Chapter 1575: The True Means

They smoked and salted all the fish they caught to preserve them; they were not particularly short on salt where they were, because not far away there was a salt lake, though the lake had not yet dried up and still contained water.

It was just that because the salt content was truly too high, almost no living things could survive in or around the water, with only flies and mosquitoes able to breed there wantonly.

This place was discovered and mined by the Wulengebu, but the salt could only be supplied to the Shenhu Tribe; the Shenhu Tribe was not short on salt, nor were those tribes located close to the salt lake.

But tribes far from Shenhu were still quite short on salt. Why? Because after giving them enough salt, how could one still rule over them?

Nomadic tribes are inherently very loose; if I can already feed myself, why should I listen to your commands and management? I am a nomad, if I just burrow into any mountain, can you still find me?

Why should I fight for you and hand over my food and wealth, just for the sake of the Wulengebu name?

Of course not. The constraints of faith are only one part; in the face of survival, it is actually secondary. The main reason is that the central Shenhu Tribe can provide them with the salt needed to sustain life; only with salt can they survive.

Livestock also need salt, but they can obtain it by licking salt-alkali land, whereas people cannot.

They would even scrape the alkali off the salt-alkali land and then wash it repeatedly with water, finally washing out the salt. This is a skill they were forced to develop. Therefore, the Wulengebu are actually quite formidable, already able to perform simple extraction through water dissolution, though the efficiency is extremely low and the quality very poor—after all, how much salt can one really scrape from the salt-alkali residue of the land?

But the Shenhu Tribe, which is the center of the Wulengebu and one of the few tribes that does not need to be nomadic, can provide them with enough salt. The price is that they must be obedient and hand over a certain amount of cattle and sheep every year, along with other things, sometimes including women.

Actually, when you get down to it, they are more like a transactional relationship; it is all just for that bit of salt. Except for the Shenhu Tribe, all other tribes view salt as a treasure; they can fight to the death for salt, and when trading, they also place great importance on things that bring salt.

The Shenhu Tribe is different; they do not value salt because they have enough of it, but they must appear to have little, insufficient salt to their subordinate tribes, so that they can keep them restricted.

The person capable of coming up with such an idea is, of course, Bosa. They maintain the entire Wulengebu through faith and salt. The dispatched Bosa also never mention that the Shenhu Tribe has plenty of salt; they would rather suffer and eat food lacking salt than speak out of turn, because the Bosa class is the true ruler of the Wulengebu, and they will not break their own rules.

Just like the selection of Bosa, only those who can deceive can become Bosa, and only those with political minds can become true Bosa. The Tribal Chief is merely a puppet pushed to the front, the body for their actions; the brain of the Wulengebu is the Bosa.

Fish preserved with salt can be kept for a long time and are also the most precious items. They rely on this heaven-sent opportunity to constantly grow stronger. Shenhu has never deceived them; this situation occurs stably every year, so they can also rest easy stationed here.

As for Wulian, he is neither a Bosa who can control people through faith, nor does he have something like salt to lure others; naturally, he has no say at all. And his current thought is to quickly find Huaxia, ideally bumping into them face-to-face, so that all trouble would be resolved.

With the situation on the verge of being uncontrollable, Wulian gathered all the Tribal Chiefs to discuss it together by the campfire. Wulian knew that no matter how he tried to persuade them, it would be useless; these Tribal Chiefs had no feelings, and even less for him. They were only willing to gather because of the Shenhu Tribe.

They had already been gathered for over ten days, but there was no progress. They felt they could disperse on their own; in any case, whether it was the Wulengebu or their own tribesmen, they could provide an explanation. As for how Wulian would explain it, that was none of their business.

Wulian made a final struggle, so he gathered everyone and said from the heart: "I know you will not listen to me, and the Tribal Chiefs and Bosa cannot control you either, but you must also know that Huaxia is now very close to you; perhaps they just haven't discovered you yet. If you scatter, what will you do if you encounter Huaxia?

Food is indeed a big problem now. Since you all feel that you should scatter and not deal with this matter, not fight Huaxia, then I have no choice; I cannot control you. I only want to ask, can we wait another six days! What if we encounter Huaxia after six days? Then we could attack Huaxia, couldn't we?

Let's just wait six more days, I only need six days, can we?"

The crowd didn't really take Wulian's words to heart, but since he had said it, they still had to give the Tribal Chief Yegaer some face; if Wulian went back and said something, it might be difficult for them to ask for salt at the end of the year.

Therefore, they decided to give Wulian one last chance, but not the six days Wulian asked for, only three days. If they didn't see Huaxia after three days, they would immediately separate and go to their own territories, which also gave Wulian some face.

Three days—although only half of what he requested, Wulian was satisfied. If he pestered them any further, he feared even this three-day opportunity would vanish. He had thoroughly recognized his own status: three days it is!

He could not sit still and wait for death during these three days. He decided to take his Soldiers to the higher mountains nearby to see if they could find any clues, waiting for Huaxia to deliver themselves to his doorstep, though the probability was not high.

These Soldiers still listened to him; after all, Wulian's reputation in Shenhu was earned through battle. They were a community of shared destiny; they would reap the rewards together and shoulder the hardships together.

Wulian was well-prepared and had thought it through well. Early the next morning, he crawled out of the grass filled with the smell of mutton, then called his Soldiers to go to the highest mountains nearby to look.

Those Tribal Chiefs sneered at this; if it were really that easy to find, they would have found them long ago. Could they have spent so much time otherwise?

The Heaven and Earth here are so vast, and there are many places they have never been to; how could there be a chance to encounter Huaxia? The probability is just too, too small.