The weather was clear, the gentle breeze mild and sweet. A soothing September, carrying raindrops with it, skipped lightly toward its end, while busy October arrived in bright sunlight.
At the lagoon bay where the Kingdom's Longships were moored, an open space had already been cleared among broad stretches of Palm and Marabu trees. Two crude wooden warehouses had been built there, along with a row of thatched huts and tents for the warriors, and an area of open-air grass beds for the able-bodied men. Of the two warehouses, one held Copper Ore tools for logging and mining, while the other stored food and fresh water. Both were guarded by armored Kingdom warriors.
On slightly higher ground near the river, Chief Water Splash led the Militia in skillfully clearing a new field and planting Cassava cuttings they had brought with them, one stalk at a time. The new field had only been roughly opened up. They had merely shoveled away the taller shrubs, leaving many low weeds behind. The land rose and dipped, hardly leveled at all, and even had some stones scattered through it.
But that did not matter. Unlike most precious, delicate crops, Cassava was an exceptionally tough and outstanding crop. It needed no careful tending, was not picky about water or fertilizer, and would live once planted. Even against weeds in the field, it had an extremely strong competitive advantage. As long as the climate was warm, it could quickly grow tall, reaching as high as three meters, and usually around two meters. With that height advantage, the weeds in the field would be robbed of sunlight, squeezed out of nutrients, then wither and die.
Even more exaggerated was that this tough, tenacious crop had astonishing yields per mu and was known as the "King of Starch."