Chapter 158: Flood or Great River

The rice of the Baifeng tribe had matured. Due to the Geography, the rice they planted could only grow for one season, and the maturation time was relatively late. Therefore, by the time the Xiling tribe had already harvested their tribe's rice and fled, the rice of the Baifeng tribe had only just been transplanted.

This year's rice yield was slightly higher than last year's, though the increase was not significant. Baifeng knew that rice hybridization was an extremely difficult task; otherwise, the old gentleman could not have spent so much painstaking effort to find a method for rice hybridization.

Because rice is self-pollinating, even if the people of the Baifeng tribe found other varieties of wild rice, it was of little use to Baifeng. While other species could be artificially cross-pollinated, if one wanted to suddenly increase rice yields without understanding the technology, one could only wait for mutations.

This year's rice harvest was enough to feed the many people of the Baifeng tribe for three years. Everyone finally felt that their hard work in the spring had not been in vain, and that the labor of weeding in the fields during the summer and draining water at night had not been wasted; they all felt very proud and satisfied.

Baifeng also sincerely thanked Heaven that no great disaster had descended this year; there were no torrential rains or hailstorms, allowing their grain to be successfully stored in the Grain Storehouse. In a few days, they would harvest the buckwheat, while the sorghum was still growing stalks wildly. Baifeng really wanted to find a way to make the sorghum change, to grow fewer stalks and more ears, though the benefit was that the cattle loved eating sorghum stalks.

The batch of Xiaoniu that had been born had already been weaned and were now half-grown. The tribe had developed a large new area, so they were separated from the first batch of cattle. This group of cattle was already much more docile than the old cattle and was relatively more affectionate toward people.

Baifeng had wanted to bring Xiaoniu over as well, to let him lead this second generation of cattle, but Xiaoniu was unwilling. His harem was already full, so how could he possibly go among a group of immature cattle? Thus, he firmly rejected Baifeng and stayed with the old herd, continuing to contribute to the growth of the cattle population.

With food, the tribespeople were no longer very willing to risk going out to hunt. They felt that this life of farming and harvesting was much better than hunting. Even though meat tasted better than rice and flour, they now only went out to hunt occasionally, treating fresh meat as a side dish; no one wanted to eat salted meat that had been cured for a year.

On ordinary days, they focused on construction and reproduction. The city wall of the Baifeng tribe was expanded once again, and the height of the new city wall rose as well. Now that everyone was physically strong and lacked neither food nor drink, the speed of construction in all aspects had increased.

Xiong and his people had only built their Brick houses a year ago, but they were already planning to abandon and rebuild them. Because he had many wives and had now sired several children—both sons and daughters—the house was noisy all day long. Not to mention, the smell of excrement and sour milk permeated the entire room. Baifeng did not have the slightest courage to step inside; even Xiong himself was permeated with the smell.

The house was small and dirty, but the main issue was the lighting. Without a Window, the entire room was cold, dark, and damp. Adults would be uncomfortable living in it for long, and if children could not get sunlight, their bones would be soft, and they would not grow tall or healthy.

Baifeng was now doubting himself a little. Why was it that Xiong already had many children, while Sui's belly had shown no reaction at all? If he had lost his fertility due to his transmigration, then what was he working himself to the bone for? If he built up a family estate only to give it to outsiders, it would be better to just hand it over to Xuanyuan directly. Perhaps he would be given some official title and be treated like an immortal in the future.

That was what he thought, but Baifeng still had his Wax Seed, so he worked hard to sow it in Sui. If he really could not produce children, Baifeng might go find Xuanyuan, hand over the tribe, and trade it for a leisurely, noble status to just lie flat.

The buckwheat was starting to turn yellow and would soon be ready for harvest. Baifeng had not yet eaten the buckwheat of this era; he did not know if it was bitter. Once the buckwheat was down, making some buckwheat noodles to taste would be quite nice.

Moreover, buckwheat husks were also excellent for making pillows. What Baifeng was currently using as a pillow was merely a bag of Grass, and although it was much better than the wooden sticks the other tribespeople used, Baifeng still felt it was not comfortable enough.

Just as everyone was discussing how much yield the new crop would have, how it would taste, and looking forward to the harvest, the weather changed again. Baifeng could only curse, "Damn it," for having to play this game every year.

This was the only downside to agricultural civilization: one basically lived at the mercy of Heaven. If Heaven was kind, one might have enough to eat and drink for a few years; if Heaven was unhappy, not only would a year's work be in vain, but it was very likely there would be no food for several years.

Hunting relied entirely on skill. As long as one's technique was good and one's ability was high, in this place with such abundant resources, at least one would not have to worry about food and clothing for the time being.

The thunder was terrifyingly loud, and the lightning did not stop. Even at night, the earth was very bright, and the tribespeople were all very afraid of such a scene.

There was no other way now; they had to rush the harvest. Who knew if this weather would bring a hailstorm? They had not even seen many torrential rains as massive as this one this year.

Fortunately, they had not planted too much buckwheat, so the speed of several hundred people harvesting together was still very fast. Moreover, the thunder tonight felt like it was all bark and no bite; it was massive in scale, but it just would not rain.

The maturity of the buckwheat was not ideal, but it could barely be harvested. After working through the middle of the night, all the buckwheat was harvested, but the rain still did not come down; it only fell symbolically, though the wind was very strong.

The rain did not fall, and he did not know if everyone should feel lucky or unlucky, but at least it was harvested.

However, just a day later, without any warning, by the time they noticed, the heavy rain had already arrived. Because they had already harvested the buckwheat, everyone was not very anxious and even had the leisure to sit on the threshold and watch the rain. Of course, the person watching the rain specifically referred to Baifeng; the other tribespeople would not think there was anything good about the rain.

However, looking at the dense sky, this rain was likely to last for a long time. The next day, the rain was still falling. Baifeng's eyelid kept twitching, and he always felt that something bad was going to happen. But having an eyelid twitching constantly was not a good thing, so he found a small piece of Grass, dipped it in saliva, and stuck it onto his eyelid, and it stopped twitching.

It was that familiar roaring sound again. Damn it, they weren't going to release the flood here again, were they? What was the point of such a wide river channel if it couldn't even handle this little bit of floodwater?

The moment the rain stopped, Baifeng ignored the standing water on the ground and rushed to the city wall to look. But regardless of the width or the volume of water, this did not look like a flood; it looked more like a Dahe.

Although the ancient river channel was on the plain not far outside the city, there shouldn't be much chance of the Dahe changing its course again. Baifeng could only believe that this was a mountain flood with a relatively large volume of water; he was unwilling to believe the river channel had changed. He would have to wait and see for a few more days to be sure.

At this moment, a report from a tribesman made Baifeng panic: the roof of the Grain Storehouse was leaking, and much of the Wheat inside had already been soaked.