This year is different.

Under the guidance and training of the warriors of the expedition, the Hopi people continued to acquire amazing skills. For example, if you combine the horns of a bison with a wooden bow that is not very strong in range and strength, the bow in the hands of the hunters will suddenly become much stronger! Coupled with the iron arrow, it can be said to be invincible.

What's more, under the careful training and cultivation of the expedition warriors, the Hopi warriors have begun to possess metal spears, machetes, and the division of spearmen, archers, and sword and shield soldiers.

Metal weapons were used instead of bone, stone arrowheads, and spearheads. With the art of war, the people are relegated. At the same time, use tactics to hunt those deer, bison, sea otters. I don't know how many times the hunting results and efficiency of the Hopi people are higher than in previous years!

Those huge figures, body length, shoulder height is close to about one zhang, and the weight is often more than 2,000 catties of behemoths, in front of sharp arrows, spears and axes, they gradually lost their former majesty, huge bodies, under the dense rain of arrows, wailed, fell to the ground. The hunters cheered and swarmed forward, throwing the massive body of the bison onto the deer-pulled cart. These prey, after returning to Dingdong City, the expedition of the Nanyue Army will have countless uses that will make them breathtaking.

Before they knew it, the hunters had crossed the boundaries of the conventional hunting grounds and began to hunt wild animals in other people's hunting grounds.

The blue sky was like a wash, and the warm sunlight roamed freely among the rolling hills, stroking the slightest chill in the corner with his golden palm. In this open valley fed by the Yellowstone River, a large herd of bison also slowly walked out of the valley floor of the night's rest in the shadow of the receding shadow, and climbed to the hillside to enjoy their breakfast.

Although autumn is strong and most of the pastures are yellow, this valley is moistened by the river water and the geothermal fountains scattered here and there are always times to keep it warm. There is still a large area of green vegetation, which is a big reason why the cattle prefer to gather here during this season. Huge adult bison walk the periphery of the herd, grazing on the rougher pasture, while the calves born this year snuggle up to their mothers and feast on the green and juicy shoots. Prepare for the first harsh winter you will face.

But what they didn't know was that there was a great danger lurking in the grass and bushes not far away.

"Shoot the arrows!"

A command to release arrows came from the mouth of the head of the expedition of the Nanyue Army, and suddenly, a dense rain of arrows pounced on the bison who were still curling their scarlet tongues to eat the tender and juicy grass on the ground.

The bison herd immediately became panicked by the unprepared blow.

"Spear with a spear, come forward!"

Under the spears, the walking speed of those who were hit by the arrow slowed down, far from reaching the speed of fifty or sixty kilometers per hour. There was nowhere to escape, and in the blink of an eye, it became a sacrifice under the spear and arrow.

Just as the people were happily picking up the day's victory, a group of feathered headdresses rushed down from the distant mountains and quarreled violently with a few Hopi who were gathering prey at the edge of the valley.

"What's going on over there?"

The head of the Nanyue Army asked the leader of the Hopi people who led the team.

"They said we broke into their hunting grounds and hunted the prey that belonged to them. Let's leave our prey behind! ”

"Joke!" The head of the sect sneered, "Everything in the world is originally whoever has the ability is whoever has it. What do you have to give you a hunting ground?! Above! Give them some color and voila! ”

A conflict caused by a hunt crossing the border ended in a complete victory for the Hopis. There is a huge technological gap between the neighboring tribes and the Hopi. The gap in tactical thinking makes them powerless if they want to resist.

In Yin Lei's opinion. This is a good opportunity to expand the hunting grounds and territory!

In the opinion of Ruoshui Dao Chang and others, if they don't move at this time and expand their influence and territory, when will they wait?

With the full support of the Nanyue army, Yin Lei led hundreds of young men of the Hopi tribe to attack the neighboring non-Hopi people. The battle situation can be imagined. The nearby Hopi tribe rushed to hear the news. Join this battle to redivide the hunting grounds and land.

The Hopi people, who were originally condensed by blood and similar living habits, grew up rapidly under the organization of an expedition led by the chief of Wakamizu. Among other things, the young and middle-aged labor force has been organized into a powerful army.

War is the best catalyst. It is also the best adhesive. In a state of war, these tribes, which were originally not in harmony, quickly became a whole that gradually unified their command.

The young men of the tribe were organized, or according to the training of the head of the Nanyue army, and then went to the front to fight, expanding a more stable and larger space for the tribe, or hunting and cultivating in the hunting grounds and farmland. Provide more food and meat for the fighters at the front.

Under the combined effect of the iron weapons provided by the expedition of the Nanyue Army, advanced tactics and army formation, the tribal battle, which was originally just a group fight, evolved in a one-sided situation. The Hopi people rapidly expanded their hunting grounds and farmland for nearly a thousand miles.

In the rear, under the guidance of Ruoshui Dao, the Hopi people also began to build the walled city, although the scale and grade are far less solid than Dingdong City, but it also has a bit of appearance.

In the farmland, after using metal plough sticks and hoes to plough and fertilize the fields, the Hopi people were pleasantly surprised to find that half of the men had gone to war, and instead of reducing the grain harvested, the corn in the field was growing happily, and there was a bit of a bumper harvest.

Not only did the crops grow well, but it also seemed much easier for the people who stayed near the stockade to cultivate new land in addition to farming. After choosing the plot, a trench is made with a shovel and axe to prevent the wildfire from spreading to other places, and then a fire is lit. After the fire gradually extinguished, a new piece of land appeared in front of people's eyes, and only the roots of various plants need to be dug up with a shovel and pickaxe.

When the winter came, when thousands of Hopi warriors had finished a whole autumn of warfare, carrying the spoils of war and carrying the captives back to their hometowns, they were pleasantly surprised to find that their hometown, which had been born and grew up in Si, had become a little strange.

A stockade built in imitation of the pattern of Dingdong City. In the eyes of these brave warriors, it was also a fortress that was difficult to capture, the valuable supplies of the tribe, food, deer, cattle and sheep, and wild cattle hunted. Wild deer, sea otters, gold, etc. are stored in the village. People built wooden houses, dug wells, and paved roads in the middle of the village, which appeared to be neat and orderly. The living habits of the family are also quietly changing. Water was being heated in clay pots on the stoves, and people began to drink hot water in the same way as their distant relatives. No more littering. Because, if the water chief told them, the Emperor of Heaven is a god who loves cleanliness. It is to reject those filthy things, and if someone litters the garbage, the Emperor of Heaven will bring disaster and sickness on them.

Outside the walled city, where vast grain fields have been harvested and people have driven their livestock back to their homes, this winter will be a festival for these Hopi people, not a difficult winter.

Because. Their warehouses were filled with grain and meat, and large quantities of sea otter skins provided ample warm clothing for the men, women and children of the tribe. Those bison. It is carefully divided into fur, meat, skeleton, and horn by distant relatives. And then each has its own big use.

However, neither Yin Lei nor Ruoshui Dao Chang discovered that a little bigger and more historically epoch-making change was quiet. Inexorably changing the lives of the Hopi people.

As the Hopi people in the late matriarchal society, women are the dominant ones in the family and clan. However, since the arrival of the chief of Ruoshui and the expedition team, Yin Lei, who can go down to the fields to farm, go up to the mountains to hunt and go out to fight, has gradually gained a dominant position. The woman was getting less and less listening.

"In the past few days, I plan to take advantage of the good weather and the silence of the wind and snow, and take the sons and daughters of the tribe out to hunt, and all sea otters and bison are just when they are fat. Take it to the city and exchange it for some good things with the Taoist chief! ”

In Dingdong City, Yin Lei was full of sincerity. Throughout the autumn harvest, he exchanged 1,000 pairs of horns for 500 spears, 5,000 sea otter skins for 1,000 arrows, and seven or eight barrels of gold sand for a lot of knives and axes. He is ready to use these good things to continue working hard for the life of the tribe.

If the waterway is long, it is naturally not idle. In exchange for the equal share of bull horns, sea otters and other prey, or to make leather clothes for his soldiers to survive the winter, or to make horn bows according to the technical requirements of the "Examination of the Gongji" and the "Wubei Zhi" to make a hard bow.

Bow making is mainly based on dry, angle, tendon, glue, silk, lacquer and other materials, and the above six materials are collectively called "six materials": "Those who do it are far away; Those who are horned are also thought to be sick; Those who have tendons think they are deep; Those who glue also, think that they are harmonious; Those who are silk also think that they are solid; Those who paint also think that they are affected by frost and dew. ”

dry, including a variety of wood and bamboo; The main body used to make the bow arm is stacked in multiple layers. The properties of the dry wood play a decisive role in the performance of the bow. The dry timber is on the top of the wood, and the second is the wood, the oak tree, etc., and the bamboo is the bottom. The horns, or animal horns, are made into thin sheets and attached to the inside of the bow arm (abdomen). The main horn used in the bow maker is the horn of the white, the middle and the young, and the horn of the unabundant is preferred; "The horn is two feet long and five inches (nearly fifty centimeters), and the three colors are unreasonable. It is called "cow wearing cow", which is the best horn (the price of a horn is equivalent to a cow, so it is called a cow wearing a cow). The tendons, the tendons of the animal, stick to the outside of the bow arm (back). The role of tendons and horns. All of them enhance the elasticity of the bow arm, so that the arrow is more powerful when it is fired, and the middle object is deeper. The selection of tendons should be small and long, and the large ones should be round and moist. Glue, i.e. animal glue, is used to bond dry materials and corner bars. Six kinds of glue are recommended in the "Examination Record", such as deer glue, horse glue, bovine glue, mouse glue, fish glue, and rhino glue. The preparation method of glue "is generally made by boiling animal skins and other animal tissues (especially muscle cavities) in water, or adding a small amount of lime alkali, and then filtering and steaming. According to the experience of bow making in later generations, fish gelatin made from fish tissue, especially the palatal endothelium and fish fat, is the best. Late Chinese archers used fish glue to make important parts of the bow, that is, the place where the force is bearing. Whereas, it is used in less important places, such as covering the skin. Silk, that is, silk thread, tightly wraps the bow tube of the Fu horn rib with silk thread to make it stronger. The color of the silk beard is bright, as if in water. Lacquer, the prepared bow arm is painted to prevent the erosion of frost and moisture, and the color of the paint must be clear.

"When the six materials are taken, the six materials are gathered, and the skillful ones are there." Dissect the bow stem in winter and treat the horn in spring; Treat tendons in summer, and close all materials in autumn. In the cold winter, the bow arm is placed in the bow box to be shaped, and the appearance is repaired in the severe winter and extreme cold. In winter, the dry wood of the bow is naturally smooth and fine; In spring, it is naturally moist and soft; In summer, you will not be entangled; In autumn, all the materials are closed, and the white is tight; If the bow body is fixed in winter, the bow will not be deformed; In the severe winter and extreme cold, the glue and paint are completely dry and solid. Therefore, it can be used to repair the appearance. Attach the bowstring in the spring and store it for another year before it can be used. The above-mentioned complex process takes two to three years.

But if the waterway grows here, there will be nothing but trees, horns, tendons, and all kinds of glue obtained by boiling animals. The rest of the thread and lacquer were lacking. Not only could I not get all the six materials, but the time was also very tight.

"As long as you can shoot arrows, it's good. We have horns and trees here, what are we worried about?! "As soon as the waterway chief gritted his teeth, he formulated a policy of using quantity to compensate for the lack of quality and workmanship.

A large number of horns, tendons, bird feathers, wood, animals, and especially fish are used in the process of making bows and arrows. Many young people from nearby tribes were deceived by the head of Ruoshui to get into Dingdong City and participate in the manufacture of bows and arrows.

A large number of expedition personnel were replaced by these people. Go to the nearby mountains and forests to find all kinds of minerals, so as not to sit on the mountains and eat empty one day.

The so-called puppet is not guilty of his crimes.

Just when Ruoshuidao Chang ordered people to survey the terrain in the mountains and forests to find minerals, Yin Lei led his subordinates to shoot and hunt back and forth in the mountains and forests, and turned sea otters, bison and deer into prey under his bows, arrows, knives and guns, other tribes in the distance were quietly tandem.

First, as long as it is a person, there is no one who is not greedy for life and afraid of death. Naturally, the surrounding tribes came to seek medical treatment and medicine, which was a common thing. But as they came and went, some people moved their minds. If the waterway was so powerful, it allowed the Hopi to avoid a plague that would have almost wiped out their race! Why let those few fishing barbarians on the west coast have it, we have thick arms and strength, and we seem to be more qualified to have a long waterway.

Second, these barbarians now only know how to fish, hunt and farm. He actually won the favor of the gods, and obtained countless magical tools from the messenger of the Emperor of Heaven (which was the honorific title given to the expedition team of the Southern Yue Army by various Indian tribes in a radius of thousands of miles nearby), whether it was hunting, fishing, farming, or even going into battle, they became invincible!

On strength, population. and the appearance of the Heavenly Emperor's envoy is close, it seems that it should be our turn first, right?! Why did all this good happen to the Hopis!? No way! We must knock the Hopi to the ground and snatch the Heavenly Emperor's envoy from the Hopi!

After having this idea, these primitive people began to engage in diplomacy. In the impression of modern people, diplomacy is a suit and leather shoes to play officialdom, but in fact, even primitive people with bare butts play this thing quite slippery. After connecting with each other, several larger tribes that have in-laws and blood relations with each other hit it off, and do it! Isn't it just a few fishing barbarians, we are united, there are many people, and we also have obsidian broadswords, afraid of a fart. So, after some preparation, a powerful contingent of thousands of people was organized, among which nearly four hundred were armed with obsidian broadswords. Watching the mighty warriors march across the field singing the songs of their ancestors, almost all the tribal leaders were confident of victory.

After this battle, not only can we invite the envoy of the Emperor of Heaven back to our tribe, and from then on, our tribe will be disease-free, and we can obtain so many artifacts for hunting and farming. "After defeating the Hopi people, their food, fur, and gold are good helpers for us to survive the spring famine!" The big man who led the team shouted, and suddenly there was a strange howl in the team.

Through the use of metal farming tools, iron arrowheads, and weapons, the wealth of the Hopi has long since spread thousands of miles away. People want to be able to grab the most loot in this battle and come back and enjoy it.

But are the Hopis really so easy to grab?

The news that the Shoshone of the brigade had stormed their territory was discovered by Hopi hunters. Although I don't know what their intentions are, simply from the size of the team and the number of people, the hunters instinctively feel that these guys are definitely not here to drink with relatives and act as matchmakers for others.

Compared to the Hopi, a tribe whose main way of life was farming, hunting and fishing, the Shoshone were more like warriors. They feed on seeds of wild plants, small mammals, fish and insects. After the arrival of whites (Spaniards, Portuguese, English, and French) on the continent, the Shoshone began to acquire horses and became dependent on raiding and hunting bison for their livelihood. The fierce and courageous Shoshone people terrified the Spaniards living in the southwestern part of the continent.

Compared to these natural warriors, the Hopi are undoubtedly a bunch of farmers who have just taken their weapons.

When the messenger crawled to deliver the news to Yin Lei and Ruoshui Dao Chang, although Yin Lei felt a little abrupt, he was still trying to calm down. However, if the water channel is long, after hearing the news, he is full of joy.

"Brother Yin Lei, haven't you always said that you plan to try to build a canal in the cornfield for irrigation after the beginning of spring next year? Haven't you been worried about the lack of manpower? Aren't these Shoshone people the best people? ”

Sure enough, Yin Lei mustered up the courage to fight the Shoshone, and under the combined blow of the mourning gun, the Jeopardine knife and the powerful iron arrow, the Shoshone man, who only had an obsidian broadsword and sharpened wooden sticks as spears, was defeated! (To be continued.) )