Chapter 13: Reclamation and Farming
The day after the sacrifice, Jiang Xuan tested his strength in front of the bamboo house.
He picked up a large stone with both hands, stood up slowly, and lifted it above his head! This stone weighed at least three or four hundred pounds. If it was Jiang Xuan before, he couldn't even move it, let alone hold it. But now he could lift it above his head without shaking his hands.
“Boom!”
Jiang Xuan threw the big rock out, creating a big hole in the ground.
Jiang Xuan looked at his hands in great surprise, this is the powerful force!
Then he walked into the bamboo forest to test his speed.
With a "whoosh", he easily climbed up a thick bamboo and jumped between the bamboos like a monkey. He was very flexible.
After a moment, he landed again and walked in front of Chishao who was standing beside him.
"Sister, with my current strength and speed, how many types of warriors am I?"
In the tribes of the Southern Wilderness, when a tribesman becomes a warrior, he usually paints lines on his face with five colors to distinguish between warriors of different strengths. A warrior with one color is the weakest, while a warrior with five colors is the strongest.
For example, for a warrior of the same color, use green paint to draw a horizontal line across the face.
For a two-color warrior, use green and red to draw two lines on the face. For a three-color warrior, use three lines, and so on.
The stronger the strength, the more lines will be drawn on the face and the richer the colors.
These lines are also a kind of honor for tribal warriors. The more lines a person has, the more resources he can obtain in the tribe, as well as the worship of the tribesmen.
Jiang Xuan really wanted to know, with his current strength and speed, what kind of warrior he was.
Chishao said seriously: "We are all warriors."
"Only the same color?" Jiang Xuan was stunned. He obviously didn't expect it to be so low.
Chishao nodded and said, "Don't underestimate the one-color warriors. The strongest leader of the Deer Tribe is only a three-color warrior."
Jiang Xuan asked again: "What about you, sister? What level of warrior are you now?"
"I am also a warrior."
Chishao pointed at Uncaria, Stone Eel, and Nanxing and said, "The five of us are all warriors of the same color."
"That's not right!" Jiang Xuan asked doubtfully, "Didn't my sister join a hunting team before? I thought she would be much stronger than us."
"I'm not much better than you."
"It is said that when the Deer Tribe was strong, only warriors of the same color were qualified to join the hunting team."
"But in recent years, the Deer Tribe has declined and can't muster that many warriors, so the requirements have been lowered. Later, anyone who is thirteen years old and has all his limbs intact can join the hunting team."
"I also went in last year. I didn't expect that after only being in there for half a year, the tribe was gone."
At this point, Chishao's mood was obviously a little low, and Gou Teng and others also fell silent. The demise of the Deer Tribe was a pain in their hearts.
Jiang Xuan said: "Sister, don't worry, when our Teng tribe becomes stronger, we will definitely seek revenge on the Crow tribe!"
"Um!"
Chishao nodded heavily, and the three young men clenched their fists, with the flame of revenge burning in their hearts.
Jiang Xuan asked again: "Then how can one become a two-color or even three-color warrior?"
Chishao replied, "I heard from the people in the hunting team that a one-color warrior only needs to be twice as strong and fast as an ordinary tribesman. To become a two-color warrior, you need to hunt an adult wild boar alone."
"A three-color warrior needs to hunt an adult bison alone, and a four-color warrior needs to hunt a giant tiger alone."
"As for the Five-Color Warrior, he needs to hunt a wild bear alone!"
The two-color warrior actually needs to hunt an adult wild boar alone! Jiang Xuan was shocked by Chi Shao's words.
In other words, a two-color warrior must at least have strength, speed, reaction ability, and combat ability that exceed that of an adult wild boar in order to hunt an adult wild boar alone.
The wild boars in this world are extremely dangerous beasts, and an adult wild boar can weigh more than a thousand pounds.
Wild boars have sharp tusks, extremely fast running speed, thick fur, and a fierce personality.
Especially when it is injured, it is almost fearless and most wild beasts will retreat away from it.
Wild boars also like to scratch themselves on pine trees. Their fur is covered with thick resin, as if they were wearing a soft armor. Ordinary weapons, such as stone spears and bone spears, are unlikely to cause fatal damage to them unless they pierce their eyes, anus or other vital parts.
You can imagine how difficult it is to hunt an adult wild boar alone.
As for bison, saber-toothed tigers, and wild bears, each one is more terrifying than the other, and the current Teng Tribe does not have the ability to hunt them.
"Then how can we improve our strength?" Jiang Xuan asked again.
"Training, hunting, and eating more meat can slowly improve your strength. However, I heard that if you can eat some meat from exotic animals or the fruits of some exotic plants, your strength can be improved faster."
"Also, like yesterday, receiving gifts from God during the sacrifice can quickly improve your strength."
Jiang Xuan kept in mind everything Chishao said, especially those about how to improve his strength.
Jiang Xuan knew very well that the stronger he was, the longer he would have the chance to live in this dangerous world, and the longer he lived, the more time he would have to develop and expand the Teng tribe.
After figuring this out, Jiang Xuan started to get busy with other things.
It was spring, a good time for spring ploughing! Jiang Xuan planned to open up a piece of wasteland in front of the bamboo house to try to grow food and vegetables.
Planting and breeding are more stable and abundant ways to obtain food than hunting and gathering.
Jiang Xuan plans to start with farming. If all goes well, he will then develop animal husbandry to increase the tribe’s food source.
Jiang Xuan went back to the house, picked up the bone hoe, called Chishao and others, and walked to an open space in front of the bamboo forest.
Jiang Xuan said: "Knock down all these weeds and burn them later."
"Okay, Chief, watch us."
The three young men had just become warriors and were looking for an opportunity to show off their skills, so they were not afraid of hard work at all.
They wielded the bone hoes with great force, cutting off all the dry weeds on the open space, and then stomped on them until they were all pressed to the ground.
Afterwards, under Jiang Xuan's command, they shoveled out a firebreak around the area to prevent the burning of weeds from igniting other areas.
Finally, Jiang Xuan went back to the bamboo house, took a burning piece of wood, and set the weeds on fire.
“Crackle, crackle…”
The flames started quickly because the weeds were pressed to the ground, firebreaks had been set up in advance, and there were no strong winds, so as long as we watched carefully, it wouldn't burn to other places.
"Chief, why are we burning these weeds?" asked Uncaria Rhododendron curiously.
Jiang Xuan replied: "Reclaiming wasteland and planting crops."
"Oh, I see."
The tribesmen also farm, but it is still at the most primitive stage of slash-and-burn agriculture.
They would choose a large area, burn all the grass and trees, use the ash as fertilizer, dig a hole with a bone hoe or other tools, bury the seeds, and then basically leave it alone until the seeds were ripe in autumn before harvesting.
The yield from this type of planting is shockingly low, but the advantage is that it does not take much time and energy. After all, the tribesmen’s food source is mainly from hunting and gathering.
Gou Teng and others thought that Jiang Xuan was also going to farm in the same way. However, they soon realized that they were wrong.
Half an hour later, all the weeds and shrubs in the open space were burned clean, and there was a thick layer of ash on the ground.
This piece of open space is about 100 square meters in size, neither too big nor too small. Jiang Xuan plans to develop it and plant edible wild or tuberous plants.
"Chi..."
Jiang Xuan stepped on the horizontal bar and easily pressed the shovel of the bone hoe into the soil, then turned a piece of soil over and continued to dig the next piece of soil.
Uncaria couldn't help but ask again: "Chief, after burning it, can't we just dig a small hole and bury the seeds?"
Jiang Xuan said: "Turning the soil over can loosen it up, allowing the things we plant to grow better and yield more."
Uncaria wanted to ask why loosening the soil would make the things planted grow better, but Chishao glared at him and said, "Why ask so many questions? Just do whatever the leader says."
"oh……"
Uncaria immediately shut up. Chishao was too strong and the three boys were a little afraid of him.
Shiqiu and Nanxing also shrank their necks and followed the clearing work obediently.
The soil in the wasteland was very tight and had many grass roots, tree roots, and stones. The bone hoes in their hands were not sharp enough, so this work was very hard.
Fortunately, the tribesmen were relatively strong, and these five men had just become warriors. They were much stronger than ordinary people, so they could clear the land at a reasonable speed.
Half a day later, with the efforts of five people, this piece of wasteland of about 100 square meters was finally reclaimed.
All the grass roots, tree roots, and stones in the wasteland were cleared away and piled on the open space nearby.
Jiang Xuan looked at the newly opened farmland and felt that some instincts hidden deep in his mind were awakened.
He said excitedly: "This is the first piece of farmland in our Teng tribe. In the future, there will be a second piece, a third piece, and even countless pieces!"
Chishao and the three teenagers were not that excited, because in their impression, the harvest from farming was too little and was not as good as hunting and gathering.
Jiang Xuan didn't care. When the land was planted with crops and a good harvest was obtained, they would know the benefits of farming.
(End of this chapter)
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