Volume 10: Our Journey Chapter 320: The Old Master Meets the New King
As the weather warms, the snow on the Samal Snow Mountain begins to melt and flows along countless rivers of all sizes from north to south and east, nourishing and irrigating the entire grassland.
The long flat-bed canal boat with a swollen pneumatic engine installed at the rear was going upstream with the rumbling sound of the engine. Yale and his clansmen were sitting on the edge of the "passenger" boat's side, which was less than one meter wide, under the bow shelf. Facing the warm and chilly spring breeze, they kept looking at the fields on both sides of the river bank in amazement.
This small canal was the first canal opened in Huoyan City. The areas suitable for planting on both sides were not given to "outsiders"...especially in the Snake Vine Valley generation. The fertile land on the west bank was all allocated to the beet planting base, and the east bank was full of farms directly under Huoyan City.
The planting season on the grassland is one month later than on the southern continent. The soybean planting season is from April to May, and the beet planting season is about the same time. If you take a boat through the canal at this time, it is no exaggeration to say that half of the way you can see seemingly endless farmland and people working in the fields, tractors emitting black smoke and making the same "thump thump" noise, and giant wolves and cats dragging giant triangular plows and frolicking in the fields...
"They actually have so many fields!" The white-haired and white-bearded tiger veteran opened his mouth in shock, "There are actually so many places on the grassland that can be used for farming!"
The tiger tribe had seen tractors in Kroning, and they knew that this thing was sold to humans by the grassland people who took in a large number of gray dwarves. They were not surprised by this. What surprised them was that the grassland people actually had so many fields of their own. The boat had been sailing for almost two hours and there was still no end in sight!
Yale didn't say anything, but judging from his expression, he was probably in the same mood as the White Tiger veteran...
Bai Xiang, the small cat in charge of reception, chuckled and said amusingly, "Why can't we farm? There's soil on the ground and water nearby, so we can use it to grow crops. If there's no water, we can build a canal there. If the canal can be dug through, the land can be used for farming."
Bai Xiang pointed to the land on the west bank, which was a beet planting base, and proudly said: "The land on the west bank of Sheteng Valley is the best in this generation. The beets grown here are bigger, juicier, and sweeter than those grown by humans."
The group of tiger heads were silent, and they all covered their hearts...
They have not been away from their hometown for long, and their memories of the grassland are still very vivid. In their collective impression, grassland is grassland, with pastures and cattle and sheep - they never imagined that grassland can be not just about pastures and cattle and sheep, but also about thousands of miles of fertile land and tens of thousands of acres of farmland.
"Is this still grassland..." An old soldier with golden hair murmured in a low voice, pain and confusion revealed in his light golden pupils, but he was reluctant to take his eyes away from the endless fields on the river bank.
Yale brought with him the elders of the tribe this time.
He knew in his heart that the tiger tribe could have its current situation, could maintain its vitality after escaping the underground world in disarray, and the cubs in the tribe could still be born safely and grow up in an environment with relatively abundant supplies, all because of the generosity of the snow wolf tribe that replaced the tiger tribe.
Accepting the mercy and charity of others is a painful thing, especially for their generation who have experienced the era of the Tiger King's Court... But the Tigers cannot help but be grateful for this mercy - if it weren't for the material support of the Snow Wolf Tribe, Yale would have no confidence that he could lead his people to survive on the human territory. (To live by looting is to pay the price of the lives of the people. No matter which plane you are in, bandits are a high-risk profession where you can't survive any day.)
Having accepted so much kindness from others, Yale naturally would not have any fantasy of returning to the prairie or his hometown - bringing the veterans here is to allow them to take one last look at their homeland before they die.
Today, the veterans saw their homeland, the land where they had lived for most of their lives. However, the homeland in their memories has changed beyond all recognition, so much so that even the calmest veterans dare not recognize it.
Bai Xiang is the team leader of the blanket workshop under the wool spinning mill. He is deft and good at weaving exquisite and intricate patterns with coarse wool of only a few colors. The hand-woven blankets produced by his team are always sold at a good price in the human country, and they are jokingly called the "boutique group."
Someone who can do delicate work and possesses artistic talent is definitely not a careless person. After hearing the old soldier's whisper and looking at the expressions of the other tiger-headed guys, he only thought about it for a moment and understood what these former grassland royals were feeling sad about, and he couldn't help but laugh.
"Yale Tent, do you remember Sang Xi? Her mother was a guard of the King's Tent. At that time, my tribesmen and I were doing... things in the King's Tent. Sang Xi was the friendliest tiger cub to us cats."
The Yale chief showed no expression at first, but his expression changed slightly after hearing the rest.
He remembered why he felt Baixiang looked familiar. He had seen this small cat in the king's tent before.
At that time, he was just an elite warrior in the tribe and had no right to criticize the decisions of the tiger tribe. Even though he really disliked the enslavement of the cat tribe, he really couldn't do anything... It was not until he became the head of the account that he had the power to make life a little better for the cats under his jurisdiction.
Yale couldn't help feeling a little guilty, and he finally remembered why the little cat kept saying that he had taken care of it... He once secretly gave the sick kitten a palm-sized wheat biscuit, and it was just such a small thing, but others actually remembered it.
"Sang Xi...are you in the tent with Ted?" Feeling embarrassed, Yale didn't have the face to look directly at Baixiang and turned his head away uncomfortably.
"Well, Sang Xi was also there when Ted Zhongzhang and his friends came. I didn't know it at first, but later when Ted Zhongzhang and his friends came to the city to buy things, I found out that Sang Xi was there too." Bai Xiang said happily, "Sang Xi was very smart and capable before, and now he is even more capable. Their vermicelli factory only has one quota for advanced workers every month, and Sang Xi actually got it twice, with a bonus of eight silver coins! He is even more capable than an adult tiger !"
When the old soldiers heard Baixiang mention Ted's tent who stayed behind in the royal court, they ignored their sadness and listened attentively.
"Can San Xi earn eight silver coins a month?" Yale couldn't help but ask with concern.
"Not only that, the basic salary at their vermicelli OEM factory is five silver coins, plus a two-silver-coin seniority bonus. And they exceed production targets every month, and based on the excess, they can get a bonus three to five times higher than the basic salary. In total, Sang Xi can earn more than one gold coin every month! That's three times as much as me!" Bai Xiang said with envy.
Well... Actually, the key point of this passage is the last sentence. This little cat really wants to show off that he can earn more than a dozen silver coins every month...
Unfortunately, the tiger-headed ones could not understand the little guy's roundabout boasting. They opened their mouths in shock, all amazed that the young cub in their family could get a monthly salary calculated in gold coins.
With the fame of the Tiger Tribe in the war ball sport on the southern continent, outstanding foreign players for the team can be assigned to work through Isaac's foreign player club every year, with an annual salary starting from 100 gold coins.
But this is only a minority... Among the thousands of tribesmen, there are only more than ten people whose net worth can reach this level. After all, the foreign players of the Snow Elves, Bear Tribe and Sea Tribe are also very popular in the market, and the human team owners have a wider range of choices, and they don't have to rely on the Tiger Tribe.
Except for the tribesmen who work in the team, everyone else's job is to plant battle trees. These things can be planted with water, light, and a little soil (provided that they are not killed by the fruits of the living battle trees). Young and old work together to produce a large amount of natural rubber raw materials every year.
The harvested branches, leaves and fruits of the battle trees were transported to the grassland in boatloads. The benefit to the tiger tribe was that they could not only enjoy important daily necessities such as clothing, bedding, food and spices produced in the grassland, but the Yale tent could also pay the tribe members a monthly salary... no matter whether they were adults or not, they could receive at least ten silver coins.
This is definitely a high income, two to three times higher than the income of human city workers, and they don’t have to bear living expenses. When the tiger-headed people occasionally enter human towns to buy supplies, the locals always comment on them as "extremely generous"...
After all, pork only costs about 20 copper coins per pound, and one silver coin is equal to 50 copper coins. The money a tiger tribe member earns from planting battle trees every month can buy more than 20 pounds of pork alone. Eating meat almost every day is definitely a luxurious life in this world. Of course, tiger heads are not really greedy for meat. There is no shortage of meat on the grassland, but vegetables. The juicy cabbage grown by humans can be bought with one copper coin for two pounds...
Not only did the tribesmen live a life with more material comforts than in the royal court era, but Yale Big Tent also saved up money - he brought a bag of gold coins with him when he came to the grassland this time. If the Ted Middle Tent had a hard time on the grassland, Yale Big Tent was prepared to leave the money to them. This was discussed with the tribesmen before coming.
As a result, from what Baixiang said, Ted’s branch is not short of money at all?!
Bai Xiang took the example of the cub Sang Xi, whom he was familiar with, and talked for a long time about the living conditions of the Taide Zhongzhang branch on the grassland: each tiger had built its own house (with a property certificate) and had a lot of savings. The tigers were the first to consume the new snacks launched by the Welfare Department and the new clothes launched by the garment factory. Taide Zhongzhang also called on the tribesmen to invest and built a theater imitating human architecture on the cat farm where the tigers lived. In their spare time, people in Huoyan City would go to the cat farm to watch dramas. The amateur troupe that used to perform for the bears had not disbanded yet, and except for Xia Huigui, the other actors had more part-time income.
"Except for Balk and Auston, they have the highest salary." Bai Xiang said proudly, "As Ayun said, the grassland has its own rules. Our rule is that no work means no gain, and more work means more pay. No matter what race they are from, as long as they can work, we must ensure that the workers can get an income that matches their efforts."
The White Tiger veteran couldn't help but nodded vigorously. In the era of the royal court, the Tiger Tribe respected the use of force, and the stronger one would gain the advantage. The warriors ate meat and the weak drank soup. Although he still couldn't understand what the two simple words "work" meant in Baixiang's words, the White Tiger veteran thought that it should be similar to their customs... The more powerful the Tiger warriors were, the more they should be at the front during the charge, but there was no tradition of soldiers sending their generals to their deaths.
"If what he said is true, Ted and his friends shouldn't have a hard time on the grassland." Yale had a similar thought. He didn't understand what Baixiang meant by "working", but he felt that the tiger tribe was no worse than other tribes in any aspect...
So these tiger-headed people put the fact that their hometown had become unfamiliar to them behind their minds, and whispered to each other about how many tribesmen were left in Ted's tent and how many of the people they knew were still alive. These were both sad and comforting words.
Bai Xiang, who was trying to comfort the guests lightly, hummed a little tune with a smug look on her face, thinking about how to take credit from the grassroots clan leader after the incident...
The canal boats, which are mainly used to transport goods, have a low speed of only 20 kilometers per hour (about 10 knots). When it was almost dark, Yale Dazhan and others sitting at the bow saw the outline of the Fire City.
This small canal was originally built to prevent flooding. It was several kilometers away from the Huoyan Tribe at that time, and the tribal buildings could not be seen. But now that the Huoyan Tribe has been upgraded to Huoyan City and the scale of the buildings has gradually expanded, you can see the buildings as long as you stand on the canal dock.
At the end of the horizon, there were large-scale brick and stone buildings, each about four meters high, spreading out in all directions. The tiger-headed people in Yale Tent and other places who had seen the prosperous cities of the human race were instantly speechless.
"The buildings over there that occupy the vegetable fields are the dormitories for the new employees of the vermicelli factory and cement factory. They are all independent houses, not the kind where more than 20 people squeeze into one room." Bai Xiang stood up with the help of the cargo box, pointing to the large construction site vaguely visible in the distance, and said proudly, "That is the dormitory area for the new employees of our wool spinning factory. It is of the same standard as the vermicelli factory and the cement factory. I have been assigned a room. It is under construction now, and I can move in in the fall."
According to the normal construction process of Fire City, it would take at least ten years to get all employees of enterprises to be allocated houses with their own doors and doors. But with the participation of a large number of bear tribe surrendered people, there is no need to wait that long... The wealthy Green Dragon father and son (the stingy Auston was of course forced by Balk) first paid for the construction of new dormitories for employees of their two vermicelli factories, and the cement factory, which has always been low-key but actually very wealthy, quickly followed suit and built a large area of new housing covering the original vegetable fields last year.
The wool spinning mill has many industries under its jurisdiction, but in terms of financial resources, it is really not as rich as these two dog tycoons. It only broke ground this year...
Therefore, the Tiger Tribe's new housing construction did not arouse anyone's jealousy at all. The two hundred or so houses they built were not very eye-catching compared to the thousands of houses built in Fire City...
Yale originally planned to count how many buildings there were, but he gave up after just starting. He really couldn't count. This grassland city was even bigger than the main city of Bolton County. He felt very complicated for a moment. This was not one of those human cities with hundreds or thousands of years of history, but a city on the grassland. In comparison, the Tiger King's Court that he was once proud of was not even a small part of it...
After several expansions, the canal wharf now has a lighthouse about ten meters high and two rows of warehouses, as well as a small square about a thousand square meters wide for loading and unloading and temporary storage of goods. A team of soldiers on duty were eating barbecue in the duty room near the wharf. When they heard the sound of the pneumatic engine, two people walked out side by side to see.
"The port ship is back!" A Snow Wolf warrior saw the canal ship and raised his hand to greet them. There is a difference between the port ship, the Snake Tribe ship and the MSG factory ship. Only the cargo on the port ship is neatly packed into boxes.
"I'm back too!" Baixiang waved while standing at the bow.
"It's Baixiang!" Another cat warrior said to his comrade with a smile, "I heard that Baixiang went to the port to give the Grassroots leader a mission. I thought he would stay for two more days before coming back."
"What's so fun about the port? Those adventurers are so annoying." The Snow Wolf warrior said with disdain.
"You will be annoyed if you go there, but we cats won't be annoyed if we go there." said the cat warrior happily.
This is why Fire City doesn't allow adult snow werewolves to look after shops on the "Grassland Street" set up at the Elf Port (Ashu is counted as the elderly, the weak and the disabled). Whenever adventurers see an adult snow werewolf, they will inevitably come up to harass them. Knights want to become close friends with them, and other adventurers want to recruit them as companions.
The canal boat was operated by goblins who had learned the technology from the hired human crew members on the seagoing ship. The goblin crew members docked the boat at the edge of the dock, lowered the anchor, and threw a thick cable from the boat. The soldiers on duty then stepped forward to help them put the cable on the concrete piles and secure it.
"Thank you for your hard work!" The goblin crewman, who was sweating profusely just from throwing a rope, waved his hand.
"Thank you for your hard work." The soldier on duty nodded to them and turned back to shout, "The ship has arrived, come and unload the cargo!"
"Here they come!" Eight soldiers filed out of the duty room from the Snow Wolf tribe, with two from the Cat tribe and a Snake tribe mixed in.
"Shall we come and help too?" Bai Xiang rolled up her sleeves and said naturally to the Yale tent.
Yale Headquarters: “…Okay.” How could I refuse?
Only two cat warriors took a few extra glances at the group of tigers that jumped off the bow, and the others didn't pay much attention. The tigers weren't a rare species, and people from Ted's central tent often came to the Welfare Department headquarters to buy goods, so they were just like that after seeing so many of them. When Baixiang called on the tigers to help unload the goods, the team leader of the soldiers on duty also shouted at them to pay attention to the marks on the boxes and stack the boxes according to their types...
It was already midnight when the five ships of cargo were unloaded...
"Didn't they say the fleet was coming back? Why did they only bring back this little cargo?"
The tiger-headed guys were so tired that they began to doubt their lives. The captain of the Snow Wolf tribe who was organizing the unloading asked the captain of the goblin crew the same question.
"The ten boats we borrowed from the sugar beet planting base have not been returned yet. We only have five boats and can only transport this much." The goblin captain wiped his sweat and took out a notebook from his small backpack. "Sign for these five boats first, and we will go back and continue transporting."
"That's right." The team leader took the book, looked at it carefully, and signed his name. "Don't be anxious to transport it all back at once if there are only five boats. You can rest until dawn before going back. The MSG factory's boat will also arrive tonight, so let's borrow their transportation capacity first."
"The MSG factory's ship can't carry much stuff..." the goblin ship captain said disdainfully.
"They are using the previous generation of pneumatic boats that were eliminated by your port transport team. It's good enough that they don't complain to you that they can only use your old stuff, but you are still picky about their boats." The cat warrior laughed beside him.
"That's right. The ships we in the Snake Tribe use are also those discarded from the port." The snake warrior said sourly.
"That's because we have more cargo to transport. We're not just occupying a good ship and watching. Besides, won't the Snake Tribe requisition our entire fleet for use during the autumn harvest?" The goblin captain took back the handover book and took out a purse from his bag and handed it to the team leader. "Here are all the loading and unloading fees for the five ships. Please calculate it."
The so-called distribution according to work means that labor should be rewarded. This spirit has become a brand engraved in the bones of the grassland people... The goblin transport team can collect money from the cargo owners when transporting goods, and also pay the people who help with loading and unloading. When they came, the MSG factory and the snake tribe loaded the goods for them, and half of the loading and unloading fees were paid at that time.
The team leader held the money bag in one hand and counted the heads with the other. The grassland people were serious about making money and sharing the money. Baixiang's contribution was the lowest, only a dozen copper coins, while other warriors, including the tiger-headed ones, could get more than thirty...
The goblins declined the invitation to have a midnight snack and went to the guest rooms provided by the dock to rest. The team leader called out to the people who had received their share of the money: "Everyone, come in and eat some barbecued skewers. There will be a ship from the MSG factory later in the night. Finish your work before leaving!"
The tiger-headed people holding the coins: "???"
"We have to do the work when we come across it." Bai Xiang put the money in his pocket with a smile, and called the tiger-headed guys to follow, "People on duty at the port can get the leftover ingredients from the cafeteria, let's have a meal too."
So this group of guests who came from afar were also brought into the duty room...
The iron stove covered with iron sheet was burning charcoal instead of honeycomb coal. The temperature on the grassland was not high at night in spring, and it was very comfortable to sit around the fire. More than 20 strong men from the tiger tribe and the soldiers on duty were crowded into one room. After the skewers were grilled on the charcoal fire, they were put on plates and served to the tiger guests who had not eaten yet.
Facing the barbecue on the iron plate, Yale was a little stunned for a moment... Not only meat, but also green leaves, cabbage stalks, and radish slices were skewered and grilled, and even bean sprouts and enoki mushrooms were wrapped in tofu skin and grilled. The way of eating was more radical than those shops in the Knight Territory with a large number of customers...
"Why aren't you eating?" A Snow Wolf who was chewing on a bunch of carrots saw the Tigers staring at the plates without eating anything, and asked curiously, "Can't the Tiger Tribe eat spicy food?"
"It's edible, right? The Welfare Department's spicy hotpot and the guys at Taidezhongzhang have bought quite a bit." said the snake who was slowly chewing a chicken leg nearby.
"Don't put so much spicy food! Stop it, that's chili powder, not Sichuan pepper powder, don't pour it!" The cat warrior jumped up and stopped the snow wolf warrior who was busy grilling skewers.
"It's okay, believe me, the spicier it is, the better it tastes." The Snow Wolf warrior pushed the Cat warrior away with his arm and continued to pour the chili powder.
The other Snow Wolf warriors all spoke up: "If you add more spiciness, you won't be able to eat it, idiot!"
"Are you going to empty the whole bottle?"
"Change someone to grill, change someone!"
The old soldier Baihu silently watched the soldiers on duty who were playing, laughing and scolding for a while, then reached out and took a string of enoki mushrooms wrapped in tofu skin from the iron plate.
After taking a bite, the White Tiger veteran almost spit out fire...
Bai Xiang curiously took a skewer of roasted cabbage from the tiger tribe’s plate, licked it a little and then sprayed it: “What the hell, peppers are free?!”
"This idiot poured out a whole bottle of chili!" The cat warrior pointed angrily at the snow wolf warrior who was grilling skewers.
"It's really a bit spicy!" The snow werewolf began to exhale after eating a string of roasted radish slices.
The snake warrior put down the half-eaten chicken leg, tilted his mouth with a red mouth from the spiciness, and together with the cat warrior stopped the guy who volunteered to grill the skewers... The warrior who was burned by the spicy grilled radish slices also stepped forward to help.
"Eating something spicy will keep you energetic! We still have to unload the goods later!" the soldier who was beaten up defended himself.
"Throw this idiot out!" the team leader said.
"How can I eat it with so much spiciness?" Bai Xiang shouted heartbrokenly at the whole row of grilled skewers on the grill.
"How about rinsing it with boiled water?" the Snow Wolf warrior next to him suggested.
"Then it won't taste good, the taste will be worse!" Bai Xiang was heartbroken.
The goblins resting in the guest room next door heard the noise and came to watch the fun. When they saw the soldier who was thrown out, the goblin captain laughed and said, "It was you . Last time you helped the cafeteria, you used up all ten pounds of peppers in a pot of stew. You were so angry that you jumped up and down. Fortunately, we didn't come to grab your grilled skewers."
"You said you helped in the cafeteria, but is this the kind of help you provided?!" In the room, the soldiers on duty, including the team leader, roared in unison.
"Not every Snow Wolf is particularly good at cooking." Bai Xiang complained angrily to the Yale tent.
Yale didn't say anything. He just looked at the new owners of the grassland silently. Although a faint smile appeared on the corners of his mouth unconsciously, his expression was full of loneliness.
The snow werewolves, cats, snakes, goblins, the human workers at the MSG factory whom he had seen at the port, and the gray dwarves who built tractors and farm machinery for the grassland that were exported to the human kingdom. After these races became the new masters of the grassland, they managed the grassland to be more prosperous, richer and more harmonious than in the tiger era.
They did not need to show any contempt or disgust towards the tiger tribe. Their mere existence and the fact that they lived so happily and harmoniously on the grassland were enough to make the tiger tribe, who once claimed to be the masters of this grassland, feel ashamed.
