Volume 1: Farming Chapter 47 Acclimation Period
Mr. Mao once said, "Strategically despise the enemy, tactically take the enemy seriously." This sentence can be applied to a workplace warrior like Xiao Yun, that is: despise the enemy in planning, take the enemy seriously in execution. As for who this enemy is, well, you guessed it right, it is the people within the team... For the person leading the team, the people within the team are the biggest enemy.
If there is a problem with the customer, at most a deal will be lost; but if there is a problem within the team, it could be a major disaster.
Where does the most terrible enemy come from? From within! From within! From within! I must say this three times.
So, if you are the leader of a team, when you make a project plan, you might as well treat your team members and allies as pigs, and have a risk plan in mind for all links that may go wrong; and when the plan starts to be implemented, you must make sure that all participants in the project feel your high attention and trust as much as possible, at least try to avoid someone leaving the team in anger because of loss of self-esteem or interests... In a word, it is not easy to lead a team! So the hairline of leaders is very worrying!
On the other hand... as the project planner and executive leader of the team, no matter how much he talks about equality, mutual benefit and working together, he actually has a rough hierarchy in his mind regarding the abilities and importance of all people in the team. When we are little brothers and lackeys, we must not go to the leader and force the leader to frankly admit who is more important between you and others just because we don't get along with someone - whoever does this will have his private reputation with the leader reduced, which is very stupid.
Ahem, back to the present, what Xiao Yun pays the most attention to in the tribe right now is how to get hold of the human resources of the Yu tribe. While fooling Yu, other aspects cannot be neglected... He dislikes the incomplete evolution of the goblins, but he must respect the goblins in doing things. When Yu was worried about losing his hair, Xiao Yun ran to the goblins' residence twice to communicate and instruct the goblins on how to make the stone mill that the tribe urgently needs - the kind that consists of two stone millstones. It couldn't be made before because there were no tools, but with the goblins' metal claws that can directly process stone tools in hand, he naturally has to seize the opportunity.
It is not easy for the Snow Wolf to dig into the rock layer, but it is not difficult for the Goblins. They dig stones from a small mountain with exposed rocks in the northwest of the tribe. After removing the surface of the small mountain, they select hard, uniform, non-weathered, and non-stratified granite, and use a round stone piece with a diameter of about one meter and a thickness of about 20 centimeters as the prototype of the stone millstone.
The thicker stone slices are used as the lower grinding discs, which are placed flat on the brick grinding table. A square hole about five centimeters in size is hollowed out in the center to hold the grinding core.
The production of the upper grinding wheel requires more delicate work. A grinding center corresponding to the grinding center of the lower grinding stone is hollowed out with a depth of about five centimeters but not penetrating. A hole for the wooden grinding hand is hollowed out at a position closer to the edge. At the corresponding angle, a penetrating hole for placing objects is hollowed out at one-third of the diameter of the grinding wheel, and a grinding lip that is higher than the grinding stone is left along the grinding edge.
Finally, grinding grooves were cut on the grinding surfaces corresponding to the upper and lower grinding wheels. The grinding groove patterns spread outward from the center, first four rows were cut, and then eight rows were cut with a uniform width. The grinding groove on the left side gradually tilted to the right so that the items put in can be ground into powder smoothly... This set of operations sounds simple but is actually quite difficult. The three smarter adult goblins used up two grinding stones before they were able to produce a qualified finished product.
After making a stone mill and putting on the grinding rod that the caracal had prepared a long time ago, everyone started eating more refined wheat flour cakes that day...but Yu Yi, who was so busy with his lawsuit, didn't notice that the wheat cakes were more delicate, while the others were so happy that they were screaming with delight.
One stone mill was definitely not enough, but fortunately, the next work arrangement did not require the goblins to work hard, so Xiao Yun asked the goblins to continue researching and making larger stone mills, preparing to find time to build a water-powered mill - there were hundreds of thousands of kilograms of wheat waiting to be ground, so there was no time to use manpower to grind it slowly. When the beans were harvested, there were more things to grind.
Autumn is destined to be a busy season. After letting Yu go back alone to recruit people...er, recruiting human resources, Xiao Yun unceremoniously pulled the people who had rested for three days back to work - making bricks, felling wood and hauling coal, these three projects tied up all the first-level laborers; taking soil to burn pottery, building pottery kilns and brick kilns, these two tasks kept the second-level laborers busy.
When Yu's people drove cattle and sheep and carried their simple belongings on their backs, they saw the bustling scene of the Fire Tribe from afar...
The current Huoyan Tribe needs no introduction, and anyone who comes here can see how unique the tribe is - in the large open-air sheepfold on the east side of the tribe, fat cattle and sheep are lazily napping in the long fences that look like an American football field when viewed from above; outside the sheepfold, the temporary straw shed built to keep out the rain is filled with silage, the total amount of which seems to be more than the amount of silage accumulated by some small tribes before the heavy snow comes.
If the reason for not grazing and raising livestock in captivity is because the people are happy and willing to cut grass to feed them, then the six brick houses in a row in the tribe (the mobile houses and mushroom houses cannot be seen from the north due to the angle) are even more peculiar... They don't look like houses made of stone or wood, so how were they built? !
Not to mention the large, neatly arranged alfalfa and soybean fields looking southeast - the chief of Yu's tribe was an old man with a lot of experience, but he was stunned for a long time and couldn't connect the fields that looked like they were artificially planted with the Snow Wolf Tribe.
"Yu, that's... is that the pasture field you mentioned? Did the Fire Tribe really grow so much pasture grass?"
Yu's chief, Cao Gen, raised her big hand, which was as rough as tree bark, and pointed tremblingly at the purple flower field at the end of her sight. She... well, that's right, Cao Gen is a female, although you can't tell at all... On the way here, she heard Yu repeat the many amazing feats of the Fire Tribe countless times, but based on her more than 20 years of experience as a chief, she didn't really believe that the Fire Tribe could be as good at farming as the Tauren, because she had never heard of such a thing at all~!
"It's true. We have helped harvest grass twice. According to the original plan, this batch of grass was originally left for us to take back... But Chief, I thought about it for a long time and still feel that we shouldn't just focus on the grass. The Fire Tribe gave us grass this year, but what about next year, and the year after? Can we ask the Fire Tribe for so much grass every year?"
Yu had a look of emotion on his face, his mind was very clear when he was not required to make a decision.
The grassroots chief nodded silently, seeming to agree with Yu's opinion. People who live under the pressure of survival for a long time, whether they like it or not, have to force their brains to grow... The Fire Chief has suffered in the past ten years. The grassroots chiefs are different. People have never been at ease, so she is very clear about the choice of her own tribe - if the Fire Tribe has the means and ability to become rich as Yu, who has always been reliable in the tribe, said, then between being an outsider who can only hope for others' kindness and joining the tribe, everyone knows what to choose.
"Everyone, don't be impatient, wait a little longer." Yu turned around and shouted to the agitated tribesmen, and led the large group to stay outside. He had a good memory, and he still remembered clearly the "welcome" he received when he first arrived.
Before Yu's people had to wait too long, the people of the Fire Tribe dropped their work and rushed over with various pottery containers filled with water...
Shaving heads, washing, changing clothes, boiling water, disinfecting and boiling animal hides, Xiao Yun, whose eyes were red from being busy, and the caracal who came to help, used skinning knives and sickles in their hands to turn the more than 40 tribesmen of the grassroots tribe into brothers who had just been released from prison...
Before the new laborers could marvel at their new skin color, the tribe leader Huoyan, Yangmao and other cubs brought in tall square steamers and quickly distributed oversized wheat cakes stuffed with green vegetables and meat slices, and a juicy radish for each person. When the newcomers started eating with great surprise, the strange cub (Xiao Yun) who was busy and sweating came to them with a cloth roll in one hand and a charcoal pencil in the other to ask their names and ages, and registered them one by one...
Although the grassroots chief was an old man, he was also treated as a first-class laborer (……). When she was registered, she was stunned for a long time before she realized, this cub can actually write? !
After the registration was over, the Fire Chief and a caracal ran up to hold the Grassroot Chief, saying welcome and thank you for your hard work, while asking the Grassroot cubs to help drive the cattle and sheep they brought to the sheepfold; as for the adults, they were directly dragged by their own tribesmen to join the army of people making bricks, cutting wood, or hauling coal...
The dizzy grassroots chief subconsciously helped to drive the cattle and sheep. After driving the last sheep in and locking it up, she found that the cubs of her tribe were immediately taken away by those cubs who came to work (in fact, they were sent out to eat for free). They didn't even say anything to explain to her as the chief? !
It didn't matter what the adults did, but the Grassroots leader would definitely be concerned about the whereabouts of the cubs. But before she could say anything, the anxious Fire Leader grabbed her and said, "Grassroots leader, let's talk while we work."
Nothing is more important than work, so the Grassroots Chief certainly wouldn't refuse. Then, she was dragged by the Fire Chief to cook... uh, to cook food...
In the large room, the black stone in the big stove was burning vigorously. The heated kang was too hot for people to sit on and was covered with dried radishes. The open space in the room was also filled with jars and pots that needed to be fermented. When the Grassroots Chief walked in, he was shocked by the wealth of the Huoyan Tribe. Not many tribes could afford so many pottery. This was not the end. When the Huoyan Chief brought out a basin of water and soap for her to wash her hands and carefully shaved the mud off her paws, he... brought out two huge pottery basins filled with wheat flour and motioned for her to help knead the dough...
"Caracals are weak and can't knead too much dough at a time. Let's quickly mix the dough and let it rise, otherwise all of us will go hungry tonight." Huo Yan placed the pottery basin on the kang and called Cao Gen to come up while adding water. "Add water like I did and knead the dough evenly. Use more force. The better you knead the dough, the tastier the steamed wheat cakes will be...ah, be careful not to spill the wheat flour."
The Grassroots Chieftain had a blank mind and clumsily followed the Fire Chieftain in making the noodles.
After the flour in the pottery basin turned into a beautiful and chewy dough, the grass-roots chief took out two gray balls of "yeast" and asked her to learn how to add yeast to the dough...
Two bowls of flour were naturally not enough for so many people, so the mixed flour was put aside to ferment. The Grassroot Chief was called by the Fire Chief to pick up the pottery bowl and run, through the tribal square where people were busy working, and ran to the stone mill shed opposite to fill two more bowls of wheat flour...
After kneading ten bowls of dough and more than 200 kilograms of wheat flour, the grassroots tribe leader, who was also used to doing hard work, felt that her arms were almost broken and she was sweating all over. Even so, she couldn't complain or doubt, because after the kneaded dough was put out to ferment, she heard the Fire Tribe leader, who was also sweating from exhaustion, muttering: "This amount is twice the usual amount. Should it be enough to eat?"
…She worked so hard just to prepare food for her tribe. For a grassroots tribe leader who brought more people than the other side to make a living, it was impossible for her to complain. She always felt guilty in her heart…
It is not enough to eat only wheat flour when doing heavy physical labor . The Fire Chief took a break to catch his breath, then dragged the Grassroot Chief to continue preparing food and pulled her down to the cellar.
The cellar was dug outside the tribe in the northwest direction. It was quite spacious for storing vegetables. When she went down, the grassroots chief was stunned... It was full of cabbages, radishes and greens, piled higher than her!
"The cabbage can still be stored for a while. We are eating green vegetables now, and they can't be stored for long... Well, there aren't many green vegetables left anyway." The Fire Chief looked sad, squatted down and hugged the green vegetables, which made the Grassroot Chief confused...
It's no wonder that the leader of the Fire Tribe was depressed. The yield of the grass harvested last time was so high that anyone who heard about it would cry. Later, Xiao Yun was afraid that the supply of vegetables would be cut off, so he plowed a piece of harvested wheat field and sowed some seeds. After more than a month, there was a little harvest. The vegetables we eat now are the ones planted in this rush - we didn't spread them out because we really couldn't spare the manpower, so we should cherish them while we can~
She carried out more than 200 kilograms of green vegetables, loaded them with a rattan dragnet, and went straight to the canal to wash them. The artificially dug farmland irrigation and large fields shocked the grassroots tribe leader again. When washing the vegetables, she had to separate the leaves, remove the roots, carefully wash off the mud on the roots, remove the insects hidden inside, and be careful not to wash the green vegetables rotten. These tedious operations made her sweat again .
The washed greens were brought back to the main room for processing. The Grassroots tribe leader was shocked to see the Fire tribe leader reveal a long knife that shone with cold light...
"I picked it up at the beach. Yu told you about it." The Fire Clan leader smiled friendly, holding the handle of the knife with one hand and the back of the knife with the other, and began to chop the vegetables. "It's not good to stuff the whole leaf into the wheat cake and steam it. You have to cut the leaf into strips and add meat to make the filling."
After cutting the vegetables, Chief Huoyan once again led Chief Caogen to set out, went to the lower reaches of the canal, dragged out half a piece of mutton from the ditch, and used running water to wash the mutton that had been soaked for most of the day...
"Soaking it in water can remove as much blood as possible from the meat, making it taste better." The Fire Chief carried the mutton back and did not forget to share his experience with the Grassroot Chief. "In the past, our tribe would have to eat a whole sheep for one meal, but now a sheep is enough for us to eat for two or three days. Vegetables and wheat cakes are better than meat, and wheat cakes can also keep us full."
...Well, this statement would definitely arouse the hatred of the ancient Chinese peasants who could not eat much meat all year round...
The Grassroots Chief silently followed the Fire Chief in processing the mutton. The specific process was to remove the bones and put them into an iron pot to stew the soup. Half of the mutton was separated and cut into slices with a weapon that was shining with cold light and was definitely a weapon. The slices were then rubbed with slightly green white salt and mixed with the chopped vegetables.
The Grassroots tribe leader had never seen the bones not thrown away but stewed in advance with more attention than meat. When she asked cautiously, the Fire Tribe leader drooled and said to her, "The bone soup is delicious. I can't handle it alone in the morning, so the food I prepared for you has no soup. You will know after you eat it tonight."
“……” The grassroots chief had no idea how delicious it was, but she still drooled... She remembered the soft and flavorful wheat cake. Not to mention the filling, the crust was also very delicious, with a peculiar aroma (actually it was the aroma of wheat. Although the more primitive wheat does not contain enough starch and the taste is not very good, the wheat aroma can indeed please the nose), and a slight sweetness.
The aroma of mutton bone soup wafted slowly from the two iron pots on the stoves in the two large connected rooms. Chief Huo Yan pulled Chief Cao Gen to get the enoki mushrooms wrapped in straw bundles, wash them, and carry out several dozen kilograms of white radishes to peel and slice them... Although there are only a hundred people in the tribe, including the goblins, the amount of food is calculated for four hundred people, which is really not easy - more than two hundred and forty kilograms of flour alone were kneaded, not to mention other processing procedures.
The enoki mushrooms and radishes were not put into the pot in a hurry, and the firepower of the two large stoves had to be used to steam wheat cakes first. Using the assembled wooden boards as a table, the clan leader flexibly rolled out the dough with a thick rolling pin. The grassroots clan leader was busy learning to make wheat cakes. From time to time, he was reminded that there was too much or too little stuffing, and the opening was not pinched well, so he dipped his hands in water and pinched it again, and so on, and he sweated again.
The square steamers were piled high, one after another, and when three hundred wheat cakes weighing at least eight taels were ready, the Grassroots Clan Leader had almost no strength left but to gasp for air...
"We snow wolves eat three of these wheat cakes in one meal, the goblins eat one and a half, the caracals eat one, Qingyan barely eats two, and humans eat half. This number is almost enough." Huoyan, who was resting against the wall, panted.
The grassroots chief looked up in astonishment, staring at Huo Yan for a long time... Most tribes have their chiefs distribute food, but everyone distributes roughly based on experience. I have never heard of a grassroots chief like Huo Yan who calculates so carefully and knows the numbers so well - most people can't calculate this number at all? No wonder the Huo Yan tribe has become so rich after only one year of migration!
The steamer was moved to the open space outside the square, and the iron pot containing mutton soup was moved to the stove again. Radish slices, the reserved green leaves, and enoki mushrooms were added... By the time the two clan leaders were so tired that they were vomiting blood and finally prepared the food for dinner, it was already dark.
Like the Fire Chief, the Grassroot Chief was resting against the wall. Suddenly, she heard the sound of water splashing outside. She went out to take a look out of curiosity. She was shocked! The lively tribesmen she had just brought here during the day were now all lying on the ground exhausted!
Was it the extinction of wolf nature or the tragedy of morality? It had only been half a day, and the cubs who had been curious and asking her questions when they set out, and who had been eager to roll around while walking, were now lying dead all over the ground, with their little faces filled with helplessness and exhaustion, as if they had lost confidence in life!
The grass-roots chief ran out in horror, wanting to ask her people what happened, but after running just two steps, her whole body felt sore and she stumbled...
Grassroots Chief: “…”
She seemed to be exhausted too! She was just preparing food and doing the same work as the Fire Clan leader! When did preparing food make her so tired! She didn't even have the energy to speak!
The grassroots chief stopped to catch his breath, and his eyes became particularly horrified when he looked at the people of the Fire Tribe again... No matter whether they were cubs or adults, these people actually had the strength to fetch water for everyone to wash their hands and faces!
Well... Fortunately, Yu and the other people who came here to work can move freely now, otherwise the grassroots chief would definitely think that this is a conspiracy of the Fire Tribe - so unkind!
With the help of the active Snow Wolves... the newcomers who had just arrived and were not used to such an intensity of labor washed their hands and sat down nearby. Every twenty to thirty people shared a clay pot of soup and vegetables, and ate soft and delicious wheat cakes with hot mutton bone soup. It was not known whether it was because they were too tired, but the newcomers could only eat two cakes for their first dinner, but they drank up all the soup and vegetables, and even licked the soup pot.
Well... the extra wheat cakes will certainly not be wasted. I’ll just steam them and have them as midnight snack when I work the night shift.
The Grassroots Chief was responsible for distributing food at dinner, just like when she was in the original tribe. This job originally symbolized that the chief had the right to allocate resources within the tribe. She didn't think there was anything wrong with her doing this; it was just... she was too tired and couldn't distribute food to so many people one by one. She could only learn from the Fire Chief and let those cubs, caracals, etc. who could still move help distribute the food.
The grassroots chief probably never imagined that she would be given a hard time working as a chef on her first day after arriving at the Fire Flame Tribe because Xiao Yun considered her as the chief and specially prepared an "adaptation period" for her; of course, more importantly, with the addition of more than 40 snow werewolves, the caracals were not physically strong enough to prepare such a huge amount of food... being a chef has always been a physically demanding job.
Looking at the grassroots chief barely supporting her shaky body and letting the cubs help her distribute food, Xiao Yun's eyes flashed with a gleam as he chewed a wheat cake.
Paying tactical attention to bad teammates is a basic quality that a team leader must have. He would never think . It is definitely a waste for Xiao Yun to throw the work that does not belong to the patriarch to the patriarch and let the first-level laborer be the chef. After the domestication period, even the patriarch has to bear the responsibilities and obligations of the first-level laborer.
How long will the taming period of this grassroots chief be? We still need to observe more...
