Chapter 911: Reclaiming Xiao Town

Qibo has returned; he has already obtained the answer he wanted, and in order to obtain the most accurate information, the Tribal Alliance even had a small conflict with the Fengbo Tribe, eventually capturing a prisoner.

The prisoner did not mention the Fengbo Tribe's plan to go to the Jiuli, but simply clarified all the questions Qibo wanted to ask; regarding the current strength of the Shennong Clan, Qibo also had a sufficiently clear understanding, and the source of information was more credible than the Tribal Alliance.

Unsurprisingly, this prisoner became a Slave of the Tribal Alliance; this is standard procedure in wars between both sides. As long as it is not someone of great importance or a relatively special situation, insignificant people are basically not used for sacrifices, although the custom of human sacrifice is currently extremely heavy; Linkui is someone who must use people for sacrifice regardless of whether the matter is big or small.

The Laborers that the Xuanyuan Tribe was to deliver to Huaxia have now all been sent to Huaxia, and the grain that Huaxia was to give to the Xuanyuan Tribe has also been delivered to the Xuanyuan Tribe's warehouses via waterways; a sufficient amount of Soybean Oil is the greatest guarantee for this war.

Small in volume but capable of providing a lot of energy, compared to transporting grain cart by cart, Soybean Oil stored in Pottery Jars, or Bamboo Tubes and gourds, can save more transport capacity.

The construction speed of Xiao Town is getting faster and faster because the required building materials were already prepared last year; as long as the wood that has been left to air in the wilderness for a sufficient amount of time is not infested with insects or ants, it can be used as soon as it is taken.

Without enough Tung Oil for anti-corrosion and insect prevention, just carbonizing the surface with a Torch will do; the Artisans who have become accustomed to building houses with Cement and Brick are still somewhat unaccustomed to returning to earth-and-wood structure buildings.

But this also has a benefit, which is that those Laborers can exert great effort, because the Artisans only need to plan and command, and the Laborers have enough ability to put up the walls; as for the roof beams and roofs, they still require the Artisans to do it themselves, and as for whether the Laborers will secretly learn, it no longer matters, because Huaxia and the Xuanyuan Tribe have already carried out exchanges and learning in this regard.

These Laborers cannot become Artisans just by watching; at most, they will become skilled workers, and it is just hoped that when hiring Laborers from the Xuanyuan Tribe in the future, these people can be hired back again.

This year, the scorpions in Xiao Town have become numerous again; perhaps some have migrated from further away, or they have reproduced again.

However, this time no one is afraid, because everyone has already felt the benefits brought by the scorpions; they really did not expect that the effect of making scorpions into medicine would be exceptionally good. These Artisans can use the medicinal Wine with priority, so they have all already experienced it.

This year, they are willing to once again use grain as payment to encourage these Laborers to catch scorpions; the grain for catching scorpions last year has been paid in full, and experienced Laborers will directly choose to keep an account here in Huaxia, and take the grain when they want to return to the Xuanyuan Tribe.

Because this can save their own storage costs and also avoid the grain being stolen by their own tribesmen; although they are in the same tribe, it does not mean that I will not steal from you.

Huaxia will maintain order, but Huaxia will not intervene in such small conflicts and small problems, as it would be a waste of time and energy, unless it is fighting or other such conflicts, then Huaxia will go to mediate, because once someone is injured, it is their employer who suffers the loss.

The houses in Xiao Town are being built bit by bit from the center, and at the same time, they are also trying to dig wells here to ensure that there is enough water to use.

But they stopped after digging only a few, because the groundwater level is very low, requiring them to dig very deep to get water, and the water quality is not very good either, being salty and bitter; although it can be drunk, it does not taste good at all, and cannot even be used to brew tea—using the well water here to brew tea is a waste of tea.

Fortunately, the small river, which was expanded last year, still has a considerable amount of water this year, otherwise, water would become a problem for them to build houses and mix mud.

After consideration, they believe that the most suitable method here is to build water cellars; only with water cellars can they store a sufficient amount of drinking water, and the taste will not be too bad. They use the well water to boil hot water, and after boiling it for a few days, a layer of white alkali appears in the pot; even if they do not understand the reason for this, everyone understands that this well water is not much better.

Houses are being built, and the reclamation of farmland has not been idle either; this time the number of Laborers is sufficient, so they arrange for some people to take the Plow, pull it with human power to reclaim the hard, barren land, or just use hoes to dig bit by bit; in any case, they must reclaim all the arable land in the surrounding area.

Every time a bit is reclaimed, a layer of plant ash must be piled on it; the excrement of so many of them has been piled up centrally since last year and has not been discarded in the wilderness at will.

Although they did not deliberately ferment it, after the time of one Winter, it is already about right; in the reclaimed land, apply some manure to nourish the soil fertility.

However, land that has been reclaimed but not planted is equivalent to being left fallow, which is the same as not being reclaimed, so even though the time is not quite right now, they still scattered Wax Seed in the reclaimed land.

This is considered Huaxia's least valuable grain, so even if there is no harvest, not much is wasted, and the people from the Agriculture Department also said that soybeans can fertilize the land, allowing the land's fertility to increase, making it easier to farm next year.

As for why, the Agriculture Department cannot say either; it is just based on experience. Baifeng had mentioned that because the root system of soybeans has a nitrogen-fixing effect, it can fix the nitrogen that plants need into the soil, which is the reason why it can fertilize the land.

But without a sufficient chemical foundation, they only heard something about there being "eggs" on the roots of soybeans; as for what kind of eggs, anyway, they are not chicken eggs.

Baifeng's chemical knowledge is truly too lacking, so he simply ignored this subject and only taught the causes of some common phenomena; as for what kind of reaction is inside, Baifeng cannot explain it either. If he could really understand it, he would probably be able to hand-craft Nitroglycerin by now, and would not need to make Black Powder, which does not have that much power.

And although the Laborers do not understand, they can only follow suit; they do not understand why Huaxia wants to do this, planting grain on such barren land, and it is not the time to plant grain now, but after all, it is not their own tribe's grain that is being wasted, so there is no need to meddle in this business.