Chapter 984: Work Hindered

These Leaders were released unharmed; in Baoxi's own view, he had not imposed any punishment at all, and one could even say it was a reward for them. However, these Leaders did not think so; they knew nothing of Huaxia, yet were suddenly thrown into Huaxia, and this was a punishment to them.

As for Baoxi, he not only solved the problem of selecting and sending people, but also incidentally resolved a crisis within the tribe. If he had let them continue to incite Chengqie, let alone the matter of the Suiren Clan joining Huaxia, his own life might have ended right there. It seemed that for so many years, he had never truly enjoyed a single day of comfort.

Time was tight and the task was heavy. Ping and several officials decided to divide the work, with each person responsible for two tribes. Then, under the protection of the Soldiers sent by Baoxi, they took their notebooks and headed to those tribes to count the population, while also fulfilling the role of propagating policies and shaping a beautiful future for them.

Furthermore, among those to be sent to Huaxia, a group of people with skills had to be screened in advance. Even if Huaxia City could not accommodate them, they could continue to learn in Huaxia and then return to their own tribes to engage in construction.

Once in Huaxia, it would certainly no longer be like this, with the chaotic way of going out to hunt and gather every day; professionalization and specialization must be put on the agenda.

Therefore, those roughly screened in advance would be the main force for building their future city—they were the Workers. It would be hard to change this, though there would certainly be people who wanted to deliberately hide their identities and skills, and those Leaders might not necessarily cooperate.

In addition, Ping and his men were far from having enough manpower and could not count them at all. There was no need to even record names; they only needed to count how many people there were, and the Artisans could be recorded separately.

As for those who were unwilling to show their abilities in front of him, that did not matter. Once they arrived in Huaxia and saw it for themselves, they would naturally scramble to show their skills. What Ping needed to do was to let these people, who were in a semi-savage state, come into contact with the situation in Huaxia early on, so they could be prepared sooner.

Several Workers also began to look for suitable locations to build houses in the surrounding area. They wanted to mark out the locations, but without Lime, they could only use crushed charcoal powder. Although it was not as conspicuous as white Lime, it could still serve the purpose of marking the locations.

At the same time, they also divided up some men to go to the place where the Suiren Clan fired Pottery to teach them how to fire Bricks and Tiles. But after one trip, they discovered a problem: the kilns were too small. Because they only fired small amounts of Pottery at a time, the pottery kilns were built very small, far from reaching the level required to fire Bricks and Tiles.

For the courtyard that Baoxi required, even a large Brick Kiln in Huaxia would not produce enough in one firing, let alone using such small kilns to fire them bit by bit. There was no telling when the necessary Bricks could be fired.

There was no other way; they had to take on the task of directing the construction of a Brick Kiln. However, the Artisans of the Suiren Clan were extremely unhappy with the Huaxia people who had suddenly appeared to direct their work, and they were extremely uncooperative because they did not recognize this Huaxia person.

Even when their own Leader was present and ordered them, they only worked reluctantly, and even when they did work, they were sure to slack off.

The Artisan could not take it anymore and shouted angrily: "Is this how you work? How could your tiny little pottery kilns possibly be enough to fire Bricks? Do you intend to do nothing and only fire a few Bricks a day?"

"Your Tribal Chief urgently needs these Bricks, don't you know that?"

The Suiren Clan's Worker retorted directly: "Then go back to your Huaxia! If you have a place in Huaxia to fire whatever Bricks, go fire them there. Why come to our Suiren Clan?"

"Just because our Tribal Chief said we would join your Huaxia, do you think we will submit to you? What kind of thing are you? How many years have you been making Pottery!"

"Then are you prepared to use this piece of junk to fire Bricks for your Tribal Chief? Do you think I am very willing to come to this dump? If it weren't for our King requiring me to come over to build a house for your Tribal Chief, do you really think I would be willing to come to this place flowing with shit and urine to suffer?"

"You don't really think this place of yours is any good, do you! I can't wait to finish the work and go back."

"You had better work seriously, build the Brick Kiln, and fire the Bricks quickly. After that, there will be nothing for you to do, and I won't bother to come find you. If you are not willing to do it, then let your Tribal Chief keep waiting!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the Suiren Clan's Workers simply threw down their tools and quit. As for the Leader of the Workers, he had never liked this task or this Huaxia person to begin with, and he was extremely resistant to joining Huaxia. Now, hearing such words, even with a task at hand, he was too lazy to mediate. Anyway, the Tribal Chief would not take his life now; who didn't have a bit of a temper?

He was just leading a group of people who fired Pottery here, but in the past, he could have been a warrior who conquered far and wide, having killed who knows how many people. If he were to be slighted here, it would be better to turn around and kill this person, then wait for the Tribal Chief to punish him.

Seeing that their Leader did not care, those Workers simply stopped listening to the Artisan altogether and went back to playing with mud. The Artisan was so angry his face turned red, yet he was helpless because this was not Huaxia; he was a stranger in a strange land and had no advantage whatsoever.

As for the Soldiers accompanying the Artisan, two of them had been to Huaxia and had undergone Huaxia's transformation together with Baoxi, so they already had feelings for Huaxia and had begun to yearn for it. In this situation, they chose to speak on behalf of the Huaxia Artisan.

So, facing this Leader who was not very bright, they also went over to offer some kind advice: "Brother, listen to some advice. You should hurry up and let your people continue working. Just follow what the man said and build the kiln or whatever. Fire the Tribal Chief's Bricks early so that the Tribal Chief can live in a house like those in Huaxia."

"If you delay things like this, you will definitely be punished."

But when the Leader saw that these were two Soldiers dressed in the Huaxia style, he was even less willing to listen. However, they had once been defeated by Huaxia, so he did not dare to be too overbearing toward these two Soldiers, though his tone was not much better: "Hmph, you two Huaxia people, stop trying to manage how I do things. I tell you, my tribesmen will do as they please."

"If he wants to dig some Brick Kiln, let him go dig it. If he wants to fire whatever, let him go fire it. I won't stop him, but my people won't listen to him, and there's nothing I can do."

"Besides, it's just a house made of pottery lumps, how good can it be!"