Chapter 1130: Preparations for Winter

The young man in charge of agriculture—because not a single grain had grown in the fields yet, naturally no one saw his ability. Moreover, these people had never seen what real crops looked like, nor had they felt the joy of a Harvest; they only listened to the few young men from Huaxia say that by loosening the soil and clearing away the Grass like this, they would be able to grow endless grain in the fields next year.

If it weren't for the fact that they could obtain endless grain from Huaxia, they certainly wouldn't have believed it. Now, they could only listen to the young men's instructions and work with their heads down. However, what they liked and cared about more were the cattle and sheep on the Pasture. The cattle and sheep running on the grassland actually belonged to them, and they had obtained ownership without even needing to hunt—this was what they valued most.

To these people, a cow giving birth was a monumental event. When a lamb was born and couldn't get milk, they would be anxious; they were even willing to take off their own clothes to wrap up a newborn lamb that hadn't fed and was on the verge of death.

Then, they would take a bucket to milk the ewe, sew a leather pouch, leave a small hole, and after filling it with sheep's milk, feed the lamb. Mimicking the ewe, they would wipe the lamb's body dry, feed it milk, and warm it by the fire. Just like this, they were able to save one lamb after another that should have been naturally culled.

Such things were not even arranged by Ce; they did them spontaneously. The hearts of the entire Western Development Group could be drawn in by a single lamb, because they knew that as long as this lamb survived and, after a few dozen days, could eat Grass on its own, it would count as a stable asset.

A ewe could give birth to lambs continuously. The grassland here was so vast that there was no fear of not having enough Grass to feed them; they only worried that there were too few sheep, that the quantity was too small.

Now that Winter was gradually approaching, under Ce's command, everyone began to harvest wild grass and reinforce the sheep pens and cattle pens.

Those who previously needed to reclaim farmland also had to stop work now. Their task shifted to harvesting wild grass and collecting firewood. If too much farmland were reclaimed, there wouldn't be enough manpower to farm it next year; after all, the time for spring plowing was very short, and they didn't have enough manpower for too much farmland.

After the wild grass was harvested, it could serve as the Winter reserve food for the cattle and sheep. When the weather was good, they could be taken out to graze on the grassland; when the weather was bad, they would just be fed the dried grass.

Bundles of wild grass, tied up with grass ropes, were neatly placed on the hillside, looking extremely spectacular, and they were constantly increasing.

To avoid fire, they were stacked in several different places, and the dry grass in between was completely cut and pulled out, leaving the entire ground bare.

While they were pulling the grass, they also discovered something that had become very dry, black, and a bit brittle. The entire ground was covered in this stuff, and everyone had always assumed it was sheep dung because it looked a bit like it.

But when Ce and the others took a look, good heavens, this was Nostoc commune! Previously, the grass was quite long, so they hadn't noticed it. Now that they saw it, they had to collect a good amount. Not only could this stuff be preserved for a long time, but after soaking, the volume was particularly large, and most importantly, it was quite delicious.

They remembered Wang saying that this was one of the few mushrooms he recognized that could be eaten. Nostoc commune and mushrooms looked completely different, but since Wang said they were the same type of thing, it must be correct.

As a northerner, Baifeng himself rarely saw large quantities of mushrooms. What he did see were small mushrooms that grew on the ground after rain, just a bit taller than moss, or mushrooms that grew on cow dung, which looked inedible at a glance.

A kind of yellow, oily-looking mushroom would grow on willow trees, but it also looked poisonous. Things that grew on rotten wood like wood ear were definitely poisonous! The only edible wild mushroom he had ever eaten was a white one that grew in alfalfa fields two years after plowing; it would appear after rain and turn into black water within a few hours. It was very tender, but Baifeng didn't know its name either.

Currently, the entire Huaxia had only managed to identify a few types of edible mushrooms through Slave testing. Baifeng didn't know their names; they were basically mildly poisonous, but became non-toxic after being boiled. Some Slaves had even experienced hallucinations of seeing little people. Baifeng had no choice; the only thing he could do was induce vomiting and then see if the Slave was lucky enough to survive.

Fortunately, Baifeng always fed them small amounts and ensured the mushrooms were boiled thoroughly. Not one had died, though it might have caused serious damage to their livers and kidneys. Baifeng himself didn't dare eat much; when he wanted to eat mushrooms, he had to ensure they were cooked thoroughly, and only after the cook had eaten them would he dare to eat.

The only things he dared to eat with peace of mind were Nostoc commune and hair moss; they had always been wild, had never caused poisoning, and were very widely distributed.

Since the Western Development Group had them, they had to collect them in large quantities. There were so many that one could rub them by hand; when the time came, he would let the bored women and children pick out the dirt, grass roots, and bugs.

With a large quantity of Nostoc commune, the Winter menu of the Western Development Group could be a bit richer. Baifeng had always talked about enriching the menu; edible wild vegetables should be cultivated, and every method should be tried to store more while they were fresh to ensure there was food to eat during Winter, which could prevent many diseases.

Ce was a firm executor of this requirement. Since arriving at the Western Development Group, they had begun searching for all kinds of wild vegetables. Finally, they collected large amounts of the most delicious and abundant Wild Onion (Menggu chives) and wild garlic (Allium macrostemon), then preserved them as pickles using salt.

Even their camp, because it was very damp, didn't have much Wild Onion or wild garlic. To dig them up, one had to go to the gravel mountain half a day away. But for the sake of a rich menu and health, they insisted on having people dig up a great many various wild vegetables, almost digging one mountain to ruin.

Besides collecting wild grass, the other task was reinforcing the cattle and sheep pens. They used wood to build a roof, then covered it with grass and blocked it with grass ropes. This could, to a certain extent, resist the wind and Snow, giving the cattle and sheep a place to hide. Ce felt that the Winter here would definitely be extremely cold; if defensive measures weren't taken in advance, it would be too late to do them when the time came.

Measures to prevent wolves and leopards also had to be taken: nailing down sharpened wooden stakes, raising the fences, and building houses. Day and night, there had to be enough people on guard with a Weapon; otherwise, if a wolf got into the pen, the year's work would be in vain.

It was a bit dangerous to build a heated brick bed in a wooden house, so they could only use moss and mud to wrap the entire wooden wall tightly, making it airtight. They built mud stoves inside the rooms, added firewood on time, and prepared enough firewood to ensure everyone could pass through the Winter smoothly.