Chapter 80: Wheat Covers the Ridges in Yellow

The wheat of the Baifeng tribe had already begun to turn slightly yellow; Baifeng sat in the fields almost every day watching the wheat, always feeling that the south wind would come at night, and the wheat would cover the ridges in yellow.

If the wheat turned yellow, it had to be harvested immediately; even if it wasn't threshed and put into storage that very day, it had to be cut down at once, otherwise, a single rain would cause it to sprout.

The tribespeople had already found yellowed, mature wheat in the wild, and Baifeng had examined the ears brought back; not only were they relatively shriveled and small, but each ear only had about fourteen grains, whereas his own wheat was very plump, and each ear had nearly twenty grains, which was already enough to create a significant gap from the wild variety.

As long as the largest wheat ears with the most grains were selected and kept as seed grain, the number of grains on the ears next year should be even greater.

By summer, the weather was already stiflingly hot; every afternoon or evening, Baifeng was always afraid of rain. It must not rain at this time; he only needed three more days, and if it rained after the harvest, there would be no problem at all.

The tribespeople had never seen wheat grains that grew so plump and with such large ears; in fact, when they first started planting, they hadn't held much hope, because in their thinking, only hunting was the most important thing.

If they could achieve another harvest like the one last autumn, that kind of life would already be incomparably wonderful, something other tribes could hardly imagine. Which tribe could go through winter without a single person freezing or starving to death? If they told others about their tribe's situation last winter, others would likely think it was all fake, even more unreliable than saying a woman stepped in a god's footprint and then gave birth to a son.

The women of the Weaving Team also felt this was incredible. Suirenshi also planted wheat, but there were no orderly fields like this, nor would they scatter feces in the fields, nor would they think about weeding or anything; wasn't it just casual sowing in Nature, and the wheat grew all the same?

But this spectacular scene still changed their minds; it turned out that they were the ones who knew nothing, and Tribal Chief Baifeng was truly the son of a deity, which was why he could grow such good grain.

The tribespeople all hoped that Baifeng could perform a sacrifice to the deities, asking the deities to bless their tribe with a Harvest, and to not let it rain for these few days, so they could finish the harvest smoothly.

Although after every meal was cooked, they would first place some in front of the stone tablet of "Heaven and Earth," and then the leftovers of the gods would be taken down and given to the tribespeople to eat in turns, there was, strictly speaking, no real grand sacrificial activity at all.

Baifeng was certainly willing to perform a sacrifice, whether to soothe the hearts of the tribespeople or because he himself sincerely wanted to pray for Heaven and Earth to bless him so he could finish the harvest smoothly, so Baifeng earnestly carried out a sacrificial ceremony.

Their tribe did not have the custom of throwing food or people into a fire to offer to the deities; no matter how rich the offerings were, they would eventually be taken down and distributed to the tribespeople to eat. Instead, things like cypress pine Incense that were everywhere and couldn't be eaten were thrown vigorously into the fire.

Baifeng didn't know what the formal procedure for a sacrifice was, but he felt that the procedure he made up was definitely better than the strange and bizarre dances of the Shaman.

Thus, the Shaman, who was the former high priest, could now only stand to the side, assisting Baifeng, watching, and learning the unfamiliar sacrificial procedure.

It should have been done by burning yellow paper, but paper could not be made yet, so Baifeng wrote words about praying for the deities' protection on bamboo slips and then threw them into the fire.

Finally, leading all the tribespeople to kneel on the ground in a great mass, performing the great ritual of three kowtows and nine bows, the sacrifice was considered complete. The most troublesome part during this was reading the prayer text to the deities; the tribespeople had never imagined that requests to the deities could be phrased that way.

With the sacrificial ceremony complete, the tribespeople's worries vanished. They all felt that their tribe's deity was very powerful and would certainly protect them; furthermore, their own Tribal Chief was their son, so the deities would surely be able to hear their tribe's requests.

On the second day after the sacrifice ended, the wheat matured completely at an absurd speed; even the parts of the wheat near the roots had turned yellow.

The harvest of the Baifeng tribe was not like later generations, cutting it down along with the stalks, but rather taking a Small Knife to cut the wheat ears off one by one, then putting them into a Basket to take away. As for the stalks, they were not afraid of rain, so there was no rush to deal with them slowly after the wheat was harvested.

First, Baifeng himself searched along the wheat field for the largest ears. After they were cut, they were packed separately to be used as seed grain. In order not to trample other wheat, Baifeng almost walked along the edge of the field; he dared not go to pick the wheat in the center of the field, as it was not worth shaking off more wheat for the sake of one ear.

Almost the entire tribe was mobilized for the wheat harvest. Now, everyone in the tribe had a Small Knife, so they were not afraid of running out of tools to cut the wheat ears. The sickles made earlier could only be put to use when it came time to cut the stalks.

For two whole days, they basically had to run to the fields to harvest as soon as they woke up in the morning; they couldn't even return to their houses at noon, and could only eat some of the Dry Rations they brought. At night, they almost had to wait until the sun had completely set before they could return.

Under everyone's overtime labor, the wheat was finally harvested just in time. The cut wheat ears were piled up in a warehouse specifically built with a Cement floor. Not only was it more moisture-proof than a dirt floor, but it could also keep out rats. Their warehouse had rat holes to varying degrees, but Baifeng and the others had no way to deal with it. There were no cats at this time, and cats that could catch rats had very strong wild instincts; even those that had been domesticated for thousands of years in later generations were not very attached to their homes.

Unless Baifeng could catch a wild kitten that had just left its nest and raise it from a young age to see if it would work, but Baifeng had never seen any wild cats here. However, there were many things like lynxes that were very similar to cats, but they didn't care to eat small rats; even deer and sheep were on their menu. Baifeng was lucky; a pair of his shoes was made from the skin of a lynx caught by the tribespeople.

Baifeng couldn't estimate the wheat harvest this time yet; after all, it was just wheat ears now, and the wheat grains still had relatively high moisture content. It would only be possible to see how much there was after threshing and drying.

For the problem of threshing, Baifeng made a flail, a farm tool that could continuously beat like a hand. This thing later evolved into an armor-piercing Weapon, and there was also the dragon-coiling staff similar to the flail; the Weapon that Zhao Kuangyin was most proficient with back then was this thing.

However, after threshing, Baifeng didn't intend to grind it all into flour, because it was too troublesome, and he didn't know how much manpower and time would be wasted. Boiling it into porridge to drink was also fine, and wanting to make a Stone Mill to grind flour felt even harder than planting wheat.

However, the tribe did have people with talent for making stone tools. If he explained the shape to them and gave them a good set of tools, they could keep trying even if it broke. In any case, a Stone Mill had to be made, regardless of size.

Because a Stone Mill for the whole tribe to eat flour couldn't be made, a smaller one was no problem. How could it work if they had wheat but didn't make noodles? The noodles he had been thinking about day and night had to be eaten.

Of course, he wouldn't eat it all by himself; tribespeople who contributed greatly to the tribe would also be able to enjoy delicious noodles. This was also a way to commend the tribespeople.