"Don't you consider developing agriculture, maybe planting corn or wheat or something like that?" Ma Shao asked.
Chief Twin Wolf waved his hand, clearly showing no interest in agriculture. "I heard from some tribes in the east that farming depends on the sky, but who can see the sky clearly? Bison are easier to see. They run on the grassland, making noises, dust, footprints, and cow dung... We can always find them."
Ma Shao: "But there are more and more white people. Sooner or later they will wipe out the buffalo herds."
"Maybe, but that day is definitely still a long way off." Chief Twin Wolf disagreed.
"I still suggest that you learn to plant. In fact, the Mianxiong Clan is preparing to do so. I will go to inspect the land in the next few days." Ma Shao said, "As long as you are willing, we can cultivate farmland together."
Chief Twin Wolf thought about it and felt that this was not a bad idea, so he nodded and said, "Okay, I will find some people to go with you... Long Hair, you can speak Apache, so you can lead the people when the time comes."
"Okay, Chief." Longhair replied.
Changmao is the translator of the two people. He is a man in his early thirties. As his name suggests, he has abundant body hair and lush eyebrows and beard. He doesn't smile much, probably because his eyebrows look weird when he smiles.
In fact, even without smiling, he looked a little strange.
After all, Indians have the least body hair in the world, even less than Asians. Many of them have skin as smooth as dolphins, and their eyebrows and beards are mostly sparse. Very few people have thick eyebrows or big beards.
As far as body hair is concerned, long hair is absolutely rare among Indians.
The Twin Wolf Chief was old and went to rest early, leaving Changmao and Mashao in the tent.
Just as Longhair was about to leave, Horse Whistle stopped him and said, "Longhair, if you are not in a hurry to rest, please teach me some Comanche language."
Since his rebirth, he has become more aware of the role of language and feels that he should learn more foreign languages, whether they are the languages of white people or Indians.
The next day.
Ma Shao led his people away from the Double Wolf Clan and returned to the Sleeping Bear Camp.
The camp of the Sleeping Bear Clan was still a bit messy, with many tents pitched and moved. After all, there were 800 more people all of a sudden, and many people were still unable to adapt.
While having dinner and resting at night, Ma Shao gathered some people together to discuss something.
Including himself, he gathered a total of thirty-eight people, mainly including the chiefs of the original clans, shamans, and army leaders, as well as people like Hongnv and Tiaoti who have prestige in a certain group or field.
Everyone was sitting around a bonfire, some were eating barbecue, and there were people watching from a distance. It looked no different from an ordinary gathering.
There was no other way. There was no meeting room, and the tent couldn't accommodate thirty-eight people and a campfire.
"We have formed an unprecedentedly large clan, with more than a thousand people. This has never happened in the history of the Apaches." Ma Shao said at the beginning, "So I decided to establish some new systems to manage the entire Sleeping Bear Clan."
"First, the meeting system. The thirty-seven of you will form a 'clan meeting'. The meetings will be held regularly to report to me on the clan's status. When something important happens, I will also take the initiative to call you together to ask for your opinions or assign tasks..."
As a person from the 21st century, Ma Shao feels that such an institution is indispensable. After all, this is true from parliaments and congresses of various countries to neighborhood committees and village committees.
Meetings are the most basic way for humans to organize and mobilize. The Sleeping Bear Clan certainly held meetings before, but they did not form any formal system.
Of course, Ma Shao also knew that power could not be dispersed at will, so he positioned this organization as his subordinate organization, which was mainly responsible for providing opinions, execution, and reporting, but not making decisions on its own.
"The next thing is the department system." He continued, "According to my initial idea, the Mianxiong Clan will have the following six departments: Planting Department, Shaman Department, Women's Department, Cattle and Horses Department, Writing Department, and Military Department. The head of each department is the department chief, referred to as the minister."
"The Ministry of Planting is responsible for carrying out agriculture, and Tu Kua is the Minister."
"The Shaman Department is responsible for managing all shaman priests and elders, with Stone Crow as the minister."
"The Ministry of Women is responsible for managing women and children, and Hongnv is the minister."
"The Cattle and Horse Department is responsible for horse breeding and hunting, and Jumping Hoof is the minister."
"The Ministry of Writing is responsible for promoting written knowledge, and the long stick is the minister."
"The Military Affairs Department is responsible for military and public security affairs, and I will serve as the Minister myself."
The names of the six departments are simple and easy to understand. Ma Shao then added: "The above is just my preliminary idea. If you find any omissions in practice in the future, you can give me suggestions."
"Well, do you have any opinions?"
After about five seconds of silence and staring at each other, an old man in his fifties holding a pipe hesitantly said: "Chief, I have a question."
"What's the problem?" Ma Shao was a little nervous. He was worried that his centralized behavior would cause dissatisfaction among some people.
The old man slowly expressed his doubts: "What is the 'system'?"
Ma Shao: "…"
He took a breath and said, "If you had studied writing, you would understand the meaning of this word."
"Forget it." The old man obviously had no desire to learn and took a puff of his cigarette nonchalantly.
Ma Shao sighed: "All ministers must take writing classes. If anyone cannot master basic writing knowledge, I will replace the minister."
Hoop Hoof asked, "Should I learn the written language, too?"
"Of course we have to learn it," Ma Shao said. "Writing is the fundamental reason why the white people are so powerful. If we want to defeat them, we must learn writing. Not only the minister, but everyone will have to learn writing in the future."
"Okay..." Tiaoti opened his mouth and finally just responded.
Shi Ya smiled and comforted him: "Words are easy to learn. You are so smart, you will definitely be able to learn it in a few days."
People then asked Ma Shao a few more questions, but they were basically superficial and people had no idea about the design of this system.
At the end of the meeting, Ma Shao looked at Tukuai, the newly appointed Minister of Planting, and said, "Tukuai, find a few people in the tribe who have planting experience... Come with me tomorrow to inspect the conditions of the nearby land."
"Oh, okay." replied the clod.
"Let's adjourn the meeting."
The crowd dispersed one after another.
Ma Shao stood up, stretched his limbs, and just took a few steps when he ran into the little sparrow.
"What's wrong, little sparrow?" Ma Shao patted the girl's head with a smile, but the girl's young face showed some dissatisfaction.
"Who is she?" The little sparrow pointed, and Ma Shao looked over and saw Millie sitting alone in a corner not far away, looking around lonely.