Chapter 256: The World

Over the next few days, the tribesmen's boat-handling skills became increasingly proficient; they were no longer as nervous as they had been at the start, and they successfully returned to the tribe.

He handed the Slaves over to the Household Registration Department to handle, trusting that they could settle these people in properly. Baifeng no longer needed to be personally responsible for these trivial matters; otherwise, he would have to handle everything from grouping them, deciding where they lived, to arranging their work. Now, Baifeng only needed to delegate the work and receive a work report at the end.

The remaining food on the boats was still turned over to the Finance Department, to be counted by the finance staff before being put back into the warehouse for future use. If people from the Large Ships or other departments needed to go out and wanted to bring some Dry Rations, they had to apply to the Finance Department, which would then issue food based on the number of people and their average appetite.

This seems complicated now, but it is a necessary experience for the tribe to embark on the path of standardization. The tribe's scale is still small, so this bit of trouble is nothing. As the tribe continues to expand, these drawbacks and unreasonable aspects will always find ways to be improved through life practice, and things will get better and better.

After the Crocodile Skin was counted by the Finance Department, it was transferred to the Industrial Department. The Industrial Department staff would tailor battle armor for the Soldiers who had already pre-ordered them. First, they would make the armor for all the members of the Bow and Blade Team, and the remainder would be prioritized for ordinary Soldiers with meritorious service. The Elephant Armor retired by the Bow and Blade Team would not be discarded either; it would eventually be passed down to other Soldiers.

Baifeng's Iron Armor had rusted into a sorry state. Previously, he hadn't found suitable materials, but now that there was enough Crocodile Skin, Baifeng used a portion of it to craft battle armor for himself. The main component, however, remained the Iron Armor Plate. Now that the tribe's iron production was sufficient, crafting a suit of armor for Baifeng was easy, and those commanders in the Military Department were also equipped with Iron Armor.

Once the handover was complete, Baifeng went back to look after the children. Everyone who went on this mission would receive a one-day holiday. The Baifeng Tribe now had a holiday system; it was no longer the empty promise it had been at the beginning, but something truly implemented.

All tribesmen were entitled to one day off every ten days, with the specific timing arranged by their own departments. Previously, the Carpenters had no time off because they were bogged down by heavy workloads, yet the tribe could not function without them for a single moment. The tribe had no choice but to provide economic compensation, but after several years of subsidies, the Carpenters had become the wealthiest people in the tribe, with more food than they knew what to do with, so Baifeng had no choice but to arrange holidays for them as well.

In the past, it didn't matter whether the tribe gave holidays or not, because when the tribesmen rested, they could only lie at home and sleep in. After a long time, they couldn't even sleep in anymore, and since they slept as soon as it got dark every day, their sleep was very sufficient; there was no such thing as needing to catch up on sleep, so the tribesmen had no thoughts about taking holidays.

It is different now. The tribe has many entertainment activities, and with the deepening promotion of family values, everyone wants to go home to accompany their wives and children and supervise their children's studies. Now they have also realized that only by studying can their children enter the upper echelons of the tribe; otherwise, they would only be stuck at the bottom for their whole lives.

Baifeng also cherished the time he spent with his two children. What kind of people they would become in their lives depended heavily on their childhood upbringing. Baifeng's own careful guidance taught them many things that simply could not be explained in this era.

Fortunately, the children had a strong capacity for acceptance and their thinking was not rigid. Whatever Baifeng said, they listened to, and they listened extremely seriously. However, when some things were said, Yulong and Changle would curiously ask why, though the two always had different focuses.

For example, when Baifeng told them that the place they lived was called Earth and that it was round, and that the Baifeng Tribe's territory was actually pitifully small, and that this world was boundless.

Yulong would ask why this Earth was round when the ground was clearly very flat, and why people standing on it wouldn't fall off.

And Changle would ask how big this world really was, what other places looked like, why his father knew, how he went there, and what places he had been to.

Baifeng would explain carefully to the two of them. Fortunately, these basic things involved Geography, and Baifeng's Geography had always been excellent, so it wasn't difficult to explain. If they asked deeper questions involving Physics, Baifeng wouldn't be able to explain anything at all.

Baifeng explained the basic scientific theories to them systematically, from the movement of the Solar System to gravity and resistance, letting them know how the seasons and day and night were produced, and using the throwing of stones to explain to them why people wouldn't fall off.

Besides being interesting, this knowledge was also very useful. When they encountered things they didn't understand, they could use these to judge. Baifeng also taught them more practical things, like the issues of air pressure and airflow, letting them understand how clouds, rain, wind, and lightning were produced. After all, they encountered these things often here, and many tribesmen were so scared they wouldn't dare go out on thundery days.

After Baifeng explained it to them, they could understand why there was a rainy season, why the wind blowing in Winter and Summer was different, and they could also judge whether it would rain from the shape of the clouds.

Baifeng also taught them many mnemonics, such as "Morning glow, don't go out; evening glow, travel a thousand miles," "A drop makes a rain bubble," "Three days without picking a straw hat," and so on. Later, these were taught by them to their little friends, and the friends told their own parents. Although the adults didn't understand anything about Earth or the sun, the proverbs and mnemonics were indeed very practical.

In Baifeng's view, only these two children were his true kin. They could understand what he was thinking, and when the children grew up, they would become his own kind, at least having a common language to speak.

After their daily exchanges ended, the two children would run to the Threshing Ground or the square to play with other children, and then show off what incredible things their Tribal Chief father had told them.

However, this time, not long after the two went out, Changle ran back alone. He said his brother was playing with friends, but he wanted to hear more about the situation of this world from his father.

He really liked the various different landscapes his father described. He couldn't imagine a place where not a blade of grass grew, where it didn't rain for decades, composed entirely of sand, and where there would be strange mirages; there were also mountains that towered into the clouds with Snow and ice all year round, colorful land, strange stone mountains, and forests where it was always raining. All of this fascinated him immensely.

Baifeng would not refuse him, and even found a few pieces of paper, using a pen to mark on them which location had what scenery, and which location had what Dahe or mountains. Although the difference between the landscape of this era and later generations could be said to be very large, the child had no way to verify it, and Baifeng was also often immersed in the scenery he described.