Volume 1: Farming Chapter 38 Delicious Wheat Cake
The yield of alfalfa per mu is about 1,600 to 1,800 kilograms, and the total yield (fresh grass) after harvesting is about 2.8 million kilograms. If there are modern processing equipment for such tonnage of grass, even a small grass straw processing plant only needs a few workers to work for a few days; but in this alien world where there is nothing, this "happy trouble" is really a trouble - everyone is involved in drying, baling, and stacking. As long as there is a place to stand around the tribe, there are piles of grass, and the open space in the tribe where people can walk is also full of grass; within a few days after the harvesting work is completed, almost everyone can smell the fragrance of alfalfa in their dreams, and even nightmares are in the shape of alfalfa...
It’s not that the residents of the grassland have never seen so much forage. In fact, each tribe prepares more fodder for the winter. But the work of accumulating fodder takes an entire autumn and accumulates little by little - who the hell would rush to complete the entire process of harvesting, drying, baling and storing within ten days like this!
Even so, this cub Ayun kept urging and complaining all day long, saying that he was too slow and wasted too much time. If the chief had a good excuse to beat him, he would have wanted to beat him very much!
Finally, the alfalfa storage work was done. When they were driven to build water wheels and dig canals and ponds, the tribesmen carrying hoes lined up silently in front, while Ayun at the back was counting on his fingers and muttering something that was either incomprehensible or horrifying to the ears:
"Twenty-six first-level laborers, twenty-three second-level laborers, seven third-level laborers..."
"The first and second level water conservancy projects are barely enough to complete the farmland water conservancy projects, but the river project is a bit uncertain..."
"No, no, we can't count on not flooding this summer and autumn. The river channel on the north bank must be reinforced artificially anyway..."
"It's impossible not to spare some manpower to get some salt..."
"Playing with birds, playing with birds. It seems that no matter how I arrange the working hours from now on, it will never be enough. Should I work more night shifts?"
Hongye, who was walking in front of Xiao Yun, suddenly stopped and bumped Xiao Yun with her iron-hard back muscles. She turned her head stiffly and said, "Ayun, how much do you want us to do?"
Xiao Yun rubbed his nose and pushed Hongye forward. "What you said is wrong, Hongye. It's not about how much trouble I want to cause you, but how much preparation we can do before the peak of the flood. No matter how much sweat we shed now, as long as we can avoid the farmland being flooded and being chased around by the flood, it's worth it, right?"
Yu in front couldn't help but turn his head and said, "Our tribe has lived in this area for many years. We have never heard of water flooding where we live?"
"That's natural, isn't it? Your tribe is located upstream of this river. If you were upstream, you would be drowned. Then the place where we are standing now would be a swamp, full of water and swamps. There wouldn't even be a place for people to stand."
Xiao Yun raised his hand and pointed to the northwest: "When you were active near this river, didn't you notice that the water in the upper north part of the river was relatively shallow and not wide, only about ten meters. But over there, near the exit of the underground world, the river suddenly became twice as wide, and the bottom of the river could not be seen at its deepest point. What does this mean?"
The patrolling soldiers usually had nothing to do but care about this, and they didn't understand what Ayun was trying to say, so they all turned around and looked at him blankly.
"This means that the water source of the tributary of the Earth River does not only come from the Earth River. After the tributary bypasses the northwest area, there is another source of water." Xiao Yun said, "Last year when we went to the underground world to get stones, I found that the water level and water volume upstream and downstream of this river were not right. Although I can't go and see where the extra water is, the additional water source makes the downstream part of the river more turbulent and the water volume is larger. This is without a doubt."
"That is to say, the risk of flooding in our downstream area is twice as high as that in the upstream area of Maomao's tribe." Xiao Yun looked at the tribesmen, "So, do you still think that river water conservancy is dispensable?"
"..." Hongye and the others had no expression on their faces. Although they didn't understand, Ayun seemed to be making sense.
Yu: "...Wait, who is Maomao referring to?"
Xiao Yun pretended not to hear and continued in a serious tone, "We have heard many tragic stories on the grasslands about which tribe's pastures were flooded and which tribe's cattle and sheep were washed away by the floods. In the final analysis, it is because there are two big rivers and countless tributaries on our grasslands, and there is no stable river course. It's okay when the water volume is small, the river water will only flow along the low-lying areas, but when there is a flood, the river course will change to wherever it wants to go."
"So if you want to live and work in peace and contentment, and want a long-term peace and stability in a place, you can't ignore river water conservancy. For example, build artificial lakes, dig artificial rivers to divert river water, build artificial dams on both sides of the river to block water, and so on. The surging river water can be tamed from an uncontrollable beast into an obedient livestock. Let it flow wherever it wants, and then there will be no more flood disasters."
Although there were some incomprehensible words in his speech, everyone could still understand the general meaning. The main reason was that he used the word "taming", which made the snow wolf people understand more intuitively. Therefore, including the newcomer Yu and the lazy Dahe, everyone's mood became complicated again - they were obviously fed up with this hard life of working from sunrise to sunset, but they felt that Ayun was indeed reasonable and should suffer more and work harder to achieve his goal. What was going on? !
...Well, I believe that everyone has come across this kind of boss who asks everyone to work overtime and overtime for everyone's own good.
The adult snow wolves dug a row of water-storage ponds at the bottom of the vegetable field and above the swamp. This location is relatively low in terrain and can store water during droughts, and drain the water into the swamp during floods. The cubs dug the remaining part of the canal around the entire farmland, and transported the excavated soil and rocks to the river bank. During the day, they repaired the farmland water conservancy, and at night they used the soil excavated during the day, added water and reed stalks, and compacted it to make mud bricks, making bricks for artificial river embankment in advance.
As for the caracals... The adults built water wheels and were busy with daily tasks in the tribe, including raising cattle and sheep, cleaning sheep pens, managing newborn lambs, cooking food, etc. The cubs worked hard to process wool products for the commercial activities in the fall...
After the farmland water conservancy was basically completed, Xiao Yun drove the adult snow wolves of the first-level labor force to repair the river embankment, and the cubs of the second-level labor force "returned" to agriculture: the wheat entered the heading and flowering period, and needed topdressing and watering to ensure soil moisture; the seeds left in the vegetable fields could be harvested, and after harvesting the seeds, they had to be plowed, base fertilizer applied, and sown again - in the case of insufficient manpower, Xiao Yun felt that it would be enough to plant two or three crops of vegetables every year to ensure the supply of the tribe, and to plant continuously, as there was nowhere to sell the crops.
The endless supply of livestock manure provided by the raised cattle and sheep, the inexhaustible humus layer on the outskirts of the jungle, the animal bones obtained from the nests of predatory beasts, the fertile black mud that has been fermenting in the swamps for who knows how many years... these natural fertilizers are easy to use and only need to be fermented one month in advance (extended to more than three months when the temperature is low).
When the wheat is ripe (spring wheat has a short growing period and a planting cycle of about daytime, while winter wheat needs more than 200 days), the weather on the grassland also reaches the hottest time of the year... Well, this heat is only relative. Judging from the fact that Sal still needs to cover his belly to sleep at night, the highest temperature of the day is around 30 degrees, and the temperature at night will drop to around 20 degrees.
Because the tribesmen were so exhausted that they had developed the skill of falling asleep wherever they lay down, Xiao Yun simply chose a corner of the square in the middle of the tribe and laid out rattan mats for the snow wolves who were too hot to stay in the house at night. However, when it was time to harvest wheat, the relatively flat square was not used for sleeping, but for drying the wheat.
Xiao Yun has been running to the wheat fields whenever he has time since the wheat entered the heading stage. Now that the wheat ears are full, the wheat stalks are yellow, and the harvest season is just around the corner, Xiao Yun runs to the wheat fields more frequently, and while observing, he takes a piece of sheepskin and takes notes with a charcoal pencil.
After many days of observation, he found that the relationship between the number of wheat tillers and the number of ears seemed a bit metaphysical... The batch that he thought was growing vigorously and had more than 30 tillers only had an average of three to five ears of wheat, which was similar to the batch that he thought was growing normally and had about 20 tillers.
As for those with fewer tillers, the average number of ears hanging is only one to two, which is a bit hurtful...
"I took it for granted before. Looking at the situation, 30 tillers is considered vigorous growth. I should pay more attention when deep tilling."
He gently pinched the prickly wheat ears with his hands. The plump grains gave him some comfort. However, he picked a wheat ear at random, rubbed the husk, and counted the grains. Xiao Yun felt shocked again. There were only more than 30 grains per ear?! Is it poisonous? Shouldn't there be about 50 grains per ear of wheat?!
The clan leader who came with Xiao Yun was originally looking at the wheat field with excitement, but he didn't expect A Yun's expression to suddenly change, and the clan leader was so scared that he leaned back.
"Oh right, about the variety." Xiao Yun raised his hand and pinched his brows, finding a reason to stop himself from getting angry. "The wheat seeds on Earth can produce an average of 50 grains per ear. That's the result of the hard work of countless agronomists... No matter how awesome the Minotaur is, he's just a copycat version of Yuan Longping, a folk scientist. We can't have such high expectations."
One must look forward when doing things. Xiao Yun didn't have that much time and energy to get angry. He had to use his energy as much as possible to think of solutions: "... In this case, next year we must aim for effective tillering that can produce ears. More ears can offset the disadvantage of fewer grains. Well... I have nothing to do in the winter anyway, so I can open a test field for winter wheat and try to cultivate frost-resistant wheat varieties. Regardless of whether it works or not, there is still a purpose to try. If I don't try, there will be nothing."
After writing down what he thought of, Xiao Yun returned to his normal composure and continued to observe the wheat field.
The clan leader watched him change his expression silently without saying a word: "???"
Ayun is such a weirdo!
If it rains during the wheat harvest, it would be bad luck. Fortunately, the rainy season on the grassland is mostly after midsummer. At this time, it only rains every now and then, so it is not too troublesome to choose a sunny day for harvesting.
Sixty large fields, about 600 acres of wheat, were harvested in two days by all the staff - thanks to the training they had gained from harvesting 1,800 acres of alfalfa in one go, everyone became skilled workers and their efficiency was greatly improved.
The task of picking up wheat ears in the wheat field was given to the caracal cubs and Sal (yes, after the caracal cubs' cat claws, human claws had to be borrowed for use), and everyone else participated in threshing the wheat.
There was no thresher. Xiao Yun had seen the traditional wooden pedal-operated thresher in the countryside, but he was so busy that he had no time to think about it. Therefore, the threshing of wheat could only be done by the more primitive method... manual threshing and flail threshing.
The harvested wheat is spread out on the square of the tribe. Strong adult werewolves grab bundles of wheat straw and throw them on stones to thresh the wheat. Those with less strength swing wooden flails to hit the wheat... Well, this flail is not only the weapon of the Paladins in Diablo 3, but also a primitive threshing tool used by farming people. Two wooden sticks of different lengths are tied at both ends with vines. A person holds the longer stick and swings it to drive the shorter stick to hit the wheat straw spread on the ground. During the beating process, the mature wheat grains will fall off from the wheat ears.
After taking away the wheat straw, the harvested wheat grains must be winnowed with their backs to the wind... A long stick tied with a shovel-shaped wooden tool is used to winnow the wheat, allowing the wind to blow away the impurities in the wheat grains.
The next step is to dry them in the sun, put them into straw barrels made of rattan and reeds, and store them in a makeshift straw shed warehouse...
Xiao Yun took out a large field of wheat and threshed it, roughly calculated the total output, and calculated the yield per mu. The result made him feel distressed... With such fertile land and such careful care for these wheat uncles, the yield per mu was only 400 kilograms, and this was the yield before husking - in the modern world, lazy people who don't care about farming and work for three days and dry the nets for two days can at least get more than 500 kilograms per mu! Those are planted on barren mountain land, and the yield is after husking! The sweat and tears shed in the wheat fields really fed the Husky!
What happened to the 100x return on wheat? Cutting it by more than half is simply too much, brother!
The snow werewolves and caracals wiped the big beads of sweat from their foreheads, and looked at the five large straw hut warehouses lined up in a row filled with straw barrels with satisfied smiles on their faces. Their smiles were full of relief and satisfaction... Most of them had actually never eaten wheat and had no idea what it tasted like, but they were happy as long as they knew that these were edible foods.
"I've eaten wheat cakes in the Tauren tribe. They were delicious!" The bull horns that had eaten them were shown off to the tribesmen who had never eaten them.
"How delicious is it?" The cubs bit their fingers curiously.
Niu Jiao thought for a while and said, “It tastes good anyway!” He gave a thumbs up.
Yu next to him: "..."
“Ah~~~~~” The happy cubs rushed over and surrounded Xiao Yun, who was in a low mood, “Ayun, Ayun, eat the wheat cakes!”
Xiao Yun was swung like a kite by these werewolf cubs, each of whom was stronger than him: "Alright, alright, eat, eat, stop it now, you're giving me a concussion~~~~~"
Well... In order to avoid being shaken into an idiot by the cubs of the same species, Xiao Yun agreed to these guys without thinking. However, the harvested wheat has not been husked yet and cannot be eaten.
In ancient times, Western farmers would send wheat to the mill, grind it roughly into flour with a lot of bran, then knead it and put it in the bread oven to bake it into hard unleavened bread (sometimes they would add sawdust or something, which was a really cool operation) and eat it directly; as for Chinese farmers, during the Qin Dynasty and before, they would eat wheat rice... that is, rice cooked with shelled wheat, which is said to be better than unleavened bread, but not much better, and it was unpalatable and choked the throat; the use of stone mills began to become popular in the Han Dynasty (tofu was invented during this period), and Chinese farmers ate wheat mainly in the form of wheat flour, and various types of pasta culture have been carried forward to later generations.
A large stone mill cannot be made without processing tools, but a small stone mill can be made by heating it with fire, cooling it with cold water, and using the principle of thermal expansion and contraction to make the surface of the stone brittle and then processing it into the required shape.
Make a round rolling stone with a diameter of about 60 cm and a thickness of about 20 cm. Then find a larger stone with a relatively flat side and chisel out a rectangular groove on the flat stone surface that is slightly shorter than the stone surface, four to five cm deep, and twenty-one to twenty-two cm wide, just enough for the rolling stone to be placed inside and rolled. The most primitive stone mill is made.
Sprinkle the dried wheat grains into the groove, and have anyone hold the rolling stone and roll it in the groove. The weight of the rolling stone can crush the wheat grains back and forth to hull them. After rolling a few more times, the wheat grains can be ground into flour. Of course, this overly primitive stone mill is not as good as a proper double-blade stone mill, but it is simple and easy to make. When you need it urgently, you don’t care about all these.
The wheat flour that was not fine and had a lot of bran was ground out of this simple and easy-to-make primitive rolling stone mill. It was then fermented with the yeast Xiao Yun used to make soy sauce and kneaded into fist-sized dough. The dough was spread out, and the green vegetables and radishes blanched in bone-nourishing soup and a small amount of meat were wrapped in it to make a very simple giant bun. It was then steamed in a square steamer that was used to steam animal bones at the time...
Because he was worried about the yield of the wheat fields, Xiao Yun, who was not in the mood, was too lazy to make more. This giant bun was made by counting the number of people, and then a big problem occurred... Only one adult snow werewolf was not enough to eat, and after he finished eating, all of them stared at Xiao Yun with greedy eyes.
"..." Xiao Yun had just taken a bite of a wheat bran bun. It was neither right to swallow it nor to spit it out.
Qingyan, who had eaten half of the bun, silently divided the bun in his hand into two halves and handed it to Daha.
The caracal cub, who had a good relationship with Niujiao, shared his buns with Niujiao, and the other three followed suit and shared them with the adult snow werewolves nearby.
The adult caracals looked at the snow werewolves' greedy expressions and gave away their shares even though they were reluctant.
Thrall... It was the first time for Thrall to eat the food he was used to in the human world after coming to the grassland for so long. He reluctantly gave half of it to the tribe leader.
The appetites of the snow wolf cubs were not much worse than those of the adults. They had no time to share the food with others, so they stuffed the remaining food into their mouths.
The adult snow wolves who didn't get to share the buns continued to stare at Xiao Yun.
"..." Xiao Yun couldn't help but burst out laughing, "Oh fuck, I'm really impressed by you guys. If you still want to eat, come back and help grind the flour. I'll steam more tonight until you can't eat anymore!"
"Okay, okay!" Niu Jiao immediately ran towards the millstone.
"I'll go get a bucket of wheat!" Daha ran towards the warehouse.
"Then I'll go wash the vegetables." Hongye also moved.
"I'll help." Yu stood up and followed.
"——It would be great if you could work half as hard as you work for food!" Xiao Yun complained, and after he finished complaining, the haze in his heart was swept away. He was just upset that the yield of wheat per mu was not proportional to the effort. Xiao Yun was actually very satisfied that the tribe had a staple food other than meat... After all, the time and output of meat were even less efficient.
"Forget it. Think about it. In ancient times, Europeans only produced 200 kilograms per mu of wheat. We are considered the winner if we can produce 400 kilograms of hulled wheat... Besides, this yield is not the upper limit. If we work harder next year, we can increase it to 500 kilograms. Chinese farmers don't have good land, otherwise their intensive farming would definitely not produce that much."
In the final analysis, Xiao Yun is just blind and treacherous. Although the yield of 400 kilograms per mu is indeed low, a lot of wheat is planted. One crop can harvest more than 200,000 kilograms of wheat. No matter how generous the Snow Wolf people are, they can still feed them until next year even if they add a hundred more people.
You don’t even have to pay taxes... No one here can collect taxes from the snow wolves.
After getting over this, Xiao Yun cheered up and continued to think about the task arrangement for this year: the wheat that involved his greatest energy and made him dare not leave was harvested and stored in the warehouse; planting vegetables and taking care of alfalfa were handed over to the tribesmen who had experience once. After the soil and fertilizer collected before were fermented and matured, there would be no big problem in supporting the vegetable fields and alfalfa topdressing (last time I didn’t take care of the vegetable fields and alfalfa fields for topdressing…), and as for watering the fields, the canals were connected and the snow wolf cubs could handle it; the river bank on the north bank was also repaired in a proper manner for a section, and it would not be difficult to continue repairing it down to the swamp—
"... In the current situation, it shouldn't be a big problem for me to leave for half a month or a month." Xiao Yun touched his chin and looked up at the clear sky. Now is the hottest time of the year. The temperature during the wheat harvest should be around 30 degrees. It would be a waste if I don't take advantage of such good weather.
That night, everyone enjoyed a big meal of wheat, steamed buns and baked cakes, which made everyone burp repeatedly. After the meal, Xiao Yun called the tribe leader and eight warriors to propose his next work arrangement...select some tribesmen to go to the beach to boil salt.
Well, it is a natural part of the workplace to communicate with the immediate superior before proposing an unfamiliar project. In the afternoon, Xiao Yun caught the clan leader and talked for a long time, and fooled the clan leader first... uh, to get the clan leader's support,
"Cook... salt?" Hongye was confused when she heard this word. "Salt disappears when it is put into water, how can it be cooked?"
"The clan leader went to the seaside when he was young, and the sea water is salty, right, clan leader?" Xiao Yun looked at the clan leader with a smile.
"Yes." The chief nodded solemnly. "At that time, our tribe was still very powerful. The human caravans were afraid of the tiger tribe and asked us to send them out of the central grassland and to the dock of the inland sea to board a ship."
"Seawater is salty because it contains salt." Xiao Yun said confidently, "As long as we find a way to get salt from the seawater and bring it back, we don't have to sacrifice oxen to exchange for salt with the caravan. The extra salt can also be used to pickle vegetables." He licked his tongue deliberately, "Pickled vegetables are delicious. The taste is very special, and it tastes better than the way we eat them now."
There were continuous "gurgling" sounds, and everyone, including the Black Panther warrior Qingyan and the Caracal warrior Qiu who were listening, swallowed their saliva together... What Ayun said was delicious must be delicious, and it was much more reliable than that Niu Jiao guy.
"Can I go with you?" Yu asked anxiously and nervously.
Xiao Yun glanced at him. He believed that Maomao was not greedy, but wanted to know how to get salt... For the poor Snow Wolf Tribe, trading salt with the caravan every year was a huge burden. The caravan only accepted curved-horn cattle in exchange, not sheep. If the tribe did not have enough cattle, they would have to spend more time and use long-haired sheep to exchange cattle with the cat tribe at an absolutely disadvantageous exchange rate.
"Of course." Xiao Yun smiled. There was nothing to hide about boiling the sea to get salt, which was a simple thing. He had a lot of things that could tempt Maomao. As long as this soldier could keep being smart, Xiao Yun guaranteed that these compatriots would never escape from his grasp.
