salt when the weather gets better, and why the Wuyu tribe's salt is of better quality than Tengshe's, Song Xuan also asked the captives.
It turns out that the salt of the Wuyu Tribe comes from a salt lake, but this is not what Song Xuan imagined. The salt lake currently occupied by the Wuyu Tribe is very deep, and it is not that convenient to mine. However, no matter how specific the situation is, even the captives are now Even Wu Cang, who has the highest status in the army, doesn’t know.
After a winter of "torture", Teng Snake now has a much clearer understanding of the Wuyu tribe. Although Teng Snake was also a small tribe under Wu Yu before, Wu Yu's hierarchy was quite strict. A small tribe like Teng Snake even There are not even a few leaders, let alone the king of the Black Feather Tribe.
This salt lake is in the hands of King Wu. Even the leaders are not so clear about it. They only know the place, but they have no idea how to obtain or refine it.
The composition of the Black Feather Tribe is much more complicated than that of the current Soaring Snake. Years of war have resulted in the Black Feather Tribe having people from more than a dozen different tribes. Some of them are voluntary and some are involuntary, but no matter what, they entered It is definitely impossible for the Black Feather Tribe to leave easily.
Such a complicated situation requires the people of Karasuba's headquarters to have an absolute advantage. At least in a single tribe, Karasuba's people have the largest number. Similar to Soaring Snake's current situation, Karasuba also firmly controls the strongest force. If the battle is not particularly important and the opponent is not very strong, it will be like when Karasuba came to attack for the first time after the tribe moved here. There are only a few people from Karasuba's own tribe.
Although people's hearts are not so unified, the combat effectiveness is actually quite good. After all, there are more people, and some people are holding down the formation, and others dare not use their strength. However, the disadvantage is that once defeated, there is basically no chance to regroup.
And this time the battle is the second situation. Almost everyone is from the Karasuba tribe, and at worst they joined later due to various factors. If nothing else, at least there is no need to worry about defection or the like. Moreover, the weapons must be better, and the combat effectiveness will naturally be much stronger.
No matter how tough the opponent is, the strongest fighting force of the Black Feather tribe will take action. This is also the most mysterious team of the Black Feather tribe. Even before this, no one in Teng She had heard of it.
This group of people is not very large. According to Wu Cang, it is only more than 60 people, which is the population of a small tribe. However, these more than 60 people are composed of the most brave and skilled warriors in the Wuyu tribe. , in terms of personal ability alone, among the surrounding small tribes, they are the kind who can compete with the leader.
Moreover, the weapons and equipment used by this group of people are also the best among Wuyun. At least now all members use bronze ore weapons. Although the shields are not as good as those of Soaring Snake, they are still better than the simple animal skin shields used by Wuyun and the others before. It's much better, at least it doesn't feel so awkward in the hand.
These sixty people have a very high status in the Wuyu Tribe, and they only need to obey the orders of King Wu. In the tribe, even the black clouds before can not mobilize them. You must know that in the Wuyu Tribe, Wu Yun Yu is the first leader, basically the same as Shi Meng from Soaring Snake.
Mobilizing this group of people in this way requires the order of King Wu. The status of this group of people can be imagined.
However, it is not easy to feed such a group of personnel with high combat effectiveness. At least in terms of food, according to Wu Cang's description, these sixty people will have to eat at least twice the normal amount of food in a year, even if there is no food. The tasks, when resting in the tribe, have not diminished even in winter.
This group of people can be said to be the warriors among the warriors of the Black Feather Tribe. They are naturally quite fierce when fighting. With their joining, the combat power of the entire team will be greatly improved. After all, none of them are afraid of death. Although they are afraid of death, This point of death is possible for every tribe when facing a life and death crisis, but the gap in combat power is difficult to make up for, especially the all-round suppression from strength to weapons.
However, even among the brave warriors, there must be casualties in the war. However, the number of these people has never been reduced. There are six teams in total, and each team has a captain, but the leader of the team will also He personally led a small team, which at full capacity was sixty-six people.
After every war, people will be selected from among the warriors in the tribe to fill in. The selection conditions are naturally very high, and ordinary people can easily not get in.
Among the Wuyu tribe, they have also taken pride in King Wu's bodyguards. After all, the position of the leader is relatively limited, and it is also very difficult to defeat the current leader. Joining King Wu's bodyguards, at least in life The conditions will improve a lot.
However, raising such a group of guards is not a small burden for the tribe. Even Karasuba has not expanded its scale significantly, and because it is too expensive, they will not be sent to participate in ordinary battles. The tasks assigned to them They are usually the more difficult ones.
Of course, sometimes one or two squads will be sent to strengthen the army and take charge of leading the charge, which can achieve a better attack effect.
In the Wuyu tribe, the refining of salt is also controlled by this group of people. They regularly bring some salt back for daily use and transactions with surrounding tribes.
However, this salt lake was not in the hands of the Wuyu tribe from the beginning. At that time, multiple tribes discovered this treasure land at almost the same time, and a fierce and protracted war broke out. Although after the war broke out, The Karasuba tribe held the advantage most of the time, but there were also times when they were robbed.
The war lasted until the year before last and then gradually stopped. Karasuba basically had the Salt Lake firmly in his hands.
However, the benefits brought by the salt lake to the Wuyu tribe are also considerable. The tribe's population has almost increased by half, and many enemies from the north have been eliminated in a battle.
There are many enemies of the Karasuba Tribe, but the biggest threat to them is the ethnic groups in the north. Although they are not large in number, each tribe only has about a hundred people, there are many tribes. Just those who come into contact with the Karasuba Tribe Six or seven, and the fighting power of this group of people is very strong.
Daily hunting is not like hunting in the mountains like Teng She and Wu Yu. They hunt on the grassland on horseback. Although they need to face a lot of risks, the benefits are also quite high, and the biggest danger is The ability to resist risks is too poor, and slight changes in weather will have a great impact on them.
Moreover, the climate in the north is inherently harsher. Even if there is a strong wind, they may not be able to go hunting. After a year of hard work, they can barely feed the tribe. However, they are strong and have a second option. That is to rob other tribes around.
The first choice tribe is naturally the Karasuba tribe, and salt is equally important to them. Among the tribes that compete with the Karasuba tribe to take over the salt lake, these tribes are the most difficult to solve.
But now the pressure they can put on Karasuba has been much smaller. In the previous battle, Wu Yun found a way to lead them into the valley, and then mobilized the warriors who were in ambush to block both the front and rear, so that they could A lot of people were killed and wounded.
At least when Wu Yun led people to invade the southern tribes again, several ethnic groups in the north had not yet recovered. They only robbed on a small scale and did not have much impact.
Otherwise, Wuyun would be able to lead half of the tribe's warriors at once, but even so, it still failed. For the Wuyu tribe, the consequences are still quite serious. After several relatively large threats before, large-scale wars are currently being relaunched. The possibility is not high.
Not only did Karasuba repulse the opponent in battle, the Karasuba tribe also decisively started trading with several tribes after taking control of the salt lake. Although the asking price was not low, a long-term war with such a huge tribe was not enough. Not a wise choice.
Moreover, the result of the battle was not satisfactory. Not only did the Karasuba Tribe not weaken, but it was also gradually growing. The other surrounding tribes simply agreed to the exchange with the Karasuba Tribe. Although they would have to pay some food, at least they would not have to fight as frequently. Lost manpower.
For several tribes, this is an acceptable result.
However, once other tribes know that Karasuba has lost most of its warriors at this time, the war will probably restart, and it is not known whether the Karasuba tribe can withstand what follows.
Song Xuan hoped that he could persist for a while longer. Teng She also needed time to develop, at least until the Black Feather tribe popularized bronze weapons, and once the Black Feather tribe was solved, they would basically have to have direct contact with other large tribes. , it is still open to question whether they will recognize Teng She. The possibility of a war breaking out is very high. It is best to accumulate enough strength to have more say in contact with them.
However, this is not what Soaring Snake will have to face soon. The primary strong enemy is the Black Feather Tribe. As for the northern tribes and other tribes, it will be better to know the relevant news. Having a general understanding may make it more convenient to contact them in the future. .
What Song Xuan wanted to know most was definitely the situation of the Black Feather Tribe. This time, he understood it more thoroughly. At least there was a lot of information that people like Teng She didn't know before.
This will definitely be more beneficial for future wars. Teng She knew almost nothing about it before, and she didn't even know the population, let alone other things.
Among the prisoners captured at the same time, there are many high-level officials who have a very thorough understanding of the overall situation. However, for things like Salt Lake that are under the personal control of King Wu, they will know much less information. But when it comes to location, This information is still known.
Although bronze ore is also relatively important, it was originally discovered during hunting, and it is only more breathable than ordinary ones. In addition, mining and polishing are very troublesome, so King Wu has always sent a team to add more It was mined by ordinary tribesmen.
This is good news for Teng She. At least they know that there will not be too many people, and the number of mining operations each year is not that many. Usually one or two batches will be dug before winter, and they will be polished during the winter. , used in hunting and fighting in the coming year.
Usually, even if you hunt to that area, you will only take some with you. If there are still ores in the tribe, they will not mine them on a large scale. After all, they usually focus on hunting and foreign wars, and they cannot free up too much. Time is spent polishing these ores.
In this way, the risk of encountering enemies will be much smaller. Although according to Wu Chang, the people who go to mine ore are probably in their 70s or 80s every time, but once they encounter them, even if they can defeat them, it will take a lot of effort. The price is definitely not small, at least there is a whole team of King Wu's personal guards here.
And in the wild environment, even if the number of people is equal, Teng She's side doesn't have much advantage, let alone Song Xuan's initial plan to only send twenty or thirty people there.
In addition, Song Xuan finally knew the origin of this batch of bows and arrows from the Wuyu Tribe. He had misunderstood Gong Yi and the others before. The matter was basically consistent with what they said. The Wuyu Tribe had mastered the bow and arrow manufacturing technology at that time. There were only a few of them.
But the only flaw was that Wu Lin, who was beaten by Teng She and had all his body fractures, was carried out dying. Although he was tortured miserably by Teng She, no matter who judged it, according to the current medical level, Being able to survive until night is a matter of mercy from God.
But even in that state, Wu Lin still survived. Of course, the consequence was that he had completely lost his ability to move and could not even control his urination and defecation. Even though Shi Meng and others greeted him in the face, Even all the teeth in his mouth were knocked out, but after the swelling subsided, he did not completely lose his speech ability.
However, the original language is relatively crude, and the meaning it can express is quite limited, let alone Wulin's situation. However, after many efforts, the Wuyu tribe has regained control of the production of bows and arrows, although it is worse than before. Some, but the effect is still very obvious.
With the blessing of arrowheads made of bronze ore, the power is even more powerful than Soaring Snake's, but the distance is a little closer.
However, the production of bows and arrows was only completed last summer, and the speed of making them was not fast, so when Wu Yun led his people to invade south, the number of archers in the team was also very few.
But thinking about it, now that we have mastered the production method, the follow-up ones must be in the process of being produced, and the number will only increase. If the bows and arrows can be scaled up, their power is still considerable.
Not to mention that even if they lost three hundred warriors, the population is still there. If they really make hundreds of bows, it is estimated that not many tribes can stop it, but the possibility of this happening is also high. Not big, after all, we will face the problem of hunting after spring begins.
Without these three hundred tribesmen, even if they control the Salt Lake, it will not be easy to solve the stomach problem, let alone once other tribes know the news, it is hard to say whether the Salt Lake can be controlled.
This can be regarded as the worst news among the many things Song Xuan learned, but it can also be regarded as a reminder to Song Xuan, that is, since he is no longer prepared to show mercy, he still needs to be more ruthless in the future, and he will inevitably become indecisive. Leave hidden dangers behind.
Even if Wulin was solved on the spot, it would not have resulted in a worse outcome. Anyway, the two sides had already turned against each other, and it was impossible for the Black Feather Tribe to spare so many people at that time, but Teng She had just settled down at that time. Down here, even if dozens more people come, the threat is quite great, but since it has already happened, we can only pay more attention in the future.
Fortunately, the Karasuba tribe is very slow at making bows and arrows, and the animal sinews needed to make bows and arrows are not so easy to obtain. Not to mention that Karasuba has not paid much attention to hunting before, with the benefits brought by the salt lake. , they do not need to take huge risks to fight against large beasts.
Moreover, there is no Tengshe around Karasuba who can find large pieces of wood that are most suitable for making bows and arrows. They use relatively ordinary materials. In any case, it is not easy to increase this speed all at once. Even Tengshe has the ability to make bows and arrows. It took several skilled craftsmen nearly half a year to build a certain scale.
In terms of bows and arrows, Tengshe still has certain advantages. The new bow has basically been improved and is currently in the testing process. However, there are also problems, that is, the requirements for both ends of the bow arms are higher, but Wood alone is still not able to withstand long-term use, but Song Xuan has not come up with a better solution so far. He thought of several, but finally used it on it, whether it is to cover it with animal skin or I couldn't even use it to make a bronze jacket, and the result was even worse, so I could only use it for the time being.
But the worst thing is to replace it with a new one after a period of time. At least in terms of the benefits it brings, this is not a big loss. The new bow's range has been increased by almost half, and the longest range can reach nearly a hundred meters. At this distance, it can still penetrate a single layer of animal hide.
You must know that only an enlarged version of the strong bow could barely achieve this distance before, and the accuracy was very average, basically relying on luck. But if you want to ensure the best, the lethality can only be within 70 or 80 meters. But even this improvement is quite obvious, and this is still using ordinary arrows.
If bronze arrows can be replaced, the lethality should be further improved. Since bronze arrows are somewhat precious, ordinary ones are still used in current tests, but they are all newly polished. In terms of single penetration, In other words, just facing animal skin, it is actually not much weaker than one made of bronze.
