136 Wooden Board

"Alright, let's just go with these four."

These four lazybones were merely a bit annoying, but they hadn't committed any unforgivable crimes. Since Wu Qingchen insisted, Andrei didn't really care which slackers got to benefit.

Furthermore, at this very moment, Andrei had a much more important matter on his mind: "Loss, selecting these serfs is fine, but... are you certain you want to lead all of them over to harvest beehives today?"

"Of course!" Wu Qingchen replied with absolute certainty. "The Reverend said we need 100 beehives, and the faster we relocate them, the better. One hundred! With too few people, we'll definitely be overwhelmed."

"I know we can't have too few people," Andrei said hesitantly. "But if you take so many all at once, how are you going to teach them all?"

During the previous times they had relocated beehives, Andrei had observed the entire process. Just for a single group, Wu Qingchen had to spend the better part of a night teaching and practicing. With so many serfs gathered here now, they could easily be divided into at least ten groups. How could Wu Qingchen possibly manage to teach them all?

"Eh?" Wu Qingchen turned his head. "Aren't you here to help?"

"Of course I'm helping!" Andrei said loudly. "But even with me, there are only two of us!"

"That will be enough." Wu Qingchen smiled. "As long as you help, there won't be any problem at all."

"Very well."

Andrei nodded helplessly.

The worst that could happen was that his throat would run dry from talking, and he would just have to try his best to teach as many as possible!

Although he had secretly made up his mind, Andrei still felt a bit nervous inside.

Even though he had watched the teaching and practicing process several times, having zero actual hands-on experience left him with very little confidence in his own ability to teach these lazybones.

About half an hour later, escorted by a dozen bailiffs and leading a group of elated serfs, Wu Qingchen and his party arrived at a fork in the road near the forest.

"Lord Andrei, good day."

From a distance, Loss's two elder brothers, leading four serfs from the lord's livestock shed and pushing two wooden carts, were waiting at the fork in the road.

Wu Qingchen walked over and inspected the wooden carts they had pushed over. Inside were axes, wooden poles, torches, "grass balls" simulating beehives—tools needed for relocating the beehives—as well as a few tools for instructional purposes.

"Good, these are the ones. Idra, Grace, thank you both."

Idra and Grace bade farewell and left. The four serfs from the livestock shed, along with the wooden carts they pushed, joined the procession, and the group pressed forward.

Another ten minutes or so later, the party reached the edge of the forest.

"Right here."

Selecting a tall tree branch with a relatively high frequency of beehives, Wu Qingchen gave a hand gesture. York, one of the four serfs from the lord's livestock shed who had accompanied them, immediately stepped forward, nimbly climbed the tree, and tied a grass ball simulating a beehive to the branch using vines.

"Alright, you guys, demonstrate once for them just like you usually do. Get ready!"

At Wu Qingchen's command, York raised his axe, Jared lifted the wooden pole, Harry lit the torch, and Rex took his position at the base of the tree.

"Block!"

"Chop!"

"Catch!"

"Release!"

"Alright, the torch can be taken away now!"

Smooth as flowing water, in less than a minute, the tree branch tied with the simulated beehive grass ball was severed from the nearly decade-old tree and landed in the hands of the two serfs at the base. Throughout the entire process, the grass ball "beehive" hadn't stirred in the slightest.

"Alright, well done." Wu Qingchen nodded, signaling the four serfs from the livestock shed to step aside and rest, before turning to the group of common-land serfs. "You've all seen it. When moving a beehive, it takes four people working together, each responsible for a different task... Well, just like before, the ones I call out in a moment will be the ones holding the wooden poles!"

Based on his observations of the Earth team's teaching methods and having managed the division of labor for the past two days, Wu Qingchen already had a rough assessment of these dozens of serfs.

At the same time, because of their experiences over the past couple of days, the serfs themselves had already gained a certain amount of experience with grouping.

With these two prerequisites, the grouping went quite smoothly.

Soon, according to the division of labor—"holding wooden poles," "wielding axes," "holding torches," and "catching branches"—Wu Qingchen first divided the serfs into four piles, and then reassembled them into four-person groups, assigning a bailiff to each group.

"Alright."

Having finished grouping the common-land serfs, Wu Qingchen turned around and instructed the four serfs from the livestock shed once more: "You guys go over there and demonstrate a few more times for them to see."

Walking over to the tree branch Wu Qingchen pointed out, Harry climbed up once more, and the other three got ready in their respective positions.

"Watch closely!" Pointing at the prepared serfs from the lord's livestock shed, Wu Qingchen said loudly to the group of common-land serfs, "See clearly what you'll be doing later!"

The serfs whose positions were designated as "wielding the axe" hurriedly watched York; those holding the wooden poles kept their eyes on Jared; the torchbearers stared at Harry; and the ones catching the branches watched Rex.

"Alright! Begin! Block! Chop! Catch! Release!"

Another tree branch suffered a tragic fate.

After a few rounds of familiarization drills, Wu Qingchen distributed tools such as wooden poles and torches to the common-land serfs—with the exception of axes; such sharp weapons could only be temporarily replaced with wooden sticks.

After distributing the tools to the common-land serfs, Wu Qingchen ordered the serfs from the lord's livestock shed to continue practicing, and told the common-land serfs to wave the tools they had been given and stand nearby to follow along with the practice.

Watching this scene, Andrei frowned slightly.

That's right, doing this could indeed teach all the serfs simultaneously.

However, Andrei was not optimistic about the results of this teaching method.

There were simply too many serfs.

With Wu Qingchen plus himself, the two of them were destined to be unable to keep an eye on so many serfs. Even if they grew a few extra pairs of eyes, it would still be impossible to verify whether every single serf was practicing diligently.

"Afraid the serfs won't put in the effort? That's too simple!"

Upon hearing Andrei's concerns, Wu Qingchen smiled faintly. "Being able to make them work hard in the common land means we can make them put in the effort to relocate beehives here."

Soon, Andrei understood what Wu Qingchen meant.

"When evening comes, as long as you successfully relocate one beehive, every member of the group will be rewarded with a bowl of beans!"

"Relocate several, and you'll get several bowls!"

"The group that relocates the most beehives will get an extra reward of three bowls!"

"If you fail to relocate the beehive properly, your whole group will be assigned to pick up branches beneath the beehives tomorrow. Don't cry if you get stung!"

Team spirit, competitive mechanisms, humanistic care, future vision...

"How about it? These people—"

Pointing at the surrounding group of serfs, who had instantly become full of vigor and were practicing with rapt attention, Wu Qingchen smiled and said, "Are they diligent enough now?"

"Diligent! Extremely diligent!"

Andrei felt as though he had caught a whiff of a heavily familiar scent: "So the methods for working in the common land can be modified and used this way!"

It was as if a brand-new door had swung open before his eyes. Andrei felt as though he understood a great deal, yet at the same time, he felt quite troubled, his mind in a chaotic whirl, unable to sort everything out completely.

This was completely normal; how could the wisdom accumulated on Earth over generations be grasped so easily?

Wu Qingchen didn't disturb him, letting Andrei stand there in a daze, deep in thought.

"Right, there's still one more trouble with these fellows..."

After a long while, without reaching any particular conclusion, Andrei suddenly thought of another doubt: "It's fine when these fellows are practicing right in front of us, and we can barely keep an eye on them to prevent mistakes... But once they scatter to different places to practice for real—"

With the previous incentives, these fellows would certainly practice diligently.

However, even if they practiced diligently, while they were all gathered together here, he and Wu Qingchen could barely manage to watch them one by one.

Yet suitable tall trees were limited. After practicing concentratedly for a while, these serfs would inevitably have to split up and head to different locations to practice through actual hands-on application.

By then, he and Loss simply wouldn't have enough time to rush to every single place to judge whether these serfs' movements were correct and whether they truly met the requirements for harvesting beehives.

Sharing these thoughts with Wu Qingchen, Andrei finally concluded: "Just think—if these fellows make a mistake, won't working harder at practicing just make them get it even more wrong in the end?"

"Make mistakes? They won't make mistakes. Aren't there so many bailiffs to help?"

"Bailiffs?" Andrei was taken aback. "The bailiffs haven't relocated beehives either. How can they determine whether what the serfs are doing is right or wrong?"

"Well, that's something you'll need to help them determine."

Wu Qingchen said casually.

Just as Andrei grew even more bewildered, Wu Qingchen had already walked over to the wooden carts pushed over by the serfs and rummaged through them to retrieve the tools he had prepared in advance.

A large pile of wooden boards appeared before Andrei's eyes.

"What is this for?"

Watching Wu Qingchen carry the wooden boards over to him one by one, Andrei asked with a baffled expression.

"Come here." Wu Qingchen pressed a wooden board and a piece of charcoal prepared a few days prior into Andrei's hands. "Look over there at how Jared is holding the wooden pole. If you draw one and show it to the bailiffs, won't they be able to judge?"

"Draw one! Loss, I understand what you mean..."

Andrei put the charcoal down helplessly. "However, Loss, do you have any idea how long it takes to draw a single picture?"

"I have no idea." Wu Qingchen shook his head slightly.

"At least two days!" Andrei said loudly. "Even the simplest drawing takes two days to complete!"

"How could it possibly take two days! Here, look!"

With that, Wu Qingchen picked up another piece of charcoal and began scribbling on another wooden board.

In less than five minutes, a figure holding a wooden pole appeared on the board.

"This—" Andrei simply couldn't bear to comment.

During the previous training sessions, they had undergone an intensive few hours of "art" classes, a large portion of which consisted of various historical and religious knowledge. The creation Wu Qingchen had just sketched was roughly on par with the work of a kindergartener from 21st-century Earth!

"It is rather ugly." Wu Qingchen was well aware of his own skill level. "However, it's not meant to be drawn for aesthetic appreciation, after all!"

"What use could this thing possibly have?" Andrei shook his head with a bitter smile.

"Why wouldn't it be useful?" Wu Qingchen waved his hand. "Antoine!"

Bailiff Antoine immediately ran over. "Loss, what is it?"

"Come, take a look." Wu Qingchen handed the wooden board right in front of Antoine's face. "What is this?"

"Uh... this is Jared. Um, Jared holding the wooden pole!"

"See!" Wu Qingchen took back the wooden board and smiled at Andrei once again.

Even primitive men were able to pass down knowledge through cave paintings. No matter how ugly the things Wu Qingchen drew right now were, with such obvious prompts and associations, they could still allow others to grasp the meaning at a single glance.

"This—" Andrei hardly knew what kind of mood he should be in. "Even so, drawn looking like this, can it really be used for the bailiffs to make judgments?"

"No, it can't." Wu Qingchen readily admitted, then added, "That's why you need to draw one that looks a bit more accurate."

"It takes me two days to draw one! Two days!"

"Just draw it like I did," Wu Qingchen said.

"Drawing it like you did is useless!" Andrei shook his head vigorously.

"How would you know if you don't try?"

"I won't try! I am not going to draw such things!" Andrei still shook his head fiercely.

"Reverend," Wu Qingchen said slowly, "if the beehives are successfully relocated... I'll be rewarded with a bit more honey..."

"I—" Andrei gritted his teeth. "I'll give it a try."

Placing the wooden board on a relatively flat stone nearby, Andrei picked up the charcoal stick.

The Earth team's intelligence was quite accurate. Within the Church and by Reverend Praia's side, Andrei really had studied painting for quite a long time. Although charcoal sticks were a relatively unfamiliar medium, Andrei had frequently used similar items during his past practices.

Clutching the charcoal, he carefully observed Jared, who was holding the wooden pole, for a minute or two. Then, Andrei gathered his focus and began composition.

The tall tree, the serf, the beehive, the bushes beside them, the grass below...

"None of those!" Wu Qingchen immediately intervened.

"None of what?" Andrei asked.

"No bushes, no grass, and no sun or clouds!"

Um... well, I suppose those aren't important.

Erasing the superfluous parts, Andrei began drawing the shapes.

The tree branch, the serf's outline, the shape of the beehive...

"Not those either!" Wu Qingchen interrupted once more.

"Eh? Which ones shouldn't be there?" Andrei asked.

"No upper part of the tree, no clothes on the serf, and just draw a circle for the beehive!"

Ugh, fine! I'll draw it!

Erasing the excess parts, Andrei continued sketching.

"Not this!" "None of these!" "All of these must go!"

In a daze, Andrei followed the step-by-step instructions.

In less than half an hour.

"Alright, that's it!" Wu Qingchen declared the drawing session over.

Andrei looked down at the wooden board. Painted upon it were:

A tall tree—no, it should be just a branch extending from a tall tree!

A beehive—no, it should just be a pitch-black sphere!

A person—no, it should just be a faceless, clothesless thing holding a wooden pole!