Volume 6: Helping the World Chapter 195 Cuteness is the key to being sucked
The first batch of dormitories built by A Yue's Engineering Team 2 to help the Snake Tribe consisted of a total of 100 rooms.
In order to save on wall materials, two rows of houses were built shoulder to shoulder and back to back (referring to the old bungalows in my country from the 1970s and 1980s). The cost of one house was ten gold coins, including the labor and materials. After all, the walls had to be thick, the flues in the walls had to be opened (snakes are afraid of the cold), and the sewage facilities had to be matched. In addition, there were large items such as prefabricated reinforced concrete beams and prefabricated cement slabs (actually prefabricated on site...). If the price was any lower, the engineering team would suffer a loss.
Ten warehouses and twenty greenhouses were built. The former was fine as long as they were airtight enough, but the latter was expensive - the reinforced concrete columns and the ring beams that also used steel bars were fine, but the steel frame on the roof and the thickened metal wire flat glass were all expensive things... No matter how generous the engineering team was, a greenhouse would cost at least thirty gold coins.
Taking into account the cost of paving the square, repairing roads, canteens and bathrooms, farm equipment, seeds and fertilizers, and the daily necessities provided over the past six months, the Snake Department owed the Fire Department more than 20,000 gold coins in total - of course, there was no need to rush to pay back the money. Just pay some interest in the first three years, and then pay it back in installments over the next five or six years, so as not to affect the development of the Snake Department.
If the snake tribe was still worried about this debt before, the first year's profit would give them great confidence... After the first three years, they would just have to pay a few thousand gold coins every year, and the debt would be eliminated in four to five years at most. There would be no pressure at all.
Therefore, almost all the elders focused their attention on the profits of the previous year...
The total income from selling agricultural products of the ten farms was 13,000 gold coins, and more than 3,600 gold coins were used to purchase daily necessities, such as black stone, food ingredients needed for the canteen, clothing, blankets, towels, soap and other items, so that all the tribesmen could have a winter with abundant supplies.
Of the remaining money, Elder Gustav discussed with the production team managers and decided to set aside 6,000 gold coins to be used to purchase agricultural machinery in the early spring of next year, such as triangular pears, seed drills, alfalfa and soybean harvesters, sweet potato harvesters, etc. - if you want to do your work well, you must first use good tools. No one knows better than the managers the auxiliary and importance of agricultural machinery to agricultural production. At present, the ten farms share two sets of agricultural machinery bought on credit from the Fire Department. It's not that they are not enough, but the Snake Department must have the ambition to expand the scale of production, so of course they have to spend the money on this.
After arguing for the remaining 6,000 gold coins, the remaining 3,000 gold coins would be a problem...
"So that's what's going on. You haven't been working for a few years, but you're already jealous of the welfare model of our Fire Department?"
In the dormitory of the Fire Department staff, after listening to Qingcao's rambling for a long time, Chief A Li finally understood what was going on. He squinted his eyes and said, "They are forcing us to share the money under the pretext of everyone's money being spent by everyone. Is that right?"
"Yes!" Qingcao said angrily, "I told them that in the past few years, before the conditions were ripe, our Fire Department used to pool the money earned by all departments to do things. Yes, after deducting the necessities of life and production, the remaining is indeed the surplus value created , and it should be returned to the collective, but this is not the way to give back to the collective!"
"Wrong, wrong." Chief Ali shook his finger. "They are not asking for money, but are gradually testing Gusta's bottom line, and even undermining Gusta's right to allocate resources as the host of the Snake Tribe Management Meeting. The 'concentrated resources to develop the collective' that we all agree on is, in their view, Gusta's monopoly of power and his one-man show. Money is the embodiment of power, and snatching money from Gusta is only the first step. If Gusta gives in on this step, then when the work starts next year, more people from all walks of life will have a say."
Qingcao was confused at first, and after a few seconds, he gradually showed a shocked expression...
This is Qingcao’s shortcoming, his wisdom in fighting people is still a little lacking.
"We can't let them do this. Among the thirteen elders of the Snake Tribe, Gustav is the most pragmatic one. Anything can be negotiated with him as long as the reason makes sense. If it were someone else, my job would be very difficult." Qingcao said nervously.
"Of course, that's why I came here." Chief Ali said confidently, "As an outsider, we can't argue with them or stand on the opposite side of the debate. If we argue face to face, we won't be able to convince everyone if we want to support Gustav. After all, what is being used to make a fuss is the more than 3,000 gold coins. Let's find an undisputed place for the money, and then the problem will be solved temporarily."
"Uh... temporarily?" Qingcao asked puzzledly.
"Of course, fighting against others is a long-term project. Not to mention others, it took Ayun several years to make us understand his will, not to mention the snake tribe which is more difficult to deal with than our snow wolf tribe." Chief A Li smiled and said, "Don't worry, this is my job scope. If it doesn't go well, Ayun will only cause trouble for me. Just do what you are good at."
Qingcao's head hurt after hearing this. Things that were too complicated were difficult for her, so she nodded immediately: "Okay."
Chief A Li came with two assistants. It was not that he needed help from others, these two assistants were actually apprentices arranged by Xiao Yun. As an extremely rare elite in the Snow Wolf Clan, Xiao Yun would of course make full use of Chief A Li's strengths...
He led two apprentice assistants to wander around the Snake Tribe for a long time, visited various production team study groups, played with the snake cubs for a while, and chatted with them. At the Snake Tribe management meeting that night, Qingcao introduced Chief A Li, who served as both the "Head of the Discipline Inspection Group of the Fire Tribe and the Chairman of the Production Promotion Association". The first Discipline Inspection Group Leader of the Fire Tribe then asked two questions with a smile:
One is the housing problem of the snake tribe. The only hundred houses are too tight for a snake tribe of more than 4,000 people.
Snakes are very gregarious and don't care about personal space like cats do. They don't mind more than 30 people squeezing into one room, but it's not very convenient after all...
"Everyone, the housing problem is a big problem in the long run." Chief Ali did not mention that some elders used their privileges to monopolize houses and make housing more crowded, but started from the family nature of the snake tribe. "The snake tribe has the habit of living in groups according to families. Three generations living together is the norm. This helps internal unity and is a good tradition. However, several families squeezed into one house, which is fine in the short term, but in the long run, friction and disputes are inevitable, which is harmful to the unity of the snake tribe. In more serious cases, it may even affect production and construction..."
Snakes reproduce by laying eggs, and female snakes can give birth to two to five babies at a time. But snakes are not real snakes after all, and female snakes will be seriously injured after giving birth, and it will take several years to recover. Generally speaking, unless there is a big change in life or the cubs die, female snakes can only give birth to one baby in their lifetime.
The families and clans of the Orcs are mostly connected by females. After all, males do not have the initiative in mating - most female Orcs do not have obvious sexual characteristics, and in order to reproduce, they have evolved a stronger body shape than males. For example, Harris, who has three brothers and sisters, has two sisters who are taller and stronger than him.
The family characteristics of the snake clan are that mother and daughter live together, and two generations raise the third generation together. A large family has at least a dozen people. This can enhance the snake clan's ability to resist crises and make the snake clan more cohesive, but at the same time, it will also make the snake clan more exclusive to members outside the family.
After talking about the housing shortage issue for a long time, Chief Ali suggested that in order for the young female snakes to have space to reproduce the next generation, it is necessary to expand the housing by at least double the size. Once this statement, which is extremely politically correct for the snake tribe, came out, the snake elders present could only nod in agreement no matter how disgusted they felt... They had no choice but to agree, as the dozens of managers sitting opposite them were all listening.
The second problem is the construction of greenhouses, which is more important for the development of the Snake Tribe: the annual planting time on the grassland is two months less than that of the southern continent. For long-term considerations, twenty greenhouses that can produce and plant in cold weather are simply not enough!
Not to mention that most of the greenhouses in the snake department are now used to raise earthworms, and only two greenhouses can be squeezed out to grow sweet potato leaves and provide winter green leafy vegetables!
The funding gap for greenhouse construction is enormous, and the little surplus funds the tribe has now are not even enough to fill the gaps!
The managers were fine, but the elders all grimaced when they heard this... If they didn't have much money, would this Ali not only not let them make any plans, but also wanted to take their money to contribute to the construction of the Snake Department? !
The elders were shocked, and Chief A Li said, "...The Snake Tribe was able to save more than 3,000 gold coins in surplus funds for construction in the first year. This is a good start. We will use this money to improve the housing and add 60 more greenhouses next year. If nothing else, at least we should give priority to ensuring self-sufficiency in earthworm soil. As for the rest, there is no rush anyway, so let's just take our time~"
Elder Gustav was sincerely convinced and nodded repeatedly; Elder Gregor stared at Chief Ali with a fanatical expression of "listening to your words is better than reading ten years of books".
The other elders first breathed a sigh of relief, then felt something was not right...
Chief A Li said with a smile, "For the remaining few hundred gold coins, we will purchase a batch of chicken and ducklings from the Fire Tribe, and buy a grinding machine to grind earthworm powder to feed the chickens and ducks, so that the cubs can eat one egg every day. Then, we will find time to dig a pond and raise fish. The feed is ready, and the chicken and duck manure is just right. In the fall, we will drain the water from the pond, catch the fish and eat them, and the pond mud and fish manure at the bottom of the pond will be just right for composting..."
Why did Xiao Yun assign a dual position to Chief A Li? The biggest reason is that the current system of the Fire Department does not have many loopholes to exploit. Unless Xiao Yun dies, and his successor fails to hold the fort, or is blamed by others for destroying the system (for example, in the 1980s , Thatcher, Reagan and others led the Western society to use the name of neoliberal economics to kill the planned economy and industrial policies represented by state-owned enterprises, and the banner of the omnipotence of the market actually put capital in the upper hand), otherwise Chief A Li, the head of the Discipline Inspection Group, is likely to eat idle meals and have no place to display his strengths... After all, Xiao Yun is sure to live longer than Chief A Li.
The scope of authority of the Production Promotion Association Chairman is much more flexible and operational!
Do you want to sit back, eat, sleep, and enjoy the benefits after you have achieved a little success? First ask the chief of the Ali tribe if he agrees!
There is no end to production and construction!
When it comes to finding people things to do (...) and jobs to do, Xiao Yun's chosen successor (...) is Chief Ali, the one and only bad guy in the Snow Wolf Clan!
While Chief A Li was out to sweep away all the evil spirits of the Snake Tribe, in the underground world, the Snow Wolf Tribe’s fan transport team, which was “delayed” on the road, was still diligently searching for the Gray Dwarf village...
In a complex passage with traces of gray dwarf activities, a large ground-running gilly bird that was caught and killed by the agile Ashan and Rosemary was dumped on a stalagmite to drain its blood; Rosemary squatted beside it and boiled water to scald its feathers as a snack for everyone, while the others searched the surrounding passages for a way out.
"…What do you call this thing?"
Xiao Yun stared with dead fish eyes, pointing at the strange vine-like plants that grew out of the cracks in the rocks not far away and covered the entire mountain wall lushly and greenly and asked the goblin Baron.
"Battle tree." Baron raised his head and pointed at the underground plant that looked a bit like creeper but was thousands of times more ferocious. "Its fruit looks like a hammer, and its stem is very thick. If it is disturbed, the hammer fruit will fall down. If you cut off its fruit, you can eat the very chewy flesh and the very sweet core."
"..." Xiao Yun stared at the weird dark plant with leaves as big as millstones, flowers that looked like, no, completely like, man-eating plants, and fruits that could fight against a skull crusher for a few seconds, then turned his head resolutely, "Forget it, let's go see if the road over there is passable."
The underground world is filled with complex maze-like passages. Places with less light moss are fine, but places with more light moss will be filled with all kinds of dark plants and animals that will make your SAN value drop sharply just by looking at them... This area covered with light moss is a place with a style that is particularly suitable for the underground world.
Coming out of the dead end where the battle tree was entrenched, Xiao Yun was about to call Yu, but before he could even utter a word, Uncle Ashan rushed over happily, "Ayun, Ayun, I caught the slime!"
Then he held a plate-sized, jelly-like, and ineffective strange creature in his hands and thrust it into Xiao Yun's face.
Xiao Yun: "...Uncle Ashan, calm down. There is nothing wrong with my eyesight. I can see..."
Uncle Ashan said enthusiastically: "I caught it from the pond over there. It's very clean and sweet. Come drink it, Ayun!"
"This is really not necessary..." The muscles on Xiao Yun's face were twitching.
"Then I drink it myself?" Ashan said with shining eyes.
"..." Xiao Yun stared with dead fish eyes, "...Don't drink too much."
Slimes and oozes are the same kind of low-level monsters, usually appearing in ponds, lakesides, swamps, etc. One looks cute and the other looks ugly, one is clean and the other is dirty; needless to say, the price of the ugly one is that it might be killed by passing adventurers at any time, or used to clean the floor by people like Xiao Yun who have special needs. As for the cute one... the price is to be sucked.
It really sucks...
Ah Shan put his mouth to a certain part of the slime's round body, and with a little force, he sucked the sweet and delicious liquid in the slime's body like juice; he squinted his eyes beautifully, and the slime instinctively began to struggle, and a gurgling sound of water came out of its body...
"Ashan, just inhale half!" Rosemary, who was boiling water not far away, shouted, "If you inhale too much, the regeneration will be slow, and when others pass by here, there will be nothing left to inhale."
"Yeah, yeah!" Ashan nodded, licked his lips, and put the slime back to its place... The value of this thing to adventurers and travelers is that it is a renewable source of clean water with its own purification function.
Rosemary shouted to the soldiers who were jumping into the pool to touch the slime, "Stop searching, come and help pluck the hair!"
"This is a dead end." After searching several passages, Yu came back and looked for Ayun first. "Ayun, we have to go back and look for it from the fork in the road that we didn't choose just now."
"Okay." Xiao Yun nodded.
"Maomao, Ayun and I saw the battle tree over there." The goblin Baron said quickly.
"Oh?" Yu's eyes lit up, and he immediately strode towards the direction Xiao Yun had just walked with his spear in hand...
Xiao Yun looked at Baron silently, and Baron tried his best to pretend to be innocent.
“You’re starting to be naughty too!”
A cub squatted down, put his arms around the poor goblin's neck, and rubbed his bald head with his fists.
“It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!!”
After a fierce battle, Yu returned with several piles of fruits from the battle tree...
The square, rectangular fruit of the battle tree has a very thick skin, and needs to be roasted over a fire or boiled in water for a few minutes before the skin can be peeled off with a knife; this thing also grows on the grassland, and Yu has rich cooking experience. After peeling the skin, he cuts the flesh into pieces and roasts it on a string over the fire. After a while, the dense and tight flesh exudes a fragrance similar to meat, but much more refreshing...
"I haven't eaten the fruit of the battle tree in several years." Ashan squatted by the fire, rubbing his hands with saliva dripping from his mouth. The soldiers who were gathered in a circle to pluck the feathers of the auspicious bird kept looking over here.
"Well, there are more of them in the central part of the grassland, but they are rare in the southwest corner where we live." Yu grabbed a handful of salt and slowly sprinkled it on the fruit flesh.
Xiao Yun didn't pay attention to any weird dark fruit. He picked up the peel that Yu had peeled off and looked at it over and over for a long time. He pulled it hard with his hands and bit it with his teeth. He also stepped on one end of the peel and stretched the other end hard...
"What are you doing, Ayun? You can't tear the skin apart if you pull it like this. You have to bake it until it's soft and then cut it with a knife." Ashan turned his head, puzzled.
Xiao Yun pulled the long peel into rectangular thin slices, and his whole body was shaking with excitement: "RNM... After searching everywhere for something, I finally got it without any effort——"
The Snow Wolf Warriors all turned around and looked at him in confusion.
"Maomao, can we dig up this dark rubber tree and plant it back?" Xiao Yun looked at Yu with sharp eyes.
feather:"??"
"Uh... Ayun, although the fruits of the battle tree are delicious, ordinary people will get hurt easily if they get close to them." Yu said carefully.
Xiao Yun did not explain and reached out to Baron: "Give me the seeds."
Baron was about to smash the core with a stone to eat the seeds: "???"
Ignoring Baron's aggrieved eyes, he collected the cores and peeled fruit, and took Uncle Ashan back to the battle tree, cutting off a section of its roots, stems, branches and leaves...
"This thing is too big, otherwise we would have dug up the whole plant." Xiao Yun still felt unsatisfied and wanted more.
Ah Shan: “???”
The two of them left the passage where the battle tree was entrenched. The battle tree, which had been lying motionless on the rock wall, suddenly shrank quietly and silently into the cracks in the rocks...
Among the common monsters, the free-range chicken is the most popular ingredient among adventurers - it has no flying ability, is relatively easy to catch, and its meat is not highly toxic. It can also be eaten normally by humans with poor body resistance by cooking it with detoxifying herbs.
Rosemary and the warriors worked together to pluck all the feathers from the chicken, cut off its head and claws, cut open its belly, took out the most poisonous internal organs and buried them in the soil, then smeared the chicken with soy sauce, vinegar, ginger juice, barbecue sauce, cumin, tomato sauce, etc. and massaged it slightly, then skewered it with spears and roasted it over the fire. After a while, the aroma of meat with a strong scent of spices filled the entire passage.
The most delicious part of the free-range Jili chicken is undoubtedly the four chicken legs. Xiao Yun, as the youngest chicken, got one, Ashan, who was drooling, got one, and the other two were cut into slices and shared by everyone.
"It tastes actually okay, but a little numb." Xiao Yun took a bite and was surprised.
"Gilly chicken is a demon beast, it's poisonous." Yu explained, "But it doesn't matter, this paralysis toxin has no effect on us orcs. If humans want to eat it, they have to apply the juice of detoxifying herbs before roasting it."
"Ayun, don't you remember that when your sister was here, she caught a flock of lucky chickens and brought them back to the tribe. You ate half a chicken leg and lay down for a long time before you could get up." Ashan laughed heartlessly.
"Oh? Was Ayun in poor health before?" Rosemary suddenly became excited.
"Yeah, one time Ayun secretly ate the Chimaera barbecue that he was not allowed to eat, and he was in a coma for three whole days. Everyone was scared." Ashan said without any precautions.
"Hahahaha! What else? What else?"
Xiao Yun put down the chicken leg, pounced on Rosemary, grabbed her neck and rubbed her scalp with his fist, and said in one breath: "Even food can't stop your mouth, right! Right!"
Rosemary was a soldier after all, and was not so easily controlled. She thrust her wrist into Xiao Yun's arm and broke free with a little force. She jumped up and hid aside, grinning: "What are you doing? I'm just concerned about you. Why are you so angry?"
Xiao Yun rolled up his sleeves and prepared to go up, but suddenly he was stunned, staring straight at the back of Rosemary.
Rosemary was stunned for a moment, then laughed and said, "What? You want to play this trick on me? Do you think I'll fall for it?"
The Snow Wolf warriors and the goblin Baron who were sitting by the campfire also noticed something was wrong. They all looked over and showed shocked expressions...
"...Hey, hey, it's not necessary for everyone to cooperate with Ayun to deal with me, right?" Rosemary felt something was wrong.
The goblin Baron jumped up with a look of horror and hid behind Ashan. Yu grabbed the spear and stood up with a serious expression.
“…” Rosemary swallowed and turned back stiffly.
Less than half a meter behind him was a rock wall with an irregular crack on it, the widest of which was about ten centimeters. When Rosemary turned her head, she saw a white creature slowly squeeze out of the narrow and twisted crack. On the outside, she could roughly make out a distorted face...
