I am a Primitive Man
Chapter 794 — The Wind Tribe
The newly built road was four meters wide.
The donkeys in the tribe, including their carts’ wheels, were nearly 1.4 meters wide at their widest. Two donkey carts side by side would total about 2.8 meters. For two carts meeting on the road, at least three meters of width was needed to pass safely.
If both carts carried loads extending beyond their bodies—such as hay or freshly harvested grain—they would need even more space.
A width of about four meters was just enough for safe passing.
Considering the possibility of larger livestock like cattle and horses in the future, and the wider vehicles that would come with them, four meters was still somewhat narrow. Ideally, the road should be five meters wide.
However, after much thought, Han Cheng decided to keep the road width at four meters.
This choice reduced a significant amount of work.
As for the problem that the road would be too narrow when ox carts or horse-drawn carts appeared in the tribe, Han Cheng had a solution.
Every li (about 500 meters), they would build an additional lane on one side of the road, one meter wide and fifteen meters long—something like an emergency lane or a bus stop.
When two large vehicles met and could not pass on the normal road, one could pull over into this lane to let the other pass.
Though somewhat inconvenient, this solution saved a lot of work compared to building an extra 200 li of one-meter-wide road.
Earlier, Han Cheng jokingly told Bai Xue that once the Bronze Highway was completed, they would hitch up a donkey cart, bring food, travel, have fun, and visit the Copper Mountain Residential Area’s colorful pools.
Somehow, Bai Xue spread the word.
Now, the entire Green Sparrow Tribe knew about this plan and was very eager for such a trip.
With such anticipation, everyone in the tribe worked enthusiastically on the road construction.
In the first two days, the tribe members were inexperienced and cautious, but after that, they gradually adapted and the speed of road building increased.
Through hard work, a wide, flat, mostly straight road slowly took shape, extending farther west.
After about three days, when skilled people like Lame and Shitou had mastered measuring the road’s width and marking it with lime powder, Han Cheng sent people to the Copper Mountain Residential Area to teach the road specifications and construction methods.
Starting construction from both ends would significantly improve progress.
At the same time, they needed to transport another batch of grain and some necessary tools there.
Since the Copper Mountain Residential Area had not yet fully developed, it wouldn’t achieve food self-sufficiency until after this year’s autumn harvest.
Hiring the Wind Tribe and neighboring tribes to work on the road would require food supplies, which meant large food consumption.
So, they had to transport grain from the main tribe.
Salt and pottery—used as wages—also needed to be sent.
Originally, Han Cheng planned to have Shang, Mao, and others lead the trade team on this trip.
But later, he reconsidered and decided to go himself.
Because the new hiring system—never before tried in the tribe—would be implemented with the Wind Tribe and its neighbors, Han Cheng worried that Third Senior Brother and others might not handle it well or cause problems.
Also, traveling along this newly cleared road suitable for humans and deer allowed him to make minor adjustments to unreasonable parts of the previous route to improve it.
Since he planned this road and knew many details better than anyone else, it was best if he handled this personally.
For these reasons, one day later, Han Cheng donned his rattan armor and, along with the trade team carrying many supplies, headed toward the Copper Mountain Residential Area again…
After an arduous journey, Han Cheng and the trade team arrived at the Copper Mountain Residential Area.
Third Senior Brother and the others, who had eagerly awaited their arrival, were extremely excited.
They had been impatient to start road construction.
Not only them, but even the trade team members Mao and Shang became very eager after witnessing the load capacity of the donkey carts.
After the road was built, traveling between the Green Sparrow main tribe and Copper Mountain Residential Area would no longer be such arduous labor.
However, the idea of starting the Bronze Highway early was only a plan.
After they had prepared everything, the Wind Tribe people and the neighboring tribe, who were expected to have arrived long ago, still had not come.
When Han Cheng’s group returned from Copper Mountain Residential Area to the Green Sparrow main tribe, it was already the third day since the old primitive man had left.
The return trip took about twenty days due to route confirmation and clearing.
After staying in the main tribe for five or six days, they left again and spent another five or six days traveling to Copper Mountain Residential Area.
Counting all this, it had been a bit over a month since the old primitives left Copper Mountain Residential Area.
According to what the old primitives told Mao earlier, they wouldn’t take so long to arrive.
Yet now, Han Cheng’s group had come, but the others had not.
What were these people doing? Why did they stand them up without reason?
Did something happen while they were en route to find the neighboring tribe? Did they suddenly lose interest in doing this?
Han Cheng frowned slightly, pondering this previously unconsidered matter.
It probably wasn’t that they deliberately stood them up.
This wasn’t because Han Cheng had some extraordinary confidence in his own charisma, but rather because he was strongly confident in the value of salt and pottery.
From his years of experience, Han Cheng had an obvious understanding of how attractive these two items were to the tribes.
With salt and pottery on the table, Han Cheng didn’t believe the Wind Tribe people would no-show.
Moreover, based on the behavior of the old primitives before, they didn’t seem like the type to stand others up either.
So the only remaining possibility was that they had been involved in an accident.
In this era, any kind of accident was not surprising. Many things could cause death, or even the destruction of a whole tribe…
Thinking of this, Han Cheng felt frustrated and scratched his head.
All the well-planned ideas he had before now seemed like illusions, like flowers in a mirror or the moon’s reflection on water…
Indeed, plans can’t keep up with changes; man proposes, but fate disposes!
Han Cheng thought gloomily.
When, after another day, the old primitives still hadn’t shown up, Han Cheng decided not to wait any longer.
Instead, he pulled some people from the Copper Mountain Residential Area and, together with the trade team, started the work directly.
Han Cheng and the trade team wouldn’t stay here too long.
They were currently building a demonstration stretch of road. After teaching those pulled from the mining and copper-tin smelting work how to do it, they would return to the main tribe.
Then some people would be sent from the main tribe to continue building in the Copper Mountain Residential Area.
Although this would delay some work and impact the Green Sparrow main tribe somewhat, if the Wind Tribe still didn’t show, Han Cheng had little other choice.
While working on the road here, Han Cheng often looked northwest, hoping the Wind Tribe people would arrive.
However, the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment.
Five days passed again, and the Wind Tribe people still hadn’t appeared…
“Sigh!”
After throwing a copper shovel full of earth onto the road surface, Han Cheng leaned on the shovel and looked northwest again toward the Copper Mountain Residential Area—but there was still no sign of movement.
This was already the seventh day since they started working, and nearly 800 meters of road had been built.
Those drawn from Copper Mountain Residential Area had already become skilled at road-building techniques, only needing the stones laid out here to mark the lines and help find the exact road position.
As for Han Cheng and the others, they were ready to pack up and return.
It seemed they really couldn’t count on the Wind Tribe.
Sighing, Han Cheng sniffled a little and thought gloomily that this might be the most frustrating thing he’d encountered since coming to this era.
No, he had to find the Wind Tribe himself.
Han Cheng was a fickle man; the decisions he’d made earlier were suddenly changing again.
Mainly, because after all the planning, just as everything seemed settled, this setback made him restless, wanting to know precisely what had happened to the Wind Tribe.
If something bad really happened, understanding the reason would help prepare defenses.
After all, according to the old primitives, their home wasn’t too far from the Copper Mountain Residential Area.
Still, even so, finding the Wind Tribe wouldn’t be easy, since no one in their tribe had ever been there.
With only a rough direction and no road knowledge, finding a tribe of at most a hundred people wouldn’t be easy without excellent luck.
This was also why Han Cheng had never had the idea to look for the Wind Tribe before.
Now that the idea had come up, Han Cheng lost interest in continuing roadwork here.
After shouting out loud, an hour later, a group of people armed with weapons, accompanied by many dogs and deer carrying food, exited the Copper Mountain Residential Area gate and headed northwest.
The farther from Copper Mountain Residential Area, the scarcer human traces became.
Mao, Shang, and the trade team members widened their eyes, hoping to find signs left behind when the Wind Tribe people passed through this barren area…
The old primitive man stayed in the tribe for one day. After recalling the words of the highly respected divine child in that tribe, they gathered some food and simple weapons. They set off northward along the migration route they had taken since the beginning of spring, to find the neighboring tribe and share the excellent news with them.
To increase their credibility, the old primitive man also brought along a pottery bowl and some salt, carefully wrapped in layers of animal hides.
After some time, the old primitive man returned to the place they had lived in the north with several others.
After a brief rest there, they headed toward the location of the neighboring tribe as remembered…
“￥%#￥?!”
A primitive man, his face marked by patches of discoloration left from frostbite, grabbed the old primitive excitedly and asked something.
This relatively strong man was the leader of the tribe adjacent to the Wind Tribe, both before and after the migration.
Because they had always been neighbors of the Wind Tribe, for convenience, they were called the Neighboring Wind Tribe.
Not only the leader, but all those in the Neighboring Wind Tribe who understood the old primitive’s meaning now looked at them with unexpected joy.
Feeling their eager gazes, the old primitive man suddenly felt very comforted, as if it were they who had defeated the evil Flying Snake Tribe, sharing their pride.
With this mood, under the expectant eyes of the Neighboring Wind Tribe, the old primitives continued to talk about the destruction of the Flying Snake Tribe and the kindness and strength of the Green Sparrow Tribe…
“Green Sparrow Tribe?”
After a while, the leader of the Neighboring Wind Tribe repeated the name in a stiff and strange accent.
During the story, the old primitives mentioned that strange-sounding tribe name far more often than the evil Flying Snake Tribe, which the leader considered the most crucial topic.
After the joy, the leader and people of the Neighboring Wind Tribe looked at the old primitives with disbelief.
In their understanding, the evil Flying Snake Tribe was so powerful as to be unstoppable.
And now, these people claim that the evil and powerful Flying Snake Tribe was defeated by a tribe with such a strange name?
Could there really be such a tribe capable of wiping out the unbeatable Flying Snake Tribe?
Seeing their reaction and hearing their doubts, the old primitives became quite annoyed because they felt that the strong, wealthy, and kind tribe should not be doubted like this!
After quietly getting upset for a while, the old primitives remembered the salt and large pottery bowl they had brought.
“#￥%DF?”
They carefully unwrapped the pottery bowl from its animal skin wrapping and then removed the salt, which had been preserved in layers.
These two things, never seen before, immediately attracted all the attention of the Neighboring Wind Tribe.
Facing their curious questions, the old primitives ignored them with a proud attitude, busily doing their own thing — putting some water into the pottery bowl, carefully placing it over the fire, then adding some food inside…
“#￥%TY!?”
When the leader and some people of the Neighboring Wind Tribe tasted the “carefully” cooked delicious food prepared by the old primitives, they immediately lost their composure, full of surprise…
After the old primitives revealed these two powerful items—pottery and salt—the Neighboring Wind Tribe immediately believed their words.
Because previously, the Wind Tribe did not have these magical items.
When the old primitives proudly said that if they returned and made two trips with them to the Green Sparrow Tribe, they could get these delicious items from the kind and generous Green Sparrow Tribe, the leader of the Neighboring Wind Tribe, who was originally planning to wait a bit longer before migrating back, could no longer wait!
Immediately, he patted his chest, declaring they were willing to migrate back right away and accompany the old primitives to that strong and kind tribe.
Indeed, as Han Cheng thought, the vast majority of tribes had no resistance to the appeal of salt and pottery…
The next day, the leader of the Neighboring Wind Tribe led his people away from this sorrowful place.
They left without any hesitation, because they had lost too many lives here…
After an arduous journey and getting lost twice, the Neighboring Wind Tribe finally returned to their original home.
Looking at this familiar yet strange place, many of them were overwhelmed with emotion, and some older people even shed tears.
When they left before, they thought they would never return, but now, the evil Flying Snake Tribe had actually been destroyed by a kind tribe…
After making some arrangements upon their return, the leader of the Neighboring Wind Tribe eagerly sent people with the old primitive man to the Wind Tribe, preparing to go together to the strong and kind Green Sparrow Tribe.
Along the way, the leader tasted salted food from the old primitive man twice, an unforgettable flavor.
When the old primitive man returned with some people of the Neighboring Wind Tribe and expressed their plan to lead a group soon back to the kind Green Sparrow Tribe, the Wind Tribe leader, who was previously excited and happy about the matter, now frowned deeply.
Because during the old primitive man’s absence, the Wind Tribe leader suddenly realized something.
According to the number of pottery shards provided by the kind tribe, sending the corresponding number of adults to build roads and exchange for salt and pottery would leave the tribe with insufficient manpower to gather enough food for everyone.
Moreover, those sent to “build roads” also had to carry their own food and couldn’t always eat the kind tribe’s food.
In his view, exchanging labor for precious salt and pottery was already a massive gain for his tribe.
To eat the kind tribe’s food on top of that was really going too far.
Though primitive, they were clear about some things.
After understanding the leader’s point, the old primitive man, who had been eager to hurry to the Green Sparrow Tribe, also fell silent.
He felt the leader was right.
After meeting the Green Sparrow Tribe, they realized that their tribe had been taken advantage of.
The Green Sparrow Tribe not only helped them destroy the evil Flying Snake Tribe, but they no longer needed to fear attacks.
But also brought many benefits in subsequent exchanges.
Under these circumstances, they couldn’t rely on road-building to exchange for delicious salt and precious pottery while still eating the kind tribe’s food, right?
Not only the old primitives, but others in the tribe also strongly agreed with the Wind Tribe leader’s words.
After some time, the old primitives spoke up.
His meaning was to send fewer people to the Green Sparrow Tribe for road building, bring all the food the tribe could store, and bring their own food to build the road with the kind Green Sparrow Tribe.
This proposal was unanimously agreed upon.
Thus, the Wind Tribe people soon busied themselves preparing their scarce stored food to be carried by the old primitives and others going to build the road, in exchange for salt and pottery.
They even made extra efforts to gather more food around the tribe to bring along.
A few days later, the old primitives and seven or eight others, plus five people from the Neighboring Wind Tribe, set off with large bundles, ready to go build roads with the Green Sparrow Tribe…