The Bountiful Summer Harvest
The summer sun blazed down, hot and generous, on the twenty-acre experimental field in the Fire Tribe Valley. The once verdant rice stalks had shed their green coats and donned golden ones, the heavy ears of rice bending low, forming undulating golden waves in the breeze, exuding the unique aroma of grain.
This was the first time the Fire Tribe had truly sown, managed, and harvested rice on their own. The entire tribe's attention was focused on this small field, filled with anticipation and tension.
"The time has come!" The clansman in charge of farming carefully observed the ripeness of the rice ears, his face flushed with excitement, and reported to Jianshi and Wang Yan.
"Start the harvest!" The leader of the Jianshi clang echoed through the valley, officially beginning the summer harvest.
The tribesmen, who had been waiting by the field, wielded sharpened stone sickles, bone sickles, and even a few sickles made from hard animal horns. Like soldiers responding to a command, they surged into the golden waves of rice. They carefully grasped handfuls of rice stalks, cut them close to the ground with their sickles, and then neatly placed them behind them. Although their movements were not as skillful as those of the farmers of their previous lives, they were filled with piety and joy.
Women and children followed behind, collecting the harvested rice ears and binding them into sturdy bundles with vines, which were then carried back to the tribal square by strong men on shoulder poles.
Wang Yan rolled up his trousers and went down into the field. He felt the full, firm texture of the rice ears in his hands, and an indescribable sense of accomplishment welled up in his heart. This was not just grain, but also the first solid step he had taken in leading his tribe towards agricultural civilization.
The harvest lasted for several days. Once the last bundle of rice was transported back, the intense threshing process began.
Finally, witnessed by the entire tribe, the largest rattan basket in the village was used for weighing (estimated by comparing its weight with that of a standard stone). The results came out quickly—the twenty acres of paddy fields yielded a total of over four thousand catties of rice with husks!
"Over two hundred catties per mu on average!" Wang Yan quickly calculated in his mind. This yield might have been insignificant in his previous life, but in this primitive era, especially given that the Fire Tribe was just starting out and their management techniques were still rudimentary, it was an extremely encouraging figure!
More importantly, these rice grains were plump and golden in color, a stark contrast to the stale, empty grains brought back from the Fish Tribe.
"Great! That's wonderful!" Jianshi grabbed a handful of newly harvested rice, watching the plump grains slip through his fingers, his hands trembling with excitement. This meant that the tribe had successfully established its own food production system!
The shaman, tears streaming down his face, cried out to the heavens, "Thank you for the protection of our ancestors! Thank you for the blessings of the earth! My Fire Tribe now has a solid foundation to build upon!"
The people cheered with joy, and the entire valley was immersed in the happiness of the Fengshou. This 4,000 catties of new grain was not just food, but also hope and confidence!
"These are the best seeds!" Wang Yan said firmly. "Look, every grain is plump, almost none are shriveled, the germination rate must be very high! We should keep them all as seeds! We have already reclaimed and cultivated 500 mu of paddy fields, and we desperately need a large quantity of high-quality rice seeds!"
"For now, the tribe's rations are being made up with the old grain we traded with the Fish Tribe," Wang Yan explained. "We must think long-term! We'll plant five hundred acres with the best seeds! By autumn, even if the yield is only 150 jin per acre, we can still harvest over 75,000 jin of rice! If we manage it well, like this time, we can achieve over 200 jin, which would be a harvest of over 100,000 jin! Only then will our Fire Tribe truly be free of food shortages!"
One hundred thousand catties! This number took everyone's breath away. What an enormous pile of grain that would be! Enough to feed the entire tribe for more than a year!
Jianshi only thought for a moment before decisively deciding, "Listen to Yan! All the newly harvested rice, not a single grain, must be used for seed! Immediately organize manpower to rush to plant five hundred mu of paddy fields!" The tamed oxen once again proved invaluable. More than a dozen oxen were mobilized, pulling wooden plows to carry out the final fine plowing and harrowing of the five hundred mu of paddy fields that had already been initially prepared, ensuring that the mud was soft and flat.
The clan leader in charge of farming led the Farming Group and a large number of clan members, using Professor Wang Yan's relatively standardized rice transplanting method, to plant the cultivated seedlings one by one into the fertile muddy water. This time, the scale was far greater than the previous twenty mu of experimental fields. Looking around, the five hundred mu of paddy fields were full of busy figures bending over, and the green seedlings were full of vitality under the sun.
Despite their exhaustion, hope shone on everyone's face. They knew that what they were planting was the tribe's future granary, their hope!
Standing on the edge of the paddy field, Wang Yan looked at the rice paddies that were beginning to take shape, his heart surging with emotion. From twenty mu to five hundred mu, this was a qualitative leap. With these five hundred mu of paddy fields as a foundation, the Fire Tribe's food base would become incredibly solid.
"When the autumn harvest arrives, and 100,000 jin of grain are stored..." he murmured to himself, a smile playing on his lips, "Only then will we truly have the capital to take off. Whether it's population growth, the development of handicrafts, or exploring further afield, we'll have the most fundamental guarantee."