章 92: Chapter 93: Food
Not long after, Mianxiong returned to its former tranquility. If it weren't for the nearly a thousand prisoners working hard to reclaim the land every day, it would have seemed as if the war had never happened.
Although Ma Shao's ultimate goal was to make all the captured Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Comanche submit to Sleeping Bear and become Apaches, he did not intend to be too polite to these prisoners at the moment.
These prisoners currently need to work seven days a week, about fourteen hours a day, which can basically be described as "797". The salary is also very low, only ten cents a day.
He did this mainly to facilitate the bestowal of favors and rewards.
For example, in order to encourage prisoners to learn Apache, he directly stipulated that those whose Apache vocabulary exceeded 100 could work two hours less per day, those whose vocabulary exceeded 300 could have their salary doubled, and those whose vocabulary exceeded 500 could have one day off per week, thus realizing the 996 work system.
Those with a vocabulary of more than a thousand words can have their sentence reduced by one year, and those who can recite the "Spiritual Oracle" fluently can be restored to freedom on the spot - this is basically impossible, as the entire text of the "Spiritual Oracle" has tens of thousands of words.
By exploiting the labor of prisoners, the speed of land reclamation in Mianxiong City increased rapidly like a rocket, and on average nearly 200 acres of farmland were reclaimed every day.
Ma Shao feels that the 797 work system is already harsh enough.
But in reality, many prisoners find this quite lenient.
After all, in their minds, labor was slavery, and it was the kind of slavery that was abused for fun. But they didn't expect that they would only work fourteen hours a day and even get paid - although they had no idea about the US dollar.
In fact, in terms of working hours alone, 797 is just an average level in the capitalist world at that time, and it is really nothing for a group of prisoners.
In the days after the war, reinforcements from several Apache tribes arrived at Sleeping Bear.
There were not many of them, their support was not timely, and their sincerity in support seemed questionable, but Ma Shao still treated them warmly.
These reinforcements from other tribes, including the Chiricahua tribe, stayed in Sleeping Bear for a while and then prepared to go back.
Before leaving, Ma Shao held a bonfire ceremony, once again warmly entertained them with delicious food, singing and dancing, and frankly expressed his thoughts.
His idea, of course, is that all tribes can join Mianxiong, or at least live in Mianxiong.
"...Everyone, you should know more or less what I am thinking. In fact, I hope to form an 'Apache Tribe' and unite all the Apaches into a single tribe. Then, with the Apaches as the core, I will unify all the indigenous tribes."
"In my opinion, the conflict between the Apache and the Arapaho or any two Native American tribes is not worth mentioning. The United States is the enemy that we need to deal with with all our strength."
Oak pondered for a moment and said, "The United States is indeed much more powerful than the Arapaho, but I don't think it's necessary or realistic to unify all the tribes."
"It is necessary, so necessary that we have to do it even if it is unrealistic." Ma Shao emphasized, "The U.S. has about 20 million people, which is almost a thousand times the number of Apaches and 40 to 50 times the number of all indigenous peoples, and it is still growing rapidly."
Many people heard such a specific number for the first time, or even such a specific order of magnitude for the first time, and couldn't help asking: "Twenty million, and still growing rapidly? How did you know that?"
Ma Shao: "Newspapers and books, of course."
He added: "In Europe, the homeland of white people, there is a place facing a great famine... Because of this great famine, more and more white people are migrating to the United States, injecting fresh blood into the country."
He was referring, of course, to the Great Irish Famine.
Just a few months earlier, Ireland's potato harvest had failed due to the emergence of late blight, triggering a great famine.
The Great Famine would cause Ireland's population to drop by a quarter within a few years, eventually halving, and it would not return to its peak until the 21st century.
Of the millions of people lost in Ireland, some died of starvation and some migrated away. Most of those who migrated went to the United States, an emerging immigrant country.
This disaster was both a natural disaster and a man-made disaster. During the famine, Irish landlords continued to export grain and watched a large number of civilians starve to death.
The British Empire, which was at its peak, almost stood idly by and continued to ship grain from Ireland to England.
Not only that, Britain even prevented others from providing assistance. For example, when the Sultan of Ottoman Turkey announced a donation of 10,000 pounds to Irish farmers, Queen Victoria asked him to donate 1,000 pounds instead - because she herself only donated 2,000 pounds.
For the British at that time, Ireland was essentially just one of many colonies and was not worthy of their much attention.
"The population of the United States will continue to grow, while the population of indigenous peoples will continue to shrink." Ma Shao continued, "In a few decades, the population of the United States will be more than a hundred times that of all indigenous peoples... How can ten people defeat a thousand people?"
"Tecumseh once organized several thousand people to fight against the United States, but he failed in the end. And this was not a major war for the United States. Look at their War of Independence 70 years ago, hundreds of thousands of people participated in the war."
Ma Shao: "We must unite as soon as possible and build several Aboriginal cities with tens of thousands of people while there are still not many white people in the Midwest."
"...Even without talking about the future, the union of several tribes in Sleeping Bear City will provide us with unprecedented security. We will have an elite army of a thousand people. No tribe will dare to invade, and the U.S. federal government will not easily provoke us."
Oak thought for a while and said, "Maybe you are right, Ma Shao, but I need to think about it for a while and ask for the opinions of my tribe members."
Ma Shao nodded: "Of course, I can understand. In fact, Mianxiong City cannot accommodate so many people for the time being. Even if you want to move in, you have to wait until at least next year."
"Because of the food?" Oak asked.
Ma Shao: "Yes. Although we have enough food at present, I dare not further expand the population of Sleeping Bear City until agriculture matures."
Not to mention all the Apache tribes, even just the Chiricahua tribe had a population of three to four thousand people.
Together with the captives and their families and relatives who returned soon after, the population of Mianxiong City = sleeping bear city might even reach tens of thousands within a few months.
With the current agricultural level of Mianxiong City= sleeping bear city and a population of this size, it is impossible for it to be self-sufficient and must purchase large quantities of food from the outside world.
Ma Shao was not sure whether the great famine in Ireland would affect the food market in the United States. But even if it did not, he would not dare to expand the population of Sleeping Bear City in the short term.
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