Volume 7: Doing Business with the World Chapter 236: Let’s make our debut, Tiger Tribe!
Compared to the severe winter on the grassland, Valentine, which is in deep winter, is peaceful and tranquil like someone's backyard. At least for the tiger tribe, the winter here is not threatening at all.
After staying in the spacious house of the Knight's Mansion for one night, I woke up the next day and opened the door. The snow outside was only up to my ankles and couldn't even reach my calves.
"The human world is a wonderful place." Yale couldn't help but feel envious. If he were on the grassland, and the height of the snow was no higher than his knees when he went out early one morning, then rounding it off would almost mean that spring was about to return.
"…But the jungle is pretty much the same as here, just a little bit colder, but with more trees."
Yale looked up at Isaac's courtyard. Outside the wall, which was only as high as his chest, there were buildings and streets.
Yale exhaled white mist, and envy flashed in his eyes again... The territory of this human knight was not inferior to the royal court of the tiger tribe when it was prosperous.
"Such a weak human knight can also own such a place. Is this the difference between the human world and the grassland?"
Yale walked to the edge of the wall and looked at the street outside the Knight's House.
Compared to the tiger royal court, the house here is much smaller. Looking at the tightly closed low wooden doors, Yale suspected that if the tigers were not careful when walking in, they might hit their heads.
Although small, the houses of the human race are very exquisite. The roofs are covered with dense layers of tiles, the wooden doors are tightly joined, and even the road surface is patiently made of stone bricks to form simple patterns.
There were human activities on the street, and several people with brooms and shovels were clearing the snow along the street.
To Yale, those humans seemed very weak, as weak as tiger babies. Even such a "gentle" cold wind could make their cheeks turn pale and their lips tremble. While sweeping the snow, they would stop from time to time to blow on their frozen hands.
If such weak humans were on the grassland, they would have a hard time even surviving the winter.
Yale looked at those humans and couldn't help but think of "Ayun from the Snow Wolf Clan" whom he had heard the most during this period.
The human wizard who ran into the dense forest to look for the tiger tribe was invited by Ayun.
The Lord Bolton they passed by was also cared for by Ayun and provided them with food and lodging and saw them off along the way.
This knight leader also provided shelter, food, and prepayment of the "battle tree payment" to the tiger tribe because Ayun of the Snow Wolf tribe wanted to do business with them.
Yesterday, after Knight Isaac Robbins explained the details of the transaction to Yale, he took Yale to see the supplies that the Snow Wolf Tribe had prepared to pay them in advance - half a warehouse full of dozens of tons of flour, dried meat, vermicelli, jars of sauces, blankets, ready-made clothes, quilts, etc.
It was not just exchanging food for the fruits, stems and leaves of the battle tree with the tiger tribe, but also included daily necessities such as sauces and clothes. Yale had no objection to this...
The wealth accumulated by the royal court had been almost used up over the past year, and the remaining part that Tiger King allowed him to take away was just two boxes of gold that he left for the veteran Harry to keep.
If more than 3,000 tribesmen were to take root and reproduce in the unfamiliar boundless forest, these two boxes of gold reserves would not be enough - at least Yale did not intend to use them in the short term.
"Unconsciously, the Snow Wolf Tribe has become so wealthy..." Yale sighed silently, "They are obviously poorer than the Cat Tribe, but suddenly they can come up with a large amount of supplies and get so many humans to work for them... What is the difference between them and us, the Tiger Tribe——"
When he thought of this, Yale's face changed.
He was not stupid, and he was not completely unable to understand the difference between the tiger tribe and the snow wolf tribe.
When the tiger tribe regarded the centaurs and cat tribe as expendable slaves, the snow wolf tribe was willing to exchange food of equal weight with them for centaurs, and specifically specified that even the disabled or sick ones were wanted.
The Snow Wolf Clan actively tries to make friends with the weak race that the Tiger Clan looks down upon.
On the southern continent across the inland sea, so many humans are willing to work for the Snow Wolf Tribe.
Yale seemed to understand something, but not too deeply. He just felt a little blocked in his heart.
The group of humans who were clearing snow from the streets walked to the Knight's House. They excitedly looked at Yale who was standing on the other side of the wall and greeted him warmly: "Good morning, orc master!"
Yale was stunned for a moment, then realized that these humans were greeting him, and he looked confused.
"You look really strong, stronger than a snow werewolf. What kind of orc are you?" A young man came over curiously, holding a broom.
"..." Yale's mouth twitched, and he couldn't tell what he was feeling, "Tiger Tribe."
"Ah, so it's the Tiger Tribe. Tigers are much more powerful than wolves, so the Tiger Tribe must be more powerful than the Snow Wolf Tribe, right?" The young man immediately became alert. "Masters of the Tiger Tribe, can you play war ball? Are you more powerful than the Snow Wolf Tribe?"
"What nonsense are you talking about?" Someone pulled the young man unhappily, "The Snow Wolf Clan must be the best at the war ball. The bear clan didn't play as well as the Snow Wolf Clan last time."
"How can the tiger tribe be the same as the bear tribe? Tigers are much more flexible than bears. That bear tribe is too clumsy. Several knights from the Earth team next door can hold him back." The young man immediately refuted and looked at Yale with a sharp gaze, "Right, master of the tiger tribe?"
Yale: “???”
"Hey, don't bother the guests of the Knight's House!"
Ali came over early in the morning and saw from a distance a group of cleaners standing there and yelling at the tiger people, so he quickly shouted to stop them.
The few guys sweeping the snow immediately scattered...
Alex yelled at the boys for a while, then turned around embarrassedly: "Good morning, sir, please don't mind those boys talking nonsense."
Yale: “…I don’t mind.”
Can he say that he didn't understand at all...
Alex was not a serious and old-fashioned person. In fact, if Isaac had not held his head down and taught him a lesson and whipped him from time to time, this guy might have given up and never returned. So, when facing the guests from the tiger tribe, he could not be as serious as Isaac.
The guy pushed the door open and entered the yard, speaking polite words while his eyes rolled around as he looked Yale up and down.
Yale: “…”
If it weren't for the fact that this skinny human was so weak, Yale might have hit him with his claws just because of the rude way he looked at him.
The Orcs were not short of big guys. Not to mention the Minotaur who never walked outside, there were also many giants among the Pythons, Bears, Elephants, and Lions of the Snake Tribe, not to mention the Snow Wolf Tribe that Ali saw more often.
But compared with these big races, the tiger tribe is still quite unique: their equally strong muscles do not grow indiscriminately, but present smooth lines with great explosive power; their shoulders and backs are broad, and their arms and waists are slightly long in proportion. It can be seen at a glance that they have extremely strong frontal collision capabilities and amazing upper limb strength.
The so-called "tiger back and bear waist" means that the tiger tribe has majestic shoulders, backs and arms, and well-developed upper limb strength.
With Alex's professional eyesight, he had no doubt that the cold-faced old man in front of him could just push away the 200-pound man several meters without any special effort.
Then this guy's eyes became brighter and brighter, and he even swallowed his saliva at Yale.
"..." Yale felt a chill coming over him, the hair on the back of his neck stood up, and he subconsciously narrowed his dangerous golden vertical pupils.
Alex didn't feel the danger was approaching at all. He took half a step forward and said eagerly, "Hey, guys, are you interested in making some extra money? I guarantee you'll be satisfied with the reward."
Yale: “???”
After Isaac finished washing up, he came out of the room in high spirits to greet the guests, and saw that bad boy Alex had mixed into the group of tiger people, jumping around like a nimble little mouse.
Isaac: “???”
"Isaac, I have a good idea!" Alex found his best friend, jumped onto Isaac's face, and chattered away.
Isaac initially looked like a strict father who was ready to give this guy a beating, but after hearing Alex's naughty idea, his eyes widened.
In the past, Alex, who was always looking for trouble, would have suggested that Isaac give him a slap in the face and force him to reflect on his mistakes by holding his head down. But after being brainwashed by Xiao Yun's "absolute pragmatism", although Isaac was resisting in his heart and eyes, he still nodded, and a set of operation modes immediately popped up in his mind...
Yale, who was completely confused by Alex's nonsense, finally understood what these humans wanted to do after negotiating with Isaac.
So Yale was confused again.
The two account owners were equally confused.
After another difficult communication and a thorough understanding of the benefits that the Tiger Tribe could gain from this cooperation and the manpower required, Yale & the twenty-six Tiger Tribe warriors all trembled again.
Bread can be eaten with a sandwich - no, there is actually such a way to make money and support the people? !
...It's not their fault that they are ignorant. The Tiger Tribe is actually the most knowledgeable tribe among the grassland tribes. When the Snow Wolf Tribe was still eating wind and dew and drinking raw meat and blood, they were doing business with the Lamia Chamber of Commerce and the Dark Elf Matron, and they also knew to open the gates of the royal court to welcome adventurers of all tribes.
If it weren't for the appearance of the outlier Xiao Yun, if it weren't for the Tiger King making the wrong bet, if it weren't for that old shady Beast King not holding back his fart; if the Tiger Clan had continued to operate steadily and steadily, who knows, in a few decades or even a hundred years, they would have been able to create a world of their own.
But just like it is difficult for people in the era of physical stores to understand the business model of e-commerce, the Tiger tribe, who have only thought about saving money and materials by any means for more than ten years, have no idea that the market of "spiritual consumption" also has huge potential...
The tiger warriors who had originally planned to pack up their supplies and battle tree seeds and return to the Boundless Forest stayed for another day. During this day, the twenty-seven big cats squatted in the room discussing whether to accept the olive branch extended to them by the human knight Isaac.
After much discussion, no one, including Yale, could see what major disadvantages there would be for the tiger tribe in taking on this "job"; so on the third day when the tiger tribe set out for home, these big cats... reluctantly, shyly, and half-heartedly... left behind ten warriors.
Ali smiled happily and immediately volunteered to take the ten tiger warriors with him and rush to the capital of the Kingdom of Kronin without stopping - Prince Maurice, this important customer, must be given priority!
Searle, the leader of the Centaur Express, was returning from delivering goods across the border of the kingdom in the snow and wind. When he heard Isaac say that the Tiger Tribe had sent ten warriors to join the "War Ball Sports Foreign Aid Club" he founded, he burst out in anger on the spot.
The hatred between the Centaurs and the Tiger Tribe is so deep that it is no exaggeration to say that the Centaurs and the Tiger Tribe have a blood feud. The entire tribe was tormented by the Tiger Tribe to the point where only a few hundred people were left to survive. The hatred in their hearts is truly higher than the mountains and deeper than the sea.
After receiving Xiao Yun's letter and knowing that the Tiger Tribe was torn apart by the Beast King and had abandoned their king to save their own soldiers, with only two or three thousand people "defecting" in a panic, Sayer laughed for five minutes and then cried for another five minutes.
He felt a little regretful that he couldn't take revenge personally, but knowing that the tiger tribe was destroyed and the tiger king was dead, Sail felt relieved and felt much more cheerful - the Centaurs, especially the one on the Bloomfield continent, had never been rich, so naturally they didn't have the kind of pride that would grind the enemy to ashes before they could achieve their goals.
The young and strong Centaurs were running errands for Kronin to earn money, while the old, weak and disabled were still being taken care of by the Snow Wolf Tribe in the Fire Tribe. Xiao Yun also treated them as his own people. He did not hide anything in his letter to Searle and told them bluntly that he planned to develop the Tiger Tribe into a downstream raw material producer and use the economy to tie the Tiger Tribe to the plastic products industry of the Fire Tribe, in order to achieve the goal of subtly taming these dangerous big cats.
Xiao Yun also analyzed the benefits of doing this to Sayer, there are two in total:
Firstly, these big cats who had enslaved and plundered other tribes were indeed quite dangerous. If they were allowed to roam around the southern continent, they would cause endless harm - the western continent was the territory of the Dwarf King, and it was unlikely that these guys would run over there - it would be better to keep them in captivity, at least the danger of them running away could be controlled.
Secondly, it is to allow these guys to find a way to survive outside so that they don’t think of retreating back to the grassland.
The grassland is so vast and sparsely populated. If thousands of dangerous big cats escape back, how can we, the peace-loving grassland tribes, farm peacefully? !
Therefore, Xiao Yun told Sai'er very clearly that if the tiger tribe stayed outside, it would be more beneficial than harmful to all the grassland tribes.
As long as he confirmed that the tiger tribe had settled down outside, he would immediately let Yu lead people to raid the royal court and bring back all the gray dwarves and cats captured by the tiger tribe to supplement the labor force of the Fire Tribe...
No matter how deep the hatred was, after reading what Xiao Yun said in the letter, Saier calmed down - the Centaurs' roots were on the grassland, and the mortal enemy would never have the chance to return to the grassland. Saier was happy from the bottom of his heart, at least the descendants of the Centaurs would never have to repeat the nightmare they had experienced.
When he heard Isaac mention that the tiger warriors came to earn money as "foreign aid workers", Sayre was still in the mood to laugh: "These arrogant guys, are they willing to bow their heads now?"
Isaac also laughed: "I dare not make such a suggestion to those vicious guys. It's all Alex's fault."
"Alex is very bold," Saier said happily, "I remember that a war ball team can only hire two foreign players from different races. Do you and Viscount Pope's team also want to hire tiger players?"
"Of course not. We have already confirmed the roster for our team. We have two foreign players, one from the Bear Tribe and one from the Octopus Tribe." Isaac said, "The Bear Tribe isn't flexible enough, but they have strong waist and leg strength, and they perform best on defense. The Octopus Tribe's six arms are perfect for covering running backs, so it's not worth it to replace them with Tiger Tribe players."
After a pause, Isaac added, "It's only half a year until next year's summer league. Training for a year is not the same as training for half a year."
When the Centaurs were in the Fire Tribe, they had watched the Snow Wolves play War Ball a lot. Sayre thought that this "game" was quite lively, but he didn't think it was particularly interesting... After all, this sport was not suitable for Centaurs, so naturally they had limited interest in it.
"If there were polo matches, we centaurs would be able to show off, right? What a pity, in the past few months, Cronin has been talking more and more about war balls, and I haven't heard any humans talking about polo." Searle said regretfully.
Isaac smiled awkwardly but politely, "Stop joking. There are many races that can play war ball sports. As for polo, who the hell can compete with you Centaurs? What a bullshit competition."
"By the way, Sayer, there will be a practice match tomorrow. The Philip family's team will come to warm up with our Valentine team. If you are not in a hurry to return to the grassland, come and have a look."
"Tomorrow... morning or afternoon?"
"afternoon."
"Okay, save a seat for us, and we'll finish the year-end summary in the morning."
"Hey, your courier team hasn't finished the year-end summary yet?"
"That's right. It's because the count added another big order. I've been running around for more than a month. The muddy roads soaked with snow and water are so hard to walk on..."
After several "surprise" encounters over the past six months, the people of the Knights' Territory are finally not frightened by the Centaurs and run away. They can even watch games and plays together, which is cause for celebration.
On the grassland, the Fire Tribe.
In the first two months of winter, everyone's life was relatively easy. But now, this adjective is not suitable for this place - the reason is very simple. The annual routine year-end summary is here. All departments have to review and settle the expenses, performance, and detailed accounts of the year. Except for the little wolf cubs in the kindergarten, everyone else is simply tormented to death...
Xiao Yun caught up with the four giants, Chief Huoyan, Chief Ali, Chief Caogen, and Chief Arthur, and the Finance Department led by Xuehua, and sat in a large conference room piled with various account books, documents and files for a whole day. When the meeting was finally adjourned, even Chief Huoyan, who was obviously just making up the numbers, was floating when he walked - it's not easy to be the chief mascot, being fed with strings of numbers from morning to night, and the stupid and dull Chief Huoyan even looked at people as if they were crooked symbols.
"There have been no problems with the expense reimbursement forms from the Finance Department for the entire year, so the problem can only be in the private handover between departments." Xiao Yun pressed his forehead and said to Xue Hua, who also looked exhausted, with a dejected look on his face, "Hong Ye, bring back the year-end summary report of Qiu New District later, and we will review it again."
Snow Flower said weakly, "Okay." After a pause, the female Snow Werewolf whose winter estrus plan was interrupted gnashed her teeth and said, "Let me know who didn't keep a good account, I will definitely smash his head off!!"
Every flow of funds in the tribe is required to be clearly recorded, but no matter how reasonable and perfect the regulations and systems are, human operational errors are bound to occur... Such a troublesome thing happened during the financial review and summary this year, a not-so-small amount of money could not be reconciled in the account.
At first, I suspected that it was the fault of the people in the Finance Department who made random reimbursements. After all, there are so many areas in the tribe where public funds are spent: all expenses related to infrastructure, bridge and road construction, and farmland water conservancy construction are paid through public accounts; in addition, the agricultural machinery products produced in the hilly new area are sold to various farms at half the cost price, and the "losses" are also supplemented by public accounts. If the agricultural machinery is purchased in full, there is no such thing as industry feeding back to agriculture, but rather industry fleecing agriculture.
In the past few years, all sectors, from top to bottom, have been sucking the blood of agriculture. If they did not give back to agriculture when they had the conditions to do so, then this is not what a system with long-term planning should do!
Things like the Japanese Agricultural Cooperatives sucking the blood of consumers and then sucking the blood of agricultural practitioners are even more unacceptable in Xiao Yun~! (The prices of Japanese local agricultural products are high, so some people think that Japanese farmers are particularly wealthy, but in fact they are not... If you know a little about the Japanese Agricultural Cooperatives, you will know that this semi-governmental organization is responsible for purchasing farmers' products and then selling them to consumers. Everyone should know what monopoly power means)
After checking up to now, both Xiao Yun and Xuehua were certain that the mismatched funds must have been caused by an error in the reimbursement of agricultural machinery. They just didn't know which farm the error occurred on - thirty farms from the Fire Tribe, fifteen from the Snake Tribe, and twenty from the two Cat Tribe farms; there were more than sixty farms to check one by one, which would be crazy!
Fortunately, all departments are now doing year-end summaries. It is always easier to get the report of the hilly new district and compare it with the reports submitted by each farm than to check each one one by one.
Patting Xuehua's shoulder to comfort her, Xiao Yun said affectionately: "Hit her harder, and count it in for me."
Snowflake: “…Okay.”
The canteen bill is the easiest to check. Even if the boss is a big shot, it would have been settled long ago. A group of chefs would laugh at the busy people... and they were very considerate to prepare many simple snacks with high sugar content to comfort people.
When Xiao Yun came to the cafeteria for supper, he ate the chef's comfort snack for today - caramel milk egg pudding.
It’s a whole bowl of hot and sour noodles in a big bowl.
Xiao Yun liked this very much. He immediately picked up the spoon and scooped up a full spoonful of the particularly satisfying meal and put it into his mouth.
"Other people's bowls are so big, why is mine so small?!"
Xiao Yun knew without even looking up that it was the infantilized Auston who spoke in such an angry and frustrated tone.
"Small bowl?" The chef at the window was unhappy. "Look carefully, this bowl is bigger than your entire dragon!"
"That's different, Ayun's bowl is twice as big as mine!" Austin flapped his little wings, almost hitting the chef's face.
The chef was so angry that he laughed: "That's a standard meal that costs money. You're eating a free meal that doesn't cost money. Of course, it can't be on the same level as Ayun!"
"Wait, Austin is still enjoying the free meal?!" Xiao Yun immediately jumped up from the stool.
Auston's scalp suddenly exploded, and he realized that he had done something stupid...
"Yeah, this guy has been eating free meals since the first month until now. Either Balk pays for it, or he himself has never spent a penny in the cafeteria." The chef said unhappily.
After the canteen was restructured, the chefs also received dividend benefits. 10% of the quarterly profits were used as collective dividends for the chefs. Given the popularity of the canteen, this directly made the chefs the richest people in the tribe, second only to Balk and his son in income... ahem.
Of course, the chefs would not be so money-minded as to provide tiered treatment to consumers; what they cannot stand about Austin is that this old dragon is so stingy that it is shocking.
Xiao Yun was very shocked. He raised his finger and pointed at the old dragon, but he couldn't find any words to curse at him for a moment.
"You--you, your income can easily buy half of the cafeteria, and you have the nerve to lick the dragon's face and eat a free meal?!"
The Fire Department emphasizes more work, more pay, so the Green Dragon father and son who work diligently to make vermicelli naturally have the highest annual salary.
Although Auston was late and left early for a long time and his bonuses were deducted, the piece-rate wages were not a small number.
Auston glared angrily at the chef who complained in front of Xiao Yun, and said stubbornly: "You didn't say I can't eat it, why do you still make me pay?"
Xiao Yun took a deep breath, put down the spoon, rolled up his sleeves and rushed forward to catch the dragon.
Austin was so smart that he immediately used weak wind magic to lift up the plate and quickly fled outside.
It was already very late at this time, and everyone was busy settling accounts in their own rooms. No one was helping, so Xiao Yun just couldn't catch this shameless guy...
After returning to the cafeteria, Xiao Yun immediately found a wooden board, wrote a slogan and pinned it to the cafeteria wall - "Auston is not allowed to eat free meals!"
Mr. Sean and Primo, who had just returned from his "wandering", came to the cafeteria for a midnight snack and burst out laughing when they saw the slogan.
