Volume 1: Farming Chapter 45 Are you making things difficult for me?
After reaching a consensus and forming a united front with Hongye, the fooled... uh, convinced Hongye began to seriously assist in the training, emmmm... the work of assisting in the training of the goblins.
The specific process was that Hongye brought the two goblins dinner that night. When the two goblins started crying while eating, Hongye took advantage of their weak psychological defenses to talk to them and talk about humanistic care... Xiao Yun taught the process in advance, starting from asking about the names and origins of the old family members, to the two goblins actively recalling their past and crying because of their painful survival experiences, success was waving in front of them - the old revolutionary predecessors also did this to transform Japanese prisoners of war. They did not beat or scold them when they were caught (the Japanese army did not treat Japanese soldiers as human beings at all, and not beating or scolding them was considered super preferential treatment in our army), arranged work for them with food and accommodation, and then let the prisoners open their hearts by complaining, and with ideological and political education, it would not take long for these Japanese soldiers' wooden heads to become red heads, more revolutionary than revolutionary fighters...
It is not easy for any tribe to survive on the grassland, but at least the grassland is relatively peaceful, not to the point where people would sigh "it is better to be a dog in peacetime"; but the goblins are different... they have a hard time living in peacetime or troubled times. Systematic civilizations do not accept them at all, and they do not have the ability to survive independently in the barbaric world without civilization and order. Even larger beasts can chase them away, which is like soaking in coptis water.
After doing humanitarian care work for a whole night and seeing that Hongye, who looked ferocious but was actually quite kind, was accepted by the snow wolves, the two goblins, Baron and Gar, hurriedly took Hongye to find their tribesmen who stayed at home. Then... the six little goblins and an old goblin carried biological weapons that once again caused chaos among the snow wolves on the construction site.
The hope of any biological group is continued from the cubs. Since the cubs make up the majority of this small goblin tribe, Xiao Yun can no longer abandon them on the south bank, which is in danger of being flooded at any time. He built a shed for them at a higher position on the north bank to temporarily shelter these little guys.
The goblin cubs were all under one meter in height, and the special keratinization evolution of their claws had already been completed, making them qualified to be diggers. Xiao Yun even used the cat claws of caracal cubs, so he naturally wouldn't argue with the goblins about child labor. After they unloaded their biological weapons and gave them a full meal, they all went to dig the river obediently.
A group of goblins, who had spent half an hour washing to make themselves white and had polluted a large area of the river water, were wolfing down wheat and vegetable cakes. Xiao Yun was not idle either. He picked up firewood and made a fire, preparing to burn all the miscellaneous luggage these guys brought with them. It was not that he was wasteful or disliked these little green skins, but the things the goblins brought were basically as rotten as garbage. The rabbit skin used as bedding had not been processed at all. When you poked it with a wooden stick, you could find more bugs than rabbit hair. It made his scalp tingle at the sight of it, not to mention the recycling.
When Xiao Yun was using a wooden stick to pull the rotten animal hide into the fire, he suddenly saw some familiar black residue falling out of the rolled animal hide.
"...Hmm?" Xiao Yun's eyes followed the black residue that fell into the grass and saw... a little bit of this powder on the grass leaves as thick as chopsticks. It looked like fine stone debris, and the color was black and shiny. It looked familiar...
Xiao Yun widened his eyes.
He couldn't believe it, so he quickly raised the rotten animal skin with a wooden stick and shook it hard.
The original animal skins that have not been processed much will immediately shed hair, insects and black residues. The fine ones are like powder, and the larger ones are as big as soybeans.
Xiao Yun didn't care about the dirt (yes, he really disliked goblins), picked up the largest piece of black slag with his hands and put it to his nose to observe. The more he looked, the more his eyes tended to cross-eyed, and his breathing became more and more rapid:
"Damn... Could this be coal dust?!"
"You, you mean, black stone?" The oldest monk among the goblins trembled while holding the bowl, staring at the snow wolf cub that suddenly pounced on him in horror. "But, you can burn, black stone..."
"You have been burning coal and this kind of black stone?!" Xiao Yun had a ferocious expression on his face and almost threw the coal slag he picked up into the old goblin's face.
The old monk was so frightened that he lost his voice and nodded hastily to avoid angering the suddenly excited snow werewolf... A huge amount of firewood was needed to burn, and the precious time that the goblins could spend on the ground was not enough to be used to collect firewood.
After receiving a positive answer, Xiao Yun regained control of his out-of-control facial expression and smiled amiably: "Take me to see where you got the black stone."
Then he picked up the old goblin who was slumped on the ground, and ran out as if he was possessed. This sudden situation made the tribesmen nearby unable to recover... Controlling facial expressions does not mean controlling emotions, this guy is completely crazy.
"Ayun?!" Hongye hurriedly chased after him.
“Ah…” Ah Shan reached out his hand and tried to chase after him, but Da He, who was standing nearby, immediately flew over and pinned him down, grinning: “Only one person will be enough. We can’t have any fewer people on the construction site! There will be more work!”
“(￣△￣；)…” Ashan turned his head away and stared blankly at the ferocious river.
If Xiao Yun were still here, he would definitely complain: If you put your cleverness somewhere else, you will be saved!
Four hours later.
Xiao Yun loosened his grip and the old goblin he was carrying fell to his butt. He didn't dare to complain. He just got up silently with his trousers held up and a pout on his face.
“Ahahahahahahaha—!”
The mad snow wolf cub suddenly burst into laughter like thunder, and the old monk shuddered, his hair stood on end, and he instinctively squatted down and dug a hole to hide in...
"Coal ahahahahaha! Ahahahahahaha!"
Xiao Yun completely ignored the hidden old goblin. He raised his hands high, jumped up and down, and happily jumped into the hills like a mentally ill person out of control...
Hongye, who was chasing after him, followed him nervously, hesitating whether to go up and knock him down with a punch. Ayun was acting too weird, and Hongye was really afraid that he would continue to be crazy like this and never change again.
...No wonder Hongye was so frightened. Xiao Yun, who was too excited, really couldn't control himself: in this hilly area on the westernmost side of the grassland with higher terrain and closer to the jungle and mountains, there was actually a semi-open-air coal mine!
Perhaps when the continuous mountains that formed the jungle were pushed upwards by the compression of the earth's crust, the terrain in this area was also affected. Suddenly, the land at an altitude of hundreds of meters was raised, and hills appeared in succession. The rock layers were exposed in the squeezed areas, and the coal mines hidden in the rock layers were forced to be exposed to the sunlight, enduring thousands or even tens of thousands of years of wind and rain. On the hills or between the hills, there were large and small coal blocks with a shiny black luster, and in some places with sparse vegetation, you could even see bulging coal seams - even without mining tools and miners, you could still pick up a lot of coal!
"Cough, cough, cough, cough - this grassland is really a treasure!" Xiao Yun laughed wildly for a while, then he let out an earth-shaking cough. He was choked by his own saliva... Then he turned around abruptly, jumped up and hugged Hongye, saying excitedly, "Hongye, our grassland is such a great place. We even have open-air coal mines! Hahahaha! When the gray dwarves find the iron ore, our tribe will take off! Hahahaha... cough cough cough cough cough!"
After struggling for a while, Hongye decisively knocked Xiao Yun unconscious.
Xiao Yun, who had a bump on his head, woke up from his sleep with a smile. When he opened his eyes, he saw Hongye raising his fist hesitantly.
"Stop! I'm not crazy! I'm very calm!" Xiao Yun immediately jumped up like a spring.
Hongye looked at him worriedly, and slowly put down her fist.
Xiao Yun looked around. Hongye didn't move him. He was still on the hill. He turned around and saw the open-pit coal mine again. His mouth immediately curled up... Hold it in! Hold it in! How can I do things in the future if I get so excited about a small coal mine!
Rubbing his face hard to suppress the corners of his mouth that were trying desperately to rebel, Xiao Yun waved to the old goblin who was squatting obediently on the side to come over: "Have you dug a hole around here? How about the coal mine and black stone below?"
"We've dug before. There's a lot of black stone... We can get the black stone if we dig over there." The old monk raised his hand... and pointed to a place far away from the open-pit mine.
"..." It took Xiao Yun a few seconds to understand what the old goblin meant. It turned out that they didn't dare to pick up the coal directly from the ground, so they dug a hole underground nearby to get the coal.
Since a lot of water can be taken from the open air, there is no need to use up manpower for digging canals and building water conservancy projects... No matter how crazy Xiao Yun gets , his calculations are still clacking and his instinct to weigh the pros and cons is still there: for now, the most important thing is still to speed up the repair of river channels and drainage. No matter how important other things are, they have to be put aside and priorities must be determined.
Well... Having said that, Xiao Yun still carried a lot of coal back when he returned to the tribe... It would be too painful to go to a mountain of treasures and come back empty-handed, so it's okay to just carry a few things in a bag.
In the following days, Xiao Yun worked even harder to act like a devilish supervisor - his body was at the construction site but his heart was on the coal, and if he delayed it for too long he wouldn't be able to sleep well, and if he didn't transfer this pressure away, wouldn't he be forcing himself to hang himself?
Before the arrival of autumn, the artificial river channel, which was planned to be 500 meters long, actually 900 meters long, ten meters wide and two meters deep, was dug with the blood and sweat of three tribes: snow wolves, caracals (yes, caracals were also dragged to the construction site by Xiao Yun to speed up the progress), and goblins. It was finally dug to the uninhabited area in the south, where the altitude was lower than the swamp.
In the pouring rain, the sturdy snow wolf warriors Hongye, Ayue, Ashan and others, bare-bottomed and holding hoes, dug through the junction between the artificial river channel and the river. The surging water that overflowed the river bank ten days ago immediately swept into the artificial river channel, washing the strongest Hongye out more than ten meters away, and he changed into wolf form before struggling to crawl back...
Despite this little episode, the people who had been living with mud and water for a month still cheered loudly when they saw the river water level that had threatened their tribe’s vegetable fields drop to a safe level. Even the dumbest Niu Jiao, who had been bombarded with Xiao Yun’s brainwashing-style water safety education for so long, knew that too high a water level meant damage to the tribe’s property and that everyone would have no food to eat, and their joy came from the bottom of their hearts.
This artificial river channel, which goes straight down and leads to the uninhabited area in the south, is 1,200 meters away from the tribe. It has greatly alleviated the tribe’s worries about being flooded and turned into a swamp... I’m not saying it’s absolute because there is a river of the earth hanging over their heads farther away from the tribe.
According to the description of the tribe leader, Hongye and others, the River of the Earth is two to three hundred kilometers away from the tribe, which is theoretically safe; but if there is a natural disaster-level flood such as the River of the Earth changing its course, their place will still be in trouble... Well, this kind of thing that is beyond Xiao Yun's ability is not something he can worry about. If such a thing really happens, he has no choice but to take everyone to run to the jungle on high terrain.
After taking care of all the worries, Xiao Yun readily gave the tribesmen three days off, allowing them to sleep and play as they pleased. He also took Qingyan Qiuqiu to the outskirts of the jungle to get a lot of tree bark, which they brought back to weave into nets to catch freshwater fish and shrimp, and fried them in oil as snacks for everyone.
The goblins also showed their talent in catching small animals... After participating in high-intensity river projects together, this group of ugly goblins have established a certain friendly relationship with the snow werewolves and caracals. After all, it is the caracals that eat the snow werewolves every day and cook for them, it would be strange if the goblins did not take the initiative to please them... The three adult goblins took advantage of their iron hands that were not afraid of thorns, found rabbit holes and poked out a lot of rabbits. The plump and tender rabbit meat immediately won applause - for Xiao Yun, this kind of wild rabbit still has the problem of dry meat and strong fishy smell. Fortunately, he is the only one who is picky, and others are not as picky as him.
In addition to the plump rabbits, the goblins also caught a lot of edible and delicious insects. Grasshoppers, dragonflies and cicadas can be eaten after being fried in oil and the heads removed. There are also fat insects that lay eggs and develop in the bark of rotten wood and the roots of vines. They look disgusting, but they are simply delicious after being sprinkled with salt and roasted. A group of snow wolf cubs and caracal cubs also followed the three goblins and started to mess with the roots of thicker vines.
...Well, I have no interest in this Xiao Yun. He doesn't even eat grasshoppers and cicadas, which are popular among Chinese people, let alone more disgusting insects.
The biggest surprise that the goblins brought him, apart from the coal, was wild taro and wild ginger - wild taro is of course not delicious. No one waters, fertilizes or weeds wild taro, so it is small in size and tastes bad. If you don't grow it yourself a few times and cultivate good varieties, don't expect to enjoy the delicious taro stew with meat. But it is still a grain, and eating it is more important than anything else, so there is no reason to despise it; not to mention ginger, although everyone is annoyed by this thing being forcibly COSed as shredded potato and potato chips or even maliciously impersonating meat, but without ginger, the taste and flavor of Chinese cuisine will be greatly reduced.
With the engineering skills, an open-pit coal mine as a gift, and the ability to find extra crops to grow, Xiao Yun's attitude towards the goblins immediately changed... They can eat wheat and vegetable cakes to get full! There's no limit on the quantity~
Even in the infrastructure construction projects of the tribe after the beginning of autumn, Xiao Yun also included the goblins in the project.
"Build...a house?"
It was the familiar tribal meeting again. In the mobile home appeared warriors from various tribes, plus an old goblin… The goblins had no warriors, so they had to let the oldest and most sensible old monk among them fill the number.
It was the first time that the old monk was invited to the snow wolf people's house to participate in "discussion". He didn't know where to put his hands when he sat down. When he heard Ayun, the snow wolf cub who presided over the "meeting", announce that he would build houses for everyone to spend the winter, the old monk showed an expression of listening to a foreign language... It was not that he didn't understand, the IQ of the goblins was actually quite good, comparable to that of the caracals, but he couldn't believe that the snow wolf people were willing to build houses for them.
Well... as the saying goes, people judge by appearance, and all intelligent creatures judge by appearance. Even though the goblins have made considerable contributions since joining in, they really suffered a loss in terms of treatment... The caracals live in wool felt tents provided by the snow wolves, and they live in thatched huts made of randomly found wood and reeds. The caracals wear animal skin clothing and wool vests, and they were given some animal skins to make small shorts. The caracals have small appetites and cannot eat much, so they have only recently been given open food supplies... Being ugly means you have no human rights!
What's even more sad is that the goblins don't feel that they are being targeted, and think that this is how it should be... Now the snow werewolves actually say that they also have a part in building the house. To the old monk, this is naturally like hearing a foreign book.
Xiao Yun didn't have the time to explain the treatment to the old monk. He just threw out a piece of cloth and spread it in front of everyone. The two boxes of cloth he picked up from the beach were not distributed, and it was a complete waste for everyone who was busy working to wear clothes made of cloth. He pointed at the planning map drawn with charcoal on it and explained the next project to the representatives of each tribe:
"This square is the mobile home we are staying in now. The row of rectangles above are the six houses that we, the Snow Wolf people, have built." He looked up at the caracal warrior Qiuqiu and the goblin representative Lao Shamen. "Of the six houses, four belong to the Snow Wolf families. Only two can be shared. There are not enough to accommodate the rest of the Snow Wolf people and your two tribes."
Qiu and the old monk were still trying to understand what Xiao Yun meant, when the soldier A Yue beside them said "Eh" and looked confused - this soldier, who had been favored by Qingcao last winter, had owned the house for so long before he realized that the house belonged to him and Qingcao.
Uh…it’s not his fault that his reaction time is so slow, because Qingyan, Dahe, and even the clan leader would go to their house to stay when they felt that the big room was too crowded and too hot. It’s not just their family, every family is like this. The Lan Guo family now has three cubs living there permanently, and they are not the kind born in the family.
"The vacant land here has been reserved for building houses for the caracals." Xiao Yun pointed to the right side of the tribe on the planning map, not blushing at all, as if he had promised this not half a year ago. "Shramenger, where do you want your house to be built? Build it where you live now?"
The old monk actually didn't dare to believe what Xiao Yun said. He just nodded subconsciously. Asking the goblin to shake his head at the snow werewolf was too difficult at the moment.
Xiao Yun assumed that he was knowledgeable and sensible, and knew not to always try to squeeze into the center circle, so he immediately pointed to the right, except for the reserved homestead for the Tuman. "Then we can build more warehouses in these places. The specifications and standards are similar to the large rooms we built, without kangs, and they are used to store wheat. Wheat cannot be exposed to moisture. If it is piled in the shed all the time, it will easily go bad. The problem of granaries must be solved first."
He took another photo of the large blank area on the left side of the plan and said, "We need to build a greenhouse for raising seedlings and planting in winter in this area, especially for crops like potatoes and sweet potatoes. It will be too late to leave them alone for a winter and try to plant them next year. Planting sweet potatoes and obtaining sweet potato vines for planting before spring comes can greatly increase the total amount of sweet potatoes we can harvest next year."
Regardless of whether everyone understands this or not, everyone is nodding their heads. What is the most important thing on the grassland? Food. We should support any work that can increase food.
Xiao Yun nodded and smiled amiably: "During this time of year when fall turns to winter, most tribes have to choose whether to go into heat or not? Qiuqiu, Shamen, are there any tribe members in your tribe who want to go into heat? If you want to start a small family, please let us know in advance. During the construction period, we will give priority to providing independent houses for new families."
If you go into heat in the spring and give birth in the fall, it will be difficult for them to survive the winter. Therefore, most female grassland dwellers choose to go into heat in the fall and winter and give birth in the summer. Of course... not all women can get pregnant if they are in heat, for example, Qingcao didn't give birth this year.
Qiu shook his head without even thinking. It's not like there were no females of childbearing age among his people, but the existing ones were all close relatives and were completely unable to go into heat.
The old monk was bewildered... There were only three adult goblins, he was old, and Baron and Garr were both males, so he couldn't get anything done even if he wanted to.
Xiao Yun asked them just to warm up, he didn't know what the two tribes were like yet? Turning to look at the real target of his killing move, Xiao Yun's expression was extremely natural and concerned: "Maomao, what about you guys?"
feather:"……"
Among the five adult tribesmen Yu brought to work, three were female. Although the hard work and sweating in the past few months were more than in the past few years combined, the degree of nourishment was also unmatched in the past few years combined - the combination of meat and vegetable menus, and the abundant high-starch food after the wheat harvest, Yu's tribesmen were raised to an average weight of at least ten kilograms. It would be a lie to say that Yu was not tempted to stay in this tribe.
But...what about the tribesmen who are still left in the tribe?
The chief was still counting on them to bring back as much forage as possible. Now the grass in the alfalfa fields was obviously going to be reduced due to the rain, but even if it was reduced, the amount was still quite astonishing - especially because this kind of grass was of much higher quality than the grass on the pasture. The cattle and sheep in the pens were fed so fat and strong that you could feel the plump fat through their thick fur!
So... reject it directly?
Yu really couldn't speak!
Not only was he reluctant to leave, he knew that his fellow tribesmen were also reluctant to leave!
Ah Yun was so kind (…) to provide a house for the unattached females among them. If he insisted on taking his people back, he would not be able to do it like Ah Yun! During the period of mixed living, everyone stayed in Ah Yue and Lang Guo's house. If the females knew that he rejected Ah Yun on their behalf, would they be able to accept it?
Besides, if I reject Ayun on the spot, what will I do if they don’t want to work for me next year?
Xiao Yun's eyes were not bad, and he could clearly see that the short hair on Maomao's forehead was soaked with sweat in a few seconds, and the sweat was dripping down his temples, so Xiao Yun's smile became more sincere and natural - It's better to embarrass me! If you don't embarrass me, I have no other choice!
