I am a Primitive Man
Chapter 440 – Free Labor
“They say, why does our tribe have so much hemp already? And why do we still need to exchange theirs?”
Bai Xue translated on the side for Han Cheng.
“Why do you still want to exchange yours?”
Of course, we want to find cheap textile workers and absorb and integrate your step-by-step.
After hearing Bai Xue’s translation, Han Cheng looked at the puzzled faces of the Fire tribe members and thought to himself, but he wouldn’t say that aloud.
“The hemp we have is grown by us. We need a lot of hemp fiber.”
Han Cheng earnestly explained to the Fire tribe members.
“Grown by you?”
“What is ‘grown’? How can there be so much hemp?”
After hearing Bai Xue’s translation, the Fire tribe members looked even more bewildered.
“‘Grown’ means planting hemp seeds in the soil, and after some time, a lot of hemp will grow.”
Han Cheng shook his head, explaining to the Fire tribe members what ‘growing’ meant.
The Fire tribe members still seemed to understand vaguely.
To make them more intuitively understand what ‘growing’ meant, Han Cheng took them back to the tribe, had someone bring out stone hoes and bone shovels, and led the Fire tribe members to the edge of the Green Sparrow tribe’s fields.
There, a group of Green Sparrow tribe people were clearing land.
It was foreseeable that the population of the Green Sparrow tribe would increase significantly.
With the increase in population, the demand for food also increased, so clearing land was ongoing under Han Cheng’s arrangement.
However, compared to the concentrated effort in clearing land last year, the Green Sparrow tribe’s land clearing this year was less urgent. After all, they already had six or seven hundred mu of land.
“This is how you plant hemp. Use these tools to turn the soil, break it up, and bury the hemp seeds…”
Han Cheng pointed to about a dozen Green Sparrow tribe members who were clearing land.
After Bai Xue translated for them, the Fire tribe members took the stone hoes and bone shovels, learning clumsily alongside the Green Sparrow tribe members to clear land.
Wasn’t the free food of the Green Sparrow tribe tasty?
How could Han Cheng let go of such free labor?
Han Cheng looked at the Fire tribe members clumsily clearing land with stone hoes and bone shovels, revealing a mischievous smile.
Han Cheng carefully considered the decision to teach future generations of the Fire tribe the skill of farming.
Han Cheng had long planned to turn the Fire tribe into textile workers and make them increasingly dependent on the Green Sparrow tribe.
What he was doing now was just a part of that plan.
To transform the Fire tribe into textile workers, an essential condition was having enough hemp for spinning.
Although there was a lot of wild hemp in the hemp field, it couldn’t withstand the annual harvest.
Without sowing, the wild hemp in the oil hemp field would gradually become extinct after several years, just like the sorghum around the Green Sparrow tribe.
Han Cheng introduced the skill of farming to prevent the Fire tribe from following the old path of the Green Sparrow tribe.
Of course, if the Fire tribe had edible food as the Green Sparrow tribe did, Han Cheng would certainly not act like he was now.
But hemp was a different story.
This thing couldn’t be eaten, and so far, apart from the Green Sparrow tribe, no other tribe had a great demand for it.
Moreover, when Han Cheng taught them farming, he would only teach them how to grow hemp and nothing else.
In this way, even if edible food existed around their tribe, they wouldn’t immediately think of cultivating it.
Even if they wanted to start planting, there wouldn’t be much progress in the short term.
With Han Cheng, an expert in farming and other such skills, present in the Green Sparrow tribe, it took several years to reach their current level of development. For the Fire tribe to quickly move away from gathering and hunting towards agriculture, which can support a larger population, was simply impossible.
Of course, even with this confidence, when trading with the Fire tribe in the future, Han Cheng also controlled the situation, ensuring that not a single unshelled grain would flow into their tribe.
The Fire people, gradually familiarizing themselves with stone hoes and bone shovels, had no idea that the distinguished Divine Child standing aside watching them till the land was thinking about so many things.
Through Bai Xue, Han Cheng instructed the Fire tribe to have the four men continue farming there while the other four primitive women were led back to the place where they were stripping hemp.
Because the farming area was not too far from the hemp stripping area, and the impression given by the tribe’s priest was as amiable as ever, the Fire tribe members didn’t find Han Cheng’s separation of them inappropriate.
Han Cheng had no particular thoughts about these Fire tribe women. These women who looked at him with piercing eyes made Han Cheng feel like keeping a distance…
Taking them to the riverside was to have them learn from the Green Sparrow tribe people how to strip and wash hemp.
The hemp brought by the Fire tribe this time wasn’t well-soaked. Hemp that wasn’t properly soaked couldn’t be used for weaving fabric.
Even if one were to force the weaving, the quality of the hemp cloth produced would be pretty poor…
Since Han Cheng intended to turn the Fire tribe into cheap textile workers for the Green Sparrow tribe, he needed to teach them everything about textile production.
After all, these fabrics would eventually be used by their tribe.
Following Han Cheng’s instructions, Bai Xue earnestly explained to the Fire tribe women how to soak hemp, what the soaked hemp should look like to be considered successful, and how to retrieve it for peeling.
The women from several tribes listened attentively.
Time passed quickly, and nightfall descended after another delicious and satisfying meal.
The eight members of the Fire tribe were accommodated in a newly built grass-roofed house with twelve rooms.
Three rooms already had heated beds built, covered with thick, dry grass.
Full from the meal, Fire and the other tribe members lay comfortably on these flat, even heated beds, feeling as if they were dreaming.
This thing called a ‘Heated Bed,’ as the tribe called it, was genuinely comfortable to sleep on—spacious and flat.
It was different from living in caves; it was also very comfortable. However, the lack of fire in the rooms made Fire and the others somewhat uncomfortable.
Fire pulled the soft animal fur covering him with his hands, feeling extremely comfortable against his body, unlike the hard animal hides from their tribe… Everything about this tribe was fascinating.
After lying there for a while, Fire finally fell asleep. Before falling asleep, he thought about what the distinguished priest mentioned at dinner—that they would see something tomorrow…