Along the way, Huwa traveled all over the rivers from the south of Yunmeng Juze, and saw many tribes and subject countries in the land of China, and felt that the Chinese Empire was obviously different from the Ba country on the Ba Yuan. First of all, the customs of different places are very different, and secondly, the Chinese Son of Heaven does not directly rule all the tribes.

Of course, there are also differences in the customs and customs of various places in Ba Yuan, for example, the people of the Bai-Fronted Clan living on the east coast have many habits that are different from the residents around Badu City, and the Red Jin City at the foot of Wufu Hill on the plateau can even often see demon clans, and the locals are no longer strange.

But on the whole, the folk customs of various parts of Ba Yuan are quite similar, especially when comparing it with China. This is because every city on the Pakistan Plains was built by the country of Pakistan. When Yan Zhao entered Ba Yuan, Ba Yuan was still a wild jungle, and the process of establishing Ba Guo also completed the integration of various tribes and brought more advanced agricultural civilization.

In addition to the remote wilderness, Pakistan has achieved unified governance in Pakistan, which is related to the closed environment of Pakistan that is almost isolated from the outside world. Otherwise, with the transportation and communication conditions at that time, it was almost inconceivable to achieve direct unified governance within a radius of 3,000 miles.

The situation of the land of China is different, its territory is far wider than that of Bayuan, scattered large and small tribes, whether it is the level of production development or folk customs, there are great differences between each other, and there has been a long process of integration, differentiation, re-integration, re-differentiation of various tribes in history, and continuous migration to more remote areas.

The nominal scope of the Chinese Son of Heaven was the scope of the Chinese civilization that could radiate at that time, and for the remote tribes, the rule of the Chinese Son of Heaven was only to accept nominal allegiance and submission, through tribute and canonization.

The closer he is to the Central Plains, the stronger the control of the Chinese Son of Heaven over the core tribes, especially the tribes living in the Central Plains, and they are the core vassals of the Chinese Son of Heaven after the integration of Yan and Huang.

The Hougang clan is not very large, and now it has a total of more than 8,000 people, and the territory area they occupy is even far less than any of the five major tribes of Jiuli. But there is no comparison between the two, there is a useless wilderness in the southern wilderness, and on the shore of this water, there is a pastoral field that people have cultivated since ancient times, and the strength of the Hou Gang clan is not small, and its status cannot be ignored.

Hou Gang took the clan name of the tribe as his name, which was not given by himself, but given to him by Cangjie back then, and this name was also a symbol of certain qualifications, and only the clan leader could enjoy this title. For example, since ancient times, there is far more than one person who has been called Zhurong, and there are several people who are called Gonggong, but they must all be the leaders of Zhurong or Gonggong.

Hou Gang has been called Hou Gang since he was a child, and this title also indicates his status. Although the candidate for the head of the monarch needs to be jointly nominated by the leaders of the various branches and factions in the clan, no one can oppose the direct nomination of Hou Gang with the authority of Cangjie. Hou Gang did not really exercise the authority of the king, because he was too young at that time, and the elders of the clan took care of the affairs of the clan together.

In ancient times, ordinary men were generally considered adults at the age of sixteen, but as the head of a large clan, it was impossible to be so young if he wanted to officially take power. The customs of each tribe are different, some tribes require after reaching the age of 20, and some tribes are even more demanding, and they all have their own traditions.

Of course, there was a reason for such a tradition, and under the harsh conditions of the time, the chiefs of the tribes must first be able to ensure that they were mature and healthy, not only capable of judging and handling various affairs, but also not prone to death. In many cases, this definition is vague and uncertain, but the general principle is that the person is strong and has sufficient ability and experience.

But in this way, many people, including the heirs of the original chieftain and even the heirs who have already been designated, cannot actually become the next monarch. Because in those days, the possibility of accidental death was very high.

Hou Gang was taken away by Cangjie when he was fifteen years old, and it was said that he would return before the age of thirty, and if there was no news after the deadline, then Hou Gang would elect a new leader. Later, there were rumors that Cangjie had ascended to the sky, but there was no news of Hou Gang.

In ancient times, all the tribes attached great importance to the oath they had made, and although there was no news of Hou Gang, he was still the head of the Hou Gang clan until he was thirty years old. Hou Gang left at the age of fifteen, and returned at the age of twenty-eight, he was an official in Ba Yuan, and even served as a scholar in Ba Guo, and now he has broken through the Dacheng cultivation.

Going upstream along the water, you will enter the territory of the Hou Gang clan, which is completely different from the style of the Southern Wilderness Jiuli, and in the valley plain of the Great River Basin, it is a pastoral area that has been cultivated for thousands of years.

Along the way, the villages are connected, the smoke is wafting, and the villages are raising all kinds of livestock, a prosperous and peaceful scene. Huwa smiled: "Walking here, a trance is like walking outside Badu City." ”

Hou Gang also smiled: "It seems that during the years of my absence, the clansmen are still living and working in peace and contentment, and the scene in front of me is more and more cordial, and it is no different from when I left." His expression suddenly changed as he spoke, "Although it is the dry season at this time, in my childhood memory, this water has never stopped?"

When they walked along the shore of the river, the water in the river was very small, and it was the dry season, and the tiger baby was not familiar with this area, so she did not pay attention. However, when I walked across a bridge, I found that almost all of the river water flowed into a tributary under the bridge, and further on, the main channel of the river was close to breaking off.

There was still water flowing under the cobblestones scattered across the riverbed, but in Hougang's memory, the flow of the river in his hometown had never been so small.

Taiyi asked, "Is it freezing here in winter?"

Hou Gang replied: "The climate here is colder than that of the original Ba, and the shade will freeze in the harsh winter, but I have never seen this water cut off. "They had come all the way from the shore, and it was past the bitter winter and it was almost spring.

A few people walked on the road, talking with an extraordinary demeanor, obviously not ordinary, and many people in the villages along the way nodded to them, but no one recognized Hou Ganglai, after all, he had been away from his hometown for more than ten years. They went to a bazaar and inquired about it, and it turned out that the water had suddenly stopped flowing this winter.

There is still water in several nearby tributaries, and the drinking water of each village can also be drawn from wells, so it has not caused any serious impact for the time being. However, the water level in the well is also slowly declining, and as spring approaches, the water level in the main channel upstream of the water is still not restored, and many people are already worried.

No matter how prosperous a tribe is, there must be plenty of water in its territory. At that time, the cultivation of large fields was mainly dependent on the rain of God, supplemented by water irrigation. However, there was no rain or snow in the upper reaches of the river for a whole winter, and if it affected the spring planting, it could cause disaster.

After leaving the bazaar, Hou Gang said: "I originally wanted to go back to the ancestral land of the tribe, but now it seems that I should go to the city first, ask the city lord about the water cut-off, and remind him to prepare for the drought." Lechang, the city lord of Yuncheng, is my distant brother, and he has been the city lord for twenty years. ”

Lechang is twenty years older than Hou Gang, but Hou Gang calls him a clan brother, not about the age between cousins. As the designated heir of Cangjie, Hougang's status in the clan is the main branch, which is the most noble, somewhat similar to the meaning of "the eldest grandson of the long house" in later generations.

According to the tradition of the Hou Gang clan, no matter how old the Lechang City Lord is, Hou Gang is still the elder in the clan. In terms of kinship, Lechang is Hou Gang's distant cousin, but in terms of status in the clan, Hou Gang can still call him a clan brother.

"It seems like we're being targeted, and someone has been following us since we left the bazaar. ”

Hou Gang said: "I have lost all my magical powers now, but I haven't found it. But there are a lot of pedestrians on this avenue, and it's normal for someone to walk in the same direction as us, so how do you know he's following us?"

Looking back from the avenue, there was no man to be seen, who was far away. This is a main road that allows cars and horses to go in the direction of the city, and it is normal for people to travel together. And Hou Gang said that he had now lost all his magical powers, because when he arrived at the shore of the water, his cultivation had already advanced by half a step.

After the consummation of the Nine Realms of the Six Realms and the beginning of the breakthrough of the Seven Realms, if you want to cultivate further, you must be able to break through the realm of real people and return to Pu, and there are monks in later generations who are called Vacuum Tribulation. Of course, if you can foresee it in advance, the monk can not touch this realm, but with this thought, I am afraid that it will be even more difficult to break through the realm in the future.

Hou Gang's cultivation breakthrough was such a coincidence, just when he returned to his hometown, he could enter the realm of real people. I think that when he left his hometown, he was an ordinary person without cultivation, and when he returned now, he still looked like an ordinary person without supernatural powers, and of course he couldn't find anyone following him from a visual distance.

Ji Gu had just broken through the Five Realms in the Land of Jiuli, and the tiger baby taught him that walking, sitting and lying down were all practices, and when he was in a hurry, he should also unfold the Yuan Shen and integrate into the spiritual breath of heaven and earth, so he was very keenly aware of the abnormalities around him.

Taiyi said: "There are indeed people walking behind us, but there are many people walking in the same direction as us along the way, some people are resting halfway, some people have already driven over, and some people are further away, why do you say that person is following me and so on?"

Huwa also asked, "What's wrong with his behavior?"

Ji Gu scratched the back of his head and said, "How to say, his behavior is not obviously abnormal, and he looks no different from other pedestrians." But his position from us was so strange that he was not far away, only three miles away. If he hadn't deliberately followed us, he wouldn't have been so coincidental, and he would have been at the same speed as me at such a distance. (To be continued.) )