Volume 9: Home Chapter 287 No, No, I Don’t Take It
The Frankish feast is held in the second month of winter every five years. Of course, for the steppes, it is the second month of winter, and for other places, it is just the beginning of winter...
Different from the last time when he silently went to the City of the Forest Elf Queen to borrow the teleportation array, silently attended the banquet and then silently came back, this time the sage of the Fire Tribe had a certain degree of attention. The grassland had just entered the first month of winter, and the envoy of the Dwarf King who came from afar came to the grassland as a guest accompanied by the forest elves and brought greetings from the Dwarf King.
On the dirt road that was built to facilitate entry into the forest to obtain humus, a large team was walking slowly against the wind and snow.
At the front of the team were six officers of the Queen's Knights riding unicorns - not the kind of unicorns that looked like horses, but mountain mounts with spiral horns on their foreheads and thick long hair hanging all over their bodies, looking more like unicorn yaks. Although this thing looked ugly, it was as valuable as a combat mount as a chimera.
After that, it was the elf delegation riding on Chocobos... Not only was the Dwarf King concerned about the battle situation on the grassland, but the forest elves were also very concerned. After the Fire Tribe achieved a phased victory, the Dwarf King readily sent an envoy, and the Queen would naturally express her attitude with actions.
Next came the envoys from the Dwarf Kingdom. Each of these stocky and sturdy Dark Iron Dwarves were either riding the common two-legged Land Dragons or sitting on the backs of the Frost Wolf mounts unique to the Western Continent. Not only were there dozens of people, they also brought a dozen or so six-legged lizards loaded with cargo.
Xiao Yun, Chief Grassroot, Hongye, Lan Guo, Chief Arthur and other important members of the Fire Tribe went out together to welcome the distinguished guests. Seeing the two rows of six-legged lizards following behind the Dark Iron Dwarf delegation, Xiao Yun revealed a mysterious smile...
"The Dwarf King is indeed very sincere." Xiao Yun said to his companions with a smile, "We must cheer up and entertain these distinguished guests who have come from afar with the highest etiquette."
The Grassroots Chief, Lan Guo and others who didn't understand what he was saying showed puzzled expressions. However, Hongye, who had been an envoy to the Dwarf Kingdom, knew what Xiao Yun was talking about and laughed heartily.
"That is a gift from the Dwarf King. Asking the official delegation to carry a greeting gift of this standard means that the Dwarf King wants to establish diplomatic relations with our grassland tribe. As the Lord of the Western Continent, he recognizes our grassland tribe's ownership of the grassland and acknowledges that we are the independent masters of the grassland." Hongye explained to the others.
The grassroots tribe leaders and others understood and smiled. Wasn't the Beast King going to label them "Imperial Orcs"? The Dwarf King simply admitted that they were orcs who ruled the grasslands legally and reasonably, independent of the Far East, to see who could disgust whom more.
When the envoys arrived at the square of the Fire Tribe, the Forest Elves and Dark Iron Dwarves' envoys dismounted their mounts and stepped forward to formally salute and greet the key management personnel of the Fire Tribe. The Forest Elves' team even brought bards with them. When the two sides greeted each other, the bards took out harps, flutes and other things to accompany them. Of course, they were not here to be part-time band members. They were here to witness the formal diplomacy between the Forest Elves, Dark Iron Dwarves and the grassland tribes, which was equivalent to the international press corps at diplomatic occasions...
During the greeting, Xiao Yun winked at Hongye, who understood what he meant. She quietly left the crowd and ran back to the tribe.
When Xiao Yun and others led the envoys into the tribe, the Fire Chief, who had temporarily put on a formal dress, had been "invited" to the hastily decorated large conference room to receive the greetings of the forest elves and the Dark Iron Dwarves...
The Fire Clan leader looked confused but still appeared dignified and serious: "???"
As for the sense of ceremony, if you expect it to be a timely help, you are crazy. It is okay to use it to add icing on the cake. If the Fire Tribe cannot defeat the Far Eastern invaders and show that it has the strength to stand firm, it will be useless to be picky and show off. The strength is there. Even if the etiquette is not fully prepared and the Fire Tribe leader is hastily set up as a sign for the envoys to pay their respects, it will still look casual and domineering in the eyes of others...
Next, Xiao Yun, Chief Grassroots and Chief Arthur took up their posts as diplomats of the Fire Tribe and led the envoys (and the Little Tail Bards) on a tour. The Fire Tribe had close ties with Ananas, but had never dealt properly with the Queen's City. After entering the Fire Tribe, the envoys from the Queen's City looked around in surprise for a long time. It was obvious that the forest elves did not value their neighbor the grassland tribe as much as they said. Not to mention the envoys of the Dark Iron Dwarves, who probably knew nothing about the Cursed Land except that it was the origin of cheap sweet potato flour.
Defeating and capturing the three bear invaders does not mean the end of the confrontation between the Fire Tribe and the Beast King. There is still the Frank Feast in more than half a month. This is the time to strengthen the confidence of the allies and deceive... uh, to gain the full cooperation and support of the allies. If you keep hiding your thoughts and pretending to be a grandson and keeping a low profile, then you are just wasting your brain.
Xiao Yun did not hide his intentions at all. He first took the envoys to visit a greenhouse area that was the size of a small town.
Thousands of vegetable greenhouses standing in rows like soldiers lined up for inspection shocked the chief and deputy envoys of the Forest Elves and Dark Iron Dwarves so much that they opened their mouths in amazement.
Any standardized man-made creation is quite spectacular as long as it can be scaled up, and the shocking degree of the greenhouse is not only its appearance - it is also very practical!
Xiao Yun brought the envoys of the two tribes into one of the sweet potato leaf greenhouses and introduced with a smile: "In winter on our grassland, any vegetable can be frozen to death. In order to solve the problem of supplying green leafy vegetables in winter, we came up with the idea of building a steel frame glass-top greenhouse. Such a greenhouse can ensure that the crops receive sunlight while preventing them from being frozen. For indoor temperature control, we have adopted a centralized heating mode. Although it will increase the amount of work required to build the greenhouse, it can save fuel as much as possible..."
The Dark Iron Dwarves are no strangers to heating technology. The temperature in Ironforge is not much better than that on the grassland. In order to ensure that the residents of Ironforge do not freeze to death, the Dark Iron Dwarves have also developed a technology similar to central heating - boilers are set up in every city area in Ironforge, and the heated hot water is connected to residents' homes through pipes to raise the indoor temperature.
However, even the Dark Iron Dwarves, who have smelting technology, also have headaches when it comes to heating pipes... metal pipes rust too easily, or leaks and pipe bursts may occur due to the principle of thermal expansion and contraction.
When the Dark Iron Dwarfs' envoys heard Xiao Yun say that they were currently using the relatively backward fire and smoke heat transfer for heating, they were a little unconvinced. But when Xiao Yun said that they were researching projects such as using ceramic pipes and hard rubber pipes to transfer hot water and using heat sinks to heat the room (the research and development of stainless steel, metal antifreeze and anti-rust coatings was still a bit difficult for the current Fire Department), a group of Dark Iron Dwarves were instantly excited and immediately surrounded Xiao Yun...
The forest elves were very reserved and calm. They commented on the Fire Department's achievements in greenhouse planting and central heating in this way: "It is much cheaper than the constant temperature magic circle."
Well, the coldest temperature in the Elf Forest in winter is only about 10 degrees, so people really don’t care about any heating technology...
After visiting the greenhouse area, the next thing to do was to visit the traditional tour items when the Fire Department entertains guests: the major breeding farms.
The cattle and sheep are fed in concentrated pens, the pig pens are more sanitary than the houses where people live, the boars born in autumn are castrated on the spot, the golden cat brothers in charge of pig farming talk endlessly about the postpartum care techniques for sows, the disinfection and cleaning of the pens, the recycling of pig manure... At first, the envoys of the two tribes were very tempted by the sight of several large pig pens full of fat pigs, and they wanted to learn something from them, but they couldn't help but flee after staying for half an hour.
When they were led to the rabbit farm, which smelled foul even after cleaning, the two tribes' envoys politely but firmly rejected Xiao Yun's invitation. (The Little Tail Bards didn't even want to get close.)
Then, there is the flour mill...
It would be a lie to say that the Dark Iron Dwarves and Forest Elves, who are major buyers of vermicelli, are not curious or excited about the Fire Tribe's vermicelli-making technology.
But after seeing the assembly line production process of the Balk Flour Mill with their own eyes, the envoys of the two tribes, like the master and apprentice Aldoni had done in the past, consciously retreated in the face of difficulties... Not to mention whether the Mechanical Fire Department, which even the Dark Iron Dwarves could not recognize, was willing to hand over the production drawings, the condition of massive supply of sweet potato raw materials alone was enough to put an end to the Dark Iron Dwarves and Forest Elves' covetousness for vermicelli production - the sweet potatoes they had seen were all slender and small, and this kind of big, thick and heavy sweet potato had never been seen outside!
Well... After all, the main crops in this world are wheat, barley, buckwheat and various beans. Who would be willing to spend money, time and energy to study how to grow sweet potatoes when they eat too much...
After letting the allies see with their own eyes the Fire Tribe’s achievements in production (a weak fist doesn’t deserve to have allies, and a poor one doesn’t deserve to have allies either), Xiao Yun took the envoys of the two tribes to visit the captives.
Among the more than 3,300 Bear Clan captives, during the first ten days after being captured, only the wounded were able to eat well, while the others were only given enough food and water to barely keep them half full.
It's not that the Fire and Flame Tribe wants to torture the prisoners, but the Fire and Flame Tribe has a lot of things to do and doesn't have that many idle people to guard them, so they might as well keep them for ten days to soften their bones...
After being locked up and half-starved for ten days, even the most indignant Bear warriors had lost their spirits, so they were given work to earn enough food to fill their stomachs.
When the envoys of the two tribes were brought to visit the captives, they saw... in the open field in front of the prisoner camp, countless bears were working quietly and silently.
The messenger from the Queen's City, the chief envoy of the Queen's most trusted lady-in-waiting, Lady Gina, who had once participated in the overthrow of Elder Gwendolyn, opened her mouth in disgrace.
The envoy of the Dwarf King, Major Pete Warhammer, a new generation of elite officers of the Dwarf Kingdom, had a head full of yellow braids and was as strong as a miniature snow werewolf. His eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
The envoys of both tribes had dazed faces for several seconds before they slowly returned to normal and silently looked at Xiao Yun, the Grassroots tribe leader, and the tribe leader Arthur, who were smiling like particularly good-natured people.
Xiao Yun and the two clan leaders responded with even more simple and honest smiles, without any hint of arrogance, complacency or showing off.
The envoys of the two tribes: "..."
The two chief envoys, Lady Gina and Peter Warhammer, forced out an awkward but polite smile.
The journalists following the envoys... well, the bards were not as embarrassed as them. They were all very excited and asked, "Did you really capture so many Far Eastern prisoners?"
"So, it's true that the grassland tribe wiped out the bear tribe's army?"
"It must be true. There must be at least several thousand bear captives here. Can the Beast King send an army of ten thousand people here in this season?"
"Hey, look at that! Isn't that General Bazel the Moon Bear?"
"Oh my God, it's really Bazel. I've seen him in the Far East!"
Xiao Yun's smile was pure and calm...
It's not that he wanted to slap anyone in the face, but for a new force with a total population of just over 50,000, it was unbelievable for the natives of this world that they could easily defeat a group of bear invaders numbering nearly 4,000. After the war, he did not write down the truth in his letters to the Energy Queen and the Dwarf King, lest they think he was bragging.
But even though Xiao Yun was already very humble, the two letters he sent out ten days ago were still not convincing. At least when the Dwarf King himself saw the plain words in the letters, such as "defeating the enemies who invaded the grassland and capturing more than 3,000 bear enemy troops", he instinctively thought that the Snow Wolf was bragging.
On a conventional battlefield, the bear tribe's combat power is terrifying!
Three thousand bear tribe soldiers were enough to destroy a city of 100,000 people. How could they be captured? Unless your grassland tribe also has a demigod in charge!
The Dwarf King did not doubt whether the grassland tribe could defeat the enemy. After all, they had the home advantage. Moreover, the Beast King's preparation period for launching this war was too short, and there must have been major flaws in logistics, manpower, tactics and strategy.
He just felt that this process would not be so easy... So when arranging the delegation, the Dwarf King sent his most capable generals over, with the intention of investigating the war damage of the grassland tribes. If the losses were too great, he would let Peter Warhammer, an excellent Dark Iron Dwarf officer, instruct the Snow Werewolves on how to fight.
The Dwarf King attaches great importance to whether the Fire Tribe, his ally, can be independent. He does not want to buy vermicelli from the Beast King...it would be strange if the price of that product does not increase crazily!
The Elf Queen was more tactful than the Dwarf King. She took care of the Fire Department's face a little and arranged for her most trusted lady-in-waiting Gina to be the chief envoy. She then asked Gina to bring along six outstanding officers from the Knights...
The envoys of the two tribes, who had been warned by their kings before departure, saw with their own eyes the 3,000 bear captives (even the bear general was among the captives) moving alive and being restrained by a small number of snow wolf warriors. It was hard not to feel embarrassed...
Lady Gina was somewhat thankful that the Queen always gave people leeway in everything she did. She was more respectable than the colonel-level officer sent by the Dwarf King. She tried to put on a natural smile and said, "This battle must have been extremely thrilling. I wonder if you can tell us about it?"
The ears of the Dark Iron Dwarf envoy, Pete Warhammer, immediately stood up and he looked at the three grassland diplomats with sharp eyes. He was also very curious about this matter - the most powerful tiger tribe on the grassland had bled dry in the underground world. What were the differences between the snow werewolves and cats compared to the tiger tribe?
The grassroots leader stood up and described the battle between the South District Command and the enemy's main force according to the routine he had prepared before...
Of course, the focus of her story was definitely not the dirty tricks of Chief A Li, nor would she expose the Fire Tribe's preparations for war. Instead, she placed the focus on the Snow Wolf Tribe's wolf cavalry combat effectiveness. She "excerpted" the head-on conflict between the Wolf Cavalry Squad (the main brigade was left with the Fire Tribe to wait for the "main force") and the Bear Tribe by the narrow riverbed in the canyon, and in a roundabout way broke the big news that the Snow Wolf Tribe had regained its heritage.
When the envoys and bards of the two tribes heard this, they had different reactions.
The bards who make a living from travelogues all have excited faces as if they have come across big news.
The Dark Iron Dwarves smiled happily on the spot, and were very happy that the Northern Continent now had a tough guy who could give the Beast King a headache.
The forest elf's polite smile gradually changed color.
Gina, the female official who served as the chief envoy, took a deep look at the bear captives who were assigned to work. When she looked at the grassland people again, the tension on her face eased a little.
Of course the forest elves know that the inheritance of the Snow Wolf Clan is in the hands of the Beast King!
If the grassland tribe had not just defeated the Far Eastern invaders and captured so many bear tribesmen and imprisoned them, when Lady Official Gina heard that the Snow Wolf Tribe had regained its heritage, she would definitely think that the Snow Wolf Tribe wanted to follow the Tiger Tribe's old path and hook up with the Beast King!
Gwendolyn, who had been demoted for many years, had her vision collapsed to the level of a governor of a small marginal town, which was why she could not tolerate any slightly stronger neighbors. And Gina, the lady-in-waiting who had always stayed by the queen's side, knew very well who the biggest threat to the elves was!
After dispelling his suspicions about the Snow Wolf Tribe and the Beast King secretly colluding, the Queen's envoy smiled with genuine intimacy and said sincerely, "The Queen greatly appreciates the grassland tribe's love and pursuit of peace. I also greatly appreciate the grassland tribe's courage and determination to defend their homeland. This land has finally found a master who loves it."
The Dark Iron Dwarf Peter Warhammer also came with a mission. Seeing this, he spread his hands and laughed in front of the forest elves and the witnesses, saying: "Look at the vitality of this barren land. You will know that there is no one more suitable to rule this land than the current grassland tribe."
Xiao Yun pinched his thigh and secretly gestured to Chief Caogen and Chief Arthur. The three of them pretended to be flattered and grateful, and expressed their deep gratitude . The attitude of the Queen's envoy and the Dwarf King's envoy was the attitude of the Queen and the Dwarf King. As long as the grassland people could stand on their own, the Queen and the Dwarf King were willing to support the grassland people to become kings!
Of course, this attitude reflects how much friendship the Forest Elves and Dark Iron Dwarves have for the Grassland Tribes. Please calm down and understand rationally...
Be it the elves or the Dwarf King, what they are happy to see is that the old rival, the Beast King, has an irreconcilable enemy. If the Fire and Flame Tribe gains a foothold and the other side tries to reconcile with the Beast King in a despicable manner, then the iron fist of justice will definitely punish this traitor of the Fire and Flame Tribe.
Especially the elves. When the tiger tribe acted stupid, the queen and the elven king just waited indifferently and watched them slowly kill themselves. If the Fire Tribe, which has already shown greater potential than the tiger tribe and has more influence on large-scale battles, acts stupid again, the elves will definitely make sure that the Fire Tribe will not see the sun next spring - the friendship between forces, after all, is such a cruel thing.
Xiao Yun, who knew what was going on, took the envoys to visit the productivity of the Fire Flame Tribe, and also took the envoys to visit the combat effectiveness of the Fire Flame Tribe. However, he would never take the envoys to "inspect" his own warrior team and military equipment - the troop organization, manpower, combat effectiveness, and fighting methods, these things still need to be grasped first!
The Fire Department is not the United States with an invincible aircraft carrier fleet or New China with an invincible army. It has the conditions to show off all its muscles!
The envoys of the two tribes would not be so ignorant as to ask to see the wolf cavalry. Afterwards, they all followed the host's instructions and walked into the prisoner work site for a visit... Although they smiled amicably on the surface, they were actually still reserved with each other. This is what so-called diplomacy is all about after all.
Walking into the working captives, the polite smiles of the two tribes' envoys slowly froze again...
The prisoner camp was originally a resettlement site for the cat tribe. The large open area in front of the resettlement site was the venue for organizing the big cats to work last year.
The big cats successfully completed the absorption and transformation, became excellent laborers of the new era, worked hard to earn their own permanent property, and moved out of the resettlement site. Then the low-skilled repetitive labor they did last year was naturally transferred to these bear heads...
The work point closest to the outside is where the mud mold is made.
The hundred or so Bear captives were divided into two teams. One team was responsible for picking up the yellow mud dug out from the Fire Tribe when they dug the artificial lake, and using their hands and sieves to filter out the stones and debris in the yellow mud. Then, they mixed the yellow mud with black mud, burnt lime, porcelain powder, etc. in a certain proportion, added water, and vigorously mixed and trampled it to make pottery clay with high adhesion and plasticity.
The other team is responsible for pasting the processed clay into molds to make pottery jars, pottery tubes, and pottery mud films of various shapes and sizes.
It is easy to imagine how stimulating it is for visitors to see a large group of bear warriors playing in the mud with their heads down...
Even if they were working in a prisoner camp, the Fire Tribe would respect the work itself. The visiting team did not enter the mud film site, but stood outside to watch. Xiao Yun introduced them to the envoys of the two tribes with a smile, "This is our mud film team. The raw materials of pottery are convenient and have great effects. We consume a lot of pottery every year, and it will not be enough if we don't make more."
"The rewards for each type of mud film are calculated on a piece-by-piece basis. The mud film team will divide the rewards equally among the entire team as many mud films that meet the standards are produced today. They can choose to save the money or use it to buy the necessary supplies..."
"You still pay them?!" a bard asked in astonishment.
Xiao Yun smiled more sincerely: "We in the Fire and Flame Tribe respect everyone's labor and resolutely defend the fruits of everyone's labor. Even if they are prisoners, we must ensure that they are rewarded for their labor. This is the labor principle that our Fire and Flame Tribe upholds."
These words were full of holy light. Even Lady Gina and Major Pete looked at Xiao Yun in a very different way...
The bards were all very emotional, showing touched expressions: "It is really amazing that you can be so fair even to your invaders."
"It really opened my eyes. I have never seen anyone so kind to prisoners of war. The grassland people are more compassionate than the most kind gentleman I have ever met."
"It's amazing. Your broad-mindedness can make countless people feel ashamed."
Chief Caogen and Chief Arthur almost couldn't keep their faces straight after hearing all this flattery. Only Xiao Yun had the nerve to accept it calmly, and kept saying modestly, "No, no, I don't deserve it."
It is comfortable to work for free, but the key problem is that if the labor cannot be rewarded, the labor enthusiasm of these prisoners of war will inevitably be very low...
If the Fire Department wants these captives to participate in labor without being paid, it will have to pay the corresponding supervision costs. However, it is obvious that the output and quality will make people speechless... Maybe they can't even earn back the money for providing them with half-full food and coal briquettes for heating every day, and they will have to pay for it!
Can Xiao Yun do something that will lose money? No!
