Volume 8: The Sword Points to the Far East Chapter 260 The So-called Fairness
After leaving behind countless tofu-making and cooking tutorials (due to the dense mountains, the Tea Bears grow more beans than wheat), Primo and the others left the Dosi Mountains of the Tea Bears.
Following Tea Bear's advice, Primo gave up on going directly from the Moon Bear's territory to the Fox's territory and instead took a detour through the Winged Tribe's territory - the reason was that the Moon Bear's tribe was in chaos.
On the path leading to the Wing Tribe's territory, Yang Mao was very surprised: "We are not at war with anyone, so why is Moon Bear City in chaos?"
The lion warriors, who had perked up a bit after leaving the Tea Bear territory, were now interested in chatting. One of them said nonchalantly, "It's all because of the gold on Snake Island."
Snake Island, the peninsula home of the original snake tribe, is located southeast of the Golden Plains, separated from the Golden Plains by a river.
"Huh?!" Wool and Rosemary looked at the lion warrior in surprise, and even Primo looked at him with surprise.
Randomly~ The lion warrior who broke the news is named Fielding, a young, strong and beautiful lion. His mother is a member of the Lion City Elders Council. Although the parent-child relationship of the lion tribe only lasts until the cubs grow up (in fact, most orcs have this habit), because Fielding is extremely beautiful (uh) and very capable, his mother is willing to take care of him to some extent, and he became an officer in the Lion City Patrol at a young age.
Seeing the three people were quite surprised, Fielding was a little proud: "After the snake tribe was driven away, the two gold mines on Snake Island were jointly mined by the Black Bear Tribe, the Moon Bear Tribe, and the White Bear Tribe. The place chosen by the Moon Bear Tribe happened to be a rich ore section, and the profit was more than the other two tribes."
"Oh, the distribution within Moon Bear City is uneven?" Primo's eyes flashed.
"Yes, there are many more elders in Moon Bear City than in Lion City. I heard from Moon Bear who came to Lion City to avoid the solitude that the elders are divided into four groups to take turns mining, and each group rotates for three months." Fielding said, "But mining on Snake Island is the most difficult in the summer, and no one wants to go there during the hottest time of the year. One group of elders has drawn the summer lot for several years, so there was a fight. I heard last year that they almost got into a fight."
The snake tribe likes warm and humid environments. The Snake Peninsula, located at the southernmost tip of the Far East Continent, is hot and humid during the summer rainy season. It is definitely not a comfortable place for the bear tribe... They will sweat even if they just sit still, let alone work hard to mine gold.
Wool's lips twitched, and she wanted to say something sarcastic, saying that the place originally belonged to the Snake Tribe, and there was no need for the Bear Tribe to work so hard squatting there in the hot summer to mine the Snake Tribe's gold. However, she remembered that the Lion Tribe were also Far Eastern orcs, so she swallowed the sarcastic words.
"What is worrying is not the scarcity of wealth but the inequality of wealth." This sentence popped into Primo's mind.
Ah Yun liked to mention this sentence countless times when he talked about organizational work and mobilizing others, requiring organizers to pay attention to relative fairness on a large scale - absolute fairness is actually a cult, and absolute fairness cannot be achieved - at the very least, fairness and justice must be achieved on the surface, so that most people cannot find fault with it.
Primo has never cared about other people's thoughts at his age. At that time, he foolishly asked why we couldn't pursue absolute fairness, but was ridiculed by Xiao Yun... Absolute fairness means that everyone stands at the same starting line and runs to the finish line together at a uniform speed; it's okay to increase the height of people with short legs, but also to cut the height of people with long legs and not allow people with long legs to play to their advantages. How can this be called justice?
Acknowledging the gap, and developing and pursuing on the basis of acknowledging and accepting the gap, is the thought that Primo has learned from Ayun, and the one that he has the most thoughts and feelings about. As a short-lived human, Primo, who is born with a weak physique, has spent countless years to smooth out the unfair feelings he had when he was young. After realizing that his thoughts can be constructed in this way, Primo feels that he has really lived in vain for decades...
Primo remembered that Ayun said in a rather cold manner at that time: What many people pursue in absolute fairness is actually the pursuit of being fairer than others.
This sentence sounds ordinary, but you can only find the bitterness in it if you think about it carefully. At least after Primo figured out the meaning of this sentence, he understood why, in Ayun's eyes, no matter whether it is a dragon elf or a goblin centaur, there is no difference between high and low - there is no need to worship or discriminate against innate advantages or defects, only acquired efforts are worth paying attention to!
"Among so many bear tribes, big and small, only three are eligible to share the Snake Island gold mine, and the moon bears have taken the biggest advantage. But so what? People who have taken the biggest advantage will not feel that they have taken all the benefits." Primo thought to himself and shook his head with some amusement.
"All races and all individuals will resist the injustice that befell them." Primo's eyes gleamed, and a faint smile gradually appeared on the corners of his mouth. "So... Ayun's plan will definitely succeed."
"Having the opportunity to participate in a plan that could make a demigod so overwhelmed and even fall from the altar is really... so interesting!"
Primo's smile became even brighter and more enthusiastic. He took the initiative to stop everyone from gloating over the moon bears' misfortune and happily chatted with the lion warrior Fielding about the Far East customs.
Although he has gained a certain fame in the human kingdom, for Primo, the Beast King of the Far East is still an unattainable figure that he can only look up to; creating trouble for such a powerful and despairing alien demigod, for Primo, who has a pessimistic attitude towards life and is even a little cynical... is simply a great pleasure!
After walking on the mountain road for several days, the group suddenly saw a vast plain in front of them.
Of course, it is not a fertile plain, but a vast wasteland covered with rocks and overgrown grass... If it were a good place, it would not be the turn of the Winged Clan to occupy it.
The Winged Tribe are slender in body, even more slender than the forest elves. Apart from their flying ability, they have no advantages in other aspects: they are weak in martial arts, physical strength, and overall combat power. In the army of the Orc Empire, they are often used as aerial scouts and are consumables - they have no means of ground attack and are sitting ducks for the enemy magicians and archers.
Living in this vast wilderness, close to the York Mountains, which are the paradise of adventurers and the nightmare of the indigenous people, the Winged Tribe who have lived here for generations have come up with a way to improve their own living conditions: concentrate manpower and material resources to build an adventurer city, and make a living by relying on the wealth brought by the adventurers entering and leaving the York Mountains.
However… since the beginning of this year, when two consecutive stories about agricultural machinery promotion were published in the “Elf Ranger Travels” in the “Travels of the Continental Travels”, new changes have occurred in the territory of the Winged Tribe——
Primo and his group entered the Helsinki wilderness. After walking for half a day, they saw a scene that had never been seen in thousands of years on this wilderness, also known as the "Desolate Land":
A large group of tall and thin Winged Tribe people dressed in simple linen clothes, some carrying bamboo baskets, some carrying backpacks, and some pushing light wooden wheelbarrows, are picking up stones in a gently undulating valley; farther away, on a flat ground that seems to have been burned, the Winged Tribe people, who have less physical strength than humans, are working in groups to push and pull hand-held cart-type tillers (that is, the front shovel of the harvester is replaced with a circular plow), and are working hard to carve grooves on the hard and compacted land.
The Winged Tribe had good eyesight and could see Primo's merchant attire and the six-legged lizard loaded with goods from a long distance. In addition, they were far away from the Lion Tribe and had no hatred for each other, so some women came up to them enthusiastically and asked what kind of goods the merchant who had come from afar had brought.
Primo had been to the territory of the Winged Tribe and knew that these orcs, who had been doing business with adventurers for years, were not averse to outsiders, and he mingled . However, Wool and Rosemary, who were ignorant, had their mouths opened wider than theirs.
There was nothing surprising about the hand-push type agricultural machinery, as it was also used by the Snow Wolf and Cat tribes on their own farms. Although the land on the grassland was very good, there were always places where tractors could not pass. What surprised them was that the Wing Tribe seemed to have difficulty using this type of light agricultural machinery... Not only did it require several people to push it, but there were also two people in the front to pull it!
Rosemary couldn't help but stare rudely at the local women who surrounded Primo, her eyes focusing on their slender arms and stick-like calves, and her eyelids twitched.
"I thought the women workers in woolen mills were the most fragile creatures in the world!" Rosemary moved closer to the wool and secretly bit its ear.
"Yes, I think the female workers from the woolen mill can come here and earn two or three." Wool said with surprise.
The local woman had no idea what they were talking about, and Primo glared at her fiercely.
The two troublemakers quickly shut their mouths.
This group of Winged people who were clearing land in the valley near the river came from the same Winged village. Well, because they were relatively weak, the Winged villages were often larger in order to protect themselves, and the population must be over a thousand.
At the invitation of the women, the group entered the Winged Tribe village. Once inside, Wool and Rosemary started to make a fuss again...
The Winged Tribe lives in trees.
Their village is a very dense forest that has been artificially cultivated for hundreds or thousands of years. Tree houses are built on the branches of large, lush trees. The wooden houses on the ground that can be seen are all newly built to store agricultural machinery.
In the cool and refreshing woods, the hardworking Winged Women brought wooden stools for the guests to sit on. Some women even turned their hands into wings and flew to their own tree houses to get water pitchers, cups made from bamboo joints, and fruits they picked themselves to entertain the guests. Their warm and thoughtful attitude was a model of hospitality and they were even more hospitable than tea bears (who says there are lions in their team).
Yang Mao looked up at the small and exquisite tree house hanging between the branches of the big tree. He was puzzled as to how people could live in such a toy-like house...
Rosemary was staring at the bamboo cup.
There are bamboo forests on the grassland near the Elf Forest. The tribe occasionally organizes people to cut bamboo and mix it with vines to weave baskets, but to be honest, this is the first time I have seen bamboo joints used as tools.
The Winged Tribe, like the Lion Tribe, is a matriarchal clan, with females taking care of outside affairs and males taking care of inside affairs. When the merchants entered the village, the village elders quickly came over.
This elder did not look too old. His hands, feet and neck were very slender outside his linen robe. His hair was the bright color unique to the Winged Tribe (the Winged Tribe had hair of all colors). After greeting the lions politely, he carefully inquired about the types and prices of the goods that Primo brought. He also calculated on the spot the price difference between the goods of this traveling merchant and those brought by the bear tribe without any concealment - some adventurer teams would bring some goods with them when they came to the York Mountains for adventure, and the Winged Tribe was already accustomed to buying things from all kinds of people.
The goods Primo brought were not too cheap but they were certainly more affordable than the things the bear tribe had sold before. After some calculation, the elder of the Winged Tribe with a very killer hair color generously bought a small half of Primo's goods - each tribe of the Far East orcs needed to pay a certain percentage of taxes to the Beast King, and beyond that, how much they collected internally depended on how each tribe operated internally; the matriarchal Winged Tribe, while ensuring the basic living needs of all tribe members, also had the habit of concentrating the wealth of the entire tribe.
Well, the lion tribe, which is also a matriarchal clan, does not have this habit. The reason is very simple. The lion tribe is strong while the wing tribe is weak. If the weaker race does not take the path of collective survival, it will have to take today's pill. (Those who cannot withstand the pressure of external elimination and resort to internal elimination are pure idiots. Just look at the idiots in history who said that they must first stabilize the country before resisting foreign aggression and then killed people internally.)
This is also the reason why the Wing Tribe was able to produce decent machines and distribute them to villages across the country for use only half a year after the agricultural machinery promotion plan was launched - even if there are blueprints and correspondence course materials, agricultural machinery cannot be developed without money, manpower and material resources, let alone a relatively remote village like Fuze.
After completing the transaction, Primo pretended to be curious and asked them about the land reclamation scene they saw when they came. The Wing Clan elder with colorful hair without any precautions proudly boasted that the Wing Clan had spent several years' total income to develop agricultural machinery, and distributed it to the entire tribe according to the population (one machine for every fifty people).
"I heard that the Fox Tribe is also making farm machinery. Their smelting workshop is still under construction, but our Wing Tribe has already made qualified shovels." The Shamate Color Hair Elder said with great pride, "Now we are carrying out summer ploughing according to the instructions of the Elf Ranger, but the Fox Tribe has not even made a complete farm machinery."
Primo was filled with amazement and admiration, and kept flattering the Shamatte elder to satisfy his vanity. The two sides had a very pleasant conversation, and the Shamatte elder even gave Primo a scarf woven with colorful down for free.
After a short rest in the Wing Tribe village, before leaving, Primo boasted about how the Wing Tribe would become rich and prosperous for being so hardworking. He made the Shamatte elders and the Shamatte Wing Tribe women look very happy. Then Primo said , "When I came here, I passed by the Lion Tribe's territory. The Lion Tribe is making a very delicious seasoning that is even more delicious than the spices brought by the Lamia Chamber of Commerce. It is called Miaoxian Juice. It is very flavorful when used to make soup or cook food. It's a pity that the Wing Tribe is a bit far from the Golden Plains, otherwise I would really like to recommend it to you."
"Oh? How delicious is it?" The Shamatte elder looked at the lion warriors with sharp eyes.
Fielding, the captain of the Lion Patrol, immediately held his head high and said in a domineering manner: "If you want to know how good the wonderful juice is, you can go buy it yourself."
Well... this is the lion tribe's arrogance when it comes to laziness - even if it is profitable, it is impossible to expect them to be diligent in transporting the goods to sell.
