For the past few days, the little black cat, Mun, had been lingering around where Eric worked. At first, it kept a fair distance; later, seeing that no one paid it any attention, it dropped its guard and crept closer to Eric, sitting there boldly and watching openly.
Eric pretended not to see it every time, letting it sit there. Cats were truly strange creatures: the more enthusiastic you were, the more they hated it; ignore them, and they would come to tease you. It was best to keep a distance so they had their own space but could still bother you whenever they wanted.
Mun hadn’t started any tricks yet, but in Eric’s eyes, it was only a matter of time. Hadn’t it dared to come this close while he was working? This was the first small beastman to dare approach like this.
The others were still in a state of being "birds afraid of a bent branch," daring not to actively contact the people of the Hadu tribe.
Eric rubbed his sore back, finding the sight of the little black cat’s eyes darting around following his hand extremely funny. Children were still children; no matter what they had been through, their curiosity never diminished.
As a cat lover, he was all too familiar with the annoying yet "haughty" demeanor of cats. Mun was considered well-behaved, at least not running behind him to dig up the seeds he had just sown.
But the small beastmen had their advantages. Because their individual strength wasn’t considered superior, their tribes were more united and cautious. Just like cutting potatoes - although the Snow Wolf tribe had great strength, Eric felt more at ease assigning this task to the small beastmen.
Passing by the Dwarves’ workshop, amidst the familiar clanging of anvils, several Dwarves were not forging iron but laboring over ivory-white paper pulp, with the entrance full of bamboo screens drying paper.
This was the paper-making process. The tribe’s population had suddenly increased by more than half. Leaving food aside, even the consumption of toilet paper had increased significantly. Beastmen weren’t stupid; with soft paper to use, who would want to go back to using leaves?
A thought flashed through his mind, and Eric slapped his hand. How stupid, paper could be a trade item too! He didn’t believe anyone would choose leaves over toilet paper!
And if the Golden Kingdom wanted to exist, they would definitely have to learn to read and write.
He could also sell them high-quality writing paper. Wouldn’t that be much more convenient than using those troublesome sheepskin scrolls?
Those things had to be soaked for days in anti-rot potions created by pharmacists to be usable - expensive and cumbersome, and a thick scroll couldn’t even hold that many words.
When these sheets of paper were produced, Eric had only thought about selling them to humans and forgot that he could also trade with the Golden Kingdom. Mostly because he had never thought of doing business with that hateful kingdom before.
This might be feasible. Eric stroked his chin in thought; no one could refuse a roll of soft toilet paper when nature called.
But he had to think carefully. Besides asking Max, it would be best to wait for Thomas to return and discuss whether it was viable. He was a bit afraid that introducing something like paper would bring trouble upon himself. Looking at the situation of the small beastmen, the Golden Kingdom was definitely not virtuous.
After all, his rice wine had a similar appeal.
At worst, he would use the white wine to trade with the kingdom, and keep the paper for trading with humans. No matter how evil humans’ intentions were, they couldn’t harm the Illusion Continent. At most, they could smuggle in a few mercenaries, not enough to fill the gaps between the Snow Wolves’ teeth.
Although trade might have to be put on hold, Eric had come up with a better idea.
The small beastmen were dexterous. Their strength was less than the Snow Wolves and the Goat tribe, and certainly couldn’t compare to the Ox-Head tribe, but they were slightly stronger than the Dwarves. They were beastmen after all, so they couldn’t be weak; just slightly insignificant in the eyes of large beastmen and high-level beasts.
But such small beastmen could absolutely take on the job of paper making! Finding a Dwarf to teach them and supervise was completely feasible!
That way, wouldn’t paper production skyrocket? Right now, the paper was made entirely by Dwarves, and at most, it was enough for the tribe’s use, with little left for trade.
The Dwarves had other jobs and couldn’t spend all their time making paper.
I really am smart! It just so happened that the small beastmen had nothing to do after chopping potatoes. The underground drainage system over there was almost finished digging, and the remaining work could only be assigned to the Dwarves. Letting them take charge of paper making now would keep the Dwarves from being busy to the point of blindness.
However, if the small beastmen took over paper making, the scale of the workshop would certainly have to expand. The Dwarves’ workshop also had to forge various tools and weapons; this place definitely didn’t have enough space.
It seemed it was time to establish a separate paper factory. Eric had originally planned to build public toilets first, but now it seemed that could be postponed a bit. The Dwarves couldn’t forge the pipes and components for the drainage system that quickly anyway.
The paper factory didn’t need to be too complex. Eric planned to build a few large warehouses to house the paper-making tools, and first set up some sheds nearby for the workers to live in temporarily, then build dormitories later.
It had to be said that the arrival of these small beastmen was truly like a sudden shower in the middle of summer. Eric had long had a headache because the tribe lacked manpower. The breeding farm with only Anna and Phong was definitely not enough.
After the brick kiln expanded, the volume of raw bricks had to increase accordingly. Relying only on the children and idle beastmen to help couldn’t possibly provide enough. Raw bricks couldn’t be used immediately after being made; they needed to dry in the shade for a while. Once supply fell behind, it was very troublesome.
Eric also planned that if the human merchant caravans brought cotton this year, he would build a weaving factory in the tribe, and preferably add a garment factory. That way, the Hadu tribe could become self-sufficient in clothing.
Previously, with few people in the tribe, this idea of Eric’s had only flashed through his mind, not something he thought of implementing. He still had many modern styles of clothes; what he supplied to Jessica and the others in winter was just a small portion. Wait until the garment factory was operational, and these styles could officially come into play.
After arranging things for a while, Eric was surprised to find that fewer than three hundred small beastmen didn’t seem to be enough. Now, rather than worrying about whether they could integrate, he was only afraid of working them to death.
Maybe they could also learn pottery... Having just said not to work the small beastmen to death, Eric couldn’t help but start thinking about other jobs suitable for them.
The claws of the Cat tribe were surely very dexterous, and the Rat tribe probably wasn’t an exception. As for the Rabbit tribe, while he wasn’t sure about their craftsmanship, they knew how to grow carrots!
Eric decided to section off a piece of land specifically for them to grow carrots!
White radish stewed with mutton made a sweet broth, and carrots were excellent whether stir-fried, stewed in soup, or eaten raw. Being short on green vegetables, how could Eric refuse such a delicacy?
Eric thought gloomily: "Why didn’t Sunflower capture a few more? Letting them fall into the hands of that force means torture and abuse; better to let Sunflower capture them all and sell them to me."
The current ruler of the Kingdom was certainly a fool, only caring about short-term benefits.
Betraying their own kind ruined the beastmen’s reputation, sure, but how much work could those small beastmen do? The money from selling them as slaves would eventually run out; how could it compare to increasing the kingdom’s population?
Truly a case of the well-fed not knowing the hunger of the starving.
The Hadu tribe only wished to go out and snatch more people, while the Golden Kingdom, ironically, sold its own people into slavery. There was really nothing left to say.