Chapter 1387: Lulv Tiaoyang

The shaman of the Jiebing Tribe, through divination, determined that four days later there would be a moonless night; Jiebing believed this to be their best opportunity, and four days later, they would assemble all the men and women of the three tribes to launch an attack together against Huaxia and the Xuanyuan Tribe Alliance.

Fenghou, however, saw the moon that night; the lunar halo was very large and distinct, which made him feel worried, so he reported it to Xuanyuan at that time.

"Tribal Chief, look at the large circle surrounding the moon; this is a very special omen."

Xuanyuan, who rarely looked up at the sky at night, naturally did not know what special significance this held, but now that Fenghou had said this, he discovered the unusual scenery above his head.

"Fenghou? Does this mean some major event is about to happen?" The unnatural phenomenon made even Xuanyuan feel nervous.

But before Fenghou could explain, Lu arrived with two Soldiers; he had been patrolling at night to observe the situation, and at the same time, he had been comforting and arranging for the Soldiers on night watch; as a Leader, he believed he had to be considerate of the ordinary Soldiers so that he could gain their devotion, and only then could they win battles.

"Tribal Chief Xuanyuan! Fenghou, you two are still not resting so late; are you worried they will come to launch a sneak attack?"

Seeing it was Lu, Xuanyuan explained: "Ah, it is Fenghou; he saw this phenomenon in the sky and believes it is an omen, so he called me out to take a look."

Lu looked up and saw the large lunar halo, but what was special about this? He asked in confusion: "Isn't it just a lunar halo? What is so special about it?"

"A lunar halo? Could it be that General Lu also understands the Qi Observation Technique?" Fenghou was very surprised, because not many people had even heard of this technique of his, let alone knew how to perform it.

"You call this the Qi Observation Technique? In Huaxia, we call it Geography; this is just a very common phenomenon. A lunar halo indicates high humidity in the air, and the moonlight is simply being refracted; there is nothing special about it." Lu looked indifferent, as this could be considered common knowledge in Huaxia; even if you did not know the principle, you had to understand what it predicted, because it had a great deal to do with the production and daily life of ordinary people.

Folk songs like "Morning glow means don't go out, evening glow means travel a thousand miles" were understood even by children, were widely sung in Huaxia, and were very accurate; some who did not understand the principles thought that the King had taught them some peculiar things, while those who studied well and understood the principles not only knew what it was about but could also draw inferences about other cases.

However, there was not much that Baifeng could teach, because he had forgotten most things himself, so he could only teach some common knowledge; plus, Huaxia was very safe, and people were not afraid to go out at night, so naturally, there were many more people who dared to look up at the stars.

In the past, humans would rush into caves as soon as evening fell, and they had no opportunity to look at the stars at all; even if they had the chance to look, they wouldn't know how to look; barbaric humans did not know what there was to see in the stars, which was no different from a blind dog staring at the stars.

Only when human intelligence grew and they had more ideas for exploring the universe would they think about looking at the stars, wanting to know what the existence of the stars meant, and then they would be able to discover some relatively peculiar things.

For example, lunar halos, or the waxing and waning of the moon; now, they hadn't even figured out the waxing and waning of the moon, which meant that in this era, there were almost no people who would look up at the stars.

Baifeng could not fully grasp the trajectory of the moon either, so he did not establish the unit of a "month," but he believed that they would soon be able to use this unit, because the current progress of the calendar was very gratifying.

Besides observing the movements of the moon and the sun, the Xuanyuan Tribe also produced talent; they determined changes in the seasons by inserting hollow tubes, such as bamboo or Reed, into the ground and observing the "Earth Qi"; this method was called Huangzhong Lulv.

But they had not yet found the pattern; the location where the tubes were inserted, the length of the tubes, and the depth all seemed to have an effect.

Baifeng knew about "Solar Terms," though he did not know where this "Qi" came from; he had memorized a little of the Thousand Character Classic, just the opening part that almost everyone knew, and one of the lines was "Lulv Tiaoyang"; previously he had only read it without knowing the meaning, but now that this thing called Huangzhong Lulv had been passed down, he suddenly understood what it meant, and he indicated that the current direction of research was correct!

Currently, for the Winter Solstice and Summer Solstice, which could be observed through sun shadows, the Lulu had already confirmed that during a certain period on that day, a burst of Qi would spray out from the tube, blowing up the feather placed at the mouth of the tube, and it even carried a sound, much like blowing a flute or a reed pipe.

Many people were observing, and in many places, they were observing; through the Sundial, they could accurately record the time the feather was blown up, knowing that this was not blown up by other winds, but by "Earth Qi."

As long as there were days other than the Winter Solstice and Summer Solstice when the feather was blown up, those days must also be days of great significance.

Baifeng told them that there were twenty-four such days in total, but he did not know the specific dates and they needed to find them themselves; however, because of the appearance of the Lulu, the Sun Shadow Wall, and the tireless observation of the movements of the sun and moon, Baifeng felt that the emergence of a calendar was just around the corner.

Of course, this news came after the Winter Solstice; just a few days ago, a new Solar Term was observed, and all they could do was record the number of days in between, while Baifeng, based on the approximate time, inferred that this newly observed Solar Term should be Grain Rain.

Xuanyuan did not yet know what changes all this would bring, but since Baifeng was so anxious, it meant that observing the seasons was very important; Xuanyuan himself only wanted to figure out the laws of this world, not to guide farming through the calculation of the seasons.

Xuanyuan was currently on the battlefield as well, and he didn't even know what stage things had reached; he was just listening to the accounts of Lu and Fenghou, which made him feel it was all very marvelous.

Fenghou believed that celestial phenomena were omens given by the gods, and that all abnormal things represented that extraordinary events would happen in the future; but Lu insisted that things like lunar halos were simply pure natural phenomena, telling you that it would rain or be windy in the next few days, and there was nothing peculiar about it.

However, just because Lu said this did not mean he did not believe in ghosts and gods; on the contrary, he believed in them very much, because these words were all spoken by Baifeng, who was the son of a god; as long as it was something Baifeng said, it must be true; if Baifeng said certain things were related to the gods, then they must be related, and if those things were not related, then they must not be related.