Chapter 253: Grain Seeds

The next day, Baifeng and Xuanyuan met formally. Baifeng did not pay much attention to the boats of the Xuanyuan Tribe, but while Xuanyuan was welcoming Baifeng, he kept steering his gaze and the conversation toward their boats, making Baifeng feel quite awkward, so he proposed wanting to go take a look at their boats.

Upon hearing this, Xuanyuan was very excited and immediately pulled Baifeng along to walk toward their boats, but Baifeng was actually more interested in the Crocodile Skin Armor he was wearing.

Xuanyuan was always imitating, and after imitating, he liked to show off to prove that their Xuanyuan Tribe was not a bit worse than the Baifeng Tribe.

In this era, there was no such thing as patents. In reality, Baifeng was currently waiting for Xuanyuan to come up with his calendar so he could take it and use it. However, in his memory, this calendar was not created by Xuanyuan alone, but was compiled together with his subordinates like Jinyun after the founding of the state. Counting the time, Baifeng was afraid he would still have to wait many years.

Although Baifeng really could not stand Xuanyuan's hints and wanted to go look at the boats, he certainly would not look at them too seriously; satisfying Xuanyuan's youthful nature was enough.

However, at this look, Baifeng noticed many problems. First, the sealing was not good; some boat bottoms were already seeping water. It was estimated that these boats were comparable to the boats that went to Hua. Another thing was that the boat bottoms were too flat, more like large washbasins. Such boats had no resistance to wind and waves at all and were more suitable for operating in shallows with jagged rocks and calm lakes; they belonged to lake boats rather than river boats.

But Baifeng did not tell him; he only said the boats were quite good and the quantity was large. As for the specific drawbacks, after a long time, he would certainly be able to figure out how to modify them himself.

However, looking at the proud Xuanyuan, Baifeng still could not help but dampen his spirits a little: "Your boats are so small, and you've brought so many things; I reckon going upstream won't be easy. But the bows of your boats are quite high; if you tie ropes and have people pull them, it should be a bit easier."

Xuanyuan's smile immediately became less bright, but he still smiled and said: "Aren't your boats the same? Going upstream can only rely on Slaves pulling them; it's not like only ours are like this. Didn't you buy Slaves before just to pull boats? Look, this time I even specially brought so many Slaves for you to pull boats. Having pulled them all the way here, they are already pulling exceptionally well."

As Xuanyuan spoke, he even pointed out the direction to Baifeng. A large group of Slaves were tied up and sitting on the ground. To tell the truth, the quality of the Xuanyuan Tribe's Slaves was indeed quite good, much better than those of the Suiren clan. Later, when the Suiren clan wanted to trade with the Baifeng Tribe, the Slaves they brought were the kind they had used until they were half-dead. Baifeng wouldn't be able to use them even if he traded for them; it would take too long and a large amount of food to raise them up, so he was unwilling to trade.

Baoxi would just have those Slaves killed, and the bodies would be set on fire just like Baifeng did. Other than sighing and feeling it was a pity, Baifeng could do nothing. Originally, it was not easy for humans to multiply in this era, and they were still being slaughtered by their own kind. However, Baifeng would not have his "saintly heart" overflow now. Feeling it was a pity was a normal reaction as a human, but he was still holding the lives of tens of thousands of people; he was very clear about what could be done and what could not.

Baifeng did not care about Xuanyuan's sarcasm because he had indeed done that before. When they did not have enough power, they could only rely on people to pull the boats. It was just that this time they would not. Baifeng had a mind to show off a sailboat in front of Xuanyuan, but after thinking about it, he decided against it. It was better to hide these things if he could.

After looking at the boats, they returned to the main topic and prepared to conduct the trade. Actually, by this time, Xuanyuan already knew that Baifeng had noticed his Crocodile Skin Armor, but he did not say anything, pretending not to know. He would trade the Crocodile Skin soon, and he could just show it off inadvertently then.

Baifeng had people carry over a few bags of husked Rice to show to Xuanyuan as a display. The Baifeng Tribe used food for trade. Now their Rice had a bumper harvest, and the clansmen had more than enough to eat. Rice was also the food the tribe had the most of, making it the most suitable for trade.

As for why it was husked Rice, it was because it could not be used as seeds after being husked. This was something they had selected and bred generation after generation, spending a vast amount of time and effort; it was impossible to give it to other tribes casually, even if they spent time helping them process the rice husks.

In fact, the tribes that traded with the Baifeng Tribe had already noticed that the Baifeng Tribe's food was much better than theirs. They didn't know about the yield, but the size and fullness far exceeded the Grass Seed collected by their own tribes. They didn't know why, and every year during the trade, they felt it would be even better. Xuanyuan's feeling was more obvious; he even kept a portion of food for a few years for comparison and discovered it was truly constantly getting better.

He also thought about using the Baifeng Tribe's food as seeds to plant and try it out, but Rice could not be planted after the husk was removed. This was the most delicious kind of Grass Seed; after being boiled, it was soft and had some sweetness, while other Grass Seeds tasted much worse after being boiled.

Xuanyuan had also traded Wheat and buckwheat with the Baifeng Tribe. After all, the Grass Seeds of these two were larger, making them convenient to eat, and they could also be used as seeds. However, they tried planting them once and found that although they were a little better than those of their own tribe, they were still far inferior to the Baifeng Tribe's. Everyone in the Xuanyuan Tribe felt that the Baifeng Tribe must have some secret that could make the Grass Seeds grow better.

At this time, Xuanyuan remembered the matter of planting Grass Seeds that Baifeng had told him about, but he had never taken it to heart. Now that he wanted to try it, the planting time had already passed, so he wanted to trade for some more food that could be used as seeds from Baifeng, rather than just exchanging for some Rice.

Xuanyuan inspected the Rice and then secretly compared it with last year's Rice. There was no very obvious change, but it was still much better than his tribe's.

So he told Baifeng that he was very satisfied with this food, and then asked Baifeng if he had brought any other food, saying it would be fine even if it were a little less; he just wanted something different.

Baifeng had indeed brought some, as a precaution. He brought Wheat, which was the second largest crop in his tribe. Xuanyuan also took a look and felt it was obviously much better than what he had exchanged for before; it was visibly better, without even needing a comparison, so he asked for this small amount of Wheat.

It was just that Baifeng had not brought any other food. Although the yield of soybeans was very large, their soybeans now had very obvious changes and must absolutely not be taken out for other tribes to see. However, they had brought some bean dregs; he didn't know if Xuanyuan wanted them. Bean dregs were also a very good food; they didn't even need much processing and could be eaten directly.