Chapter 235: Tea Tasting

Although the tribesmen did not take Baifeng's words too much to heart, fortunately, they did do some of the things he arranged, such as making various mechanisms and traps to catch rabbits, increasing the intensity of patrols in the farmland, and reinforcing the city walls.

However, what Baifeng did not expect was that the rabbits' rate of advance was so fast, so the tribesmen's work progress was not high, especially on the city walls; currently, the Cement is still being burned urgently, and except for the amount necessary for building houses, the rest is being sent to the base of the city walls to be used to pave a layer of Cement inside the walls and on the ground, so as to avoid being tunneled through by rabbits.

By the time several rabbit holes were already discovered on the city walls, the tribesmen were all panicked; they stopped caring about the construction of any houses, and all the Cement was transported to the foot of the city walls.

The foundation of the newly built city walls was constructed of Cement, sand, and stone, so there was no fear of rabbits digging holes; although the higher parts were made of earth, rabbits would not dig at such a high position, but the old city walls were all pure earth, which was the place that needed the most protection.

It was fine during the day, as rabbits would not come out to dig holes during the day; after all, being exposed in broad daylight was very dangerous, and besides the predators in the sky and on the ground, the tribesmen of the Baifeng tribe were constantly patrolling, and as soon as they saw one, they would immediately hunt and kill it.

It was not yet at the most serious stage, and holes could only be seen at long intervals, but according to Baifeng's deduction and the rabbits' reproduction speed, the time when holes would appear all over the city walls would not be too far off, and it was still in time for them to take remedial measures now.

Besides reinforcing the city walls for prevention, taking the initiative to attack was the most important thing; according to Baifeng's instructions, they began to not fear waste, forging a large amount of Iron wire to make snares placed at various positions under the city walls, though currently, they could basically catch very few rabbits.

They dared not place them on the Wasteland because the area was too large and there were too many rabbits to catch, and if they snared a strong one or didn't tie it in the right place, the rabbit would even run off with their snare, resulting in a somewhat large loss; the current snares were just serving a defensive purpose.

The children also exerted their active nature, learning to make Crossbows from the Carpenter; even if the trigger performance of the crossbow mechanisms was not that good, and the overall power and aesthetics were also very poor, such toy Bow and Crossbows could now serve the purpose of shooting and killing rabbits.

Dogs were the main force for searching; their noses and eyesight were much better than humans', and their speed was also faster; now their puppies had been weaned and were chubby, following a group of big dogs to patrol beside the city walls every day, which could be considered training and learning hunting skills.

At this time, Baifeng was still on the Boat stir-frying Tea Leaves; their tea had already been stir-fried halfway, and from the beginning of knowing nothing and being unable to grasp the heat, they were now very skilled; Baifeng tasted the stir-fried Tea Leaves himself, and after brewing, the color was no different from that of later generations, and the color was even better-looking, it was just the taste, which was indeed very bitter.

Baifeng had the experience of his previous life and quickly adapted to this taste, but the tribesmen could not appreciate this thing at all; it was simply on par with those medicinal herbs prepared by the Tribal Chief, and perhaps this tea leaf was a medicinal herb, as the Tribal Chief had said before that the first-generation Shennong relied on this thing to detoxify all the poisons he encountered when he tasted a hundred herbs.

However, although the tribesmen understood that this was a good thing—otherwise the Tribal Chief would definitely not have spent such a high price to trade for it—they truly could not accept the taste; when they were starving in the past, they would eat grass and tree bark, but they would pick the ones that were not bitter to eat.

Baifeng could not force this kind of thing; he couldn't just force-feed them, but he still explained to them that the quantity of this thing was only this much, and after returning, it would be distributed to all the tribesmen, and during Winter, they would have to rely on this thing to supplement nutrition; if they drank it now and got used to it, they would feel better during Winter, not to mention that this thing had to be savored; although it indeed felt very bitter and strange when first drunk, as long as one drank it for a long time, one would always be able to savor the tea fragrance.

The first tribesman to accept the tea was before he was about to stand guard at night; under Baifeng's various temptations and persuasions, he drank a bowl, and it was indeed not that bitter, but what made him feel the most magical was that he was actually not sleepy anymore; he was even very energetic during the first half of the night, until the second half of the night, when it was almost dawn, did the sleepiness come.

Like in the past, his night watch was very difficult to endure; the night was pitch black, and it was fine if there was a moon, but if there were no stars or moon, and there was no light at all, it was very difficult for him to persist in not falling asleep in the entire darkness.

In order to stay awake, not only him, but all the Soldiers would pinch themselves, slap their own faces, and the like to keep themselves from falling asleep; sometimes Baifeng would get up and see the faces of the night-watch Soldiers were red and swollen, and when asked the reason, they would just say it was from slapping mosquitoes, too embarrassed to tell the truth, because they were all afraid that the Tribal Chief would think they were useless, unable to even keep watch for one night.

The next day, out of curiosity, he asked Baifeng, and Baifeng said that tea indeed had this effect, and the stronger the tea, the better the effect; however, they had never drunk tea before, so their tolerance must be low, and even a little bit of tea could keep them awake; they used to drink it during the day, so they didn't feel it.

After experiencing the effect of the tea once, that tribesman fell in love with tea; although at first it was just to be able to resist sleepiness by drinking tea, later, as he drank it more often, he really understood it, so much so that later, no matter what Baifeng had that was related to tea, he was the first to come.

After hearing the experience of their companion, the later night-watch Soldiers also began to try drinking tea, and the effect was indeed very good; previously, when keeping watch with that tribesman, they had asked why he never seemed to doze off, and it turned out it was because of the tea.

Originally, for the sake of safety during night watch, so as not to fall off the Boat due to dozing off, they would tie ropes around their waists connected to the Boat, so that even if they fell, they would be tied by the ropes; ever since they had Tea Leaves, they were not so dependent on the ropes.

It was just that Baifeng felt the quantity of Tea Leaves was still too small; after stir-frying so many fresh Tea Leaves, Baifeng estimated there were only about two hundred catties, and even if one catty was distributed to each tribesman, it wouldn't be enough, not to mention how long one catty could last.

Thus, Baifeng could only think about making some exchanges with the Suiren clan; the quantity of Tea Leaves of the Suiren clan must be large, and fresh, and although he had wiped out one of their Villages, he estimated there would be no problem; for one thing, they might not have received the news yet, and for another, even if they knew, so what? The dispute was not started by the Baifeng tribe first.

The Baifeng tribe was for the sake of safeguarding its own interests, plus it was resistance, with reason and evidence; even if the Suiren clan knew, Baifeng still felt he could go and ask for some compensation, and besides, for a business like trading food for leaves, even if Baoxi was angry again, he would have to pinch his nose and do it.