Chapter 338: Rice

The Xuanyuan Tribe even learned their set of official seals; for instance, when the envoy Changxian came, he brought a seal representing Xuanyuan, and the beast on the seal was a bear, looking fierce and imposing.

Their casting craftsmanship was actually no worse than Huaxia's; after all, they had been playing with this stuff for many years. Even Baifeng found the tripods cast by the Xuanyuan Tribe very desirable—they were extremely exquisite. It was just that their ritual vessels were not for sale; otherwise, Baifeng would have really gotten one to use.

As for why it was a bear, it was because they were the Youxiong Clan. As for the totem changing to a dragon, that was only formed after Xuanyuan unified the various tribes. However, the dragon had already been claimed by Baifeng, and given Xuanyuan's personality, he likely wouldn't use the dragon totem anymore.

Their seals were not carved, nor were they ground; they were cast in one go. It is likely that Xuanyuan never thought that all of Huaxia's seals were carved, and that they even had anti-counterfeiting marks on them.

After all, the technique of seal carving had not yet appeared in this era. In the future, Baifeng would certainly have to train some people to do seal carving. The official seals of their departments, including the imperial seal representing the King, could be passed down through generations, but personal private seals could not; they had to be carved by someone. However, there was no need to rush for now, as they had not yet developed to the point where everyone needed their own seal.

After discussing the trade details with Changxian, they kept the delegation for a meal as a courtesy before sending them off. Huaxia could afford to feed these few people now, so naturally, they should be generous.

However, Changxian said that they could reach the trading location in about fifteen days, and this even included their return trip.

Baifeng was shocked upon hearing this. It used to take over a month, but now the time had actually been cut in half. Had they built a highway?

Changxian and his men were, of course, unwilling to reveal anything, but Baifeng could guess it after thinking for a moment. It was nothing more than them having built boats—high-quality ones with sufficient power that could travel long distances, not the small ones from before that required bailing out water after traveling only a short distance.

What shocked Baifeng was actually the speed of the Xuanyuan Tribe; they had suddenly come up with it. Baifeng felt he should view Xuanyuan as more powerful and smarter, but he didn't dwell on it too much. After all, in history, boats and houses were invented by Xuanyuan, and he was merely plagiarizing. It was not surprising that Xuanyuan had suddenly had a flash of inspiration and created them.

Baifeng basically went to the trades with the Xuanyuan Clan and the Suiren Clan in person. For one, neither of them feared danger and could come in person, putting aside their status, so he had no need to put on airs. Furthermore, he also needed to probe their development situation through verbal communication and observation.

Baifeng thought for a long time this time before deciding to bring some sorghum seeds along. They were a new variety, the kind used for silage. Although the yield was low, it was better than the wild ones, and the ears were decent too.

Bringing this out was to establish a friendlier relationship with the Xuanyuan Tribe. Although he dared not let Changle go to their territory to hunt and collect specimens, he could let the people of the Xuanyuan Clan bring the specimens directly to Changle for research.

The time arrived for the trade agreed upon by both sides. They had been using the same trading location for many years. For the sake of convenience and safety, they had even cleared most of the trees around the trading site, leaving only a few large trees for shade. The wooden tables and stools originally made on the spot had been replaced by polished stone tables and stools.

The sailors of the Zisheng Tribe now brought Baifeng to the trading point on a large ship. Now they only needed to bring one large ship and one small boat. Their boats were getting bigger and bigger, carrying more things, having stronger transport capacity, and the weapons on them were also more powerful.

Seeing that Baifeng's ship was even larger than the last time they met, Xuanyuan felt a bit unconvinced, but there was nothing he could do. They had just mastered the method of making small boats, but they had improved and enlarged them based on the Baifeng Tribe's boats they had obtained, which was why they could have faster speeds, though they still couldn't compare to Huaxia.

When Baifeng saw the row of boats from the Xuanyuan Tribe, he was also somewhat surprised. He had only guessed that the Xuanyuan Tribe's shipbuilding technology had made great progress, but he hadn't expected it to be this great—it was practically a leap.

Xuanyuan had obtained that lost boat of the Baifeng Tribe for several years, and these boats of theirs were not built just this year. Now they had even better ones, but the current Xuanyuan also knew how to hide his strengths, feeling that he shouldn't expose everything he had to Baifeng.

After both sides sat down, they started with small talk, just as if they were two long-lost friends. If it weren't for the competition and conflict, Baifeng felt that having a friend like Xuanyuan would be a truly wonderful thing.

During the casual chat, Xuanyuan talked about farming without showing any signs of his intent. Baifeng also deduced that the current Xuanyuan had truly begun to attach importance to agriculture and was constantly researching better farming techniques.

As for the issue of grain seeds, Xuanyuan would probably figure out how selection and breeding worked after fumbling around for a few years. However, this was not a big problem; Huaxia was already firmly in the lead, and even if Xuanyuan figured it out, there would still be at least a ten-year gap between them.

But what Baifeng feared was that the Xuanyuan Tribe's territory was more suitable for planting than Huaxia's land, and the Xuanyuan Tribe had a large territory, a large population, and was constantly expanding. It was entirely possible for the Xuanyuan Tribe to use quantity to make up for the gap with Huaxia.

Therefore, Baifeng was now hesitant about the sorghum seeds he had originally planned to trade to them. He feared that this bit of sorghum seeds could bring the Xuanyuan Tribe to a higher level.

Seeing Baifeng distracted, Xuanyuan took out the stalks, ears, and seeds of several types of rice from their tribe to let Baifeng take a look, hoping that Baifeng might reveal some information.

Although Baifeng would not personally drive cattle to plow the fields or roll up his trousers to transplant rice seedlings now, he was still very familiar with the rice of their country.

Baifeng picked up the rice with varying degrees of differences and compared them one by one, along with the ears of rice that differed in yield and size. These had subtle differences from the rice they grew in Huaxia; in any case, they were not any of the varieties they were currently planting.

The rice grains didn't show much difference. Baifeng held the rice ears and remained silent for a long time. It seemed Xuanyuan had already discovered some signs, but what was his intention in taking this out?

Was he asking him because he didn't understand the reason for this situation, or had he already figured out the principle and wanted to use this to exchange for their higher-quality rice seeds?

If it was the latter, Baifeng was still somewhat hesitant. Different types of rice seeds were very important to them, but the rice seeds they had already cultivated were even more important. However, he was somewhat reluctant to part with these new rice seeds.