Chapter 17: Looking Toward the Future

After arranging for all the savages to get busy, Baifeng kept Xiong and Chi; after all, as his good brother, Chi, though dull and a bit slow, could still serve as a fighter as long as he was given enough to eat.

Baifeng needed to know where the salt mine was; for a tribe of over four hundred people, relying on burning reeds to make salt to feed so many was clearly impossible, and since Xiong had been able to maintain such a large tribe, he certainly knew where the salt mine was.

This kind of matter was generally the privilege of the Tribal Chief; perhaps when power passed from one generation of chiefs to the next, each incumbent would clearly explain the location of the salt mine to ensure their tribe would not perish due to a lack of salt. However, if a Tribal Chief were to die suddenly without having time to pass on the information, that tribe could be in great danger.

Xiong did not hide the location of the salt mine, and Xiong's intelligence was considered quite high among this group of savages; he could roughly explain the location of the salt mine from here, and in Xiong's words, if one left from Baifeng's camp just as the sun rose, one would be able to find it by the time the sun was at its highest.

A half-day's journey was not too far, but they could not go today, otherwise they would not be back before dark, which was a very dangerous thing.

Watching the leisurely savages working slowly at their tasks, Baifeng felt a surge of anger, but in truth, there was no need to be angry; after all, if they didn't work, it was they who would starve or freeze to death when the time came.

The children were doing a very good job working the mud; after all, it was like playing, and the children were quite happy doing it. The amount of mud produced was vast, and the quality was also quite good.

Making pottery and such fine work could only be done by Baifeng for the time being, though Baifeng still called over a few savages who looked agreeable and let them come over to learn how to do it.

The pot Baifeng wanted to make was very large, big enough for ten savages to drink soup from, one could even call it a vat.

Baifeng taught them step by step, and the selected savages learned step by step; although their hands were a bit clumsy, it was generally looking like the real thing. Baifeng refined the pots they made, and that counted as a success. Then Baifeng handed the pottery work over to these few savages, liberating himself.

Baifeng was very curious; since not a single savage here knew how to make pottery, where did their pots and such come from? Xiong explained to Baifeng that every time the leaves turned yellow and were about to fall, after the day the moon was roundest, there would be a long period where one could follow the Dahe downstream and encounter markets run by savages from other tribes, where one could exchange for the things one wanted.

Baifeng looked at Xiong with contempt; with them being so poor they didn't even have a clinking object, what would they use to exchange for supplies, to trade for someone else's Pottery Jar?

Xiong was also quite embarrassed; after all, it was a fact that the tribe he led was poor. But before the great flood destroyed their home, they were still getting by. They had gathered and planted Grass Seed, and there were people in the tribe who could catch deer, so they had many deer antlers to trade for things from the big tribes.

Most importantly, they had salt; many small tribes or wandering savages could not find salt and could only use things to trade for it.

However, Xiong said that for their tribe to survive the Winter, they had to go to the exchange market in the autumn and trade women who could bear children for food; this was the greatest trade item.

Baifeng was shocked by Xiong's words and found them hard to accept; although treating people as commodities was a very common thing in history, did this era already know how to take the women of their own tribe to trade for food?

It seemed that quickly letting the tribespeople get full and warm was the top priority. As for this group being dirty and having no sense of shame, Baifeng felt he could not rush it; after all, only when the granaries are full do people know etiquette.

The tribespeople sent to transport coal brought the coal to the camp trip after trip; soon the camp had a small Coal Mountain, only they did not know why they had to transport this black, crumbly stone, and it couldn't even be used to build houses. Baifeng was too lazy to explain to them; once they started using it, they would naturally know what it was.

The tribespeople sent out to catch fish also returned carrying Fish Traps, only some contained only a few small fish, and some had no fish at all. What made Baifeng the angriest was that three people had blood and fish scales on their mouths; they must have stolen and eaten the fish as soon as they caught them, and they didn't even know how to destroy the evidence.

Baifeng had Xiong take a whip and lash those savages who stole the food severely, then arranged for them to go to the place where they were making mud bricks to do the hard labor, while the few who worked seriously at making mud bricks were swapped out to do the easy work of catching fish.

This time, Baifeng made it crystal clear to the people catching fish that they must catch more than ten fish in the Fish Trap before they could take them out. They didn't know how much ten was? Then they should fill the Fish Trap halfway before taking it out.

Furthermore, only fish larger than a palm were wanted; fish smaller than a palm were to be thrown back into the water. Another thing, whoever dared to steal and eat, getting a beating was a small matter, and they could forget about eating tonight and tomorrow.

The savages, intimidated by Baifeng, left obediently. The only ones left by Baifeng's side in the entire tribe were Xiong and Chi; even the Shaman had been sent out by Baifeng to work, as the Shaman's brain was slightly more useful and could manage the savages who went out so they wouldn't slack off.

Below the camp platform, it was a mess; Baifeng did not know if he should move to another place so that this group of savages could have a place to settle down.

Previously, Baifeng had camped here because one person's ability was too small and not safe enough, so he found this little corner to avoid danger. But now, with a large tribe of several hundred people, there wouldn't be anything blind enough to come and provoke them; even a wolf pack could not rashly attack a tribe of several hundred bipedal apes.

Baifeng asked Xiong if he had found a suitable place to live along the way, but Xiong did not know what a suitable place to live was; he only felt that the side of the Dahe was too dangerous, so he kept moving away from the Dahe along the way, and he didn't know where to settle down either.

Baifeng truly felt that for this group of savages to have survived until now, it certainly wasn't because their abilities were strong; it was entirely the protection of Heaven. Otherwise, these luckiest of creatures would have gone extinct long ago.

After considering it, Baifeng decided to spend these next few days preparing plenty of food, catching fish, and gathering wild vegetables. Tomorrow he would go to dig for the salt mine, come back to purify it, and then pickle the fish and the wild vegetables.

Finally, he would leave a portion of the people at the camp to continue catching fish and gathering vegetables to store food; the firing of pottery and such could not stop either. Let it be considered preparation for the future.

At the same time, Baifeng would take a group of savages with stronger martial power and walk downstream along the creek here to see if there was any place suitable for living where the river widened.

Even if the Dahe was dangerous, humans could only survive near the Dahe; people could not leave the river, and all primitive civilizations were born in the basins of great rivers.

This time could not be too long; he had to find it before autumn arrived and then immediately set up camp, otherwise, they would not have time to prepare food in the autumn and it would be difficult to survive the Winter.