Chapter 16: A Messy Situation

The savages, having eaten their fill, each found a place to lie down and sleep, with not a single thought of worrying about their next meal; to them, this was something the Tribal Chief should consider.

Savages lay sprawled out flat, and there were even those shamelessly mating in public to create offspring; if Baifeng hadn't been educated by Teacher Mikami in his past life, he truly wouldn't have known how to face this.

Fortunately, these female savages all had millstone-sized buttocks and barrel waists, and were covered in grime, with no shortage of various parasites, so Baifeng couldn't muster the slightest bit of interest.

What angered Baifeng most was that Xiong, the Tribal Chief, had also lain down to rest after eating his fill; feeling like he was about to choke with rage, Baifeng grabbed a whip and lashed it fiercely next to Xiong, sending dust flying.

Xiong sat up, looking quite bewildered, staring blankly at Baifeng; shouldn't one just go to sleep after eating?

Baifeng threw the whip to Xiong, telling him to drive all the tribesmen up to work, otherwise, let alone the future, they wouldn't have anything to eat tonight.

Xiong looked at the remaining Salted Fish and went to drive the savages below; the whip lashed out haphazardly into the crowd, and those who were struck quickly stood up, staring wide-eyed at each other, waiting to be assigned work, while those who weren't struck remained lazily on the ground.

Looking at this group of slothful people, Baifeng felt regret for taking over; had he known, he would have just struggled on his own—at worst, he would die here alone; better to die early and be reincarnated.

Baifeng had always felt that savages should be industrious; after all, in such a harsh environment, lacking food and clothing, only hard work and struggle were the way to go.

He hadn't expected them to be just like lions or wolves, not caring once they were full, and only looking for the next meal when they were hungry; as for their so-called planting and farming? Baifeng would rather believe they just scattered the Wax Seed randomly around their living area and waited for them to grow on their own, leaving it to Heaven and Earth.

It is truly a miracle that a tribe like this could still have over four hundred people.

Baifeng stood up and said to the still-bewildered savages: "Do you want to eat your fill? If you want to eat your fill, you must work!"

"Only by working can I let you eat your fill and dress warmly; I can keep you from fearing the Winter. As long as you work hard, I guarantee that not a single person will freeze or starve to death in the Winter."

The savages below probably still didn't understand, so Baifeng stopped worrying about that and told Xiong directly to divide the male savages into one team, the female savages into another, and the children into a third; Baifeng wanted to assign work based on labor capacity.

Among this group of adult savages, there were fewer men, about one hundred and seventy, over two hundred female savages, and the rest were children of various ages; whether they were still nursing or already growing into their frames, they were all pulled together by Xiong into one team.

Watching a few nursing babies sucking their fingers among a group of mud-covered children, Baifeng shook his head speechlessly; this Xiong was truly thick-headed, saying children and actually pulling out the ones still nursing.

Baifeng could only shout again, asking whose children the nursing ones were and to hurry and take them away, but after shouting several times, no mothers came, as if those few children were unwanted.

He increased his volume and shouted several more times before a few female savages slowly left the women's group to come out and hold their children, but after coming out, they didn't know which team to go to.

Baifeng waved his hand helplessly and said, "Forget it, just consider it a maternity ward; you don't need to do heavy labor, the most important thing is to take good care of the children, let the children grow plump, for the children are the future of a tribe."

Looking at that group of savages picking their noses, Baifeng first ordered twenty-some male savages to go find tender bamboo and vines, and later he would demonstrate how to make a Fish Trap; fish hunting would depend on these people.

As for those with nowhere to release their energy who kept staring at the female savages, Baifeng showed them what coal looked like and then took them to the mountain behind to let them find coal themselves, after which they would need to carry the coal back to the camp by hand.

Why not give them baskets? For one, Baifeng really didn't like the look of them, and doing this could wear them out and make them understand things and be obedient. For another, Baifeng was truly poor and couldn't produce that many baskets for them to use, so he had to trouble them to carry it by hand.

As for those half-grown boys, Baifeng arranged for them to gather wild vegetables and wild fruits; wild vegetables were easy to find and were everywhere, and those little brats could recognize some, so Baifeng taught them several more types of wild vegetables. Baifeng thought that just the time they spent playing in a day would be enough to find enough wild vegetables to solve the dietary problems of dozens or hundreds of people.

As for the even smaller children, he didn't feel safe letting them go outside, as it was too dangerous. Baifeng prepared clay for them and let the little brats stomp on the mud; once the mud was stomped until it was soft and pliable, it could be used to make Pottery.

The Baifeng tribe was truly poor, so poor they didn't even have many pots, but no one in their tribe knew how to make Pottery; their Pottery was all exchanged with other tribes at the annual Tribal Trade Fair. Baifeng was speechless; if they couldn't even make such simple things, could they still be called savages?

Baifeng had no choice but to let Xiong find a few savages who were more capable or had better craftsmanship to stay and help Baifeng make Pottery, but Xiong didn't even understand what Baifeng meant by "skilled hands."

Among hundreds of people, there wasn't even one who knew how to make Pottery, so Baifeng had to pick a few roughly, at least ones who looked decent and were more pleasing to Baifeng's eyes, as well as a few savages who could do some repairs and such in the tribe; they could be considered the first Artisans.

To fire enough pots and Pottery for so many savages, Baifeng needed a larger kiln so that he could fire their things all at once.

However, with the help of the savages, Baifeng's workload was now much smaller; at least Baifeng was spared a lot of unnecessary work, and some repetitive physical labor had been delegated.

All Baifeng needed to do was grasp the overall situation, coordinate from within, and command the savage teams.

From digging the pit and mixing the mud for the newly built kiln, Baifeng only commanded and taught; he had to let these people thoroughly learn how to make Pottery.

The kiln built this time could be said to be extremely large; not to mention Baifeng, this thing was taller than Xiong, and as for the width, it could easily fit several Xiongs inside.

Once this kiln was loaded, it would probably take a day or two to be truly fired through, but that didn't matter. Baifeng didn't have to go pick coal anymore; now there were energetic old men of the tribe to do it, and by that time, there would be no shortage of coal for firing the kiln.

After the savages Baifeng arranged for brought the bamboo and vines and piled them together, they stared blankly at Baifeng, waiting for him to demonstrate what exactly a Fish Trap was.

Baifeng explained in slow motion to the savages how to weave a Fish Trap and the principle behind it, why it could catch fish; the savages listened very carefully, and Baifeng was very gratified, though he didn't know how many good ones they could weave if left to do it themselves.

When left to weave it themselves, most savages were clumsy, but they were eventually able to make them. One savage surprised Baifeng; he not only wove quickly but also wove better than Baifeng. Upon asking carefully, it turned out the man already knew how to make such things, just hadn't thought they could be used to make a Fish Trap this way.

Once all the Fish Traps were finished, Baifeng took them to the water pool and pointed out clearly where to set the Fish Traps, installed a few, and put in river snails as bait. Baifeng then took them downstream; only by expanding the hunting range could they catch enough fish to feed these hundreds of people, otherwise, the fish in the pool alone would be eaten up in no time.

As for the talk of overfishing leading to the destruction of the food chain later, that could be discussed later; the priority was to survive this Winter first. At worst, they would move; the Heaven and Earth were large enough anyway.