Chapter 259

When Qi Bai mentioned he had serious matters to discuss, several elders immediately sat up.

Although they had never farmed land themselves, they had heard something about the Black Mountain Tribe’s cultivated fields, so hearing Qi Bai wanted to discuss this matter energized them instantly.

Yun Tan said, “High Priest, we don’t understand much, but you just tell us what to do. We absolutely won’t cause you trouble. Us old folks here promise to make sure everyone works properly.”

Xiong Zi and Lu Jian also nodded in agreement. Unlike Yun Tan and Wu Rao, these two, when they were in the tribe, generally only handled rituals and healing. Matters like gathering and hunting were usually the responsibility of the clan leaders.

But just because they didn’t normally worry about those tasks didn’t mean they wouldn’t take responsibility. Now that Xiong Han and Lu Yan had gone hunting with Lang Ze, it was their turn to take charge.

Qi Bai didn’t bother with formalities either. His knowledge of the other four tribes was far less than these elders’. To maximize everyone’s work efficiency, he had to rely on them.

“The time for spring hunting and spring plowing basically overlap. We can’t rely on the hunting parties that go out. Before the Lord of the City returns to the tribe, we need to finish this year’s planting.”

Yun Tan and the others nodded in agreement.

Having been in the north for so long, everyone had already seen the Black Mountain Tribe’s way of doing things and gradually kept pace with the City Lord and High Priest.

Here, every day brought many things they didn’t understand. At times like this, it was best not to ask too many questions—just follow along. Soon enough, they would experience the convenience and benefits of these things.

Qi Bai said, “Alright then. Starting tomorrow, divide your tribe members into two groups and take turns going out to cultivate the wasteland every day.”

At this time last year, it was already quite warm in the north. The Black Mountain Tribe started cultivating wasteland and planting during these days.

However, the current weather is far from warm enough to sow seeds; this year’s spring planting will be delayed by at least 10 to 20 days.

This was not a good sign. The northern farming season was already short, and with the gradually changing climate, Black Glory City’s spring plowing had to be well prepared—there could be no delay.

After settling the daily working schedule, Qi Bai briefly outlined this year’s planting plan.

Qi Bai planned to first cultivate 8,000 mu (about 530 hectares) of land.

Although 8,000 mu sounded like a lot, when divided among the adult beastmen, each person would get at most one mu.

But one mu of farmland could never produce enough food to fill a beastman’s belly.

Qi Bai had done a preliminary calculation: if beast meat remained the staple food supplemented by grains like millet and soybeans, each adult beastman would need at least three mu to barely fill their stomach. Adult horned beastmen might need four to five mu.

However, it was impossible to plant all the land with grains—some had to be used for melons and vegetables.

Calculating this way, with sufficient meat supply, each person would need about ten mu to eat well, and maybe even store some surplus food.

Qi Bai wasn’t surprised by this result—he was even somewhat pleased.

After all, the Beastman Continent did not have the carefully cultivated seeds of later generations. Crops grown from these seeds were naturally inferior. For example, last year’s millet and soybeans had many empty or shriveled grains.

Fortunately, the soil beneath the Black Mountain was fertile, and they had applied base fertilizer. Most importantly, most plants on the Beastman Continent were larger than those on Blue Star.

These factors combined meant that last year, millet produced over 400 jin (about 200 kg) per mu, and sweet potatoes did slightly better, yielding over 1,000 jin (about 500 kg) per mu.

Compared with the uncertainties of foraging, achieving this harvest on such a large scale in the first year left Qi Bai very satisfied.

As long as good seeds were saved each year, Qi Bai believed the land’s yield would gradually improve.

Of course, the Beastman Continent lacked everything except land—especially the vast stretches of fertile black soil in the north. If yields weren’t enough, they could simply increase the amount of land cultivated.

Even before building the city, Qi Bai had already reserved several thousand qing (about 660 hectares) of farmland between the city and the Man-Eating River.

Once the northern land was fully cultivated, they could expand in the other three directions.

The beastmen’s bodies and strength meant farming development had limitless potential.

But while imagining was easy, reality was harsh.

Putting manpower and materials aside, just obtaining seeds to plant these 8,000 mu almost emptied the Black Mountain Tribe. Moreover, not all the seeds planted were food crops—many wood flowers were mixed in.

Besides, the other four tribes who had just arrived in the city had no time to prepare fertilizers. Added to this year’s unpredictable weather, the situation was still not optimistic.

“The city was just established recently, and there are many tasks everywhere. You’ll have to work harder.”

Yun Tan and the others, not knowing how large 8,000 mu really was, didn’t grasp that Qi Bai wasn’t exaggerating. They all vowed their old bones could still hold up.

Yang Luo, seeing their cheerful mood, couldn’t help but cough lightly twice.

Qi Bai smiled: “By the way, all this year’s seeds come from the Black Mountain Tribe. Additionally, from now until the end of spring planting, the city will provide three meals a day for tribe members going out to farm. The meat for these meals will temporarily be allocated from the Black Mountain Tribe’s supply. I’ve discussed it with the City Lord. The hunting party’s catch will first be used to replenish the Black Mountain Tribe’s meat supply.”

Lu Jian said, “That’s right, that’s right. Thanks, High Priest Yang Luo.”

The beast meat they currently had was definitely salted and preserved. The fresh meat exchanged with the City Lord’s mansion was unsalted, so Lu Jian and the others admired Yang Luo’s generosity, looking at him with respect.

Yang Luo waved his hand casually: “No problem, no problem.”

Whether this was a loss depended on the calculation. Using aged salted meat from the Sanghuo Tribe to exchange for fresh meat, Yang Luo actually thought he was getting a good deal.

As for the seeds taken from the tribe, Yang Luo cared even less.

Scarcity made things valuable. Seeds priced similarly to beast meat were unheard of before. Qi Bai and Lang Ze’s exchange price was quite generous.

High Priest Yun Zhang said, “In my opinion, the City Lord and High Priest don’t even need to provide three meals. Everyone has plenty of energy to work.”

Qi Bai said, “No need to argue about this. In the past, the Black Mountain Tribe always had this kind of communal meals during spring planting. There’s no reason to let life get worse.”

Since the City Lord’s mansion supplied the seeds and food, this year’s crop output naturally belonged to the City Lord’s mansion.

A city couldn’t operate without some property in the City Lord’s mansion. Qi Bai had already planned that part of this year’s yield would be saved as seeds for next year, and another part stored as reserves.

Every year after that, they would collect some rent from the harvest. Qi Bai had already drafted detailed rules, waiting for the northern city council hall to be completed to announce them.

Once all arrangements were made, the next morning the five tribes divided half their labor force and set out en masse towards the farmland.

Unlike the lush green fields last year, the current wasteland was still covered with withered winter grass roots, offering little gathering value.

Qi Bai skipped weeding and first cut down the tall trees on the farmland, then dug irrigation ditches and firebreaks according to Black Mountain Tribe methods. A fire was lit to burn all the dry grass clean.

This time, the smoke from burning the fields spread even further. But the Giant Wind Tribe people who had come to put out the fire last year showed no panic. Instead, they wrapped their heads with scarves and cheerfully stood outside the firebreak with everyone.

The more extroverted ones even turned this firefighting incident into a funny story to tell the other three tribes.

After the sparks on the land died down, the horned beastmen shifted to their beast forms and followed the Black Mountain Tribe people to learn how to plow.

Without many farming tools, they made crude stone plows out of wood and stone. Though not as good as the Black Mountain Tribe’s iron plows and harrows, it was better than nothing.

For a while, the farmland witnessed a cross-era scene from the Stone Age to the Iron Age.

“Brother Leopard Bai!” “Brother Leopard Bai!”

A group of small children, just over a meter tall, stood by the ridges looking around until they finally spotted that slender figure by the riverbank. They waved their hands excitedly and ran toward him.

The weather had suddenly warmed, and the cubs had stopped dressing properly.

Their fur hats hung loosely around their necks, clothes draped carelessly, and their straw shoes had slipped down to their ankles. Running wildly, they looked like a bunch of colorful little beggars.

Qi Bai held a grass rope in one hand and laughed as he shouted, “Don’t run, don’t run! The ground is slippery here; be careful not to fall into the river.”

Qi Bai was now at the far west end of the 8,000-mu farmland.

The beastmen were sowing seeds in the fields. This was the last patch of land, and everyone was skilled enough not to need Qi Bai’s constant supervision.

He had just soaked some tree bark in the river for about ten days and had come to retrieve it.

This tree bark was intended for an experiment in papermaking.

Since arriving at Black Mountain, Qi Bai had wanted to make paper but had postponed it after finding bamboo slips and tablets convenient to use.

However, bamboo slips were fine for individual use, but storing large amounts of files with them became a problem.

To keep records of Black Glory City’s population statistics and family relationships, Qi Bai and Lang Ze already had several large baskets of bamboo slips. As files would only increase, this wasn’t a sustainable solution.

Moreover, the city’s academy would open soon, and making more paper would allow children to practice writing on paper.

So Qi Bai resumed experimenting with papermaking.

He remembered that paper could be made from bamboo, but the process was more complicated. Not wanting to challenge himself immediately, he decided to first try using tree bark.

Qi Bai knew that paper mulberry bark was a good material for papermaking. But after wandering around the mountains, he quickly faced a fact:

Regardless of whether the Beastman Continent had paper mulberry, he simply didn’t recognize it!

Why had he thought he’d suddenly have a bright idea and find paper mulberry in the mountains?

Fortunately, many piles of trees were stacked during land clearing around the city and farmland. Qi Bai randomly selected several kinds of bark, stripped them off in bundles, and soaked them in the river.

When in doubt, just start working—whether it would work, he’d find out soon enough.

Qi Bai chose this small river outside the city for soaking.

Strangely, although this river ultimately fed into the Man-Eating River, it had no piranhas. Instead, there were many small fish and shrimp, and occasionally some small crabs could be found under the stones.

Several cubs ran, sweating profusely. Hearing Qi Bai’s warning, they obediently stopped at a distance.

Leading the pack, Leopard Star’s eyes shone brightly: “Brother Leopard Bai, we hatched baby birds!”

“Really?” Qi Bai was pleased. “Wait here a moment. I’ll fetch these tree bark bundles first.”

Leopard Star waved her small hand commanding: “Don’t just stand there—hurry and push the cart over.”

Qi Bai’s cart was nearby. He laboriously dragged the three large bundles of bark ashore, while the little ones puffed and pushed the cart over.

Leopard Moon, once the eldest cub leader, was already thirteen this year. She considered herself an adult and had joined the reclamation team early, no longer hanging out with the cubs.

Judging by the looks, Leopard Star was quietly showing signs of taking over her sister’s local leadership.

Qi Bai took the cart, and the group headed back to the city, going straight to the Yun Gu tribe’s residential area.

Many new houses had recently been built in the city, but only the Yun Gu tribe currently had the capability to provide rooms where cubs could hatch eggs and play.

From afar, as they saw the outline of the houses, a chubby little one next to Qi Bai looked up and quickly ran a few steps.

Seeing the envious looks from the other cubs, Qi Bai understood—they were probably headed to this little one’s home next.