After these slaves settled down, within a few days, the slaves with less serious injuries began to work.

Life in the Changhe tribe was much better than everyone expected. Although they had to do things every day, they no longer had to suffer from hunger and cold. Gradually, everyone did not reject their slave status so much.

Since these people became slaves temporarily, the great witches of the Muyuan tribe did not mark them as slaves one by one, and most of them still had the totems of their respective tribes.

After discussing with Bai, Dawu and Wu Nuo, the three of them did not mark them as slaves for the time being.

As time went by, these people gradually had some bold guesses.

Soon, their guesses became true.

"Temporarily exempt from slave status..."

"Migrate to a place further south..., the Changhe tribe will unify and delimit the area, and form sub-tribes..."

"The tribe provides seeds and planting methods for white sweet potatoes..."

"Open up wasteland...turn in food ...The grain discount is used to offset their selling fees..."

"Whoever reclaims the fields will own them. Part of the grain grown in the fields will be handed over to the tribe, and the rest will be distributed freely..." The

news came so suddenly that many people didn't know it at all. Believe your ears.

However, this is indeed a joint decision of the Dawu and the leader.

Wu Nuo and the others made such a decision out of helplessness.

The yield of white sweet potatoes is very high, but it is not easy to store. If the storage is not good, a whole cellar of food will be scrapped. Moreover, white sweet potatoes can only be stored for a few months at most, and sprouts will sprout soon after the end of the cold winter. Like potatoes, sprouting sweet potatoes are somewhat toxic. Therefore, it will be extremely difficult when the lean period comes. Fortunately, people in this world are physically strong, and a little bit of toxicity won't do them any harm, but after a long time, it's not a good thing after all. Moreover, in the event of a large-scale natural disaster, it is impossible for everyone to survive the food shortage period of more than a year for the white sweet potatoes stored in the cellar.

In contrast, the original species of wheat and rice are more resistant to storage and carrying, and are more suitable for strategic food reserves than white sweet potatoes.

The yield of white sweet potatoes is very high, but to feed a growing population, wider land is bound to be needed.

The fields reclaimed by the tribe are already very wide, and if they extend to the outside, they will inevitably face management difficulties.

Instead of letting everyone develop around the tribe, it is better to let some people migrate to places with better planting conditions to the south, reclaim wasteland, and use it as a base to develop a lower-level sub-tribe. When there are more and more sub-tribes like this, the Changhe Tribe will grow bigger and bigger, and eventually it will become a city-state or even... a country.

Expand outward.

When Wu Nuo explained his thoughts to Bai and Da Wu for the first time, both of them stared wide-eyed!

To put it bluntly, these slaves are the compensation they earned in this war against the pasture, allowing them to serve as slaves within the tribe. For the tribe, it is just a rental fee. By giving them the status of free people, they will certainly reduce the rental fee, but in other words, they can collect food as compensation, and at the same time expand their territory. After all, few people would be willing to let the existing residents move to a place far away from the tribe to open up wasteland. And these people, they are not only willing, but also very grateful for the kindness and generosity of the tribe.

Immediately after a heated discussion, Bai and Da Wu made many additions.

For example, the standards for collecting food, such as sending legions to garrison, such as arranging special people to be responsible for supervision and collection, and so on.

After a series of issues were negotiated, even Bai Damiao knew that it was far more cost-effective to let these people reclaim wasteland than to let them be slaves in the tribe.

His idea is relatively simple and rude. Treat these people as slaves. They have to give them food, and let them reclaim wasteland to form sub-tribes. Not only do they not need to be given more food, but they can also collect a lot of money every year, and the land is also bigger. Circle, this business can make a profit without losing money! ︿(￣︶￣)︿For those who received the news suddenly, their original homeland no longer exists. There is actually no essential difference between staying in the Changhe Tribe or going to a more distant wasteland. , and the latter would allow them to remain freemen. What's more, the Changhe Tribe will also provide them with white sweet potato seeds, teach them planting techniques, and storage methods. People who are used to handing over their prey and food to the tribe for uniform distribution do not feel that turning over part of their production to There is something wrong with the Long River Tribe. Moreover, according to the amount stated by the Changhe Tribe, after they handed over part of the food, the remaining food was enough for them to survive the cold winter.

In their hearts, nothing is more important than having food in the cold winter.

As for using part of the food to cover the cost of selling one's body, it's even less of a problem. If you pay for the food, you can be released from slavery, which is much better than keeping your children and grandchildren as slaves, right?

These are already thousands of times better than the best results they had imagined.

After the news was sent out, Bai began to leave the tribe frequently, and went to the south of the tribe to find suitable sub-tribe settlements.

Soon, Bai found a place with a very favorable environment - the river mouth where Ahman's canoe was frozen.

In Wu Nuo's words, there is a natural ferry with plenty of water and flat and fertile land. To the west, there is a small forest. There are no beasts in the forest, but it can provide enough wood. The river surface is relatively wide and deep. Except for pterosaurs, ordinary dragon beasts and other beasts will not easily cross the river, which can be regarded as the main route to avoid the beast tide. Of course, even if there was an overwhelming beast tide, they could still hide in the forest.

The most important thing is that this place is not too far from the Changhe Tribe. At Bai's current flying speed, he can get there in an hour at most. It takes about a whole day or a little more to take a bullock cart, and it takes even longer to walk. . However, when the road is opened, the time required will be greatly shortened. Another point is that there are no tribes around, and conflicts will not easily occur, and it will be easier to expand further in the future.

After Bai selected the address, the Muyuan tribe sent the second batch of slaves.

The state of this batch of slaves was worse than the previous batch. However, when they arrived at the tribe and heard a series of news about them, they were all in high spirits. Except for a very few who were seriously injured, The others survived without any risk.

Time passed day by day, and when the Muyuan tribe sent the last batch of slaves over, the cold winter ended unknowingly.

A new year begins.

The Muyuan Tribe scraped together the war indemnities with great difficulty, but they were really powerless to collect the money for the ransom of the prisoners.

Mutu and others came to Changhe Tribe several times to deliver slaves, and also found out which of the prisoners of war belonged to Muyuan and which ones did not.

They tightened their belts, and they couldn't get enough supplies to redeem the prisoners of war of their own tribe, let alone redeem the prisoners of war of other tribes.

Soon, just like Bai planned, they took the orcs from the outside tribe as war slaves and sold them directly to the Changhe tribe at a discounted price, and then successfully redeemed the orcs from their own tribe.

The Muyuan tribe is well aware of the consequences of doing so, but they really can't exchange more materials and people.

Those tribes that joined Muyuan to fight against the Changhe tribe were basically Muyuan's loyalists. Although those tribes were extremely dissatisfied with Muyuan's decision from top to bottom, they didn't dare to do anything to the Muyuan tribe. In particular, their participation in the war has already offended the Changhe tribe, and then offended Muyuan. The three big tribes have offended two of them. Do they still want to hang out in the Black Forest in the future?

No matter how aggrieved these small and medium-sized tribes were, they dared not speak out.

The cold winter has just ended, and those who can survive it are not bad. Basically, there is nothing valuable left in each household. Even if they want to redeem people back, they have to wait until they have saved up supplies in the future.

As for the prisoners of war, they were indeed a little bit reluctant to leave these days in Changhe, but they didn't really miss their families or go home. They silently waited to be redeemed, but they waited and waited, and the result was that they were sent to the Changhe Tribe as war slaves. Orc slaves normally sold to the Changhe tribe can be sold for 500 yuan, but their prisoners of war can only deduct 100 yuan. This is an indescribable shame for any orc warrior who values ​​dignity and honor.

In fact, it is not that they have not guessed this result. But when they really got to this point, they felt their heartbroken like never before. At the moment when their fate was told, almost everyone felt a kind of resentment for being abandoned and betrayed by Mu Yuan and the original tribe.

A total of 345 prisoners of war were finally left in Changhe.

They are not even as lucky as the slaves who were resold to pay war reparations. Each of them was washed off the mark of the original tribe, and then marked with the mark of slaves.

In the Black Forest area, the orcs are the main fighting force, their status has always been very high, and they rarely become slaves.

Therefore, when these war slaves were portrayed as slaves, the deep shame and anger in their hearts almost overwhelmed them.

However, they have little room for resistance and bargaining.

It's a lie to say that they don't hate the Changhe tribe, but they hate the pastoral tribe and their original tribes who have abandoned them even more. However, apart from hating them, they can't help but worry about the females and cubs they left behind in the tribe.

These orcs are warriors, and most of them have already married, but not everyone is lucky enough to find orc females to be their mates, and most of them are married to pure human females. Now that they are slaves, the mainstay of the family is gone, what will happen to their pure human companions, their little cubs...

"...you go with those pure people to develop the wasteland and form sub-tribes. Those who perform well and have made meritorious deeds can apply to take their families by their side before the cold winter. They can be released from slave status, and even join the orcs of the tribe. Legion, restore your status as warriors..." Bai's unhurried voice made the blood of these orc slaves boil.

At this moment, they saw hope again!

In addition to the more than 300 orc war slaves, the Muyuan tribe sent some low-quality orcs over to deduct war reparations and ransom. The orcs sent later, like the pure people before, have obtained temporary immunity, but if they fail to pay their ransom fee within three years, they will also be marked as slaves, and as punishment, They will have a harder time regaining their freedom than normal slaves.

Bai asked people to reorganize all these orcs. Those with combat effectiveness were incorporated into the sub-tribe's war slave army as war slaves. They were responsible for the safety and hunting of the sub-tribe just like when they were warriors in the past. Those with low combat effectiveness, like other pure people, reclaim wasteland, and the reclaimed fields belong to themselves, but the grain produced must be handed over, and at the same time, they have to pay a far higher redemption fee than pure people.

After the arrangements were made, Bai recruited some orcs from his subordinates to form a brand new orc army, and at the same time he appointed orc warrior Teng as the head of the new army. He led this legion to stay in the sub-tribe for a long time, responsible for supervising the safety of the sub-tribe, directly managing the orc slave army, and conveying the tribe to issue all orders. In addition, Bai selected an old orc, Hui Lang, to be in charge of the daily management of the sub-tribe. To a certain extent, Hui Lang and Teng can supervise and restrict each other. In the long run, it can avoid the power of the sub-tribe If it falls into the hands of a certain person, it will become bigger in the future but will not obey the command of the tribe, or even backfire.

At the same time, two leaders are arranged in the sub-tribes, one is in charge of military affairs and the other is in charge of internal affairs, to check each other, and finally the power is in their hands. Wu Nuo had to admire Bai's sensitivity to power.

That's right, Bai came up with these arrangements on his own. Wu Nuo thought of sending people to supervise the sub-tribes, but he didn't expect to separate power, first decentralization and then centralization.

After participating in the management decision-making of the tribe, Wu Nuo has made great progress in terms of doing things and thinking about problems compared with before, but some things are innate and hard to catch up. For example, a sense of politics.

Teng and Hui Lang were not chosen randomly by Bai. Although Teng was young, he was able to handle combat and adaptability. Quite a good experience, and most importantly, both of them were the original residents of the Changhe tribe, and their loyalty to the tribe, to him as the leader, and to the great witch was beyond doubt.

Only by sending such people to the newly opened sub-tribes can Bai feel relieved.

The personnel are properly arranged, and the snow has gradually begun to melt.

Teng and Huilang followed Bai with a large army, and started a new journey with a cart full of white sweet potatoes and original wheat.