Volume 6: Helping the World Chapter 192 I want both the people and the money!
Picking up fresh sweet potatoes with the fragrance of soil and as thick as fists from the ridges of the fields, the big cats of the Sunny Sky Tribe were so moved that they couldn't help but shed tears...
"Why are you crying? Hurry up and harvest. After the sweet potatoes, there are still soybeans." The emotionless white-faced scoundrel... uh... black-faced cadre Qingyan urged.
The big cats, who had been completely transformed by Qingyan's spurring on, immediately scattered and got busy.
Harvest is joy, even if it is harvested with pain and suffering. More than 6,000 acres of sweet potatoes were harvested at the same time. Even though they used the sweet potato harvesting machine borrowed from the Fire Department, they had only harvested more than 1,000 acres since they got up early in the morning. The big cats could guess with their knees that they would have to work overtime in the evening; but everyone's face was still filled with smiles... Even the more difficult job of pulling the sweet potato harvesting machine was rushed by people.
Well... since sweet potato flour is regarded as the main product, the Fire Department will naturally focus on researching mechanical tools for sowing, planting and harvesting.
This sweet potato harvesting machine is a rectangular iron frame trailer that is slightly wider than the ridge of the field. In the middle is welded a conveying device that functions like an elevator or a conveyor belt. The device is inclined forward and the front end is shoveled into the soil. When the trailer is moved by human power, the gears on the wheels at the rear of the trailer select and drive the conveying device, which sends the shovel head deep into the ground to turn out the sweet potatoes with mud, and then transmits them to the rear and drops them one by one between the ridges of the field. The people who harvest can just follow behind and pick them up, which is less troublesome than digging slowly with a hoe.
The sweet potato harvester needs to shovel the sweet potatoes out of the soil, so its own weight is considerable... plus the resistance when dragging, the big cats need to change into beast form to drag it; of course, this thing is much lighter than the triangular plow, and the big cats' beast form can pull very fast on all fours and are not easily tired.
Chief Yongzhen and his companions followed Qiu to the sweet potato field of the Sunny Sky Tribe, and what they saw was this spectacular scene—
In the endless lush farmland, in the distance, the beast-like fellow tribesmen were running happily with a strange long iron frame. The strange iron frame shoveled up the entire layer of soil, and vine-leaf sweet potatoes were constantly turned out from the soil; the fellow tribesmen nearby were squatting in the fields, dragging bags, baskets and other tools to pick sweet potatoes. With their nimble hands and feet, they could fill half a frame in a short time.
The vine leaves mixed in the soil were also dug out, bundled, and thrown to the edge of the field, piled up like a small mountain. (For pig feeding and composting)
"Qiuqiu is here." Qingyan came out to greet him, smiling and saying hello to his famous fellow tribesman, "Chief Yongzhen, long time no see."
Chief Yongzhen barely shifted his gaze away from the bountiful sweet potato field and forced a smile at Qingyan.
The big cats that were not called by Qingyan all stared blankly at the baskets of sweet potatoes being dragged out.
Half a year ago, when Qiu persuaded them to cooperate with the Fire Tribe to "contract" the sweet potato farm, he specially invited these fellow tribesmen to a sweet potato feast... After all, sweet potato noodles cannot be seen in their original form, and it is difficult for people who have not visited the noodle factory to understand how sweet potatoes are turned into delicious vermicelli. However, sweet potatoes can be eaten in more ways than just making vermicelli; they can be roasted, steamed, boiled, or eaten raw. Cut into pieces, coated with potato starch, fried, and then coated with a layer of syrup, the candied sweet potatoes are even more flavorful. The Amber Tribe immediately nodded in agreement after eating the sweet potato feast.
These big cats, who had once enjoyed the sweet potato feast, looked at the baskets full of sweet potatoes that could not be put in, and naturally recalled their experiences at that time - these things dug out of the mud were all food!
Qiu tilted his head to look at his stunned fellow tribesmen, then smiled at Qingyan, "Qingyan, what is the yield of sweet potatoes per mu on the Sunny Sky Tribe's farm? How much can be harvested?"
"It's OK. Although it's the first year of reclamation and the land is not yet mature, the black soil dug from the tidal flats in the south is quite fertile. I just calculated that one mu of land produces about 4,000 kilograms." Qingyan smiled knowingly, "The Sunny Sky Tribe planted 6,000 mu of sweet potatoes, and the total harvest should be more than 20 million kilograms. 60% belongs to them, and 20 kilograms of sweet potatoes can be exchanged for one kilogram of vermicelli from us. We can earn 600,000 to 700,000 kilograms of vermicelli."
Qiu didn't hear anyone gasping behind him. He knew that these guys had no idea about the huge number, so he continued to act surprised, "Oh? Not bad, I remember that there seemed to be more than 300 people in the Sunny Sky Tribe. If we divide it up, wouldn't each person get more than 2,000 kilograms? Wow, one kilogram of flour can be eaten for a day, so the Sunny Sky Tribe can earn back several years' worth of food."
This time, Qiu was finally satisfied to hear the rising and falling breathing sounds of the hundreds of big cats behind him...
Chief Yongzhen's eyes widened and his jaw dropped - wait, what did he hear?! More than a hundred people working for half a year can support the entire tribe for several years?!
Seeing Qiu's pleased face, Qingyan suppressed his laughter and played along with him, nodding vigorously: "It's not bad. Besides, the yield of the two thousand mu of soybeans is not as high as that of the sweet potatoes. I checked and it's good if one mu of land can produce 300 kilograms. The salt and spices exchanged for more than 300,000 kilograms of soybeans will probably be gone in three to four years."
Qiu was delighted to hear the rising and falling gasps behind him again... The whole caracal was beaming with joy: "By the way, they have to work here until the snow falls before they can finish their work. I wonder if the fodder we give them is enough for their cattle and sheep to survive the winter?"
"It's definitely enough." Qing Yan said without hesitation, "Grass is not picky about the land. As long as the water and fertilizer are sufficient, the yield will be sufficient. Two months ago, we asked each family to send back the harvest of the previous crop of grass. The Kong Tribe had less, only a little over one million catties of grass, while the Qingtian Tribe had more, a full one and a half million catties. Together with this harvest, it will be enough for their cattle and sheep to eat until next summer."
After a pause, Qingyan smiled and said, "The harvest is not a problem, but the transportation is difficult. The Sunny Tribe is close, so it's OK. The Empty Tribe mobilized the tribesmen to move like ants and it took a long time to finish moving... We have to settle the share with them as soon as possible this time, otherwise it might snow before we finish transporting all the goods."
The big cats were already unable to make any sound, and their eyes were envy, jealousy and hatred...
"That's true. Let's collect the sweet potatoes and load them onto the truck as soon as possible. It will take too much time to exchange them for other things in the tribe." Qiu Xi rolled up his sleeves with a smile and said to the back, "Since everyone is here, why don't you come and help? It won't be a wasted trip."
Chief Yongzhen and the others stared at Qiu in agony. Why did these words sound wrong? !
Afterwards, these visiting big cats were passively pulled into the autumn harvest army...even their dinner was delivered to the farm by the canteen and they had to eat on the ridges of the fields.
The moon was at its zenith. For some unknown reason, Chief Yongzhen and his companions, who had been working for half a day, dragged their tired bodies back to the farm with the Sunny Sky Tribe. Seeing the independent residential areas of each tribe, the houses carefully built by the big cats of the Sunny Sky Tribe to suit the preferences of the cat tribe, and the working conditions and working environment provided by the Snow Wolf Tribe, envy and jealousy surged in their hearts again...
Chief Yongzhen didn't know how others felt, but he was biting his gums until they bled - why didn't he have the same courage as Chief Amber? !
He gritted his teeth in regret, and the few warriors who accompanied him kept looking at him with resentful eyes, which made Chief Yongzhen very worried... If he had known that agreeing to the Fire Tribe would bring so many benefits, anyone who didn't agree would be a fool!
That night, Chief Yongzhen lay awake all night in the house that the Sunny Sky Tribe had lent them. When he closed his eyes, he could see countless sweet potatoes, vermicelli, salt, spices, and grass floating in front of him. He wanted to reach out and grab them but couldn't. If he dozed off, he would be quickly awakened from his dream.
Unable to sleep, Chief Yongzhen quietly got up, sneaked out of the house, and headed towards the residence of the Fire Tribe cats.
As soon as he walked out of the dormitory area of the Sunny Sky Tribe, Chief Yongzhen discovered with embarrassment... a lot of figures emerged from the darkness, and judging from their direction, their purpose seemed to be similar to his.
A dozen cat clan leaders looked at each other in bewilderment, the air was so frozen that it was suffocating...
Qiu had a lot to do, so he went back the next day. He let the visiting big cats stay on the farm for a week, and helped the four tribes to complete tasks such as harvesting sweet potatoes and soybeans. Of course, they did not help for free. Through the negotiations between Qingyan and Xia, the four tribes each contributed 30 kilograms of vermicelli as a reward to hire these big cats as odd jobs, so that they could carry some of the harvest back home. As Qiu said, their trip was not in vain.
Chief Yongzhen and other big cats eagerly helped with the harvest, and eagerly helped the four tribes push the flatbed carts to send the harvest to the Fire Tribe. They eagerly watched as the four tribes used their share of the output to exchange with the Fire Tribe for a large amount of vermicelli, spices, salt, and a small amount of miscellaneous daily necessities; each person carried more than 100 kilograms of vermicelli earned from their hard work, and watched with envy as others worried about how to bring so many supplies back with pain and happiness...
The Sunny Tribe, which was close, was better off. They just had to run a few more times. Strength was never a problem for the people on the grassland. The Empty Tribe, which was far away, had to make a big move. All the able-bodied people in the tribe ran over, and the transportation team formed a long line...
Chief Yongzhen and six warriors of the tribe, who were returning home from the same direction, stood by the roadside, watching hundreds of big cats, some dragged and some carried on their backs, lined up in long queues, with clouds of dust billowing as they headed off into the distance.
The soldiers all swallowed their saliva and looked at their family head with the standard resentful eyes that they had practiced in the past few days.
Chief Yongzhen: "..."
A warrior said in a dull tone: "Chief, shall we come next year?"
"Come!" Chief Yongzhen gritted his teeth, "We are not just going to rent their farm, we are going to move our entire tribe here - there are only more than 200 people in our tribe, and we don't have many cattle and sheep, so we will migrate after winter."
"Really?" The warrior's eyes lit up, and he asked worriedly, "Will the Fire Tribe agree? We still have cubs in our tribe who can't do anything."
The Yongzhen tribe leader let out a long sigh: "Don't worry about that. I asked Qingyan, and he promised me that if our entire tribe moved here, he would choose a place for us to raise cattle and sheep... The conditions are better than those of the Sunny Sky tribe."
The soldiers were all smiling and didn't blame the tribe leader for being short-sighted. They happily supported the tribe leader to go home...
In the Fire Tribe, in the mobile home where Xiao Yun lived, three large cats happily reported to Xiao Yun the progress of the work on the cat farm.
"We settled accounts with them before the autumn harvest, and their labor output was in large surplus, exceeding the needs of life. After the accounts were settled, they took the initiative to ask the tribe leader to exchange some of the vermicelli for white cotton cloth, wool blankets, soap towels, combing brushes and other things to be distributed to other tribesmen." Patriarch Arthur said excitedly, "Patriarch Qingtian and Patriarch Xiu originally disagreed, but after Patriarch Kong took the lead in agreeing, they could not object. In addition, with the performance of Patriarch Yongzhen and others during their visit to the farm, next year, even if the tribe leaders of these families are unwilling to come, their tribesmen will ask to come again."
Xia chuckled, " If Chief Xiu doesn't insist, the Xiu tribe might split. Chief Xiu is the worst performer this year. He didn't get a red flower once but has been receiving the management quota. Several warriors in his tribe are already very dissatisfied."
Qingyan also said: "Indeed, after the first crop of grass was harvested, Chief Qingtian's performance improved a lot, and he received more than 20 red flowers. In contrast, Chief Xiu's performance was particularly bad."
Xiao Yun touched his chin and nodded: "It seems that this Xiu tribe can be considered for priority development. Have you figured out the location of their tribe?"
"I know where the Xiu tribe is. Maomao and I have been there before. It is one day longer than the Sunny Tribe." Xia said, "If the Xiu tribe hasn't arrived yet after we arrive at the Sunny Tribe next year, we can go and check out the situation and bring as many people as possible over before the split. The most trusted warrior in their tribe besides Chief Xiu is the one who is closer to our Fire Tribe. I hinted to him that we can provide a place to feed cattle and sheep. Although he didn't express his opinion directly, I think he can fight for it."
Xiao Yun was very satisfied... This guy Xia was indeed a born bad boy, he would use any tricks to achieve his goals, and he was a good teammate, and it was worth the training over the years.
Qingyan was unhappy with Xia's attention, so he changed his low-key style and said, "There are twelve families who are determined to move their tribes here just like Yongzhen. Ah Yun, I think these twelve families can be settled in the plain east of the underground world exit near the hilly new area. There is convenient water there. After these six families are stable, the agricultural products they produce can also be provided to the hilly new area to reduce transportation pressure."
The hilly new area of the Red Leaf Belt has transported more than 500 Snow Wolves there. These people do not farm, but follow Baru's gray dwarves to mine, smelt, and forge. The scheduled phosphate fertilizer plant is also going to be built there... There is a sewage channel at the entrance to the underground world, so it is useless to use it. As long as the sewage is not discharged towards the underground city, the dark elves will not come to trouble Xiao Yun anyway - how big is the underground world!
"It is indeed feasible." Xiao Yun nodded. All the daily necessities for such old people have to be transported from the Fire Tribe. Although Lan Guo's engineering team has repaired the road, it is still quite stressful.
Qingyan threw a smug look at Xia, and then reported to the Yongzhen tribe and other twelve families how many people there were, how many cattle and sheep they had, the area of farmland they could contract, etc.
There had been heavy rains two years ago, and Xiao Yun, who was concerned about floods, had gone there countless times, and had a deep memory of the surrounding terrain... The goblins Baron, Gar, and others originally lived nearby.
The area of that piece of land is not very large, estimated to be about 30 to 50 square kilometers at most. If it is nomadic, such a grassland can at most support one tribe. If it is agricultural, twelve tribes can live together without any problem, or even ten times more - this is the advantage of agricultural civilization over nomadic civilization.
"From now on, when we gather the cat tribe, we should use the hilly new area as the boundary. We should only go downwards, not upwards. The further south we go, the higher the summer temperature will be, which is more suitable for farming." After a pause, Xiao Yun continued, "The most important thing is to get as far away from the Samar Snow Mountain as possible."
The three big cats immediately looked serious.
"You three weren't at the meeting the day before yesterday, so I'll fill in the gap for you now." Xiao Yun said seriously, "Elder Meili from Ananas came in person last week and asked if the vermicelli trading scale could be expanded to 30 million kilograms next year. I've already agreed. 20 million this year, 30 million next year. It's impossible for only a few hundred thousand forest elves to consume this much vermicelli. In other words, the excess was sold to the Dwarf Kingdom by the forest elves... After the soy sauce trade, the Dwarf Kingdom indirectly opened its doors to us in the vermicelli trade."
"As for the dark elves, Anqiluo sent a letter from the Dark Elf Matron to our transport team, hoping that we could deliver 5 million kilograms of vermicelli to the dungeon before the snow falls. This is the first time that the dark elves have asked us for a large transaction, and the dungeon door has also opened to us."
"Next is Kroning on the other side of the Inland Sea. This year, we shipped a total of 4 million kilograms of vermicelli to Bolton Territory in two batches. Laura helped us open up the vermicelli market in Kroning, and the new mayor of Valentine asked the Adventurer's Association to send a trade request."
Exhaling lightly, Xiao Yun said with a serious expression, "Everyone understands, right? The surrounding forces that can deploy troops to our Fire Department to attack us are at least temporarily friendly to us in terms of trade. As for the snow elves, the annual vermicelli trading volume has not increased since it reached 500,000 catties... Whether the snow elves have a high food self-sufficiency rate or for some other reason, we need to keep a safe distance from the snow elves... and be vigilant."
The three big cats nodded solemnly... This is the difference between the cat tribe and the snow wolf tribe. During the previous meeting, Ashan stupidly said something like "Selena and Yaerlin have such a good relationship with us, why would they come to fight us", the cat tribe would definitely not think so.
Xia, the born bad guy, thought for a moment and said, "What about the Minotaur? Apart from the occasional gifts we send him, the Minotaur has never bought anything from us."
"As for the minotaurs, just keep your distance." Xiao Yun said with a smile, "The environmental carrying capacity required for grazing and farming is different. If we rely solely on grazing, the entire grassland can't support hundreds of thousands of people. As for farming, we can easily feed a million mouths in the southeast corner where we occupy, and there is no conflict with the minotaurs. The tiger tribe is crazy to provoke them. We don't want to follow the crooked path that the tiger tribe has taken."
The big cats couldn't help laughing. They wanted to laugh every time they heard the words "the tiger tribe crossed the river by feeling its way".
"In addition to this, there is another matter." Xiao Yun said seriously, "Tomorrow night the tribe will hold a meeting to discuss the issue of ship purchases, and invest this year's profits in purchasing ships. Now that the weather is getting colder, I plan to let Isaac and his men accompany the people in our tribe to rent a ship from the Adventurer's Association's Transportation Department to send a batch of pork and rabbit meat to Valentine for sale, and complete the vermicelli transaction with the new mayor of Valentine. But the cost of renting a ship is too high every time, and our profits will decrease accordingly. It would be better to buy a ship ourselves."
"With the industrial level of our Hilly New District, we won't be able to produce ships that can cross the inland sea within ten years. Before that, we can only purchase. If the tribe has its own maritime caravan, we can sell more of our products to the Human Kingdom... There is a huge market with hundreds of millions of people there! If the countries in the north can open a few breakthroughs, it will be enough for us to eat."
"Can't we just sell it to the forest elves and Saint Bridger?" Chief Arthur said in surprise.
"It's not that we can't do it, but our sales channels are too single and too dependent on outsiders, which is not good for us as producers." Xiao Yun said, "As everyone knows, if we want to stand up and let others not dare to bully us, we need money and people. As for people, we are working hard to develop the cat tribe into our companions and expand our team. As for money, we must not let others strangle us."
The big cats nodded again… If at the beginning there were still people who didn’t understand why Ayun exchanged the materials he had worked so hard to produce for metals that seemed to be useless, now even the dumbest Ashan wouldn’t say that - after the furs that everyone had collected were almost used up, they would have to pay for the spices, white cotton cloth, sugar and other materials from Saint Bridge; not to mention the mechanical lubricants delivered by the second-hand forest elves, the ores that the hilly new district could not produce on its own, special metals, the spellcasting materials needed by the cat clan’s spellcasters, the aluminum powder of the snow elves… and so on, there were so many things to look at.
"I'm not good at doing business, but I can guarantee that within five years, we can gather at least tens of thousands of cat companions." Qing Yan said confidently, "Let's work harder in the next two years and build a few more farm models. The more successful examples we have, the more convincing it will be, and the more convinced our fellow cats will be. As long as they come, it's only a matter of time before they become 'our own'."
Xia originally wanted to speak up to express his determination, but he was a step too late and was beaten to the punch by Qingyan, so he was very unhappy.
Xiao Yun nodded and praised, "Well said. We must have the courage to achieve our goals if we have the will." After a pause, he continued, "Let me give you a hint. The farm is on the right track. You should observe your subordinates more and see if there are any who can be promoted. When the time is right, we can also recruit a cat tribe to train with Maomao and his warrior team."
Qingyan didn't think there was anything wrong with what Xiao Yun said, and agreed immediately; Xia's expression changed slightly; Chief Arthur was very direct: "Eh? The cat tribe is also going to send warriors?"
"The cat tribe has a talent for magic, so of course we should use it." Xiao Yun said with a smile, "Once the group of cat spellcasters led by Evelyn successfully reach the second level, we will have an instructor for the cat mage group."
Yu's team of part-time warriors (they still have to work during the busy farming season) expanded to 500 people after semi-forced the Snow Wolf tribe in the eastern part of the grassland to be brought back. They train all day long in the training ground north of the tribe. When Yu sent people to exchange centaurs with the Tiger tribe, he did not move and only let Xiaohua take the old warriors over.
A team of 500 warriors might not be worth mentioning if it were replaced by other races, but if they were all Snow Wolf warriors, it would be much more valuable - the Snow Wolf Clan is born with a highly synchronized group cooperative combat ability, and the larger the wolf pack, the stronger the combat effectiveness; if this group of warriors can be trained to a level that satisfies Yu, then they will not be afraid even if they face the Tiger Clan head-on.
This is still the case because the current tribal construction requires a lot of manpower and it is impossible to allow more adult snow wolves to participate in training part-time. Once the results of the pneumatic engine research are achieved and mechanized planting can be used to reduce the manpower needs of 26 agricultural production teams, the warrior team can be expanded further.
After Xiao Yun said this, Xia, who was still somewhat excited, calmed down... He didn't want to be a spellcaster.
After finishing the business, the big cats got up and left to do their own things. Xiao Yun was also busy, thinking frantically about the problem he had been thinking about for two days - whether to take this opportunity to propose a deal with the dark elf mistress, exchanging vermicelli for gray dwarves.
According to the news sent back by Mumu, the dark elves actually used skilled workers like the gray dwarves as cannon fodder on the battlefield. Xiao Yun couldn't stop twitching when he heard this. He was so heartbroken that he couldn't bear it any more - are you dark elves sick? !
You should know that among all races, only humans are not restricted by estrus, and dwarves also have difficulty reproducing!
If one gray dwarf dies, there will be one less. If we lose one, it will take at least thirty years to fill the gap, dear!
But it is not okay to rashly ask for a trade of gray dwarves. The reason is very simple - these dark elves are shrewd and have a lot of bad intentions. If they find out that the Fire Tribe needs gray dwarves, they will definitely ask for a huge amount!
In this regard, the dark elves have countless bad records... There is a reason why they are secretly slandered by all races.
Judging from the ruthless methods displayed by that woman Anqiluo, if she found out that Xiao Yun was in urgent need of the gray dwarves, she might even resort to such dirty tricks as temporarily expelling the Snow Wolf tribe's food store and forcing Xiao Yun to swallow his losses... That would be really disgusting.
"It would be better to just go to the underground world and kidnap people!" Xiao Yun sighed in pain.
"Huh?!" Xiao Yun's body trembled, "Wait... this is not impossible?! Five million kilograms of vermicelli, a full 2,500 tons. If we want to transport such a large amount from the entrance of our underground world to the underground city, even if we are snow wolves, it will take at least ten days - no, at least half a month!"
"The underground world is so huge and the terrain is so complex! If you accidentally take the wrong path and end up in a gray dwarf village, or if you move the entire village away, it doesn't matter as long as you're not discovered!!"
Xiao Yun's eyes glowed green, his facial muscles twitched, and he revealed an extremely ferocious smile: "Fen Tiao money, gray dwarf...only children make choices!"
