Chapter Summaries

Jianya led Hunting Team One into West Mountain Hollow to capture wild boar piglets without harming them. The team escaped the angry sow with six piglets and returned to the tribe, where Wang Yan arranged a sheltered nest for them.

• Jianya led Hunting Team One, including Daya, through the forest toward West Mountain Hollow to capture piglets alive.
• The team found a sow with her litter and used hemp-rope nets to trap the piglets while distracting the sow with noise.
• Daya and another team member placed six piglets in grass-lined baskets, and Jianya ordered the team to retreat without injuries.
• The team returned to the tribe with the piglets, and Wang Yan directed the tribespeople to build them a sheltered nest in the taming pen.

The Fire Tribe continued preparing to welcome more people as Dabang's team traveled to Salt Rock Slope to gather salt ore. After driving off a hungry wolf pack, the team carried their haul home, aware that the salt could strengthen the tribe but came with danger.

• Jianya's team brought back four young wild goats and two fawns as the Fire Tribe expanded its animal pens and stocked food for winter.
• Dabang led ten team members north to Salt Rock Slope, carrying woven bamboo baskets made under Wang Yan's guidance.
• Dabang ordered the team to scrape salt-rich rock while Shibang, Yingmu, and other youths guarded the area.
• A pack of seven or eight starving wolves emerged from the western woods and approached the team.
• Dabang rallied his team to roar and strike the rocks, frightening the wolves into retreat.
• Dabang's team filled their baskets with salt ore and hurried home, recognizing the danger of gathering it.

Wang Yan planned to make the Fire Tribe more self-sufficient by planting wild vegetables, fruit trees, and grain. Jianshi agreed to send a party to the Fish Tribe after the autumn market to trade pottery for grain seeds, with Wang Yan joining the expedition.

• Wang Yan persuaded Qingye and the gathering teams to collect and store roots, tubers, and seeds for planting next spring.
• Wang Yan marked promising wild fruit trees and told Gubang and Daya they would transplant them near the tribe.
• Wang Yan showed Jianshi and Jianya a map of proposed planting areas for vegetables, fruit trees, and grain.
• Wang Yan proposed trading the Fire Tribe's best pottery with the Fish Tribe for grain seeds and insisted on joining the journey.
• Jianshi approved the plan to travel to the Fish Tribe after the small market and trade for seeds.

The Fire Tribe expanded its settlement by building new huts, preparing growing areas, digging a fishpond, and enlarging its animal pen. Wang Yan proposed defending the growing valley with walls and a ditch, and Jianshi agreed to begin construction this winter.

• Dazhuang directed workers building rows of connected huts, while Aunt Luye, Yingmu, and Shugen helped the construction advance.
• Workers dug and prepared the planned vegetable and grain fields under Granny Cao’s guidance, and hunters dug a fishpond with flowing water.
• The Fire Tribe laid the foundation for a larger animal pen as Wang Yan, Jianshi, and Jianya considered how to protect the expanding settlement.
• Wang Yan proposed building city walls and a defensive ditch in stages, starting with the central residential, growing, and storage areas.
• Jianshi agreed to begin planning and building the walls and ditch that winter, after the huts were finished and the soil was turned.

Wang Yan organized the Fire Tribe to stockpile medicinal herbs ahead of winter and the arrival of more people. Granny Cao led the gathering effort, and the tribe established a pharmacy, leaving Wang Yan considering how to preserve and teach her medical knowledge.

• Wang Yan asked Granny Cao which illnesses and herbs the growing tribe should prepare for, and she agreed that they needed to gather more medicine before winter.
• Wang Yan, Qingye, and Aunt Luye formed an herb-gathering team led by Granny Cao, with Quanshui and Xiaocao assisting and Shibang and Gubang providing protection.
• Granny Cao taught the team how to identify and prepare herbs, while Wang Yan had Quanshui and Xiaocao record their shapes, names, and uses on wood.
• The team returned with a substantial supply of herbs, which the tribe dried and stored in jars in a dedicated pharmacy managed by Granny Cao and her assistants.
• Wang Yan felt more prepared for winter and began considering how to compile Granny Cao’s knowledge and train more people in basic medicine.

The Fire Tribe prepared hemp clothing, pottery, and dried fish for its autumn gathering and a trading trip to the Fish Tribe. Wang Yan set goals for both expeditions and warned the group to keep the tribe’s salt secret as they got ready to depart.

• The Fire Tribe produced hemp garments, large pottery vessels, and dried fish to trade and store for winter.
• Wang Yan told the gathering’s organizers to bring one hundred hemp garments, thirty pottery vessels, and five hundred jin of dried fish, and aim to recruit about a hundred people.
• Jianya said the tribe should trade for flint and animal bones and invite skilled weavers or hide workers to join.
• Wang Yan assigned Jianya to lead the Fish Tribe party and listed its cargo, including pottery, hemp garments, and dried fish.
• Wang Yan prioritized trading for high-quality grain seeds and recruiting people near the Fish Tribe who might know boatbuilding or advanced fishing.
• Jianshi warned everyone not to reveal the Fire Tribe’s salt, and the group agreed.

The Bison, White Pig, Green Sheep, and Deer Tribes faced dwindling food supplies as winter approached and prepared to trade at the small market, hoping the Fire Tribe could offer food or other help. Their plans included trading hides and crafts, seeking salt or hemp clothing, and, for the weaker tribes, marrying women in exchange for food.

• Jijiao found the Bison Tribe’s pen nearly empty and planned to trade hides for preserved food, while sending only a small party to seek salt.
• Zongmao decided the White Pig Tribe would bring woven mats to the market for food and try to obtain hemp clothing, while postponing taking wives.
• Wenshi agreed that the Green Sheep Tribe would bring marriageable women to negotiate for food as betrothal gifts.
• Lujiao planned to bring women and soft deerskins to the market and try to trade for the Fire Tribe’s dried fish.
• The four tribes prepared for the small market, each hoping to secure enough resources to survive winter.

As winter approached, the Hard Stone, Stream, and Low Woods Tribes faced starvation and weighed desperate sacrifices to obtain food. Their people headed toward the little market, where some hoped to trade their last possessions and others sought to surrender themselves to a stronger tribe for survival.

• Chief Wanshi sent the Hard Stone Tribe’s remaining valuable materials to the little market in hopes of trading for food.
• Shuihua considered trading the Stream Tribe’s worn hides and grass mats, while fearing that giving up their weapons would leave them unable to recover in spring.
• Kumu ordered the Low Woods Tribe to bring its last weapons to the market and seek a tribe willing to take them in, even if that meant becoming dependents or slaves.
• Tribes across the region turned toward the little market, where winter’s scarcity made it a place of desperate bargains and life-or-death choices.

The Fire Tribe’s well-equipped party set out for the small market, where Jianshi planned to trade for medicinal herbs, women, weapons, and craftsmen. Wang Yan and the youths traveled with them, leaving the tribe’s familiar territory behind as the party pressed onward.

• Wang Yan instructed the ten selected youths to observe quietly, follow orders, and learn during the journey.
• Jianshi organized the party’s trading goods and stated the Fire Tribe’s goals, while Dabang and Qingye stayed behind to protect and manage the tribe.
• The party departed with Jianshi and Jianya at the front, Wang Yan and the youths among the supplies, and veteran hunters keeping watch.
• Kuaitui and Shangou volunteered to scout ahead, while Shibang and Yingmu stayed with Wang Yan and listened to Jianya discuss the route.
• Wang Yan stopped Gubang from disparaging another tribe’s travelers and reminded him that each tribe faced its own difficulties.
• The party camped for the night, where the youths listened to hunters’ stories as Wang Yan considered the market’s importance and the journey continued through the hills.

The Fire Tribe arrived at the valley market and Chief Jianshi negotiated with the Bison Tribe for cattle hides, calves, cattle-taming techniques, and an escort to the Fish Tribe. Both tribes agreed to the exchange, and Wang Yan watched and learned from the negotiation.

• The Fire Tribe arrived at the market with abundant dried fish and pottery, drawing attention from the other tribes.
• Chief Jianshi led Wang Yan and his brothers to greet Jijiao of the Bison Tribe and presented him with a clay pot.
• Jianshi offered dried fish and salt in exchange for cattle hides, calves, and the Bison Tribe's cattle-taming techniques, and Jijiao agreed.
• Jianshi asked for ten Bison Tribe warriors to escort the Fire Tribe to the Fish Tribe, and Juti volunteered to lead them.
• Wang Yan observed the successful negotiation and committed the leaders' bargaining skills to memory.

Jianshi and Jianya negotiated a trade with Zongmao of the White Pig Tribe for wild boar hides, piglets, and techniques for using swamp resources and preserving meat. They also secured five guides for the journey to the Fish Tribe and left with the agreement settled.

• Jianshi and his party arrived at the orderly White Pig Tribe camp, where Zongmao welcomed Jianshi and Jianya.
• Dazhuang presented Zongmao with two polished pottery storage jars, which Zongmao valued for storing seeds, salt, and herbs.
• Jianshi and Jianya offered dried fish, salt, and hemp clothes in exchange for pig hides, piglets, and the White Pig Tribe’s practical techniques.
• Jianshi asked Zongmao for five capable men to guide the party to the Fish Tribe, and Zongmao agreed.
• Jianshi, Jianya, and their party left the camp satisfied with the trade, while Wang Yan reflected on the exchange.

Jianshi completed the Fire Tribe’s negotiations with the Deer Tribe and Green Sheep Tribe, trading supplies for goods and arranging marriage alliances. The four neighboring tribes provided twenty-five guards and agreed to send twenty young women to join the Fire Tribe.

• Jianshi and Dazhuang offered Lu Ming salt and deerskins, then traded with the Deer Tribe and arranged marriages for ten women.
• Lu Ming agreed to send five hunters to escort the Fire Tribe toward the Fish Tribe.
• Jianshi told Wenshi that Dabang had stayed behind, and the Green Sheep Tribe accepted salt and gifts in trade for wool and medicinal herbs.
• Wenshi agreed to send ten young women to the Fire Tribe and provide five warriors familiar with the terrain.
• The Fire Tribe concluded negotiations with all four neighboring tribes, securing goods, livestock, techniques, twenty-five guards, and twenty women through trade and marriage alliances.
• Wang Yan watched Jianshi and his uncles negotiate and understood how practical exchanges built alliances between tribes.

Jianshi welcomed nearly two hundred starving people from several small tribes into the Fire Tribe, promising them food and shelter in return for joining and following its rules. The newcomers ate their first hot meal, and Jianya prepared to lead them to the tribe after they had rested.

• Nearly two hundred desperate people from the Black Water Tribe, the Low Woods Tribe, and nearby settlements arrived in the valley seeking refuge.
• The four visiting chiefs admitted that they could not afford to take in the newcomers, while Jianshi and his core members debated the risks and benefits.
• Jianshi decided to accept everyone into the Fire Tribe and promised they would be treated as its own people and given food and shelter.
• The newcomers agreed to join the Fire Tribe, and Jianshi ordered his people to serve them fish soup and roast meat.
• Jianshi asked Jianya to lead the newcomers to the tribe after two days of rest so Qingye and Dabang could settle them and assign them work.

Jianshi led the Fire Tribe in trading salted dried fish, pottery, and hemp clothing with ten struggling micro-tribes, earning valuable supplies and their gratitude. He agreed to generous marriage gifts for fifty women and promised the tribes they could seek refuge with the Fire Tribe if winter became unbearable.

• Jianshi invited the ten micro-tribe chiefs and elders to trade at the Fire Tribe's camp.
• The Fire Tribe exchanged food and goods for medicinal herbs, special stones and ores, and worn weapons.
• The ten chiefs offered fifty women of marriageable age to marry into the Fire Tribe in exchange for winter food and future support.
• Jianshi accepted the proposed marriages, promised generous betrothal gifts and extra dried fish, and assured the tribes the Fire Tribe would welcome them if they could not survive the winter.
• Wang Yan recognized that Jianshi's generous trades had won the Fire Tribe supplies, allies, and regional prestige.

Jianshi led a fifty-person trading party from the Fire Tribe to the Fish Tribe, carrying pottery, hemp clothing, and dried fish. The party reached the prosperous riverside settlement and waited at a designated camp for an audience with its leaders, while Wang Yan worried their goods might not be enough to secure crop seeds.

• Jianshi led the trading party along the river toward the Fish Tribe, with Wang Yan, Shibang, Yingmu, and warriors from allied tribes among the group.
• During the seven- or eight-day journey, the party crossed difficult terrain, shared campfires, and exchanged practical hunting and fighting knowledge.
• The party crossed a ridge and saw the Fish Tribe's large settlement, fishing boats, and busy river.
• Jianshi identified the party to the Fish Tribe's sentries as traders from upstream and requested a meeting with the chief.
• Fish Tribe warriors escorted the visitors to a temporary riverside camp, where Jianshi told the team to guard and organize their supplies while they waited.

Chief Jianshi brought Wang Yan and a small group to the Fish Tribe’s center, where Wang Yan saw its rice fields, stone houses, and large fishing boats and urged his father to seek boats and skilled craftspeople as well as seeds. At the Fish Tribe chief Canglan’s residence, Jianshi asked to trade for grain seeds, and negotiations began.

• Jianshi led Dali, Wang Yan, and five tribespeople through the Fish Tribe settlement to meet its chief, carrying gifts.
• Wang Yan observed the Fish Tribe’s stone houses, extensive rice paddies, and coordinated fishing fleet, then identified boats, rice, and skills as the sources of its strength.
• Wang Yan urged Jianshi to seek boats, boatbuilders, rice growers, and edible seeds, and Jianshi agreed to pursue those trades.
• Jianshi and his group met Canglan, who welcomed them and admired the pottery vat they brought as a gift.
• Jianshi told Canglan that they had come for the Great Autumn Market and asked to trade for high-yield grain seeds; Canglan questioned what they would offer in return.

Jianshi and Canglan negotiated a trade that gave the Fire Tribe rice seeds, small boats, and skilled workers in exchange for most of its pottery and a promise of future deliveries. Jianshi and Wang Yan returned to camp with the agreement, seeing it as the start of the Fire Tribe’s expansion into farming and river transport.

• Canglan rejected Jianshi’s original demands for four baskets of rice seed, a large boat, and ten skilled tribespeople, then offered a smaller exchange for eighty percent of the pottery.
• Jianshi agreed to provide the same quantity and quality of pottery at the next autumn market in return for two baskets of seed, two small boats, two boatbuilders, and two farmers.
• Canglan welcomed Jianshi and his party to a feast, where Wang Yan questioned the boatbuilders and farmers about their skills.
• Jianshi and his party returned to camp with the agreement, and Wang Yan celebrated their success with his father.

After completing a major trade with the Fish Tribe, Wang Yan and Jianshi used the autumn fair to gather more resources and skilled recruits for the Fire Tribe. The group departed for home with rice seeds, boats, teachers, livestock, and other supplies, hopeful about the tribe’s future.

• Wang Yan reassured the Fire Tribe that trading most of their pottery for rice seeds, boats, and teachers was an investment in their future.
• Wang Yan and Jianshi traded pottery, salted fish, and hemp clothing at the fair for medicinal plants, weaving skills, unusual stones, lambs, and skilled recruits.
• The boatbuilding teachers reinforced the boats, while the farming teachers sorted and protected the seeds for the journey.
• Jianshi and Wang Yan finished counting their people and supplies, and Dazhuang reported that everything was ready.
• Jianshi led the group away from the Fish Tribe, telling them to take their hopes home.

Wang Yan studied the Fish Tribe’s rice farming and discovered that primitive fallowing and inefficient husking kept yields low and wasted much of the harvest. He left with a plan to develop a simple rice huller for the Fire Tribe, confident it could overcome a key barrier to large-scale farming.

• Wang Yan learned that the Fish Tribe rotated three fields through cultivation and fallow because they could not maintain soil fertility.
• Wang Yan estimated that the Fish Tribe’s rice yields were low, leaving the tribe dependent on fishing despite extensive fields and hard labor.
• Wang Yan observed that pounding rice by hand produced much broken grain and chaff, and that the tribe fed most of this waste to animals.
• Wang Yan realized a pedal- or crank-powered rice huller could reduce labor and grain loss using the Fire Tribe’s available materials.
• Wang Yan kept the rice-huller idea secret and left the Fish Tribe confident that the Fire Tribe could eventually produce more grain.

On the journey home from the Fish Tribe’s autumn gathering, Jianshi led the party and its valuable cargo safely through the wilderness. When a hungry wolf pack surrounded them, he chose to sacrifice two deer and withdraw, leaving the group closer to home and newly aware of the value of cautious judgment.

• Jianshi arranged for Shuihen and Zhouya to guide the boats upstream while he led the overland party home with their supplies, livestock, and allied warriors.
• Wang Yan learned from Suyuan how to select good rice seeds during the first days of the journey.
• A scout warned Jianshi that about twenty wolves were ahead, and the party formed a defensive circle around its people and supplies.
• Jianshi ordered Juti to throw two freshly killed deer to the wolves, then led the party away while they fed.
• Jianshi explained to Yingmu and the others that avoiding needless injuries and protecting the tribe mattered more than fighting for its own sake.
• The party reached the familiar valley where it had stopped on the outward journey.