Chapter 879: Xuanyuan in Huaxia

By the time the wheat in the Xuanyuan Tribe had grown nearly a finger's length, the temperature in Huaxia was high enough, and there had been a small rainfall; although it only made everyone feel that the ground was a bit damp, it was still a great help for the soil moisture.

Thus, Huaxia began a vigorous rush to plow, and it was the first time Xuanyuan saw the scene of Huaxia farming; oxen worked in teams in the fields, along with countless Iron Plowshares. Even if Xuanyuan wanted to learn, he was limited by conditions and could not.

The Xuanyuan Tribe did not have that many oxen, and the oxen they raised were only labor oxen used for pulling carts; if they wanted to learn to pull a plow for farming, they would have to be specifically taught and trained, as oxen are not born knowing how to plow the land.

The Xuanyuan Tribe had even fewer Iron Plowshares, and even Bronze ones were difficult to come by. In these past few years, Xuanyuan had begun to vigorously mine and smelt Bronze, and production had increased, but his primary supply point was still Weapons; only with Weapons could one have enough say in this era.

If Xuanyuan wanted to start from scratch and make various Bronze tools, it was truly not something that could be done in a day or two, and he had not seen the design of the Plowshare very clearly either. Before obtaining permission from Huaxia, he could only watch from afar and could not get close to look carefully.

Baifeng, however, required everyone not to show it to Xuanyuan unless he himself said he wanted to see it. Baifeng wanted to see what kind of mindset Xuanyuan had. As for the Curved Plow, Baifeng did not intend to hide it; in any case, even if Xuanyuan learned how to make it, their tribe did not have enough materials to forge them.

Since they could not perform the two-oxen-pulling method, they could only use human power as the force to plow the land.

Xuanyuan always kept a certain distance from such technical things and would not take the initiative to go over and look, because he felt this was a very important point in maintaining the relationship between the two tribes. It was not that Baifeng was too stingy, but that these things were indeed too important for a tribe.

However, regarding the Wax Seed, Xuanyuan grabbed a handful to look without any hesitation. Feeling the plump seeds, Xuanyuan was also somewhat moved; this grain seed of Huaxia was truly too good. If the Xuanyuan Tribe could obtain it, it would be a huge help and could allow the strength of the Xuanyuan Tribe to reach a much higher level.

The Ministry of Rites Officials following Xuanyuan did not stop Xuanyuan's behavior, because Xuanyuan only looked and did not take any, nor did he carry a single grain seed. Moreover, even if he stole some, a few grains would not make a splash in the Xuanyuan Tribe; the extremely small quantity of high-quality grain, surrounded by low-grade grain, would quickly degenerate due to reasons like pollination, unless they could discover the advantages of the crossbred crops and then take them out to cultivate separately.

Baifeng only met with Xuanyuan occasionally; most of the time he was accompanied by people from the Ministry of Rites. This was mainly because Xuanyuan had to stay in Huaxia for a relatively long time, and Baifeng had his own work to do and no time to accompany Xuanyuan every day.

Therefore, after Xuanyuan's initial long rest and once his body was mostly recovered, he began to wander between the various departments of Huaxia, listening to their work content, observing their work environment, and learning their operational methods, preparing for his future government structure.

As for everyone else, they would greet Xuanyuan the first time they saw him, but after many times, they would act as if they did not see him, or treat Xuanyuan as an invisible person and no longer pay him any mind. This was Baifeng's requirement, and also what Xuanyuan hoped for; Xuanyuan only wanted to be an observer and did not want to affect the work of Huaxia because of himself.

By the time spring plowing began, Xuanyuan, who had been eating large amounts of food every day, had now started to put on some weight, although there was not much meat in his daily meals, and sometimes there was no meat at all, but a lot of oil would be added.

Those Soldiers of the Xuanyuan Tribe had only seen meat once and had never seen meat again since. Huaxia's reason was that they did not hunt, so the meat they could obtain was very little; everyone was limited, and once it was eaten, it was gone, so they could only be treated poorly.

However, adding a lot of oil every day also allowed their food to have enough fat, so their rate of gaining weight was still very fast. Plus, Huaxia's food was delicious to begin with, so no one had any objections.

Xuanyuan even said to them: "Huaxia has plenty of grain but little meat. I haven't seen Baifeng eat meat for several days in a row, which shows the lack of meat in Huaxia. So, don't blame Huaxia for not getting meat, and besides, this is given to us by Huaxia for free, so everyone just eat well."

Everyone felt they were eating very well during this period, but upon hearing that it was provided by Huaxia for free, they felt Huaxia was even better. Thus, they suggested: "Tribal Chief, our tribe has always been hunting, and there is still plenty of meat. Now that we are not short of grain either, in my opinion, we can exchange some meat with Huaxia so that the people of Huaxia can also have meat to eat. After all, during this period, so many of us have eaten quite a lot of their grain."

Xuanyuan waved his hand and refused: "Forget about the trade. We don't actually have that much meat, and many people don't get to eat meat either. But since Huaxia has been so good to us during this time, let's give them some meat as a return gift. After all, one-sided taking will have a bad influence on the relationship between our two tribes."

The Soldiers in other places echoed in agreement.

After the spring plowing began, Xuanyuan no longer went to look at those departments, but instead got up especially early every day to watch the Huaxia people plow the land, arriving at the fields even before the chickens crowed, which made the people from the Ministry of Rites somewhat exhausted. Fortunately, the Dahe had already thawed, and such days would not last long.

Huaxia had arranged the people who were to go to the Xuanyuan Tribe and the people for various exchanges, deciding that a portion would go this spring, and the rest would go after the Embassy was completely built this year.

The grain used for trading with the Xuanyuan Tribe was also ready. Now that they were going over, the Xuanyuan Tribe's first batch of Tea Leaves would also be ready for harvest.

Baifeng also talked to Xuanyuan again about the Laborers, expressing that he wanted to increase the number of hired Laborers, but Xuanyuan indicated that the issue of Laborer trade this year would have to wait until he returned to inquire about the situation of those Laborers before making plans.

Xuanyuan also knew about the existence of those newly arrived tribes; after all, how could one not see such a large camp? It was just that Xuanyuan had bypassed that place from the beginning and went straight into the city, having no extra time or energy to pay attention to it.

However, according to the previous words of Zhishou and his own deductions, Xuanyuan only thought that it might be another place where Huaxia trained Slaves. If possible, Xuanyuan even wanted to send some Slaves from his own tribe over to let Huaxia train them.