We made you the chief, and now you've become the world's chief?

Chapter 102 Bestowing the Name "Earth Swiftness"
Inside the shed, in front of the earthenware pot.

The trained men were excitedly describing how powerful the bows and arrows the chief had created were.

Xia Minghao, however, looked utterly helpless.

These primitive people couldn't be taught how to shoot arrows; they could nock arrows and draw the bowstring, but they somehow combined these two actions together.

The most common problem is that the bowstring snaps back and the arrow falls out, and no matter how you teach them how to hold the arrow, they can't get the hang of it properly, and they often end up with bloody marks on their hands.

In the end, Xia Minghao made them all put on burlap finger cots to prevent hand injuries from affecting their other work.

"Chief! Look!"

Just as I put a piece of taro soaked in meat broth into the bowl, I suddenly heard a shout.

Xia Minghao looked in the direction that Lipa, who had stood up in another shed, was pointing.

A child was rolling around in the mud.

Because it is farther away than Lipa, and the firelight flickers, making the light dim.

It took quite a bit of effort to see it clearly.

It wasn't the boy rolling around; he was lying on the ground, kicking the bow arm with his feet and pulling the bowstring with one hand...

He picked up the torch and walked forward, but at that moment, Hillary stood up and stepped forward, her face showing anger, as if she wanted to stop him.

Xia Minghao raised his hand to stop him immediately, and at that very moment, the arrow in the boy's hand shot out with a whoosh.

With a hum, the long arrow pierced straight into the wooden pillar of a shed not far away.

To everyone's surprise, after an entire afternoon of training, not a single person had managed to shoot an arrow successfully, but now a teenager had actually shot the first arrow.

"I shot it!"

The boy had just shouted excitedly when Sheila's slap followed immediately.

Sheila was naturally strong, and when she hit someone, it made a loud thud.

But the boy didn't cry; he just smiled and kept glancing in the direction of the arrow.

Xia Minghao, holding a torch, walked to the spot where the bronze arrow had been shot into the wooden pillar.

To my surprise, there was a circle drawn on the wooden pillar.

"Did you draw this?"

Xia Minghao turned around and looked at the boy who was having a complete childhood.

Upon hearing the chief's question, Hilla stopped fighting and began to breathe heavily.

“I drew it with charcoal when the chief gave us the slingshots.”

“Shoot the pebble in, and the slingshot is his. But nobody listens.”

Hearing the child's words, Xia Minghao thought for a moment and walked over to the boy.

They lit his hand with a torch and found that there were no signs of injury.

How did you shoot the arrow?

Xia Minghao asked in confusion, and then saw the boy pick up the bow again and demonstrate the posture of drawing the string.

It turned out to be exactly the same way I demonstrated the bow-drawing technique used in the Olympics.

How did you know about this bow-drawing posture?

“I learn to do what I see the chief does. I don’t do what others do.”

Unexpectedly, this kid had been secretly observing all along, and he actually learned something from him.

Xia Minghao's eyes lit up, and then he looked at Sheila, who had just slapped his butt.

"Is this your child?"

Sheila glared angrily at her child before nodding to Xia Minghao.

No wonder……

Looking at the child, Xia Minghao thought to himself.

Sheila's physical abilities are quite formidable, almost comparable to the strength of the male members of the Power Clan. It's surprising that this talent has been passed down to the next generation.

Otherwise, even if this half-grown child used both hands and feet, it would be very difficult for him to pull open the wolf tendon bow.

Moreover, it's clear that this kid has some intelligence; if properly nurtured, he might become a great general in the future.

Then I thought about how he was in the animation industry and wanted to set rules for other kids...

Who knows, he might not only be a talented general in the future, but also a brilliant strategist.

"stand up."

Xia Minghao's expression turned serious again. The boy, who had been smiling because he had hit the circle, now felt a trace of fear and dared not show any expression anymore. He stood up.

Holding the torch closer, looking at the child's appearance and height, I felt that in a year he would be equivalent to the "adult" age in a primitive tribe.

This is still Heila's child, from the Heila clan, and Xia Minghao feels even more reliable and at ease having him by his side.

Although I already had a bias in mind, I was still prepared to give him a small punishment, a slap followed by a sweet treat.

After all, if other children saw that trying out the bow would bring them benefits, they might all try it out, which would create chaos and could potentially damage the limited number of bows and arrows available.

This is definitely a major loss for the Xia tribe.

"What's his name?"

Xia Minghao looked at Hilla and asked.

Sheila shook her head blankly.

"Chief, he, name, none."

At first, I had some doubts, but then I understood.

In primitive societies, there were no laborers, so it's normal that they didn't have names; having a name wouldn't have mattered anyway. After all, if you weren't working, no one would call you.

Having a name in this primitive era was equivalent to a "coming-of-age ceremony".

However, Xia Minghao has decided to hold the coming-of-age ceremony for the boy ahead of schedule, but he still needs to punish him first and deal with that later.

"These belong to the tribe. You are not allowed to touch them without my permission. If you do, you will be punished."

Xia Minghao spoke up, then took a wooden strip from a nearby shed to repair the boardwalk and handed it to Sheila.

“Use this to spank his butt ten times.” Sheila hesitated for a moment, but nodded nonetheless.

Thus, the first "bamboo shoot stir-fried with meat" in the primitive era was born.

By this time, many more people had gathered around, and the entire tent was packed with people.

There were adults and children present, some of whom were watching with glee.

After ten blows, the boy's buttocks had turned bright red in the firelight.

"Get up again."

Xia Minghao spoke to the boy again, and this time the boy was really scared. After standing up, he even burrowed into his mother Sheila's arms.

“But you shot the arrow very well, so I’m rewarding you. If you hadn’t shot an arrow, I would have had you beaten twenty times.”

Just watching the wooden stick spank hurt, and the children standing around couldn't help but count on their fingers, their faces growing more and more frightened as they counted, as if they could already feel those twenty spanks landing on their own bottoms.

"I'm giving you a name. From now on, you'll be called Xi Shi Ji."

Upon hearing this strange name, everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. Although they didn't understand it, their faces were filled with envy.

Most people in the Xia and Da tribes don't have any particular meaning in their names; they just use whatever name sounds good.

For example, most people's names end with the vowel "ah".

Only after developing a gradual capacity for thinking will a child use concrete objects as names, such as leaves.

But the name Xia Minghao chose is something that no one else can understand.

Although it sounded incredibly strange to primitive people, Xia Minghao sounded perfectly pleasing to the ear; it was arguably the closest name to a Chinese name.

After naming the child, Xia Minghao took a torch and used the wooden stick he had used to hit Xi Shiji's buttocks to slap the ground a few times.

"This is your name. Remember how to write it."

"My...name."

Xi Shiji saw what Xia Minghao had written. He could remember the beginning, but he couldn't understand the rest.

"Chief, how do you spell my name?"

At this moment, Xia Minghao heard Lipa's voice and saw that everyone's faces showed interest.

Suddenly I feel that it would be great to take advantage of the present moment to promote writing, since interest is the best teacher.

Once everyone can write their own name, and then learn to write other people's names, then the written language can be promoted more quickly.

Moreover, it also allows these primitive people to change their acceptance of writing from passively acquiring it through pottery jars to actively learning it today.

"your name."

He raised his hand and wrote down Lipa's name. As soon as he finished writing, another person immediately asked a question.

So Xia Minghao wrote them down one by one, and the people of the Xia tribe left one by one, returned to the pot, and began to practice their names.

After a lot of work, the group of people were finally all sent away.

Xia Minghao also made a brand new slingshot and gave it to Xi Shiji.

This drew envy from the other children, because it was made by Xia Minghao, which not only made it much more meaningful, but also made it of very high quality.

After seeing Sheila and her son off, Xia Minghao looked at everyone and felt that writing their names wasn't enough; he still needed to promote the writing as soon as possible.

This will at least enable the Xia tribe to understand simple sentences, laying the foundation for the future development of laws.

Without written language, it is almost impossible to have real laws, and the current situation of the Xia tribe "without rules" is unlikely to be fundamentally changed.

Because there is no written language, various rules can only be passed down orally, which leads to a great deal of misinterpretation. If two people remember them differently, then who is right and who is wrong?

Furthermore, it would prevent the creation of sufficiently comprehensive laws, such as criminal law and civil law, which would be such a large book with all sorts of rules and regulations—who could possibly remember it all?
The invention of writing enabled laws to become more stable and precise.

Now that a teacher is needed to pass on the written language, Xia Minghao immediately thought of Una.

Una's talent in this area was already very obvious before. Even now, when making pottery, if the potter of the Wa clan doesn't remember the characters that are engraved, they always ask Una.

Having found Una, Xia Minghao began teaching her various simple characters while they ate.

Una's visual memory ability was indeed amazing among the primitive people. After finishing her meal, she had been taught twenty words and had memorized more than a dozen of them.

And he seemed a little distracted...

When they were about to leave, Xia Minghao noticed that Una had a bunch of hair hidden under her little bottom.

No wonder she wasn't paying attention earlier; she was trying to avoid me discovering her "little secret."

I don't know what the point of keeping this hair is. Is it because girls love their hair? Did primitive people do the same?

There was no way anyone would know that, and it wasn't a big deal, so Xia Minghao naturally didn't point it out.

……

……

……

The next morning, when Xia Minghao came out of the house, he found that the sky had cleared up.

This heavy rain is finally over, but the next rain will mark the start of the real rainy season, with downpours lasting for a whole month.

However, having already gained experience from the previous two trips, and with the help of food storage methods, Xia Minghao is now full of confidence in getting through the rainy season, as long as no unexpected situations arise.

Thanks to Ye Zi's efforts, a new batch of bricks has been dried ahead of schedule and will be fired tomorrow.

Half of the men in the Li clan were practicing archery, while the other half were assigned by Xia Minghao to make wooden planks for building mountain trails.

This is naturally done on a rotating basis, and Xia Minghao only allows two or three people to learn archery each time, which is also to improve the teaching situation.

This is what is known as "small class teaching" or "one-on-one tutoring".

Xia Minghao felt a little relieved when one of the first three people who received guidance finally managed to shoot the arrow successfully instead of shooting himself.

After the three of them discussed how to shoot arrows, they finally had time to rest.

He walked to the boulder at the entrance of the cave and picked up the binoculars.

Looking at the scenery in the distance, it's a rare moment of leisurely enjoyment in this primitive era.

Looking at the vast swamp in the distance and watching the crocodiles hunting wild ducks, Xia Minghao thought of the Da tribe.

The rain has stopped, and I wonder what the Da tribe is up to here; they haven't come to exchange their supplies yet...

(End of this chapter)