Chapter 693: Laborers Arrive at the Shore

The construction sites on the Huaxia side have already fully commenced work, and the Ministry of Works has already estimated the approximate arrival time of that batch of laborers from the Xuanyuan Tribe, so they have already prepared all the supplies those laborers will need.

Large Tents, pots, bowls, ladles, and basins, every tool.

Grain has also been approved by the Ministry of Revenue; it was transported from the National Treasury of the Ministry of Revenue to the warehouses of the Ministry of Works. As soon as the Large Ship docks, the grain can be loaded onto vehicles immediately and then proceed forward with the main force.

The storage of the National Treasury is mainly in Huaxia City; Lema City also has some, but the quantity is relatively small. After maintaining the normal operations of Lema City, not much is left, and a portion must be kept as emergency reserve grain, so Lema City can only send a small amount of tax grain to Huaxia City each year.

However, the land reclamation work in Lema City is now proceeding very well, and a large amount of farmland around the city has been opened up. Last year, the first year, the grain yield was not high, but this year it has become mature fields, and the yield will increase significantly. Therefore, this year, Lema City, according to estimates, will be able to provide a large amount of tax grain to Huaxia City.

In the past, grain allocated from Lema City to long-distance teams had to be replenished from Huaxia in the end; Lema City was equivalent to a transit station. But in the future, this problem will be easily solved. Like this operation, in the future, it will be completely unnecessary to carry grain out from Huaxia; grain can be taken at Lema City instead. This will speed things up and reduce the waste of transport capacity.

According to the plan of the Ministry of Works, this batch of laborers will not stay in the city at all. The Navy has already helped with the registration of the name list on the Boat; those who have names have their names written down, and those without names have their numbers written down. Huaxia will not go to the trouble of giving names to people from the Xuanyuan Tribe.

It is still one wooden chip per person. The people from the Navy tell these laborers to keep the wooden chip with them at all times and that it can be hung around their necks; this is the voucher for collecting food and tools in the future.

If they are outside and lose this tag, it will be very troublesome. If the person managing them remembers them and recognizes them, it can be replaced, but if no one recognizes them, it will be delayed for a long time, and they might not even have food, only able to wait until their identity is confirmed.

For Huaxia, food is a minor matter; they mainly need to count the number of people and arrange work. If they don't make numbers, perhaps someone could be dragged away and eaten by a bear at night, and no one would notice even after a few days.

This can also reduce some criminal behavior; if a bad deed is done, it can be traced precisely to a specific person, and management will also be much more convenient.

The laborers do not care about anything else; they only hear that this wooden tag determines whether they can eat, so they start to take it to heart and earnestly weave a rope to hang it around their necks. Those who feel that Grass rope is not secure will even use leather rope or rope woven from animal hair. If they take it seriously, then Huaxia will have much less trouble.

On the day before arriving at Huaxia, the Navy, after avoiding the people from the Xuanyuan Tribe, secretly released a carrier pigeon on the Boat, with a message saying that they were about to arrive and that preparations for receiving the ship could be made.

With a detailed time, the Ministry of Works also had the Zhizhongdui set off on the day the ship arrived, first heading to Lema City, and then directly leaving the city toward the direction of Xiao Town.

The Large Ship and a group of small boats from the Xuanyuan Tribe docked at the Matou of Huaxia. The laborers of the Xuanyuan Tribe, who had been rocked until they were falling apart, could not wait to get ashore, but as soon as they landed, they couldn't even walk, stumbling and falling in a large group.

Fortunately, they were all their own people, and everyone did not know if they would be like this after going ashore, so they did not dare to mock them. The Navy of Huaxia, however, went ashore very naturally and then coordinated with the people from the Ministry of Works.

There were two copies of the name list in total, one handed to the Ministry of Works and one to the Ministry of Revenue. They both needed this list to be kept on file. The people from the Ministry of Works even took the list back on the spot and then made another copy, because they needed two copies: one to remain in Huaxia City and one to be handed to the person managing Xiao Town.

Dahong was helped ashore by the Soldiers of Huaxia. Dahong and the other person also tried their best to maintain their composure; although they were very uncomfortable, they had finally stepped onto land.

The Ministry of Rites, which already knew that an important envoy from the Xuanyuan Tribe was coming to discuss matters, also sent people to welcome them. They knew that after such a long journey, they were very tired, so they did not arrange any other activities that day, but instead used an ox cart to take the two to the courtyard where their Xuanyuan Tribe people lived in Huaxia, and then settled the two to rest. All matters would be discussed after they were well-rested.

The people from the Ministry of War executing the mission were already packed and ready to go. Originally, Shaoyin had strongly requested to go to Xiao Town to execute the mission, but his superior, considering that his child had just been born and needed someone to take care of them, refused him.

However, Shaoyin felt that Qinyang had given birth to a daughter, and Qinyang also looked very healthy, plus there were so many concubines and such in his home, so they could completely send Qinyang and the daughter home to be taken care of, which would not affect his work.

But the superior still forced Shaoyin to take maternity leave and let him go home to stay, successfully missing this mission. However, he also told him that they were going to Xiao Town to engage in construction, and the Ministry of War going there was just to supervise the laborers and protect the territory; they would not be stationed in Xiao Town for a long time, and there was no place for him to achieve merit.

Xiong knew his son's thoughts, but the fact was indeed so; there wouldn't be any major events in Xiao Town now. If he had gone during that time last year, he might have been able to enjoy the thrill of killing the enemy.

This mission was standard and had no difficulty, it was just relatively bitter. After all, this departure would be for more than half a year, and during this time, these Soldiers would not rotate, but would be stationed there the whole time. All food and supplies would be sent by people coming and going regularly.

However, they were still relatively free; every day they could arrange for some Soldiers to go out to patrol, and there was nothing wrong with killing some wild beasts on the way during the patrol.

Finally, this mission was led by Lu. Lu was also old now and rarely encountered major missions. If he wanted to accumulate merit and raise his Nobility, then he could only execute this kind of relatively bitter mission.

If Huaxia wanted war, I am afraid it could only be some sudden small-scale war. As for large wars, Baifeng now also saw clearly: when the Xuanyuan Tribe began to attack the Shennong Clan, this war that would decide the map of the land would begin.

And at that time, it would be impossible for Huaxia to stay out of it. Either the Xuanyuan Tribe would attack the Shennong Clan first and then attack Huaxia—the order might be reversed, but the possibility is not high—or the Xuanyuan Tribe would demand that Huaxia form an alliance with them to start the war together, and after everything was over, the two tribes would slowly settle accounts.

Baifeng also did not know how he would choose at that time. Letting Xuanyuan be his ally was not a bad thing; at least he knew very clearly that the Xuanyuan Alliance was the side destined to win.