The Technology Bottleneck
During the days spent waiting for the autumn gathering to begin and conducting trades, Wang Yan did not sit idle. Under the pretext of visiting and trading, he walked through the Fish Tribe's settlement many times, paying particular attention to the rice paddies he could not stop thinking about. Like the most patient of hunters, he carefully observed every detail of the Fish Tribe's rice cultivation and processing. Gradually, he pieced together a true picture of agriculture in this era and discovered its enormous limitations.
The Fish Tribe's rice paddies were indeed extensive, situated beside the great river where water was easy to divert. Wang Yan noticed that they had roughly divided their cultivated land into three large fields, each apparently covering several hundred mu. At first, he thought this was for managing separate areas, but after asking two farmers, he learned that this was not meticulous planning, but the most primitive form of crop rotation-or, more accurately, fallow rotation.
"Once land has been planted for too long, it loses its strength, and the rice grows short and small," one of them said, pointing to a field that had already been harvested and looked somewhat bare. "This field was planted this year, so we can't plant rice in it next year. We have to let it rest, let grass grow, or plant some other crops that don't matter much. Only the year after can we plant it again. We call these three fields the 'rotating rest fields.'"
Wang Yan understood. Although the Fish Tribe had mastered rice cultivation, they were almost helpless when it came to maintaining soil fertility and could only rely on the clumsiest method of leaving fields fallow to restore it. This meant that, despite appearing to possess vast rice paddies, they could actually use only part of them each year, and yields were far from guaranteed.
He had made careful estimates. At the Fish Tribe's current level of cultivation, a single mu's harvest in one season yielded only a little over a hundred jin of rice after the husks were removed. Even if they relied on the warm local climate to barely manage two crops, the annual yield would still be only a little over two hundred jin. Given their population of over a thousand and the enormous amount of labor invested-preparing the fields, raising seedlings, transplanting, weeding, managing water supplies, and harvesting-the return was truly poor. No wonder the Fish Tribe still depended heavily on fishing. Rice served more as a supplement to diversify their food and insurance against unstable catches than as a true staple food source.
The processing that followed the harvest made Wang Yan frown even more.
The dried paddy rice was first spread over enormous stone slabs. Tribe members then repeatedly pounded and crushed it with heavy stone rollers or wooden mallets, trying to separate the husks. This process consumed tremendous labor, was inefficient, and did severe damage to the grains.
Wang Yan saw that after this "brutal" husking, the resulting rice contained large quantities of broken grains and husks that had not been fully separated off-chaff. The Fish Tribe's people repeatedly winnowed it with crude winnowing baskets, using the wind to separate the rice from the chaff. In the end, only the relatively intact grains were collected for human consumption. The large quantities of broken rice and chaff were mixed together, boiled with water into a paste, and fed to the small number of pigs and poultry they kept.
"This... broken rice and chaff-can't people eat it?" Wang Yan could not help asking a nearby farmer.
The man shook his head. "Broken rice is all right for porridge, but it doesn't keep you full. The chaff is too rough. It scratches your throat, and you can't shit after eating it. We only mix a little into our food when there's really nothing left to eat. Normally, it's fed to the animals."
Wang Yan sighed inwardly. What an enormous waste! In later times, bran was also an important source of nutrients and could be used for brewing, further processing into animal feed, and even human consumption after careful processing. Here, however, backward processing techniques meant that at least twenty to thirty percent of the grain was effectively wasted.
Only when handling rice specifically set aside for seed did the Fish Tribe's people show exceptional patience. They carefully rubbed the grains off the rice heads by hand, one at a time, making sure not to damage the germ. This further demonstrated that it was not that they did not know to cherish grain. Rather, their technology prevented them from maintaining efficiency while also ensuring a good yield of usable grain.
As he watched the wooden mallets being swung with such effort and the rice grains scattering everywhere, a thought flashed through Wang Yan's mind like lightning-a rice huller! Although he could not build the steel machinery of later times, the materials available were more than sufficient to make a simple husking tool far more efficient than pounding by hand!
The drive mechanism could be designed to use pedals or a hand crank. That would take much less effort than simply swinging a wooden mallet, and it could run continuously. The main materials would be wood and bamboo. The Fire Tribe's current technology would be more than sufficient to build it!
"So what's holding back the Fish Tribe's agriculture isn't just cultivation techniques. On a deeper level, it's a bottleneck in processing technology!" Wang Yan suddenly understood. Because husking was difficult, processing costs-in labor, time, and grain losses-were extremely high, making large-scale rice cultivation "not worthwhile" and thus limiting agricultural expansion.
Once he had thought this through, the clouds parted in Wang Yan's mind, and a powerful surge of excitement rose within him. Although the Fire Tribe started late, we can completely bypass the detours the Fish Tribe took! As long as we resolve the crucial step of grain processing, most of the obstacles to large-scale cultivation will be swept away!
He suppressed the urge to find materials and experiment immediately, burying the idea deep in his heart. This was another trump card for the Fire Tribe's future. He had to turn it into reality quietly, on his own territory.
When the group finally left the Fish Tribe and set off for home, Wang Yan glanced back at the vast but low-yielding rice paddies. Not a trace of envy remained in his heart, only confidence and plans.
Fish Tribe, you sit beside a great river with fertile fields, yet technology keeps you trapped. Although our Fire Tribe began in a mountain valley. Just wait and see. Before long, we'll grow more grain than you, and better grain too!