Not long after Shao Xuan returned home, Lang Ga came to inform him about the patrol. Every hunting group was responsible for an area, and they were divided into three groups, taking turns to guard the area.
Participating in the defense did not necessarily mean that they would encounter danger. It was just a precaution. After all, there were too many unknown factors in the river, and it was always good to be prepared.
"Mai and the others will start patrolling tonight. You come with me tomorrow morning to replace them." Lang Ga said.
"Okay, I got it. What do I need to bring?" Shao Xuan asked.
"You don't need to bring too much. Just some handy stoneware will be enough. You only need half a day each time." Lang Ga pointed to a place at the foot of the mountain, "Over there, by the river. It's not far from where you used to fish."
"You stayed in the cave last year, so you may not know. When the rainy season comes, the river level will rise a lot. It will probably reach … there." Lang Ga pointed to Shao Xuan.
There, there was a line made of stones. Below the stone line, there was not a single house.
Therefore, the people who lived at the bottom of the line would only live near the foot of the mountain, but would not directly build a house at the foot of the mountain. That was why the water level rose during the rainy season. The people who had temporarily camped near the river for fishing had all evacuated. Before the rainy season ended, they would not go near the river again.
Thinking that Shao Xuan might not know what would happen during the rainy season, Lang Ga specially told Shao Xuan some things that happened in the past years. When the rain outside became lighter, Lang Ga took Shao Xuan to walk around the area, so that Shao Xuan could be mentally prepared. Although the area they were guarding wouldn't be too difficult, they still had to pay more attention.
"That is to say, the hunting group will not leave for hunting until the rainy season ends?" Shao Xuan asked.
He had thought that they would only stay in the tribe for a while, and if there was no trouble, they would go hunting. But according to Lang Ga's words, did it mean that they would have to stay in the tribe for the whole rainy season? Then what would people with insufficient food eat?!
"There's nothing we can do about it. That's the rule of the tribe. For example, there are many people on the mountain. They store a lot of food, and the level of their prey is also high, so they can survive. But those at the foot of the mountain are in trouble. Even if they store some meat, the level of the meat is not high, so the energy provided is limited. Most of the time, they will still be hungry. Lang Ga chuckled. "This is much better than winter, because during the rainy season, some things will come out. We can pick them up and eat them."
"Things?" Shao Xuan couldn't help but frown when he thought of the various insects that came out of the training ground. If there was really nothing to eat, he could only start with them.
"You'll know when the time comes." Lang Ga didn't want to say too much. "Anyway, you won't starve to death."
Hmm?
Shao Xuan was really curious now. According to Lang Ga's words, it was not the kind of insects that appeared in the training ground, but something else?
"It's only once a year. Although it may be dangerous, you'll be fine as long as you're careful. Don't worry." Lang Ga clenched his fist and hammered Shao Xuan's shoulder to encourage him.
Shao Xuan rubbed his shoulder and looked at the river in the rain.
From time to time, river overlords would appear on the river surface in the distance. After observing those river overlords, Shao Xuan had some doubts. Those river overlords seemed to be heading in the same direction, which could be seen from the way they leaped. If it was an individual case, it would be fine. But all the river overlords that appeared on the water surface were all heading in the same direction. There was no exception!
"Is that the upstream or downstream of the river?" Shao Xuan pointed at the direction where the river overlords leaped and asked Lang Ga.
"Upstream or downstream? I don't know. I've never been there. It's too far. "Lang Ga didn't care. For him, there was no difference between upstream and downstream of the river, so he didn't think too much about it.
Shao Xuan looked in that direction, thinking about where it was and why those river overlords were heading in that direction. The river was big enough. If it wasn't fresh water, people would think that it was a sea at first glance … A sea?!
Could it be a river that flowed into the sea?!
Shao Xuan recalled the two hunting expeditions he went out with the hunting team, and speculated about the direction and terrain. He came to a conclusion that those river overlords were probably heading downstream of the river. If this river really flowed into the sea, then why would those river overlords swim towards the sea during the rainy season?
Many fish would swim back and forth periodically due to reproduction, food, wintering, and many other factors. This was the so-called migratory characteristic. Then, were these river overlords also carrying out similar migratory behavior?
Shao Xuan shook his head. Everything was just a guess. Even if he asked Lang Ga and the others, they wouldn't get the answer, because they didn't even know what a sea was.
Whether those river overlords were swimming in a direction during the rainy season or not, Shao Xuan couldn't do anything about it now. However, when he went back later, Shao Xuan would record these phenomena in his "notebook".
Shao Xuan had already sorted out some animal skins suitable for recording things, including the pictures he saw in the cave. Shao Xuan had drawn them out from memory and stored them away. If the animal skins couldn't be kept for too long, he would copy them on stone slabs.
Shao Xuan moved his eyes away from those giant beasts in the distance, and looked at the river bank for a while. Suddenly, he said, "Lang Ga, do you think it's okay to build some fish fences here?"
Lang Ga was thinking about how much food they could get this rainy season, but Shao Xuan's words pulled him back to reality. He asked in confusion, "Fish fences? What's that? "
"It's something made of wooden sticks and nets to catch fish." Shao Xuan roughly described it, and then continued, "I'm thinking if we can use these fish fences to make a simple trap."
"Trap?" Lang Ga's eyes suddenly lit up.
"It's actually very simple …" Shao Xuan took out his stone knife and drew on the ground.
Lang Ga, who also knew how to set traps, could infer what Shao Xuan meant when he saw what Shao Xuan said and connected it to the drawing on the ground.
Patting his head, Lang Ga said regretfully, "Why didn't I think of this before?"
Shao Xuan wanted to make a simple fish fence-style trap. It wasn't difficult, and it didn't require any more sophisticated settings. Like setting a fish fence, it was just a fence made of wood or stone pillars. The fish fences would roll inwards like mosquito coils, but some were round inwards, and some were square inwards. Shao Xuan wanted to see the differences. The only opening of this kind of simple fish fence-style trap was facing the river.
Or he could use the fish fences to make a pocket, like the letter omega "ω". Unlike the former, this kind of trap had its back facing the river, so when the tide went down, the fish swimming in would be trapped inside.
Unless the fish swimming in were very intelligent, they could generally be trapped. Shao Xuan had tried it in his previous life.
However, Shao Xuan had never participated in the tribe's rainy season patrol, so he didn't know if he could add such a setting, so he asked Lang Ga.
"Yes, yes! No problem at all! " Lang Ga looked at the river level that hadn't started to rise yet, and called Shao Xuan, "Let's hurry up and find some stones. Before the river level rises, let's set up this trap!"
Because some things in the river ate wood, they couldn't use wood to set up fish fences. They could only use stones. However, when they didn't pay attention to stones, it was relatively easy to make stone pillars for the fish fences.
Therefore, when Mai brought the first group of people to start patrolling, he saw Shao Xuan and Lang Ga working on the river bank. From the place near the river to the stone line set up by the tribe, there were fish fences at a certain distance.
Because they were in a hurry and didn't pay attention to aesthetics, the stone pillars weren't uniform in thickness. Some of them were even as thick as a person's thigh, and people could stand steadily on them.
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