Chapter 271: The Hidden Treasure

This war is coming to an end; that is Baifeng's current view.

But he has barely seen anything of this war, and aside from the massive military strength of the Suiren clan, Baifeng is somewhat lacking in interest.

He is just waiting to see the Suiren clan's harvest, and to take one final look at exactly how many Soldiers the Suiren clan has; they were all scattered before, and he had only made a rough estimate, but the total number might be even higher than he thought.

Only after Baoxi watched everyone clear everything away, even taking the furs used to set up the Tents, did he feel it was acceptable, and then he lit a fire, setting fire to the remaining wood and such, leaving nothing behind.

The muddy mountain paths after the rain are not easy to walk on; everyone keeps tripping as they walk, and if any Pottery breaks, they just throw it to the side of the road without a hint of heartache.

Qiexin is also leading his tribesmen back step by step in this way; he only hopes that the supplies they hid in that concealed cave have not been discovered, otherwise, their Qiexin tribe will have no way to survive this Winter.

By noon, the sun is still quite scorching, and combined with the heat rising after the rain, it makes Baifeng feel even more stifled.

He can only stay on the Boat, watching through the Telescope as the Suiren clan Soldiers move things in twos and threes; as for their main force, they have not come over yet.

The Zisheng Tribe has already decided to join the Baifeng Tribe, mainly because the attraction of salt to them is too great; even a tribe as unrelated as theirs could be given so much salt, so once they actually go to the tribe, they figure they will be able to eat salt to their heart's content.

However, for the sake of insurance, he still had Baifeng swear an oath as Tribal Chief; only by swearing an oath to Heaven would they fully trust the Baifeng Tribe.

Even though Baifeng is someone who has never believed in such things as oaths, he still earnestly completed the process; after all, even if he doesn't believe it, others will, and this is something he must do to recruit this tribe with such excellent swimming skills.

The Zisheng Tribe does not dare to stay on the shore, mainly because the Suiren clan people have already gotten closer and closer; even though they have latched onto the Baifeng Tribe, they still harbor fear toward the Suiren clan.

What's more, they have no sense of security when they are not in the water.

Baifeng will definitely protect them now, but to be honest, he does not have much confidence that the Suiren clan will give him that much face while on the shore, so he must find a way to get the Zisheng Tribe off the shore.

Swimming is as simple as eating for the Zisheng Tribe, but the road back to the Baifeng Tribe is still very long, and it is impossible to just let them swim back; furthermore, the speed of a Large Ship with its sails raised is truly something their swimming cannot keep up with.

After thinking it over carefully, Baifeng plans to saw down a few trees, tie them to the Boat with ropes to tow them, and let the people of the Zisheng Tribe sit on them; this way, it can solve the problem of them not having space to sit on the Boat, and also allow them to keep up with the speed of the Baifeng Tribe.

As for the night, he will let them camp on the shore; with Baifeng Tribe people keeping watch, it should not be much of a problem.

The Baifeng Tribe people carry all their tools, and their large saws make sawing trees a very fast task; plus, with so many strong men who have done this kind of work often, they quickly sawed down five trees.

They removed the tops and chopped off all the useless branches, though they left some to use as handrails.

Afterward, everyone worked together to push them into the water, but unexpectedly, they drifted downstream as soon as they entered the water, and with their strength, they had no way to pull the trunks back.

Helpless, they tied ropes to the remaining four before they entered the water, then had the people on the Boat use pulleys to slowly pull them back until they reached a reasonable length.

But what gives Baifeng a headache is that the trunks will collide with each other under the force of the current; they will not stay parallel as they imagined, and if one accidentally hits another, the best case is a serious injury, and the worst is being crushed to a pulp—this is no laughing matter.

In the end, this can only be separated by the length of the ropes; even if they collide, they will only be hitting the ropes, though the ropes probably won't last long, but there is no other way—they must hold on for as long as they can, as the Suiren clan people are already gathering, and they have no time to think of other methods.

While the Boat is stopped, this thing they made is still safe; the Zisheng Tribe people sat on the trunks one after another, and aside from some wobbling, there were no major problems.

Zisheng is very worried about whether the Large Ship can pull so many of them; they could help row if needed, otherwise, going against the current is truly too strenuous.

The Baifeng Tribe people all laughed, though not in mockery, just telling them not to have such worries; the Baifeng Tribe's boats have long since stopped using oars, and they will know when the time comes.

The Zisheng Tribe people finally set their minds at ease; at the thought that they would be able to receive the protection of such a large tribe in the future, they were still somewhat excited. Excited as they were, someone suddenly remembered: what about the supplies they had hidden? They couldn't just throw them away!

Zisheng quickly told Baifeng about it, and Baifeng asked what kind of things they were and how much there was.

Zisheng said: "They are all beautiful stones we fished out of the river, and white, shiny, very pretty bones dug out from inside clams; that kind of bone is only found in very few clams, and it is very precious. Many large tribes fight to trade for them!"

"Besides these, there is some dried fish we sun-dried, and the Grass Seed we collected."

Baifeng understood; it was pearls, and the beautiful stones were likely jade. For actual survival right now, they don't have much use, but they are good commodities for trading with other tribes; if it were just a bit of dried fish and Grass Seed, he wouldn't need to risk going to find them.

"How much stone and bone is there?"

Zisheng gestured with his hand: "There should be this much stone; it's too heavy, so we couldn't take much. There are many bones, enough to fill two gourds like this; we saved them up over the course of one winter and summer."

Looking at Zisheng's gesture, Baifeng estimated the stone to be the volume of a bag the size of a schoolbag from later generations. Although Baifeng has a certain obsession with various jewels in his heart, they are actually of no use.

They can't be eaten or drunk, and the main thing is that if you want to use them to make jewelry, you have no way to polish or carve them because there is nothing with high enough hardness.

Pearls are easier to deal with; with such a quantity, it wouldn't take much effort to take them, and drilling holes in pearls is easier than in jade, plus they don't need much polishing to be made into very beautiful jewelry.

Baifeng thought about it: aside from making jewelry for his two wives, the rest would be rewarded to the women of the tribe; the women make many contributions, but there are truly too few things that can be used as rewards.

As for jade... it is better to use it to trade with other sucker tribes; they really have no use for it.

After clarifying the hiding spot, the Suiren clan people had not come over yet, likely waiting for Baoxi's orders, so Baifeng quickly had the Soldiers steer the small boat, take their Weapons, and bring one Zisheng Tribe person over, very stealthily.

Fortunately, the hiding spot was not far from the riverbank; after they dug the things out, they quickly dragged them onto the small boat, and only after they were in the water did they heave a sigh of relief.