Candles were burning in the living room. In the dim, flickering light, an old goblin brought out a plate of bread and cooked soup from the kitchen. The aroma soon filled the entire house. With a shout of "It's time for dinner," the children ran out from every room.
They were dressed in simple coarse cloth, barefoot, and ran out cheering, and sat around the table without waiting for their elders to speak.
The table was rebuilt by the dwarves themselves. The original table in the house was too small and could only accommodate a maximum of five people for dining.
However, the old dwarves had too many children to take care of, so they had to replace the original table, bought a set of tools, and made new tables and chairs.
"There's broth!" The children looked excitedly at the pot of soup served on the table, each holding their own wooden bowl in their hands.
The old dwarf scooped soup for the child one spoonful at a time. Although it was meat soup with oil floating on the surface, the only thing used to make the soup was a large bone with meat on it, which was split in the middle and the bone marrow inside melted into the soup. It was also a rare delicacy.
They didn't have many cooking methods in the mountains, except roasting or boiling. There was often not enough salt, not to mention other seasonings, so eating was not a very enjoyable thing for them.
Until they arrived here, compared to the goblins, the first dwarves who came, except for some young people who were learning to farm, the old people were learning to make various sauces. They not only bought soy sauce, but also bought the recipe for making soy sauce.
In addition to making bacon from the game they hunt, they also make it into meat floss and store it in jars.
As for bacon, the dwarves were reluctant to use it because it would require too much salt.
After all, at that time, salt could be used as money and was hard currency.
"Eat slowly!" The old dwarf shouted worriedly as he watched the children "pouring" the broth into their mouths.
But the children didn't hear anything. They only knew that the broth was delicious and the bread was tasty.
After everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, the old men got some broth and bread and sat down to eat together. Each of them got the same amount as the children. Dwarves were different from goblins, who became more valuable as they got older. Even the chieftain was the oldest woman.
But the dwarf leader is the strongest one in the tribe.
The life strategy of dwarves is completely different from that of goblins. Goblins need to migrate constantly and avoid the routes of wild beasts during their migration. Goblins hunt, but they also gather, and they migrate constantly, so even if they don't raise livestock, in a sense, they can be said to be a bit nomadic.
But dwarves are not like that. Dwarves are sturdier and stronger than goblins, and they can make a living entirely by hunting.
Therefore, the leader of the dwarves must be a strong and mature dwarf who can command the tribe members when hunting, and even serve as the main force.
Under this premise, all resources must be tilted towards the middle-aged dwarves, and the elderly and children in the tribe are actually not able to get enough to eat.
Only after coming here can the elderly and children finally fill their stomachs. However, due to habit, when the elderly share the meal, they still eat the same amount as the children. This habit may continue for a long time.
"Grandma." The young children surrounded the old people after they finished their meal.
The children all held their own toys in their hands, including wooden horses or stuffed dolls that the adults bought from the supermarket.
The old man who was surrounded smiled and could only clear his throat and say, "Sit down."
The children immediately found a place to sit down, looked up at the old man, and waited for him to tell a story.
Before telling a story, a child asked: "Auntie, aren't mommy and daddy coming back tonight?"
The old man smiled and said, "They are staying on the mountain tonight."
Although they have only moved to the town for over a month, life in the mountains is already far away from them for the children.
When they were still in the mountains, the children lived in a cave, and their parents would build a sturdy wooden door for them to keep out wild beasts.
But the cave was damp, and the children often broke out in rashes and were bitten by insects hiding in the cracks in the rocks.
They don't always have enough to eat, and the smoked meat they store is for the winter when there is little prey. As long as winter hasn't come, the tribe will not touch the food they have stored for the winter no matter how hungry they are.
In addition, the elderly and children are the lowest class in dwarf society, so adults may still have food, but they have to starve.
Perhaps human children yearn for the freedom of the mountains and forests, but for dwarf children, life at the foot of the mountain is much happier. They sleep in dry rooms, can cover themselves with soft, cloud-like quilts instead of animal skins, and wear thin clothes.
Finally they no longer have to eat tasteless barbecue and broth.
The mountains and forests did not make them happy. Those flying insects and traps left by others could put them in danger.
Without medicine and a dry environment, once they get sick, all the tribesmen can do is watch them die.
The old man smiled and told stories to the children.
These stories have been passed down from generation to generation. There is no logic in them. They are just ordinary stories, and cannot even be said to have a clear beginning, middle, or end. However, children listen to them with great interest.
The old man stood up only when there was no more sound on the street, and urged the children to go back to their rooms to sleep.
The children wanted to listen more, but the elders did not accommodate them, so the children could only return to their room reluctantly.
After the children fell asleep, several old people sat down at the table. They replaced the candlestick on the table with a smaller one. Under the flickering candlelight, the old people took out the chopped wood and small carving knives and slowly carved toys for the children.
"There probably aren't many prey in the mountains these days." The white-haired old man sighed.
The dwarves had to walk for several days this time because all the prey outside the forest had been hunted down. If they wanted to hunt more, they had to go further inside.
If you go deep, it will take several days or even more than ten days to go back and forth.
Another old man said, "Just wait until we grow some food."
Hunting is hard and dangerous, and the mountains and forests are full of dangers. Why gamble your life when you can live a stable life?
"Kelly said we can try to grow more corn," the old man said. "We can plant it in April next year. Corn can be eaten as a meal and can also be used to make sugar."
“It can also make sugar!”
The old people became excited because they knew how rare sugar was and no one didn't like sugar.
The old man who was speaking looked out the window. It was pitch black outside, with only light coming from the direction of the supermarket.
He whispered, "The human race is still very good."
"Especially Kelly, she is a good person." The old man exclaimed.
The other elders echoed this, and the old man continued, “Kelly said that we should be able to press our own oil and make sugar. We should not only be self-sufficient, but also live better than the people outside. We should be able to sell the sugar and oil. This way, when they leave, we can continue to live here.”
When these words were spoken, everyone was stunned. They could not imagine such a future.
The old man continued: "Kelly also said, she said..."
Others immediately asked: "What did she say?!"
The old man knocked his head and murmured, "Let me think about it, I imagine..."
After thinking for a while, the old man shouted, "I figured it out!"
The old people who had almost forgotten about this looked at him again. The old man said, "Kelly said that the better we live, the more likely people outside will come to rob us, so we have to be able to protect ourselves."
Old man: "We... um... we don't just mean us."
Everyone: “……???”
Who are we not pointing at?
Old man: "Not only dwarves, but also goblins, elves, orcs, and even the humans living in the town."
"There are too few dwarves. We can only live in peace if all races work and protect the town."
When talking about the small number of people, the other elderly people fell silent.
Their tribe has experienced several huge blows in the past hundred years. First, their original home was destroyed by wild beasts, and then the children fell ill and died one after another. The adult dwarves gave birth less and less frequently. Originally, they had nearly a thousand people, but now there are less than three hundred left.
"It is said that in the future, young men from each race will be selected for training." The old man did not understand what training meant specifically, but he roughly guessed it.
"The human race wants to come too?" The old men looked at each other but didn't say anything else.
Compared to safety, being with the human race doesn't seem so unacceptable.
The conflicts between different races are huge, but the biggest one is with humans.
This is inevitable because the human race is powerful and will naturally occupy the living space of other races.
After all, there are so many resources.
Ultimately, the cake is not big enough.
"Let's wait until they come back."
"Yes, we still have to wait for the clan leader to come back."
The old people didn't dare to make a decision, and they tacitly didn't mention the matter again.
In addition to the dwarves, other races also discussed the matter after receiving the news, but unlike the dwarves, they agreed almost immediately. Not to mention the orcs, their numbers were too small and they did not think they could protect themselves on their own.
The goblin had a very clear understanding of her own fighting power, and the old goblin was still there, so she didn't think much about it. The advantages of this matter outweighed the disadvantages, and they were several times greater than the disadvantages. The old goblin agreed to it almost immediately.
The elves had no objection at all. They were also worried about where to buy sugar, salt and oil after the supermarkets closed.
If the town was self-sufficient, they would never leave.
Under this premise, cooperation with other races is not that difficult to accept.
Ye Zhou had not expected that all the residents in the town, including the human race, were willing to select young men and women for training - of course not all of them, but only a part. Otherwise, if no one went hunting, they would have no income during this period, and the dwarves still had to farm.
But as long as people are willing to respond, Ye Zhou will leave some explosives for them in addition to the crossbow.
In this way, if someone really attacks, the explosives alone can scare them first, and then we can lure them into negotiation with some goods or sugar from the branch.
We need to let outsiders know that this small town is a tough nut to crack. It will be difficult to take it down and will cost a huge price with no guarantee of gain.
But if you don't fight and can easily gain benefits from this town, then of course there is no need to fight.
As long as the town has enough to offer and the nobles and merchants outside are greedy enough.
This town will be able to exist for a long time.
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