Chapter 189: Greenhouse

Regarding the Tea Trees exchanged with the Suiren Clan this time, Baifeng had clearly stated his requirements to them from the start: when digging them up, the roots must retain plenty of soil so that he could ensure the survival of the Tea Trees.

Along the way, Baifeng also tended to them carefully, watering them constantly to keep them alive until they reached the Baifeng Tribe; after arriving at the tribe, the first thing to do was to find a place to transplant them.

Their tribe was located on a plain, which was not suitable for growing Tea Trees; Tea Trees like moisture but fear waterlogging, so the small hill behind their tribe was very suitable for planting Tea Trees, and it was also close to Baifeng's house, as Baifeng's house was built on high ground.

However, it was too cold here in winter, and the Tea Trees would not be able to survive the winter, so Baifeng still had to consider how to protect the Tea Trees through the winter.

The Tea Trees brought back by the Baifeng Tribe this time were all relatively tall, old, large Tea Trees, which would not be as fragile as young Tea Trees, and their overwintering conditions could be around zero degrees; after all, at the Suiren Clan's location, winter was not exactly warm, and it was likely that these Tea Trees were only distributed in those low-lying river valley areas.

Baifeng's idea was to build a Glass greenhouse; their tribe's Glass production was already very high, but there was no great consumption of it, so building a greenhouse only required producing some large Glass panels.

Furthermore, a Glass greenhouse could not only be used to grow Tea Trees, but also to grow some green vegetables, which could ensure that their tribe had some green vegetables to eat in winter; although it was impossible for all tribespeople to eat them, at least those leaders could satisfy their cravings in winter—Baifeng really did not want to eat those salted vegetables anymore, and because of the lack of vitamin intake, his skin was peeling very severely during the winter.

The weather was still quite hot now, and there was still a long time before the temperature dropped, which was completely enough for them to build the greenhouse and put it into use; even if the greenhouse construction failed and these Tea Trees all died, the loss would not be much for the Baifeng Tribe.

Even if they didn't think about growing Tea Trees in the future and instead exchanged for Tea Leaves directly with other tribes, that would also be acceptable; Tea Leaves were also an important source of vitamins in winter, and Tea Leaf production was high and easy to preserve, so even ordinary tribespeople would have a chance to drink them.

It was also very important for the health of the tribespeople; this was not just as simple as satisfying Baifeng's own cravings—the tribespeople's current gum bleeding problems were very serious, including people like Xiong, and if they were like this, it would only be more serious for ordinary tribespeople.

The hills behind were not saline-alkali land because there was no river water soaking them; they were just ordinary soil, and they were considered fertile, plus the long-term accumulation of fallen leaves and various withered Grass, making them very suitable for planting.

Although fertile, Baifeng did not cultivate this place, the reason being that although the slopes of the hills were relatively gentle, if they wanted to use them as farmland for planting, they would first need to transform them into terraced fields, which was too uneconomical for them; after all, the plain was right in front of them, so why look toward the hills?

But now it could indeed be considered, because with so many Slaves, more food would need to be spent to support them in the future; their grain reserves seemed very large when they were not expanding the population, but now they could at most barely eat until the next Autumn Harvest, and this was even counting the various wild vegetables, wild fruits, and the gains from Dahu; besides, they couldn't just let them eat and fatten up without doing anything in winter, so it was just right to use them to cultivate these hills behind, and put their strength to use in the right place.

Baifeng planned out a large area on the hill, with one part for planting Tea Trees and the rest for growing vegetables. The four walls of the greenhouse needed to be built with Brick and wood, but with very large window openings left for installing Glass.

As for the roof, besides the supporting keel, he planned to cover it entirely with Glass to ensure sufficient lighting, and the Glass used would be very thick, even with several layers stacked together, and it would also have an incline, not a flat surface. This was considering the problem of Snow falling in winter; if it were too thin, the Glass might not be able to support it, and the incline was also to allow the Snow to slide off by itself.

The tribespeople's construction experience was already very rich; Baifeng only needed to describe it in theory, then occasionally go over to supervise the work and provide some guidance; he was very confident in everyone's work enthusiasm and operational ability, and if he had to do it himself, he might not necessarily reach the level of these tribespeople.

Originally, the Baifeng Tribe would have two fixed celebration activities a year, but because this year's cattle-hunting operation ended in failure, that scheduled celebration was declared cancelled; however, everyone was looking forward to the celebration on the day of the Winter Solstice—there were so many tribespeople this time, and the tribe had also had a great Harvest this year, so it would definitely be extremely lively.

The Glass greenhouse was successfully built, and in order to ensure that the temperature inside was high enough, Baifeng also built many Fireplaces to ensure that no accidents would occur; after all, if it were just a Glass room, the sunlight received would not be able to raise the temperature very high, and at the same time, the heat dissipation of the Glass was relatively fast.

There was not much time left until the Winter Solstice; the newly arrived tribespeople and Free Persons did not know what was going to happen, but they could also feel the excited mood of the old tribespeople, as if everyone was looking forward to that day, so they were all asking around to see if there was anything special about that day.

Unfortunately, the old tribespeople didn't know what was special about that day either, only hearing from the Tribal Chief that from that day on, Winter had truly arrived; although Winter had already arrived on the day of the Beginning of Winter, in reality, there was no obvious change compared to Autumn, but after the Winter Solstice, the temperature would rapidly turn cold.

On that day, they would hold grand sacrificial and celebratory activities, and after that day, the workload would gradually decrease, and everyone could start to fatten up.

Listening to the old tribespeople describe the grand celebration of the tribe when the Winter Solstice arrived, the newly arrived people also began to look forward to it, very much wanting to experience what the celebration activities they could participate in were like, especially that kind of life where meat was eaten freely and food was available at will.

Although their status was the same, or perhaps slightly lower, there was still a clear difference in food; the old tribespeople could eat food made of white rice and flour, could have various high-quality meat, and could eat vegetables grown by the tribe itself.

They could only eat coarse food like millet and buckwheat noodles; the meat was basically fish, and the vegetables were only wild vegetables; they could only eat six or seven parts full every day; although this life was already much better than what they had lived before, there was no harm without comparison, and they also wanted to eat well just like the real Baifeng Tribe members.

Most importantly, it was said that on that day there was unlimited Wine to drink—the kind of thing where one jar could be exchanged for a thousand Slaves; drinking a mouthful was equivalent to consuming dozens of Slaves; they hadn't tasted it until now, only having seen some people drinking it, but unfortunately, they didn't even have the qualifications to smell it.