"Praise the supreme God! Praise His Majesty the Divine Enlightenment!..."
"Wow! The main god is very high, in the sky! The great chief is very high, on the top of the mountain!..."
"On the sacred mountain of our ancestors, sits the God of Dada! His eldest son is the Chief of Dada!..."
The red sun is setting in the west, and the sky is getting dusk. In Kamchatka Peninsula in November, it gets dark very early, and the temperature at night can reach several degrees below zero. The kingdom warriors and tribal sailors in the longship all gathered in the lighted bonfire, eating meat and soup, and loudly praising and praying. All kinds of shouts and songs floated on the cold seashore. Although the sailors from different departments do not speak the same language, their joy at this moment and their dancing are all from the heart and beyond words!
Of course, on this cold and unknown coast, both the sturdy kingdom warriors and the tall tribal sailors maintained the most basic vigilance. They wore thick leather armor on the inside and soft fur on the outside, and the bronze axes on their waists were never removed.
And all this was seen in the eyes, heard in the ears, and even smelled in the noses of the two Itelmen hunters sneaking in the grass!
"Suck!...Gugu!...What kind of meat is this? It's so tempting, and it smells so hot?...Hey! The fire they use to cook soup is so strong, it doesn't seem to be wood, but...black stone ?…”
The hunter Mulu lay down among the grass, inhaling the scent of meat in the wind. He couldn't help but lick his lips and swallowed several mouthfuls of saliva. This bunch of tribes who didn’t know where they came from didn’t know what kind of broth they were cooking, and they didn’t know how to save fuel... but it smelled better than ever before!
"Shhh! Keep your voice down, don't scare them!...The black stone that makes the soup?...The soup is so fragrant! Gugu!..."
Hunting Captain Mu Quan bit his lip and looked at the soup pot on the bonfire in the distance, trying not to let his saliva stay. He does not know his luck, extraordinary luck that will go down in history! They were the first people in the vast old continent to smell the scent of chili peppers!
"Damn it! They are eating so happily, but we are still hungry and come out to investigate..."
For the Kamchatka tribe, which makes a living by fishing and hunting, food and fuel are always in short supply in winter. Even if Mu Dog is the hunter leader of the tribe and the second person in the tribe after the old grandmother, there will not be many opportunities to eat meat and drink soup like this.
"Yes. Captain, they were shouting very happily. We lowered our voices, so we definitely couldn't hear...it's strange! I don't know which tribe these people are talking about, and I can't understand a word of it!..."
"Hmm...there are spiritual ancestors who have witnessed it! Luba is indeed strange!..."
Hunting Captain Mu Quan frowned, his face full of confusion. Even though he hunted everywhere and met many tribes from the north and south, he really couldn't figure out where the people in front of him came from.
"Those tall hunters, carrying big bows on their backs, some look like the northernmost Zhangbu... But they don't have the distinctive wing armor of the Zhangbu and Deerbu, and they can't understand the language, right?..."
"Those warriors who are not tall are all carrying golden metal axes. Are they the island tribes that are attacking from the south? But they are not as hairy as the island tribes, and they are not as short... Well, the island tribes have metal weapons and boats. Could it be that they are not as hairy as the island tribes? It’s the more southern and more powerful island!…”
Thinking of this guess, the hunting captain Mu Quan pursed his lips and silently held the sharpened flint ax at his waist, with a hint of killing intent on his face. Hunter Mulu also took off the compound recurve bow from his back and counted the number of bone arrows in his quiver.
If you look closely, you can see that this compound bow has an obvious three-layer composite structure. It uses black birch as the bow surface, larch as the bow back, and the middle layer is deer tendon. The three are carefully glued with fish skin glue, and the bow string is made of deer tendon. It is twisted, and the bow body has an obvious recurvature. This bow-making skill alone, which comes from the spread of technology from the nomadic tribes of North Asia over thousands of years, far exceeds the longbow of the kingdom!
"The ancestors who have spirit witness! Metal axes should be made of copper, not iron... And those who use copper weapons are only the Island Department on the southern island, who constantly harass our enemy Island Department!"
Hunting captain Mu Quan held the stone ax and touched the three stone javelins behind his back with a solemn expression. Before the arrival of the Russians in the 17th century, metal tools were rarely used among the tribes of Kamchatka. Most tribes use finely processed bone and stone tools.
It was not that they had no chance to exchange for expensive iron tools from the nomadic Ewen people and Ewenki people in the west. But for these tribes in Far North Asia, unless they are high-quality steel that can withstand low temperatures, ordinary iron tools are not suitable for the environment and are far less useful than stone tools!
Yes, in the winter that lasts for half a year, the southern end of the Kamchatka Peninsula is often minus ten or twenty degrees below zero, or even the northern end of the peninsula is minus thirty or forty degrees. Ordinary and inferior iron tools will become very fragile and very easy to break, far less so. Bone and stone tools are durable. Therefore, whether it is the Chukotka, Koryak, or Itelmen people, metal utensils are rarely used in daily life.
Only the Ainu people living on the warm islands further south learned to smelt and cast metal and use simple bronze and iron tools through their gradual contact with the Japanese. The Ainu, who use metal tools, also raid the tribe's coast, attack lone hunters, and poach deer on the tribe's territory. In other words, the Ainu Island Club is the enemy of the Itelmen Mountain Club!
"Mulu, how many arrows did you bring?"
"Four palms, 20 arrows. Captain, there seem to be a lot of people on the other side... Four palms in one team, two teams, three teams, four teams, four and a half teams... Luba, there are so many of them!..."
"Ancestor! There are four teams of four palms, four or five teams, all of which are elite hunters with leather armor!... Hiss! What kind of island tribe is this, and it can actually gather ninety elite hunters?..."
The sun sets in the west and sinks into the mountains on the west side of the peninsula. Hunting captain Mu Quan gritted his teeth and saw clearly the number of people who had landed in the tribe. Uneasiness instantly appeared on his face. Ninety elite hunters are a powerful force that cannot be underestimated in the entire bitter cold and desolate peninsula! What made him even more uneasy was the huge ship docked at the bay that he had never seen before!
"Spiritual ancestors! Their big ship is actually... so big! It's so big!..."
Seeing the Big Snow Wolf docked on the shore, with its 36-meter-long hull, the two Itelmen hunters opened their eyes in shock and stared blankly for a long time. Compared with the tribe's two or three-meter-long fishing boat, this huge galley is like a whale in the sea. It's unknown how many men were mobilized and how much effort was spent to build it! And the wood used to build this ship alone, when burned as firewood, is enough for their large mountain tribe of hundreds of people to survive the long winter!
"Ancestor! Luba's big ship! Extraordinarily tall islanders! The islanders have never been more powerful!..."
After a while, the hunting captain Mu Quan finally came back to his senses, with a faint look of fear on his face. His restless fat face had a downcast look, and at first glance, he looked like a dejected Samoyed bear hound.
"Captain, shall we fight?"
"Hit? Beat me! Four teams of Luba's elite hunters, how can the two of us beat them? With the spiritual ancestors as witnesses, the entire tribe must be mobilized, all of them!"
"Ah! Are you mobilizing the entire tribe to fight?... Captain, maybe they are not enemies, maybe they are just passing by... Or maybe, they are going to attack the deer tribe?..."
"Huh? Not the enemy? Dahaizi is about to freeze! They parked the big ship here. If they don't leave in the past few days, they won't be able to leave! ...The winter is so long, so many strong hunters have to eat, and they can't catch fish. , then we can only hunt deer, and hunt the deer in our territory... That will be the tribe's food for the coming year!..."
Speaking of this, the hunting captain Mu Quan gritted his teeth, with uneasy anxiety and helpless anger on his face. He couldn't help but raise his voice slightly and lectured the hunter Mulu who couldn't see the situation clearly.
"Mulu, the spiritual ancestors have witnessed! Although this land of shrubs and tundra is vast, every hunting and fishing ground belongs to the tribe and is the continued food source of the tribe! What's more, there are so many hunters who have to find A winter camp sheltered from wind and snow, right? And as long as they go to the warm mountains to the north, they will run into our winter camp in the mountains! That warm mountain spring water is the foundation for the continuation of the tribe, and they cannot give it to us at all. Human!…”
"Captain, the winter camp is so big, it won't matter if there are dozens of people living there... As long as they are willing to maintain peace with us, they can leave when the snow melts next year..."
"What? Are you a stupid snow rabbit, leaving them in our winter camp?... What if they don't leave? What if they want to rob our camp and Dingkou like the northern tent?! No, no! We have to go back quickly, mobilize the entire tribe, and prepare for a fight... It is best to ambush and attack them when they have just landed on the beach and have not figured out anything!..."
"Whizzing!…"
Two Itelmen hunters were arguing in low voices, but a sharp sound broke through the air suddenly and shot towards the grass where they were crouching!
"Whoosh whoosh!...Bang!..."
More than a dozen sharp copper arrows were fired from dozens of meters away, grazing the leather armor of the two tribal hunters and even hitting their leather helmets. The two of them trembled, raised their heads instantly, and their expressions changed!
"Ah! Ancestors with spirits! Ah this?...These cunning Shimabe sneak attacks!..."
The celebrations at the banquet in the distance continued as usual, and no difference could be heard. But at some point, a dozen or so low-ranking kingdom warriors were holding bows and arrows and spread out on the east and west sides, sandwiching them in the middle. And six or seven tall and strong Unanga hunters, all carrying copper axes and spears, bowed slightly, like polar bears hunting, ready to pounce and chase!
"Witness the Lord God! The distant Jiao tribe, the distant Jiao brothers... We have no ill intentions, we are your friends!..."
Exploration captain Zuvalo, wearing leather armor and carrying a copper ax, walked out of the crowd, followed by several elite warriors from the kingdom. He narrowed his eyes and carefully looked at the two nervous and fearful tribal hunters in the grass. His sharp eyes swept over the opponent's strong leather armor and flat leather helmet, then looked at the stone ax on the opponent's waist and the stone javelin behind his back. Finally, he saw the strange-looking compound recurve bow of Hunter Mulu. His pupils shrank slightly and a sincere smile appeared on his face.
"Haha, praise the Lord God! Since our friends are here! Why not join us for a dinner and have a fragrant and spicy whale meat and kelp soup! Then, let us chat in front of the bonfire all night long..."
(End of chapter)
