Li An's help to the Ge Clan was undoubtedly huge. Among the three clans, the Ge Clan gained the most benefits, followed by the Jiang Clan. Since the Lu Clan didn't discover any metal ores, they could only mine coal in large quantities and supply it to the Ge Clan and the Jiang Clan in exchange for copper and iron ingots from the two clans. The living standards of the Lu Clan were also greatly improved, but definitely not as good as the Jiang Clan and the Ge Clan. In addition, Li An only gave the Lu Clan the technology to forge iron products, which was undoubtedly the least assistance.
In the Western Detention Area, there were not only these three tribes. There were more tribes waiting for Ang Lee. After leaving the Ge Tribe, he arrived at the Zhan Tribe. It was a relatively small tribe. The whole tribe only had a stone city. All the people lived together. There were also a few people living in the forest outside. However, these people were all hunters and woodcutters, and all of them were men. They lived outside for the convenience of chopping firewood and hunting. If they returned to the stone city every day, it would be very time-consuming. The efficiency of labor would be greatly reduced, and the benefits would also be reduced.
The Zhan Tribe was a relatively valiant tribe. The people here also made a living by farming and hunting. However, because there was only a relatively large area in the field, the rest of the flat land had no value for development. Therefore, the grain yield of farming was relatively low. As a result, hunting became quite important. There were more hunters in the Zhan Tribe. When the land was not enough to support so many people, hunting became the best way.
As a small tribe in the Western Detention Area, they occupied only a little more than a thousand people. These people lived in a small area of land and could be considered happy and contented. Their lives were not bad.
However, the closer they were to the area of Dongnu Province, the more remote they were and the greater the poverty level. The Ge Tribe was already very poor, and the Zhan Tribe was obviously even poorer. Many children here did not have clothes to cover themselves. Children under the age of six basically did not have clothes. Girls were better, but boys definitely did not have clothes. Even eight-year-old boys ran around naked. It seemed that they did not know how to be shy. Perhaps they were shy, but because they were too poor to wear clothes, they had no choice but to be naked. This was a very helpless choice.
In the later generations where people lived in affluence, many people might find it hard to understand. No matter how poor you were, you should still be able to afford clothes! Clothes could be worth a few thousand dollars, but this kind of thinking was obviously very wrong. Later generations had a very complete textile and light industry, which could produce large quantities of textiles in large quantities. In the backward ancient times, there were no advanced textile machines. All the cloth was made bit by bit by hand, and the raw materials also needed to be planted on the land.
Under the circumstances of limited arable land, if they were to plant textile crops on the arable land, there would not be enough arable land to grow food. As a result, the people would starve. Given a choice between starving and not having clothes, most people would choose not to wear clothes. After all, they would not die without clothes, but if they did not have food, they would starve to death. The importance of eating was far greater than wearing clothes. The limited land of the Occupied Clan was all used to plant food crops. Even so, it was still quite tight. Where would they find spare land to plant textile crops? And because of poverty, they did not have much money to buy cloth from outside. Even if they bought a small amount of cloth, they could only supply it to the adults first. The children could only suffer a little.
The Occupied Clan people were good at hunting. Since they did not have clothes to wear, they could wear animal skins on their bodies! However, this was also wishful thinking. The Occupied Clan people were good at hunting, but the animal skins they obtained from hunting were used to sell. Only by selling these animal skins could they have money to buy salt, cooking oil, soy sauce, vinegar, and other daily necessities. If they wore animal skins on their bodies, they would have no money to buy daily necessities. Life would be very difficult, and even difficult to continue.
Some of the inferior animal skins that could not be sold were naturally worn by the Occupied Clan people. However, only the adults had such treatment. Due to the lack of quantity, the young children also did not have the opportunity to obtain animal skins.
For safety, all the Occupied Clan people lived in Stone City. However, during the day, they would go to the nearby fields to work and take care of the crops in their respective fields. If they wanted the crops to grow well, they had to take care of them frequently. The more they took care of them, the better the crops would grow.
It should be known that in ancient times without herbicides, the weeds in the fields were quite stubborn. In a few days, the fields would be full of weeds. If these weeds were not removed in time, the growth of the crops would be greatly limited. When the harvest season came, the yield would be very low. In order to increase the yield of the crops as much as possible, the farmers would often go to the fields to weed. When there was a drought, they would also water their own fields. When it rained too much, they would also drain the excess rainwater to ensure the healthy growth of the crops.
The Occupied Clan people had already gone to the fields to work. Many children could not stay idle at home and would also run out. When the adults were working in the fields, they would catch fish in the small ditch next to the fields. The local ecology was quite good. In the Tang dynasty, when there were no pesticides or fertilizers, the small ditch next to the fields was often full of all kinds of fish and shrimp. For the children, these fish and shrimp were obviously the most attractive. Going to the ditch to catch fish and shrimp when they had nothing to do, this kind of happiness could only be understood by the children who had experienced it.
Looking at the group of naked children catching fish in the ditch in the distance, Ang Lee was lost in his memories. When he was young, Ang Lee often went to the ditch to catch fish. Although he never caught a big fish, he caught a lot of small fish. There were also countless shrimp like lobsters. In certain seasons, Ang Lee could eat delicious lobsters and all kinds of small fish almost every day. In his poor childhood, these lobsters and small fish were the most delicious delicacies he had ever eaten. Moreover, they were delicious delicacies that were free. The only cost was oil and salt. As for fuel, in rural areas, the fuel was straw and firewood, which were free. The water source was well water, which was also free.
Thinking about his childhood experience of catching lobsters and small fish in the fields, Ang Lee had a very happy feeling. He would think of a lot of particularly interesting details.
For example, once when he was catching fish in a small ditch, he found a small hole. He thought that there was a lobster in the hole, but when he put his hand in, he felt something soft. This scared Ang Lee and he quickly retracted his hand. What was this soft thing? Ang Lee was naturally very clear. This thing was very likely to be a snake, and Ang Lee was particularly afraid of snakes since he was young. When he thought of the horror of snakes, he panicked.
Another time, when he went to catch lobsters with his friends, because he caught the biggest one, his friends were jealous. In the case of not giving it to him, he was beaten by his friends. The extra-large lobster was also snatched by his friends. Although everyone was very happy when they played together, they would also encounter this kind of conflict. Being beaten by his friends was a very common phenomenon. Generally, they would not hold a grudge. Not long after, they would play together again. This kind of childhood conflict would not last long. Generally, it would not exceed a day. Of course, some friends would always bully someone. As a result, the hatred would last longer, or even forever.
Of course, Li An didn't have a deep memory of these memories. The one that left the deepest impression on Li An was when he went fishing in the river with his little sister. Although he was very young, Li An liked to play with his little sister since he was young. This was because his little sister was beautiful and pleasing to the eye. With a little sister by his side, he didn't feel tired doing anything.
Most importantly, there was an opportunity to peek. When they were fishing together, they had to bend down to search, and some parts would inevitably be exposed. Li An was naturally quite curious about this. Children didn't have many clothes on, and it was even easier for them to be exposed. Li An had never missed this opportunity to feast his eyes. Sometimes, he would be discovered by the girls, and he would suffer from some of them rolling their eyes. But most of the time, he wouldn't be discovered. Using the corner of his eye to peek was still very covert, and it wasn't that easy to be discovered.
The children who were playing naturally quickly discovered Ang Lee and his group. They had seen many merchants coming and going, but it was the first time they saw a group of a thousand people. It was inevitable that they would be very nervous. Because of this, they stopped playing and all ran back to inform their elders.
The Zhan clansmen who were working, under the children's reminder, also saw Ang Lee and his group arriving. They rarely had the opportunity to see such a large group. In the remote mountains, it was rare to encounter a caravan of a hundred people, let alone a group of a thousand people.
As they could see that the other party was not a thief, the Zhan clansmen continued working. But every once in a while, they would raise their heads to look at Ang Lee's group. Several Zhan clansmen also ran back to the main city to tell the news to their patriarch. As long as they encountered something big, they had to report to their patriarch. Thousands of people passing by was also not a small matter. Moreover, they also saw soldiers with weapons and the flag of the Tang dynasty. This was obviously not an ordinary caravan, but a group of the imperial court. They had to pay attention to it.
"Thousands of people from the imperial court have arrived in our Zhan clan. Why didn't they inform us in advance?"
The patriarch of the Zhan clan was a little old man in his fifties. After hearing the report from his clansmen, he said doubtfully.
He had also received several officials sent by the imperial court, but each time, he would send someone to inform them in advance and then come late. Each time, the number of people in the group would be about a dozen, but not more than fifty. This time, more than a thousand people came without informing him in advance. This made him feel very strange. At the same time, he was very nervous, not knowing what was going on.
Ang Lee did not send someone to inform them in advance because he did not want the Zhan clan to specially prepare for the reception. Ang Lee did not like these polite things. They were simply a waste of money. In Ang Lee's view, he was just passing through the Zhan clan's territory. There was no need for the Zhan clan to prepare anything. The Zhan clansmen did not need to prepare anything.
"Patriarch, since they are from the imperial court, we must go out of the city to welcome them!"
A clansman said.
The patriarch nodded and said, "Of course, we must welcome them. However, they did not inform us in advance. How can we make it in time? There is not enough time for all kinds of preparations. "
"Patriarch, these are not important. As long as we go out of the city to welcome them, it will be enough. Let the people in the city slowly prepare."
The clansman said.
The Zhan clan's patriarch nodded and said, "Alright, then let's hurry out of the city to welcome them. Let's go!"
Under the leadership of the patriarch, the hundreds of people in the main city of the Zhan clan left the main city to welcome Ang Lee and his group outside the city. A few patriarchs were sent to greet them in advance so that they could find out who the other party was.
"Assistant Minister Li, didn't we still alarm the Zhan clansmen? They still went out to welcome them."
Chen Long opened his mouth and said.
Ang Lee said helplessly, "That's right! We have too many people. It's impossible not to alarm them along the way. In fact, what is there to welcome? It's just some hypocritical pleasantries. My ears have grown calluses from listening to them. "
Soon, the Zhan clansmen arrived in front of Ang Lee. After asking a few questions, they quickly rode back.
"Since the Zhan clansmen have already made preparations to welcome us, then we can only satisfy them. Later, let everyone camp outside the city. Don't enter the city at will, so as to avoid disrupting the lives of the people in the city."
Ang Lee said.
Every time they arrived at a city, Ang Lee's request was the same. That was, the main force must be stationed outside the city. This was to prevent the city from becoming chaotic and disrupting the normal lives of the people in the city.
"This old man, along with the entire clan, respectfully welcomes Assistant Minister Li."
The Zhan clan's patriarch said respectfully.
Ang Lee stepped forward and shook the Zhan clan's patriarch's hand. He said, "Patriarch, you are too polite. I was just passing by. My destination is Dongnu Province, so I didn't inform you in advance."
"Oh, I see. But it's already late. Since Assistant Minister Li has come to our Zhan clan, then you should rest for the night before leaving. We have already prepared food and wine. I hope Assistant Minister Li won't mind."
The Zhan clan's patriarch said politely.
Although the distance between the Ge clan and the Zhan clan was not far, only about thirty to fifty li, the mountain roads were rugged and difficult to travel. As a result, by the time Ang Lee arrived at the main city of the Zhan clan, it was already very late. At most, it would be dark in another two hours. It was not impossible to stay for the night. After having enough rest, they would have the strength to continue the next morning.
"Since the patriarch is so hospitable, then this official will stay for the night. It's just that I'm disturbing the patriarch."
Ang Lee agreed and immediately stopped the group to set up camp.
The group had been walking for an entire day and was indeed tired. Resting for the night at the Zhan clan's place was not a bad choice. There was also free food to enjoy, so why not?
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