Don’t raise unruly people in extreme cold weather

Chapter 638: Hunters in Winter
Vosde is a small town located near Chernobyl, with a population of about 5,000.

In a sense, this is already a small town.

Its main population is the original indigenous people of the North and early northern pioneers.

This town can be considered as a product of Perfectoct's early construction of the northern border.

After establishing relatively good relations with the local indigenous people, some of them tried to come out of the forest and contact the northern pioneers at that time. Through mutual exchanges between the two sides, this town gradually came into being.

Compared to the indigenous people who moved out to live with the northern pioneers after the environment became increasingly harsh and they knew about the doomsday crisis, the indigenous people here are relatively more "civilized".

They relatively abandoned the original clothing and some living habits of the indigenous people, and accepted more of the "civilization" from the empire.

This naturally has both advantages and disadvantages for the indigenous people themselves. The good side is that it increases their chances of surviving the doomsday crisis.

Although it is not impossible for humans to survive in an environment of dozens of degrees below zero, the indigenous people of the North have also experienced blizzards in winter that engulfed the entire forest and continued to survive in the cold.

But every year there are elderly people and children freezing to death, which is also unavoidable.

Compared with the empires of the industrial age, the indigenous peoples who were still in the tribal age could not be said to have no ability to resist disasters, but it could only be said to be better than nothing.

In fact, for these local indigenous people, although they did encounter some dissatisfaction and resistance from the elders when they first accepted the new lifestyle from the empire, faced with thicker and warmer clothes, more abundant food and warmer and more comfortable houses, no matter how much the indigenous people adhered to tradition, it was difficult for them to say that they would stick to the tradition of living in tents in the woods.

After all, the indigenous people are very simple and they do value tradition, but that is more because there is a lack of effective experience summary and inheritance in tribal society. People can only pass on time-tested experience and survival skills to the next generation by adhering to tradition.

And when they have better and stronger survival skills, the old traditions will quickly be replaced.

On this point, they are very pragmatic. After all, those who are not pragmatic will not survive.

However, this pragmatism also brings a small problem, that is, they do not look so "indigenous".

At least in Perfectot's eyes, they looked no different from ordinary Victorians. Except for some differences in appearance and skin color, they were very similar in other aspects.

"These natives seem to be more cold-resistant. Are they still going out hunting in this kind of weather?" Perfect asked the person next to him curiously.

She was on an incognito trip today, inspecting the living conditions of residents in towns around Chernobog and preparing for relevant policy adjustments for the upcoming cold season.

"This is part of their traditional lifestyle. Although there is basically no prey to be caught in this kind of weather, they still go out hunting on a daily basis." The person next to Perfectcot answered her question. He was a local official in Vosde and was called by Perfectcot to keep abreast of the local situation in Vosde.

Perfectot did not comment on this answer. There was indeed nothing wrong with the hunting habits of the indigenous people. As long as they did not commit suicide, they could go out hunting even in this kind of weather.

Local official Vosde seemed to feel that he had not explained it clearly, and added: "Although they still maintain the habit of hunting, their hunting tools have been greatly improved. They use sleds, muskets and other more modern hunting tools, rather than just their traditional bows and arrows and traps." Hearing this, Perfectok nodded slightly, but still did not comment.

For these hunters, catching prey is the most practical thing. If they can catch prey, even if it means they have to knock the hunting rifle off of it, it’s fine. But if they can’t, all traditions are bullshit.

However, Perfect was still somewhat curious about these hunters. After all, it was hard for her to imagine how these hunters hunted outside in this kind of weather, and what kind of prey was still active in the wild in this environment.

Unlike Shay's settlement, Vosde does not have a heating plant that can cover the animals' activity range. The heating plant in this town is basically only within the town and does not extend outward.

Therefore, if you want to hunt animals, you can only cross the vast snowfields and enter the even colder forests to find prey that has not been frozen to death.

With this curiosity in mind, Perfecto found a group of indigenous hunters who seemed to be preparing to go out hunting. There were even two Victorians among them.

"Are you going out hunting?" Perfect communicated with the natives in fluent Aboriginal language.

In order to facilitate communication with the indigenous people, she had spent some time learning the language of the indigenous people. Although she cannot say that she is very proficient in it, she has no problem communicating normally.

The hunters seemed surprised that Perfecto could speak the native language so fluently. After all, it was obvious that she came from a noble family.

However, the hunters did not reject her at all and answered her questions naturally: "Yes, we plan to catch more prey before winter comes. These things are very valuable now. Both the meat and the fur can be sold at a good price."

"Is it still possible to hunt prey now? I thought that with such a bad climate, all animals should have become extinct." Perfect followed up with the other party's question. She wanted to know more about the situation.

Hearing Perfect's question, one of the older hunters chuckled and said, "Although there are fewer prey than before, we can still catch them. The spirits of our ancestors are protecting us!"

Following his words, other hunters also followed suit in praising the ancestral spirits.

Perfect could see that he was an ancestral warrior.

“May the spirits of our ancestors bless us, but how can those animals survive in such a harsh environment? Although hibernation can support them for a while, they will not be able to wake up if it is too cold, right?” Perfect also praised casually, and then asked a question that she was very concerned about.

In response to this question, the elderly hunter simply smiled and said, "Animals will always find a way to survive. They will dig holes in the snow to protect themselves from the wind and snow, and they will also look for natural hot springs. Such places are holy places for wintering! There will be a lot of prey around them."

Perfect could tell that he must be in control of the location of a natural hot spring, which was why he was able to hunt prey in this season.

Thinking of this, Perfect didn't ask any more questions, but just blessed them: "May the spirits of our ancestors bless you to have a good harvest."

(End of this chapter)