Perhaps seeing how well he was doing in his business, Alice was not to be outdone and used a little trick to capture more than two thousand bison from the mountains.
Leo was stunned when he recalled the scene he saw when he returned from fishing that day; Falling Sunset Village only had a little over a thousand people.
Suddenly, a herd of wild buffalo appeared, outnumbering all the villagers. No matter how they tried to shoo them away, they wouldn't leave, just lingering outside the village as if they were there to deliver meat.
I wanted to accuse Alice of cheating, but after seeing Alice smug little expression...
With only two thousand cattle, how can that be considered cheating?
If Alice wanted, Leo could use cows to pave this area for tens of kilometers.
Nothing else matters when Alice is happy!
These cattle inherited the spirit of Leo's four cows; they didn't need feed or to be let graze. They just stayed outside the village, drinking water when thirsty and eating grass when hungry.
The most amazing thing is that they know to go to a designated spot when they need to defecate, which has aroused great curiosity among the villagers.
What animal knows how to use a toilet?!
Leo touched his nose speechlessly, and could only say that as long as Alice was happy, that was all that mattered.
"Next, I plan to buy another large ship to trade with other villages and become merchants, profiting from the price difference," Leo said.
"Our beef production is still low, at most two cows a day. We do have some milk, but it can't be stored for long and can only be consumed within the village."
Alice was somewhat helpless. Leo had already started trading, while she was still stuck at producing only two cows a day. There was no need to sell that little bit of meat, as the travel expenses were much higher than the cost.
They would slaughter cattle collectively the day before the large ship was to depart for town, and then transport the beef to town by ship, earning less than one-tenth of the profit from a ship's catch of fish.
"Now that we've set up a cattle farm, I think we can set up chicken and duck farms too. If we can find sheep, we can make lamb skewers."
Noticing Alice's unhappiness, Leo immediately offered advice: since the cattle farms were all built through cheating anyway, what difference would it make if a few more were set up?
"Then let's hope that one day, at dawn, chickens, ducks, and sheep will suddenly appear and be delivered to our door." Alice looked at Leo with Alice eyes, and Leo could only nod.
"They're bound to show up! With your beauty, how could they not!"
The day after Leo spoke, the moment Alice opened her door, she saw chickens, ducks, and sheep everywhere outside the house.
These docile livestock are practically ready to be served on the dinner table!
This unbelievable event once again caused a stir in the small village. If the last time the cattle came, it was the cattle's fault, but now so many livestock were coming, it was clearly...
It's obvious that their Falling Sunset Village is better!
For the next two weeks, Falling Sunset Village did nothing but build factories, which was essentially just enclosing a large piece of land to prevent the livestock that had finally managed to get there from escaping.
To accommodate these livestock, Leo postponed his plan to buy a second large ship.
They even held a big feast, slaughtering two cows, ten sheep, and a hundred chickens and ducks, which everyone ate with great relish.
"They can produce more than 40,000 eggs a day, and the elderly and children can't keep up with collecting them all."
Uncle Luoke anxiously found Leo and realized for the first time that too much harvest could also be a problem. His mother was already over ninety years old and still had to carry a small basket and follow the chickens to collect eggs every day. After a few days, his old mother was so tired that she could hardly walk.
The same applies to other villagers; the shortage of manpower has become a major problem!
"Isn't there another village of similar size nearby? Let's merge them in," Leo said.
"But this..."
When Uncle Luoke heard that Leo wanted to merge the villages, he hesitated. Although they were short-handed, he felt unhappy about sharing his own family's pie if the villages were merged.
In the past, everyone was pretty much the same, and many things didn't matter to them.
But now their Falling Sunset Village is rich, although it's a bit inexplicable, but it's still rich.
If we merge other villages into this area, wouldn't we be sharing all these good things with outsiders?
Uncle Luoke hesitated.
"Our future will get better and better. The small population is the biggest obstacle to our development, and increasing the population is the path we must take."
"Next, we need to buy ships, expand our scale, build more factories, and raise more livestock. Even if all of our more than 1,000 people were in two places at once, we still couldn't handle all of this work."
"Uncle Luoke, haven't you always wanted to see what big cities are like? Then why don't you turn our Falling Sunset Village into a big city?"
Can we?
Uncle Luoke looked at Leo nervously. They were villagers who could walk as far as 30 kilometers to a small town. Generations had lived in this small village, with no worldly experience, and their daily lives were repetitive.
Although they never went hungry, they could see their entire lives laid out before them. Not only could they see their own lives, but the next generation could also see their lives, which were simply a repetition of each other.
How did it suddenly become a big city?
"How will you know if you don't try? After all, big cities started from small villages. And uncle, do you think our Falling Sunset Village still looks like a small village?"
Leo pointed to the herds of livestock outside the village and the large ships docked at the pier; these were not things that a normal small village should have.
Under Leo's unwavering gaze, Uncle Luoke broke out in a sweat.
This isn't nervousness, it's excitement!
Listening to Leo's words, Uncle Luoke completely forgot everything else, his mind filled with only the words "big city," and he walked home, stumbling along the path.
Yes, their lives have already changed, so why not try a little harder? It can't get much worse!
The next day, Uncle Luoke gathered the entire village together. There was only one issue: they didn't have enough manpower, so they wanted to merge the villages. Who objected?
Looking at Uncle Luoke's murderous gaze, anyone who dared to object would be the first person he could chop up alive, not even his own son.
Everyone looked at Leo, the most influential person in the village.
As a result, Leo wholeheartedly agreed. If the two most authoritative people in the village wanted to do it, no amount of opposition could change anything.
Of course, merging villages isn't something they can just do on a whim; it depends on whether the other party is willing. They can't force people to come over.
Leo had anticipated this.
They first bought a second boat. The two large boats were loaded with the specialties of Falling Sunset Village: beef, deep-sea fish, eggs, duck eggs, and mutton, and went to several surrounding villages to conduct trade.
In reality, those villages didn't have anything of value, and the profits from the transactions weren't even enough to cover their labor costs.
But Leo and his group weren't focused on the goods; their attention was entirely on the people!
Amidst subtle propaganda and displays of wealth, several young people were lured aboard the boat. Once they saw that Falling Sunset Village was full of livestock and that a single net could yield ten days' worth of fish, they longed to become residents of Falling Sunset Village.
Without Leo and the others even having to ask, the young men moved their homes to the boat the next time they went to their village for a trade.
When the other villagers tried to ask what had happened, Leo and his group brushed it off with jokes, making it seem like there was a major secret they couldn't tell them.
The more this happened, the more curious the villagers became. In the end, they bribed a villager from Falling Sunset Village with ten salted fish to learn the inside story.
It turns out they saw better conditions in Falling Sunset Village and had already reached an agreement with the Falling Sunset Village to move their whole Falling Sunset Village there.
Upon hearing this, the small village immediately objected and wanted to capture these traitors and take them back.
Those families, who were looking forward to a bright future and had gone through so much hardship to obtain their identities, were naturally not going back. They almost came to blows on the ship.
In the end, Uncle Luoke couldn't stand it anymore and told them that if they could abide by the rules of Falling Sunset Village, they could all pass.
However, anyone who violates the rules of Falling Sunset Village will be sent back directly. If they can accept it, they can leave; if they cannot, they can stay.
After careful consideration, half of the villagers moved to Falling Sunset Village because the mutton and beef there were just too delicious.
As for the remaining half of the villagers who refused to leave, Leo smiled but said nothing.
Without a certain population base, this village won't survive for long; eventually, it will all belong to the people of Falling Sunset Village.
When Leo and his group returned to Falling Sunset Village with half a boatload of people, the Falling Sunset Village's population increased by 500, bringing the total population to 1,700.
"The population is still not enough. We currently have enough to feed three thousand people. The remaining half of the village should be incorporated as soon as possible."
Leo said to Uncle Luoke in private.
"No problem. I've already had them select suitable cows from the herd to cultivate the fields behind the hill. Before, when our population was small, we could easily feed ourselves. Now that the population has increased, we must cultivate land to grow food."
Because Leo had painted a picture for Uncle Luoke of turning Falling Sunset Village into a big city, he was completely immersed in his dream and was even more energetic than Leo.
"Just follow Uncle Luoke's instructions."
Leo was very satisfied with the energetic Uncle Luoke. As the chief planner of Falling Sunset Village's development plan, he didn't need to do everything himself; a few people like Uncle Luoke were enough.
"Why do you want to be a city lord now?"
"Or do you want to improve the environment of Falling Sunset Village and enable these villagers to live a happy life?"
In the courtyard, Leo lay on a recliner, with Alice nestled on Leo chest. The couple enjoyed the quiet time after dinner. Alice questioned Leo's behavior these past few days. He had only wanted to find a place to live an ordinary life, but his current actions clearly deviated from his initial statement.