In addition to farming and reclaiming wasteland, the production of bronze agricultural tools cannot be left behind, especially the production of plows.

The weaving and pounding of hemp, the crushing of ore and the boiling of salt, and the feeding of many animals all need to be done, and nothing can be left out.

At the same time, the trading team needs to continue to carry salt, pottery and other things to trade with the surrounding tribes.

Copper and tin mines were found in the tribe, but they could not give up on trading.

On the one hand, it is to establish more contacts with the surrounding tribes, and on the other hand, in the process of trading with these tribes, unexpected surprises may occur if one is not careful.

In addition to these things, there are still many miscellaneous things to do in the tribe.

Everything needs people to do it. If people don't do it, it won't be completed automatically.

So after all the calculations, there were not enough people.

Moreover, Han Cheng also plans to have people go to Tongshan to develop the Tongshan residential area. Judging from the current situation, this matter may have to be postponed.

After all, the tribe now has a trading team that has been separated from food production, as well as craftsmen such as Heiwa, Bo, and Second Senior Brother, as well as two civil servants, Wu and Shitou, who do not participate much in production, and textile workers represented by Bai Xuemei.

All these people added up to about forty people.

If we add the large number of minors in the tribe, there will be even more people who are not very involved in food production.

Without lowering the living standards, the number of people the tribe can support without working is almost reaching its upper limit.

Under such circumstances, it is obviously not suitable to build the Tongshan residential area.

After all, if you want to set up the Tongshan residential area, you need at least 10 to 20 people.

In this way, people in the Tongshan residential area could mine and refine bronze while farming to obtain enough food for themselves.

Of course, to achieve such self-sufficiency, one must wait at least a year to cultivate the land and harvest the newly planted crops.

During this year, there is basically no need to expect much output from the Tongshan residential area, as the daily expenses of these people need to be provided by the Qingque tribe base camp.

Moreover, this does not include the manpower required to transport the food there, and the food consumed on the road...

After going through all these steps, Han Cheng discovered with dismay that lack of manpower had once again become a difficult problem facing him.

With bronze farm tools, farming efficiency can indeed be improved, but Han Cheng has the grand goal of storing three years of edible food, so don't expect these farmers to have free time.

Because with improved efficiency, they will cultivate more land.

By this calculation, after the conquest of the Tengshe tribe, the labor force in the tribe did increase greatly. However, with the increase in various things in the tribe and the increase in demand for food, the problem of insufficient population or adults once again stood in the way of the Qingque tribe.

Han Cheng felt a little pain in his head.

The most direct and quick way to increase the labor force in the tribe is to integrate other tribes into the Qingque tribe.

One is active integration from other tribes, and the other is passive integration.

Actively integrate like the Pig Tribe, Donkey Tribe, and Green Tribe at the beginning.

Because of being attacked or for some other reasons, they took the initiative to move closer to the Qingque tribe.

Those that merged passively, such as the Bone Tribe and the Teng Snake Tribe, joined the Green Bird Tribe after being defeated and captured by the Green Bird Tribe.

At present, it seems that the fastest way to increase the population is to send people out to attack the surrounding tribes and capture their people.

Rescue them from poverty and backwardness and join them into the bright and great Blue Bird tribe.

With weapons such as bows and arrows, rattan shields, and now bronze spears, plus several well-trained teams of the Green Bird Tribe, it is not difficult to attack the surrounding tribes.

And because of the existence of the trading team, Han Cheng has already figured out the locations of the small tribes around the tribe.

It seems that sending troops to plunder is really a very appropriate method.

After thinking about it for a while, Han Cheng finally suppressed this lustful idea.

It is true that he wants the tribe to develop, but he does not want to use such means.

It has nothing to do with anything else, it's all about character. Han Cheng felt no mental pressure at all when sending people to attack those enemies who invaded the Qingque tribe first. If necessary, he could personally cut off the enemy's heads.

But when it came time to lead people to attack those tribes that had no grudges or enmity against the Qingque tribe, he could never get over it.

Be it being pretentious or something else, he really didn't want to do such a thing.

With a personality like his, he is destined not to be able to accomplish great things or become the king.

Fortunately, I came to the primitive age. If I had gone to the chaotic times, I might have been caught and killed for meat as soon as I arrived...

If taking the initiative to plunder the population and make the surrounding small tribes join the Qingque tribe cannot be implemented, then the only way left is to let the surrounding tribes actively integrate into the Qingque tribe.

Compared to the indiscriminate population plundering with a knife, this task is a bit too technically demanding.

After all, as long as their own tribe can survive, most tribes will not easily abandon their own tribe and join another one without a certain reason.

However, this is a slow thing to do. Compared with population plunder, the people absorbed by this method are the most stable.

If I had known this would happen, I would have eradicated the Tengshe tribe right away.

With such a powerful external threat, it would be much easier to absorb and accommodate the surrounding small tribes.

Han Cheng rubbed his head, thinking helplessly.

Moreover, now that I think about it carefully, I was a little too panicked when facing the Tengshe Tribe.

At that time, I only wanted to eliminate the Tengshe Tribe at the lowest possible cost, and then absorb prisoners of war from the Tengshe Tribe.

However, they forgot to take advantage of this opportunity to absorb and integrate the surrounding small tribes.

If after receiving the news that the Teng Snake Tribe attacked the Donkey Tribe and was preparing to attack his own tribe, he would send people to spread the news that there was an evil and powerful tribe lurking around.

With the powerful threat of the Tengshe tribe outside, Han Cheng can take advantage of this opportunity to lure and win over the tribes from inside. By doing this, he will be able to absorb one or two tribes.

If you are more ruthless, you can deliberately let the Tengshe tribe loose and let them wreak havoc on the surrounding tribes, deepening the fear of the surrounding tribes...

It's a pity that he remembered this too late. The powerful and evil Teng Snake Tribe was defeated by him in one fell swoop.

As a result, he missed an opportunity to rapidly increase the population of the Qingque tribe. Now he is scratching his head over the population issue.

This is often the case. You think you have caught the best, but later you realize that there are bigger and better things that you have missed.

Fortunately, I have grabbed something in my hands. If I had hesitated in the face of so many fruits and ended up with nothing, I would have regretted it for the rest of my life.

It seems that this matter will still fall on the business led by Shang and Mao.

After pondering for a long time, Han Cheng finally made a decision and went to talk to Shang and Mao about the matter.