Chapter 151: Mental Exhaustion

The Baifeng tribe has already given up on the idea of setting out to attack other tribes, because they searched in another direction again and found nothing but human bones and collapsed villages.

If they were to travel half a month or a month away to attack other tribes just to expand the tribe, it would be unrealistic for them and the losses would outweigh the gains; supplies and safety along the way could not be guaranteed, and even if they did conquer a place, how would they bring people back across such a long distance?

So Baifeng, who had finally been imposing for once, decided to lie flat again and let others come to attack instead; it wouldn't matter even if the Suiren clan came to fight them. Their current weapon combat power has already reached the ceiling, unless they can somehow find Sulfur and create Gunpowder to thoroughly raise their combat power to the maximum.

The insects he brought back were indeed silkworms without a doubt, because after feeding them elm leaves for a few days, he switched to mulberry leaves once they appeared; they turned white after molting once, and although there was still a slight difference from the fully developed domestic silkworm, the difference was not significant.

The silkworms he raised have now also spun cocoons, but he had made some miscalculations at the time; over a thousand silkworms made him feel somewhat mentally exhausted, because they were truly too voracious—let alone one mulberry tree, ten mulberry trees wouldn't be enough for them to eat.

In the middle of it, he fed some silkworms directly to the chickens or threw them into the Fish Pond to feed the fish, as he really couldn't afford to raise them anymore. Unless he specifically planted an acre or two of mulberry trees to see how that went, it was truly impossible to feed so many silkworms with just these scattered mulberry trees; he wondered what would happen if he picked the mulberry trees bald.

Another benefit of raising silkworms is that silkworm excrement can be used to feed fish; silkworm excrement is the feces of silkworms. When Baifeng was studying, the mulberry-dike-fish-pond was a hallmark product of circular agriculture. Now that all the elements for Baifeng are complete, it wouldn't be impossible to set up a mulberry-dike-fish-pond, right?

During the few days they were spinning cocoons, Baifeng really let out a long sigh of relief. Although the silkworms hadn't died under his care, he was nearly dead himself, because this was his first time raising silkworms, and at the beginning, he wasn't even sure if they were silkworms; even if they were, what if the way to raise them was different from domestic silkworms? So Baifeng had to take care of them personally. Of course, the mulberry leaves were brought back by the tribespeople when they went out.

The quality of the cocoons is very good—snow-white, and they feel tough and elastic enough when squeezed; the Silk woven from them certainly won't be bad.

It's just that Baifeng felt a bit scared looking at these dense, tiny white balls; one moth would lay who knows how many eggs, and so many moths would lay tens of thousands of eggs.

To prevent future trouble, Baifeng took the initiative; he picked out the smaller cocoons, cut them open to pour out the pupae, and in the end, only kept one hundred large, white cocoons to let them reproduce.

As for the poured-out silkworm pupae, of course they were eaten; what a pity it would be to feed them to chickens. Melt some beef tallow, pour the pupae in to deep-fry them, and it can be said to be extremely delicious; sprinkle on some seasonings, and it smells divine.

People nowadays aren't picky eaters; no one thinks eating this stuff is disgusting, and they would even be willing to eat them raw. However, the Baifeng tribe is wealthy now, and they have started to become particular; if they can eat well, they naturally won't eat poorly, and they want to distinguish themselves from the wild people.

For the five hundred or so silkworm pupae, Baifeng, Sui, Xiong, and a group of other Leaders brought their main wives to eat together, along with Wine and several other dishes. This is Baifeng's customary way of winning people over; every so often, he prepares a table of good food—the kind that ordinary tribespeople cannot eat—and invites these people to eat to increase their sense of honor and status.

There are no official ranks now; no matter which tribe it is, what reflects status most is mainly in food. Even thousands of years later, the high or low status of a person can still be reflected in food, it's just that in the future, money can make up for some of the deficiencies in status.

For the remaining cocoons, he has to wait for the pupae inside to develop for a few more days, then cut the cocoons open as well, pour the pupae out, and place them in wheat bran, covering them well while waiting for them to emerge. Perhaps wild ones don't need to be cut and can come out on their own, but when Baifeng raised silkworms as a child, they had to be cut open.

Finally, for the sake of safety, he cut half and left half to see if there would be any impact in the end. Anyway, even if half died, the eggs laid would likely be enough to keep Baifeng worried.

However, now that the ones he raised have spun cocoons, the wild ones should have spun them too, though they should still be in the process of emerging. When the time comes, Baifeng thinks they can go and pick up those cocoons; even if the quality isn't good enough to make Silk, making them into rope would still be better than hemp rope.

Baifeng also doesn't know how to reel silk and can only rely on the memories in his impression to do it; he probably has to boil them first, then find the thread end and unravel it bit by bit. Baifeng isn't omnipotent either, so he has to grope his way forward bit by bit.

These were all handed over to the people of the Zhinu team to do. This time, Baifeng no longer hovered around their workshop, mainly for fear that they might have improper thoughts about Baifeng.

The silkworm moths that came out from the two different methods didn't seem to have any difference; the ones that had their cocoons broken artificially were even more vigorous. When they first came out, they didn't have the immediate intention to lay eggs; they waited until their wings were fully spread, flew a few circles, and after finding the moth they were satisfied with, they mated.

The Baifeng tribe prepared wide leaves for them to lay their eggs on, but unfortunately, Baifeng hasn't invented paper yet, otherwise it would be better to lay them on paper.

The main reason Baifeng doesn't make paper is that there isn't much need for it. Writing? Only a few people in the entire tribe know how, and there aren't many characters they know how to write; using some bamboo or wood slips is enough.

Wiping one's butt with paper is even more impossible. Baifeng feels he doesn't have such a big face to specifically go to the trouble of making paper for his own butt, not to mention that his butt cheeks aren't made of Bronze and aren't that valuable.

For wiping his butt, Baifeng uses dirt clods; the main thing is that bamboo slips have barbs and tree branches are also quite prickly, which is not as comfortable as dirt clods, and they are everywhere. He also isn't willing to polish a pile of bamboo slips just to go to the bathroom, especially since they can't be used again after one use.

The bathroom is public, providing only bamboo slips and leaves inside; those who don't like using them bring their own things before going to the bathroom. Baifeng makes an exception; he has an independent bathroom with a pottery vat inside, containing dirt clods he selected that are dry, wet, and sized appropriately; after using them, he just throws them into the manure pit, and in the end, they are returned to the fields.

He even built a shower room for himself, with a hole in the roof and pottery pipes installed inside; below, a pottery shower head hangs like a lamp, fixed and unable to adjust height or temperature.

Above the hole is a special wooden bucket with a valve underneath. When it's time to take a shower, he boils hot water, pours all the cold and hot water into the bucket to adjust the temperature, and after opening the valve, he has to run down from the roof quickly to wash.

Other tribespeople don't take showers, only washing their faces and hands; in the summer, they just carry water and pour it over their heads to cool off. Only the people of the Fishing Team, who are in the water every day, wash themselves clean.