"If only Nanova would not bite the hand that feeds us when he takes the throne."
Old Cheng lost his voice.
Li Ding's performance this time made me very satisfied.
"Cheng Shu, what Li Ding said is true. Kindness is only for our own people. It will not be of any use to treat the enemy, but will bring disaster to us. The temple will be built later. Food is more important than anything else. Spiritual needs are really not that important."
Angry, Old Cheng stood up, looked us all in the eye, and lectured, "You young people are too impulsive, too superstitious, and too weak. I have no idea how powerful the spirit can be."
"Uncle, I think they're right." Li Yunna said.
Old Cheng stared and saw that no one was on his side. He angrily shook his hands and walked away.
After the meeting, I let Zhang Yutong and Li Yunna several of them, specially to visit old Cheng. His advice was wrong in the circumstances, but it was right. And he's done so much for the tribe, we can't make him feel like he's being singled out, not respected as he should be.
Although I rejected Lao Cheng's proposal to build the temple, ANOTHER question came to mind. We can't have them all working from home now that we've set up tribal governance. So slaves and prisoners built six one-bedroom houses on either side of the council hall and used them as offices.
Two days later, Lucie and Lao Cheng made a clear census and took it to the assembly hall.
"That's 272 people." Cheng pointed to the numbers he had written in charcoal on the board. "Take a look."
I took the board and read: Total population 272, 120 males, 110 females. The remaining 42 are children and people over the age of 60. Old people make up only 12. This shows that the average life expectancy of aborigines is not very long. Sixty years is like a hard ceiling.
Because the board was small, it was already full of writing. Cheng pulled out a second piece of wood and said, "There are only 12 couples who can confirm the relationship. That's 24 people. The others are either single or in a promiscuous relationship."
"So impressive? There are kids who don't know who their parents are." I was shocked.
"I know who the mother is, but I don't know who the father is." Lao Cheng had the air of someone who had been there before.
"The rules of marriage must be established so that the relationships between men and women in the tribe are not in chaos." It's a terrible thing. Children don't know who their father is. If they fall in love again, it's a big deal.
"Tonight, I'm going to talk to them about relationships." Lu Qian said.
"Well, do tell it." The matter is too important to be taken seriously.
"Now there are too many single people, and the matter of dividing the house must be pushed back." Old cheng said.
I nodded. "There's no rush for this either. In these two days, we will focus on resolving our relations."
After talking with them two, I went to find Wu Wa, she and Zhang Yutong are weaving together, making clothes.
I asked her how aboriginal people date people. "All the tribes are different," she said. All kinds of things. I had to let her zhang Yutong and Li Yunna are called up.
Tell them to get ready for a bonfire, have a little show. We have a big matchmaking event for the men and women of the tribe. As for how to organize the event, it is up to them to decide.
This arrangement, let the Li Yunna that has nothing to do all the time is particularly happy, assure again and again can do this matter well.
After telling them, he returned home to find many slaves kneeling in front of the door.
I quickly ran up and asked, "What are you doing?"
"Chief. Please let us stay."
"We will always honor and follow the leader like everyone else."
"Please, chief, take us."
There were twenty of them, and when they had finished, I reached out to them to stand up. The result would not get up, must let me say yes.
I sat down on the threshold and asked, "Why do you want to stay?"
"The chief is good to us. We live and eat well here."
"So good that you won't even go back to your own tribe?"
"Chief, we have no tribe. We were born and brought up in the kingdom."
"No, we don't want to look for the tribe of our ancestors. We are slaves, and even if we found our own people, they would despise us."
"If you want to stay so badly, I'll say yes." "I exclaimed.
"Thank you, chief." All kowtow together.
"Don't get too excited. It's not easy to stay with the horde. You have to do something for the horde first."
"Command, chief."
"There is no hurry." I stood up and said, "You will know when we go against the great tribes. Go back and build more houses so you can stay in the tribe and have a place to live."
After thanking them again and again, they left together.
There are already a lot of people in the tribe, and I have to be very careful about adding new members.
In the evening, I made a point of going to the council hall, where Lucie and the others were lecturing to the Aborigines.
Because most of them were slaves, there was no concept of marriage or family. They were all confused.After an hour or so, everyone was still talking. I couldn't see any more, so I just walked up.
"Are you going to teach by yourself?" Lucie asked faintly.
I smiled and told the three of them to sit aside. As he walked among the natives, he said, "You are no longer slaves, and you are no longer of the small tribes. So understand, you all deserve to have families of your own. What is family? It is built by blood, so there are parents and children in the family. So who knows how to have a baby?"
I scanned the crowd.
"Of course there must be a woman to have children." A young man laughed and shouted back.
The others laughed.
"That's right." I gave him a thumbs-up: "Two people together, life and children, this is marriage. A family is made up of marriage and blood ties. Do men care if their children are their own?"
Aboriginal men shook their heads.
"You can't raise a child for someone else."
"There you go." I clapped my hands. "To be sure that the child is theirs, a man and a woman must establish a stable marriage, establish a family and be faithful to each other. In this way, we can live well and let our blood pass on."
"Like you and your two women, chief?"
I stared blankly, looked at Zhang Yutong and Luci.
"To... That's it. Tomorrow I will take them both to Lord Li Ding to be married, to make our marriage official and to form a family."
"Chief, there are two men here who like me." One woman straightened her back and said, "Can I have a family with both of them?"
I instinctively wanted to refute, but I thought I should not be inferior to women, so I said tactfully: "Of course, but in this family, you should be the master, the two of them can only form a family with you, and any one of them can not form a family with another woman. If anyone does that, they will be punished."
"I don't agree with that." A young man stood up, his face red with anger. "You can only have a family with me."
"Why are you supposed to start a family with me?" Another man in his thirties stood up and snapped back.
"Don't argue." I held out my hand. "That's how things will be settled. When two men like a woman at the same time, the woman decides who to start a family with, and the other must quit. When two women like a man, it's up to the man to decide. Of course, as long as there are three people who want to live together, it's ok to have a family."
"What is the punishment, chief, for breaking this rule?"
"Banished from the tribe, of course, and left to live alone in the woods." I pointed my finger and warned, "If this person is resentful and does anything against the tribe, he will be killed."
"Everywhere dead," I emphasized. Only severe punishment will make them understand what is at stake.
I continued, "Tomorrow night we will dance and sing together, and then we can choose each other's partners for our families and register them with Lord Li Ding. The registration will make your family official. People who have families can be assigned houses."
"Chief, when we have a family, shall we still part?"
"Of course, it is not easy to separate, if really can not go on, of course, can also separate, but also need to go to Li Ding adult where registration. If the separation is because one of them betrayed the family, it is punishable. I've said everything I need to say, so let's go back and think about it. That's all for today."