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

Chapter 145 First Arrival at the Great River Plain, Spying on the Fire Tribe
"Are you sure the Fire Tribe won't go to the other side of the river?"

Inside the cave, Huo Li helped Xia Minghao put on his clothes and gently zipped up his pants, afraid of hurting anything.

At this moment, Huo Li heard Xia Minghao ask again.

"Um……"

Huo Li nodded again, a serious expression on her face.

Today, she was going back to that place of heartbreak. Although Xia Minghao said it was on the other side of the river, the Fire Tribe was far from the riverbank and difficult to see even across the river.

Only after receiving confirmation from Huo Li did Xia Minghao finally feel completely at ease.

The first group to go now consists of less than a hundred people. In the early stages, our pioneering team is at a significant disadvantage compared to the Fire Tribe.

Fortunately, we chose the right location, which saved us from the initial difficulties of development and turned the hell mode into an easy mode.

Moreover, it put them in control, because none of the Fire Tribes, including the controlled tribal alliances, possessed the technology to build boats across the river. When they could meet the Fire Tribes depended entirely on their own will.

This allowed ample time to think about how to deal with the Fire Tribe.

"By the way, wear this today, and this too, but don't wear those leafy ones."

Suddenly remembering what he had asked Lipa to bring, Xia Minghao took it out of his backpack.

These were specially brought by Lipa: two nettle robes and four bras.

"This one……"

Huo Li saw the bra and felt it was very familiar, because she had seen all the women of the Li clan wearing it yesterday.

Yesterday, Guang and Huoli were busy playing games with honey and forgot to let Huoli try on clothes.

With his hands clasped in front of his chest, he watched as Huo Li took off the leaves, put on the clothes of the Xia tribe and the bra she invented, and felt that her temperament had changed.

To be honest, looking at Huo Li made me feel like a crazy caveman, especially with that head of red hair.

Now, wearing a long robe with a bra underneath to prevent any nipple exposure, her demeanor has completely changed; she looks like some kind of nun…

Coupled with that deep, mature female voice, she's practically an ascetic nun.

"This is so tight."

紧？
I reached inside and touched it, and I could indeed feel that the bra was quite tight.

The main reason is that these were all designed for the average size of the Xia tribe, and it is indeed rare to see one as big as Huo Li.

"Wear it for now, and I'll have someone bring it over next time."

"Ah."

Having gathered all their belongings, Xia Minghao led Huo Li towards the fishpond.

Upon reaching the outside of the fishpond, they discovered that something was amiss.

Why are the Wa clan members up so late today?

Although it is only early morning, in normal times, the entire Wa clan would already be working enthusiastically.

But what we see now is only a little over half. What about the rest?

At this moment, Xia Minghao saw several men emerging from the semi-subterranean house.

They were all clutching their waists, looking utterly exhausted and completely out of food.

Following closely behind were women from the Li clan, their faces beaming with satisfaction.

I see……

"Chief!"

Just then, a familiar voice came over; it was Arno.

"Chief, may I also go beekeeping?"

"You're going to keep bees too?"

Xia Minghao's eyes lit up when he heard Arno offer to raise bees.

The current number of beekeepers is certainly not enough, and beekeeping is a "pillar industry" of Insect Valley. Finding more people to participate in beekeeping was originally the last thing Xia Minghao planned to solve before leaving.

Since Arno was willing to join the ranks of beekeepers, Xia Minghao naturally had no reason to refuse.

But why? Did he change his personality overnight? Did he become a man?

"Is it alright, Chief? I'd like to keep bees."

Seeing that Xia Minghao did not respond immediately, Arno quickly asked again, while cautiously looking behind him.

Noticing Arno's gaze, Xia Minghao also glanced over and saw a woman from the Li clan staring at Arno.

"Did you get married last night?"

Xia Minghao guessed something and asked Arno.

Arno is not very familiar with the concept of marriage yet, but he understands its specific meaning: to live together and help each other.

If you have a child, then that child is your own.

Arno mentally assessed what he had said to that woman from the Power Clan before nodding.

"You keep bees because of her?"

"Yes, because she wants to eat honey."

Seeing Arno's appearance, Xia Minghao chuckled to himself, "I never thought Arno was such a good man from primitive times, haha."

Some of the men who had also "gotten married" the day before overheard Arno and the chief's conversation. Thinking about their own women, many of them mustered up the courage to make the same request.

To Xia Minghao's surprise, more and more people signed up, and soon there were more than a dozen, with more people coming over one after another.

The previous shortage of beekeepers suddenly turned into a shortage of jobs.

Unexpectedly, the solution to this problem was actually due to love?
That's not the case at all, nor is it because the women of the Li clan possess any particular charm.

If they were charming, they wouldn't have all become unwanted tomboys in the Xia tribe.

Rather, the special circumstances of the Wa clan and the special circumstances of the women of the Li clan were interlocked like a mortise and tenon joint.

After Xia Minghao arrived, the women of the Wa clan lost their "mothers," while the fierce women of the Li clan filled the void of "mothers" in the hearts of the Wa clan men.

Because of the tradition of offering good things to the god of Pushi, some men dared to try to give their women delicious honey.

Rather than love, it's more like a "theocratic aftereffect" of being brainwashed by theocracy.

"There can't be that many beekeepers. You can only get the job if you perform well."

As more and more people gathered, Xia Minghao decided to use a competitive process to select the people who were truly capable of taking on the beekeeping task.

A smile couldn't help but appear on his lips; he never expected that it would turn into a competitive job selection process.

Xia Minghao summoned several people who had just mastered beekeeping techniques the day before and asked each of them to take four or five bees to see who could do the best.

After arranging the "competition," Xia Minghao began to teach the women of the Li clan how to handle mulberry trees.

Having already received some education, the women of the Li clan learned very quickly and soon understood how to feed silkworm larvae and how to distinguish which silkworm eggs on mulberry leaves were alive and which were dead.

After the women of the Li clan finished teaching, the men returned. Some looked worried, some looked lucky, and some had big smiles and were full of confidence.

Those who were confident successfully completed the bee-gathering task, while the others either backed down at the last minute or messed it up because they were too stupid.

This process also served as a screening, allowing us to select the truly suitable beekeepers.

The remaining tasks, arranged by Xia Minghao, included raising pheasants to collect eggs, managing the fishpond, and drying fish bladders for preservation.

As for the fifty-odd Wa clan men who had not found women to marry, Xia Minghao planned to take them all with him.

The people who stayed behind were just enough to satisfy the various industries in the Insect Valley. These people would not play any further role if they stayed, and they were all obedient and able-bodied laborers. It would be better for them to follow me to develop a new home.

As the sun was about to rise high in the sky, Xia Minghao led his men to the entrance of the valley, and the people who remained in the Insect Valley spontaneously came to see them off.

Looking at these men and women who will be settling down in the Insect Valley, I couldn't help but think about the honey we would eat, the beeswax we would use, and the silk we would wear in the future.

We'll return next time, when the spring chill is still in the air. Then we'll teach the people of Insect Valley how to unravel the mysteries, how to divide queen cells, and how to stimulate the bee colony's growth.

Back on the ship, Xia Minghao saw unfamiliar faces among the ship watchers: four women.

These are all women from the restored Feng clan.

I remember there were only three last time, but I didn't expect there to be one more this time.

At this rate, after some time, perhaps all the women of the Feng clan will be able to recover and be used by them.

Their primary function was no longer smelting bronze, but rather building ships.

Since the Xia tribe began to disperse geographically, it needed to maintain close contact in other ways, in order to adapt to the increasing surplus products and the increasingly specialized and refined production.

Use the increasingly prosperous commodity economy to unite the Xia tribe.

The goal is to allow the people of Insect Valley to use the down from Salt Spring Mountain, to allow the people of the swamp to eat the honey from Insect Valley, and to allow everyone in other places to eat the foxtail grass seeds, which are millet, that they will grow in the plains in the future.

This not only satisfies the basic contradiction of the Xia tribe society at that time, namely the contradiction between the primitive people's needs for life and the imperfect material foundation.

At the same time, it can enhance the Xia tribe members scattered in various places' sense of identity with the Xia tribe as a whole.

Xia Minghao did not use the Wind Stone Bracelet to unleash the power of the totem. Instead, Ye Zi led the four women to train them, so that they would have enough experience in navigating the boat. In the future, they would teach more and more women of the Wind Clan who had returned to normal how to navigate the boat.

The five women began to build the boat at a distance where there was no interference from each other's totem power.

Although this resulted in an excessively large area being covered, almost encompassing the surface area of ​​several sails, it did maximize the ship's speed.

As Xia Ming climbed to the lookout tower, he still had a dazed feeling, as if he were driving a Wuling Hongguang van at 200 kilometers per hour on a highway.

Clearly, current shipbuilding technology is no longer sufficient for the "Wind Clan" engine, and an upgrade is urgently needed.

The construction of a second ship should also be put on the agenda.

Naturally, they couldn't trust the Xia tribe's craftsmen to build such complex ships. So, after completing the initial settlement work, they began shipbuilding on the plains.

That way we can go downstream and take a look. We don't necessarily have to find the mouth of the river. According to Xia Minghao's estimate, even after the second ship is built, it won't be able to sail the seas.

In fact, Xia Minghao had other motives.

Like the Xi tribe and the Li tribe, which were driven to the upper reaches of the river by the Huo tribe, could there be a large number of tribes fleeing to the lower reaches as well?
If they could be integrated into the Xia tribe, it would greatly increase the Xia tribe's strength, and there might even be unexpected gains.

Just as the sun had passed its zenith, the familiar scene appeared before my eyes.

It was the very spot he had chosen earlier, a plain covered by a floodplain.

However, Xia Minghao did not intend to build the city here; the area was planned to be vast farmlands.

As for where to place the city, that remains to be explored gradually, and there's no need to rush.

We never intended to achieve this in one step, and the existing materials and labor force simply cannot do so.

To build a city, you first need a village where people can live, and to have a village, you first need to build a fishing ground.

The fish farm was built to solve the problem of food. Sowing can only begin next spring, and we can't rely solely on supplies from the Salt Spring Mountain, so we still have to rely on fishing for the time being.

Since he was going to settle down, Xia Minghao decided not to rely on the fishing nets he used on the riverbank, but instead to use the classic river fishing equipment – ​​fish weirs.

Under normal circumstances, probably very few people would know about fish weirs. The fact that Xia Minghao knew about them wasn't because he was bored and looked at a river fishing method that he would never normally use in his life.

I learned this entirely by chance from my understanding of the abbreviation for Shanghai, "沪".

Shanghai's abbreviation "Hu" actually originates from the ancient "Hudu".

The term "Hudu" refers to the numerous bamboo fish weirs that dot the Wusong River area.

I only learned about it by chance, and I never expected it to come in handy now.

Fish weirs are actually quite simple to explain; they are simply sloped surfaces that allow water to pass through.

The slope is against the direction of the water flow. When the water rushes over, it will pass through, but the fish will not be able to pass through. Instead, they will be pushed up the slope against the current.

(Something like this)
Once built, it can be used for a long time and, with proper maintenance, can even be considered a "one-time solution," making it an extremely suitable environment for settling down.

But it's definitely too late today. We still have enough food on the boat, and we also have fishing nets, so we can fish for a few more days.

Today's main task is to collect timber and build a fish farm on the riverbank. This will not only be able to support the fish weirs in the future, but also provide a place for people to sleep.

"You get off the boat and go cut down trees. You go and move the trees to the shore. Oh, and remember, after cutting down one or two trees, walk a couple of steps away from the riverbank before cutting down more."

Everyone disembarked, except for the women of the Feng clan and Huo Liliu.

The people who disembarked were puzzled by the chief's words, but urged by Lipa, they did not waste any time and immediately headed into the woods.

The reason for this arrangement is that the trees here are distributed in strips due to the flooding of the river.

Each type of tree was arranged in its own row. Xia Minghao had the loggers do this so that he could come into contact with as many different kinds of trees as possible and gain a detailed understanding of them.

For example, understanding which type of tree is suitable for burning and which type is suitable for building materials allows for more precise and efficient operations.

"Huoli, do you still remember the location of the Fire Tribe?"

Seeing that Lipa had started to arrange the work for everyone, Xia Minghao looked at Huo Li and asked.

Hearing this, Huo Li's heart skipped a beat. Did she still have to go after all?
An inexplicable surge of anger and sadness welled up within her, but Huo Li still nodded.

“Okay, take me there. I need to know the approximate locations of the Fire Tribe and other tribal alliances.”

Propelled by the wind from the Feng clan members, the large ship continued downstream. When the sunlight was no longer so dazzling, Huo Li pointed to a high ground on the opposite bank.

"That's it."

Although the distance is still far, and she cannot sense their presence through the totem power of her symbiotic relationship with the Fire Tribe, this was her escape route, so she naturally remembers it clearly.

Xia Minghao estimated the length; the distance to his unknown settlement was at least thirty or forty kilometers.

Developing the Great River Plain would take several years, but if we had a few years to develop, we would naturally no longer need to fear the Fire Tribe.

In this way, they can ensure that they remain hidden, and the Fire Tribe will have no chance of discovering that the Summer Tribe is "developing stealthily" on the other side.

"So, roughly where are those three tribal alliances you mentioned located?"

He picked up the binoculars, but because of the trees blocking the way, even following the exact direction Huo Li pointed out, he couldn't see any trace of the Fire Tribe, so he simply gave up.

"Those human-machine tools? They're everywhere, here and there."

Huo Li then pointed to the vicinity in the direction of the Fire Tribe and said that it felt like the living range of these three tribal alliances was roughly centered on the Fire Tribe and spread out for several kilometers.

Xia Minghao picked up the binoculars again and ordered the Feng clan to set sail and return home.

The large ship sailed smoothly on the downstream river, while Xia Minghao stood on the lookout tower, observing and hoping to catch a glimpse of it.

And just then, he indeed spotted a bright red color.

I immediately increased the magnification of the telescope, and only then could I barely see anything clearly.

It was a child, a red-haired child!

He was riding on top of a naked woman.

He was holding something in his hand, seemingly whipping it, and the woman, in pain, ran quickly forward.

This scene was not unexpected. What made Xia Minghao frown was that even the children of the Fire Tribe were so barbaric.

Perhaps in the eyes of the Fire Tribe people, those without totem power are truly just another species, animals that can be driven around like cattle and horses.

As he pondered this, Xia Minghao suddenly realized something was amiss.

This is about two or three kilometers away from where Huo Li pointed earlier.

Why are there children from the Fire Tribe here too?

Could it be that during the time Huo Li was away from the Fire Tribe, the Fire Tribe experienced a population explosion?

Our current understanding of the Fire Tribe is entirely based on Huo Li's intelligence, but Huo Li has been gone for a long time.

If such a change does occur, the information you receive will not only be unhelpful, but may even be misleading.

(End of this chapter)