The Youqiao Clan's tribesmen tasted the food provided by the Han Tribe. This was their first time eating food made entirely from plants, yet it was unexpectedly sweet and fragrant. Whether it was rice or corn cakes, the starch they contained could be broken down by salivary enzymes into sugar.
Sugar was the body's primary source of energy, followed by protein, with fat coming third. Only when a person consumed too much sugar and could not expend it all would the sugar be stored in the body as fat.
Thus, although these grains were all plants, they could still make people feel full. Grass could be eaten too, of course—but could a person eat grass until he was full? Naturally not. That was what made grain so precious.
The Youqiao Clan's Elder and Yan sampled a little of everything, from steaming rice to roasted corn, boiled corn, and even more corn cakes. They had never eaten such food before, yet they all loved those sweet, fragrant flavors.
The Elder and Yan sat around a pot with Ye Ying and Moxin. They slapped corn cakes onto the pot while eating rice. There was no helping it—their pots were too few, so they could only have a flowing feast like this, with everyone taking turns in line.
"Ye Ying, are these grains easy to grow? How do you plant them? How much does one person have to grow to feed himself? How long does it take for them to mature?"
The Elder was deeply interested in the grains, and even more interested in how to cultivate them. Crops that could provide a steady harvest of food simply through planting seemed almost divine to him.
Ye Ying introduced the details to them while eating.
"Corn and rice are the two crops with the