Chapter 170 A Difficult Reward
“Zhao Geng has met the leader!”
At this moment, Zhao Geng is smelly of sweat. In this climate that is far from cool, It stinks even more.
But Zhou Xu obviously doesn’t care about this.
“How has the harvest been lately?”
Autumn is the harvest season. As early as outside the village, Zhou Xu had already seen farmers busy in the fields.
Facing this problem, Zhao Geng showed a simple smile on his face.
"The harvest is very good. Although it has not been harvested yet, according to my estimation, there will be no problem in getting through this winter."
Zhao Geng and the others have not studied mathematics and cannot do it yet. I don't know what's going on, so I can't give him a more detailed report.
However, as the Minister of Agriculture, Zhao Geng is still very knowledgeable in estimating grain production and consumption.
He said it was no problem, so it must be no problem.
And when Zhou Xu called Zhao Geng over at this busiest time, it was definitely not for this matter. It was just a casual question, and the main thing was still to come.
"Zhao Geng, I plan to expand the size of the fields and increase grain production."
Hearing this, Zhao Geng frowned slightly, obviously not optimistic about this proposal.
"Chief, let me tell you bluntly, our current grain production is completely sufficient. Continuing to expand the size of the fields and increase grain production is just a waste of labor and food, unless..."
Having said this, Zhao Geng didn't say any more, but just looked at Zhou Xu calmly, as if waiting for an answer.
Many people may not understand Zhao Geng's words at all. Only people who have truly lived in this era can understand that there is nothing wrong with what he said.
Because in this era, the storage conditions are very poor, and the extra food is difficult to store for a long time. If it cannot be eaten in time, it will spoil quickly.
Zhao Geng was responsible for growing food when he was in the previous tribe. It can be said that he has a deep understanding of this matter.
This approach is just a waste of labor and food in the end.
Of course, there is one exception...
"It's what you think."
Looking at Zhao Geng's expression, Zhou Xu smiled.
"After the spring of next year, I will mobilize troops to recruit the population and increase the labor force in the tribe."
This is not a secret in itself, and Zhou Xu doesn't mind telling Zhao Geng.
Zhao Geng was no stranger to this matter. After all, their original tribe did not have such a large population at the beginning.
“Okay, I get it, how much will it increase by approximately?”
“The food needs to be increased by two hundred people, but the size of the cultivated fields must be based on five hundred people. !”
Zhou Xu already knew this in his mind, and now that Zhao Geng asked him, he quickly gave an answer.
When the next spring comes, he will have all the equipment in place and officially move his troops towards the barren mountain camp. It will not be just a matter of picking up a few small tribes and be done with it.
If nothing unexpected happened, he planned to wipe out the whole tribe together with the wild stone tribe within a year at the latest.
By then, the population of their tribe will have doubled, and the current food production will definitely not be able to keep up.
In order to avoid being stretched due to food problems, you must get busy in advance.
As things go, the task that falls on Zhao Geng's shoulders is undoubtedly arduous.
After all, at this time, while Zhou Xu was directly increasing their workload, he was unable to increase their manpower. The main reason is that the tribe really can't spare any manpower.
Although the Ministry of Agriculture has a lot of people, a lot of people have been diverted from breeding and fishing, leaving not much for farming.
It is the autumn harvest season now. The workload of the farming team is already heavy, but now there is new work.
However, Zhao Geng still behaved quite calmly.
After all, formal farming does not start until spring, and their main job now, in addition to autumn harvest, is to prepare for the spring.
In this way, they can start sowing and cultivating directly after spring begins, so that the entire spring plowing work will not be delayed and the work efficiency will be improved accordingly.
Although the situation at the grassland camp also made Zhou Xu worried, the various tasks at Black Moon Village also forced him to stay here for a while longer.
Early the next morning, the engineering team members returned from Salt Lake Village in an ox cart.
With the completion of the domestication of the second and third batches of bison at the grassland camp, the number of oxen carts within their tribe is also increasing, and the initial constraints have long been eliminated.
The ox cart of the transportation team here in Heiyue Village was hauling supplies to Salt Lake Village. When the people from the engineering team saw it, they rode the ox cart back.
As soon as they returned to Heiyue Village and learned that their leader was back, Wang Dashi, the captain of the engineering team, did not dare to complain and hurried over to report the work situation.
After listening to the report, Zhou Xu praised Wang Dashi with a smile and rewarded them with a batch of meat rabbits.
“Thank you, chief!”
Then looking at Wang Dashi’s retreating figure, Zhou Xu fell into deep thought.
【Recently, this reward thing has become increasingly difficult. 】
Earlier, everyone in the tribe didn't have enough to eat. If the tribe members did well, he would reward them with a little food, which would make them happy and grateful.
But now, their tribe has two meals a day, and they can eat enough every time. The tribe members don’t have to worry about food. Gradually, everyone’s thirst for food begins to decrease.
The effect of simply rewarding food is getting worse and worse.
But besides food, based on the current situation, what else can he reward?
At this moment, Zhou Xu clearly realized that his current situation was really similar to that of some ancient emperors facing those great heroes who had no rewards and no titles.
In the beginning, their motivation for working was to have enough to eat and to survive!
But what now? Having enough food and staying alive is no longer a problem, so the corresponding rewards will naturally no longer have the intended effect.
As a tribal leader, from Zhou Xu's perspective, this may not be a good thing. Over time, it may even cause him some trouble.
He needs to add a little new motivation to the tribe members.
【Maybe it's time to mint currency. 】
The minting of currency represents the beginning of the trade era. The original era of unified distribution of food resources is completely over. Tribal members need to earn currency through work, and then buy everything including food.
One of the most practical benefits of starting to mint currency and launch trade operations now is that it can solve Zhou Xu's "reward" problem. In this mode, he can just reward money directly.
At the same time, he no longer needs to worry about the basic lives of the tribe members.
Furthermore, after the spring, their tribe will inevitably increase a large number of people through recruitment. Once the population increases, it will be more difficult to popularize the currency and trade system.
On the contrary, if the population is small, the difficulty of popularization will be low.
Now that it is popularized first, when new people join in, they will naturally be able to "do as the Romans do." As their system operates, it will bring him a lot of convenience.
(End of this chapter)