The cold wind is howling and the snow is falling.
More than a dozen tourists were gathering around the fire pit to warm themselves up, shivering and worrying about being hungry in the future.
Although after it snowed, they followed Jiang Xuan's suggestion and blocked the cracks in the wall with ice by pouring water into ice, but the cold was still everywhere.
"Open the door, I'm back!"
Suddenly a rough voice came from outside.
A tourist near the door reluctantly left the fire pit, walked to the door, moved the wood supporting the door, and opened the heavy door.
"Huhu..."
After the door was opened, a cold wind rushed straight into the house, blowing away the little warmth that had finally gathered in the house.
The tourists trembled one after another, feeling quite dissatisfied, but because the other party was the leader, no one dared to say anything.
However, when they saw a heavy one-horned bird in Jie Jie's hand, their eyes immediately straightened.
"Come and see, what is this?"
Nepeta deliberately held the unicorn bird in his hands so that they could see it more clearly.
"One-horned bird!"
"Food!"
"Meat!"
Those tourists were already hungry, but when they saw the plump one-horned bird, they instantly looked like evil wolves, with their eyes glowing green, and their mouths swallowing saliva frantically, wanting to pounce on it and take a bite immediately.
Eating meat is what the tribesmen crave most, because they usually eat mostly wild vegetables, wild fruits, insects and other foods.
What's more, due to the shortage of food, they haven't experienced the feeling of being full for a while, and they were extremely greedy after seeing the unicorn bird.
"This one-horned bird was just taken by the leader of the Vine Tribe to hunt. He didn't lie to us. We can really get food in winter!"
Nepeta looked around and said, "Do you know what this means?"
Before the tourists could go home, Jingjie said excitedly: "This means that all of us don't have to worry about starving to death!"
After listening to Nepeta's words, the tourists stared at the unicorn bird in silence for a moment, and then suddenly burst into cheers.
"Okay!"
"Great!"
"We have food!"
……
For these tourists, the biggest fear is starving to death due to lack of food. This is the most uncomfortable way to die in this winter.
However, just when they were on the verge of despair, Jingjie's words gave them hope.
At this moment, the unicorn bird held in Jie Jie's hand was no longer just a prey, but the hope that could keep them alive!
This kind of excitement is difficult for people who have never experienced despair to understand.
After Nepeta finished speaking, he added: "I'll go tell the good news to others."
Nepeta turned around and left the room, and the door was closed again.
But those tourists are no longer fearful or decadent, and their mental state has undergone great changes.
They gathered around the fire pit and looked at the dancing flames. Their eyes became full of hope, and they even began to look forward to the future!
This is a good sign.
Later, Nepeta walked from room to room, first showing the unicorn bird, and then saying similar words.
Every time you arrive at a room, there will be cheers coming from that room, covering up the sound of the wind and snow outside.
Jiang Xuan stood under a tree not far away. With his excellent hearing, he naturally heard clearly the conversation between Jing Jie and the tourists.
Jiang Xuan chuckled and said: "I didn't expect that this guy is really a talent."
Just one prey and inspiring words can make more than a hundred tourists cheer. This is not something ordinary people can do. It requires a certain amount of talent.
After Nepeta walked around, the one-horned bird's feathers were covered with a layer of snow, its head drooped, and it looked lifeless.
Nepeta came under the big tree and stood in front of Jiang Xuan, but hesitated to speak.
"Chief, this one-horned bird..."
Jiang Xuan smiled and said: "Let's stew it in a pottery cauldron, and give everyone a bowl of broth."
Although words can inspire people, they are short-lived. Only real benefits can inspire those tourists to fight.
"Thank you, chief." Jing Jie gratefully thanked Jiang Xuan.
"But..." Nepeta hesitated for a moment and said: "I'm afraid we won't be able to survive this winter just by catching birds. After all, the snow is so heavy that we can't go too far, and all the nearby birds and beasts will always be captured."<
/p>
"Don't worry, I have thought of this problem a long time ago, and I have other ways to help you get more food."
"Enough food for everyone to eat for a winter." Jiang Xuan is full of confidence.
"Really? That's great."
Nepeta breathed a sigh of relief. The leader of the Teng tribe seemed young and very reliable in his work.
Jiang Xuan thought for a while and said: "Tomorrow, bring the ten strongest tourists to me, and I will take you to find food."
"Okay."
"I'm going back first. You go stew this unicorn bird and let everyone drink a bowl of hot broth."
Jiang Xuan turned around and left. Jingjie stood there, looking at Jiang Xuan's back, and began to have a good impression of Jiang Xuan and the Vine Tribe.
That night, the unicorn bird was stewed into broth with other food using several pottery cauldrons, and each visitor was given a bowl.
When they drank the steaming broth, many of them burst into tears with excitement, not because it tasted so good, but because not only did they not starve to death, but they also had meat.
This night, many people had sweet dreams, instead of having nightmares every day like before.
Early the next morning, Nepeta selected the ten strongest tourists and found Jiang Xuan with simple hunting tools.
Jiang Xuan got up early, and not only that, all the people in the Teng tribe were ready.
In accordance with Jiang Xuan's request, they each brought a bundle of firewood, a rattan basket, ropes, their own weapons, and a piece of dry horseshoe-shaped wood Ganoderma lucidum that they lit as fire.
This kind of wood lingzhi will smolder for a long time after being ignited, making it very suitable for use as tinder.
"I'm going to stay outside for a long time today. Please put on these animal skin coats and animal skin boots first, and then return them to me when you come back."
Jiang Xuan threw eleven sets of old animal skin clothes and animal skin boots to Jing Jie and others.
In fact, the Vine Tribe has accumulated a lot of animal skins, and there are relatively few real members of the Vine Tribe, so they simply cannot use so many.
But Jiang Xuan cannot directly give these animal skins to tourists, because these tourists have not yet joined the Vine Tribe, and they have not created any value for the tribe for the time being, but have been consuming food.
Therefore, only if these tourists truly join the Vine Tribe or create equal value, Jiang Xuan will consider giving the animal skin clothing directly to them.
Jingjie and the ten tourists looked at Jiang Xuan gratefully, and then quickly put on those animal skin clothes and animal skin boots.
"Are you all ready? Let's go to the river."
Jiang Xuan held the bone spear and fire, and took the lead in walking to the river along the previously opened path, followed closely by the Vine Tribe tribesmen and tourists.
The snow on the ground is deep and walking is difficult, but everyone is very excited because they have no experience of hunting in winter, and the unknown is exciting.
Next to the old witch's house, a giant eagle squatted in a huge nest. It shook off the snow on its body, then tilted its head and looked at Jiang Xuan and others. Obviously, it didn't know what these people were doing out in such heavy snow. The old witch who was warming himself around the firepit was also very curious, but he didn't go out because it was too cold outside and he couldn't bear it at his age.
Not long after, Jiang Xuan and others braved the heavy snow and came to the beach by the river.
The severe cold and heavy snow have frozen the surface of the river, which is more than 20 meters wide, and it is so frozen that at first glance it looks like flat ground, and you can't even tell where the river is.
Jiang Xuan chose a location that was relatively sheltered from the wind and said to the others: "Clean the snow here and light a bonfire. The brighter the better."
"Okay."
Although everyone didn't understand why they wanted to light the fire, they had become accustomed to obeying Jiang Xuan's orders.
Soon, the snow on the ground was cleared, the dry firewood was piled together, and then the bonfire was lit with the kindling brought by the horseshoe-shaped Ganoderma lucidum.
"Huhuhu..."
With the blessing of the wind, this large bonfire burned more and more vigorously. Even the snow next to it was melted and the ground was baked dry.
Later, Jiang Xuan asked them to dig out a lot of stones from the snow and throw them into the bonfire until they were burned hot.
After doing all this, Jiang Xuan used the bone spear to poke into the river bend little by little, and finally found a better position, removing the surface snow and exposing the hard ice below.
"This is it."
"Tear out the red-hot stone and carry it here."
Jiang Xuan shouted, and Chi Shao and others immediately started to pull out the red-hot stones with wooden sticks, and then put them into a rattan basket. When the rattan basket touched the hot stones, the surface was soon burned black.<
/p>
They were afraid that the rattan basket would be burned through, so they walked faster. After reaching the position designated by Jiang Xuan, they poured all the stones in the rattan basket onto the ice.
"Chi chi chi..."
The hot stones continued to radiate heat, and the hard ice melted quickly and sunk down.
Until then, everyone finally understood why Jiang Xuan asked them to light a bonfire and burn the stones.
If it weren't for these red-hot stones, it would be too difficult to cut through the hard and thick ice. I don't know how much effort it would take.
……
Congratulations to book friend "Qingtangl" for becoming the helmsman of this book, thank you Qingshi.