The eastern border of Goguryeo and Baeksan tribe is inaccessible.
In the early autumn of 667 AD, about a day's drive upstream from the mouth of the Tumen River (its name in the Tang Dynasty is unknown, so the modern name is used instead), there was a Mohe village called Atumen. The leader's family had just given birth to a boy. The little boy struggled to break free from his mother's body and cried loudly. His red skin was stained with spots, his little body was slippery, and there were patches of blood clots. The two midwives with wrinkled faces, Grandma Opu and the baby's grandmother Adusa, smiled happily when they saw it was a boy doll. According to ancestral customs, the arrival of the first-born boy in the family predicts that God will not only bestow special favors on the parents, but also benefit the parents' family.
The villagers who learned about the birth of the boy congratulated the leader one after another. The leader was also extremely happy for the birth of his first grandson. He and all his sons stood in front of the door and bowed to every congratulatory villager. But not everyone is happy about the addition of a new member to the family - the leader's youngest son, the baby's brother-in-law, Acton, seems unhappy. The reason is very simple. He was originally going to go fishing in the river with a few companions today. As for salmon, at this time of year, swarms of salmon swim upstream. The Mohe people can easily catch large quantities of fresh fish. After drying, the fish becomes an important source of food for them in winter. On this beautiful day, my friends will drive birch bark boats to enjoy fishing on the river, but I have to stand at the door of my house with a silly smile and bow to everyone who comes, all because of that little monster who can only scream.
"Akdon, in order to celebrate the birth of our child, our family is going to have a banquet for the neighbors tonight!" The leader seemed to know what his youngest son was thinking: "You go to the river to catch some salmon, we will use it at home tonight!"
"Ah, is it true?" Acton looked at his father in surprise and joy: "Can I go catch fish?"
"Yes, otherwise you would stand here with a grimace on your face, and those who don't know would think that our baby is a girl!" The leader said angrily: "Anyway, you have made an appointment with someone to go to the river today. Fishing! Go now! Just bring back forty salmon half as long as a man before dark!"
"Thank you Ama!" Acton was surprised and happy. It's still very early, and there are still four hours until dark. There are so many salmon in the river this season that they don't even need fishing nets. Just use a sharpened one. Any wooden stick can lift a harpoon.
"Come on, come on! You're not living up to expectations!" The leader waved his hand impatiently: "You have become an uncle, and you are still like a child. You have disgraced the whole family!"
His father's scolding went in from Actun's left ear and came out from his right ear. He cheered and ran into the yard. A few minutes later, he led the dog and ran towards the river outside the village, carrying his short bow and arrows, where he caught up with him. I met my companions who were moving the boat into the river. Acton excitedly told his companions the good news: "If you hand over forty salmon half as tall as a man before dark, you will have them all for one day!"
"Forty? That many?" a companion asked with a grimace.
"I can't help it. My eldest brother's first child was born last night. He's a boy!" Akdon shook his head helplessly: "My grandma said that I would invite the whole village to dinner at night, so I wanted to have forty and a half feet tall." salmon, you won’t want to help, right?”
"No wonder it's so lively early in the morning. This is a great thing! Good things will happen if the first child in the family is a boy. Acton, your father must be very happy!"
"Yeah, I'm laughing so hard!" Acton said while helping to lift the birch bark boat: "But do you think this will really be a good thing? Nothing good has happened in the past few years. News! The tribe leaders come here every year to recruit people, saying that they are helping Goguryeo and the Tang people to fight the Khitan people. But what kind of hatred do the Tang people and the Khitans have against us? They don’t stop us from fishing, farming and hunting, so what are we doing? Want them to fight?"
The oldest young man present was thirteen or fourteen years old, and the youngest was twelve or thirteen years old. This could no longer be considered a child in ancient times. After the Tang army failed to siege Pyongyang under the command of Su Dingfang in 662 AD, although they never sent out large-scale troops to conquer Goguryeo, they sent out cavalry every spring and autumn to attack and harass Goguryeo's land and plunder the population to weaken Goguryeo's national power. In order to resist the attack of the Tang army, Goguryeo had to recruit troops from various Mohe tribes that were attached to it. Even the Mohe tribes in remote places like Atumen were also affected.
"I don't know about this!" A companion sighed: "I have never seen a Tang person, nor a Khitan person!"
"Yeah, I haven't seen it either!" Another companion replied: "But I heard that Tang people are very smart and can do a lot of weird things!"
"You mean the Tang people are the same as the shamans?" Someone showed a fearful expression: "That would be terrible. How could the Goguryeo people beat the Tang people?"
"No, the intelligence of Tang people is different from that of shamans! How to put it? I can't explain it, but you'll know it when you see it!"
"Aren't you talking nonsense? There are no Tang people here!" Someone laughed: "Have you forgotten what our name is? Fuchu, it means very remote! How could the Tang people come here?"
"That's not necessarily true! You all know Fuchuji, right? It's the market town a day and a half away from here! There's everything there, businessmen from all over the place will come, and maybe even people from the Tang Dynasty will come!" At this point, Ah Ke Dun sighed: "I really want to visit Fuchuji!"
Actun's sigh resonated with the teenagers. Although they were born in a remote village, like all their peers, the teenagers had brave hearts beating in their chests, and their strong curiosity drove them to long for the unknown. world.
"Acton, you'd better go fishing quickly! Look what time it is now! You know your father's temper. If you don't bring back forty salmon half a man's height before dark, your You can’t save your butt!”
The words of his companion made Acton shudder. Even among savages like Mohe, Acton's father was famous for being strict. If Acton failed to bring enough salmon home at night, What awaits him is definitely a whip that will never touch the ground. He waved his hand: "Okay, I owe you a favor. Let's go and catch enough salmon first!"
As the oars paddled, the birch bark boat cut through the water and headed towards the river. The river surface was clear in early autumn, and the hillside on the other side of the river was covered with birch, oak, and chestnut trees. The unripe fruits weighed down the branches of the oak and chestnut trees. Acton stood up and lowered a tree with his oar. He pulled off a handful of chestnuts from a hanging branch and distributed them to his companions. The bitter taste went straight to the forehead, and the teenagers let out crisp laughter, which echoed on the river.
When the birch bark boat arrives at the fishing ground, you can even see swarms of salmon swimming underwater from the boat. This brave fish swims upstream from the sea every year, breaking through all kinds of difficulties and obstacles to reach the river. In a deep pool of a lake upstream, they will lay countless eggs and then die. Their corpses will become the food for new lives. When these small fish grow up a little, they will swim down the river and enter the lake. In the sea, they live there until the next cycle. This great cycle also supports many other lives - such as the Mohe people.
Acton and his companions skillfully set up the fishing net, and then used harpoons to catch the prey caught in the net. Soon the cabin was filled with catch, and they had to dock and drag the caught fish ashore. , cut open the belly of the fish, take out the internal organs and clean them. These are things they have seen and done since childhood, so they are skilled and quick.
"Ahu, get out of the way, these are not for you!" Actun handled the prey skillfully while kicking away the hunting dogs trying to get closer. There are a lot of roe in the belly of the female salmon in this season. According to the customs of the Mohe people, this is a delicacy, and the fish maw can also be used to make glue for making horned bows, so only the remaining internal organs can be eaten by the hunting dogs. Ahu, who was kicked away by his owner, whimpered in dissatisfaction, which seemed to be A wronged child is acting coquettishly to adults.
"Acton, Acton, there is a boat coming on the river!" the companion shouted.
"Is it a boat from a nearby village? Don't worry about them. Let's do our own thing. There are so many fish in this season that no one will fight for the salmon!" Akdon replied without looking back.
"It's not a boat near the village. If you look back, it's a big boat, a very big boat!"
Acton turned around, and the bone knife in his hand suddenly slipped from his hand. His companion was right, this was definitely not the boat near the village, but a big, big boat, as long as twenty birch bark boats connected together, twelve A birch bark boat wide!
"Captain Shen, there are some barbarian boys on the shore. Do you want to send a boat to catch them?" an officer asked, pointing to the Mohe boys who were making a mess on the shore not far away.
"What are you going to catch!" Shen Faseng scolded angrily: "I'm a local, I know the roads well, and if I go into the forest, where are you going to catch me! Find someone who can speak the local dialect, and see if you can coax one over. !”
"Yes!" the officer said in victory, called a guide who knew the local language, and shouted loudly to the shore.
"Acton, run!" A companion grabbed Acton's arm: "Otherwise it will be too late!"
Acton ran a few steps and then stopped: "I have never seen such a big ship. I want to stop and see what it looks like inside!"
"You are crazy!" the companion said anxiously: "How many people are there on such a big boat! If we catch you, the whole village will not be able to snatch you back!"
"How can it be so easy for such a big ship to dock?" Acton said with a smile: "If something goes wrong, let's go into the forest. Can they catch up? With such a big ship, I don't know when the next time we can get there. See you again, if you are scared, just leave first, I want to stay and see!"
The young man looked at the big boat on the river, then at the forest only a dozen steps away from him, and hesitated for a moment and said: "Okay, I will stay too, but remember, if the situation goes wrong, we will run away! "
"Of course, I'm not a fool!" Acton laughed.
At this time, the big ship was already very close. Acton realized that the big ship looked very slow from a distance, but when he got closer, he realized that it was much faster than his own birch bark boat, and he became a little more curious.
"What are they shouting on the boat? It seems they don't want to leave?"
"Yes, and I am a good person! The tone is a bit strange, but it is indeed the words of us Baishan Mohe people!" Acton nodded: "I don't know which tribe leader is so powerful and has such a big ship!"
"In my opinion, it may not be the boat of our Mohe people!" The companion once again sang the opposite tune: "My Ama has also helped the tribe adults. He said that the village where the adults live is larger than our village and has more people. , there is a wooden fence and a trench outside, and everything else is almost the same. Our village can build canoes, and the tribal leaders can only build larger canoes at best. Where can such a big boat be built?"
"Perhaps they invited craftsmen from Goguryeo?"
"It's impossible. The Goguryeo people are very wary of us. They won't even give us a good bowsmith or weapons craftsman, let alone such a big shipbuilder?"
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On the deck, Shen Faseng and Yiji Lianbod looked at the two Mohe boys on the shore who were looking at their ship curiously, and they were secretly happy. They had been looking for a market town with a large amount of iron in this area for more than ten days, but they couldn't find it at all. no idea. Different from the modern Tumen River estuary, the Tumen River estuary at that time was composed of dozens of tributaries of different sizes, many peninsula islands, and large wetlands. If you want to find the one in such a large and chaotic body of water, According to legend, leaving the market town is simply harder than finding a flea in a horse pen. The only way is to ask the local indigenous people, but the problem is that the area is sparsely populated, and occasionally they encounter someone who runs faster than a rabbit, which almost makes the two of them desperate.
"Ijilianbode, you wait on the boat, I will take two people ashore to catch those two little barbarians!" Shen Faseng said.
"That's all!" Yijirenbod said, "Let me go there myself!"
"you?"
"Yes, I grew up in Dongguo. The local Ezo people's language and customs are somewhat similar to these Mohe people. It's better to deal with these barbarians than you!" Ijirenbod took off the long knife from his waist and took another bag. Brown Tang was carried in his waist, and he took a boat ashore. He stopped a dozen steps away from the two Mohe boys and raised his arms: "Look, I have no weapons and no ill intentions!"
"Then what's on your waist?" Acton asked, pointing to the short knife on Igilianbod's waist. Only then did Ijilianbod realize that he had only taken off the long knife, but he had forgotten to use it to cut paper for personal protection. With an idea, he pulled out the dagger and the bag of brown sugar, tied the rope around the bag to the handle, and threw it away: "This is a gift for you, please accept it!"
