Chapter 240: Emergency Harvest

Speaking of which, the losses for Baifeng and his people were still quite significant. Because there was no concern about heavy rain, everyone was not that anxious on the first day and proceeded slowly. As a result, after one night, they discovered that they could no longer find any wheat heads in a small patch of land. They did not know what had stolen them; one must know that Baifeng and his people had indeed not yet harvested that area.

Baifeng let everyone continue harvesting while he went to investigate the situation. Based on the cuts on the wheat stalks, the wheat dropped on the ground, and the dense footprints, Baifeng estimated that they had encountered some kind of rodent thief.

The search results from several dogs also indicated that countless Jumping Mouse had come here, possibly attracted by this endless wheat field. Jumping Mouse basically steal wheat heads at night, so Baifeng did not dare to let everyone rest at night anymore, instead having everyone harvest through the night.

They were competing with various small animals for this food; perhaps the small animals did not even know this was something planted by humans, only feeling that the Grass Seed planted by Nature was something everyone had the right to eat.

Baifeng and his people were now too busy to drive them away, and too busy to patrol and hunt rabbits outside the city, so they could only put all their energy into harvesting the wheat.

Fortunately, the several thousand Slaves took three days and two nights to bring back all the wheat. As for the wheat that fell on the ground or was missed during harvesting, it all became food for the animals. There was no rush for the wheat stalks; they would give everyone a few days of rest before going to harvest them.

Baifeng did not tell the Slaves what the wheat had to do with them, but unexpectedly, they worked surprisingly hard. Even with a Weapon in hand, they would not have any bad ideas. Originally, Baifeng had said he would collect all the Weapons when the Slaves finished their work and rested, but seeing everyone's state, Baifeng abandoned this idea, only letting them keep them safe and saying they would be collected when the harvest ended. If any were missing when collected, they would be punished.

Seeing everyone's work enthusiasm so high, Baifeng told them a piece of good news: a large portion of these wheat stalks would be kept to use as bedding for them. One must know that what they used was old dried Grass, or wheat stalks that were almost rotting; it was not comfortable at all and even had a foul smell.

The new wheat stalks would become very soft after being beaten, and they were dry, clean, and had a bit of fragrance. Hearing the news, the Slaves naturally cheered and jumped for joy. They were not being starved now, and if they could sleep better, it was certainly a thing worth being happy about.

Their current life was already much better than when they were in their own tribes before, but because there was a comparison—there were Tribal Chief's tribesmen and Free Person who had lived better—it only made them seem somewhat miserable.

Baifeng was actually planning that after all the food was harvested, he would rebuild some rooms for the Slaves. Their current houses were already too old, and the space was small with insufficient light, the kind that was completely impossible for people to live in. Baifeng believed that giving them better conditions could make their lifespans and bodies better; one aspect was being able to work better, and another was that after life had something to look forward to, they would certainly be able to work more diligently.

However, Baifeng did not tell them this news; it was just a draft in his own mind. It mainly depended on how his tribe's harvest was this year. If the harvest was good enough to afford it, he would build; if the harvest was too poor, Baifeng would just pretend he never had this intention.

On the day the wheat was finished harvesting, Baifeng had them hand over all the Weapons. Basically, everyone handed them in, but there would always be those few who had other ideas, feeling that the Baifeng tribe was too benevolent and that even if a Weapon was lost, he would certainly not blame them, at most giving a painless punishment, so they hid them, saying their Knife was lost.

Baifeng would not indulge them; he knew when to be lenient and when to be strict. He had the Soldier responsible for managing them conduct a thorough investigation. Sure enough, not a single one was lost. Under the super-era interrogation methods, not one of them held out for long before obediently handing them over themselves or revealing the hiding spots.

They also spilled their purposes; basically, they all intended to escape. The most outrageous one intended to take a Weapon to kill Baifeng and then become the Tribal Chief of the Baifeng tribe himself.

The Soldier interrogating this person was first confused upon hearing this, and then burst into loud laughter, pointing at that Slave's short stature and thin limbs, saying that a person like him couldn't even kill the Tribal Chief's wife, let alone the Tribal Chief.

When Baifeng heard this, not only was he not angry, but while finding it very funny, he also developed curiosity, wanting to see what kind of person would have such an idea. After all, there were too few amusements in this era. Thus, Baifeng went directly to that Slave, gave him the Dajian he had hidden, and picked up a wooden stick himself, then told the Slave to kill him.

That Slave was just brainless and really foolishly rushed over. How long could a Dajian be? Before he even got close, he was knocked away by Baifeng with a stick, and then Baifeng began to frantically beat that Slave with the stick until the stick was broken.

This half-dead Slave was dragged back to the Nuliqu. Because several of those people were repeat offenders—beating their roommates, being lazy and shirking work, and this time intending to hide Weapons—Baifeng directly punished them for all crimes together, had them dragged out and beheaded, leaving none behind. Baifeng added another rule to the tribe: without his permission, no Slave could possess a Weapon for any reason for more than one day or one night; offenders would be executed without mercy.

The Slaves were all frightened by Baifeng's sudden thunderous methods, and subsequently, they all reconfirmed their positioning, which was that they were just Slaves.

Now their Rice had begun to fill with grain, and there was still no sign of rain. They had to harvest wheat and irrigate the Rice, making everyone physically and mentally exhausted. Not to mention the Slaves, even the tribesmen could not rest for long.

When their wheat stalks were about to be finished harvesting, Baifeng felt the south wind pick up. Baifeng was very excited; it seemed the rain was finally coming, and their Rice would not need to be irrigated.

He had everyone speed up to harvest all the wheat stalks back; otherwise, a single rain would make them rot in the fields. If there was no time to harvest them, they would just set them on fire and be done with it, treating it as fertilizer returning to the field.

That night, Baifeng heard the sound of thunder exploding not far away. Although he knew the rain was coming and he could relax a little, Baifeng did not dare to be careless about the weather here at all. What if this first rain was a disaster?

Furthermore, the Grass on the earth had all been eaten by rabbits now, and there was almost no Grass on the grassland to conserve water and soil. If this rain lasted for a long time, it was estimated that it would be very easy for something to go wrong.