After announcing the selection criteria for underage slaves, Han Cheng had basically told everything he needed to say.
As the leader of the tribe, after the eldest brother said a few words, it was time for the witch to perform.
The witch had been thinking for many days about holding a formal meeting to worship the gods, telling them about the good things that had happened in the tribe, thanking them, and praying to them to continue blessing the tribe, so that they could get more good things and become more prosperous and powerful.
Now that the eldest brother and the others have returned and have held such a meeting today, it is only natural to put the meeting to worship the gods after this meeting.
Many things will change with changes in objective conditions, such as the tribe's worship of gods.
At the beginning, it was carried out in the tribe's caves.
Later, as houses were built in the tribe, people moved out of the caves and lived in the houses. The totem poles of the tribe were moved into the houses. When sacrifices were needed, they were carried from the houses to the caves.
Now, as the population of the tribe continues to increase, the caves in the tribe can no longer accommodate so many people, so even the place of sacrifice has changed.
Moreover, it was Wu who took the initiative to propose moving the place for worshiping the gods from the cave to the Qingque Square. He was a person who was generally reluctant to make too many changes when it came to matters involving the gods and worshiping them.
Han Cheng naturally agreed to such a thing very readily.
Although he is the son of God in the tribe and nominally the most powerful charlatan in the tribe, he is far from being as sincere as the witch when it comes to things like offering sacrifices to the gods.
The truth is that the tribe can be what it is today because of him and the people in the tribe who have worked hard bit by bit, and it really has nothing to do with the gods.
Of course, he did not oppose these things, nor did he say anything about overthrowing the gods.
This is not only because he is still the son of God and has a halo around him, but more importantly, the tribe is far from developing to the point where it needs to completely abandon its faith.
For today's tribes, the positive significance of this primitive sacrifice far outweighs the negative significance.
Moreover, the development of society and things is staged, and things that suit the actual situation of the tribe are the most practical.
Forcing something that is too advanced into a stage where it is not suitable will not only fail to achieve the desired effect, but will also cause harm to the tribe and affect its development.
Han Cheng did not object to this level of primitive belief and worship within the tribe.
More often than not, people watch from a bystander's perspective, just like watching temple fairs in later generations.
Amid the sounds of gongs and drums, the totem pole placed in the house where Han Cheng, Wu and others lived was carried out by the eldest brother and others, and then placed on the platform that had been tidied up.
Under the fluttering Green Bird flag, a more rough and primitive totem pole stood there. Han Cheng, the son of God, stood beside the totem as he did in the past, enjoying the same treatment as the totem pole.
In front of Han Cheng and the totem pole, there were several tables covered with red linen, on which were placed things used for worshiping the gods.
There are no such things as the three or five animals that were commonly used in ancient times.
Placed on it were the rice that Han Cheng brought back from Jinguan City, white kaolin clay, a bowl of cold water just drawn from the well, a piece of meteorite iron, and a white skull.
These things were obtained by the tribe this year. They represent the strength of the tribe and its continued improvement.
In Han Cheng's opinion, such sacrifices are far more meaningful than the three animals.
A pile of flames has been lit in front of the platform. This is also an indispensable tool when the witch formally offers sacrifices to the gods.
On the one hand, it is because people of this era generally have a fear of fire, believing that it is something sacred but also something that can bring harm to people.
On the other hand, without the blazing flame, people always feel that there is less sense of ritual.
Looking at the burning flames, the witch with a feather crown on his head and a bone staff in his hand was in a completely different state, with reverence, excitement, and piety.
However, Han Cheng, who was standing next to the totem pole on the platform, did not have the same excitement as the witch. Instead, he narrowed his eyes.
Of course it wasn't because he couldn't bear to watch it, but because the smoke blown by the wind got into his eyes.
In addition to the change in the venue for large-scale sacrifices, another major change is that this time, the people performing the sacrifices are not just witches.
As the next witch in the tribe who has been trained by the witch for several years and has reached adulthood, Shitou also took the stage this time.
He was dressed like the witch, with a feather crown on his head and a bone staff in his hand.
However, compared with the feather crown on the witch's head, the feathers on his crown appeared much sparser and far less bright than the feather crown on the witch's head. The bone staff in his hand was not as big as the bone staff in the witch's hand.
In fact, Shitou doesn't like to do such things.
This is not only because he feels that these things are extremely tedious and difficult to remember, but also far less interesting than other things.
The more important reason is that over the years, the gods have never paid any attention to me, let alone talked to me, and they haven't even given me any revelations.
Such things made Shitou very uncomfortable, and as a result, he lost some patience and due respect for the aloof God.
If Wu had not told him more than once with certainty that he himself had received revelations from the gods and had communicated with them, Shitou would have wanted to hug the totem pole in the tribe and ask the gods whether they were asleep.
Sometimes, I even want to slap the totem pole twice to wake up the sleeping god...
Shitou had practiced sacrifices many times under the guidance of the witch. After deciding to hold this sacrificial ceremony and let Shitou take part in the ceremony with him, the witch intensified his efforts on Shitou in the past few days. So even though this was the first time that Shitou had done such a thing in front of everyone, he was not too timid or panicked.
As the eldest brother struck the drum, a primitive, rough and simple sacrifice began.
The witch wearing a feather crown and holding a bone staff, and Shi Tou who were dressed in the same way, began to dance.
Shitou basically followed the witch throughout the whole process, doing whatever the witch did.
While dancing, the two of them were muttering something that probably only they could understand.
The two people did not just dance in the same place. Sometimes they would circle around the fire, and twice they went directly to the platform and circled around the totem pole and Han Cheng who was standing next to the totem pole.
After dancing for a while, under the guidance of the witch, the two people came down from the platform and circled around the people of the Qingque tribe who were standing in the square and looked very sacred and pious...
"God!"
After jumping and dancing for a while, Shitou felt so tired that he almost couldn't bear it. At that time, the witch who had been dancing finally stopped. He stood in the open space between the burning bonfire and the totem pole and shouted loudly to the totem pole. His voice was pious and he didn't sound tired at all.
The crowd, who had already been driven by this atmosphere, also shouted loudly along with the witch, and imitated the witch by putting their hands in front of them and saluting the totem pole.
"Son of God!"
The witch raised the bone staff in his hand, raised his arms and shouted with great piety and enthusiasm, then held the bone staff in his hand again, pressed his hand on his chest, and bent down deeply.
"Son of God!"
Shitou and the rest of the tribe raised their right hands like the witch and shouted in unison, full of reverence.
Junior Brother Sha and the other fifty people on guard raised their weapons high in the air, shouted loudly, and then bowed respectfully.
For a moment, the entire tribe was filled with rumbling sounds, and everyone leaned over, except for Han Cheng, who was standing on the totem pole.
I have to say, this feeling is really wonderful. Even Han Cheng, who doesn't have any big ambitions and just wants to develop the tribe quietly, couldn't help but feel his heart beating fast at this moment.
Fortunately, as a time traveler who had seen the world, Han Cheng quickly suppressed some other thoughts that arose from such scenes.
It's not that he can really be free from all desires and thoughts, but the current situation of the tribe simply does not allow him to have such thoughts.
In the eleventh year of Qingque, after absorbing the Feng and Linfeng tribes, the total population of the tribe reached 1,169, and the total population of citizens was 807.
Among them, there were 123 male adult citizens and 225 female adult citizens, a total of 348 people.
There were 459 minors.
There were 362 slaves in the tribe, including 182 adult slaves and 1,110 underage slaves.
This year, due to the Black Rock coalition's attack on the Tongshan residential area and the joining of the Creek Tribe, the population has experienced an explosive growth.
The number of people obtained from the Black Stone Alliance twice alone was more than 450, plus the 58 people from the Creek Tribe, the total number reached nearly 520.
It is almost half of the total population of the Qingque tribe before.
Adding the newborn babies that have been born in the tribe over the past six months, the total population of the Qingque tribe now stands at 1,732.
By the end of the year, after freeing one hundred slaves in the tribe to become citizens of the tribe, plus the nineteen people who would reach adulthood before the end of the year, the number of adult citizens in the tribe would reach four hundred and sixty-seven.
After the selection criteria for underage slaves are implemented, a large number of underage slaves will become citizens of the tribe within a short period of time.
Han Cheng made a rough estimate. According to the current trend, by the end of this year, there will be about 1,150 citizens and more than 600 slaves in the tribe.
Such a population is really very large for people like Wu who live in this era and have never seen a large tribe.
But Han Cheng, who came from later generations, knew that the population of a village in the plains was almost the same as that of the tribe, or even more than that of the tribe.
Under such circumstances, even if some thoughts really arose, he would not put them into practice.
Because this is really too much of a joke.
The best thing for tribes to do nowadays is to develop slowly and strengthen themselves.
As the tribe developed and grew stronger, and its population increased, some things naturally happened.
Even if it doesn't appear, Han Cheng only needs to give a little guidance.
There are a lot of things to do today. After a ceremony to worship the gods ended, the totem poles were sent back to the room to be placed.
As for the crowd, they did not disperse because there were still some things to be done.
Under the arrangement of some people in the tribe, the people of Yuanxi tribe, led by the chief of Yuanxi tribe, stood out from the crowd and came to the high platform under the Qingque flag. Then they went on stage one by one and let the respected Son of God personally put on identity cards with their names engraved on them, representing their tribal citizenship.
After the ID cards were put on, the ceramic statue of the Green Bird was brought out and the Green Bird wine, which had great significance, was made for these people.
The meaning of identity cards and Qingque wine to new citizens of the tribe or those who are about to become citizens of the tribe is very similar to obtaining a marriage certificate and holding a wedding in later generations.
Strictly speaking, after having an ID card, this person is indeed a citizen of the tribe, but if he has never drunk Qingque wine, he always feels that something is missing.
It’s just like people in later generations who have received a marriage certificate but have not yet held a wedding.
"After drinking this bowl of Qingque wine, you will be a Qingque person from now on!"
After reiterating the significance of Qingque wine in front of everyone, mainly telling it to the people from Yuanxi tribe, Han Cheng held up the wine bowl and spoke these final concluding words to the people from the Xi tribe who were all drinking Qingque wine.
Then he took the lead in raising the wine bowl, tilted his head back, and drank it all in one gulp.
The rest of the people from the Yuanxi tribe who officially became citizens of the Qingque tribe this time, also raised their wine bowls and drank the Qingque wine in their bowls solemnly and cherishingly.
Even the children in her arms were dipped in some greenbird wine with her fingers and used to wet their lips.
Seeing this scene, the old slaves in the tribe, as well as some new slaves who understood the significance of this event, were all envious.
I hope that I and others can experience such a thing earlier, and I look forward to such a day coming sooner.
After a meeting that lasted more than half a day, the spirit of the people in the tribe was obviously different from before, and people seemed to have become more motivated.
The things announced at the conference were also being implemented in full swing.
The first thing was to turn the ignorant children among the tribal slaves into citizens of the tribe. Secondly, an examination was conducted for the older slaves in the tribe.
Just as Han Cheng had imagined before, this selection exam was mainly based on reading and writing.
There are also fill-in-the-blank questions.
For example, write the Green Bird Tribe’s masterpiece “The Tadpole Looking for Its Mother” on the test paper, and then leave some spaces on it for the children in the tribe to complete it.
In order to increase the fun, Han Cheng also drew some animals such as dogs, sheep, donkeys, pigs, rabbits, etc. on the test paper, and put brackets below them, asking the children to write the corresponding names of these animals in them.
Of course, because Han Cheng did not teach pinyin to everyone in the tribe, when it came to dictation, Han Cheng, who served as the first examiner, took a piece of paper with the standard answers written on it and slowly read the words written on it to the children taking the exam, asking them to do dictation.
In addition to these, after completing the test paper, the children also need to draw three bamboo sticks with words written on them from the bamboo tubes held by Han Cheng and read them.
As long as their studies are not particularly bad, Han Chengdu will pass them.
This time, the underage slaves who took the exam were basically "old" slaves who had lived in the tribe for a long time. They had been exposed to Mandarin and Chinese characters for a long time and their level was not low, especially in speaking, many of them were very fluent.
Although in this first exam, many people were so embarrassed that they cried because of the questions set by their Son of God, there were still many people who passed the assessment.
There were eighty-three people who passed the test, almost half of the old underage slaves.
The number of people is more than Han Cheng had expected.
For these minors who passed the assessment, Han Cheng not only announced publicly that they would become citizens of the tribe from today, but also gave each of them three lollipops in front of all the underage slaves, and also gave each of them a small red flower, which he personally tied on their clothes.
The children who passed the test held a lollipop in their mouths, a piece of candy in one hand, and a small red flower tied to their chests. They all held their chests high.
I wonder how many underage slaves were envious of such a glorious appearance.
Not only them, but even many adult slaves were envious of this and wanted the Son of God to tie a little red flower on their chests.
For example, the pine needles that had just arrived in the Qingque tribe not long ago.
After this scene appeared, it naturally triggered a trend of learning Mandarin and Chinese characters in the tribe.
At night, many minors would hold a stick, lie in front of the sand table, and practice by the light of fire or the bright moon.
The Qingque tribe's masterpiece "The Tadpole Looking for Its Mother" once again set off a wave of enthusiasm in the tribe. For a time, the voices of children reciting this masterpiece could be heard everywhere.
Under the influence of this trend, minors in the tribe who were originally citizens also joined the ranks of serious study.
As for those children who passed the assessment, changed their destiny, and won great honors, most of them did not put these things aside and also took time to study seriously.
Han Cheng was extremely satisfied watching this scene.
He was satisfied, but the children in the tribe were about to suffer, because the unscrupulous Son of God, who had seen the effect, quickly announced to the children in the tribe that when the next exam was held, they would not only be tested on Chinese characters and Mandarin, but also on mathematics.
After such a piece of news was announced, those children who didn't understand what mathematics was and how difficult it was, immediately started wailing.
At the same time, many people are still regretting why they didn't study the divine writing and divine language well before? If they had learned these two well and passed the last exam in one go, they would no longer have to suffer the torture of arithmetic.
But no matter how much they wailed, stimulated by becoming citizens of the tribe and receiving lollipops and red flowers, these children still studied math seriously under the guidance of Yuan, who had become a glorious math teacher. The math was so difficult that it made people want to bang their heads on the ground.
Han Cheng couldn't help but smile when he saw many children in the tribe pondering over a math formula that they had not liked to learn before.
Sure enough, just like in later generations, if you want a subject to flourish, you just need to include it in the college entrance examination. After being freed from slavery and stimulated by material and spiritual rewards such as red flowers and bangbang candies, most people in the tribe had always felt a headache. Except for a few people who liked to study, the rest basically did not study it if they could. Mathematics, which suddenly became a popular subject,
Originally, Han Cheng's plan was to take a group of people south to build the second branch tribe, Jinguan City, immediately after dealing with these matters.
But after seeing this situation, he stopped temporarily.
He wanted to compile a Chinese language book and a mathematics book for use in teaching in the tribe.
Prior to this, the teaching business had always been carried out in the tribe, and texts such as "The Tadpole Looking for Its Mother" and "The Monkey Catching the Moon" were produced to be used in conjunction with the learning of Chinese characters and Mandarin.
However, it has never been summarized and seems rather casual when taught.
As for mathematics, it is even more scattered than Mandarin and Chinese characters.
Before, there weren't enough people in the tribe, and the academic atmosphere wasn't so strong, so we could just make do with what we had.
But now it's different, because after this incident, the academic atmosphere in the tribe has suddenly become much more intense.
Under such circumstances, if we do not integrate and carefully revise the textbooks and continue to follow what was roughly developed before, it would not only be irresponsible to the people in the tribe, but also to the entire tribe and its future.
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