Chapter 1343: Might as Well Go Fishing

This meeting between Huaxia and Xuanyuan thus came to an end. Afterward, Xuanyuan invited Baifeng to tour around Qingqiu City a bit more to take a look; if he could offer some suggestions, that would be even better.

Baifeng naturally would not refuse, but Baifeng could not stay in the Xuanyuan Tribe for too long either; he had to return to Huaxia as soon as possible. Huaxia could not be without him for too long. Xuanyuan did not have this worry; he could let go of tribal affairs for a year, as the entire Xuanyuan Tribe had no policy troubles, only considering how to farm and how to acquire more land to farm.

Xuanyuan himself had already made preparations to go to the Shennong Clan. Now he was impatient to conquer the Shennong Clan; once spring arrived, the time for war should begin.

He had sufficient grain, and Huaxia would continue to supplement it, but the Shennong Clan had just starved through a winter; what could they eat in the spring? Only various wild vegetables. Food remained scarce. When the enemy is weak and we are strong, one should launch a fierce attack.

Therefore, Xuanyuan was not prepared to wait for the Huaxia Soldiers to arrive together; he was prepared to set off on his own first. But the Huaxia grain had already arrived, so this counted as support having arrived. Now that Xuanyuan was going to the Shennong Clan and would obtain the fruits of battle, he would have to share them with Huaxia; there was no way around this.

Regarding the matter of the Sulfur Mine, Baifeng intended to keep it hidden from Xuanyuan forever. Taking advantage of the fact that it could still be mined, he would mine it frantically; in any case, Huaxia had plenty of places to store it.

If the warehouses could not hold it, then he would just find any corner outside the city, or even a cave, to hide it in. He would hoard enough to last for decades; in the future, Huaxia would certainly be able to find another sulfur mine.

As long as it was on a fault line where there was seismic and volcanic activity, one could certainly find traces of sulfur. A point that made Baifeng even less anxious now was that Huaxia had successfully separated sulfur from iron pyrite.

Although it could not be said that they could refine iron and separate sulfur on a large scale simultaneously, small Iron Smelting Boilers could already meet the requirements.

By adding iron pipes to the waste gas that was originally to be discharged and passing it through condensation, one could obtain sulfur that was not so pure. Because iron pyrite reacts with air to produce a large amount of Sulphur Dioxide gas, the sulfur after condensation naturally contained some impurities.

Baifeng did not understand some of the chemical reactions involved, nor could he manage them; the main thing was that researching chemistry was life-consuming. Such matters needed to be left to the alchemists who pursued immortality to struggle with, using their lives to trade for "life."

However, the simplest reaction methods like burning and condensation had already been mastered. In the future, if Huaxia wanted to produce someone who truly studied chemistry, it would be relatively simpler.

Because of the existence of iron pyrite, it provided Huaxia with more possibilities, and the importance of the Sulfur Mine instantly declined. Huaxia would not be overly concerned with it. Obsessing over one Sulfur Mine was not as good as searching for more iron pyrite; it could both refine iron and extract sulfur. Although extracting it was not that easy and the quantity was certainly far inferior to direct mining, it could provide a relatively stable supply, and the amount produced in a year could barely supply the sulfur needed for one year of Gunpowder production.

If Xuanyuan found out about the Sulfur Mine, it was no fear, as long as he was not let known what the sulfur was used for, so as to avoid him messing around with it. If he really managed to figure it out, that would be troublesome.

After staying in Huaxia for only a brief three days, Baifeng was on his way back without stopping. Xuanxiao was happy, however; while on the Boat, he was bored and would catch Baifeng to ask all sorts of questions. Some questions that would not cause substantive changes to the Xuanyuan Tribe, Baifeng would answer if he could.

In any case, they were all empty and distant knowledge; if Xuanxiao knew, he knew, and it was of no great consequence.

As for Baoxi, he had been lying comfortably in his new home, waiting for Baifeng to hurry up and take over his clansmen so he could enjoy himself first, but he did not expect the task to come.

Baifeng said directly that he wanted to build a city, which made the inexperienced Baoxi a bit numb. How to build it? Where to start building?

Moreover, Baifeng had made it clear: this city was Baoxi's city. As its City Lord, he could not just have an empty title; he had to do some real work and have a city he truly managed.

This reason was one Baoxi could not refuse, and he could only begin to prepare. Fortunately, it was only in the planning stage now, and he did not need to move immediately.

Baifeng was prepared to let Baoxi build this city because Baoxi was the Tribal Chief of the Suiren Clan; he would know how to mobilize people, which would be faster and more convenient, and once orders were issued, execution would certainly be easier.

Baifeng was also not afraid that Baoxi's influence in that city would be too great for him to manage, because Baoxi was old. For a city, it was impossible to be completely built without ten or more years, unless one just built an empty shell.

By the time the city was built, Baoxi would also be old. Chengqie was studying here in Huaxia and would have to study for many years. As long as Chengqie acknowledged his identity, then Baifeng could transfer him wherever he wanted. He could completely keep him in Huaxia City to hold office; after all, Nobility could be inherited, but official positions could not.

If Baoxi could manage this city well, he would let him do it. If he could not do it well, Baifeng naturally had ways to have someone replace him. At the longest, he would just wait until Baoxi died to change the person; by then, the city would have completely changed masters, and he could also use time to reduce the influence of the Suiren Clan on Huaxia.

Now, while Baoxi still had sufficient influence, he would make good use of him, letting him gather the clansmen for collective labor, construction, and relocation. The effect of doing this would be much better than Baifeng issuing the order. Even if the people of the Suiren Clan had already acknowledged their identity as Huaxia people to a certain extent, when choosing between their own Tribal Chief and this King they had never seen before, they would certainly trust their own Tribal Chief more.

Baifeng stood at the bow of the Boat, very much wanting to recite a poem, but unfortunately, he did not have that talent. Quoting someone else's also seemed inappropriate, so he decided to skip it. It would be better to go fishing.