Chapter 255: The Sailing of the Boat

After the trade concluded, Xuanyuan still followed the previous custom and handed over all the Slaves to Baifeng, while also gifting the ropes to Baifeng; this was already standard practice.

The ropes were very long, especially suitable as towlines; although Baifeng had no use for them, there was no reason to refuse a gift, so he accepted them with a smile and expressed his thanks.

Baifeng handed over all the grain to Xuanyuan, and then left under the escort of his Soldiers.

However, before leaving, they discussed the next trade; it would be at the fixed time and fixed location. The Baifeng tribe needed more Crocodile Skin, and as for the Slaves, it would depend on the situation of the Xuanyuan Tribe itself. The Baifeng tribe currently had enough grain reserves; Slaves could be traded for, but they were now at a bottleneck period of development, and it seemed unnecessary to trade for more, so they would resolve internal issues first.

When that group of Slaves saw the giant Boat of the Baifeng tribe, their first thought was not how impressive the Baifeng tribe was, but that they were doomed. When they came up, pulling those small boats of the Xuanyuan Tribe had already left them physically and mentally exhausted; now, with such a large ship, how could they possibly pull it? Each and every one of them wore a dejected expression.

The people of the Baifeng tribe did not say much and directly tied the ropes of the Slaves to the small boats used for scouting. These small boats could only seat five or six people; for several hundred people to pull two such boats, they felt absolutely nothing.

Because these small boats had no sails, going upstream relied solely on human pulling. Baifeng had originally thought about dragging them behind the Large Ship, but this way was fine too; not only could it make the small boats move forward, but it could also manage the Slaves. Otherwise, their Large Ship would be too far from the shore to control the Slaves, and there was not much space to load the Slaves onto the ship anyway.

Seeing that their ropes were tied to the small boats instead of the Large Ship, the Slaves were somewhat puzzled, but they were not qualified to ask. If it were like this the whole way, it was exactly what they hoped for, so they secretly rejoiced in their hearts.

Everything was ready, and Baifeng gave the order. Then, with the cooperation of everyone, the main sail was hoisted. The hull felt a violent shake instantly, and then Baifeng had them raise the anchor. Their previous anchors were modified from a Plow, but the current ones were specially forged, and the effect was even better.

After the anchor was raised, the hull began to move. The Soldiers hurriedly worked together to operate it, hoisting the secondary sail, steering, and stabilizing the hull, then they began to move forward, borrowing the force of the fierce seasonal winds.

Originally, when the Slaves saw the giant Boat, they were shocked in their hearts; after all, it was far stronger than those of the Xuanyuan Tribe. They did not expect that strange things would slowly rise on the ship, and in the end, the ship actually moved forward on its own without anyone pulling it, and the speed was quite fast.

The Soldiers on the small boats saw that the main force had already moved, so they also issued orders, telling the Slaves to start walking forward, following closely behind the main force.

The people on the small boats were much more relaxed than those on the Large Ship. Although the space was smaller, they did not need to do anything; they only needed to keep a Crossbow, which was already strung and had the safety engaged, placed in front of them. If any Slave wanted to escape or resist, they could shoot and kill them at will.

The people on the Large Ship, however, were busy. The tribesmen who previously operated the boats had now completely become Sailors, because a ship with sails was incomparably more difficult to operate than one without. They had to judge how much sail to hoist, the direction of the sails, and the direction of the rudder based on the wind direction and wind force.

This was the job of a qualified Captain, and it also required skilled cooperation with every Sailor, being able to operate quickly after orders were issued. The sailboat of the Baifeng tribe looked huge now, but it would only be a small one in later generations; otherwise, these people would not be able to operate it at all.

It took too long to train a group of qualified Sailors. The Baifeng tribe was just starting out, and everything was in the exploration stage. Being able to start and stop their ship was already considered very impressive; to turn, they had to drop the anchor first and then rely on the current or oars.

All functions and operations had been constantly tested on models at the beginning of the ship's design, and Baifeng had even built a large hand-cranked fan to create wind for this purpose.

However, theory and practice were two different things after all. Even though the Soldiers had followed the simulated operations throughout the research, they were still flustered when they actually got on the ship. They only launched for the first time during the season when the current was calmest.

Later, these people were separated by Baifeng, just like their Bow and Blade Team, becoming professional Sailors, supported by the tribe. They only needed to do one thing well: operate the ship. In the future, the number of ships in their tribe would constantly increase, and their tribe would also have to rely on ships to travel to further places, so these first-generation Sailors were very important.

It was just that their level was not good enough yet; they would constantly do various training in the Dahe. When they became qualified Sailors and qualified Captains, they would need to teach the technology to more people; otherwise, it would not work if they only had ships but no people.

When they were going downstream, the sails were only an aid, so the difficulty of operation was not too great, but now the sails were their entire source of power. Thus, they were flustered and did not dare to stop for a moment. To the Slaves on the shore, a ship that could move on its own without human labor was like a thing of Heaven, but only those on the ship knew how strenuous it was.

Fortunately, there were not many things that required them to move, just that moment when the ship first started. It was only because they were not skilled enough that they did not dare to leave their positions at all; after all, for such a large ship, a slight carelessness could lead to big problems.

To be considerate of them, Baifeng rested extra early in the evening, stopping the ship while the sun was still far from setting. Now they had enough grain, so there was no need to spend time fishing for supplies, though when the rice was being cooked, they would still cast two lines to catch fresh fish as a side dish.

The Slaves were lucky, because Baifeng had traded all their bean dregs to Xuanyuan, so the Slaves' dinner was white rice porridge, and it was very thick, not that kind of thin, watery porridge.

To replenish their strength, crushed shrimp meat was also added; this was not only nutritious but also tasted good. Salt was not spared at all. For Slaves who had long lacked salt, this meal provided by the Baifeng tribe was simply the most delicious thing in the world.

As for why the shrimp had to be crushed, it was because not everyone could accept eating this kind of insect. According to Baifeng's observation, it seemed that no one in this era had ever seen anyone eat river shrimp; even if they caught them, they would throw them away in disgust, because being able to catch fish meant there was meat to eat, and to them, shrimp were just insects.

They did not give the Slaves fish meat because it was troublesome to process, and there were too many bones; it was not as convenient as just adding some minced shrimp for them.