The cattle and sheep of the nomads were like the cultivated land of the Central Plains, they could not be eaten at will.
It was just that after Yan Liuyuan arrived, Hassan had been killing sheep for Yan Liuyuan to eat in order to show his respect. As for the rest of the tribe, only the young and strong could eat meat, and it was the livestock that had died in the snowstorm.
Little girls like Tsetseg, even though she was Hassan's daughter, did not receive any preferential treatment.
It was probably because of Hassan's fair character that he became the leader of this tribe.
Because Yan Liuyuan had the most distinguished status when he arrived here, he had never experienced the hardships of the nomads. When he and his Sister Xiaoyu saw that these people had their own cattle, sheep, and horses, they thought that they were quite rich, but they did not know that cattle and sheep could not be slaughtered at will. If such a large tribe only ate beef and mutton, they would probably have to kill several of them a day.
Their tribe could not afford such torment.
When Yan Liuyuan heard this, he began to carefully ask Tsetseg about the tribe's situation. Only then did he realize that not only could the people in the tribe not often eat meat, but they also rarely ate salt.
Salt was scarce on the grasslands, and the nomads had always supplemented their salt from mutton, beef, and goat's milk. The meat they usually ate was tasteless, and only the meat that Yan Liuyuan ate would have some salt in it.
But now, because they were not allowed to eat meat, there was no salt supplement. Many women and the elderly would suffer dizziness, muscle spasms, and nausea.
When this happened to the people in the tribe, because of the lack of knowledge, they all thought that they might be sick, so everyone prayed for the blessings of the gods by the fire pit, hoping that the gods could cure their illnesses.
There was no salt or medicine here, and only when they could not stand the hunger would they kill the sheep.
"Yes, you're all poor people in this era. Why would I think that you're living a good life?" Yan Liuyuan said with a wry smile, "This is my fault."
Yan Liuyuan asked Tsetseg to call Hassan. Hassan glared at his daughter on the way, then respectfully asked Yan Liuyuan, "Master, don't listen to Tsetseg. The tribe is not in such a difficult situation."
"Alright, listen to me." Yan Liuyuan said calmly, "The women and the elderly are experiencing nausea because they can't eat meat anymore, so they can't replenish their salt intake. We need salt."
Hassan said awkwardly, "Salt is very scarce. Only the big tribes have it. We have to pay tribute every year to get the precious salt."
Yan Liuyuan realized this was very similar to one of the ways the consortiums controlled the refugees. Wasn't Hassan's tribe just like the refugees outside the stronghold? They were constantly being controlled by others.
However, thinking of this, Yan Liuyuan became even more interested. He wanted to lead these people to a good life.
Yan Liuyuan asked curiously, "Don't you have the ability to find salt by yourself? The grasslands are so big, so you should be able to find some. Although it's not much, it's not to the point where there's none at all. "
"The salt ponds are all controlled by the big tribes, and there aren't many salt ponds in the grasslands to begin with." Hassan explained, "I heard the big tribes don't even have enough salt for themselves."
Yan Liuyuan carefully recalled some of the wilderness survival knowledge Ren Xiaosu had told him. He did not like to learn, but he always remembered what Ren Xiaosu had told him.
Yan Liuyuan suddenly said to Hassan, "Gather all the herdsmen and ask them if they remember where the cows used to lick when they were grazing."
He remembered Ren Xiaosu had told him that all mammals had to ingest salt. Humans had long lost their instinct to survive in the wilderness, but humans relied on their intelligence. If they could not find salt by themselves, they would get the animals to find it for them.
How did the animals in the grasslands replenish their salt intake? Some of the cattle farms in the Central Plains would put some coarse salt in the cowsheds for the cows to lick. There were salty lands on the grasslands, and the cows would find such places to replenish their salt intake.
Sure enough, Hassan got the answer after asking a few of his tribesmen.
After all, when they were grazing the cows, there were only a few places that the cows liked to lick. How could they not know?
Yan Liuyuan immediately set off and ran all the way to the grasslands with Hassan and the others.
What happened next was simple. He led a group of people to dig up the snow and brought a lot of soil under the grass back to the tribe.
Yan Liuyuan did not know how to extract the salt, but he knew that there must be some in the soil.
He could only use the stupid method of mixing water with the soil and then filtering it with cotton cloth over and over again until the water was clear before placing it in the fire pit for distillation!
In just a short while, Hassan, who was standing next to him, saw a faint layer of yellowish-white crystals at the bottom of the pot. There was very little of it, and because the extraction process was not up to standard, it looked very bad.
Hassan could not wait to rub a little of it with his finger and put it in his mouth. Then he looked at Yan Liuyuan in surprise and said, "Master, it's really salt!"
No matter how it looked, it was still salt!
Yan Liuyuan breathed a sigh of relief. In the past, Ren Xiaosu would go to the wilderness to look for the roots of walnut trees to boil water. The boiled water would be salty. At that time, it was Ren Xiaosu's job to look for food, but now it was his turn.
He said to Hassan, "Scrape these off, and then you guys go to the salty lands, just like I did just now, understand?"
"Okay, okay," Hassan said excitedly. As expected of a god, he could actually extract salt from barren soil. That was amazing!
In fact, the nomads had already mastered similar abilities before The Cataclysm. It was just that after civilization developed to a certain extent, there was no shortage of salt in the grasslands. In the north, they could even eat salt from thousands of miles away.
As for the nomads before The Cataclysm, when they went to school, they were already taught a standardized education. No teacher had ever taught them how to find salt in the grasslands.
Therefore, when The Cataclysm arrived, some people might still know about the existence of something like the Preface of King Teng's Pavilion, but they had no idea how to survive in the grasslands.
Gradually, the pressure of survival became so heavy that they even forgot about the Preface of King Teng's Pavilion.
All that was left was instinct. Later on, ambitious people rose up and started to consolidate the power of the grasslands, wanting to make the Central Plains their granary.
However, there was a mistake in their perception. When they went to the Central Plains, they realized that they were the ones who suffered the most after The Cataclysm. The Central Plains had long since established strongholds, and they even had guns and cannons …
The nomads on the grasslands did not even know what the South was like. Only Yan Liuyuan and Sister Xiaoyu knew the best.
Yan Liuyuan was sitting in a tent. Next to him, Sister Xiaoyu kept smiling at him. He asked, "Sister Xiaoyu, why are you smiling?"
"I'm smiling because you look a lot like your brother now." Sister Xiaoyu said gently, "He'll definitely be proud of you."
In the end, Sister Xiaoyu realized that Yan Liuyuan had suddenly fallen silent and had a downcast look on his face.
Yan Liuyuan whispered, "Sis, I'm starting to miss my brother."
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