Chapter 109: Scouting New Territory

While Baifeng and the others were studying the crossbow, Xiong led a group of hunters to sweep through that newly occupied forest land, which was the territory previously held by the wolf pack.

This area was still relatively unfamiliar to them, but for the sake of the tribe's future development, they had to become familiar with it; only then could it be considered truly incorporated into the territory of the Baifeng Tribe.

This mountain forest was not much different from the hunting grounds they had used before; they just needed to familiarize themselves with the locations and then check for any special resources, such as various peculiar stones or plants they had never seen before.

Although they did not find any special stones they hadn't seen before, they discovered many fruit trees, and they were quite large; there were several jujube trees, and because one large jujube tree was very tall and old, the ground around it was covered with small trees that had grown from the fallen jujubes.

The old tree hardly bore fruit anymore, it was just very large, but the small trees were still young and bore jujubes very prolifically, though they were still green; even though they weren't ripe, Xiong and the others reached out and picked some to eat—a slight sweetness, juicy, and actually quite good.

It could barely count as a small jujube grove; they noted the location to go back and gather them when they ripened. They previously had a chestnut grove that had performed a great service last Winter.

The other fruit trees were in twos and threes or stood alone, and there was no need to mark them specifically; running such a long distance just to pick fruit from one tree was not worth it.

However, they did note down one persimmon tree because it was truly tall and large, and it was laden with an extreme amount of fruit; even if the entire tribe ate from it, everyone could get a few, so it was absolutely worth making a special trip to pick them.

They also found walnut trees, hazelnut trees, and Russian olive trees in great numbers; these could be stored for a long time, and nuts could also be eaten as food. There were also many sour thorns, jujube pits, and various pear and plum trees; they were ripe now, but they couldn't be stored and were very scattered, with each tree only providing enough for their hundred or so people to have a taste.

After scouting the whole way, they were full just from eating various wild fruits; they couldn't bring any back for the tribespeople, but they still saved a portion for Baifeng and Sui—this was the Tribal Chief's privilege, and also the tribespeople's respect and recognition for their Tribal Chief.

They only finished scouting about one-fifth of the area in one day before they hurried back, continuing the scouting tomorrow. Because the tribe's food supply was currently very abundant, it didn't matter much whether they brought back prey or not; it was best if they could, but if they couldn't, no one cared, provided they had done their proper work for the day.

They scouted longitudinally, and the distance they could travel there and back in a day was the extent of their territory; if they couldn't make a round trip in one day, they would abandon the furthest reaches of the territory. Unless they had enough people to build a Village halfway, they would not claim it; you have to eat one bite at a time, and what you cannot control is not called territory.

Baifeng had taught them a simple way to draw maps: circles represented mountains, forests were drawn as trees, lakes were drawn with curves, rivers were drawn as lines following their direction, and cliffs were drawn as grids. If something special needed to be marked, they would make a sign to explain what it was, and Baifeng would then label it with characters.

To facilitate recording, they used processed rabbit skin paper; sheepskin was too luxurious, as their sheepskin still had to be used for clothing. Although rabbit skin was small, it was fine for drawing maps, and it wasn't afraid of being torn or soaked in water.

They couldn't understand what contour lines were, so Baifeng used the hills behind the tribe as a basis, telling them that this height was equivalent to one circle; if the mountain they went to was twice as high as the tribe's mountain, they should draw a small circle inside, and if it was three times as high, they should draw three circles, one inside the other.

Whatever special things were at a certain height were noted between these two circles; mountains in different locations were drawn as separate circles nearby, and where two circles connected was a valley. Once taught this way and allowed to draw it themselves, they immediately felt that this map was truly convenient and very clear.

The information about the small jujube grove that Xiong brought back this time made Baifeng very happy. Jujubes were good things; not only were they nutritious, but they could also be stored for a long time once dried. Eating the green jujubes the tribespeople brought back for him, Baifeng happily wrote the character for "jujube" at a certain location on the map.

Hearing them say there were many more jujube saplings below, Baifeng felt that since his tribe already had a vegetable garden, it was perfectly fine to start an orchard too. There was so much land anyway, and it didn't necessarily have to be planted inside the city; there was so much empty space outside the city that planting there was perfectly feasible.

After resting for a night, they changed direction the next day and continued to head deep into the area. Along the way, they found nothing but more fruit trees, which didn't have much value. The only relatively important things were a few large Sichuan Peppercorn trees; the Baifeng Tribe currently used a fair amount of various spices because everyone had moved past the subsistence line and had a pursuit for flavor.

They had collected a lot of Star Anise, Amomum fruit, and cinnamon; when the tribespeople went out to collect things and encountered these spices on the road, they would just pick some up and bring them back. One person couldn't eat much, but over time, they had accumulated quite a lot.

Baifeng thought that once the large Stone Mill he requested was made, he would crush all these spices into powder and distribute them to the tribespeople as seasoning powder. He couldn't make a complete "thirteen spice" blend, but he could manage seven or eight kinds, and the flavor wouldn't be too bad; however, what Baifeng missed most was chili.

There were no special discoveries in the following days, and Baifeng thought that the fixed output of this mountain forest might just be like this, but even such gains made Baifeng very satisfied.

This afternoon, the Hunter Team returned unusually early; they weren't carrying prey in their hands, but their pockets were stuffed full. Baifeng knew there must have been a big harvest, he just didn't know what it was.

Xiong brought a large bag to Baifeng; after opening it, there were bright red peaches, but they were too ripe, and the squeezing along the way had caused the skins to break.

Baifeng didn't mind; he couldn't wash them, but the skin was easy to peel. With a gentle tear, the peach juice flowed out. Baifeng quickly put his mouth to it and took a slurp; it wasn't very sweet, but it was full of peach flavor, and one could say it was very delicious.

He gave one to Sui; she had never eaten a peach and wanted to bite into it directly, but the little fuzz on the peach skin was still there. Baifeng peeled the skin for her before giving it to her. The advantage of thick skin was that it was easy to peel when fully ripe, and the flesh separated from the skin very clearly.

He ate two in a row, but there was still plenty in the bag, so Baifeng simply took everything out and returned the bag to Xiong.

As it turned out, when he took them out, he discovered that what was underneath were not peaches but apricots. These didn't need to be peeled; Baifeng threw one directly into his mouth. The apricots were much sweeter than the peaches, and Baifeng gave Xiong a thumbs-up.

Seeing that almost everyone in the Hunter Team had brought back peaches and apricots and everyone was eating, Baifeng estimated that they must have found a large grove, otherwise they couldn't have brought back so many.