Volume 9: Home Chapter 288: Digging into the Far Eastern Orcs
After visiting the mud film group's work, Xiao Yun took the delegation into the glazing "workshop" - a relatively spacious thatched shed, about the same size as a university lecture hall.
In addition to supplying the elves with a fixed amount of glazed tableware every year, the Fire Tribe also produces a large amount of "coarse glaze" porcelain, some for its own use and some to be sold to the southern continent as affordable goods.
In this rough glaze processing workshop, dozens of bear captives are busy making this high-volume product: carefully immersing the mud film after it has dried in the shade into the glaze, dyeing it evenly in a layer, and then lifting it out and placing it aside.
Well... the glaze used by the Fire Department is still relatively primitive, made of feldspar, quartz, talc, and kaolin fired and ground mineral glazes. Lead glaze is not used. The reason is naturally not the pursuit of environmental protection, but the lead in this world is still a relatively precious rare metal like aluminum, and it is especially unaffordable... (Lead on Earth was also used as a precious metal and luxury)
It is naturally impossible to give you any patterns or styles on the coarse-glazed porcelain produced in large quantities. The whole glazing workshop has no artistic atmosphere and is full of a rough and unrestrained temperament of a small workshop. The envoys of the two tribes lost interest after just a short while, and the wandering poets refused to even enter the workshop door.
Xiao Yun readily followed the advice and took the distinguished guest to the next place... the raw wool processing point.
Before the advent of synthetic fiber technology, the textile industry could only rely on natural animal and plant fibers. 90% of the raw materials for the Fire Tribe's wool spinning mills came from hundreds of thousands of long-wool sheep raised in large-scale areas of the tribe.
Long-wool sheep are a native species of the Cursed Land. To resist the four-month-long cold winter each year, this alien sheep species that looks neither like sheep nor alpacas has evolved very strange, thick, long and coarse long hair. Why do I say strange? The long hair of this wool is coarser than that of wild boars... Even Xiao Yun, who uses the thick skin and flesh of the Snow Wolf, feels prickly to the touch.
In order to process this raw wool that could only be used for felting tents into fibers that could be used for textiles, Xiao Yun had no idea how much hair he had pulled out - he even used vinegar!
Over the years, Xiao Yun has been intentionally influencing the evolution of long-haired sheep, but the time is short and the effect is not obvious. Therefore, the wool collected after shearing the sheep every summer is still super coarse raw wool that can be used to prick people...
The only advantage is that the output is relatively high. An adult long-wool sheep can produce nearly 30 kilograms of raw wool in a year.
The guests were taken to the processing point, and what they saw was... the captive bears' fur being washed.
The dirty raw hair piled up like a small mountain on one side of the canal had a faint fishy stench that could be smelled from a distance. The bear-headed people sitting on small stools pulled the raw hair off in clumps and threw them into a large ceramic basin filled with soapy water to wash. As the raw hair was soaked in the steaming soapy water, a more complex and subtle smell rose with the water mist...
A member of the famous bear tribe washed out a small pile of raw hair. The water in the pottery basin in front of him was so dirty that he couldn't see the bottom. So he grabbed the edge of the basin with one hand and lifted it up slightly. The stinking water with a very strange smell and color was poured into the sewage canal...
The bards covered their noses and fled, followed by the forest elves.
Xiao Yun, Chief Cao Gen, and Chief Arthur quickly apologized for the inappropriate itinerary and poor hospitality, and quickly took the guests out of the prisoner camp and went to the cafeteria which had been prepared for the banquet.
The Snow Wolf warriors who were guarding the prisoner camp watched nervously as the last guest left, and then they all gasped - he finally left!
Ah Yun said that the "truth" of the battle could not be exposed in a short time (mainly because the battle process in the southern area had to be kept secret), and asked everyone to keep a close eye on the messengers and stop anyone who tried to talk to the prisoners immediately, which made them particularly nervous...
"Okay, it's okay. Let's continue working." A Yan, who was in charge of the wool washing team, wiped his sweat. When A Yun and the two clan leaders came with the envoys, his heart almost jumped out of his throat. There were more than a hundred people in the wool washing team, and he was the only one in charge. If two people were approached by the envoys at the same time, which one would he take care of first?
Some of the bears sitting in a row by the canal also visibly breathed a sigh of relief.
Being prisoners is bad enough, but they are also under a lot of pressure to be visited...
White Bear General Wood, who was in the wool-washing team, was almost frightened to death when the delegation approached - he didn't want to be recognized at this time!
Seeing the lucky envoys leave, Wood felt mixed emotions...
How did he end up like this? Wood, who had been a captive for more than half a month, couldn't figure out this question.
In the first few days after being transferred to the prisoner-of-war camp, Wood even dreamed about how to escape, but soon he gave up the idea... The winter on the prairie was as cold as his hometown. Although the prairie people did not confiscate their clothes and warm clothes (their weapons were definitely searched away), did not torture them severely, and did not keep a close eye on them, even if they escaped from the prisoner-of-war camp, they could not run far - they were unfamiliar with the place, did not have enough food, and were half-hungry every day. Even leaving the warm barracks made them feel unbearable. Would they rush into the snow rashly if they wanted to die or something?
Even Wood, a cold-resistant polar bear, didn't dare to survive in the wild on the grassland in winter, let alone other people...
Of course, there was a bigger reason that prevented Wood from "pursuing freedom": even if he escaped from the grassland and returned to his hometown, Wood did not know how to explain the defeat in this battle to his tribesmen!
You have to know that among the twelve generals of White Bear, he was chosen to lead this looting... er, war operation, which was meant to make money, because some elders in the tribe were very optimistic about him and intended to support him to join the six-member elders council!
What was the result? More than 30 of the warriors he brought with him died, and the rest became captives of the grassland people along with him...
Thinking back to when he set out and feeling so ambitious and proud, and then thinking about his current situation, Wood felt discouraged.
After ten days of starvation, the grassland people declared that the basic right to survival would be guaranteed, humanitarian care would be given to prisoners of war, and opportunities would be provided to exchange labor for treatment, and so on, and they organized the prisoners to work. However, Wood did not listen carefully at all, but just numbly followed the actions of others.
It was not until the envoys of the Forest Elves and Dark Iron Dwarves were brought into the prisoner camp for a tour that Wood was suddenly awakened from his daze.
The snow wolf Ayan who was in charge of their group took out a notebook and began to walk around the crowd, writing down everyone's workload. Wood ignored him, mechanically washing the stinking raw wool with his hands, and his brain, which had been numb for a long time, began to work.
It is hard to say whether the Beast King received the news of the defeat in this battle, but the elves and Dark Iron Dwarves must have known about it.
The elves and Dark Iron Dwarves' messengers came to the grassland and were brought to see their captives...
Wood felt a sharp pain in his heart and his face looked extremely ugly. Although he was really unwilling to admit it, he knew in his heart that after losing this battle, the elves and the Dark Iron Dwarves would definitely take the opportunity to make trouble!
The Beast King is coveting the food grown and vermicelli produced by the grassland people and wants to take these exiled people back into his hands. But those bastards from the Elves and the Dark Iron Dwarves will definitely do the opposite, either bringing the grassland people under their command, or... directly supporting the grassland people to become independent!
When Wood was born, the tiger tribe, snow wolf tribe, and cat tribe had been exiled for more than a hundred years. He had no feelings for these former Far Eastern orcs. He neither hated them nor sympathized with them. If he had not been involved in this matter, Wood would have absolutely no concern for what would happen to these grassland people in the future, not even for the topic of conversation after dinner.
But being moved by the benefits promised by the Beast King and once considering the grassland people's wealth as his own, he ended up becoming a "trophy" for the grassland people to show off their martial arts. This felt pretty bad...
Most importantly, having lost face in front of the orcs' great enemy, the arrogant and hateful elves, Wood knew that even if he returned to his hometown with all the remaining people intact, his career as one of the twelve generals would be over...
Wood was overwhelmed with grief, and his brain, which had just regained its sanity, gradually began to become numb again.
"It's lunch time, everyone put down what you are doing and come line up to wash your hands!"
A'yan, who was totally unable to understand Wood's sadness, saw the canteen staff pushing a food cart into the prisoner camp from a distance, and immediately told the prisoners to stop working.
Wood, who was so sad that he couldn't control himself, stood up naturally with the people next to him, followed the line naturally , went to the wooden barrel for washing hands, picked up the soap and applied foam.
"Remember to wash your nails clean. If there's dirt in your nails, you won't get the after-dinner snack!" Ah Yan stood next to the washbasin and reminded everyone who came up.
Wood saw the black bear on his right stop rubbing his hands and use his right fingernails to pick out the residue in the crack of his left hand...
The people on the grassland like to make up a process for everything they do, and do everything according to the process. The bear-headed people were not used to this rigid approach at first, but after following their process a few times, they naturally got used to this management model - although it was a bit rigid, at least when doing something, everyone involved knew what they should do and when. For example, they had to line up to wash their hands before eating, wash the dishes themselves and hand them back after eating, and then let the people in the cafeteria check whether their hands were clean. If they were clean, they would get a little extra snack.
"Knowing what to do and when to do it" is a very efficient way to quickly organize a group of scattered people. As long as you spend some effort on the preparatory work in the early stage, you will have less worries later. For example, after the bear-headed people in the hair washing group lined up to wash their hands, they knew to spontaneously line up in the open space next to them according to their height and wait for the canteen's food truck to come...
More than twenty carriage-shaped dining cars were pushed into the prisoner camp by the canteen staff. According to the work performance of each group the day before, the dining cars carrying food of different specifications were pushed to different group work points.
The dining car with a large “I” painted on its body with conspicuous red mineral paint came to the front of the wool washing group.
"Our team's work performance was very good yesterday. The raw wool washed out broke the previous record. According to regulations, half of the daily production income can be directly used for the team's snacks the next day, and the remaining half will be settled every seven days and distributed to everyone. We have something good to eat today!" A Yan waved his arms happily at the bear heads. The guards had to eat working meals with the prisoner camp working group. Although he could have snacks in the morning and evening, he also wanted to have a good meal at noon.
The people in the wool washing group already knew about this. They had enjoyed extra meals at breakfast for their good performance yesterday. But when A Yan mentioned it again, they were still very happy to hear it, and some of the bear heads even smiled.
The cafeteria staff parked the food cart and waved to A-Yan: "Come and share the bowls."
"I'm here. What's in today's first-class meal?" Ah Yan came forward to help, wagging his tail.
"Braised lamb slices and spicy rabbit cubes! Not bad, right?" The cafeteria staff chuckled.
"Why is it Tu Ding again!" A Yan shouted.
“Stop nagging, eat it if you want or not! You’ve become picky because you’ve eaten too much. The envoys were all scrambling to eat the rabbit cubes!” The cafeteria employee scolded back in a domineering manner… Although he was not a chef yet, anyone who could enter the Holy Land Cafeteria had reason to be proud, even if he was just a vegetable washer.
"Okay, okay, okay..." Ah Yan took out the tableware with a droopy look on her face, divided it according to the number of people, and then casually shouted to the bear-headed people waiting in line, "Someone come and help serve the food."
The bear head at the front of the line had been waiting to be called, so he trotted forward and picked up the spoon skillfully.
The Fire Tribe respects workers and the work itself. No matter if they were the cat or tiger tribes in the past, or the bear tribe captives now, the lunch is good and filling. As long as they don't get an upset stomach and delay their afternoon work, they can eat as much as they want.
The Snow Wolves have been eating diced rabbit cooked in various ways for many years and are so scared of the sight of diced rabbit that they eat it all the time. The Bear-headed ones, however, don't have that problem. The spicy diced rabbit that A Yan fears like a tiger was scooped out with large spoonfuls into a bowl two palms wide. The Bear-headed ones who received the meal walked aside and each of them took the spicy diced rabbit with wheat flour and bean dregs cakes first, and ate them voraciously.
The black bear, who was in the front row because of his small size, served a round of food to everyone else. When it was his turn, he filled a large bowl for himself...
The Snow Wolves have had the habit of eating all the dishes in the cafeteria since the beginning. In order to prevent the tribesmen from feeling too uncomfortable while eating, Xiao Yun first asked the gray dwarves to hand-make a batch of small steel grinders for the cafeteria that could grind chili seeds into powder. The ginger and garlic used in the dishes were also mashed into paste. The dishes cooked in this way would not look beautiful, but there would be no trouble of leftovers as is inevitable with Chinese dishes.
The dishes that the bears used to eat looked like they had been licked, so they were easy to wash...
The bear-headed guys had a full meal and handed in their tableware. The canteen staff diligently checked their hygiene one by one. As long as there was no mud on their hands and dirt under their nails, they would be given a palm-sized multi-grain biscuit made of acorn flour, wheat starch, sugar and bean flour.
Well, the free snacks are naturally not exquisite snacks. They are mainly various biscuits that can fill your stomach, have a sweet taste, and have a certain crispy taste...
Ah Yan had long looked down upon such snacks, but she did not waste them and carefully put them in her pocket: "We will resume work after a half-hour break. Everyone remember to only rest around our work area and do not leave. If you go to another group's site and get chased back, do not look for me."
The bear tribe does not have as strong a sense of territory as the cat tribe, but the snacks received by the bears are placed near the work site. After an incident in which snacks were stolen by bears from other groups, the groups were prohibited from visiting each other at will.
That’s right, bears love sweet things. Even though the free snacks are crude and cheap, as long as they have sweetness in them, bears will like to eat them…
White Bear General Wood, who had a pretty good life, was not greedy for the treat, but he was not as casual as Ah Yan either. Instead, he subconsciously kept the sweet multi-grain biscuits close to his body...
The canteen staff pushed the food cart and prepared to leave. Before leaving, they thought of something and shouted, "The Welfare Department has a batch of cream biscuits that need to be removed from the shelves. Tomorrow's first-class meal will have cream biscuits as a snack. They are better than multi-grain biscuits. Work hard today and try to have the work meal I send tomorrow."
"Okay!" At least half of the bear heads that had dispersed to rest responded.
The cafeteria staff pushed the food cart away, and White Bear General Wood was slow to realize what this meant, and his face turned pale.
Are you still a bear tribe? You are so enthusiastic even when you are a captive?!
On the other side, there is the tile-burning group where Moon Bear General Basel is.
After being recognized by the bard and having his name called out loudly, Basel became very depressed and irritated. The working meal given by the grassland people could not soothe his wounded heart, and he even had a dead face when receiving the meal.
The tile-burning group was far away from the other groups and occupied a large area. There was also a row of conspicuous smoking earthen kilns that attracted attention. It was naturally difficult for Basel, who was a well-known figure himself, to hide.
The Shaowa Group, which had a mediocre work performance yesterday, did not get the first-class meal today. They were missing the braised lamb slices and only had spicy rabbit cubes. The snow werewolf soldiers guarding their group grimaced in dismay as they ate the food... Only the bear-headed guys could enjoy the meal.
The cafeteria employee who was pushing the second-class dining car accidentally kicked some defective tiles piled on the ground while packing up. He cried out "Ouch" and fell forward.
Several bear-headed people who were relatively close came forward almost at the same time, and several arms stretched out one after another to steadily support the cafeteria employee who was almost face-down on the ground...
"Thank you, thank you." The cafeteria employee embarrassedly supported the bear's paw to steady himself.
He supported his bear-headed friends and silently moved away the defective tiles that were blocking the way.
Moon Bear General Bazel, who was squatting not far away and watching the whole process, said: "..."
Bazel suddenly had a bad feeling...
At the same time, the dining hall was hosting envoys and bards from both tribes.
The plains elves from the continent of Bradrick carefully used chopsticks (they had learned it long ago as they lived in Ananas, the elven port) to pick up the chunks of rich and delicious braised pork and put them carefully into their mouths.
The sweet and sour tender pork melted in his mouth . This core member of the Bards Guild, who had long achieved financial freedom and tried all kinds of delicious food, almost burst into tears.
With tears in his eyes, the plain elf carefully tasted the grilled fish, pork blood, sweet and sour squirrel fish, boiled lamb slices and braised beef cubes prepared by the canteen chef. Suddenly, he covered his mouth and lowered his head, with two lines of tears streaming down his face.
Chief Arthur, who was sitting at the same table with the group of bards: “???”
"Is it too spicy?" Chief Arthur quickly looked at the dishes on the table. After dealing with the elves for so long, everyone knew that these guys had fragile mouths and could not eat anything too spicy. In this meal, even the grilled fish on the iron plate and the Maoxuewang, which were supposed to be spicy and hot, were made slightly spicy. This was not right!
Chief Arthur looked at the others nervously, and then his body shook.
The other bards were not as exaggerated as the plains elves, but each of them had tears in his eyes.
"I... have been in the Northern Continent for eight years." The plains elf choked up and said, "Eight years, eight whole years. At the closest time, I was less than two hundred kilometers away from the grassland tribe, but I never thought of visiting them. I missed such delicious food for eight whole years..."
Well, this fellow was one of the first members of the Bards Guild to follow Leo Silvers, a high-ranking member of the Guild, to come to the Northern Continent to conduct business (he was invited by Carlisle and took the same ship as Earl Winston of the Sea Clan). Over the years, he had countless opportunities to visit the Fire Tribe and eat food cooked by authentic Fire Tribe chefs, but he never came. He was content with the food store run by Mr. Ashu in the Elf Port, thinking that was the pinnacle of Snow Wolf cuisine... When this plains elf thought of this, he was filled with grief!
Patriarch Arthur: “…”
Resisting the urge to curse someone as a psychopath, Chief Arthur ate in silence with a distorted face.
While the elves were still in the mood to sigh, at the next table of Dark Iron Dwarves, a group of dwarves had no energy to talk at all and were trying their best to eat like they were swallowing the sky and spitting out the earth.
Xiao Yun, who was sitting at the same table with the guests, had originally tried to engage in some table diplomacy and try to establish a relationship with Major Peter Warhammer. However, he did not expect that once the dishes were served, he, a grassland diplomat, would become redundant...
"If I had known earlier, I would have let amateur chefs cook first to train their receptive capacity...it's not good to go full throttle!" Xiao Yun sighed inwardly, and stood up to ask the chef to add more dishes.
After the meal, the two tribes' delegations experienced firsthand why the cafeteria was the holy place of the Fire Tribe, without the grassland people having to explain anything.
The guests were invited to a slightly decorated large conference room to chat and digest their food. Lady Gina was too proud to say anything. Peter Warhammer, who was not a professional diplomat, said indifferently: "Are you hiring a chef from outside the Snow Wolf tribe? Ironforge guarantees that we will give the chef of your tribe the best treatment!"
"I'm sorry about that." This was not the first time Xiao Yun had encountered someone coveting his chef. He said apologetically, "Of course, if Ironforge needs someone, we can send someone over. We're happy to teach cooking. You know, the Food Hunter's Travels has published many recipes for delicious food. We won't hide anything in this regard."
Peter Warhammer's eyes lit up: "What do you think of me?"
Xiao Yun burst out laughing on the spot...
Fortunately, the only unreliable person was Peter Warhammer. At the critical moment, Lady Gina, the envoy of the forest elves, came to the rescue and interrupted the conversation, expressing the hope to invite the official delegation of the grassland tribe to visit the Queen's City after the Frankish banquet.
Xiao Yun was cheered up, and immediately asked Lady Gina what preparations he needed to make for the audience with the Queen - obviously, the forest elves were already impatient for the grassland tribe to become independent immediately and not give the Beast King a chance. Xiao Yun, who was "doing what he wanted", naturally had to make this happen quickly.
As for whether the grassland tribe's "ruling area" covers the entire Cursed Land, or only the southwestern border actually occupied by the Fire Tribe, on this particularly important and key issue, the forest elves, the Dark Iron Dwarves, and Xiao Yun all chose to tactically ignore it...
The reason is very simple. Xiao Yun knows that this group of "non-members" want the grassland tribe to be independent but do not want the grassland tribe to be too powerful and uncontrollable, so the claws extended by the Fire Tribe must be restrained and they must show a reassuring "peace of mind".
Besides this, Xiao Yun has another concern that he cannot tell outsiders... It would be best if the Minotaur, as an ally, is just an ally forever and never become a family!
You're such a saint, you can never be my teammate~!
There is no need to talk about which side the Minotaur will stand on when the Fire and Flame Tribe becomes more powerful and qualified to compete with the elves. Given the relatively slow reproduction efficiency of the Orcs, if the Fire and Flame Tribe wants to expand its base, it must poach the Far Eastern Orcs... If the Minotaur, who have become a family, jump out to oppose at this time, Xiao Yun will not be able to convince those bull-headed people who have been saints for thousands of years even if he has a lot of mouths.
