Chapter 1561: Fertile Land

"Liangtui! Take a squad of men, follow the direction they went, and go find out for me what their situation really is. See if they are ambushing us up ahead. Go, quickly!"

The Soldier who had been called by name by Xingtian did not hesitate in the slightest; he immediately took the dozen or so men around him and, under the setting sun, followed those hoofprints to scout ahead.

The Huaxia Soldier who had returned on horseback reported a piece of good news: "King, following this river up leads to the Xingtian Tribe's camp. They have been traveling right along the river."

After hearing this, Baifeng made an immediate decision: "Good! Lu, arrange three companies of troops, build rafts, and be ready at any moment. Under the cover of night, go up the river, and either on the water or on the opposite bank, launch a surprise attack on them. Do you understand?"

"Understood, King. I will go arrange it now!"

Baifeng also asked Xuanyuan one last time: "Xuanyuan, this time, are you sure you won't send someone over to negotiate? What if it could be settled?"

"No, there is no need for negotiations. We can only go to persuade them to surrender; there is no need for negotiations."

Baifeng affirmed Xuanyuan's firm attitude. This time, facing Xingtian, they truly could not think about negotiations anymore. As the final goalkeeper of the Xuanyuan Tribe, Xingtian certainly would not accept negotiations, and it was even more impossible for him to be persuaded to surrender. If he could have, he wouldn't have had his head cut off by Xuanyuan after the failure of Shennong.

The seemingly short journey was quite long for those like Liangtui who were traveling on foot. They walked from the brilliant sunset until the sky turned dark before they managed to reach a place relatively close to their target.

The soaring flames indicated that someone was camping there, and by looking at the area and number of the flames, one could tell how many people were there.

Liangtui did not even need to walk right up to them; he could judge it just from his field of vision. Furthermore, under the reflection of the firelight, he could see Soldiers holding Weapons patrolling back and forth, and there were quite a few of them.

After silently noting the approximate scale, the group returned quickly and did not linger any longer. With just this many people, they couldn't accomplish anything major; returning to report the situation was the most important thing.

"Tribal Chief, I have seen it clearly. We followed those hoofprints all the way and discovered a very large camp in the distance. Judging by the number of bonfires and the people patrolling and keeping watch, it is definitely a large tribe. It is likely Huaxia, and it is undoubtedly the Xuanyuan Tribe."

"Their camp is set up quite far from the Boshui, not directly facing us. If we keep moving, we will definitely encounter them tomorrow. Judging by how they set up the camp, they should be planning to stay there and not move. It's just that I don't know how they discovered us. Could it be Tribal Chief Jiang Yuwang and his people?"

Xingtian already had a rough plan in his heart and could imagine the camps of Huaxia and the Xuanyuan Tribe. He did not say much about Liangtui's guess, only telling him: "Arrange the people keeping watch tonight; don't get ambushed. We will go over there tomorrow. No matter which tribe they are, we will defeat them. I won't let Jiang Yuwang off either."

At night, Baifeng was also preparing to rest, but he was still thinking about whether he should give Xingtian a surprise tonight and launch a sneak attack first? In any case, negotiations were definitely off the table, so he might as well scare them while their camp wasn't firmly established.

But this proposal was rejected by Xuanyuan: "Baifeng, your Huaxia camp is always so concentrated and orderly, so you don't know what those tribes are like."

"Right now, they haven't even truly finished setting up their camp. Even if you went to launch a sneak attack, you wouldn't be able to find their more important positions. Perhaps your Cavalry would run right into a circle of Slaves, and you might even trample some Slaves to death."

"They sleep spread out over a large area without a fixed location. If you go to launch a sneak attack, I fear you will just be wasting your Arrows. It is better to wait until tomorrow when it is bright and you can see, and wait for their camp to be completely set up, then go over and take a look."

"At least you will know where their most important positions are. The attack must strike their Soldiers. If you kill a few Slaves, Xingtian won't feel a thing."

"Since that is the case, then I will listen to you. We will talk about it tomorrow. Let's get some rest tonight. Sleep, sleep..."

Baifeng did not dwell on this problem anymore. He truly did not know what the camps of those tribes were like; it was an information gap. Xuanyuan still understood these tribes, after all, he had come through it all the same way.

The whole night passed peacefully. After the bonfires of the fake camp had burned for half the night, most were extinguished because there was no need to keep them burning; as long as they could confuse the enemy, that was enough. By midnight, most of the bonfires really should have been extinguished.

Moreover, looking at their current method of consumption, if they camped in the same place for too long, the surrounding area would be devoid of Grass, and not a single tree would be seen. How many trees would be burned in one night? The turf was also trampled back and forth, and the Grass was trampled into the soil.

Baifeng was also very tempted by the land here because for tens of millions of years, there had been no consumption here, only the accumulation of rotting Grass and leaves. Therefore, the land here was truly black soil and quite fertile.

However, because the climate was relatively warm and humid and the precipitation was relatively high, much of the humus would be washed away by the rain. Baifeng had poked it with a hollow bamboo pole; the black soil layer here was only forty or fifty centimeters thick. At most, it would be exhausted after a few hundred years of farming.

Although black soil is renewable, the speed of regeneration compared to human consumption is quite slow. Only in places like the Northeast or Northern Europe, with long Winters and short Summers, a short history of development, and relatively low precipitation, where decomposition is slow, can black soil several meters thick be accumulated.

It is a pity that as soon as humans intervene and consume it, the black soil decreases rapidly. The Northeast has also become a region with very serious soil erosion.

The land of the Shennong Clan now is just like the Great Plains of North America and some land in Africa; they all have a layer of black soil. This is a characteristic of Nature. The North American plains are a paradise for agriculture, and Africa is not barren either; it is quite fertile. Vegetables can even grow as perennials, but it is a pity that lazy people have wasted such good farmland resources.

The Northwest region now is not a scene of thousands of gullies and ravines, but rather quite dense primeval forests. Looking from afar, it is mountains; looking up close, it is Sichuan. The loess is the lower soil, and the upper layer is currently also very fertile.

It is also quite fast for humans to want to change a landscape. In the Northwest region, after humans began large-scale development, the forests disappeared, and then soil erosion appeared. The soil began to become barren, and at the same time, the reduction of vegetation in turn caused the climate to become arid. Multiple factors created the climate of the Loess Plateau today.

Now that place belongs to Baifeng, and Baifeng naturally will not let such things happen. Sustainable Development is the philosophy he has always adhered to.