Volume 3: Fellow villagers, let’s farm together~ Chapter 91 Hometown
After a brief meeting with Prince Carlisle, Xiao Yun left the Elf Port and rushed back to the tribe... Everything that needed to be discussed was done, and the next stage of the transaction could be taken care of by Yu and Hongye. He had a lot of things waiting for him on hand, and he didn't have the time to waste here every day.
In order to facilitate the transportation of the Snow Wolf Tribe, the elves opened a road in the jungle that blocked the road. Without having to take a detour, the round-trip time was shortened a lot. If they did not carry heavy objects, they could run back to the tribe from the port in two days. If they were in a hurry, they could transform into wolves and trot the whole way and get there in a day and a half.
Accompanied by Mumu, Xiao Yun returned to the tribe. As soon as he arrived at the open artificial river, he saw the construction team working on the river surface and on both sides of the river.
When the daily average temperature on the grassland entered its annual peak, rainfall increased, and with the continuous snow-capped mountains and snow water, the river water was extremely turbulent. Under such circumstances, it was a bit too much to ask the cat tribe to swim across the river every day to deliver meals to the engineering team. So the engineering team suspended the river project that was still some distance away from digging to the canyon, and turned back to practice bridge-building skills... Due to the limited steel production, it was too wasteful to build bridges with steel plates. Fortunately, there had been no reports of earthquakes on the grassland, so the technology of stone arch bridges could be used. There was no need to open mountains for quarrying, and the stone slabs cast with cement and gravel could meet the demand - the total weight of the goods carried by the snow wolf warriors when they transformed was at most two tons, so the bearing capacity of the stone arch bridge was not required to be high.
Of course...solving the raw material problem and piling up prefabricated cement blocks weighing tons into an arch on a ten-meter-wide river channel was not an easy task. Fortunately, with the help of the gray dwarves, they cut down trees to build a frame similar to a robotic arm, installed a pulley block, and used ropes made of steel wire, animal tendons, vines, and tree bark to lift and move the heavy cement blocks, extending the stone arch bridge deck from both ends of the river channel to the center of the river. Although the progress was slow and problems occurred from time to time, the bridge deck was finally paved.
Xiao Yun squatted by the river to observe the progress of the bridge repair. Finding that Lan Guo had organized the work well, he crossed the river with confidence.
After entering the tribe, before I could even think of finding the team leader to inquire about the work progress, Daha came to me angrily.
"Ayun, you sold all the pickled vegetables. We have nothing to eat!"
Xiao Yun looked at this guy who only had the appearance of a good-looking girl with a pained look in his balls: "If there is nothing, why not just soak it again? Didn't the greens just get harvested?"
"You've sold all the vinegar and there's only one jar left! If it's used up, there won't be any left!" Daha became even angrier.
Xiao Yun had no choice but to take Da He to the warehouse where the pickled vegetables were stored. He pointed to the large vat at the back that contained only sour soup and said to Da He, "See this? Do you remember what I told you? The sour soup can be reused after boiling. Have you forgotten?"
Da He leaned over the edge of the jar and took a look. He immediately smiled happily, but he was still very stubborn: "You didn't tell me that you had left a few jars of sour soup. I only saw that the outside was empty and the jars of pickled cabbage were moved away."
Xiao Yun was too lazy to talk to her, so he turned around and left...
The tribe uses the laziest and quickest way to make pickled cabbage - boil disinfected water, add vinegar and put it into a container, then throw the sliced and blanched green vegetables into the container to soak. If you want a different flavor, throw in some peppercorns, ginger slices, etc. Then seal it and place it in a ventilated and cool place. After two to three days, when the leaves change color, you can take them out and eat them... (Adding perilla can effectively prevent white foam from forming on the surface of the sour soup)
If you like to eat sour radish and sour garlic, you can also throw them in to pickle. There is no particular requirement for radish, just wash and slice it. Garlic must be fresh. Soak it in clean water to remove the smell before throwing it into the pickling tank... After it changes color, you can fish it out and eat it. It is so simple that anyone can make it. (The sour cabbage stewed with red beans that Guizhou people love to eat is made with this kind of sour cabbage, and the sour radish and sour cabbage leaves in spicy chicken noodles are also made this way)
If you have the conditions, you can add star anise, bay leaves, walnuts, sugar and liquor when making sour soup... If you don't have the conditions, don't worry about it. Xiao Yun doesn't care anyway. First of all, he doesn't consider liquor at all - it's not that the tribe can't make liquor now, but as a workaholic with a positive attitude, what he hates most is anything that may delay the work. Xiao Yun will never allow such a thing as drinking and delaying things to happen under his hands. It's the limit to make some alcohol in the Balk laboratory for backup.
Taking the time to understand the progress of various tasks in the tribe , Xiao Yun convened a meeting of the remaining warriors, clan leaders, and ethnic representatives to adjust the original autumn work plan: except for the unchanged labor arrangements during the harvest period of various crops, the tribe must step up infrastructure construction in the coming period. There are two main projects. The first is to build a winter planting greenhouse as soon as possible. The flat glass of the gray dwarves must be used to the fullest extent. The steel frame and glass ceiling have solved the lighting problem of the greenhouse. So this winter must not be passed by casually, and the planting work cannot be put aside.
Xiao Yun said this confidently, not caring whether the people present were staring at him... Get away with it? Dong Tian? Ah Yun, don't you feel guilty? !
The second is to build more collective dormitories for living... Anyway, there is a lot of space left in the living area, so just build as many houses as possible, the more the better.
Qiu lowered his head and played with his fingers, Qingyan stared with dead eyes, a drop of sweat quietly slid down the corner of Lan Guo's temple, and the grassroots chief silently turned his eyes away - Ah Yun, you are almost directly saying that you want to trick other tribes to come here. Although those working warriors are not here, you can't be so straightforward...
Mr. Yun is unscrupulous. What's the point of having moral integrity? It's in the way. Just throw it away!
After the work meeting, the entire tribe became busy again...well...in fact, there is no time when the tribe is not busy, the only difference is the intensity of the work.
Because the elves left the forest and built a port on the seaside, Xiao Yun did not let Balke take the risk of flying out to dry the salt this year. He only let Yu and Hongye secretly dry tens of thousands of kilograms of salt while transporting the goods and waiting for the fleet. The salt fields were ready, so they just needed to leave two people on the coast to watch over it during transportation.
In other words, the forest elves "frequently" appeared on the grassland, and Balk had to be careful even when going out for a walk... No one knew better than him how greedy his father, Austin, was. If Austin found out where he was, his good days in the Snow Wolf Tribe would be over.
On this day, Balk, who was forced by Xiao Yun to electrolyze a large amount of disinfectant and experimental minerals, got another chance to go out for some fresh air. He did not dare to transform into a dragon, nor did he wear his flashy spider silk robe. He wrapped his overly conspicuous green long hair with a quick turban, wore a set of sun cloth mid-sleeved pullover and trousers that were handmade and uniformly distributed by the caracal tribe, and then he found a goblin cub to lead the way and strolled out of the tribe.
The caracal cubs are all very busy, but the goblin cubs do have some free time when the tribe is not too short of people... These cute and ugly little things have metal claws and can't do delicate work. When the engineering team stops digging the river and the cement factory has enough limestone, they can get a brief period of freedom... ahem!
As for why Balk took the goblin with him on his walks, there was certainly a reason.
"Balk, there are raspberries here~"
"Balk, there are ripe raspberries here~"
"Balke Balke, you can eat the mulberries on the tree over there~"
The berries on the grassland mature late. According to the human calendar, it is already August now. Similar berries are out of season long ago, but they can still be found on the grassland... Balk controlled the wind element to climb up and down, both of his hands were filled with brightly colored berries. He was so happy that he found a place to sit down and share the berries with the goblin cubs, and occasionally fed some to his pet bird.
"Balk, there is a termite nest over there. Shall we go catch some termites and roast them to eat?" said the ugly and cute goblin cub, blinking his big eyes.
Balk said seriously, "Well... don't roast it. Take it back and let Dahe fry it."
"Okay, okay, then let's go to where there are more grass seeds and catch some more grasshoppers."
When Balk heard about grasshoppers, he thought of the delicious grasshopper powder fried cakes. He immediately jumped up and dragged the goblin cub to where there were more grass seeds... Last year, the snow wolves caught a lot of grasshoppers in the wheat fields using nets woven from the hair of curved-horned cattle. They couldn't bear to feed them to the pigs, so they dried them, ground them into powder, and made fried cakes. They were eaten up in a few meals, and Balk always felt unsatisfied.
The taste determines which insect dies first. Balk threw at least ten kilograms of grasshoppers that were stunned by electric shock into his precious space ring, and then he went to destroy the termite nest with the goblin cubs with a happy face.
Xiao Yun, who came over, saw from afar this increasingly useless green dragon sticking his butt out and using a branch to dig out an ant nest. The corners of his mouth twitched and he turned back silently.
"...Children mature earlier the more they interact with the outside world. If they meet fewer people and encounter fewer things, they will still be naughty children even when they are older. This guy...is just like an older naughty child. Primary school students on Earth have met more people and seen more of the world than him."
Trust the people you employ, and don't trust the people you doubt. This kind of words are just thrown around by the boss to fool his younger brothers. If he really takes this as an imperial decree, then the boss must not be very successful... Xiao Yun can't trust someone wholeheartedly anyway, he has a framework in his mind towards everyone; if it's not too extreme, then everyone is fine. If it's too extreme, sorry, please find your own way to make a living.
Of course, Xiao Yun didn't want to see the latter end up in such an embarrassing situation, so when he took a fancy to someone, he would be willing to put in the effort to train and regulate them, and tell them in advance what they can and cannot do; it is true that everyone has selfish desires, but no one is a cheap person who can get along well with the big guys and would not cause trouble for no reason.
Xiao Yun adopted a loose-outside-tight-inside control strategy for Balk. It seemed that he was given a lot of freedom, but in fact, 90% of the time, he found various excuses and reasons to restrict him to a fixed framework, making him accustomed to accepting and obeying orders. In short, it was domestication...
After all, if Balke goes too far, the damage caused will be too great, so Xiao Yun has to be careful and dares not be careless.
"Since he's still an older naughty kid, let's lock him up a little longer to temper him."
After this thought flashed through his mind, Xiao Yun gave up the idea of "loosening up" Balke.
Yes, that's right... "Let the forest elves find him and attract his father" is the invisible frame that Xiao Yun used to scare Balk. The forest elves like to see the dragon clan? It's easy to figure out that the Ananas elves cooperate well with the Snow Wolf Clan, and it's strange that they are willing to pay attention to the Green Dragon Clan. If that old man Austin can be so awesome that he mobilizes the elves to help dig three feet underground to find Balk, then it doesn't matter whether Balk hides or not.
While wasting time in the Elf Port, Xiao Yun became friends with many Elf warriors and had already figured out the attitude of the Elves towards the Green Dragons... The Green Dragons are not the swallows or magpies that would build nests on the beams of other people's houses and make the owners particularly happy. The forest elves are so annoyed with them that they don't even bother to maintain polite manners!
So Xiao Yun was thinking whether he should let Balk make use of his air transport capabilities and follow the warriors to visit the grassland tribes to gain some experience and get some fresh air. But since this guy looks mature but is actually the same kind of goblin cub, he decided to put it on hold for now... If an undisciplined child is sent to visit someone else's home without an adult, it is easy for him to develop bad habits due to the host's politeness.
Well, Xiao Yun felt that there was nothing wrong with calling himself Baker's "elder".
... Balk, who was digging at an ant nest with his butt sticking up, had no idea what he had missed.
Autumn on the grassland is a busy season for all tribes.
In the middle of the grassland, on large tracts of fertile grassland owned by the tiger tribe, half-naked slaves were harvesting grass under the watchful eyes of tiger overseers.
This grassland... is planted with alfalfa. Of course, it is not cultivated as carefully as the Tauren, but just roughly ploughing and rotating the burned land. Whether it grows well depends on the climate of the year, but this is enough for the tiger tribe - the tiger tribe occupies more than 100,000 mu of grassland in the middle of the grassland. Even if they just sow a handful of seeds, the alfalfa yield harvested two or three times a year is an astonishing figure.
The slaves of various tribes tied the harvested grass into bales. When there were enough bales, they were loaded onto two-wheeled flatbed carts and transported away. A hundred or so wooden flatbed carts loaded with grass formed a convoy, which was pulled by crooked oxen and was like a long line, delivering the harvested grass from the grassland to the eastern part of the grassland in an endless stream.
The eastern part of the grassland is not a habitable area even for the grassland people... It is too close to the York Mountains, and the frequency of magical beasts appearing here is too high.
The destination of the convoy transporting forage was a camp guarded by elite tiger warriors less than 200 kilometers away from the York Mountains. The scale of this camp was at least half the size of the royal court, surrounded by a circle of high stone walls, and inside and outside the walls were filled with various supplies, including forage from the grassland and...food from the Far East.
At the camp gate, in front of the six-meter-wide wooden door, the tiger warriors on duty completed the handover with the tribesmen who were escorting the grass. When others shouted at the slaves to drive the caravan to the camp to unload, two tiger warriors who were taking turns to rest in the royal court walked out of the camp and greeted the tribesmen who were escorting the caravan with a smile: "Kun, when are you going back?"
In the convoy, Kun, a tiger warrior with a long whip on his waist, recognized the person who greeted him and immediately stepped forward and stretched out his arms enthusiastically: "Yale, Yaheng, have you waited until your turn to rest?"
The three tiger warriors slapped each other rock-hard muscles. Warrior Yale smiled so hard that his mouth almost split to his ears: "Yeah, I haven't been back for two years. I don't know what my kids have grown up to be like."
"I saw your cub a while ago. It's almost as strong as you." Soldier Kun laughed, "Wait for my convoy to unload and load, and then we'll go back together."
The three soldiers followed the convoy to the unloading place. Kun, the soldier who had been in charge of the convoy, took a few glances at the buildings in the camp and curiously asked his friend, "I heard that the grain from the Far East this year was escorted by our people. Have you been to the Far East to see what it looks like over there?"
Yale shook his head and said, "It wasn't our turn to be involved in that matter. Someone else went there. I heard from those who came back that the place is very rich, with all kinds of strange things, and the smallest town is several times larger than our royal court."
"Really?" Kun was extremely surprised. "Then how big would the largest city be?"
"Our people can't go to the biggest city, hahaha." Yale laughed a few times, with a strange look on his face, "At least not now."
Kun groaned, pulled out his long whip and pointed it to the east, saying loudly: "Just because we can't go now doesn't mean we won't be able to go in the future. We will return home eventually. That's our homeland! The Far East belongs to us!"
Yale laughed along, but it was a forced laugh.
The slaves who were carrying bundles of hay numbly avoided the three tiger tribe members who were blocking their way without even glancing towards the east.
After unloading the hay, the caravan had to load up with grain on the way back. The amount of grain was much less than the hay, so many vehicles were left empty. The tiger tribe escorting the transport drove all the weak slaves onto the vehicles to avoid slowing down the caravan's speed.
When Yale saw Kun letting a slave ride in the car, he looked at his friend in surprise but said nothing.
On the way back, the two soldiers who hadn't been home for a long time were a little excited, chatting and laughing with Kun and another escorting soldier along the way. A few days later, when they were about to leave the sparsely populated eastern grassland, a group of snow mountain elves appeared in front of the convoy.
Yale, who was walking in front, saw the group of snow elves and looked at his friends beside him in surprise: "How come these elves are running to the grassland when it hasn't even snowed yet?"
"I don't know either. This spring, some snow elves stayed in the royal court until the weather got hot and then left." Kun shook his head and said, "The Tiger King told us not to get too close to these snow elves. Anyway... the elves want peace on the grassland, which does not conflict with our goals, so just ignore them."
Yale nodded, and the two leading warriors turned slightly and led the convoy to bypass the group of snow elves.
The team of snow elves were either sitting or standing on the hill, looking at the tiger convoy from a distance, but they had no intention of coming over to cause trouble.
Seeing that team of snow elves was no longer visible, Yale secretly breathed a sigh of relief… He had been on duty at the Far East camp for the past two years, and had come into contact with several teams of foreign adventurers who stayed there for the night. These adventurers had complicated origins, and some even came from other continents. Naturally, Yale had a broader vision than other tribesmen - this world was not just about the grasslands, the outside world was huge, and the elves were not just the harmless-looking ones who appeared when they entered and left the royal court.
After dark, the caravan found a shelter to spend the night. They quickly ate some venison they had caught on the way. Yale wiped his mouth casually and approached Kun: "How has the situation in the royal court been in the past two years?"
Kun was stunned for a moment, then lowered his voice and said, "Yale, what aspect are you asking about?"
Yale also lowered his voice: "The grassland is not our homeland, but it is not easy for us to go back to the Far East... In the past two years, the amount of food and grass stored in the east has increased, but... we only have so many soldiers on duty."
Kun never expected that his friend Yale had changed so much in just two years. He was surprised for a while before he chuckled: "Yale, you are different from before. You used to be someone who didn't care about these things."
“I’m serious.” Yale punched Kun’s arm.
Kun waved his hands indifferently: "Don't worry too much, the Tiger King will take it into consideration."
Seeing Kun's inexplicable attitude, Yale thought for a moment and swallowed the rest of his words. He had indeed changed a lot in the past two years of duty. At least now, he would not tell everything to others. Even with a good friend like Kun, Yale would keep secrets.
As a warrior of the Tiger Tribe, Yale's life pursuit is only to be strong... There is no difference between individual strength and the strength of the tribe. With a naturally strong body and top-level military power, it is hard for a warrior of the Tiger Tribe not to be proud of it.
But after coming into contact with many foreign adventurers, Yale's thoughts were inevitably influenced by those adventurers who were either unruly or deep and experienced. In particular, no matter what kind of personality the adventurers had, their attitudes would be different when they mentioned their hometown... They might be silent, or just smile, or look nostalgic. There were more complex emotions that Yale could not understand. He could only vaguely realize that the feelings of these adventurers without a hometown for their hometown were something he, who had never left the grassland, could not understand.
This made Yale think of many things he had never thought of before during his boring and tedious time on duty... These thoughts that could not be told to others made the tiger warrior occasionally doubt the tiger tribe's persistence: Is the grassland that he has seen since he opened his eyes when he was born really worthless enough that all the tribesmen are determined to abandon it?
“The grassland is our homeland.”
The Li Tribe was very lively tonight, as the team from the Fire Tribe came again. This time they brought delicious spices, soft white cotton cloth, and blankets that would keep the cubs from being woken up by the cold when it snowed. Naturally, they were welcomed by everyone in the Li Tribe.
Next to the blazing bonfire under the night sky , Hongye and Xiaohua, the guardian warrior of the Li tribe, sat side by side, watching Ayan and other young tribesmen playing and laughing.
"The grassland is our important hometown, so we must manage the grassland well and make everyone living on this land proud of being a grassland person." In response to Xiaohua's question about why the Fire Tribe took such good care of other tribes, Hongye said with a little pride, "This is the truth that Ayun taught us. If a person does not even love and protect the hometown where he was born, and is reluctant to lend a helping hand to the people in his hometown when he has the ability, then what is the meaning of his life?"
"The elves are powerful because they never abandon their birthplace. Even wandering bards will use the warmest and most beautiful words to describe their hometown. We, the Snow Wolf tribe, are a tribe on the grassland. We must love this land and care about those who grew up under the same sky as us."
Hongye said as a matter of course: "So our tribe can exchange for materials to improve everyone's living conditions, and it is necessary to share some of it with other tribes, at least so that everyone can live a better life. Isn't this what we should do? Why not?"
Xiaohua's eyes widened and her nostrils dilated slightly with excitement. She subconsciously moved closer to Hongye, wanting to hear more similar words from this Fire Tribe warrior... Although she was not from the Fire Tribe, she was indeed a grassland person, a member of the Snow Wolf Clan. Hearing these words made her feel full of strength!
