Life in Ichi was difficult, which was one of the main reasons why Kazuto allowed them to live freely until now.
Because the only large port nearby is now surrounded by ice floes and is under the control of the Moon Country, the Oriental Moon parked directly near the ice cap. The people who left the ship climbed down from the rope ladder and used the ship's crane to lower the supplies. Then they took a small boat to the edge of the frozen continent and walked toward the landing on a huge ice cap dozens of times the size of the Oriental Moon.
The group was reminded many times of how insignificant human beings are in the face of nature.
All these ice caps drifted from the distant Northern Riga Sea. The area in the northern part of the Crescent Continent, known as the Yi Di by people, is actually farther south than the Nordic Rolla and Four Islands areas of the Rigar continent. However, due to ocean currents, its harbor is farther away every winter. Suao Marina in the west was frozen faster.
Huge and numerous ice caps surround the protruding part of the northern end of the entire continent, like a white land extending outward, pushing the coastline several kilometers away.
The sea surface near Yidi will be covered with ice throughout the winter, and the ice will not melt until the next spring.
But life did not become extinct.
The Luoan girl wearing a thick cloak and our sage followed the aboriginal Lulu busy on a lake near the settlement. They tied a large bundle of simple ropes made of branches and bark ropes to their bodies. Something in the shape of a cross, and a bundle of simple strings.
Today is a sunny day. There is no snow and the sun is shining, which makes the temperature somewhat more bearable. However, the white land full of ice and snow also has disadvantages on a sunny day - because the strong sunlight will be blocked by this white. reflection, making you dizzy and disoriented.
If you think this is tolerable and ignore it, it will bring more terrible consequences over time. The sun's rays reflected by ice and snow can burn your eyes in just a short time, leading to photophobia, tears when the wind blows, and blurred vision, becoming a drag on teammates.
The harsh environment requires you to be cautious when doing things. If you are careless, the situation will quickly deteriorate to the point of no return.
Fortunately, just as people in other areas had their own coping plans, the Yi people also invented corresponding equipment to deal with the shimmering white snow under a clear sky.
Theoretically, it is a wooden frame with parts made of skin, but due to limited conditions, it can only be made of wood chips. The round frame made of bent fresh elastic branches and the eye masks with holes in the middle wrapped in coarse cloth make the three of them look funny after wearing them, but this can effectively reduce the direct damage to the eyes caused by reflection.
This is a necessary equipment for traveling in Yidi on a sunny day.
Just looking out from the irregular holes in the middle of the cloth because there are no professional tools, and losing most of the field of vision will feel a little daunting at first, but after you get used to it, you will find that this In fact, the problem is not big. And when you squat down for work and don’t need to look at the entire vast field, you can simply move the eye mask upward to restore your normal field of vision, so it only takes some time to get used to it and it becomes handy.
——Three days have passed since the group arrived at the longhouse.
The heavy snowfall that night lasted for three full days. During this period, everyone stayed in the longhouse and did not go out except to collect water and use the toilet. After the weather finally cleared today, more than half of the dry food they carried had been consumed, so they had to resupply.
This is not only for current consumption, but also for stocking up for later on the road. The journey from Yi Di to Moon Country is neither long nor short, but because the group does not have horses, it will take at least a week or so. Considering their status, they may not be able to obtain food supplies during this journey, so it is best to make adequate preparations on your own.
The only people who went out to hunt were the three of them, who were good at traveling in the wilderness. Galeva, who was also the best in physical strength among the group, was left in the longhouse. Firstly, dull young people may be held back due to lack of experience; secondly, if the longhouse is left to a group of scholars and missionaries who are from upper-class backgrounds and lack independent living experience——
When they come back, they may see an entire longhouse burning, melting snow all over the ground, and a group of people who are at a loss to watch all this.
No matter how unreliable Galeva is, he is from the working class. If nothing else, at least he can maintain basic daily life.
All in all, the first thing the three people in charge of food collection should obtain is naturally the best and most stable food source in this season.
fish.
The characteristic of water freezing from top to bottom makes the seemingly calm ice layer actually full of life. There are many species of salmon among the mountains, rivers and lakes of Yidi. They can tolerate water temperatures around zero without freezing their blood. However, humans Catching them is much more difficult than usual.
The ice layer that is enough to carry a war horse weighing hundreds of kilograms is tens of centimeters thick. Even if you find the weaker part on it, it is not easy to drill through it.
The premise is that you are not Henry Meyer.
"Huh--" The water vapor exhaled from the mouth and nose quickly condensed in the air and turned into a white mist. The sage held the thick wooden pole tightly with both hands, then aimed at the ice and stabbed it down hard.
"Crack!" Fully half of the semicircular shovel-shaped head hardened by charcoal was inserted into the sun-melted ice. The sage then twisted the pole to completely remove the loose ice particles. Then shoveled aside.
After repeating this process less than ten times, signs of running water began to appear in the shoveled ice hole.
"Hey, hey, hey. (It's almost done)" Lulu looked at the overflowing water from the side, and Henry repeated the action again, easily breaking through the ice.
Because of the light, a dark color of sea water that made it difficult to see what was underneath emerged from the fist-sized hole. The two people, who were already accustomed to the sage's physical strength, quickly took out a small tree made of small branches. It is a cross-shaped thing, with a string woven from bark fiber, and the front part is tied with a small piece of wood about two centimeters long with pointed ends at both ends.
The thin rope was tied in the middle of the small piece of sharp wood. Then Lulu raised one hand and used her arm length as a measure to roughly measure the length of the thin rope to be placed, and then inserted it into the small piece of wood. A small piece of dried meat slowly hung the rope into the cave.
This small pointed piece of wood is a simple fishhook, and the rope is tied in the center to maintain balance. In this way, when the fish swallows the bait, it will get stuck in the esophagus, making it impossible for it to break free.
Relying on the sage's powerful and seemingly endless physical energy, the group of people had almost prepared the dozen or so scheduled fishing spots in less than an hour.
But this is not the kind of leisurely place where you can set up a small pony and enjoy fishing. Considering the possibility that the temperature will still drop later and the fact that they have other things to do, the group of people have to leave after setting up the fishing hole. And this is when the simple mechanism that looks like a small cross comes in handy.
Henry and Mira, who quickly learned how to do it under Lulu's teaching, were able to divide the work and cooperate, which was one of the reasons for their rapid progress.
The end of the bark fishing line, which was so tough that it required a knife to cut, was tied to the small cross.
A cross with an opening cut out with a knife is matched with a short stubby crossbar, and the open parts are cleverly joined together and tied together. There is another piece of wood tied tightly horizontally above not only to maintain balance, but also to prevent the cross from falling into the ice cave.
This simple and eye-catching little mechanism is the crystallization of the wisdom of the Yi people. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is an automatic fishing device. The cross standing on the ice cave maintains a delicate balance. When a fish bites the hook below and starts to struggle, the fishing line tied to the end of the trolley will cause the erected cross to fall, so that there is no need to fish every time. Pull the fishing line out of the ice hole and check it. You only need to see if the cross is still standing to know if any fish has taken the bait.
The life wisdom accumulated over thousands of years is efficient yet simple. You only need a knife and find the suitable branches and bark to make it.
The same is true for the semicircular vertical shovel made of small tree trunks. Although Lulu's tribe took away any solid and durable metal tools they could bring with them when they left, the group of people who were adaptable could also quickly use their knowledge to Create emergency makeshift tools.
It's just a pity that it is very time-consuming and laborious to make a flat sled or snowboard without a planer. They can only use dried branches to make a frame, cover it with bark and fix it with rope to make snowshoes tied to the calves. By increasing the contact area of your feet, you can avoid sinking your feet into knee-deep snow.
The thick thermal equipment and the huge and clumsy bark snowshoes made the group not only walk slowly, but also consumed a lot of physical strength. This is why they did not bring any scholars or missionaries with them. Even people who are used to being in the wilderness will feel very tired in this kind of weather environment. In addition, the entire area is completely white and there are no elements to identify the terrain. Fatigue plus vision, if you get lost, you may never go back. Can't come back.
The person leading the front has now changed from the aboriginal Lulu to our Mr. Sage. After going back and forth, he has memorized the roads in the entire area - as expected - so in this situation, he should be the first to go. It is not difficult to ensure that the road ahead is clear.
Our Mr. Sage has always been a pioneer in this kind of existence, but this is not some machismo like taking care of ladies, it is just that he is most suitable for this position.
Both Mira and Lulu were pulling simple sleds made in the same way as snowshoes. This sled was not suitable for carrying people, but it was still very practical as an expansion of carrying capacity to place various materials collected in the wild.
It doesn’t take much effort to pull a sled on ice or snow, but having one hand free to pull the sled can make people a little confused. In this case, it becomes very difficult to have a third person with hands free who can adapt to the situation. important.
And if the third person is Lulu or Mira, and Henry is the one pulling the cart, then our Mr. Sage's tall physique weighing nearly 100 kilograms will become a burden in this case.
Because if Mira or Lulu fell into an ice crevice or snow pit, he could lift them up with one hand. And if the sage made a mistake - even though this was very unlikely in the eyes of the Luoan girl - it was absolutely impossible for the two of them to have enough strength to pull him back.
All in all, after setting up enough fishing spots, the three of them headed towards the hillside area where lush vegetation could still be seen even though it was covered with snow.
The firewood stored in the longhouse has been used up in three days of heating and cooking. They must get more firewood or they will fall into the severe cold.
First lay out the fishing spots, then go to the hillside to cut down trees, and on the way back after cutting down, check whether there are any catches. Such a plan improves efficiency and prevents precious time and energy from being wasted unnecessarily. This kind of wisdom in details is a commonplace. For people living in harsh environments, it is not something that needs to be written about. It is just a part of their daily lives.
Here, caution is not something like a switch that you have to turn on suddenly when an unexpected situation arises.
It exists in daily life. If you accidentally throw it away and become careless, the harsh and unforgiving natural environment will not even give you a chance to regret it.
The process of climbing the mountain while wearing heavy winter thermal equipment was very tiring. After a while, the two people behind him started panting, and patches of white air turned into fog. But the moment the three of them reached the top of the mountain, the sage But he raised his hand to signal the two people behind him to stop.
"Footprints," he said, using the language of the Moon Country to make sure Lulu understood.
"..." The aboriginal girl ran forward quickly, looked at it for a while and then said: "Kuma."
Mira didn't understand this vocabulary, so she turned to her teacher for verification, and the sage explained to her without any surprise: "It's a bear."
"But isn't it still winter?" the girl from Luoan asked.
"Sleepless bears, perhaps worse, may not store enough fat before falling asleep, ending hibernation early."
"To put it in layman's terms." The sage who squatted down to check the footprints turned back to look at the two people:
"It woke up from hunger."
