Chapter 12: The Food Problem! Always a Big Problem!

  Under the scorching sun, more than 300 half-beasts from the ancient tribe, or rather the remnants of the original tribe, were toiling in construction work under the lashings of Mank's whip.

  Xia Sha led a few elderly monks along the way, pointing around and saying something, while the latter occasionally nodded in sudden realization, with even more admiration in their eyes for Xia Sha.

  Among the rescued Munk beasts, the people of the Uz tribe did not choose to leave. Those who had lost their loved ones had already lost all their strong warriors, and only some old, weak, women and children were left. Even if they returned to rebuild their tribe, what awaited them was also a fate of extinction.

  After learning of Xia Zuo's identity as the messenger of the war god, the Uchi tribe's Mank beastmen, who had already been worshiping Xia Zuo in battle, voluntarily merged with Biku's original tribe. The newly born tribe was named the Saiya tribe at Biku's hesitant suggestion.

  When Xia Zha became the leader of the new tribe under everyone's unanimous recommendation, he only knew how many difficulties were in front of him. The most straightforward one was the housing problem. More than 200 Mang Beastmen and more than 300 Half-Beastmen couldn't live in the open wilderness, even if they had a large number of people, it was still a very dangerous thing.

  Rebuilding the tribe can't be delayed, but the Mongol beastmen's original small hut houses are not much better than the damp earth caves where the half-beasts live in Xia Zuo's view.

  This is not the reason for the Mongolian people, the ingenious Mongolian people are the most respected craftsmen among the Khampa people, but unfortunately, the fragmented stone wilderness has been ravaged by storms all year round, and even the sturdy houses cannot withstand the erosion of several storms, so they gradually became the simplest and easiest to build.

  Xia Sha quickly came up with a solution that made the delighted Mung Beast people extremely revered.

  Xia Zhi directed the half-beast people to dig a long, rectangular pit two men high on the ground, with a slope on the east side and three vertical sides. The top was surrounded by a low wall that only reached the knees, and a thick layer of inclined roof tiles was laid on top.

  From a distance, it looks like a small mound of earth, but the interior space is enormous, warm in winter and cool in summer. Such houses not only solved the erosion of hurricanes, but also made the whole tribe more secretive.

  The excavated yellow earth, mixed with dry grass, surrounded the tribe and built a two-person-high trapezoidal city wall, with sharp stones inserted on top. The yellow earth of the prairie became as hard as iron after drying, especially after mixing with dry grass, it became even more tough, which was far more protective than the previous stone-cut city wall.

  Adding the city gate, arrow tower, watchtower, granary and animal pen, Xia Zuo's block-by-block planning, after the tribe is built, it can be comparable to a small castle.

  It is hoped that everything will always be fine, but many problems can only be found in practice.

  "Boss, this won't do...". Just a few days after the project started, Mantas, who was in charge of leading the beastmen to supervise the work, came over with a whip, cursing and swearing. "These damn half-beasts are too lazy, even pigs are more capable than them! No matter how hard I beat them, it's useless. Boss, do you want me to chop off a few heads?"

  "It's useless! Laziness is their nature, even surpassing their fear of death!" Xia Zuo shook his head helplessly, he had been too optimistic about the half-beasts' calculations. Although they would tremble with fear at the sight of him, their nature made them unable to hurry up.

  According to his calculations, the project should have been completed in about a month, but now more than half a month has passed, only a few scattered earth forts have been built, and the wall is barely knee-high.

  "What about Tara?" Xia Zuo asked with a frown.

  "He took his brothers to the wasteland!" Mantas said with a face full of envy, the wasteland was tough and dangerous, but it was still better than staying here watching those half-beasts who were lazier than pigs work.

  "I hope they can gain something!" Xia Sha muttered to herself in a low voice, her expression becoming even more solemn. Compared to the half-beast's dragging work schedule, there was an even more troublesome problem in front of her - food.

  Tribes that have been raided by the half-orcs will not be left with a crumb of food, these greedy robbers will swallow or take away everything edible.

  Almost two hundred goblin warriors, plus more than three hundred half-goblin slaves, the daily food consumption is already considerable. The women and children go out to dig up some underground food like sweet potatoes during the day, but they can only find a limited amount every day.

  The long winter of the gravel wasteland is approaching, and without food, they will have a hard time on the wasteland. Xia Zuo lets Tala lead people to hunt and search for half-human footprints on the wasteland. It's best to find a half-human den, not only can they plunder food, but also capture some labor force to speed up the construction period.

  "Boss, Big Brother Bi Gu is back!" A burst of chaotic footsteps, the excited and delighted guards scattered and ran back.

  "Go and see what Big Brother has brought back for us!" Xia Zuo's face lit up with joy, finally some good news, and he led several people to hurry out to welcome him.

  After the battle to annihilate the half-orcs, they obtained a considerable amount of supplies. Together with the relatively old and weak half-orc slaves, this was a relatively handsome fortune. This required someone familiar with the route to escort them to the nearest border town of Dalaran on the edge of the Barrens, Kampas.

  Although every Mung beastman's loyalty is unquestionable, a transaction of this kind still requires a relatively calm and level-headed beastman to carry it out, and Bi Gu is undoubtedly the best choice.

  "Boss, look what I've brought back!" Bighu shouted excitedly as he drove the horse carriage and saw Xia Zuo from afar. He had also gone to Darasman for business many times before, but this time was undoubtedly his biggest harvest yet.

  The cart was loaded with over a dozen crates of fresh sweet potatoes, potatoes and other easily preserved foods, as well as a large barrel of the prairie's special date wine and two young piglets.

  "Bi Gu, you've finally returned! How was it? Was everything smooth?" Xia Sha excitedly welcomed him back. The village's food had almost been depleted, and Bi Gu's return had solved the urgent problem, but what he brought back far exceeded Xia Sha's expectations.

  "It's too easy! I heard that the supplies we got were seized from the goblins, and the boss even threw in two crates of potatoes and a barrel of wine!" Bigu exclaimed excitedly, patting the wine barrel. In the village, where survival was always a struggle, liquor was a luxury he had only tasted twice before.

  "Come on, brothers! Let's help Biggu move the grain!" Xia Zha shouted, and the Mongolians in charge of supervision immediately swarmed up, carefully moving the wine barrels down first, then continuing to move the food basket by basket into the already built houses.

  The half-beast people gazed greedily at the basket in Monk's hands, their beady eyes almost popping out of their sockets. But as soon as they saw Xia Zuo, they couldn't help but shiver and hastily averted their gaze.

  Unlike the enthusiastic and excited Mank Beastmen, Xia Zhi's joyful gaze still hid worries.

  Not long after Bi Gu returned, only a few scattered half-beasts were caught on the wasteland, and Ta La brought them back with a gloomy face. Xia Zuo didn't blame him either, as the surrounding half-beast tribes had already been wiped out in the previous battle.

  After the dinner party at night, Xia Zuo called the first twelve warriors, who were also the elite forces in the tribe now, to the room. Under Xia Zuo's very serious expression, the beastman warriors' faces, which had been flushed red from drinking, gradually subsided, and the atmosphere became increasingly heavy.

  "Older brother, what's going on? Did that bastard provoke you? I'll go chop his head off!" Xiazhi remained silent, but Tara, who had a quick temper, was the first to jump up and shout, her voice shaking everyone's eardrums.

  "Tara, sit down and listen to what the big brother has to say!" Big Brother Bi Gu's low rebuke immediately made Tara sit down obediently. As the big brother of everyone, Bi Gu's words still had a good effect.

  After the scene quieted down again, Xia Sha cleared his throat "I called you all over today to discuss something with everyone. Regarding the food issue, do any of you have any good ideas?"

  Xia Sha may be "well-informed" but after all, these Mongolian beasts are the ones who have been living in the gravel wilderness for a long time, and they have more say in how to solve food problems.

  "Food? Didn't Big Brother just pull some back today?" Tara was taken aback, thinking that Xia Zhaolao would say something important, could it be that the big brother had forgotten again?

  "Idiot! The boss said it's winter food!" Mantas reacted and heavily knocked on Tala's head, and the latter suddenly realized.

  "That's right!" Xia Zuo nodded slightly, his eyebrows furrowed into a "川" shape. "The food Bi Gu brought back today is only enough for our consumption for one month, and it's far from enough to get us through the long winter. Without food, even the strongest Kampas warrior would starve to death in the desolate wilderness of the cold winter!"

  "Then let's go and plunder a few goblin tribes, those filthy robbers must have stolen a lot of things and hidden them in their dens, it's always been like this..." Tara's words trailed off weakly, the warlike him had been frustrated lately for not being able to find any goblins, and naturally understood the situation better than anyone.

  "Then kill or sell those lazy half-beasts, they're just wasting food!" Mantas said with a fierce glint in his eyes. As the one recently responsible for overseeing the labor, he had an intense hatred for the lazy half-beasts. The lives of these half-beasts weren't even as valuable as those of pigs, at least pigs were edible despite being lazy.

  "This is also a good idea! But not for now..." Xia Zuo sank his face and thought for a moment, refuting. For those cruel half-beasts, Xia Zuo had absolutely no sympathy, but he still needed them to work now, and he didn't want the construction period to be delayed at all costs.

  If it's like that until the arrival of a cold winter, the newly born Saiya tribe will be swallowed by the heavy snow!

  Mantas was praised by Xia Zuo, and some timid Munk warriors immediately swarmed out to offer their opinions. However, none of these garrulous suggestions could be implemented in the current situation.

  "Alright, big brother, what do you say we do? We'll listen to you!" The crowd's noise was getting on Bighu's nerves, but suddenly an idea flashed in his mind. With such a clever high-ranking half-beast like Big Brother around, why bother wasting their thoughts? Whatever Xia Zuo said, they would just follow along.

  Natsuza indeed came up with a plan, under the gaze of over a dozen pairs of eyes, a cold smile floated onto Natsuza's face "Higou, do you know the specific location of the human border sentry post?"

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