Volume 6: Helping the World Chapter 181 Snake Tribe
A Yue's Engineering Team 2 currently has more than 300 workers, plus more than 1,400 snakes. This meal consisted of more than 600 kilograms of vermicelli, more than 300 kilograms of meat, and nearly 500 kilograms of vegetables... It's not that the snakes are good eaters (in fact, due to their physical condition, the snakes' appetite is similar to that of humans), but they were really starving. They didn't eat well on the boat, and after getting off the boat, they were forced to run for more than 20 miles. Even Harris ate 4 taels of vermicelli.
"Now is the last period for us to eat in the cafeteria. After the spring plowing, we will have to pay for our own meals." During the break after the meal, A Yue called the managers from her engineering team and convened the walkers and elders of the snake tribe for a meeting again. "Don't worry, we don't need coins from outside, but copper coins minted by our tribe. Everyone who participates in the work can get them. There will also be arrangements for the cubs. The tribe will make arrangements."
After mentioning this, A Yue asked the snake tribe about the allocation of personnel for the afternoon work. There were only a few types of work on the construction site, some of which were physically demanding, and some of which required certain skills. Considering that the snake tribe had been on the boat for too long and had not yet recovered, A Yue thought that it would be enough to let four to five snake tribe members complete the work of one snow wolf man on the first day...
The expressions of the elders of the Snake Tribe, who looked much better after eating the meal prepared by the Snow Wolf Tribe, froze.
Harris has mentioned to everyone countless times that the Snow Wolf Tribe's style is to work and work. To be honest, no one takes it too seriously. Who hasn't worked? The Snake Tribe's situation cannot afford to have members who get something for nothing. But it seems... their understanding of work is not the same as the Snow Wolf Tribe's concept of work?
Without giving the elders time to think, Ah Yue explained the situation and then worked with the other managers of the Second Engineering Team to calculate how the snake tribe's manpower should be allocated: excluding the young, old and weak, there are about a thousand young and strong snakes who can work; these thousand plus laborers are assigned to various positions and led by skilled workers from the Snow Wolf tribe in pairs. How many people are assigned to each type of work and what work they are responsible for are all clearly arranged in front of the elders and warriors of the snake tribe...
After discussing the personnel arrangements, Ah Yue didn't waste any time. During the break after lunch, she organized the young and strong men of the Snake Tribe to line up in groups according to their heights, and assigned five or ten people to the skilled workers of the Snow Wolf Tribe. After arranging the labor force of more than a thousand people, the break after lunch was almost over, so she immediately took the newcomers to work, paying great attention to efficiency...
The five snake elders, who are mainly elderly, except for the oldest and trembling one, the other four were assigned to A Yue to take care of herself - they were not so old and weak that they could not move, but in the dictionary of the Snow Wolf Clan, they were considered labor force.
Bringing the four elders to her work site, A Yue took out a few balls of flax thread, tied one end to a nail and pressed it into the ground, then pulled the other end of the thread along the planned ground to the other side, also tied it to a nail and pressed it into the ground.
After the four lines were drawn, Ah Yue began to show the four elders how to build a wall: "Follow the lines, don't lay it crookedly. The wall is divided into two layers. The outer layer is laid with bricks laid flat, and the inner layer is laid with bricks standing horizontally. The outer layer is thick and the inner layer is thin. There is a smoke duct in the middle. In winter, the floor heating can maintain a good indoor temperature."
Elder Gusta took two steps back and looked at the area of the wall drawn by the twine. He looked a little strange: "If a wall is built this long, how big will this room be?"
"This is not a house, it's a greenhouse." Ah Yue said as she demonstrated how to build a wall. "For a house with a heated kang, there's no need for walls. A greenhouse is large, and the floor heating can't maintain the temperature inside the house, so we need walls to leave a smoke duct."
"Greenhouse? What is it used for?" Elder Gustav asked in surprise.
"Earthworm breeding sheds." Ah Yue said as a matter of course, "The demand for earthworm soil is huge. The residential planning area is upstream over there, and the downstream area will be given priority to build breeding sheds. This year, even if we don't take into account the soil for all farmland, at least the earthworm soil for the greenhouse must be self-sufficient."
"..." The elders looked at each other, and felt that their concept of work was indeed different from that of the Snow Wolf Clan...
"Don't just stand there, come and practice." A Yue urged.
Like the dark elves, the snake tribe is a large group of walkers. Before being expelled by the Orc Empire, the snake tribe's specialty products were mainly handicrafts. They are much more skillful than the snow wolf tribe. The four elders quietly stepped forward to "practice", and soon the elders were able to skillfully lay bricks and apply mud according to different needs...
"That's how it is done. You are really capable." Ah Yue was very satisfied and took out the twine to teach the elders how to use the vertical line to confirm whether the wall is straight...
Those who are older or younger do "technical jobs", while young and strong people like Harris have to do hard labor.
The bricks, cement and other building materials used in the construction site were all transported from the Fire Tribe upstream by canal boats. Harris and a group of young men were led by the Snow Wolf Tribe to carry bricks back and forth. After a few trips, they were exhausted and panting like bellows...
"It's okay. It's not that you can't do a good job. It's that you took too long on the boat when you got here, and you're bored. Rest for a few more days, eat well and sleep well, and you won't get tired so easily like you do now." The Snow Wolf who led them to work consoled them, "Now, even though we're not in good spirits, we shouldn't give up. Just carry less and walk slower. Come on, get moving. The more you do, the smoother the work will be. We'll be fine as long as we get through this."
Harris and the young men of the snake tribe: "..."
All right - we are doing our own work and building our own house, so let’s give it a try!
They pushed the wheelbarrow again to move bricks and ran back and forth between the canal construction site. After several trips back and forth, the young and strong snake men finally couldn't hold on any longer and collapsed to the ground after unloading the bricks.
"...Rest for a few minutes." The Snow Wolf who was leading them to work reluctantly ran to the cafeteria and brought back a bucket of soup with beaten egg drops and a small amount of oil and salt. "Come on, everyone, drink a bowl of hot soup to restore your strength. After you finish drinking, we will continue to work."
Harris forced himself to sit up, and silently stood up to serve the soup in bowls... He finally understood that in the cognitive habits of the Snow Wolf Tribe, everything is done to serve the work!
The young and strong men in Harris's group, who were exhausted from moving bricks, drank soup from bowls with slightly trembling hands. On the other side, a dozen members of the Python tribe were following the snow wolves and shouting slogans, turning a huge winch several meters long, which drove a mixer as big as a house.
With the sound of "Hey, hey", the snow wolf over there shouted to stop, and the members of the python tribe immediately collapsed to the ground; another group of people stepped forward to open the cover on the other side of the mixer, shoveled the mixed concrete into buckets with a shovel, and the young and strong snakes of the tribe picked it up and ran towards the direction of the dug foundation...
Farther away, groups of snakes, led by the Snow Wolf Man, were busy like diligent ants. Some were digging foundations, some were pouring water, some were mixing cement, some were applying putty, some were carrying sand, some were carrying earth, some were building walls, and some were working together to move pumping equipment around to pump out the groundwater that had seeped up from the foundation...
"Everyone else is working on it, we can't lose!" The snow wolf who was leading them in the work seemed to be very jealous of the positive attitude of other groups and tried hard to cheer them up.
It was not until dark, when the night temperature dropped to the point where the snakes' bodies began to stiffen, that the Snow Wolf Tribe called a halt.
The snow werewolves who led Harris and other young and strong people to work moved the exhausted team members in several batches to the earliest built public bathroom. Together with the snake cubs who had been organized and waiting inside (the cubs also had to do light work), they stripped Harris and others of their linen clothes and washed them with hot water.
Harris sat up with difficulty, trembling as he took the towel handed to him by a fellow cub to wipe off the water stains, changed into cotton clothes provided by the Snow Wolf Tribe, and was then taken out for dinner. Young and strong men like Harris who were completely exhausted could eat after taking a bath, and those who still had some energy were required to wash their own and their fellow cubs' clothes with the hot water after taking a bath...
"Eat your fill and have a good sleep after that, so you'll be energetic tomorrow." The snow wolf who led Harris and the others to move bricks was named Shi Tou. This guy ran around and did three times the work of the snake tribe in a day, but he was like a monster without any signs of fatigue. He took care of Harris and the others after they finished their dinner, took the dishes back to wash them, ran over to set up the tent for Harris and the others, and then carried them in one by one.
Harris had been planning to thank the stone, but he was too tired... Even when he was a ranger apprentice, the training was so intense that he couldn't even speak like today. He was carried into the tent by the stone, his head against the pillow, and a blanket on his body, and he immediately fell into a deep sleep.
Harris fell asleep without any awareness on the first night he arrived at the grassland. The anxiety, tension, anticipation, and uneasiness he had expected to feel were all buried in the soil before they even sprouted.
He slept very deeply and soundly, without dreaming anything. It was not until the next morning when the Snow Wolf Tribe woke up each tent one by one that Harris opened his eyes and stared at the top of the tent. For a moment, he could not realize where he was...
"Get up, wash up and have breakfast!" Shitou rushed into the tent, pulled the blanket off Harris who was still confused, picked up the snake and stood it outside the tent. The cold wind blew in his face and his feet staggered. Harris woke up instantly.
The tribesmen were carried out by Shitou one by one and forced to stay awake. Before they could come to their senses, Shitou dragged them hand in hand like children to the wash basin next to the open-air cafeteria. The snake cubs were given human hair and pig bristle toothbrushes, glass water cups, green salt for brushing teeth, and towels for washing their faces. After they washed up, they were dragged to eat breakfast like sheep...
"Let's do some light work in the morning." Shitou said with a smile, and took Harris and others to transport stones.
The earth dug out from the foundation needs to be backfilled and reused, and crushed gravel also has a use, but the small and miscellaneous stones are of no use, so they are all sent to the canal and piled up, and used to fill the bottom of ponds in the future… To say it is easy, it is easy because it does not require any effort to unload, you can just dump it out.
Harris had a blank expression on his face. The tribesmen in his group twitched their lips for a long time, and finally couldn't help but mutter: "Where is the ease...?"
"There aren't many rocks dug out from the foundation here. If we work harder, we can finish transporting them in half a morning." Shitou said with a smile. Before the snakes' eyes could light up, he added the second half of the sentence, "Then we can help carry the earth. That saves a lot of effort."
Harris had a blank expression on his face, and the tribesman who had just spoken lowered his head.
That night, Shitou carried them to wash and change into the linen clothes they wore when they came home, and then they supported each other to the open-air canteen for dinner.
Harris's facial muscles twitched and his hands trembled slightly as he ate the steamed wheat cakes. He inadvertently saw Elder Gregor, who was also eating with his teeth bared. Elder Gregor, who always had a worried look on his face and a frown on his face, had completely changed his temperament in just one and a half days. Harris couldn't see that Elder Gregor still had any pent-up anger. He was no different from the tribesmen around him...
On the fifth day after arriving on the grassland, the dried greenhouse began to be roofed and the housing construction, which had been temporarily suspended to wait for the snakes to adapt, resumed.
This time, the "technical workers" of the snake tribe have to learn more, including how to build a kang, how to lay the floor heating flue, how to set up sewer facilities in residential areas... and so on.
Harris, who was still doing heavy physical work, finished his dinner and was able to walk to the tent to sleep by himself. He found that a group of people, including the elders, were organized to sit on one side of the open-air canteen, and A Yue was giving them a lesson. A Yue spoke clearly and with full energy, and his voice could be heard from a long distance. However, Harris could only understand every word he said, but could not figure out what the words meant when put together.
The elders sitting in the crowd scratched their heads. Elder Gustav, who was always calm, seemed to be trying hard to remember what Ah Yue said. Elder Gregor, who was always thoughtful, seemed to accept it faster and looked extremely focused...
“What is this...?” Harris looked at the stone in confusion.
"Arithmetic class." Shitou smiled as naively as always. "They are laying ceramic pipes underground. To do that job, one must at least be able to do mental arithmetic for two-digit addition and subtraction, and also be able to understand blueprints. Ah Yue will give them a basic lesson. We can't let the work be delayed."
Harris: “…(o言o)” Wait, he also knows arithmetic, is Ah Yue really talking about arithmetic? Not the donkey? !
Other tribesmen: “Σ(⊙▽⊙"a” You Snow Wolf tribe members need to learn math to work?!
Shitou looked at their reactions and didn't know what they had misunderstood. He consoled them considerately, "It's okay. We are on a tight deadline now and everyone's schedule is quite tight. Once the main project is finished and we have time, everyone can take math classes." He paused and added kindly, "Not only math, but also literacy. Learning these will make work more convenient and make everyone more capable."
"..." The snake clan was collectively silent.
"Shi Tou, do all the people in your Snow Wolf Clan have to learn this?" a young man from the Snake Clan couldn't help but ask.
"Yes." Shitou nodded, revealing a look of reluctance. "We have to learn it every year. It's not so bad during normal times, as we only organize study sessions when we are not busy. Winter is the worst, with three days of small classes and five days of large classes. We have to do thirty math problems every day, and we have to hand in writing assignments every few days. We are required to write at least two hundred words, with coherence, clear expression, and a clear theme. There can be no more than three typos. I am going bald from writing so much!"
"..." The snake clan fell into collective silence again.
"...Our tribe hibernates in winter." The young snake man said firmly.
"I know. You snakes are a cold-blooded race. Your body temperature is affected by the environment. Ah Yun said that." Shitou nodded again. "That's why the kang in the house we built for you is wider. In winter, you won't feel cold when you sit on it, so you can have more energy to attend class."
"..." The snake clan fell into collective silence once again.
When we got to sleep in the tent, everyone fell asleep without lying down, which was a rare occurrence.
"The real Snow Wolf Tribe is so different from the legend." One tribe member sighed with great regret. This sigh was the most common one expressed by everyone during this period.
"Shi Tou said they have only lived like this in the past few years. In the past, they lived in a similar way to other races." Another tribesman said anxiously, "I thought he was bragging, but it turns out he wasn't... With them torturing themselves like this, it's certainly possible that they have changed so much in just a few years—"
Harris listened to the tribesmen's discussion for a long time, then suddenly said, "We will have to live the same life as them in the future. Do you guys want to do that or not?"
These words silenced everyone in the tent.
After a long while, the tribe member who first initiated the discussion said with a complicated expression: "I feel a little hopeless when I think about it, but if I think about it again... it seems not bad. The Snow Werewolves can get used to it, and so can the Cats, Gray Dwarves, Centaurs, Goblins, and Humans. There is no reason why we, the Snake Tribe, cannot adapt."
Everyone nodded at this. It was true that the snake tribe suffered a lot of discrimination on the mainland, but the snake tribe was one of the oldest races after all, and the snake people were proud of being a snake tribe.
In the darkness, Harris smiled gently and said softly, "Then go to sleep and stay alert. We still have to work tomorrow."
The tent fell silent amid the rustling sounds. Before he closed his eyes, Harris had a vague realization in his mind... The wisdom of the snake tribe was not lower than any other race. If they were forced by another race to do such hard work like they were doing now, the members would have rebelled long ago.
But when it was the Snow Wolf people who led them, everyone, from the elders to the ordinary tribesmen, to the cubs who were organized every day to do work within their capacity, did not have much resentment - because the Snow Wolf people did not just urge them to work, but led everyone to work with their own actions.
In each group, the leading Snow Wolf does the most work.
The Snow Wolf Tribe was working for the Snake Tribe's residence, and they were even more dedicated than their tribesmen. They considered everything for the Snake Tribe, and even considered and arranged things that the Snake Tribe itself could not think of. No one's heart is made of stone, and even Elder Gregor, who was full of distrust of other tribes, did not raise any objections, let alone other tribesmen.
"It's great to get to know the Snow Wolf Tribe and Ayun..." Harris' eyelids could no longer hold up and gradually closed. This was the only thought in his mind before he fell asleep.
No matter how hard it is, doing things with a purpose is far more reassuring than feeling despair because you can't see the future.
The investment of more than a thousand Snake laborers greatly accelerated the progress of the construction project. Before the end of the spring plowing work of the Snow Wolf Tribe, Harris and his people successfully completed the construction of the settlement under the leadership of A Yue's Second Engineering Team. When the last tile was laid on the roof of the last house and A Yue shouted "Finished", almost everyone shouted excitedly and warmly hugged the people around them... The hardships during this period, every drop of sweat shed, and every sore muscle were all worth it!
"Wait!" Ah Yue suddenly became serious, looking at the snake elders who were crying with joy, "I forgot that your place of residence also needs a name so that you can call it by name in the future."
"Yes, we didn't think of that either." Elder Gustav rubbed his eyes and said excitedly, "What should this place be called?"
"You guys choose them." Ah Yue said straightforwardly, "Don't give them names that are too complicated, otherwise it will be troublesome to write them down in work documents later."
"Why not call it Snake Valley? Our hometown used to be Snake Valley." Elder Gregor, who had become much quieter, made a rare suggestion.
"Valley..." Ah Yue looked around the plains awkwardly, "It doesn't look good."
"Snake Valley no longer belongs to us, Greg." Gustav said in a deep voice, "My tribe left our homeland and wandered for more than ten years. Now we finally have a place to settle down. We need to break away from the past... How about calling it the Snake Tribe, a new tribe belonging to the snake tribe? What do you think?"
The elders looked at each other, then at other tribesmen. Seeing that no one objected and everyone's faces were filled with smiles, they all nodded in agreement: "The Snake Tribe, the new Snake Tribe, is indeed good."
"Just the snake department."
Seeing that the snake tribe had reached a consensus, A Yue smiled and nodded, "Okay, you will now be called the Snake Tribe." After a pause, he continued, "This batch of housing is built for 20 people per room and will be used as collective dormitories for the time being. If the Snake Tribe wants to build new dormitories or individual rooms in the future, it will need to submit a written application to the Fire and Flame Tribe. Once the Fire and Flame Tribe's work meeting passes and funds and building materials are approved, our engineering team will come down to help the Snake Tribe expand."
The elders of the snake tribe nodded gratefully at first, but then they realized something was wrong. Gustav couldn't help but take a step forward and asked nervously, "Ayue, are you guys leaving?"
"Yes, the Fire Department will continue to expand, and we still have projects to do this year." A Yue said.
The surrounding snake tribe members were all stunned. Being urged to work did make everyone gnashing their teeth, but when these snow wolves really wanted to leave, their uneasiness rose again.
"If you leave, then, what should we do?" Elder Gustav asked nervously.
Ah Yue laughed, "Of course we should keep working! Didn't Nan Feng deliver a message yesterday? Qingcao's work team will be here in the next two days. Qingcao will help you set up the management structure of the tribe, form a production team to contract the farm, organize everyone to study, and arrange labor, so that the snake tribe can keep up with our work pace as soon as possible."
The snake tribe members finally breathed a sigh of relief. Without these honest and upright big guys leading them, they really didn't feel confident enough.
"Ayue, we will miss you very much when you leave." Elder Gusta said reluctantly.
"I will miss you, too." Ah Yue was a little reluctant to leave the clever and quick-learning snakes. "But it doesn't matter. It's not like we won't see each other again. If there are still people left after you are assigned to the production team, you can apply to Qingcao to join our engineering team. But compared to other types of work, the workload of the engineering team is indeed heavier, so you have to think carefully before applying."
"..." The faces of the snake tribe changed and they shut their mouths tightly... During this period of time, each of them only did one-third of the work of the snow wolves in the engineering team. A layer of their snake skin was almost worn off. If they really joined the engineering team as formal workers, emmmmm... it would be better to have some self-awareness.
The engineering team packed up the broken pieces, dismantled their belongings (cement mixers, pumping equipment, etc.), and prepared to board the boat and take the canal back to the Fire Department. The snake people who had worked with the engineering team for more than 30 days said goodbye to the snow wolves reluctantly.
In Harris's group, a group of snakes stared expressionlessly at the boy who usually talked the most and complained the most, and then he hugged a stone and cried loudly.
Shitou was quite touched at first, but later he felt embarrassed: "Don't cry, if you really can't bear to leave me, just transfer to the Second Engineering Team, and I will continue to be with you every day."
"I can't come. I can't handle your workload." The crying boy was still calm.
"I'll come down to see you when the engineering team is free in the winter." Shitou said with a smile, "You need to study, and I won't let you hibernate. Then we can play together again."
"..." The boy who was crying very emotionally choked.
