Chapter 76: Cultivating Fish Fry
"Everyone work harder, we can go back to eat after we finish digging these fields!"
In the cultivated field, Gan Song was working hard to turn over the wasteland with a bone hoe while shouting to the tourists.
As soon as the tourists heard the word "eat", their tired bodies were suddenly filled with strength and they became more motivated.
The soil on the wasteland is very compact and covered with grass roots, tree roots, gravel, etc. It takes a lot of effort to open it up.
But for those tourists, they could have food to eat by reclaiming wasteland, which was much better than their previous life. At least they didn't have to fight wild beasts in the jungle.
Thanks to the efforts of Gansong and these tourists, the cultivated land area of Teng Tribe is expanding little by little.
If all goes well, these new farmlands will bring more food to the Teng tribe.
In front of the bamboo house, Jiang Xuan drained all the water from a pond that he had dug last year.
At the bottom of the pond embankment, a simple drainage channel was built with stones. All we had to do was dig out the stones and mud blocking the drainage channel.
“Clatter…”
Jiang Xuan dug up the drainage channel, and the water in the pond flowed out with a roar.
On the inside of the drain, Jiang Xuan placed a small fence, which could both drain water and prevent the fish in the pond from escaping.
Da Jiao and several tourists stood beside Jiang Xuan, each holding a rattan basket to hold fish.
When the water in the pond was drained, Dajiao and the tourists entered the pond barefoot and put the fish into rattan baskets.
"When you see a female fish with a big belly, be careful and catch it separately and put it in the rattan basket by the stream. Pour the other fish into other ponds to continue raising them."
"Okay."
Da Jiao agreed and continued fishing with his men.
Jiang Xuan personally caught a big-bellied female fish and carefully brought it to the stream.
There is a large rattan basket by the stream, placed in a place where the water flows slowly, half of it submerged in the water and half of it exposed above the water.
Jiang Xuan put the female fish into the rattan basket. The female fish swam twice and then gradually calmed down. Its gills opened and closed in the clear stream, absorbing oxygen in the water.
Jiang Xuan, Da Jiao, and the tourists caught all the fish they could see in the pond, and finally got more than a dozen female fish with big bellies.
These female fish are herbivorous fish, and there are already a large number of eggs in their stomachs. Jiang Xuan plans to use them to breed fish fry.
That's why he specifically cleaned out a pond.
Otherwise, there will be too many miscellaneous fish in the pond, and they will eat the fish eggs, making it impossible to cultivate a large number of fish.
"Chief, why do we have to raise our own fish fry?"
Da Jiao asked Jiang Xuan.
In his opinion, wouldn't it be easier to just catch the fish outside and fatten them up?
While cleaning the pond mud, Jiang Xuan asked, "Da Jiao, have you ever thought that if we keep fishing for a long time, the number of fish in the river will gradually decrease?"
Da Jiao was stunned for a moment, and asked uncertainly: "Will it?"
"Of course, haven't you noticed that there are fewer fish in the creek?"
Da Jiao thought for a moment, then nodded and said, "It does seem to have become less."
Jiang Xuan continued, "As our tribe's population grows, this situation will only get worse. One day, we won't be able to catch any big fish in the stream or river, and there won't even be many small fish!"
Jiang Xuan's words made Da Jiao nervous.
Fish is one of the important food sources of the Teng tribe. He finds it hard to imagine what the scene would be like without fish.
"Then...what should we do?" Da Jiao asked subconsciously.
“It’s very simple.”
Jiang Xuan collected the pond mud in a fine rattan basket and dumped it outside the pond embankment. Then he looked at Da Jiao and said, "We will breed the fish fry ourselves, and then release them into the pond, creek, and Feiyu River every year."
"Chief, this... I can understand putting it in a pond, but if you put it in a stream or a flying fish river, won't the fish run away?"
As a tribal man, Dajiao found it difficult to understand this behavior.
Jiang Xuan smiled and said, "Think about it another way. Apart from our tribe, there are no other tribes fishing nearby!"
“That seems to be true.”
"So, whether it's the creek or the Feiyu River, they are equivalent to our big fish pond. Those fish fry released will be ours sooner or later."
After listening to Jiang Xuan's words, Da Jiao still didn't quite understand, but he didn't dwell on this issue anymore.
Anyway, the leader is smart, so they just have to do whatever he says.
Jiang Xuan took Da Jiao and several tourists to clean up the silt in the pond, and some miscellaneous fish hidden in the mud were also cleaned out.
For example, loach, eel, black carp, etc., if you allow them to live in the pond, a large number of fish eggs and fry will be eaten.
"Okay, now that we've drained the water and cleaned up the pond mud, we'll be fine after drying it for two days."
Jiang Xuan walked to the stream, washed his hands carefully, and then asked Dajiao to put a lid on the wicker basket and keep an eye on the female fish.
After finishing the work in the fish pond, it was already noon.
“Dinner is ready!”
The woman in charge of cooking gave a shout, and then both the members of the Teng tribe and the tourists packed up their tools and happily returned to their respective houses, taking with them simple bowls and chopsticks.
Most of them held bamboo bowls, because there was a large bamboo forest in the Teng tribe and bamboo bowls were the easiest to obtain.
As for chopsticks, most people are actually not used to using them, but they can’t eat without chopsticks, so they all work very hard to learn how to use chopsticks.
Soon, a spectacular scene of more than a hundred people eating appeared.
"Come one by one, don't crowd, you won't starve to death!"
Several fierce women were responsible for serving meals to the tourists. Although their tone was unfriendly, the tourists smiled along. After all, if they offended them, they would easily go hungry.
There were several large pottery tripods, in which various foods were cooked, including plant tubers, wild vegetable leaves, bamboo shoots, some meat, and so on.
For this kind of hodgepodge, the taste is naturally something you can’t force, but tourists don’t care about the taste, they only care about whether they can fill their stomachs.
After finishing their meal, the tourists can scoop a bowl of soup to drink. Although there are not many vegetables in the soup, the tourists still rush to drink it because salt is added to the soup, which has a salty and fragrant taste.
Before coming to the Teng tribe, they had never thought that one day they would be able to eat salt every day.
Having rice and salt to eat is a very happy thing for these tourists. What else do they need? Jiang Xuan also returned to the bamboo house to eat. The food he ate was better than the tourists. At least there was more meat and the taste was better.
He also had ceramic bowls and carefully polished bamboo chopsticks.
Jiang Xuan filled a bowl with food, then walked outside the bamboo house and sat on a flat stone. He ate comfortably while basking in the sun and looking at the scenery in the distance.
This is a rare leisure time in the day.
Nanxing also sat next to Jiang Xuan. Chishao, Uncaria rhynchophylla, and Stone Loach had all gone out hunting and would not be back soon.
Jiang Xuan was putting food into his mouth when suddenly he saw a group of large birds appear in the sky. They were flying lower and lower, and seemed to be landing in the Teng tribe.
Jiang Xuan stood up immediately. With his extraordinary eyesight, he found that these big birds were carrying a lot of things on their backs, and it seemed that there were people.
Who are these people? What do they want to do? Jiang Xuan was puzzled and stared at the sky vigilantly.
Thanks to the book friend "9ye" for the reward.
(End of this chapter)
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