Chapter 160: Water Route

The wheat that had been soaked in water grew faster under the sun's irradiation; in just a few days, it had sprouted long enough malt, and at the same time, although the water flow outside the city had decreased slightly, there was no sign of it drying up at all; instead, the water volume was very stable, and there were even signs of it becoming clearer.

Baifeng had the tribesmen clear all the malt from the ground, then rinsed it many times with clean water, and finally chopped these malts into very fine pieces, which was the only way to reach a usable state.

The Baifeng tribe did not have glutinous rice, perhaps this era did not yet have glutinous rice, but last year he discovered that the rice they planted seemed to have several varieties, because not only were there differences in size and shape, but one could also taste the difference in flavor, so this year he intentionally planted the ones with greater differences separately.

Among them, there was one type with higher stickiness similar to glutinous rice, though it could not reach the level of stickiness of glutinous rice, it could only be said to have a certain similarity; Baifeng used this rice to replace the glutinous rice used for making maltose, and after steaming it, mixed it with the chopped malt.

After stirring it evenly, it had to be fermented at a suitable temperature for a day before the sugar structure in the malt and rice could change, thereby allowing maltose to be boiled out.

Because the quantity of wheat soaked by the rain was still very large, fermentation was not a simple matter, and many tribesmen had to be mobilized to prepare these raw materials.

Baifeng was also not sure if he could succeed in one go; if it failed, then a great deal of rice would be added to the feed, and perhaps Baifeng would not dare to consider making maltose again in the future.

The next day, there was already a lot of yellow-brown water in the vat where the malt was fermenting; this was undoubtedly sugar water, so all the malt was filtered and drained with Hemp Cloth, and then the boiling began in a large pot.

At the very beginning, it was like boiling a pot of yellow water, but after a lot of the water evaporated later, the contents in the pot began to become thick, and when there was no more moisture, he extinguished the fire, and then used two wooden sticks to pick up some sugar and wind it like winding thread.

Baifeng tasted it; it was very sweet, but he did not feel it was cloying, which showed that their maltose had been successfully boiled, and their tribe now had another important source of sweetness besides honey.

Baifeng had thought about sugar production a long time ago, but his focus was never on wheat; wheat was an important food source and could not be used for sugar production, as the cost was too high.

But he could not find other sugar-producing crops; sugar beets were still lying in the wilderness of some continent, and Gansu also grew wantonly beside the great marshes in the south, so it was impossible for them to be on their territory.

The pulled maltose was then switched to a thicker wooden stick to continue winding and pulling until it became hard and could no longer be pulled; at this time, the maltose already had an alluring brown color and some gorgeous twisted patterns.

The children of the tribe all received a piece of maltose as a reward, and the rest was all put away; occasionally, they could give some to the tribesmen, as this thing was as precious as honey, so it was impossible to distribute it to everyone at will.

Baifeng had basically determined that the water outside the city wall was that Dahe; he did not know if it had changed its course after hundreds or tens of years and then changed back again; if it were not threatened by floods, this Dahe could be called a moat.

Baifeng also took people to walk upstream, wanting to find the reason for the Dahe changing its course; generally, a Dahe would not change its course at will, and if it did, safety might also be affected.

As a result, Baifeng discovered that it might still be related to that spring flood; the old riverbed was silted up beyond recognition, and the riverbed was piled full of all kinds of large stones and broken wood, so this rainstorm directly forced the Dahe to change its course.

However, looking at it this way, there should be no other risks for the Dahe changing its course; there was no Quake Lake, and the new riverbed was already very stable, and the water was gradually becoming clearer; although it was on the plain, because the riverbed existed before, plus the impact of two major floods, the riverbed had become deeper, so even if there were another flood, it would be difficult to submerge the Baifeng tribe, unless there were several consecutive days of that kind of catastrophic heavy rain.

Now that the Dahe was right at their doorstep, using water would naturally be more convenient, but the water conservancy system of the Baifeng tribe was still very useful, so there was no need to fetch water from the Dahe; however, in Winter, they would no longer need to store water in the water cellar, but could directly chisel ice from the Dahe.

Baifeng was more inclined to repair the river embankment along the Dahe, but they did not have that capability yet; although it was said to be upstream, the width, depth, and water volume of the Dahe were extremely large, unless it was the dry season in Winter, to see if they could build an embankment on their side.

With this Dahe, the defensive power of the Baifeng tribe when facing external enemies had been raised by several levels, equivalent to having an extra moat.

However, Baifeng also thought about the matter of river water transport; if they walked to the downstream, they would have to walk for a long time, but if they took the water route, the speed would be much faster, and people would also be more relaxed.

So Baifeng planned to build a Boat, a real Boat, not something like a Bamboo Raft; they had a lot of wood here, and also things like Iron nails, so building a Boat was not impossible, but their skills could not build a Large Ship.

Baifeng drew and drew on a wooden board, and in the end, he only drew the appearance of a small wooden boat, which could at most seat three people, and that was the kind where one could not straighten their legs.

The advantage was that it was fast to build, and the technical difficulty was not high; Baifeng's current pursuit was to build a Boat that could hold four or five people, and one where they could lie down and sleep; it would be best if it could be equipped with a sail.

But in the whole tribe, only Baifeng had a clue; let alone ordinary tribesmen, even the Carpenter and the Soldier who had been fishing in the Dahu did not know how to do it.

So let's build such a small boat first to see the effect; anyway, the Baifeng tribe was not in a hurry now, all supplies were not lacking, and he had originally planned to wait for other tribes to attack, but now with the Dahe, things had a turning point.

Baifeng helped make it together, and it took several people a few days to finish this small boat; Baifeng could not wait to let the small boat enter the water to test it; if it did not sink, then he would make a larger one.

In the end, the people testing the boat were the two with the best swimming skills from the Fishing Team. This section of the water was relatively slow, and with their swimming skills, even if the boat sank or capsized, their lives would not be in danger.

Finally, in the expectant eyes of all the tribesmen, the two of them, along with Baifeng and the few who built the boat, pushed the boat into the water.

After entering the water, the boat floated steadily on the water surface, swaying with the waves, and the two tribesmen also boarded the boat one after the other; the boat only swayed, the draft became a little deeper, and there was no sign of it sinking at all.