Chapter 845: The Bear's Burden Grows Heavier Again

A sudden, short-term snowfall disrupted the plans of everyone at the gathering, and the subsequent sharp drop in temperature forced all the tribes at the gathering to brave the bitter cold, speed up the trading of their needed goods, and leave as soon as possible, because if they delayed for a few more days, they might encounter more trouble on their journey home.

Among these tribes, the most anxious was Huaxia, because the distance between Huaxia and the gathering was the farthest, even more than two or three times that of some other tribes, and they had only traveled this new road of Huaxia once; the entire way was filled with dangers such as steep slopes, cliffs, and pits.

If they encountered snow, the risks would be even greater, because no one remembered where the dangers were or where it was safe on this road, and buried under the snow, they could see nothing at all.

Huaxia's trade of goods had long since finished, but in order to fulfill their management responsibilities for the gathering, they had stayed here all this time; otherwise, they could have left days ago.

Xi's lobbying had indeed been effective, and there were truly two small tribes willing to leave with Huaxia and go live in Huaxia; it was mainly because their tribes were too weak and this year's harvest was so poor that even if they returned, their own tribes would find it hard to survive this Winter, and since Huaxia was so powerful, although they did not know if Huaxia would treat them as promised, there was at least great hope.

Added to the efforts of other Soldiers, a total of six small tribes, amounting to over thirteen hundred people, were willing to leave with Huaxia; although the results were significant, the pressure on Xiong suddenly increased, for after all, the food needed for so many people on the road was not a small amount, and the Dry Rations they brought were simply insufficient, though it was certainly no problem to supply all their own Huaxia people.

If they were more frugal, they could support another two or three hundred people, as these savages, who were long in a state of semi-starvation, did not have such high requirements for food and did not necessarily need to be full at every meal.

But on the way back, they still had to go to the Chishe, and if the Chishe saw reason and were willing to leave together, that would add several hundred more people; although food was stretched thin, Xiong had no choice but to do so, as this was for the sake of Huaxia's future, and the burden of food was something he had to bear.

On the issue of the Chishe, there would certainly be no changes, and two choices had already been given to them; regardless of whether they were willing or not, they had to choose—being willing to follow Huaxia was the best, and if not, then they must leave that land, because that was Huaxia's territory, and on Huaxia's territory, other tribes were not allowed to survive, otherwise it would be a challenge to Huaxia.

Originally, there might have been more tribes willing to leave together, but because of the destruction of the Jiangshui Tribe, the territory they had occupied was carved up by the tribes here, and even if a tribe only occupied a very small portion, a single mountain peak was enough to support more people.

More food could be gathered, and prey was more abundant; as the saying goes, when a whale falls, everything else lives, and the destruction of the behemoth that was the Jiangshui Tribe brought more opportunities to other tribes, increasing their chances of surviving the Winter better, so naturally, they were unwilling to leave the places they were familiar with to follow Huaxia.

Moreover, for the slightly larger tribes that came here to trade, only a portion of their people had come, and more tribesmen were waiting for them to return to their territory; if they exchanged the supplies brought from their own tribes for other things and then took this wealth to Huaxia, it would be a heavy blow to their own tribes, and the people of these tribes were unwilling to do such a thing.

But they all listened to Huaxia's words; if they truly could not hold on, they would follow the road Huaxia mentioned to find Huaxia, but not now; likewise, Huaxia's generosity left a good impression on all these tribes, and in handling the conflicts between various tribes, Huaxia also appeared very upright and had sufficient ability to mediate, so they had truly recognized Huaxia's leadership position.

All the leaves had fallen, and in the morning, a thin layer of ice could be seen on the surface of the lake; the Huaxia Soldiers no longer had the lighthearted appearance they had before, and they had not expected this year's Winter to come so quickly and so early.

Xiong also noticed everyone's mood, and he himself was worried, so he decided to prepare to leave the gathering and return quickly.

Now some tribes were also leaving one after another, and there were not many tribes left at the entire gathering; they were scattered, a few here and there, and they really had nothing left to trade, just wanting to hold on a little longer because their harvest had fallen far short of expectations.

In order to ensure food for the many people following him, Xiong even took out a lot of salt to trade for grain with those tribes that did not seem to be short of food, but the grain he obtained was still a drop in the bucket.

There was no other way, so Xiong had to make one last attempt; he offered a sufficient price and gave the savages who remained there two days to trade various meats for salt, whether it was fish from the lake or game they hunted nearby—as long as it was meat, it would do, and at the current temperature, the meat would not spoil even without processing.

This measure by Xiong became the last straw for the remaining tribes; they almost all set out to hunt, but the lake water in Winter was too cold and too dangerous, so they dared not go down to fish, and only the tribes that knew how to fish could sit safely by the lake to angle; no matter how much they caught, they were willing to trade it all with Huaxia.

The two days had passed, and the various meats Huaxia had collected were enough for so many people to eat for a period of time, though each person would eat at most one meal a day, and the amount would be very small; if they wanted to eat more, they would have to hunt and gather on the road themselves to fill their own stomachs.

Xiong had also warned them in advance that Huaxia could not give them too much help on this journey and could only provide protection and sufficient salt, but as for the problem of food, Huaxia was truly powerless and could only help as much as they could.

Fortunately, Xiong knew that these tribes all had some stored food of their own to some extent; it was impossible for them to have no food at all, like a wandering tribe that gathered wherever they went—if that were the case, they could not have come to this gathering.

However, these tribes still did not fully trust Huaxia, and they were still evasive and unwilling to speak in detail about how much grain they had, perhaps fearing that if they turned the grain over, Huaxia would distribute it uniformly to all the tribes, which was unacceptable to them; they could eat other tribes' food, but other tribes could not eat theirs.