Tang Changsheng went deeper into the Tribal Stockade, where thatched huts and wooden houses stood wherever the terrain and trees allowed, with no plan to their arrangement.
These tribespeople had once lived in the mountains. During another of Old Marquis Wu's campaigns in the Southern Borderlands, they had pledged allegiance to him and rendered service. Only then had they moved down from the mountains, no more than twenty or thirty years ago.
Though they had kept "stockade" in the name, the place looked more like a village. Their way of life remained rudimentary, almost at the stage of slash-and-burn farming.
The stockade chief, however, spoke of it with pride. Since moving down from the mountains, they had lived well—far better than they ever had up there.
These tribespeople were poor farmers but good at raising cattle, and they hunted and fished from time to time. Marquis Wu governed them with a light hand; their annual tax was a token five head of cattle. All in all, they lived fairly well...
They prepared a great spread of food and drink for Tang Changsheng. It was not laid out on a table, though, but across the floor. The fare was simple, mostly mountain delicacies and wild game, along with beef, which was generally hard to come by in the Central Land.
Whether in the classical age of Tang Changsheng's original world or here in the Eastern Glory Lands, cattle were vital to farming. They pulled the plows, and slaughtering a draft animal was a serious crime.
In this Tribal Stockade, by contrast, cattle were plentiful, so beef was nothing precious. It was water buffalo meat, though, not yellow cattle.
The wine was dreadful. Made from fruit, it had fermented badly, and the crude brewing left it unpleasant to drink.
Of course, given