The Li tribe, to be precise, is not an individual tribe, but an alliance composed of nine large tribes, so the Li nationality is also called Jiuli.

According to the limited information recorded today, the Jiuli tribal alliance was active in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River basin for a long time, and at that time the Yellow River, the Yangtze River, the Han River and other large areas of land belonged to the "Li Realm". It is no exaggeration to say that Jiuli is one of the oldest clans. Of course, it is a bit inappropriate to call it a clan, because "Jiuli" was a tribal alliance at that time, consisting of nine large tribes and eighty-one tribal clans, and Chiyou, who is regarded as a negative character in many myths, is the big chief of this tribal alliance.

In subsequent legends, the Yellow Emperor tribe moved from the land of Sanqin to the vicinity of Xuanyuan Gang (southwest of Songshan Mountain) due to the arid climate, and inevitably clashed with the Jiuli Tribal Alliance, another ancient ethnic group, in the process of civilization development and territorial expansion.

At this time, the Yandi Shennong clan (probably not wanting to surrender to Jiuli), who also lived in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, was driven to Zhulu by Chiyou and turned to Emperor Xuanyuan for help, and the two quickly formed an alliance to launch a counterattack against Chiyou's Jiuli tribe. (Xiao Lei Yu, who has just been promoted to become a father: It's hard to imagine that Fuxi, Nuwa, Houyi, Dijun, and Xihe are all people from the Jiuli forces.) In addition, the Shennong clan is known as the Yan Emperor, and there is no doubt that he is the first person to know how to use fire, why is it rumored that the Jiuli Tribal Alliance could already use copper to build weapons at that time? ）

But although the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan and the Yandi Shennong reached an alliance, but in the face of Chiyou's Jiuli, the two most powerful tribal alliances at that time still fell into a protracted fierce battle, according to the "Chiyou stubborn resistance", "Yellow Emperor nine battles invincible", after several difficult battles such as chasing deer and winning deer, the Yanhuang tribal alliance finally defeated the Jiuli tribal alliance.

The defeated Jiuli tribes were roughly divided into three groups, and some of them were driven to the north and established the Li state there. It was later destroyed by the Zhou Dynasty; Some of them retreated to the Jianghan Valley in the south and established a confederation of the Three Miao tribes, which later became the Miao people; There were also some who surrendered and joined the Yanhuang tribal alliance, called Li Min.

(Xiao Lei Yan, who was noisy by children every day: The meaning of the people and Li Min was different at that time, and the people, as the name suggests, refer to the Yellow Emperor's continuous absorption of allies to defeat strong enemies, and the tribe was gradually flooded with many people with foreign surnames; And Li Min, referring to the people of the defeated Jiuli tribe, is similar to the reason why the word "merchant" appeared later. So it is not difficult to guess that at the time. The common people are equivalent to citizens, commoners, and the people, and the Li people are probably the vanquished who are almost slaves. It was only later that with the evolution of history, the difference between the common people and the Li people became less and less. In this way, we suddenly came to a terrible conclusion: we who have always claimed to be the descendants of Yan and Huang, in fact, maybe there is also the blood of the Jiuli tribe flowing in our veins? ）

In addition to those three groups, a small number of people from the Jiuli tribe fled to the vicinity of Juluze, and thus lived in seclusion.

(Xiao Lei, who thinks that children are noisy and is not very annoying, is intimate and popular: Juluze at that time was actually a vast ocean.) Because of the earth's crustal changes, the entire North China Plain was fractured and subsided. It has become a vast sea connected to the ocean. Then Dayu controlled the water and dug a channel to introduce the water of the Yellow River that often erupted through Taihang Mountain and Juluze into the sea. Later, the sediment of the Yellow River gradually filled in the subsidence of the North China Plain, turning it into a depression. During this period, many shallow areas coexisted with Jushizawa and its periphery. Having said that, if it is a large amount of deforestation in the upper reaches of the Yellow River to wash away the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, it seems that the Yellow Emperor tribe was originally an ethnic group that lived near the upper reaches of the Yellow River, uh. No way...... ）

However, when history developed to the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, in fact, the Li people who lived in seclusion in Juluze and their ancestors of the Jiuli tribe also had earth-shaking changes, which is why Zhang Huang called them the Li people. And it is not the reason for the remnants of the Jiuli tribe.

"It's me, it's me." Zhang Huang whispered to the Black Feather Crows not to show hostility, and shouted to the Li barbarians who had already jumped down from the trees to surround them.

Li Tong glanced at Zhang Huang strangely, and secretly muttered in his heart whether these barbarians could understand what Zhang Huang said.

To everyone's surprise, after a strong Li barbarian pushed away others and walked out, the first words he opened his mouth made the Black Feather Crows and Cai Yan stunned.

"I know it's you, Huang, otherwise, we would have done it earlier."

It is unimaginable that what the Li barbarian said in his mouth was not the foreign language that Li Tong and others had expected, but the local dialect with a slight hint of Julu dialect.

"Huh." Zhang Huang laughed dryly.

At this time, the Li barbarian looked Zhang Huang up and down and frowned, and said with some doubts, "Huang, your wildness has weakened, and we have followed you for a while before......

Zhang Huang smiled bitterly when he heard this, he who had dealt with these Li people, naturally understood that what the other party said about wildness was actually human intuition. Looking back now, when Zhang Huang noticed these Li people, the other party had already quietly followed him for a while, if he hadn't recognized Zhang Huang, I am afraid he would have been killed a long time ago.

"I've been feeling a little unwell lately...... Zhang Huang reluctantly explained.

The Li barbarian looked at the strange red of Zhang Huang's complexion and nodded slightly. Immediately, he seemed to think of something, and after glancing at Li Tong and the others, he said to Zhang Huang again, "Huang, you know the rules, outsiders are not allowed to enter the clan land. …… You, we won't stop you, but these people ......"

"Accommodating?"

"A clan rule is a clan rule." The Li barbarian shook his head.

Zhang Huang knew that there was nothing to discuss with these brainless people, so he said helplessly, "In this way, you lead us to see Da Wu first, and if Da Wu allows, we will go up the mountain again." ”

Hearing this, the Li barbarian nodded.

Seeing this, Zhang Huang turned around and the dumbfounded Black Feather Crow and Cai Yan and the others, patted the arm of the Li barbarian, and introduced with a smile, "Let me introduce you, Tuyu, the number one warrior in the clan, and the son of Dawu." ”

Li Tong and the others wondered why a burly and strong man would take the weak word fish as his name, but they didn't dare to ask. It was only after everyone went on the road together that they learned the reason from Zhang Huang's mouth.

It turns out that in their eyes, it is a relatively weak "fish", but in the eyes of the Li tribesmen, it is a blessing, and the big problem is that they hope that the child who gets this name can be as flexible as a fish when he grows up in the water. After all, the area around Juluze is still mainly water, and water is an indispensable course for the Li people.

"It's better in the water...... Shouldn't it be a snake or a turtle? Tai Shi Ci asked in a puzzled whisper.

Zhang Huang smiled when he heard this, "Because the Li people believe that snakes are the same genus as Jiao and dragons, and turtles are the incarnation of Xuanwu...... The Li people believe in witchcraft and worship ghosts and gods, and do not dare to be too ostentatious, for fear that the newborn baby will be pressed by the name and die at an early age. ”

Hearing this, the black feather crows suddenly realized, after all, in this regard, the views of the Li people and the Han people are quite consistent, and the so-called cheap name is easy to feed. When a baby is born, most people will use inconspicuous or even vulgar-sounding names as their milk names, believing that this will make Hades "dismissive" them and prevent the newborn baby from being called early. The Han people are still like this, not to mention the Li people who believe in witchcraft and ghosts.

Under the leadership of Tuyu and several other Li men, Zhang Huang, Cai Yan, Li Tong and others came to the tribe where the Li people lived. Although Cai Yan and the Black Feather Crows did not have the opportunity to carefully observe the whole tribe because of their distrustful relationship, they still noticed that from time to time, there were elderly people in the tribe who patiently taught the children of the tribe knowledge. Removing some strange and incomprehensible Li culture, they were surprised to find that the old people of the tribe could also teach the culture of the Han people, although only some of the most basic words, such as fish, knife, fire, and so on.

Seeing the stunned expressions of Cai Yan and the black feather crows. Zhang Huang smiled slightly in his heart, remembering that he was also taken aback at first.

Different from the Min tribe in the south of Guangling County, although this Li tribe has lived in seclusion in Juluze for a long time, it is not such a long-term closed barbarian to the outside world. It is also gradually absorbing the advanced Han culture. It's just that most of that is just to get acquainted with the "neighbors", or not to fall too far behind the "neighbors", in the true sense. The Li people are still reluctant to bury the inheritance of their ancestors in the hands of this generation. For example, they are still accustomed to stepping on muddy ground with bare feet, because they feel that only in this way can they become one with the earth that gave birth to them, with the spirits of the ancestors who are sacrificed, and with the "spirits" of the world to achieve some kind of communication that even Zhang Huang cannot understand.

Finally, Zhang Huang and the others brought Tuyu to a broken grass house in the depths of the tribe, and in front of this broken grass house, an old man who was over the age of sixteen and covered in a piece of animal fur was sitting on a wooden pier with squinting eyes and basking in the sun with his eyes on a bone staff made of the skull of a seeping beast.

When Zhang Huang and the others approached, the old man slowly opened his eyes and looked at Zhang Huang intently with slightly cloudy eyes.

"Wu, these people ......"

Tuyu walked up to the old man and said half a sentence respectfully, but was interrupted by the old man waving his hand.

The old man's name is not "Wu", which refers to his status in the tribe, that is, the shaman, even in the Jiuli period, he was the person with the highest status in the tribe without the chieftain, and sometimes even more prestige among the clansmen than the chief. Basically, the chief of the tribe is responsible for the leader of the entire tribe, and is fully responsible for the affairs of the tribe, while the shaman is responsible for teaching the next generation, or communicating with heaven and earth, ghosts and gods, and playing a prophetic role with incredible power and can guide the way for the tribe.

But with the evolution of history, after the Jiuli tribe suffered a catastrophe, the tribe gradually diluted the existence of the chief, and the most intelligent chief of the tribe, that is, the sorcerer, guided all the tribesmen, so to speak, in today's tribe, the great sorcerer in a tribe like the Li tribe is generally the only voice, the only direction of progress, and the only leader of the entire tribe. Of course, it is not excluded that in other places, some local tribes still follow the system of coexistence of chiefs and shamans.

"You're here, which means that our people finally have to leave here......"

After looking at Zhang Huang deeply for a long time, the old wizard let out a long sigh, his wrinkled old face full of reluctance to this land and helplessness to have to make a choice.

"......" Zhang Huang was stunned, looking at Cai Yan and the Black Feather Crows, they didn't understand why the old wizard would say this. (To be continued......)