"That's hard to explain." Indeed, these days, walking is difficult, transportation is inconvenient, so how can we effectively count the population? No one would even think of doing that, right? Even to represent numbers, they used large sticks about the length of a palm and smaller sticks about the length of a pinky finger.
The big stick meant ten people, and the small stick meant one person. It was just that crude. If Ma Yue hadn't taught them how to express numbers, the Hai tribe would have used the same method to describe numbers.
The Hai Tribe never had more than a hundred people. Could they use larger sticks to represent the number 100? Ma Yue spent a lot of effort, displaying more and larger sticks, and finally made the people of the Hai Tribe realize that the number 100 was a unit of counting.
It is not easy for the two priests and three leaders to understand the number of thousand at a higher level.
The so-called primitive tribes in this area, the concept of region itself is very vague, roughly referring to the tribes that have a record of trading with the core location of the "Niupi" tribe. It is said that the farthest tribe that reached the "Niupi" tribe for trading would have traveled for several months.
Traveling is really difficult these days, let alone in winter.
At the last Ice and Snow Festival, six people from the larger tribes came, and about fifty-one from the smaller tribes. That's quite a lot. Even a small tribe, like the Sea Tribe back then, would have to have around fifty people, men, women, young and old, right? So, the population of the smaller tribes that managed to come to the Niupi Tribe for the Ice and Snow Festival was at least over two thousand five hundred.
The other six major tribes had a combined population of over 2,000, and the Niupi tribe had nearly 1,000. All told, this area had at least 5,000 to 6,000 people.
With such a large population, the demand for salt is huge.
Of course, Ma Yue also knew that many tribes could not afford salt. For those small tribes, poverty was the original sin, and salt, that kind of high-end product, was really unaffordable.
Do you want to lower the price next year?
The animal husbandry of the Hai tribe has basically taken shape. After a few large-scale transactions of people and livestock from the "Niupi" tribe, the animal husbandry of the Hai tribe can develop on its own in the future.
"Lower the price?" Ma Yue's words made the two priests and three leaders feel very painful. How could they understand the true meaning of business?
"From now on, our Hai Tribe will primarily rely on farming, and we will strive to be self-sufficient through our own farming. Then, when the price of salt drops, more tribes will be able to afford it.
Then, more people will come to our sea tribe to trade food. The food exchanged for salt is a good supplement to our tribe's initial food supply, and we basically don't need to go out hunting anymore.
The idle labor force will further expand the planting area, and the harvest of onions, radishes, and sunflowers will increase..."
Ma Yue roughly explained the reasoning, and the two priests and three leaders roughly understood it. After all, it was the instructions given by the charlatan, so whether you understand it or not, you have to follow it, right?
"You charlatan, the Niupi tribe has the largest trading volume at the Ice and Snow Festival." said the second priest.
"But we can't buy too much on credit, right?" Ma Yue was worried. The Hai tribe's reserves of crude salt were limited. Boiling salt was not only hard work, but also difficult to harvest.
"You charlatan, we have so much food and furs, we can still make salt in winter!" said the high priest with a grim heart.
"Won't he freeze to death?" Ma Yue looked at the high priest in surprise.
"Not really. In the past, our hunting team didn't freeze to death even when they were out searching for food and firewood on an empty stomach in such a cold winter, right?" said Chief Hai.
It seems... it's true! In the cold winter, not only do you have to go out from time to time to find food, but you also have to go out from time to time to find firewood.
"We have nearly 150 able-bodied men. Excluding the 40 or 50 who stay behind, there are almost 100 who can go out and cook salt against the cold wind." The third leader Wu Qi said. It was the same with the bear tribe before. What's more, now they can bring food with them and drink hot soup with salt. The conditions are much better than in previous winters.
He is a strong man with a good physique. If he has a thick fur coat, he will be more resistant to the cold.
Ma Yue still underestimated the powerful physique of primitive people. It seemed normal for a few people to freeze to death even if they went out in the cold winter.
"Okay, this way, we can still harvest a lot of salt in the cold winter one month before the Ice and Snow Festival." Since you don't care, why should I, an exploiting class, be polite?
The organization has made a decision. Ordinary tribesmen are used to taking orders and obeying. It is said that these primitive people are very honest and easy to manage.
The absence of snow doesn't mean it's not winter. Even if it's very cold outside, you have to go out and cook salt. Ma Yue deliberately instructed the seven strong men. The two priests and the three leaders all understood that they had to keep an eye on the seven strong men. To keep it secret, they couldn't take them out to cook salt.
In such a large tribe with around 400 people, only seven people without the power of faith were not many. In Ma Yue's opinion, not having the power of faith in oneself was disloyalty to the tribe.
Ma Yue was still worried and searched the 150 or so able-bodied men. Among them, the 33 with low Faith Power were not allowed to go with them to cook salt. Only able-bodied men with above-average Faith Power could participate in cooking salt. There were 108 of them, which was quite a lot.
Thirty-three, plus seven, makes exactly forty able-bodied men, who stay in the tribe.
Of course, since there is a distinction, there should also be a distinction in treatment. The 108 strong men who went out in the cold wind have worked the hardest, so of course they should be given the best food.
Normally, in primitive society, there was never any equality. How the chief divided the food was almost natural, and no one had any objection.
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