We made you the chief, and now you've become the world's chief?

Chapter 119 Development of the Da Clan
"vomit……"

On the newly made wooden bed, Dali gagged, her eyes reddening, clearly having held back tears.

But he still smiled happily, played with it for a while, and then put it back into his mouth.

"hiss……"

Xia Minghao took a deep breath and savored the wonderful moment.

Originally, Xia Minghao wanted to imitate the saying "passing by his home three times without entering," but today he still went home.

Consider it a celebration that I've discovered the power of the totem that I can control.

The aftereffects of the totem's power are gradually fading. Although I haven't fully recovered yet, I feel it won't be long.

This way, you don't have to worry about the inconvenience caused by being carefree and undisciplined.

Reaching out to stroke Dali's little head, Xia Minghao enjoyed a moment of tenderness.

The cattails burned out, and darkness returned to the earthen house.

Dali's development is almost complete; it's time to consider properly developing the Da clan on the other side of the river.

As soon as it gets light, Xia Minghao will lead his men to the Da clan.

……

……

……

Compared to the previous few days, the rain has become significantly heavier.

If it was like this inside Yanquan Mountain, it was even worse outside the mountain, with torrential rain pouring down.

"If the wolf tribe comes, you must not retreat. Once they charge in, you will all die, your families and children will die, and the entire Xia tribe will die!"

Xia Minghao said to the guards.

The armed force had now grown to fifty men.

Given the current rate of food production, this number of demobilized troops has reached its limit.

If there aren't enough people, use traps to make up for it.

After confirming that they had enough resources, such as timber, that needed to be obtained from outside, Xia Minghao began a large-scale excavation of the Jinlin Cave.

They even dug out a corner of the ancient tree's roots.

Several deep pit traps were created.

In this situation, unless the members of the wolf tribe transform into their human-wolf forms, falling down means certain death.

If they transform into werewolf form and wait for time to pass before reverting to human form, their combat power will be greatly reduced. With bronze weapons and an archer team, we can easily handle them.

The archery team now had nine qualified archers.

This is already a very considerable number.

After slightly punishing Datun, who had previously been reluctant to draw his bow against his own kind, he became even more diligent in teaching him, seemingly with the intention of redeeming himself through meritorious service.

This also allowed Xia Minghao to further appreciate the effectiveness of combining kindness and severity.

"Bab!"

Xia Minghao shouted, and the strong Babo, who was on duty at the nearby cave, ran over.

Babo is now fully conscious, and the first thing he does upon opening his eyes is ask to join the armed force and kill the wolf tribe.

Xia Minghao was naturally happy to accept this and was prepared to give him a bronze artifact directly.

The Wolf Killing Tribe can't function without the right tools.

Lipa quickly retrieved a bronze halberd and handed it to Xia Minghao, who then gave it directly to Babo.

"This can kill the wolf tribe. If the wolf tribe kills your tribe, you can kill their tribe."

After hearing this, Babo did not utter any grand words. He simply gripped the bronze artifact tightly, staring at the sharp blade, his eyes burning with hatred.

"Kill a wolf tribe and you'll get bear fangs."

"Yes, Chief."

No amount of incentives can be too much, so Xia Minghao made a direct promise.

If Babo really could kill a member of the Wolf Tribe, then he would indeed be a hero of the Xia Tribe. Giving him a bear fang and letting him lead ten armed men would be just right.

Looking at the cave entrance riddled with traps, the sharp wooden fences added to both sides of the cave, and the two new wooden frames containing rolling log traps, Xia Minghao finally felt much more at ease.

Even if everyone had someone like Babo, Xia Minghao wasn't prepared to place all his hopes on them.

After all, no one can say for sure whether they can be relied upon in the end, so it is more appropriate to place our hopes on these concrete preparations.

A flash of lightning illuminated the dark clouds, followed by a clap of thunder. Xia Minghao was wearing a new nettle robe covered with a raincoat made of canvas bark, and behind him were Liba and a dozen other men, all dressed the same.

Apart from Liba, who serves as a deterrent, the others are experienced craftsmen from the Xia tribe and newcomers who have just joined the Xia tribe.

After all, this trip was to develop the Da clan, not to quell a rebellion.

The Da clan has been completely incorporated into the Xia tribe. With the wise men and Damon in charge, Wolfskin and others can't cause any trouble.

Moreover, now that we have the totem stone to save our lives, we have nothing to worry about.

He touched the oval wooden box hanging on his chest; it was made overnight by someone hired by Hima.

It uses a sliding structure, so the totem stone can be easily pushed into your hand to activate the power of the totem.

"set off!"

Another distant clap of thunder sounded, and Xia Minghao led his men out of the cave.

Once outside the mountains, the sound of the heavy rain was deafening.

Xia Minghao directed everyone to begin moving the largest wooden boat into the water, while also placing wooden scoops on it. Crossing that log bridge now was definitely unsafe; they might all be washed away by the heavy rain.

Moreover, the roads are muddy and difficult to travel during the rainy season. After some thought, it was best to take a boat across the small river into the swamp, and then pass through the dense reeds to reach the destination.

Half the people rowed the boat with oars, and the other half scooped water.

The wooden boat moved forward, carrying several jars of salt, intended as a supplement to the salt supply for the Da clan.

At first, crossing the river was the only difficult part.

But it wasn't a problem for Xia Minghao; it was just a matter of "crossing the river in a small boat."

By turning the boat around and making it travel at an angle, they quickly overcame the problem caused by the increased flow of the river due to the heavy rain and arrived at the relatively calm swamp.

As the rowing speed increased, the wooden boat soon entered the reed beds.

Xia Minghao was also surprised to discover groups of strange, fluffy, big fur balls.

The heavy rain obscured the view, but I still had to look carefully before I could figure out what it was.

It turns out that those clumps of big, fluffy balls in the reeds are wild ducks.

Hiding in the reeds, with its two wings spread out, it becomes a natural umbrella.

Some wild ducks would shake their bodies from time to time, shaking off all the rainwater that couldn't seep into their downy feathers.

Aren't wild ducks exactly what I'm after this time?!
I never expected it to be so easy to obtain!
"Back up the network!"

Xia Minghao called out to those behind him, and several of the rowers stepped forward and immediately took out a net woven from thick ropes that had been prepared beforehand.

Since the goal was to capture wild ducks, they naturally made ample preparations.

They took almost all of the Xia tribe's fishing nets and made some improvements.

With one swipe of the net, half of the flock of wild ducks that had been seeking shelter from the rain disappeared into the water and escaped, while the other half were all caught in the net.

Once pulled, the net was retrieved, and a count revealed that there were more than a dozen wild ducks inside.

Nearby, wild ducks sought shelter from the rain in the reeds.

Looking at the reeds stretching along the boundary between the swamp and the forest, one wonders how many wild ducks are among them.

"Quack, quack, quack!"

The wild duck that was being held, not knowing what was going on, started quacking and flapping its wings.

Xia Minghao took a closer look at the wild duck and found that its feathers were quite thick, especially the down, which was even denser than the down-producing ducks he had seen in modern society.

It is estimated that they evolved to be like this in order to adapt to the special climate of this region.

This duck down is really a good thing.

Seeing the thick duck down, Xia Minghao was reminded of the duck down quilt he used to sleep under when he was a child.

It's soft and supple, thick but not heavy, and feels great to cover yourself with in the dead of winter.

It's even better than cotton!

It's a pity; if these wild ducks are eaten, then there will be no more duck down production.

Ducks are a treasure trove of resources, otherwise they wouldn't be the mainstay of poultry and the most common delicacy on people's dining tables.

If raised, they can produce duck eggs and down, and when they get old, you can eat their meat.

Xia Minghao felt a little reluctant to kill him now.

If we don't kill any of them, and can keep all the wild ducks in this reed bed for breeding, with such a large population, once they recover, it will result in a large output of duck eggs and a source of duck down.

But if they were to actually eat them, with two people eating one duck a day, the entire Xia tribe would need to consume thousands of wild ducks just to get through the rainy season. That would be a huge number, essentially overdrawing the future potential of duck farming.

While I was thinking, I had already caught dozens of wild ducks with a net.

Soon someone discovered a new gathering area of ​​wild ducks, asked Xia Minghao for permission, and after receiving it, immediately turned the boat around and headed towards the new destination.

Just then, a piece of rotten wood that hadn't sunk despite being battered by the rain suddenly appeared and rushed toward the flock of ducks.

The wild ducks scattered instantly, but one was still bitten into the jaws of the giant crocodile.

Liba was so frightened that he quickly gripped the bronze spear in his hand.

He hadn't participated in netting wild ducks or boating before, because his job was to guard against the dangers of the swamp.

Although based on previous experience, crocodiles do not attack wooden boats, it is still necessary to be prepared for the possibility.

The others who were planning to continue catching ducks were filled with frustration, because the giant crocodile had ruined all the ducks they had in their grasp.

Only Xia Minghao's eyes flickered.

How could I forget about this thing? A giant crocodile!
Moreover, the large number of wild ducks indicates that the number of crocodiles is definitely far greater than what I saw.

If we could hunt giant crocodiles in large numbers, we could completely solve the food problem.

This crocodile is so big that it could easily feed ten people until the end of the rainy season.

Furthermore, it can promote the large-scale breeding of ducks in swamps in the future.

When the natural predators of wild ducks are gone, their numbers will inevitably surge.

And these two-legged creatures will also replace the crocodile's ecological niche, helping the wild ducks control their population size.

Simply kill two birds with one stone!
"Stop grabbing them, hurry up and row the boat to the clan first."

"Yes, Chief!"

Xia Minghao immediately changed his strategy. At present, there was no good way to catch crocodiles. If he wanted to catch crocodiles in large numbers, he would need a large number of people provided by the Da clan.

It's best to arrive as soon as possible and then discuss things further.

(End of this chapter)