Chapter 163: Hope of the Tribesmen

Peaceful days always pass quickly, and in the blink of an eye, autumn has arrived.

End of August.

Jiang Xuan walked in the vast fields, looking at the patches of crops that were ripe or about to ripen, and felt a sense of satisfaction and pride in his heart.

As the population grew, the planting teams became larger and larger, and more and more wasteland was opened up. Due to the lack of measuring tools, Jiang Xuan could no longer figure out how much farmland the Teng tribe had.

Bamboo wheat is a new variety traded from the Black Tooth Tribe this year.

This kind of wheat looks very similar to a small bamboo, but its leaves are much wider. After it forms ears, it looks a bit like sorghum.

Jiang Xuan picked a grain of bamboo wheat with green skin from a bunch of full ears of wheat, put it in his mouth and took a bite. With a "crunch" sound, the grain was crushed.

Jiang Xuan chewed it and nodded, "It seems that this kind of bamboo wheat is green and will not turn yellow. It can be harvested."

Gan Song stood beside Jiang Xuan and said with a smile, "I think it's ripe too. I'll lead people to harvest it this afternoon."

Jiang Xuan nodded and said, "I will have people weave reed mats as soon as possible. If the weather is good, we will dry the harvested bamboo wheat and move it into the granary."

Cereals are more troublesome in this regard, as they require a lot of effort to dry them; otherwise they cannot be stored for a long time and will become moldy.

There is no such trouble for tuber crops such as yams and egg yolks. At most, you can dry the mud on them and then find a warehouse or cellar to store them.

A month ago, the Teng tribe built two more large granaries and are now waiting for the new grain to be stored.

Jiang Xuan was about to leave when he suddenly thought of something, so he turned back and said, "Oh, right, pick the best and fullest of each kind of grain and vegetable and store them. After the autumn harvest, the tribe will hold a grand sacrifice."

When Gan Song heard the word "grand sacrifice", his eyes lit up.

The Great Sacrifice is the most important day of the year for the tribesmen, even more important than Jiang Xuan’s New Year in his previous life.

On the day of the great sacrifice, the entire tribe will dress up in their best clothes and prepare rich offerings to worship the totem god.

After the totem god enjoys the sacrifice, he will often turn more ordinary tribesmen into warriors to enhance the overall strength of the tribe.

The tribesmen provide sacrifices and devout faith to the totem god, and the totem god provides shelter to the tribesmen and enhances the overall strength, which benefits both sides.

"Don't worry, Chief. I will definitely select the best grains and vegetables for the sacrifice to satisfy the vine god."

Jiang Xuan nodded and walked towards the new granary.

There is a large flat area outside the new granary, which is reserved for use as a drying yard.

Now, the flat land is covered with reeds.

The women in the garment workshop, together with the men Jiang Xuan transferred from other places, were all working hard to weave large reed mats.

The southern wilderness is humid and rainy, so it is not possible to dry grain directly on the ground.

Since there was no cement, there was no way to harden the ground, so a large number of reed mats were woven for drying grain.

Reed mats are used for drying in the sun. One, they are cleaner and isolate the moisture from the ground. Another is that once it rains, they can be collected faster.

There is a lot of rain in the southern wilderness, so it is quite troublesome to dry the grain. Often, after drying it for half a day, if we see that it is about to rain, we have to put it away again. It is very hard work.

Fortunately, the harvesting and drying time is not very long every year. It is only the hard work during the autumn harvest. After the autumn harvest, the planting team is basically relatively free.

Since Fuling is about to give birth, Fengcao is now in charge of the garment workshop, and the people who weave the reed mats are naturally under her charge as well.

Jiang Xuan walked up to Fengcao and asked, "How many reed mats have you woven now?"

Fengcao raised his head, wiped the sweat that was about to flow into his eyes, and said, "Reporting to the leader, we have woven more than fifty reed mats now."

"Okay, the planting team has already started preparing for the autumn harvest. We need to make sure there are enough reed mats, otherwise the crops won't dry out and we'll be in trouble."

Fengcao said with a firm look in his eyes: "Don't worry, Chief. We can definitely weave enough reed mats and dry all the food."

Jiang Xuan nodded and said, "Thank you for your hard work. After the autumn harvest is completed, I will give each of you some rewards."

"Thank you, Chief."

After Fengcao finished speaking, he continued to weave reed mats. This was a very time-consuming job and he had to hurry.

Jiang Xuan looked at the semi-finished reed mats and the finished reed mats again and found no problems.

He was quite satisfied with this. Fengcao's ability was indeed very good. He could manage so many people and control the quality very well.

Jiang Xuan went to the breeding area again and asked Da Jiao to select suitable livestock and poultry as sacrifices in advance and raise them well.

Da Jiao was already familiar with this kind of thing, and he agreed with full confidence.

Afterwards, Jiang Xuan went to the hunting team and the fishing team respectively and asked them to find suitable sacrifices.

These teams all took action and worked hard for the tribe’s high sacrifice.

That afternoon, the autumn harvest of the Teng tribe officially began.

Both the tribesmen and the captives participated in the busy autumn harvest.

Everyone divided the work and cooperated with each other. Some people were responsible for harvesting, some were responsible for pulling the grain off the straw, some were responsible for carrying, and some were responsible for drying.

Although the autumn harvest is tiring, everyone's face is filled with happy smiles.

Food is always the most important thing for tribal people.

This year’s good harvest means that the people of the Teng tribe no longer have to worry about going hungry.

Even the captives worked harder after discovering the mountains of food in the Teng tribe.

At the same time, more people are eager to get rid of their status as captives and truly join the Teng Tribe.

Because in the Teng tribe, they saw the hope of living and living a better life! For the tribesmen, hope is not those illusory dreams, but food, clothing, houses within reach, and a strong tribe that can protect them.

With these things, you don't have to live a precarious life, and you will have hope and expectations for the future.

…

On the sixth day of September, after nearly ten months of pregnancy, Poria cocos and Uncaria rhynchophylla's baby was finally about to be born.

That night, Fuling was sleeping and suddenly screamed, waking Uncaria from her sleep.

"What's wrong? What's wrong?"

With the help of the firelight, Uncaria saw Fuling's painful face.

"Quick, go and ask for help from the witch. It seems our child is about to be born."

"Okay, hold on for a moment, I'll go get the witch right away."

Gou Teng grabbed the clothes at random, then picked up a torch in the corner of the room and lit it. He ran outside while putting the clothes on himself carelessly.

He ran hurriedly towards the bamboo forest, but just as he ran in, he was stopped by the guards.

In the bamboo forest of the Teng tribe there is not only an altar, but also the chief and the witch live there, and the security is very strict, especially at night.

"Captain Uncaria, where are you going so late?"

"Fuling is about to give birth. I'm going to ask the witch for help."

When the guards heard about this, they did not dare to delay and immediately asked two soldiers to accompany Uncaria to run into the bamboo forest and come to the outside of Chishao's yard.

“Boom boom boom…”

"Wu, Wu..."

Gouteng knocked on the door and shouted anxiously.

"Coming right up."

In the room, Chishao immediately got up from the bed and opened the door.

When tribal warriors knock on your door in the middle of the night, it probably means something urgent has happened.

“Squeak…”

After the yard gate was opened, Uncaria Rhododendron immediately explained the situation.

"Wait a minute, I'll go in and get something."

Chishao hurried back to the bamboo house, lit a big candle, took some medicine, and then, under the protection of the guards, left the bamboo forest and ran to the house where Uncaria lived.

In another yard, Jiang Xuan heard the loud noise and immediately got up and followed over.

After arriving outside the house where Uncaria lived, Chishao brought a female warrior in, and Jiang Xuan, Uncaria and others had to stay outside.

The tribesmen are relatively strong, and Fuling has long been a warrior, so generally there won't be any problems with having children.

Babies are often born in the tribe, and Chishao has delivered many babies, so she has rich experience.

Jiang Xuan even occasionally heard a few women talking about how before coming to the Teng tribe, they all delivered their own babies and were very brave.

"ah……"

Fuling's painful cries were heard from the room. Uncaria was walking back and forth anxiously outside the door, not knowing what to do with his hands.

Being a father for the first time, I had mixed feelings.

The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!

Jiang Xuan grabbed the hook vine and said, "Don't worry, Wu is here, nothing will happen."

"That's right, with the witch here, nothing will happen."

Gou Teng muttered a few words, trying to give himself confidence, but he just couldn't calm down.

This is a very painful process, and time seems to suddenly slow down at this time.

Maybe a few minutes later, maybe more than ten minutes later, suddenly a loud baby cry was heard in the room.

"Chief, it's born! It's born!"

Uncaria was so excited that he wanted to jump up, and his whole mood was extremely excited.

After a while, a female warrior came out and congratulated Gouteng: "Congratulations, Chief Gouteng, on giving birth to a big fat boy. He will definitely be a brave warrior in the future."

"Is Fuling okay?"

"It's okay, the witch is here."

"That's good, that's good..."

After a while, Chishao came out and told Uncaria some things that needed attention.

The Uncaria rhynchophylla nodded like a chick pecking at rice, and then couldn't wait to see the child.

The child was wrapped in a soft animal skin. Because he was just born, his little face was red and wrinkled.

Gou Teng picked up the child carefully, not knowing where to put his hands.

After a while, Gou Teng said, "He is so small, and a little... ugly..."

"show me."

Fuling lying on the bed was very tired, but she also wanted to see her child.

Gou Teng squatted down carefully and let Fuling look at the child in the light of the fire.

Fuling looked at it for a moment and said sadly, "Indeed... it's a little ugly..."

The female soldier at the side said: "Newborn babies are all like this. After two days, their faces will grow and they will be beautiful."

Uncaria and Poria finally breathed a sigh of relief. Who doesn’t want their children to be good-looking?

Gou Teng was busy holding the child, while Jiang Xuan and Chishao returned to their respective yards to continue sleeping. After all, it was the middle of the night.

The real second generation of the Teng tribe was born, and Jiang Xuan was very happy.

Uncaria's children, including other children born in the Teng tribe, are the hope for the future of the tribe.

The next day, Gou Teng ran over excitedly and asked Jiang Xuan to name the child.

When Jiang Xuan heard about the matter of naming, he felt overwhelmed, so he asked him to go find Chishao again.

Uncaria went to hunt a prey himself and carried it to Chishao's yard, firstly to thank Chishao for delivering Fuling, and secondly to ask her to give it a name.

Chishao is the witch of the Teng tribe. She has helped people choose names many times and is very skilled at it.

She pondered for a while, her eyes swept across the pile of herbs in front of her, and then said to Uncaria, "Let's call it Tiandong."

"Tian Dong, Tian Dong, this name sounds nice. Thank you, Wu."

Uncaria muttered it twice and became happy. What a nice name! Chishao nodded with a smile and accepted the prey as a thank you gift.

Gou Teng ran home excitedly and told Fuling the name given by the witch, as well as other people he knew.

Soon, everyone knew that Uncaria rhynchophylla's son was called "Tiandong".

Jiang Xuan also sent them some sugar and salt to congratulate them on the birth of their child.

The autumn harvest of the Teng tribe continued, and the three spacious granaries were filled up little by little.

During this period, Jiang Xuan took his men to the ruins of the mountain goat tribe to harvest this year's insect wax.

Due to poor management, this year's insect wax production is significantly lower than in previous years.

However, the wax tree forest planted by the Teng tribe has begun to take shape. As long as they wait for a year or two and the wax trees grow up, they can bring a large number of waxworm eggs back to the wax tree forest in the Teng tribe’s territory for breeding when the waxworms lay eggs.

By then, the production of insect wax will definitely be higher than in previous years! …

Southern Wilderness, Frog Tribe.

“Quack…”

In the large pond, giant frogs ate insects and made loud croaking sounds.

In the fall, most bugs come to the end of their lives, and those that do fly slow down.

This is a carnival for the giant frogs.

Giant frogs eat a lot of insects every day to gain weight to cope with the energy consumption during hibernation.

Although when they were in the frog tribe, due to the abnormal weather, these giant frogs have never hibernated since they were born.

But the instinct engraved in their blood makes them start preparing for hibernation as soon as they sense the weather changes in the Southern Wilderness.

Next to the large pond, patches of thorn bushes and bushes have been cleared away.

The members of the Frog Tribe built one wooden house after another on the small amount of flat land next to the big pond and on the gentler hillsides.

This remote and desolate place finally began to look a bit like a tribe.

In the early morning, the frog tribe witch stood by the pond and said to the leader Huo Meng: "The weather is getting colder. We must hurry up and stock up on food. Otherwise, when winter comes, the giant frogs will hibernate and our people will starve to death."

Huo Meng said, "Don't worry, Wu, I will bring the warriors to bring back all the food that can be found nearby."

Wu nodded and asked, "Is there any news from the Teng tribe?"

Huo Meng shook his head and said, "Our place is too remote. We can't even catch tourists. If we want to know where the Teng tribe is, we probably have to look for it in a farther place."

"Then we can only wait until winter is over before looking for it again."

Wu closed his eyes, feeling the chill in the air, and said, "I haven't seen snow in many years. I almost forgot what it's like when it snows..."

Huo Meng said: "We will see it this year."

The two men stood by the big pond for a while, and then Huo Meng took the warriors of the frog tribe and the giant frogs to the forest to hunt and gather to store food for the winter.

(End of this chapter)