Pepper seeds and hemp seeds were planted, and after that, Su Yan would go out with his escort almost every day, mainly to collect herbs and find metal veins, and then to find crops.

It's not that crops aren't important, it's that the crops that Su Yan needs are very difficult to find at this time, at least until the third month of spring and summer.

Every day when he returned to the Dragon Tribe, Su Yan would go to the planting area outside the Dragon Tribe's residence to take a look and observe the growth of pepper and hemp.

For more than ten days, hemp was the first to emerge, because only one seed was placed in a hole, about one-third of the two acres of land did not emerge, and this result was already gratifying for Su Yan.

Su Yan knows that he has almost no knowledge about planting hemp and pepper, so he can only grope for planting, and Su Yan has been psychologically prepared when planting, even if half or even two-thirds of the seeds do not germinate and emerge, Su Yan can accept it, and now two-thirds of the seeds have germinated and emerged, which is already worthy of Su Yan's joy.

Zanthoxylum pepper seedlings are several days later than hemp seedlings, Su Yan does not know that pepper seeds should be soaked in alkaline water before planting, and so on after the pepper seedlings emerge, Su Yan is a little dumbfounded, only about a quarter of the "places" have Zanthoxylum pepper seedlings grow, the area where pepper seedlings grow, most of the "places" have only one pepper seedlings, there are few places with two pepper seedlings, even fewer places with three pepper seedlings, and almost no places with four pepper seedlings.

"Why is the emergence rate of peppercorns so low?" Su Yan was puzzled.

Zanthoxylum pepper seedling rate and hemp seedling rate comparison, you can see the gap between the two, to know that pepper each "place" put at least six seeds, but three-quarters of the "place" a pepper seedling did not grow, pepper seedling rate can be seen.

Doubts are doubts, Su Yan is not too sad, so many pepper seeds have not sprouted, but there are more than 2,000 pepper seedlings that have emerged, and those pepper seedlings with multiple plants in one place can be transplanted to other places, even if only a quarter of the pepper seedlings can grow into pepper trees in the end, it is also 500 pepper trees, and the annual output of 500 pepper trees is enough for thousands of people to use pepper at every meal.

It takes a lot of time for hemp and pepper to grow, hemp can not be harvested until autumn, and it takes at least two years for pepper to be harvested, and it needs to take its time, while paying attention to hemp and peppercorns, Su Yan is more concerned about the exploration team led by Zhi and Shen, and the best way for the dragon tribe to get more food in a short period of time is to find the big river and move the dragon tribe to live in the area near the big river.

Counting from the first day of the expedition team led by Zhi and Shen, about a month, the exploration team has been exploring the upstream and downstream of the river for three days, that is, the exploration team needs to walk for three days to reach the farthest place.

During the month-long exploration, the exploration team encountered a lot of things, including wild beasts that came to the river to drink water, and teams of primitive people from other tribes who came to the river to draw water.

The beasts encountered were driven away, and the expedition team brought their own food, so there was no need to waste time hunting.

There are good and vicious primitive tribes encountered, and when two teams of people who don't know each other meet, the first thing they do is to confront each other with weapons in hand.

The exploration team did not want to conflict with other tribes, finding the big river is the task of the exploration team, and the teams that met the exploration team took the initiative to avoid it, you must know that the exploration team has a total of fifty-two people, and they are all adult men, the strength of the exploration team is much stronger than other teams encountered, even if it is a vicious tribe, it does not dare to easily conflict with the exploration team.

The exploration team's one-month exploration journey was not all smooth sailing, several clansmen were injured in the process of exploration, one of them was seriously injured, because of the seriously injured clansmen, the exploration team could only be forced to return, but unfortunately the seriously injured clansman was only a disabled person after being injured, and could no longer do heavy work.

Entering the third month of spring, the exploration team continued to explore farther away, and the last time they explored, the exploration team seemed to have found a little trace of the river, and moved downstream along the river, and in the second half of the third day, Zhi vaguely felt that the width of the river was increasing.

Su Yan once told Zhi that when the river is seen from near and far, it is found that the width of the river is increasing, and there is a high chance of finding a large river.

Zhi told Shen and the other clansmen about his feelings, and everyone looked at them according to Zhi's words, and many clansmen also had the same feelings as Zhi.

Maybe you can find the big river a little further back, but the hunting team has already consumed more than half of the food, although it can get food through hunting, but the exploration team sets a time to return every time they go out, once they return late, it is likely to cause misunderstandings, and it is better to return for the time being, and wait until the next time to bring enough food before exploring.

The new exploration journey begins, everyone in the exploration team carries at least fifteen kilograms of food, mainly pickled fish, but also some pickled animal meat, an adult male has to eat at least one pound of pickled animal meat or more than one pound of pickled fish for a meal, and the food they carry is enough to support the exploration team for ten days, which means that the exploration team can walk for five days at most before returning.

For everyone in the exploration team, carrying fifteen kilograms of food is not much, even if carrying thirty kilograms of food, it is fine, primitive people have a lot of strength, and they don't care about this weight.

The exploration team went all the way to the lower reaches of the river, the journey of the first few days had been walked several times, and it was considered familiar, and it was relatively fast, and in the afternoon of the third day, the exploration team came to the farthest area they had arrived at last time, and it was here that Zhi felt that the river had widened.

"Keep going!" Chi said loudly.

The voice of the "captain" was heard, and the person at the head of the line continued to move forward.

Zhi's feeling is not wrong, the exploration team only walked forward for a few dozen minutes, and everyone felt that the small river was constantly widening, and maybe the big river was in front of them.

The river grew faster and faster, and there was no road ahead, so the expedition team went into the woods and continued to move forward, until late in the evening when the expedition team stopped to find a camp to rest.

The next day, the expedition team continued to the east, and from time to time the expedition team would get closer to the side of the river to observe the situation, and then continue back into the jungle to the east.

Two-thirds of the way through the morning, the expedition team unexpectedly approached the residence of another primitive tribe, and the tribe's vigilant tribe noticed the arrival of the expedition team and hurriedly made a sound of "there is an enemy".

It didn't take long for the exploration team to confront the people of this strange tribe, the team of the strange tribe was close to a hundred people, mainly adult women, followed by children and adult men, adult men were relatively few, and it was expected that they were out hunting.