Chapter 61
He soaked the coir sheets in water, took out the loofah seeds that had been soaking overnight, and spread them one by one on the net-like fibers. Finally, he folded the coir sheets with the loofah seeds inside and tied them loosely with a coir rope.
“Is that it? We just wait for it to sprout on its own now?”
The warm sun hung high in the sky, and faint light shone through the gaps in the branches. By the stone fire pit, Hua Shi’an and the two sub-beastmen were squatting on the ground, with a pile of bamboo tubes and back baskets beside them.
Apprentices were not so easy to train. They had one question after another.
Hua Shi’an tied up the loofah seeds and handed them to Yan Zhile, letting him feel for himself. “The coir sheets have to be kept in this moist state. Sprinkle a little water every morning. Not too much, or the seeds will be soaked and ruined. But not too little, or they won’t sprout without enough water.”
“Heavens, soaking, wrapping, and watering. These loofah seeds feel even more delicate than a cub.” Yan Zhile frowned and complained, but his hands were extremely gentle as he carefully handed the coir sheets with the seeds to Hong Yinglan.
Hua Shi’an smiled. “Seeds are indeed delicate, but the main reason for choosing such a troublesome sprouting method is that we have too few tools. When we have more tools in the future, we can choose a simpler sprouting method.”
For example, sprouting in an incubator, sprouting in a greenhouse…
Hong Yinglan held the coir sheets and felt the humidity. She gently placed them on a nearby stone and looked at Hua Shi’an, asking again, “If sprouting is so troublesome, can we just not sprout them? Can we just bury the seeds directly in the soil?”
“Of course, we can,” Hua Shi’an patiently explained. “But every seed is different. Some can sprout smoothly, while others can’t for various reasons. If we throw this bag of loofah seeds down, perhaps only half of them will sprout successfully. This will lead to a sparse field, and we’ll have to replant later, not to mention wasting seeds.”
“Now is not the time to waste seeds. These loofah seeds were brought back by the beastmen from the cliffs with great difficulty. Let’s try it again when we have more seeds in the future. We’ll sow the seeds in a small plot of land, and when the seeds grow into seedlings, we’ll pull them out and transplant them.”
Hong Yinglan nodded. “I understand, Lord Priest.”
“As long as you understand, let’s continue. We still have a lot to do today.”
The chili seeds left over from grinding chili powder were the seeds. Like the loofah seeds, they had been soaking for a whole night. The two sub-beastmen poured them out and, following the same method, wrapped them in coir sheets.
After processing the only two types of seeds, it was time for the plant tubers.
Ginger, konjac, and potatoes. Hua Shi’an had picked out some of the better-quality ones for seeds before distributing the food. Now, after a whole winter, the seed tubers, which had been stored separately and kept warm with coir sheets, had already sprouted tender shoots.
If it had sprouted, it was a seed. For convenience, the whole piece of ginger, the whole potato, and the whole konjac could be planted directly. But the conditions didn’t allow for it. There weren’t many seed tubers to begin with, so they had to be fully utilized.
So, Hua Shi’an and the two sub-beastmen picked up their stone knives and, using a stone as a cutting board, cut the sprouted ginger, potatoes, and konjac into pieces, with each piece having only two to three buds.
This way, one piece of ginger could be planted in five or six pits, and a potato and a konjac could also be planted in three or four pits.
Fresh cuts were prone to germs. After the seed tubers were cut, they gathered by the fire pit and coated the pieces with a layer of plant ash to sterilize and inhibit bacteria, effectively preventing the pieces from rotting and thus increasing the survival rate.
These were the only seeds and seed tubers they had for now, but there were far more things that could be planted. Chives, fish mint, Chinese onion, blueberries, cranberries, mulberry trees… these plants could be transplanted by digging up their seedlings or propagated by taking cuttings from their branches.
They were busy until noon, when the sun was at its peak. The seed pieces were finally processed. Hua Shi’an and the sub-beastmen went to the river to wash their hands and, at the same time, washed their faces. Just as they were about to return to the camp to rest, the missing east wind blew over.
“Lord Priest!”
Just as they had climbed up the slope and stepped onto the grass, a loud shout came from not far to the right. Hua Shi’an followed the sound and saw a very excited Yan Qiuyu.
It seemed he had come back specifically to find him. Seeing Hua Shi’an from a distance, Yan Qiuyu suddenly came to a screeching halt, jumped up and down on the spot, and danced with excitement. “Come over quickly, Lord Priest. Come and see. We’ve finished turning it!”
So fast? Hua Shi’an, who had been exhausted from overwork, was instantly energized. He quickly waved to the two sub-beastmen and strode in the direction of the beastman.
After three days, the flat and open meadow was completely transformed. Brown, rectangular plots divided the continuous meadow into several pieces. The plots were of different sizes. The smaller ones were the size of a classroom, and the larger ones were the size of a standard basketball court.
The boundary between the fields and the ridges was clear, one high and one low. The grass roots that had been mixed in with the soil were gone. It was a pure and clean brown. The hard clods of soil had been broken up by the hoes and had turned into loose, soft soil. One step and you would almost sink to your ankles.
A perfect, neat field. It had only been three days, and not only was it dug so well, but the key was that there was more than one such good field. Adding up the large and small ones upstream and downstream, there were a full twelve of them!
The efficiency was too high. After walking around the upstream and downstream with the beastmen, Hua Shi’an was so shocked he was speechless.
His silence had another meaning in the eyes of others. The beastmen behind Hua Shi’an looked at each other, and their rapid breathing weakened. Their hearts instantly jumped into their throats.
The captain, Hong Yong, hadn’t even spoken yet, but the frowning Yan Qiuyu couldn’t help but chase after Hua Shi’an and ask anxiously, “Don’t be silent, Lord Priest. We’ve picked out all the grass roots and stones, and we’ve also broken up the larger clods of soil. There shouldn’t be any problems, right?”
To be able to sow as soon as possible, for the past three days, as soon as they opened their eyes, they had been digging. The beastmen were drenched in sweat, their hoes swinging until they smoked, their arms sore and swollen, and their whole bodies ached, as if they had been beaten up.
They had worked hard to turn the land for a better life. Although it was tiring, the beastmen had no complaints. But if they had to do the work they had just finished all over again, Yan Qiuyu’s scalp tingled just thinking about it. He would probably die on the spot in this field.
Their worries were all written on their faces. The beastmen’s thoughts were simply too easy to guess.
Knowing that they had worked hard to turn the land, Hua Shi’an withdrew his gaze from his feet and promptly gave his affirmation, “Don’t worry, there are no problems at all. You’ve dug well, you’ve dug beautifully. To have dug so many plots of land in three days, you guys are really—so amazing!”
“No problem, the Lord Priest said there’s no problem!”
“That’s great, that’s great. We don’t have to turn the land anymore!”
“What are you thinking? This is just a dozen or so plots of land. We still have to dig later.”
“At least we don’t have to be in such a hurry.”
…
The worried beastmen breathed a sigh of relief, one after another.
The captain, Hong Yong, waved his hand, and when the restless beastmen had quieted down, he faced Hua Shi’an and said quite solemnly, “Shi’an, then can we start planting now?”
They were very tired and exhausted, but they wanted a harvest even more. They wanted to live the kind of life that Hua Shi’an had described, where they had no worries about food and clothing.
The seeds were still sprouting, and the potato and konjac seed pieces were all ready. They could be planted, but before that… Hua Shi’an thought for a moment, looked up at Hong Yong’s expectant eyes, and shook his head regretfully. “There’s no hurry. You guys go back to the camp and rest for a while, have some water. Later, we’ll go to the pine forest together and bring back some pine needles.”
“Pine needles? What do we need pine needles for?” Yan Qiuyu asked, confused.
Hong Yong was also bewildered. “Do pine needles have anything to do with planting?”
“Burn them!” Hua Shi’an pointed to the loose, soft soil at his feet and said unhurriedly, “If you want a good harvest, the newly reclaimed wasteland has to be burned. Burn away the grass roots and insect eggs, improve the soil quality, and increase the soil fertility.”
It was so complicated. Hong Yong was completely confused.
Whatever. The Lord Priest must have his reasons for doing this. Hong Yong waved his hand and shouted at the top of his lungs, “Let’s go, hunting team, to the pine forest to get pine needles!”
The sun was making their skin red. The beastmen had sweat on their foreheads. Hua Shi’an felt a little sorry for them and suggested gently, “You’ve just finished turning the land. You’ve all worked hard these past few days. Why don’t you go to the camp and rest for a while first?”
Hong Yong didn’t even think about it and decisively shook his head. “We won’t waste time. We’ll rest while we walk.”
He wasn’t bragging. The beastmen really did rest while they were on the move. Hua Shi’an and the two sub-beastmen also went to help, but after only two trips, they were panting for breath. And the beastmen, who had just been sweating on the grass, were as fast as the wind, one trip after another.
He couldn’t walk fast, and he would only be a burden if he went. On his second trip back, Hua Shi’an simply stayed in the camp. He and Yan Zhile and Hong Yinglan each took a bamboo pole, evenly spread the pine needles that had been poured on the grass, and used mud to build a few firebreaks around the fields.
The weather was warming up, and the forest was gradually drying out. They had to be careful with fire. They couldn’t burn down their home.
The pine needles were spread out, and the stone pots filled with water were lined up on the ridges. With Hua Shi’an’s command, thick smoke rose from two different directions, upstream and downstream. The specks of fire gradually turned into a raging flame, sweeping through the pine needles spread on the fields and turning them into ash that would nourish the soil.
The pine needles were not spread very thickly and burned out in a short while. The high temperature made it impossible to get close. Hua Shi’an and the hunting team stood on the grass, watching from a distance as the thick smoke dissipated, a patch of scorched earth, his thoughts uncontrollably drifting away.
They had the fields, and they had the seeds. The tribe was about to enter the agricultural era. But to this day, they didn’t even have a container for water. When it came time to plant and water, were they going to run to the river with bamboo tubes, one trip after another?
And the hoes. A stone hoe blade was still too much of a compromise. It took several swings to break up a hard clod of soil. It would be strange if they weren’t tired. If the hoe blade were replaced with metal such as iron or copper, with the beastmen’s stamina and endurance, doubling the efficiency would not be a problem.
So the question was, where to find metal? Even if they were lucky enough to find ore containing metal elements, in this environment, what would they use to smelt it and make utensils?
Pots, bowls, ladles, knives, axes, hoes, plows…
From life to production, they needed more containers, and more handy and sharp tools.
After planting, it should be put on the agenda. Starting with pots, bowls, and ladles, they would dig a kiln and fire pottery.
