After spending a cool night at the top of the mountain, Feng Shijie led the team to the tropical jungle below again, and with the guidance of a compass, they easily found the Keku River they saw on the top of the mountain. After resting by the river for the night, Feng Shijie and the others discussed it for a while, and finally decided to tie up a few logs and take the waterway.

The main reason for this decision is that the banks of the Keku River have always been inhabited by natives in the past, and these natives also often fish and sail in the river, so the river is relatively clean, unlike other tropical rivers, the river surface is full of fallen trees, which is much less on the Keku River, at least there is no problem with boating.

In addition, there is another point, that is, Feng Shijie and they are already afraid of walking in the tropical jungle, although together they only need to walk in the tropical jungle for four days, but the feeling of being dark and not seeing the sun for twelve hours a day really makes people feel like they are living in the underworld, and there is an annoying musty smell on their bodies, and people who are almost determined really can't hold on.

Armed with rope and axes, they quickly cut down some thick trees to make logs, and then sailed up the wide Keku River. The lower reaches of the river were relatively gentle, and with God's help, the wind actually blew from behind them, so they made hundreds of hard sails out of some wide plant leaves, and with human rowing, they did not move slowly.

Kanu's former tribe was here, but unfortunately it was later exterminated, and according to him, the banks of this river were also cleared by dwarf blacks, so there should not be any big tribes. However, on the second day of their journey up the river, Feng Shijie and the others finally saw the local natives on the riverbank.

These natives did not attack Feng Shijie and them at first. Instead, he also showed a kind of fear, especially when he saw the musket in Feng Shijie's hand. It was even more terrifying, and in the blink of an eye, it disappeared into the jungle. For this situation, Feng Shijie and the others were also a little puzzled at first, but after asking Kanu, they realized that these natives should be the survivors of the decisive battle with General Zhou Long, they had seen the power of muskets and artillery, plus Feng Shijie and they were all standard Han Chinese, so it caused so much fear among those natives.

After hearing Kanu's explanation, Feng Shijie and the others smiled faintly. The local natives of Luzon are all soft and afraid of hard, as long as they are afraid, these natives are more obedient than dogs, and I heard that the reason why the native slaves of Luzon are very popular is because of the characteristic of obedience.

However, these natives fled when they saw them, which also caused some trouble for Feng Shijie and them, because they did not have enough supplies in their hands, so they wanted to buy some food from the natives, and there was no need to ask for directions. Kanu is a native of the locals, and he knows the roads here better than anyone else. It's a pity that the natives are afraid that they are terrible, so they can't buy anything at all.

In the end, in desperation, Feng Shijie even thought about sending Kanu to the shore. Then let him trade with the money, and the economy of Luzon has always been controlled by Han merchants, so the copper coins of the Tang Dynasty are also used. It's just that the only thing that makes Feng Shijie a little worried is whether Kanu will take the opportunity to betray them. Unite with the local natives and destroy theirs?

Although Kanu's entire family is now in Feng Shijie's hands, and he also promised to give the other party an official identity of a fourth-level alien race. But in his heart, Feng Shijie still has a kind of distrust in their bones towards natives like Kanu, and it was nothing that Kanu was controlled by them before, but if he was allowed to act alone and come into contact with other natives, this made Feng Shijie have to worry about the safety of the team.

It was precisely under this consideration that Feng Shijie had to dispel this idea in the end, anyway, fish can be caught in the river, and there are also a lot of fruits growing on the fruit trees on both banks, these ready-made foods can be combined and stick to the past few days.

After crossing the lower reaches of the Keku River, especially to the original tribal settlement of Kanu, it is in ruins. After passing through the ruins, further up is already the middle of the Keku River, but from here the river begins to become very rapid, and the difference between the top and bottom is so great that they cannot be rowed up by their logging alone.

Faced with this situation, Feng Shijie and his team had to give up logging, put on their backpacks again, and began to advance on foot towards the middle reaches of the Keku River. In addition, fortunately, although the original tribe of Kanu has become a ruin, their tribe still grows a lot of rice on the periphery, but no one takes care of it, and it has become a wasteland, but the rice that grows with weeds in it is just ripe, so Feng Shijie and they simply collected some, and then found tools to remove chaff from the ruins, and made dozens of catties of rice to eat.

In the next journey, Feng Shijie and they began to repeat the nightmare at the beginning, the endless tropical jungle almost drove Feng Shijie and them crazy, and the danger that appeared from time to time also made them highly nervous, and even on the third day of abandoning the ship, a brother was attacked by a crocodile that was more than a foot long when he passed by a swamp, although Feng Shijie and they tried their best to snatch the brother back, but in the end they still watched him be dragged into the swamp by the crocodile.

A living person is gone, which makes Feng Shijie and them very uncomfortable, but they all came out of the slave hunting team before, and it is not the first time they have lost their brothers, since they decided to come out to find gold mines, they have been mentally prepared for this, so after the grief, they did not stop and hit the road again.

As they advanced, Feng Shijie, as a surveyor, was keenly aware that they were actually heading for a plateau, and the best proof was that the temperature around them was a little lower than before, and the plants had also changed, just like the mountain they had climbed before, but the slope around this plateau was very gentle, at least they walked for a few days, and the altitude did not increase much.

But on the fifth day, they climbed a low mountain again, and finally came to a plateau surrounded by mountains, this plateau was much higher than the surrounding plains, and the temperature was also very cool, estimated to be only a little over 20 degrees, and they still felt a little cold in their single clothes.

In addition, Feng Shijie finally understood the origin of the name Pine Tribe, because on this plateau, there are many tall pine forests, and the cool temperature is the key to the survival of pine trees, no wonder the natives who live here will use pine trees as the name of the tribe.

When the first rays of sunlight fell on this plateau in the morning, Feng Shijie also woke up from his sleep, he sat in the tent and rubbed his face, although he was covered with a blanket, but his hands and feet were still cold last night, and he knew that he would raise a few more fires, otherwise he would get sick if he didn't get it right, and then he would drag the whole team back.

Feng Shijie got out of the tent and just saw that the bald head of the last night patrol had just been replaced, and when the bald head saw Feng Shijie, a smile appeared on his tired face, and then he went into his tent to catch up on sleep.

This is a dry riverbed, the ground is full of large and small gravel, weeds are relatively scarce, and there are many fewer insects, making it an ideal campsite. Now in this campsite, Feng Shijie and his tents of more than a dozen people are in a circle, and there are three bonfires in the middle, but now the fires are almost extinguished, and the patrol people have not come to add firewood.

Feng Shijie stretched his waist and yawned a long time, since they entered the tropical jungle, they were tortured by that hot and humid climate, and they would be woken up by the heat after sleeping for a while at night, and more often they were woken up by insect bites, and the clothes on their bodies had not dried, fortunately they came to this plateau yesterday, and immediately felt that the temperature had dropped, and they found such a dry camp, and finally had a good night's sleep.

Feng Shijie walked to the side of the camp, here was a dry dead tree, he took out the firewood knife that he had cut on the tree last night, and then chopped some firewood and threw it on the fire, so that the fire in the fire would not be rekindled, so that the other brothers would not be awakened by the cold, and now it was time to make breakfast, and the fire naturally could not be extinguished.

After a while, Brother Lin, who was in charge of cooking, also woke up, and then he called Ertian up, and together with Feng Shijie and the three of them, they put up the iron pot and started cooking, they have been away from the coast for twelve days, and the various foods they brought with them have been almost eaten, fortunately, although there are dangers everywhere in the tropical jungle, as long as you have the ability, then finding food is still a very simple matter.

Last time, there was a lot of rice in the tribe where Kanu was located, they went down to the pot to make rice porridge, last night they came to the plateau in order to celebrate, and in order to cheer up the team, Feng Shijie led everyone to gather for a meal, although this time did not hit the wild boar, but in fact, the prey was hit a lot, and now there is still a lot left, they heated these things, and ate them together with rice porridge, which can be regarded as a hearty breakfast.

After breakfast, Feng Shijie and the others identified the direction, and then after Kanu's confirmation, they finally hit the road again, but compared to the danger in the tropical jungle, this plateau is much safer, at least there are not so many poisonous insects, snakes and rats, and the climate is also cool and pleasant, and even makes them feel like they are back in the north of the Tang Dynasty.

And when Feng Shijie and they advanced for three or four hours, they finally found a piece of rice that had been planted, but when they saw this piece of rice, Feng Shijie and their faces all changed greatly, because they found that although there were many weeds in this rice field, compared with the abandoned rice fields of Kanu's tribe before, it was much cleaner and neater, and there were footprints on the ground, which means that on this plateau, there are still natives alive! (To be continued......)