Volume 4: How big is the heart, how vast is the earth Chapter 111 Not Enough People
After traveling around from the north for more than a month, the transport team finally found the Snow Wolf Tribe in the central part of the grassland.
The Fire Tribe had lived in the central region for many years and had some understanding of the distribution of tribes of the same clan. However, after the borrowing of troops fourteen years ago, many tribes migrated outward, and the grasslands that originally belonged to the Snow Wolf Tribe were either occupied by the Cat Tribe or taken by the Tiger Tribe. This caused great trouble to the transport team... Fortunately, the Snow Wolf Tribe was sensitive to smells, which helped them avoid running into enemy tribes many times.
Once the people were found, things became much simpler. They gave gifts and reminisced about the past. The personal stories of Chief Li and others were in sharp contrast to Ayi's tragic experience. The tribe, which had not had a very satisfactory life in the central region in recent years, packed their luggage on the spot without saying a word. The advantage of the entire tribe migrating was that they did not need to be escorted by the transport team. They could just drive the cattle and sheep on the road and follow the signposts left by the transport team.
In the space of half a month, they found three tribes and persuaded them to migrate. But things were not going so smoothly afterwards. It was not because they were questioned. The Snow Wolf Tribe had great trust in their own tribe. But they were not determined. At best, they had to abandon their accustomed lifestyle and touch the unknown. If the tribe leader was not decisive and the tribe did not have an elite warrior like Xiaohua who had the final say, then they would inevitably hesitate over trivial matters.
In the central part of the grassland with the most grassland, there are hundreds of Snow Wolf tribes, large and small. Most of them are located in the plains on both sides of the Bulei River, and a small number are located along the River of the Earth. Some tribes have large activity areas, and traces of their activities can be found when passing by. Some tribes have activity tracks in more remote or semi-enclosed environments. In such a situation, even if a transport team passes by the surrounding areas of their tribes, they will not encounter anyone...
For more than six months, the transport team traveled back and forth on the north bank of the Bulei River and discovered more than thirty Snow Wolf tribes. Thirteen tribes immediately accepted the invitation to live together and migrated with their entire tribe. Eleven tribes were hesitant and had not reached a decision by the time the transport team returned. The remaining tribes were very tempted by the invitation to live together, but were unable to set off immediately for various reasons. They hoped to postpone the migration for one or two years.
The grassroots chiefs were not surprised by these situations. They responded in a friendly manner to those who were hesitant or wanted to postpone, and exchanged spices and cloth for furs and monster parts. If there were tribes in more difficult circumstances, they would give them some salt. After all, they were all from the same tribe, and there was no reason for them to not follow you. If they didn't, you would no longer be able to do business with them or be friends with them.
The transport team was running around in the middle of the grassland, and Xiao Yun was not idle at home. Because most of the soldiers were pulled out, the burden of transporting goods to the Elf Port and trading with Saint Bridger was transferred to the shoulders of the Blue Fruit Engineering Team. This year's transportation was much more convenient and faster than last year, because the engineering team dug the artificial river to the sea after nearly ten months of hard work (including last year's construction period).
The ten-meter-wide artificial river can be used as a canal or something... Xiao Yun was too embarrassed to say it, but there would be no problem putting a raft or a small boat there. In addition, the water level is high this year, so the goods can be loaded onto the rafts in the tribe and float to the estuary of the Grand Canyon on the west coast on the same day. The goods can then be unloaded and moved to the elf port, which only takes two hours on foot, not to mention how much effort it saves.
Even if you are going upstream, paddling is more convenient than walking on land.
As soon as this miniature canal was opened, the food stores in the Elf Port even put maltose, which is not easy to preserve for a long time (maltose can only be preserved for ten to fifteen days in summer temperatures), on display... Even the new dishes developed in the cafeteria could be seen.
Such a novel mode of transportation made a group of energetic guys in the tribe very excited. They all rushed to transport goods to the elf port, delaying their main work. Xiao Yun was so angry that he had to lose his temper to stop this "evil trend".
"There is no distinction between high and low work. Work that contributes to the tribe and the collective is important work. Whoever is good at it should work hard at it. You can't do it just because you think it's fun and not want to do it because it's not fun. If everyone does this, how can our collective survive?"
At the work meeting, Xiao Yun glared at the group of fluffy people and said, "Even if the cafeteria cooks for everyone, Niu Jiao and the others still have division of labor. Who is responsible for washing vegetables, who is responsible for cutting vegetables, who is responsible for kneading dough, who is responsible for washing dishes? Someone has to do each division of labor. Only when the time comes, the cafeteria will have food for us to eat. If everyone in the cafeteria has to wash vegetables and is unwilling to do anything else, then you still want to have something to eat? Bah, eat shit!"
Dahe, who was making the most outrageous noise, secretly looked away. Uncle Ashan, who was joining in the commotion, had a sad face. Qingcao, who couldn't help but whisper a few words, pointed his finger silently.
"I have repeated countless times that all of us gathered together form a collective. For the normal operation of the collective, each of us must do our own job well and be responsible for the collective division of labor we undertake. Do your own job well, be responsible for the division of labor, and fulfill your responsibilities to the collective, then you can do whatever you want. Now tell me loudly, who has the confidence that he can complete his job perfectly and then be able to divert his attention to undertake the port delivery work in a long-term, stable, uninterrupted and error-free manner? Come on, speak loudly so that everyone can hear!"
Qingyan looked around awkwardly. Usually, when Ayun got angry, the grassroots chief would come out to smooth things over. But now the grassroots chief was gone, Hongye was gone, Lan Guo was gone, and Qiu refused to say anything... Qingyan had no choice but to bite the bullet and do it himself: "Ayun... everyone knows they are wrong, so... let's just stop here for now, okay?"
Xiao Yun nodded to Qingyan. It was only at this moment that he realized that the people who played the good guy were busy outside and he was unable to stop the car in time. Now that Qingyan came to take over, he naturally had to give Qingyan face.
After softening his expression, Xiao Yun looked at Balk: "Balk, how much is the flour mill producing now?"
After becoming the person in charge of the flour mill, Balk also showed up at the work meeting. He was quite curious at first, but now he is extremely bored... They were all talking about some serious and troublesome things, which was not fun at all.
"We have consumed more than 4 million kilograms of the 6 million kilograms of potatoes and sweet potatoes. Now we have about 800,000 kilograms of sweet potato flour and vermicelli in stock."
"Why is the progress so slow?" Xiao Yun frowned.
"There are not enough people. You said you would add more people for me, but you only sent ten people over. These few people are almost exhausted just operating the machines. And for me, it's really super tiring to do the vermicelli drying work alone!" Balke shouted immediately.
"Okay, stop talking nonsense. You should hurry up and process all the vermicelli before next month. Next time the Saint Bridge's fleet comes, we must make sure to provide them with at least 500,000 kilograms of vermicelli to open up the southern continent market. The portion supplied to the forest elves must not be less than last time." Xiao Yun waved his hand, too lazy to listen to his reasons.
Balk pouted and glared at Xiao Yun resentfully. How could he extract the moisture from tens of thousands of kilograms of vermicelli every day? He was so tired that he fell asleep on the bed every day. Even though he worked so hard, Ayun still had nothing to say. How wronged!
"Qiuqiu, how is the wool production?" Xiao Yun looked at Qiu.
"Everything has been processed, and we're busy dyeing it now." Qiu puffed out his chest. As a man of the cat family, he would never allow the part he was responsible for to fall behind. More than seventy small cats were working day and night, and he would never let Ayun say a bad word about him.
Xiao Yun nodded approvingly at Qiu. He was worthy of being Qiuqiu. He was always reliable in doing things and he never had to worry about anything.
Compared to Qiuqiu, the areas that other people are in charge of are not very satisfactory, so Xiao Yun has to give instructions to them one by one.
"The last batch of potatoes harvested had a yield of only 2,000 kilograms per mu due to heavy water and grass. This is a bad sign. We must pay more attention to the watering and fertilization of the land this time. Now we have a small canal, and the scope of clearing the forest land can be expanded again. If the fertility can't keep up, the fields will reduce our yield, which is not good."
"Uncle Ashan, the production of cement bricks has not kept up with the consumption of blue fruit recently. You have to keep a close eye on it and work overtime when you need to. Don't indulge yourself just because someone tells you they are tired."
"The production progress of Huoyan tribe leader's cement factory is very good, but we can still work harder. Uncle Ashan's brick factory and Lan Guo's engineering team all rely on Huoyan tribe leader for supplies. Please work harder..."
" The three-month term of this batch of cement factory workers has expired. It is time to replace them with the next batch. Let's discuss the replacements now..."
The working environment in the cement factory is relatively harsh, and Xiao Yun initially planned to rotate employees once a year. Later, he discovered that the lung capacity of the Snow Wolves was much higher than that of humans, and if people stayed in the cement factory workshop for a full year, something bad would definitely happen. So he changed it to a rotation every three months... After all, it was a physical job with little technical content, and there was no need to worry about the difficulty of getting started.
Let's not waste time and just talk business. A work meeting takes at least an hour. After the meeting, everyone rushed out of the mobile home and went straight to their own rooms...Although it is not the busy farming season now, everyone's workload is quite staggering. After a busy day, they still have to attend meetings. No one has the energy to play.
Especially for the more than one hundred Snow Werewolves who joined the Fire Tribe the latest batch, after five months of high-intensity and high-density work, they really can’t handle it and need to adapt...
The completion of the small canal did not mean that the engineering team could relax. The reason was that after several surveys of the terrain surrounding the tribe, Xiao Yun decided to extend the direction of the tribe's development to the hilly area in the southwest, and put the plan of transferring the industrial zone there on paper. It was obvious that the next major task of the engineering team would be to build the road first.
The gray dwarves' smelting work is carried out directly in the coal-producing areas and iron-producing areas. The benefits are self-evident. And there is another advantage if the industrial zone is relocated to that area. The industrial wastewater can be discharged directly into the underground world... ahem!
Building a road that is 60 kilometers long and at least five meters wide is no less difficult than digging a small canal. The engineering team will have to work hard for at least a year. Xiao Yun accepted this after thinking about it for a long time... Road construction is more of a training exercise than building houses or paving squares. It can be regarded as military training.
"There are still not enough people!" Xiao Yun sighed from the bottom of his heart while sitting on the kang and revising the tribal development plan.
Qingyan, who was sleeping next to him, opened his eyes and glared at him for a while, then silently turned over and faced his butt towards him... Will there ever be enough manpower for you!
Qingyan was not wrong about Xiao Yun. After the fall, the three central Snow Wolf tribes that chose to migrate hurriedly walked for more than four months to the Fire Flame Tribe. The two hundred people looked at the buildings built by their own tribe in amazement, which looked more like the Tiger Tribe’s royal court. They didn’t even have time to rack their brains to find some exclamatory words to describe it. They immediately took Xiao Yun to the construction site - digging the road foundation does not require skills , just physical strength! First cultivate the collective concept and work habits before assigning them to other positions!
The construction team here is making faster progress, but there is a problem with the goblins responsible for digging limestone over there... There are too few goblins! The mined limestone cannot be supplied!
"There aren't enough people!" Xiao Yun grumbled again, looking towards the east of the tribe countless times every day...
Less than half a month later, another tribe arrived. This time, more than 80 people were taken to the limestone mining site without even staying overnight. Holding steel drills in their left hands and hammers in their right hands, they stared blankly at the limestone mine that had been leveled by the goblins and were beginning to be dug down.
Ten days later, another tribe arrived...
As the Snow Wolf Tribe devoured the workforce at a monstrous rate, the Saint Bridge fleet arrived at the Elven Port.
Prince Carlisle's face looked much more weathered and his temperament was completely different from when he met Xiao Yun last year. After getting off the boat and hearing that the illusionist Sean, "The End of Illusion", was staying at the Adventurer's Association branch, he immediately prepared gifts and went to visit him.
The branch of the association looked like an ordinary street tavern. Carlisle, accompanied only by the alchemist Tim Humphrey, pushed open the fan-shaped door and stepped into the lobby. The turbid smell that came towards him made Tim frown subconsciously, but Carlisle was not moved at all.
The End of Illusion was sitting at the bar. Seeing the young prince, the illusionist with a youthful appearance smiled and raised his hand casually: "Isn't this Carlisle?"
"Mr. Sean." Carlisle strode past several tables of adventurers who were talking loudly, approached and bowed slightly, with a natural and appropriate smile, as polite and intimate as a young man meeting an old friend of his father's generation.
"The last time we met was at Elliot Palace, right? You were a young man at that time, but now you have become a well-known and promising young man in the southern continent." Sean chuckled and said, "Your teacher always said that you were his best disciple. Now it seems that my old friend is really a very down-to-earth person."
This seemed like a compliment, but it sounded a bit harsh. Tim looked a little unhappy, but Carlisle just smiled shyly. Spellcasters have a bad habit of teasing young people with provocative words and taking pleasure in their gaffes when they can't control their emotions. Carlisle doesn't intend to cooperate with this bad habit.
Standing at the bar counter in his messenger uniform, Primo looked at Tim and Carlisle with amusement, and slowly wiped the wine glass with a clean rag.
"Your image at Elliot Palace is deeply engraved in my memory, Mr. Sean. It is no exaggeration to say that I think those words that describe wise elders exist for you." Prince Carlisle replied very sincerely.
Sean's expression froze.
"I didn't expect to meet you here. Please forgive me for not having time to prepare a gift suitable for your status. I think a wise elder like you would not argue with an ignorant young man like me in such a place." Prince Carlisle took the gift box from Tim and handed it over respectfully.
Sean's mouth twitched. He didn't know whether to accept it or not.
"This young gentleman is really likable." Primo suppressed his laughter and poured two glasses of wine on the bar. "Please take a seat, both of you. I hope our wine here suits your taste."
"Thank you." Carlisle nodded slightly to Primo, still holding the gift and looking at Sean with a smile, his expression respectful and his etiquette perfect.
Sean had no choice but to reach out and take the gift. He was too lazy to put on a fake smile and rolled his eyes. "Your Highness is really impressive. That old-fashioned man can actually teach such a disciple."
Prince Carlisle relaxed a lot, picked up the wine glass in one hand, and said with a smile: "To be honest, Mr. Sean, I got a new teacher two years ago."
"Oh, what kind of famous teacher did St. Bridge invite for you?" Sean was surprised.
Sean had a bad relationship with the priest who baptized Carlisle and gave him his middle name. Carlisle knew this very well. Otherwise, as a great magician with a title, there was no reason for him to be so rude to him even if he was just having a bad taste. This was exactly the problem that Carlisle had to solve - he certainly couldn't say how his relationship with the priest teacher was or what his position was. This way of expression would only make a great magician like Sean look down on him, so he had to make it important for the other party to understand how important his second teacher was to him.
"This teacher whom I respect very much is a resident of the Northern Continent. I must say that my teacher is the most magnanimous and wise man I have ever met. He has had a profound influence on me, allowing me to truly understand my shortcomings and teaching me how to face my own shortcomings." Prince Carlisle expressed his feelings directly. There was no need to lie in front of the spellcaster's powerful perception, and he had no need to lie at all.
"...Oh?" Sean raised his eyebrows, he remembered something...Carlisle Harvey Ferdinand, the second prince of St. Bridget, began to show amazing qualities of a crown prince two years ago.
Primo, the association's branch director who was pretending to be a waiter, also remembered the connection and couldn't help but look at Carlisle twice more.
Prince Carlisle did not continue. He put down his wine glass, took out two silver coins and placed them on the bar, and nodded slightly: "The wine you mixed is really delicious." Then he bowed to Sean and said, "It makes me very happy to meet you, Mr. Sean. If you are willing, please do me a favor and attend the cocktail party I will hold on the ship in two days. I will send someone to send you an invitation later."
Sean: “…”
His Royal Highness Prince Carlisle walked away victoriously with his head held high, and Sean stared at his back.
"Before sending out an invitation, block the other party's way to refuse. This young prince is not much worse than those experienced politicians." Primo took back the wine glass and said jokingly.
"This little brat has learned to keep people in suspense. He really doesn't know how to respect his elders." Sean complained angrily.
Complaints aside, Sean's curiosity was indeed aroused by Carlisle. The royal families of all sizes in the southern continent would publicly recruit teachers to educate their royal descendants, but it all depended on luck as to what kind of famous teacher they could hire and whether they could teach an excellent crown prince. It was very common for a very famous teacher to teach a prodigal son, so common that it was not even worthy of being used as a topic of conversation for spellcasters.
"This kid has indeed changed a lot in the past two years. At least when that old-fashioned guy in Elliot Palace was with him, he didn't know how to hide the edge of the sword in the scabbard while letting people see the hilt. Primo, you say... Could it be that this kid has worshipped an elf?"
"My friend, do you think there are wise men among the elves who would look down upon the prince of a small human country?" Primo asked.
"Obviously." Sean spread his hands. "This is the strangest place. Who else could there be in this place except the elves? It can't be the Minotaur."
"It's hard to say. The Tauren are just too greedy for peace. If they want, the northern continent of Bloomfield can be more lively." Primo said.
"You are really old, Primo. You yourself said that the bad habit of the Tauren is that they are too attached to peace. Then will their wise men teach human disciples how to fight?" Sean said with a smile, "The glory that His Royal Highness has achieved today was built on the head of his eldest brother. In addition... exchanging benefits with the forest elves in exchange for them to come forward to resist the pressure of the Lamia Chamber of Commerce, and also dragging your Adventurer's Association on board, this is not the way of the Tauren."
Primo was used to Sean insulting him whenever he got the chance. He didn't care much when there were no outsiders around. "So who should be the boy's teacher, according to you?"
Sean stood up, leaned on the bar with his hands and approached his old friend: "If you ask me to guess...did Wilvel secretly resurrect from somewhere?"
Primo rolled his eyes and pushed Sean back to sit down unhappily: "Okay, do you think I'm going to panic and scream and let you laugh at me?"
Sean laughed.
Carlisle and Tim walked a long way away, and both of them exhaled at the same time.
"I only heard that 'God of War' Primo was here, but I didn't expect 'The End of Illusion' to be here too." Tim frowned and said, "He's not very friendly... Carlisle, is it a bit abrupt to invite him to the cocktail party?"
"That's nothing. Sean is a great magician after all. Compared to those really annoying people, he is much cuter and easier to deal with." Carlisle shook his head and smiled. "Teacher Ayun said that so-called maturity is to smile at people who hate you. The more you can't afford to offend them, the more you have to smile. Only in this way can you buy time to accumulate strength to turn the tables... It sounds simple, but it makes sense."
"It's exhausting just listening to it," Tim sighed.
"Nothing can be accomplished easily. Even if you want to punch someone, you need to spend time to train your arms to be strong." Carlisle put his arm around Tim's shoulders. "We have been preparing for so long this time. It all depends on the confrontation in two days... Tim, go to Teacher Ayun's tribe and stay there for a few days. Come back when the matter is resolved."
"Carlisle, I..."
"Needless to say, this is not an escape. The way to solve the problem is not just to face the enemy head-on. As long as it is useful, the 'tactics' can be whatever you want." Carlisle winked at him.
Tim was so moved that he didn't know what to say and just nodded silently.
