Throne of Vientiane Civilization

"Zhao Geng met the leader!"

At this moment, Zhao Geng stinks from sweat, and the stink is even worse in this far from cool weather.

But Zhou Xu obviously didn't care about this.

"How's the harvest recently?"

Autumn is the harvest season. As early as outside the village, Zhou Xu had already seen farmers busy in the fields.

Facing this question, Zhao Geng showed a simple smile on his face.

"The harvest is very good. Although it has not been confiscated, according to my estimation, there is absolutely no problem in getting through this winter."

Zhao Geng and the others haven't studied mathematics, and they don't know about Jinliang at present, so they can't give him a more detailed report.

However, as the minister of the Ministry of Agriculture, Zhao Geng is still very good at estimating grain production and consumption.

He said it was okay, so it must be okay.

And Zhou Xu summoned Zhao Geng here at this busiest time, definitely not for this matter, it was just a casual question, the main thing is still to come.

"Zhao Geng, I plan to expand the size of the field and increase food production."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Geng frowned slightly, obviously not optimistic about the proposal.

"Leader, let me just say that our current food production is completely sufficient. If we continue to expand the size of the field and increase food production, it is just a waste of labor and food, unless..."

Having said that, Zhao Geng didn't say any more, but just looked at Zhou Xu calmly, as if he was waiting for an answer.

Many people may not understand Zhao Geng's words at all. Only those who really live in this era can understand that there is nothing wrong with what he said.

Because in this era, the preservation conditions are very poor, and it is difficult to preserve the extra food for a long time. If it cannot be eaten in time, it will soon go bad.

When Zhao Geng was in the previous tribe, he was responsible for growing food, and he had a deep understanding of this matter.

This approach, in the end, is just a waste of labor and food.

Of course, there is one exception...

"Exactly what you think."

Seeing Zhao Geng's expression, Zhou Xu smiled.

"After the beginning of spring next year, I will mobilize troops to recruit the population and increase the labor force in the tribe."

It's not a secret in itself, Zhou Xu didn't mind telling Zhao Geng.

And Zhao Geng is no stranger to this matter, after all, their original tribe did not have such a large population in the beginning.

"Okay, I see, how much will it increase?"

"The premise of food is to increase the number of people by 200 people first, but the scale of the cultivated fields must be premised on the premise of 500 people!"

Zhou Xu already knew this matter in his heart, and now Zhao Geng asked, and he quickly gave an answer.

When the next spring begins, he will be fully equipped and formally mobilize troops towards the barren mountain camp. It won't just be a matter of bringing in a few small tribes.

If there is no accident, he intends to join the Manshi tribe, and within a year at the earliest, he will wipe out the whole tribe.

At that time, the population of their tribe will surely double, and the current food production will definitely not be able to keep up.

In order not to be stretched because of the food problem, it must be busy in advance.

As things were ordered, the task that fell on Zhao Geng's shoulders was undoubtedly arduous.

After all, at this moment, while Zhou Xu directly increased the workload for them, there was no way to increase the manpower for them.

The main reason is that the tribe really can't move its manpower.

Although there are many people in the Ministry of Agriculture, many people are separated from the breeding and fishery, and there are actually not many people left for farming.

Right now is the autumn harvest season, and the workload of the farming team is already heavy, but now there is a new job.

However, Zhao Geng still remained calm.

After all, the formal farming does not start until the beginning of spring, and their main work now, besides the autumn harvest, is to prepare for the beginning of spring.

In this way, after the beginning of spring, they can start planting directly, so that the whole spring plowing work will not be procrastinated, and the work efficiency will be improved accordingly.

Although Zhou Xu was concerned about the situation in the grassland camp, the various tasks in Heiyue Village forced him to stay here for a while.

Early the next morning, members of the engineering team came back from Salt Lake Village in a bullock cart.

With the completion of the domestication of the second and third batches of bison in the grassland camp, the number of ox carts in their tribe is also increasing, and the initial difficulties have long been gone.

The ox carts of the transportation team from Heiyue Village were pulling supplies to Salt Lake Village. When the engineering team saw them, they came back with the ox carts.

Upon returning to Heiyue Village, Wang Dashi, the captain of the engineering team, didn't dare to complain when he learned that their leader had returned, so he rushed 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, leader!"

Then looking at Wang Dashi's retreating figure, Zhou Xu fell into deep thought.

[Recently, the matter of rewards has become more and more difficult to deal with. 】

In the early days, everyone in the tribe didn’t have enough to eat, and if the tribe members did a good job, he would reward them with a little food, which would make people ecstatic and grateful.

But now, their tribe eats two meals a day, and every meal is full, and the members of the tribe don't have to worry about food. Gradually, everyone's desire for food began to decrease.

The effect of simply rewarding food is getting worse and worse.

But apart from food, according to the current situation, what else could 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 or seals.

In the beginning, their motivation to work was to have enough food and to survive!

But now? It is no longer a problem to eat enough and survive, so the corresponding rewards will naturally no longer have the effect they should have.

As the leader of the tribe, from Zhou Xu's point of view, this may not be a good thing, and it may even bring him some troubles over time.

He needs to give the tribesmen a little fresh momentum.

[Maybe it's time to mint currency. 】

The casting of currency represents the opening of the era of trade. The era of uniform distribution of food resources is completely over. Tribal members need to earn currency through work, and then buy everything including food.

Now, starting to mint currency and launch trade operations, the most real benefit 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 needed to worry about the basic life of the tribe members.

Going forward, after the beginning of spring, their tribes must increase their population through incorporation. Once the population increases, it will be more difficult to popularize the currency and trading system.

On the contrary, the population is small, and the difficulty of popularization is low.

Taking advantage of the popularization of it first, when the new population joins in, they will naturally be able to 'do as the Romans do in the country', and follow their system to operate, which will bring him a lot of convenience invisibly.