Chapter 208: Tribe Council

"Aren't there some old beastmen in the Tribe who are idle? Have them patrol the Tribe more often. If any outside beastmen really want to harm the Tribe, with their experience, they'll definitely be able to spot them in time."

And this was all thanks to Yun Li having proposed back when the Market was developing that the Tribe's old beastmen should be put to use.

So today, when the topic of arranging people in the Tribe to keep watch came up, some beastmen mentioned the old beastmen who didn't have much fighting strength.

"Then those cubs who are full of energy all day can be assigned too, especially the teenage cubs. They need someone to watch them when they go out, so arranging some tasks to keep them in the Tribe would be for the best."

"Teenage cubs don't know how to rein in their emotions. If they're assigned to keep watch, they'll probably be easily spotted."

The Priest spoke up and vetoed this idea. "A Li, aren't you still short-handed? How about you take charge of arranging the younger beastmen?"

Yun Li was currently mainly responsible in the Tribe for the workshop, Small Flat Mountain, the Tribe Treasury's inflows and outflows, and managing the Hunting Squad. Because all of these involved the Market's operations, and Jicheng and the Priest had no real system for managing them, in the end all these matters were handed over entirely to Yun Li.

Hearing the Priest call on her, Yun Li thought for a moment. "I am short-handed, but they need to know how to read to do the work."

The matters in her hands all required keeping accounts. Not only did they need to know characters, they also had to learn to count and understand basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

What gave her a real headache was that three years had already passed. Even though she taught the beastmen around her the simplest characters and the Arabic numerals she knew whenever she had free time,

up until now, there were still only a dozen or so beastmen who could read normally and fluently count from one to a hundred. Among them were her own several Beast Husbands.

For most beastmen, just recognizing a few characters was already rare. When it came to counting, they could at most count to forty or fifty, and that was only because they were around that many people regularly. As for so-called addition and subtraction, they could only do it by counting on their fingers and drawing "tally" marks.

Hearing this, the Priest glanced at Jicheng and couldn't help sighing softly inwardly.

"Take people under your wing and teach them more. Otherwise, you being so busy all by yourself all day isn't sustainable."

Of course, the most important thing was that they were a bit uneasy about handing all these matters over to Yun Li alone.

Especially over at Small Flat Mountain — those people basically only listened to Yun Li's family. This inevitably bothered Jicheng somewhat.

But Yun Li was his son's female, so he couldn't say it directly. He could only go complain to the Priest when he had nothing else to do.

Seeing that it was the Priest who had spoken, Yun Li nodded. "No need to assign too many. I can't teach that many by myself. But isn't Ya over there always teaching people to read? The Chief and the Priest can urge more young beastmen to go learn from him. That would save me the effort of teaching."

She wasn't unaware in her heart that the Chief and the Priest wanted to arrange people to meddle in her affairs, but she didn't really object to it.

After all, no matter who was arranged, as long as they could do the tasks she assigned, letting go of those trivial matters that didn't harm her foundation would actually be a good thing for her.

After all, the worst thing for a manager was not knowing how to use people, and not daring to use people.

If one person tried to take on everything, she would eventually work herself to death.

Hearing Yun Li say this, Jicheng also had a headache. "I arrange for people to go learn every day, but hardly any of them actually learn anything. They're not as good as the beastmen who follow you around."

Wanting Yun Li to find time to teach more beastmen to read was also a major reason Jicheng wanted to arrange people to be by her side.

It was all because Yun Li was truly capable. No matter how stupid or slow a beastman was, after staying by her side for ten days or half a month, they would become somewhat sharp.

For this reason alone, even though Jicheng knew about some things she did behind his back, he still turned a blind eye to her. Plus, she and Ji Xuan had a cub. Jicheng had even considered whether, when he got old and couldn't work anymore, he should skip Ji Xuan and let her become Chief.

But this idea had just come up when the Priest vetoed it, because he too had taken a liking to Yun Li's intelligence. Rather than making Yun Li Chief, the Priest felt it might be better for Yun Li to succeed him in his position.

"How about I have my cubs go help Ya every day? I've been teaching them to read and count ever since they could talk. The people who follow me often learn to read and count from them too."

Yun Li had no idea that Jicheng and the Priest had talked several times about which position she would succeed. When she heard Jicheng say that Ya's teaching hadn't been very effective, a certain idea suddenly popped into her mind — merely controlling the Tribe's economy was no longer enough to satisfy her ambition. Next, she was going to start taking over the Tribe's education.

After all, she hadn't had the authority she had now before, and she didn't know much about the Tribe. Even if she had wanted to meddle in the Tribe's education back then, her ideas and concepts being different from other beastmen would have easily caused a lot of trouble.

But the timing was about right. She had already been in the Tribe for over three years, she had a cub with Ji Xuan, and with all she had done for the Tribe over the years, even if she taught the clansmen things they didn't quite understand,

they would just think she was amazing, rather than reacting like at the beginning, when she only taught some elementary math and it drew a bunch of beastmen's doubts and resentment.

Thinking back to what happened back then, Yun Li could still recall how she had felt at the time.

Trying to help out of goodwill only to be accused of causing trouble — she felt she had almost made speechlessness her native language.

"Let a few cubs go teach people to read?"

A flicker of hesitation crossed Jicheng's face. The Priest sitting beside him furrowed his brows slightly, looking like he didn't quite believe it either.

"I think it's fine."

Ji Xuan spoke up to support Yun Li at this point. "Let them go for a while first. If they cause trouble or go and don't help much, then we can make other plans. Besides, Uncle Ya is old now. Having cubs around him should make him happy."

Seeing him say this, the Priest nodded to Yun Li. "Then have your cubs go to Ya's place every day."

Yun Li made an OK gesture.

"Let's talk about the serious matters we were discussing before. Axuan, what are your thoughts?"

Jicheng started asking Ji Xuan again this time.

Ji Xuan thought for a moment. "The Patrol Team's numbers can be appropriately expanded by selecting people first. We can mainly target young beastmen who have gone hunting with their parents many times or have performed well in hunts.

Then have the old teach the new, starting within the Tribe. The number of beastmen patrolling outside and the selection criteria will remain unchanged for now.

As for the proposal they just made about organizing the Tribe's old beastmen and cubs to act as hidden sentries within the Tribe, I think it's feasible to implement.

However, two representatives should be chosen from among the old beastmen to manage the other old beastmen who can work.

The cubs suitable to be hidden sentries must be carefully selected. My suggestion is to first choose from among the cubs of beastmen in the Hunting Squad and the Patrol Team. The selected cubs should first be led by those old beastmen.

Later, when the time is right, they can be absorbed into the Patrol Team as candidates."