Chapter 624: No One Living There

The various Engineering Teams of Huaxia were gradually finishing their work. Although the construction at Xiao Town had been halted for a long time now, it was still necessary to send people over to perform maintenance every so often. After all, just like that former Kexiaozhan, if left unused for a period of time, it would become a nest for all sorts of wild animals.

This maintenance before Winter was also the final one for this year, and they also needed to transport some Saltpeter back at the same time. This was because Baifeng needed a large amount of low-power Gunpowder to make firecrackers; although they lacked the concept of "celebrating the New Year," their current Winter Solstice already held a bit of the meaning of a new year.

Moreover, the actual "Spring Festival" was not fixed in history either. From the Xia to the Han dynasties, it underwent changes between the first month, the twelfth month, and the eleventh month. It was not until the Han dynasty that the first day of the first lunar month was officially determined as the Spring Festival, which was the former "New Year's Day." The Spring Festival was merely a holiday and did not possess the function of demarcating time, so it did not have much significance in which month it fell.

What truly demarcated the "New Year" was the Beginning of Spring, but Baifeng currently lacked the ability to determine which day the Beginning of Spring fell on. He could only pin his hopes on the cooperation with Qingyun and Jinyun next year, to see when they could truly determine the calendar.

Once the calendar was determined, "history" could then emerge and function normally; otherwise, it would only become more chaotic. At the same time, holidays would also be able to appear one by one.

Aside from some more important holidays, Baifeng also felt that his appearance might lead to the direct disappearance of the "Three Origins and Five La," which were equally important in later generations. If the three wise and virtuous rulers, Yao, Shun, and Yu, did not appear due to his influence and achieve the great merits they did in history, then the Three Origins Festival would not have any problems. As for the Five La, even in the most prosperous years, they had already become purely religious holidays that no one among the common people knew about.

Of course, this was inseparable from that humiliating century. At the time of the nation's peril, many people blindly worshipped the West and promoted national nihilism, to the point where they even gave the name of their most important holiday to an old Western man. Many traditional holidays also slowly disappeared during that period.

Those going for maintenance this time, in addition to the Worker teams, included the hundred-man Cavalry that had been initially organized. This was a true horse-mounted cavalry. This task, which was not dangerous, served as an initial test to see if this Huaxia unit, upon which high hopes were placed, could meet the requirements Baifeng envisioned.

If it went smoothly, then the Cavalry unit would expand further; if any trouble arose, they would have to be sent back to the furnace to be remade. Baifeng never believed that the horses would be the problem, because horses had already proven themselves in history. Even the much more ferocious elephants could be tamed and used in war; if the cavalry failed, it would absolutely be a human problem.

Thus, this hundred-man Cavalry, plus three hundred infantry, as well as the Logistics Department with ox carts carrying supplies, and the Artisan team—nearly six hundred people in total—set off toward Xiao Town in such a grand and imposing manner.

The roads that had already been repaired allowed their team to travel unimpeded, and the time required was also much shorter. The cavalry could go ahead to scout and clear the path, or even drive away and kill enemies. Baifeng felt that with this unit of theirs, even if they encountered one or two thousand enemies, they could handle it calmly, or at least retreat unscathed.

As for why Baifeng thought so conservatively, it was still due to the lack of cavalry techniques and tactics. If they could advance through the ages, then one hundred heavy cavalry against one thousand infantry would be easy. If it were the infantry of this era, even two thousand, Baifeng felt it would be no problem. But all of this required time.

After marching for two days, their team still had not found a suitable place to serve as the land for their future survival. Although they had not discovered other tribes, which could avoid war, a harsh land was also not suitable for them to live in for a long time.

Under these circumstances, even Zhu, who had already made up his mind, felt uneasy in his heart now. He always felt that he should have given it more time; not three days, but perhaps five days would have been better, and he might have found a truly suitable place.

But he had already given his word. If he changed it at will, it would make the tribe, which had already solidified, become restless. Before he had clearly understood his position, it did not matter to Zhu, but now he had completely cast himself into the role of Tribal Chief, so he felt that he really could not be so casual.

The second day ended, and there was nothing, but everyone was still full of confidence, because by this time tomorrow, they would be able to settle down completely. Even if it meant using the Weapon in their hands to seize a piece of land, there would be no problem at all. They really did not want to wander anymore.

On the third day, they set off.

At noon, the scenery in front of them began to look wrong, because they could see the forest, which seemed to have been artificially cut into a long path, as if to facilitate travel.

Zhu felt a bit panicked. He hurriedly ordered the team to stop. Yinyang also arrived at his side at the first opportunity and, under Zhu's instruction, looked into the distance.

Yinyang's expression also tightened, and then he said very bravely: "I will take some Soldiers to go ahead and see if there are other tribes there. If not, we will continue forward. If there is a tribe living there, we will see if there are many people. If there are few, we will seize this place."

"Since there is a tribe living here, it means this must be a good place. If the other side has too many people, then we will run; we will change to another place and move in another direction."

Before Zhu could say anything more, Yinyang had already signaled the dozen or so Soldiers he could control to quickly assemble. Then, without the slightest hesitation, he immediately concealed his figure and began to move toward that direction.

As for Zhu, he could only wait anxiously, while warning the tribesmen to be quiet and observe the surroundings to see if there were others present.

After Yinyang and the others stealthily moved forward, they discovered a dozen or so houses that had already been built. Although they had never seen this kind of strange architecture, they immediately determined that it had been crafted by humans.

Although the number was small, it confirmed that another tribe existed here. Several Soldiers wanted to leave quickly, but they were called back by Yinyang.

"Don't panic. Look carefully; there don't seem to be any traces of human activity here. No fire, no smoke, not even a single shadow or human voice. There might be no one here."