Because it was far away, I couldn't see clearly, and I could only guess that a funeral was being held at the foot of the mountain.

It's just that this funeral is far more barbaric and cruel than Chen Jian imagined.

At the foot of the mountain, the tribal wizards were covered in animal fat, so that no matter how cold the weather was, their skin would not be frostbitten, and the oil was covered with bird feathers, as if they had grown wings and could fly into the sky.

The dead lay flat under the blood-soaked stone, and several men beat a small drum made of human skulls and human skins, singing and dancing, and from time to time they let out a muffled cry.

The elders of the two tribes walked up to the deceased and blocked the deceased's mouth, nose, eyes, and ears with mud.

They believe that all things have spirits, and that the spirits of all things are closely related to the mouth, nose, and ears.

If you close your eyes, you can't see the blue sky, if you plug your ears, you can hear the singing river, and if you plug your nostrils, you can't smell the fragrance of flowers.

The world does not exist, but because we opened our eyes, we have the world.

They blocked the seven orifices with mud, believing that this would keep the world in the bodies of their clansmen and not easily disperse.

After the blockade, these people beat the human skin drum, wishing the souls of the dead to return.

But the seven orifices have been sealed, how can the soul leave?

Two young men walked up to the deceased and chiseled open the deceased's celestial spirit cover with a stone chisel.

The soul is lighter than the body, and the Heavenly Spirit Cover contains the soul, and prying open the Heavenly Spirit Cover can make the soul of the deceased leave the body, but it cannot take the whole world with it.

The white brain juice was taken out and distributed to the same clan to eat, to express mourning, and to hope that the wisdom and courage of the deceased would be distributed to each clansman.

A thin prisoner of war was brought in, and the leader himself used his hands to cut the throat of the prisoner of war with a stone knife, poured hot blood into the skull of the deceased, and then sealed it with clay and pine resin, signaling that he had drunk the blood before dying.

The bowl made of the skulls of the two prisoners of war was also filled with blood and placed at the ends of the deceased, reaching for it.

Finally, the deceased's stone axes, bows and arrows are placed in the deceased's arms, and firewood and grass are piled around it.

After a few days, some eagles will fly in to carve the flesh of the dead, believing that every falcon crow that takes the flesh of their clan is the embodiment of the dead, and they are only here to retrieve their own flesh.

Because people have seven orifices, after seven days, they will ignite the firewood and grass, and turn the remaining flesh and blood that cannot be taken away into green smoke.

In addition to stone axes, bows and spears, there is one more important thing.

Bunches of scalp.

These scalps are usually used as handkerchiefs or hung on horses' necks as decorations, and whoever has the most scalp is the bravest person in the tribe.

These scalps were hung around the necks of the deceased as funerary offerings.

After doing all this, singing and dancing for a while, the men finally left, waiting for seven days to burn the bodies of the dead.

As soon as the group was gone, all kinds of birds, who had long been accustomed to eating carrion, stood on the stones and chirped.

Those people did not drive away, on the contrary, they thought that it was the process of rebirth of the souls of the dead, otherwise why would all these birds fly here? Why don't they fly somewhere else?

They have eaten the brains of the dead, who have become one with their own courage and wisdom, and do not need to cry too much.

No one remained, for fear of disturbing the rest of the dead and disturbing the birds.

Chen Jian and the others on the mountain were confused, because they didn't understand the worldview and soul view of these people, so he didn't even have the ability to guess, and could only see that this was a funeral that seemed strange to him.

In the evening, Jian Chen whispered, "Let's go see the corpse." ”

"Are you all going?"

"I'll go with the wolfskin and the tanuki, and if we are discovered, you will return to the village at once and repair the walls as soon as possible."

Jian Chen didn't say much, and after settling down, he took advantage of the dim sky to quietly come to the vicinity of the stone and scare away the birds that were still pecking.

The eyes of the dead were the softest, and even if they were covered in a layer of dirt, they had been pecked by these scavenging birds.

The three of them looked at each other in amazement, not because of the deceased's flesh that had been pecked all over his body, but because of the deceased's skin color and hair!

Wolf Skin exclaimed: "It doesn't look like us!" Is this human? ”

"Really?"

"How can his hair be the same color as the droppings of a dodoer? It's not black! You see his eye sockets, so much higher than ours, and skin, a bit like lime? ”

The tanuki took the bunch of scalps that were strung together, touched them with his hands, and said, "It's very soft, they can tann the skins too?" ”

"Look at this bow and arrow!"

The wolf skin pulled the bow that accompanied the burial, and pulled it with his hand, the bow body was shorter, and the overall look was not much different.

But the bowstring was more elastic than its own hemp rope, as if some animal's hair was twisted together.

Chen Jian took the bow and arrow and looked at it, the bowstring seemed to be a horsetail or horsehair, which was indeed better than hemp rope. The stone axe that accompanied the burial was not perforated, and there was a short spear next to it.

The short spear is held in the hand, the center of gravity is good, and it looks like it should be a spear or javelin, which is used on a horse.

Looking at the deceased, he was sure that this was not a person of his own race, neither the color of his skin nor the thick beard on his chin was characteristic of his own people.

Jian Chen's heart couldn't help but be a little nervous, the location of his clan was now considered a place of four battles.

Similar to his previous guess, his tribe should be the farthest branch of a certain population in the southeast to migrate to the northwest, maybe those relatives in the southeast already have settlements, but because the old grandmother and others migrated too early, it may also be that some people in charge of secrets died suddenly during the migration, resulting in some deformities in the development of the tribe.

It may have been a borderless land in the first place, but several ethnic groups from the north, south, and west gradually spread here. Whether it is the tribe with the red fish painted on it, or the nomads of these alien species, or even the tribe of the semi-underground structure houses that have been wiped out by the nomads, they are not a race.

At present, there is no completely differentiated concept of farming and nomadism, occupying a good place, it is natural to farm, and the place is not good, and it is impossible to plow if you want to.

But Chen Jian estimated that some distance further north should be the grassland, otherwise there would be no way to explain how this group of horse-breeding alien races came here. Maybe it's only three or four hundred miles away, or maybe it's closer.

In other words, if one's own race is ready to settle on the banks of the grass river, then one's own race is likely to become the first line against future nomads.

From the time of the advent of farming, steppe nomadism was the greatest enemy, and before the advent of hot weapons, there was no solution.

Approaches such as past occupation by immigrants are not practical.

Immigrants pass, and it won't be long before they become nomadic.

Because even if you have national integrity and cultural centripetality, these two things are not gods, and you can't make the grassland desert suitable for farming, and the people who immigrated to the past can only adapt to the rules of nomadism.

Shouting two slogans of national righteousness, you expect the people who migrated to expand outward, and never yearn for the warm world of flowers, unless there is a mind controller.

Jian Chen thought for a moment, before the appearance of the musket, it seemed that there was really no good system that could completely curb it.

The Cossacks, known as the nomadic grinders, were also after the muskets were loaded, and it was a disguised military system, replacing taxes with military blood taxes. However, there are also many problems, the government soldiers have the Anshi Rebellion, and the Cossacks have Stepanlashin, all of which are unreliable.

Besides, in the previous life, the world was most suitable for cultivating the black soil belt, and a semi-independent ethnic group was created, and there was really nothing worth learning.

It's like dividing the north of the Yellow River to a group of people, so that they only need to serve and fight, do not need to pay taxes, and retreat to the south of the Yellow River, and then they can say that there are no nomads in my north. However, this is meaningless, history proves that before the appearance of muskets, they will not fight north, only south.

After thinking for a while, Jian Chen whispered, "Let's go back." ”

"I want to take the bowstring away."

"Take it, there are footprints here anyway."

"I'd like to grab a couple of animals they're riding."

"No, you have to walk on the tree when you go back, and you can't leave footprints in the distance."

"Why should we be afraid of them? They may not be able to beat us. Besides, we still have the city walls. ”

"Because we have to harvest wheat beans, they don't need to take down our villages until the wheat beans are ripe, as long as they burn them down, or secretly shoot arrows and don't allow us to harvest, we will be busy for the past few months. Take that string of scalp and go back and tell the people. ”

Carrying the bow of martyrdom and the short spear suitable for throwing, the wolfskin stepped on the snow and returned to the top of the mountain.

Calling the Shang clansmen, they took advantage of the night to walk a little way, and prepared to go back as soon as possible.

While resting at night, Jian Chen pondered the future path of his clansmen.

It's not just a matter of this life, it's a possible development in the future.

Think rationally, after harvesting the wheat beans, take the whole clan to migrate downstream along the grass river, and if there is a big river, cross the river to the south bank.

It is the best choice to give up the land of the four wars in the future to other tribes, bury your head in farming and development on the south bank of the river, annex the ethnic groups that speak the same language, develop and grow, and wait until you have the opportunity to fight back.

Emotionally, it is to occupy this place, block those heterogeneous nomads, always put the tribesmen on the front line of the war, expand northward, plant all the river valleys suitable for cultivation for hundreds of miles, look for alliances with the same clan in the south, expand the defense to the north to guard against nomadism, and also block the southern invasion of this group of brown-haired and white-skinned xenomorphs.

Your own race is like an unpolished bluestone.

Is it to make the battlements on the Great Wall, to block those alien races in the cold wind?

Or do the stone carvings and bricks in the palace, and enjoy the prosperity of singing and dancing in the spring breeze on the willow bank?

I'm used to watching Fenghua singing and dancing, do you really have the heart to fight back?