The woman looked back at Hong Chengchou, then turned around and ran towards the leader barefoot, she seemed to say something, and then she pounced on a middle-aged woman behind him and hugged the woman.

"Is she not the chief's woman, but his daughter?" Hong Chengchou had doubts in his heart, this doubt, there will be no answer for a while, he peeked at the leader's expression, and found that he had no intention of spitting fire in his eyes when he met the enemy.

Instead, the leader enthusiastically let Hong Chengchou into the wooden house, while the soldiers stayed outside.

The hot tea sent by the maid tasted too strong, Hong Chengchou was not used to it, he just sat opposite the leader.

The language barrier is incomprehensible, and both of them smile bitterly.

After sitting for a while, the leader got up and pointed in the direction of the Wuda River, Hong Chengchou estimated that he was going to fish again, and it seemed that the tribal leader did not have many privileges.

Out of the plank room, there were really nearly 100 men with upper body ** outside, holding wooden forks and sticks, carrying fish baskets, they should be waiting for the leader, on the other side of the plank house, there were already a group of people holding wooden sticks, one after another set off towards the south.

Hong Chengchou wanted to see how they fished, only a simple wooden fork, able to fish from the wide river, these people may have learned some special skills from their ancestors, besides, he also wanted to be close to them.

The fishermen didn't mind the Ming army following, as long as you didn't delay them fishing, Hong Chengchou and hundreds of soldiers followed the fishermen to the south bank of the Wuda River.

The water of the Wuda River flows slowly westward, and there is not even a duck on the surface of the river, which seems to be unusually calm, compared with the spectacular Yangtze River and the Yellow River, which are rushing endlessly and roaring eastward, this place is definitely a quiet and peaceful paradise.

If there is never a war, without the intervention of the Red Hair and the Ming Army, this can be regarded as a paradise.

Hong Chengchou's eyes were firmly fixed on the surface of the river, there was not even a splash on the river, and there was no sign of fish activity at all.

The Buryat fishermen were not nervous, they did not have to negotiate, and nearly 100 fishermen were automatically divided into five groups and went down to five areas on the shore.

They seemed to have already been matched, and there were dozens of fishermen in each group, stepping into the river.

"Commander, how can they walk in the river? Are they immortals, or have they practiced 'water floating' kung fu? ”

Hong Chengchou took a closer look, and sure enough, there were many fishermen, walking barefoot in the river, and the river had just reached their calves, "Huh? Wouldn't these Buryats learn some special skills from their ancestors? Or is the river so deep? ”

"No, they seem to be standing in a line." The soldiers found that there was a pattern to the position of the fishermen in the river, but they couldn't tell what the pattern was.

"Is there a hidden pile under the water?" Hong Chengchou didn't understand either, "Don't worry, let's take a look first." ”

The fishermen formed a curve in the middle of the river, like a semicircle, and the remaining few people, holding wooden sticks and forks, shed the last strand of cloth from their bodies, entered the middle of the semicircle, and pounded in the water.

They either slapped the surface of the water with wooden sticks, or blindly forked them into the deep water with wooden forks, and two of them threw themselves into the water, making countless waves in the water.

"Fishing in troubled waters? However, fishing in this way is too inefficient, right? ”

Before Hong Chengchou's words fell, there were already soldiers cheering: "Fish, they have forked the fish!" ”

A carp swam past the fishermen on the periphery and was forked by him with a wooden fork, and after the carp came out of the water, it still swayed violently on the wooden fork, looking like it weighed a pound.

The fisherman holds the fork in one hand and the gills in the other, throws it into the basket behind him, and turns his gaze to the shallow water in front of him.

Only then did Hong Chengchou see clearly that the place where the fishermen were standing was some embankment that had just submerged into the water, and the fishermen in the water were disturbing the fish, and the frightened fish fled from the embankment, just when they met the fishermen's wooden forks.

I just don't know if these dikes were originally built by fishermen.

"Hehe, there is really a set, they have their own way of survival." Hong Chengchou shook his head and sighed, but he didn't know how many fish could be caught with such a primitive method, and whether it would be enough for their daily meals.

If there are Han fishing nets, the effect should be better, but unfortunately, this is Lingbei Province, there are few Han people, there are no fishing nets at all, and there is no hemp silk for fishing nets, I don't know if hemp silk is produced here.

In the morning, the fishermen caught an average of 20 catties of fish, and at noon, they poured the fish out of the basket, removed the scales and internal organs, smeared a little salt, and prepared to make a fire, which seemed to be about to be barbecued.

Fishermen make a fire by using two stones, which hit each other, and at the same time make a "squeak" sound, but also produce sparks.

"It turned out to be flint for fire!" Hong Chengchou motioned to the soldier, the soldier took out the fire fold on his body, opened the upper cover, the spark was still there, he blew lightly a few times, and the flame came out.

The fishermen were shocked, the fire came too easily!

The leader hurried over, snatched the fire from the soldier's hand, and he went first to light the firewood and grass, but the flame was not extinguished.

The soldier of the Ming army walked over and instructed him little by little how to extinguish the fire and how to make a fire, repeating it three times before the leader mastered the essentials, he tried it himself, and couldn't help but smirk at the fire fold.

The soldiers of the Ming army wanted to take back their fire folds, but the leader was reluctant, and he looked at Hong Chengchou with a blank eye.

Hong Chengchou smiled and asked the soldiers to give the fire folds to the leader, "Give them ten more fire folds, as long as they are used to the Han people's items, they will be inseparable from the Han people in the future." ”

Get eleven fire folds, the leader is overjoyed, after the fish is cooked, he sent a few to Hong Chengchou, Hong Chengchou waved his hand and refused, these grilled fish, only a little salt, not even ginger juice, the smell must be very strong, and he is not a cat.

The leader had no choice but to give up, he looked at Hong Chengchou, clenched his hands into empty fists, and made a gesture of drinking water.

Hong Chengchou knew that he wanted to drink distilled spirits, and shook his head with a wry smile.

He only has one jar of distilled liquor left, and he has sent someone back to Chita to fetch it, and he doesn't know when he will be back.

The chief shook his head in disappointment, and he, like the fishermen, sat around the fire, eating the grilled fish without any flavoring.

If the fish cannot be eaten, the internal organs are removed, smeared with salt, and placed on the ground to dry.

The Ming army ate their own dry food, and hastily settled their lunch with the clear water of the Wuda River.

After eating, the fishermen, under the leadership of the chief, continued to go down to the river to fish, Hong Chengchou had no interest in watching, he divided the soldiers into two groups, and drew a topographic map of the local area.

The woman who was given to Hong Chengchou by the leader still came to the barracks every evening to serve Hong Chengchou, and then left on her own in the morning. Hong Chengchou was speechless and unhappy at night, and when he held her little hand, he gave her a Han name: Li Qianqian.

On this day, it was drizzling and the temperature began to drop, Hong Chengchou thought of this extreme northern place, the winter is particularly cold, and the marching tent of the Ming army is far from being able to withstand the cold here.

He had almost drawn a topographical map of the vicinity, and on the advice of his staff officers, he had chosen a place to build the city.

"Maybe it's time to build a city here, and build some more houses, with low earthen walls that are much more resistant to cold than tents."

But this is the territory of the Buryats, if you want to build a city, you must get their approval, if you don't want to solve it by force, Hong Chengchou thinks about it, the only thing that can attract the interest of the leader is the jar of distilled spirit.

He took dry food and the last jar of distilled spirit, accompanied by Li Qianqian, and went to the wooden house to meet the leader.

The accompanying soldiers were escorted by six other women in the army and eighteen captured red-haired prisoners of war.

Because of the rain, the leader was not going to go out fishing and hunting today, so he met Hong Chengchou in the wooden plank house.

Seeing the purple-black jar in Hong Chengchou's hand, the leader's eyes suddenly lit up, and he immediately rushed towards Hong Chengchou, eager to swallow the jar.

Hong Chengchou stretched out his hand to block him, and then put the jar on the wooden square table in front of him, "I'll drink it at noon, I have something to do with you now." Knowing that he didn't understand, Hong Chengchou had no choice but to take him by the arm and drag him out of the wooden house.

It was still raining outside, Hong Chengchou put on a raincoat that the leader was accustomed to the Ming army, and he also put on one, and the two rode horses and went south along the Segeleng River, a large number of soldiers followed them, and at a distance of five miles from the Wuda River, Hong Chengchou stopped with the leader.

The place where Hong Chengchou wanted to build the city was here, he asked the four soldiers to stand in the open space, as the four corners of the city wall, worried that the leader would not understand, he gestured with his hands, and asked the soldiers to shovel the soil with shovels, indicating that this would be his territory.

The leader frowned, not knowing whether he couldn't understand it, or if he was unwilling to give up this land to the Ming army.

Hong Chengchou clenched his hands into a hollow ball, like a jar, and clenched it into a hollow fist with his right hand, making a drinking appearance, and pointed at the leader with his finger.

The leader's gaze was questioning, but he didn't nod.

Hong Chengchou stretched out his left hand, spread it out in front of him, and counted them one by one with his right hand, "Five altars!" Seeing that the leader still didn't answer, he turned over the back of his hand and pulled it one finger at a time, "Ten altars!" ”

The leader also stretched out his left hand, flipped it once, and muttered something in his mouth.

"Twenty is twenty, as long as you can establish a city here, the future will be Ming." Hong Chengchou felt that exchanging twenty jars of wine for the land of a city was simply too worthwhile, and that this was a peace agreement, which would be conducive to the naturalization of these Buryats in the future.

The leader took out the fire fold given to him by Hong Chengchou from his bosom and turned it over four times in a row with his hand.

"Plus forty fire folds?" Hong Chengchou doesn't care about the fire fold, Da Ming has it, the soldiers go out to fight, and everyone will carry the fire fold, "Okay, the deal, you don't have to put forward other conditions." ”

Fortunately, the leader was not too greedy and did not make other demands, in fact, he did not know what else the Ming army had that he was greedy for.

Hong Chengchou didn't care whether the two sides were interested in the mistakes of the meeting, since the leader agreed to his territorial claims, he asked the soldiers to erect piles in the rain, which can be regarded as officially breaking ground for the city.

He had all the names of this city in mind, it was close to Bei Lake, and to the east of Bei Lake, so it was called Bei Dong.