Chapter 617: Things Worth Learning from Huaxia

Although the Xuanyuan Tribe does indeed have similar practices, because their farmland is quite far from their living area, they can only abandon the vast majority of it. After Zhishou heard Changle's explanation and combined it with the current situation of the Xuanyuan Tribe, Zhishou understood that with Huaxia's current model, the Xuanyuan Tribe cannot yet learn it, because they do not have such wide and flat roads.

The reason why Huaxia is able to transport all the straw back to the city is that the wide and flat roads have made an indelible contribution; only in this way can Huaxia's ox carts operate without obstruction, without wasting so much manpower.

Much of Zhishou's time afterward was spent on the Threshing Ground, because he wanted to take a good look at how Huaxia processes wheat. The various tools he had never seen before all surprised Zhishou not a little; each one looked so simple in structure, and the working principle was also very simple, yet they were so suitable and easy to use.

The Xuanyuan Tribe has none of these, yet Huaxia uses different tools throughout the entire process, from harvesting and transport to threshing and storage. For example, the sickle—the Xuanyuan Tribe does not have one; they are still using a Stone Knife to cut the wheat ears, which is also the main reason limiting the Xuanyuan Tribe from harvesting the entire wheat stalk.

As for the ox carts used to pull the fields, the Xuanyuan Tribe has them, but they do not even have such simple tools as the shoulder poles used for carrying crops by manpower.

Afterward, Zhishou watched the entire process of threshing the fields without missing a single detail, and he would even personally help with the work. In fact, although the people of Huaxia did not object to Zhishou doing this, they felt he was neglecting his proper work, because he came here to teach everyone musical instruments, yet Zhishou spent a large amount of time elsewhere. Most importantly, he is currently eating Huaxia's food.

After doing this for two days, Zhishou perhaps also felt that what he was doing was not very good, so he found Baifeng and said with some embarrassment: "King of Huaxia, during this time, I have become fascinated by watching your Huaxia people work, which has led to the delay of teaching musical instruments. However, I am willing to stay in Huaxia until I have taught fifty people how to use musical instruments before speaking of leaving Huaxia. The only request is that I want to see more of your Huaxia labor process."

Upon hearing this, Baifeng also revealed a smile: "Alright, this is nothing. Our two tribes are now in an alliance relationship, and harvesting and threshing wheat are not secrets. Of course, there is no problem with you wanting to watch."

However, Baifeng also set his mind at ease. How long can wheat harvesting last? Keeping Zhishou in Huaxia for a longer time at this cost is also very worthwhile. He was afraid that Zhishou would suddenly think of returning to the Xuanyuan Tribe, and at that time, his students would have to follow him back; that would be truly troublesome.

Seeing that Baifeng agreed to his request, Zhishou completely set his mind at ease and threw himself into the labor. By doing this, he still wanted to bring more useful tools and advanced labor methods to the Xuanyuan Tribe, which could greatly reduce the burden on the Xuanyuan Tribe.

For instance, the Xuanyuan Tribe still uses a stone mortar to clean wheat husks, pounding them out bit by bit, and then they must blow them clean. It is time-consuming and laborious, and even in the Xuanyuan Tribe's Grain Storehouse, the wheat is basically still in its husk; after it is distributed to the tribesmen, they need to pound the husks off themselves.

He also witnessed Huaxia's winnowing, which can directly use the power of the wind to clean the debris out of the wheat, and finally, the clean wheat is put into bamboo-woven grain bins and then moved into the warehouse.

However, because Huaxia has newly built several towns, there is grain production, but there is no place to store the grain, because even the houses for people to live in have only just been repaired. This has caused the Residents of the New Town to be somewhat anxious, including the fact that the Threshing Ground has not been finished.

Huaxia has always threshed the public grain first after bringing it in; after the public grain enters the warehouse, they then slowly handle their own family's grain. Therefore, it is still collective labor now, and afterward, they will each mark off a piece of land to thresh their own family's grain.

Except for the middle class and large households, who have the grain to rent the state's oxen, other families can only rely on manpower to thresh grain. This is mainly because their land area is small and they do not produce as much grain, so relying on people can solve it, but large households cannot; relying solely on manpower, one wouldn't know when they would finish.

And Huaxia now has only achieved the privatization of chickens; other large livestock are still state-owned. This is also related to the limited living space of the Residents; it is difficult for them to even live in their houses, and there is not enough space to raise oxen or pigs.

This situation can only wait until the land around Huaxia City is thoroughly developed in the future, when everyone can be allocated more land and have space to build ox pens. Only then will Baifeng consider letting them purchase the currently state-owned livestock to allow for their privatization.

Furthermore, regarding the grain in the New Town, it is currently the rainy season. If the grain cannot be returned to the warehouse as soon as possible, after one rain, the grain will be finished. Therefore, Baifeng ordered people to urgently clear out a batch of warehouses to be used for farmers to store grain for free.

In order to avoid the grain being mixed up, after each family's grain enters the bamboo grain bin, it is numbered with ink on top, then a bamboo lid is placed on it and sealed with a seal strip. As long as they come to retrieve it and find the seal strip has been damaged, the state must compensate them.

At the same time, after sealing, each family is issued a bamboo tablet, on which the number of their grain bin is recorded. After their own grain storehouse is built, this serves as the voucher when they come to retrieve the grain. If their voucher is lost, they can only find the corresponding household number and name in the warehouse management office's record book.

Zhishou felt every day that he had learned so many things. The government's operating model, many rules for doing things, and details—he felt they were very perfect, the kind that could be directly moved over and used. For every measure, in addition to solving current problems, even the accidents that might happen in the future and how to solve them after they happen have already had response plans prepared.

This gave Zhishou the idea to quickly call the people of the Xuanyuan Tribe to learn. After learning well, he would immediately carry out reforms on the Xuanyuan Tribe. Although the current Xuanyuan Tribe is running normally, once compared to Huaxia, it appears chaotic.

As the Tribal Chief, although Xuanyuan does indeed need to be responsible for and pay attention to everything, it should not be the case that he takes a Knife and goes into the fields himself during the grain harvest. This is not something a Tribal Chief should do; he should coordinate the overall situation and arrange for who does what.

As the King of Huaxia, Baifeng appears to sit in the house every day doing nothing, but in reality, all the work has his shadow on it; everyone is executing based on his orders.

For such an important matter as the Autumn Harvest, he only went to the field and symbolically cut the first handful of wheat before putting down the sickle.