Chapter One Thousand Three Hundred and Twenty-Four: White Mountains and Black Waters, the Most Fierce Fish Skin Tribe!
Continuous mountains undulate in the distance, and endless mountain forests extend to the sky. Looking from the bow of the Snow Wolf to both sides of the river, densely packed thick trees almost fill the field of vision.
Except for trees, there are trees everywhere. Under the trees, there is moist and soft black soil, covered with thick leaves and pine needles. And where the trees are sparse, there are traces of various kinds of water. The floods in the rainy season seem to have just subsided.
. Moist, sticky, mixed, the air is full of moist water vapor and the smell of rotting leaves. And the continuous swamps, one after another, look like there are still grass growing, but you can't see the bottom when you step on them, you can directly turn them into swamps.
People devour.
The white mountains in the distance, the black water at the foot, and the surging river. The Tunguska land of "white mountains and black water", reaching the lower reaches of the river, was the granary of the Outer Northeast for later generations.
However, the outer Northeast in this era has nothing to do with the warm and fertile black soil granary. The cold black soil belt in the agricultural era was extremely difficult to develop during the Great Cold Period! Before the swamps were drained, there was a serious lack of cultivation here.
The land has no Old World crops that are adapted to the bitter cold climate and can be cultivated.
This is a real "bitter cold and damp" swamp, a woodland where "poor people are desperate", and a cemetery where countless Tungus tribes have killed and buried their bones!
Swamps and dense forests are the first death test that all outsiders face. Cold and hunger are the second. As for the last test, the Tungus tribes are fighting one after another. In dense forests and swamps, the cold
with hungry people.
"Dogs are powerful and can find their way in the woods. Swamps are dead and eat the living. The wind is here to bring news, bringing the smell of blood from afar. When a dog barks, you must stop and take the food.
Bring out axes and bows and arrows. Because, either we encounter man-eating tigers and wolves, or we encounter man-eating tribes!…”
The Nivkh head squatted on the deck, feeding fish offal to the dog, while chatting with Zuvalo through the Ainu translator. His dog was very slender and had a narrow head.
The mouth is long, the legs are thin and long, and the body and waist are also long. At first glance, it looks like a real "thin dog"!
The two thin Khitan dogs have slight arches on their backs, like arrows, and they seem to be very good at running. They bared their teeth and stared at Zuwaro, as if they were about to pounce at any time. If we say that the Alaskan dogs raised in the mountains are different from
Huskies always give people a feeling of "wisdom" and "perseverance". The feeling that these two thin dogs give Zuvalo is "quick", "ferocious", fast and ruthless!
"A dog can find out the way and lead you in the woods. A dog can pounce on prey and catch up with the most cunning fox and rabbit. A dog can hear the distance and detect death from a distance. When you sleep at night, if there is no one
How can you dare to sleep peacefully when dogs are on guard?...So! Tribes riding big ships, you must raise dogs. In this hedgehog-like man-eating forest, you really can't survive without dogs!...
"
The Nivkh head man was talking, and every word he said was related to the dog. And the two ferocious big dogs also listened obediently to the "head dog" talking. In fact, when Zuvalo asked about the Niv Hig head man,
His answer was also a dog, called "the one who makes dogs".
"In the past, there were many horse-breeding tribes in this area. They wore roe deer hats and rode their horses along the river. Then, the weather became colder and colder, causing the horse-breeding tribes to move further and further to Vietnam. The deer-breeding tribes also
They often appear from the north... But no matter what, the ones who use horses leave and the ones who use deer come. The most common ones in the forest are the ones who use dogs!... Well, now I have met you, the ones who use boats..."
"Ouch!"
"Ouch!..."
The sharp barking of dogs suddenly sounded from the forest. Then, the thin dogs on the longboat also howled violently. The tribal oarsmen who rowed the oars were stunned, and the warriors immediately put on their armor and were alert.
He held the bow.
“…”
The long boat stopped, and the warriors were on guard. Even the muttering leader suddenly stood up. He narrowed his sharp eyes and looked at somewhere in the forest. Then, from the depths of the dense forest,
, slowly walked out of a group of twenty or thirty tribesmen with bows on their backs.
These people are all very tall, with very strong builds. They are wrapped in a strange yellow and white leather jacket, and the leather jacket has eye-catching patterns of fish scales. They have very long hair, braided into three strands, and are not shaved.
There were traces of hair. They all carried heavy and heavy bows on their backs. But the length of the quivers was almost as long as their arms, almost like spears! And their eyes were staring at the people on the long boats.
and the thin dog they were holding, both of which were fierce and reddish in color.
"Oh! It's the hunter who makes fish skins! ... The hunter who makes hairy fish skins..."
The leader blinked his dog eyes, looked at the boat under his feet, and then at the hunters staring at the shore. He knew that he had entered the territory of the Fish Skin Department. These Fish Skin Department and their Dog Department,
In fact, we had quite a few contacts, mainly trading fish, dogs, meat and salt.
Smaller tribes cannot be endogamous and will also intermarry with the Yuskin tribe. He has several familiar Yuskin tribes, but they are not here, but around the estuary.
He has been deep into the river for five or six days. The deeper he goes, the more woods and swamps there are, the more tribal fighting, and the more frequent migration and death. When he gets here, he has no acquaintances, and new acquaintances often
It won't be long before they are either dead or gone.
"They call them fish-skinners?..."
"Yes! The boatmen... what they wear are the skins of very big fish. They are good at fishing, they have their boats, they are also good at hunting, and they have their big bows... Look! That bow is very big.
, a thick and heavy arrow shot out, can directly knock down a tiger!...Huh? They raised their bows and pointed them at us? Do they regard us as enemies? Ah?!..."
The leader stunned the dog, opened his mouth quickly, and shouted to the fish skin hunter on the shore.
"The fish skinner! No one touches the river in summer or autumn! If there is blood in the river, the water will not be drinkable!..."
"..."
In the rainy season of floods, clean water is very precious. The tribes here usually do not fight on the river. In summer and autumn, there is no shortage of food, and the fighting among the tribes is much less than in spring and winter. The oldest fish skin
The hunter was silent for a while, and pressed the bow in his hand. The hunters around him also pressed their bows. Then, he pointed at the kingdom warriors on the big ship and asked awkwardly.
"The Dog Club in the woods by the sea...what are you doing here...?..."
"Fish Skinner, let's go find that altar! The remaining altar in the market!..."
"Looking for the altar...what to do?..."
"Of course I am offering sacrifices to the mountain god! I pray that there will be more fish this year! I pray that this winter will be warmer!..."
"Please make this winter warmer?..."
After hearing these words, the fish-skin hunter was silent for a while and slowly lowered his bow. Seeing this, Zuvalo also asked the warriors on the boat to lower their bows and arrows. The two sides just looked at each other across a section of the river.
And this is also the first encounter between the fierce Hezhe tribe in the dense forest and the Kingdom exploration team!
Yes, they are "Hezhe people", "people who live by the river in the east". They fish on the river and hunt in the dense forests. They are loose and fierce, often eat raw food, wear fish skin clothing, and have fierce shooting skills.
In the original history of the late Ming Dynasty, they would be captured in large numbers by the Jurchen clan alliance that emerged in the south, organized into "dead soldiers" who would be trapped in battle, and then the bravest "Pioneer Sauron" and "Archer Sauron" would be selected to fight against each other.
The Ming army would also give them a deeply feared name, the most ferocious among the slaves, the "Fish Skin Tartars"!
Of course, all these future events have not happened yet. On the long boat, Zuvalo squinted his eyes and looked at this group of poor and fierce "fish skin tribe", from the stone axes on their waists to the bone arrows on their backs, carefully
I looked and looked again and again.
"Lord God! These are just twenty or thirty hunters from the fish skin tribe, and they give me such a strong sense of threat, like a pack of wolves emerging from the forest... Even though they are barefoot, wearing fish skin, and holding bone weapons
Weapons seem to be far more dangerous than Kazuto's samurai! So, what if we put on armor, pick up metal weapons, and form a team?..."
"Well... give it a try! See if you can recruit this group of fish skin hunters and join the kingdom's camp!..."
Zuvalo pondered for a moment, and then ordered the long boat to row to the shore. However, when the fish skin hunters on the shore saw this, they stepped back warily, always keeping an arrow's distance.
Soon, the warrior captain Tamicao jumped off the long boat with his hands empty. He took a bag of salt and a gold charm, put them in the middle of the open space by the sea, and said "give" to the fish skin hunters.
gesture. Then, under the other party's vigilant gaze, he returned to the long boat.
"..."
The old fish-skin hunter stared at the deer-skin pouch for a long time, and then made a gesture to the young hunter next to him. Then, the young hunter didn't even look at the gold charm, and walked straight to the pouch, carefully
When I opened it, it turned out to be gray salt inside!
"This is?…"
The young hunter's eyes lit up instantly. He tasted it with his fingers and found that it was indeed salty with a bitter taste. It was the salt that the tribe needed!
"Chief! It's salt, a whole bag of salt! They are people who come to trade!..."
"..."
The old fish-skin hunter was startled, and when he looked at the tribe on the boat, his expression softened a lot. People who can bring salt, even if they are not friends of the tribe, are certainly not enemies. He thought for a moment,
Putting down his bow and arrow, he took out two pieces of beautiful sable fur from the fishskin bag on his back. Then, he placed the fur where the salt was before, carefully lifted up the deerskin salt bag, and retreated to the edge of the forest again.
"People who trade...salt, ours. Minks, yours!..."
"That altar has been replaced by a powerful tribe, so be careful!..."
The old fish-skin hunter shouted twice to the boat. Then, he turned around, and the fish-skin tribesman with the back bow quickly walked into the deep forest. Zuvalo was stunned and shouted.
After saying two words, "Friend, stay!", the other party seemed to be afraid that he would regret it, so he ran even faster.
But a moment later, under Zuvalo's astonished gaze, the fish-skinned hunter and the silent dog quietly disappeared into the deep forest. There were only two pieces of gorgeous sable fur left on the shore, and an uninhabited animal.
The golden talisman of the inquiry flashed with golden light like river water.