Chapter 757: The Land Has an Owner

Xiong has already been leading the team for a long time, but for these past ten-plus days, they have not seen a single shadow of a person, nor even the traces left by the people of the Yanhu Tribe when they wandered through here before; in this wilderness, it only takes one year for everything to return to its former state.

If it were up to Xiong to lead the way, he probably wouldn't be able to find the route he had traveled before; everything has become very unfamiliar, and he cannot find any similar features at all.

Giant trees, giant trees are everywhere, and stones, stones are everywhere too; the trees on which they carved characters have only been found a few times so far, which proves that they have not taken the wrong path for the moment, or rather, the general direction is not wrong, but they are not walking on the original one.

They are all heading in a fixed direction and then choosing the easiest route to pass through, avoiding climbing high mountains or crossing canyons and the Dahe, even if it means taking a longer way around, as it is much better than taking risks; moreover, the cattle they ride and the cattle carrying the cargo all need to walk on relatively flat paths, otherwise the slippery Grass, rotting fallen leaves, and thick moss are all hidden dangers for them.

This time, because they brought enough tools, every time they set up camp to rest, they would cut down one or two trees and then use a Knife and axe to create obvious human traces.

If there is enough time, they can even use branches to make an Arrow; each camp cleared and each tree felled serves as the most obvious landmark, so even if it Snows, they can still determine their position.

In places where the terrain is relatively complex, dangerous, or easy to lose one's way, they use a Knife to girdle the bark of the surrounding trees or cut notches of various shapes; since everything is a large expanse of trees, this can be more conspicuous, and it is much more obvious than simply carving characters.

Along the way, where they should go must be discussed and deliberated upon by several guides and those like Xiong who have traveled this road before, to ensure that no mistakes are made.

Up until today, they have only taken the wrong path once; they were following the agreed-upon route until they reached an unfamiliar large river valley, and when they saw the extremely turbulent rapids inside, they knew they had gone the wrong way.

Although the direction was correct, no one in their entire team had ever seen such an obvious Geography marker, and they could not pass through here; people could find a way, even if it meant cutting down those incredibly tall trees to fall across the river valley, a Dugout Canoe Bridge could certainly be built, but could the cattle cross it?

The cattle now, seeing such a turbulent river, felt the danger and instinctively retreated; Xi and the others, who had never ridden cattle before and had only just gotten used to it, were now so frightened by the agitated cattle that they lost their wits, pulling the reins tightly and ignoring the fact that their inner thighs were already chafed and sore; they only wanted to stay firmly on the cattle's backs and not be thrown off.

Seeing this situation, Xiong immediately gave the order to reverse the head and tail and return along the original path to rush back to the position they had chosen; the previous path was correct because they had seen the trees carved with characters, but since they had only been walking for a short time before appearing in a place they had never seen before, it meant they had taken a wrong turn midway.

Once Xiong's order was given, the Cavalry riding horses immediately turned their horses' heads and charged toward the end of the team; they were the vanguard of the entire team, responsible for clearing the way.

Although their entire team was fully Cavalry-based, the endurance of these livestock was far inferior to that of humans; if Xiong and the others walked without stopping for a day, they could still hold on, even if they walked from day to night, at most their legs would just be a bit sore.

However, the endurance of the cattle and horses was far inferior to theirs; if the travel time was too long, some cattle or horses would throw a tantrum and refuse to walk, and if the distance traveled was truly too short, they would use brute force, whipping these livestock to move forward.

If the road traveled was indeed a bit too much, even if it was still early, Xiong would order everyone to find a suitable place to set up camp; after all, the cattle and horses were very precious, especially the horses, and if a horse were to be worked to death during the mission, Xiong would have no way to explain it.

Fortunately, their speed was much faster than before, so even if the daily travel time was relatively short, they did not delay the journey and were able to get sufficient rest.

The land they were currently on could already be considered the former territory of the Jiangshui Tribe, but it was too far from their tribe to manage; therefore, just like all large tribes now, most of the territory was nominal, and the territory that could actually be controlled—the land that the tribesmen had stepped on—was very limited.

The Huaxia of today is the same; in terms of area alone, the territory of Huaxia is also very large, and even if this place were called Huaxia territory, it would be acceptable.

They currently have no clear borders; the territories of Huaxia and the Suiren Clan have clear borders because they are close to each other and have a river acting as the best natural boundary line.

Huaxia previously had a sufficiently large overlapping territory with the Jiangshui Tribe; Huaxia could say that those overlapping lands were its own, and the Jiangshui Tribe could also say they were its own, unless both sides sat down to have a good talk, or started fighting directly right there, with the winner taking possession.

But the situation is different now; the Jiangshui Tribe has perished, and the territory here can be said to be ownerless; Huaxia can arbitrarily designate this land as its own, and the old rules of using stones to occupy land are no longer effective, so they directly chose to use trees to create obvious landmarks to declare their ownership of this piece of land.

Of course, this approach is completely feasible; tribes that possess territory all have ways to prove that the land is theirs, such as their traces of survival; Huaxia created such obvious man-made traces mainly to let those wandering tribes know that they have entered land inhabited by a tribe, and they should either leave quickly or wait for battle.

Last time they didn't have the leisure to expand Huaxia's territory, after all, they didn't know the tribal forces of this land, but now it is very clear; the owner of the largest territory has already perished, or rather, not perished, because there are still people from their tribe who survived, and Xi has the highest status and can represent the Jiangshui Tribe; not only will Xi not be angry that Huaxia has designated this land as its own, but instead, Xi will only be happy for Huaxia.