Chapter 494: The Reform of the Suiren Clan

Baifeng did not continue to speak about Shaoyin's problem, but instead followed the thread of conversation to the pastures, especially the Horse Farm; the horses in the pasture where Shaoyin was located had now completely lost their trust in humans, so Baifeng no longer harbored the hope of domesticating them, and they could only be used to breed domesticable horse strains for Huaxia.

However, the people at the pasture also clearly stated that these horses could not be kept in the pens forever, because it was too stifling, causing the horses' tempers to become increasingly irritable; they felt it was somewhat dangerous even just to clean the Horse Pen, and because they were not used for a long time and lacked wear, their hooves had become somewhat overgrown, and among them, several horses had already gone lame due to hoof rot.

Therefore, the pasture urgently hoped that the people from the Ministry of Agriculture could assist in solving this, as the people at their pasture were truly too few and had no way to handle it; at the same time, they also reported a method proposed by Shaoyin, which was to divide it into several small pastures and split this large herd of horses into over a dozen small herds, so that they would be easier to manage and there would be no fear of them suddenly going wild.

Baifeng mentioning Shaoyin's idea as if unintentionally made Xiong feel vaguely happy, and Baifeng also said without concealment: "This thing that Shaoyin proposed is also a good method, or rather, we can only use this method. I have already let the people from the Ministry of Agriculture go to mark out the pastures. Once the pastures are marked out, the Ministry of Works will move to set up boundary markers, repair the Horse Pens, and then divide the herds. This matter that gave me the biggest headache can finally be considered solved."

"With the pastures divided, we must also increase the number of herdsmen, and the previous staffing of the pastures will also have to change. By the way, you might as well just take Shaoyin away at that time, so as to avoid sending him to other new pastures, otherwise you would have to take him away just as he had adapted."

After hearing this, Xiong could only say "good."

Baifeng continued to ramble on: "Those horses, I only just realized, might still be many years away from being truly usable. According to what that kid Changzhi told me, the horses he is raising now look tall and big, but they haven't fully grown yet. By the time their muscles, bones, and everything are fully grown and they can carry people for long-distance combat, it will probably take more than two or three years. Right now, they are just carrying him around for a casual stroll."

"This is not considered too bad news, at least we can have more time to train the horses, right? After you go back, pick some elites from the current Cavalry, and then let them spend some time every day at the Horse Farm managed by Changzhi to have more contact and get familiar with those horses. It would be best if each person chooses one horse to specifically cultivate a bond, right?"

Xiong could not deny it, and being able to have early contact with the horses was also considered a good thing for the Ministry of War; the Ox Cavalry of the Ministry of War had long been restless, unable to wait to replace the old oxen between their legs with fine steeds.

The conversation between Baifeng and Xiong ended in a peaceful atmosphere, while the team of Yishang and the others was moving at high speed along the Dahe.

Xuanyuan was troubled by the fact that he had no way to contact his tribesmen; otherwise, he could have easily returned to the tribe by riding a Boat. Guangchengzi had told him that Heaven creates all things, and humans can use them all; even birds can become things that help humans, it just depends on how one chooses and how one utilizes them.

Now Xuanyuan suddenly thought that if he could let birds deliver messages for him, with their flight speed and not being afraid of the obstruction of mountains and Sichuan, wouldn't he be able to transmit the words he wanted to say very quickly? Just like how Huaxia could domesticate oxen to ride, perhaps he could even domesticate the giant eagles in the sky and then sit on one to fly into the sky.

Although Xuanyuan had such a thought in his heart, he was also very clear about how difficult it would be to realize these ideas of his, so he would not have thoughts that were too unrealistic. Right now, what he wanted to do was to hurry back to the tribe and then catch up with the spring plowing; he wanted to use the knowledge taught by Guangchengzi to grow enough food to feed all the tribesmen.

The current Baoxi was also very pragmatic; one Winter had passed, and the number of tribesmen who died was very small, perhaps even the lowest in years. Perhaps it had to do with the decrease in the total population of the Suiren clan, but Baoxi was still very happy.

It was a pity that of the more than ten thousand Slaves, only four thousand were left alive, and those who were alive had also become so thin they were no longer in human shape.

Before the Winter had even ended, the Suiren clan had already been going out to hunt on a large scale, it was just that the prey was relatively scarce. Baoxi tried his best to make the Suiren clan prosperous, and the first thing they had to do was hunt, hunt, and hunt!

If there was too much meat and it could not be stored, it didn't matter; it could be smoked, pickled, and sent to Huaxia to trade for food. He believed that Huaxia would not refuse to trade Grass Seed for meat.

As major tribes, no one lacked salt; every tribe had mastered the source of salt, it was just that theirs might not be as abundant as Huaxia's.

The control over salt and selling it at high prices was the bullying of small tribes by large tribes, but the small tribes could only accept it, because salt was too important to humans, yet most small tribes had no place of their own to obtain salt.

In addition to going out to hunt on a large scale, taking advantage of the fact that wild vegetables had not yet grown well, Baoxi arranged for all the women and the men and children who did not go out to hunt to use mud to build houses in the places he had designated. If many people lived there, build them bigger; if few people, build them smaller. Anyway, such small mud houses did not take much time.

Baoxi also felt like moving out of his cold and damp cave. He had the tribesmen build him the tallest and largest mud house. After it had been sun-dried for a few days and had basically become dry, he moved in. The feeling of dryness inside was completely different from being in a cave, and after spreading dry grass and animal skins inside, the comfort was greatly increased.

Because the room was tall and spacious enough, he also moved the Wooden Table and wooden chairs he had people craft into the room. The spatial feeling of the whole room was very different, yet it made people feel comfortable.

Besides these, Baoxi was determined to expand their Suiren clan's Bronze smelting. Previously, the Suiren clan used most of the produced Bronze for casting Ritual Vessel, and now the Suiren clan's Ritual Vessel were already so numerous that it was shocking, and their sizes were larger than the next. However, Baoxi had not yet reached the point of melting down Ritual Vessel to make Weapon, as this was an insult to the gods and ancestors.

As for why the production of Bronze was pitifully low, it was because Baoxi also had to guard the secret of Bronze smelting. From the mining and transportation of ore to the calcination and refining, it had always been that same group of people doing it, and these people were also the true trusted core of the Suiren clan.

They were different from other Artisan; no matter what mistakes they made, Baoxi could not bear to kill them. And now, seeing that Huaxia could already use Iron to craft things other than Weapon, and could easily trade with them, he felt that it could not go on like this anymore; he had to boldly let go and do it.

So he not only let the original craftsmen let go and work, but also selected more people to help them work together, determined to raise the Suiren clan's Bronze production. Judging by their craftsmen's ability to cast such exquisite sacrificial Ritual Vessel, crafting those tools could be said to be extremely easy.